Jammu/ Srinagar, February 7
Life came to a standstill after a moderate snowfall on the upper reaches and heavy rain across the Jammu region today.

The heavy rainfall in the region resulted in a flash flood. Six members, including two children, of a family crossing the Mendhari Nullah in Mendhar subdivision of Poonch district, got trapped in it.The police and civil administration officials rescued them.

The police said the six members from Uttar Pradesh were crossing the rivulet when they were caught in the flash flood.

“This is the effect of the western disturbance, which has hit the entire northern region, including Jammu and Kashmir. The rain is good for the farmers also, as the wheat crop requires water,” said MK Khushu, Chief Scientist, Agronomy Division, Sher-e-Kashmir University for Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chatha (SKUAST).

The weathermen said there was rain in all 10 districts across the region today, namely, Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar. The maximum temperature today was 16°C while the minimum was 13.4°C. The total rainfall recorded was 26.4 mm at Chatha here. The humidity in the air remained between 91-95 per cent.

Meanwhile, traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was disrupted due to a landslide at Panthal in Ramban district. As a result, hundreds of vehicles were stranded at Nagrota, Ramban, Patnitop, Banihal and Batote.

The IG (Traffic), HK Lohia, on the official Facebook account of the Jammu and Kashmir traffic police, uploaded the information that the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed due to the landslide.

The water level in the Chenab also increased following the rain and 10 labourers were trapped in the river at the Garkhal area, near Akhnoor.

Sources said the labourers were loading sand into their load-carriers from the banks of the river when they were trapped in the flash flood. Later, they were rescued.Two tippers were also submerged into the river.

The police said today that a load-carrier was washed away in the Tawi near the Peer Kho area here during the flash flood. “Though the driver managed to escape when loading sand and stones from the Tawi, he could not save the vehicle which was washed away ,” said the police.

Meanwhile, the Doda-Batote highway was closed to traffic due to a landslide.

The Basholi-Bani road was also closed to traffic due to the landslide, the Kathua police said.

In the Kashmir valley, life was affected due to torrential rain and snow today. “We expect a fall in the precipitation in the next two days, but the western disturbance is still here, which can result in more rain and snow,” an officer of the state MeT Department said.

He said Qazigund recorded 102.2 mm of rain, which was in the “very heavy” category. “The skiing resort of Gulmarg recorded more than two feet of snowfall, and there were reports of snow on the upper reaches also,” he said.

Srinagar city, which was being lashed by strong winds since last night, recorded 10.7 mm of rain in the morning, Kupwara district 64.4 mm of rain and Kokernag town recorded 34.7 mm of rain.

The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was also closed to traffic due to landslides at various places due to heavy rain and snow at various places along the highway.

Meanwhile, all claims of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and the Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) to provide a proper drainage system in Srinagar seemed to have been washed away with the rain, as the entire city was flooded.

“All roads and lanes are flooded and the drains are also choked. It seems we still live in the Stone Age and all claims of the SMC and the UEED are false,” said Touseef Ahmed, a resident of Lal Chowk, the commercial hub of the city, which,too, was water-logged.

Meanwhile, there was some increase in the minimum temperature in the Kashmir valley due to rain and snow. The minimum temperature in Srinagar was 1.8°C.

The minimum temperature in Gulmarg was - 2.7°C and in the Pahalgam hill station 2.10°C. “In Leh, the minimum temperature was - 2.2°C while in Kargil town it was -2.7°C,” an official of the MeT Department said.

A porter was killed and four others, including three BSF personnel, were injured when an avalanche struck a forward post at Kabul Gali, Gurez, in the Gurez-Mushkoo-Drass sector. Amir Ali, coordinator, Disaster Management cell, Kashmir, said:” The porter has been identified as Jamal Lone of Gujran Gurez”.

He said the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, had requisitioned the Air Force to help evacuate the injured.

Udhampur, February 7
The police and local residents rescued two persons trapped in a flash flood in the Anji river in Reasi today.

They were identified as Des Raj (35) of Katra and Sher Singh (32) of Reasi.

The police said the duo had gone to the dry part of the riverbed in a tipper to bring sand around 8 am. But the water level in the river increased suddenly, catching them unawares.

On seeing the two men trapped along with their vehicles, some passersby informed the police which rescued them with the help of locals.The police said the level in the river increased due to flash flood caused by continuous rain in the area since last night.

Jammu, February 7
Activists of the National Secular Forum (NSF) today held a demonstration in front of Government SPMR Commerce College here against traffic chaos in the city.

The activists, led by state secretary Sukdev Singh, held a procession in protest against the government’s failure to control the traffic in the city.

“Though we brought traffic-related problems to the notice of the government a number of times, no step has been initiated so far to ease the situation,” Singh regretted, while addressing the protesters.

He alleged that officials of the department concerned had failed to address the issue.

The NSF secretary urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to personally intervene in the matter and to take effective steps to solve the worsening traffic problem,particularly on the Canal Road.

“The proposals, regarding construction of flyovers at Jewel Chowk, Bikram Chowk and new circular roads, have been hanging fire,” he said.

Singh demanded the construction of a four-way circular road from Bikram Chowk to high court, Janipur, and Jewel Chowk to Talab Tillo, to ease

traffic chaos on the roads.

He appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to start a Metro service in the city and the adjoining towns of the district.

The NSF leader also demanded the immediate installation of traffic lights in the city and the implementation of an effective ban on pressure horns and on the practice of overloading in minibuses.

Jammu, February 7
The Jammu Municipal Corporation today cleared 52 building permission cases at a meeting of the Building Operation Controlling Authority held under the chairmanship of S.C Sawhney, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Jammu.

According to a statement issued here, the cases would generate a revenue of Rs 12 lakh for the Municipal Corporation.

Jammu, February 7
Has the Jammu region improved its skewed sex-ratio in the last 10 years? Have more people moved to the urban areas, and how many people have migrated from the Valley in the last decade?

The exercise to find answers to these and many other questions is all set to begin from February 9 when the second and crucial phase of India Census Operation-2011, in which population figures would be collected, starts in the state.

As many as 27,500 persons will be involved in the exercise on February 9 to collect the population figures and trends, as the first phase recorded the number of households and buildings last year.

Seeking full cooperation of the masses, the Director, Census,Farooq Ahmed, told mediapersons today that all arrangements for the conduct of the second phase had been finalised and the exercise would end on February 28.

The Director said the distribution of the material to the officers had also been completed. He said the entire state consisting of 22 districts with 82 tehsils, 86 statutory towns and 6,560 villages would be covered.

The first phase of the census operation had already been completed in the state, he said.

Farooq said all deputy commissioners and municipal commissioners of Srinagar and Jammu had been designated as principal census officers, and tehsildars as well as executive officers of municipal committees designated as officers in charge to facilitate the conduct of the operation.

Exuding confidence to conduct the exercise timely, the Director appealed to the people to cooperate and understand the importance of providing factual information to the enumerators.

He said besides being indispensable for public administration, the census data catered to the needs of scholars, industrialists, planners and the electoral authorities. Farooq also unveiled the mascot for the operation.

Udhampur, February 7
Lok Sabha member Chaudhary Lal Singh today stressed the need for giving priority to local youth for employment in the ongoing construction works being executed by various private companies in the Chenani tehsil of Udhampur district.

He also issued instructions in this regard in response to a demand made at a public durbar organised in Chenani today, in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Baseer Ahmed Khan.

Additional District Development Commissioner, Udhampur, RR Sharma, executive engineers of the PWD, PHE, PDD, officers of private companies and government departments, the Tehsildar, Chenani,the president of the Beopar Mandal, Chenani, Brij Mohan Sharma, and a large number of people were present.

The people demanded the inclusion of a provision for employing local youth for the construction of a tunnel from Mada,the construction of a footbridge over the Toldi Nallah, the construction of a Kendriya Vidyalaya building at Chenani, the opening of an ITI and a degree college, the construction of the Gondola project at Kud and the electrification of Vinaik village.

Responding to this, Lal Singh issued instructions to the general manager, Lighten Corp Limited, to engage the local unemployed youth on a priority basis so that their socio-economic status could be improved. He also directed the executive engineer, PWD, to prepare a detailed project for the construction of the footbridge over Toldi Nallaha.

He assured the people of the area that new employment opportunities would be created when the execution of the Gondola project at Kud got under way after clearance from the Forest and Environment Department. He said efforts were on to bring the famous Sudhmahadev and Man Talai on the tourist map for boosting pilgrim tourism.

Jammu, February 7
The Provincial Electric Employees Union, Jammu, today demanded the grant of risk allowance to the employees working in accident-prone areas, besides safety tools and implements.

The union demanded that the daily wage workers in the Power Development Department (PDD), whose services had been regularised, be given service benefits with retrospective effect in keeping with the SRO 64 of 1994.

Addressing a press conference here today, president of the association PC Sharma asked the state government to implement the SRO 59 in the favour of the PDD employees in the Jammu division, as had been done in the Kashmir province.

Other demands raised by Sharma included a regular meeting of the divisional-level departmental promotion committees and the allotment of proper designations to the employees. He also stressed on a transparent transfer policy for the department employees.

Jammu, February 7
Governor NN Vohra today emphasised the need for extensive medical research to achieve the objective of cost-effective treatment of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The Governor was addressing the inaugural session of the three-day 37th annual conference of the Indian Immunology Society (IIS) organised by the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, at the General Zorawar Singh Auditorium of Jammu University.

Dwelling on the emerging health care scenario and the fast increasing costs of medicines and equipment, the Governor emphasised the urgent need for substantial funding for conducting high quality research for finding viable solutions to the emerging challenges.

He referred to the implications of the Intellectual Property Rights regimes and the limited interest of the global pharmaceutical industry in making any investment to find solutions to the problems facing the poor countries. He also released a publication and an IIS Students Newsletter on the occasion.

The Vice-Chancellor, Jammu University, Prof Varun Sahni, in his keynote address, said, “One cannot imagine a world without vaccinations to prevent various diseases.” The president of the Indian Immunology Society, Dr Sita Naik, emphasised the need for having transitional medicines and called for coordination among the universities and other related institutions for an optimal growth of the study of immunology.

The Director, SKIMS, Dr Abdul Hamid Zargar, said the department had the best possible research facilities with state-of-the-art equipment. He added that by this year-end, it would also set up a modern human genetic centre.

Organising chairman Dr Mushtaq A Siddiqi delivered the address of welcome and suggested the introduction of immunology as a subject at the undergraduate level. Renowned medical scientist Dr GP Talwar and a galaxy of immunologists were present at the function.

Jammu, February 7
The Raghunath Bazaar Businessmen Association today demanded that decorative lamps should be installed in the market under the beautification project on the pattern of those installed in the Hazrat Bal shrine in Srinagar. Members of the association called on the Chief Engineer, Power Development Department, Mohammad Qasim, today and demanded that electric poles installed in the market be decorated with ornaments up to a height of 20 ft.

They demanded that lights, giving an antique look, should also be installed.Besides, the bazaar should be provided uninterrupted power supply.

Maintaining that the beautification project was estimated to cost Rs 6 crore, the association also invited suggestions from shopkeepers as well as the public for the development and beautification of the bazaar.

Jammu, February 7
Five members of a family, including three children, were injured when a minibus collided with their car , near Swankhan Morh, at Vijaypur in Samba district yesterday.

The police said the minibus coming from Vijaypur, hit the car, damaging it, and added the vehicle was impounded and a case registered at Vijaypur police station.The driver was also arrested. The injured were taken to the sub-district hospital, Vijaypur, from where they were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu. They were identified as Asha Devi and Usha Devi,sisters, and their children, Vanshika, Ishita and Ishan.