Jammu, February 25
The recent visit of a three-member Pakistani delegation to see whether India has violated the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 in the proposed project of an artificial lake in the Tawi is seen as a move of the neighbouring country to step up its vicious anti-India propaganda on water issues in the international forum.

The government of Pakistan, a country where democracy till date has not been able to take its roots and terrorism has spread its tentacles far and wide, in a desperate attempt, wants to incite passion of its people against India for the latter’s alleged water terrorism against it, sources in the Army told The Tribune.

No doubt, India has the advantage when it comes to rivers and rivulets in Jammu and Kashmir, which flows into Pakistan, but at the same time, the World Bank has brokered a treaty between the two countries, primarily to safeguard the interests of Pakistan, which like India has an agrarian economy, they said.

“Though the treaty has caused more harm to us because it gives powers to Pakistan to monitor the use of water by India, we still abide by it,” they added.

Despite the fact that India religiously follows the treaty whenever it has to initiate any project on the Chenab, Indus and the Jhelum in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has sought the intervention of the US.

Besides the Pakistani government, the media there has also launched a vicious campaign against India accusing it of hatching a well-planned conspiracy of either inundating Pakistan or turning it into a desert, said an Army officer, who wished anonymity.

“All accusations hurled on us are nothing but a game plan of Pakistan to see that some day it gains the control of the river-rich Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding, ”That is why it has initiated a proxy war in the state”.

“Neither Kashmir nor its people hold any relevance to Pakistan, which just wants to grab our natural resources,” he added.

The sources said from politicians to bureaucrats and even the Pakistani Army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, every one in Pakistan has launched a disinformation campaign against India. “By going through Pakistani newspapers and you can easily come across plenty of reports wherein Pakistani leaders from time to time have accused India of denying Pakistan its share of water and going to the extent of threatening us of a nuclear war,” they said.

Right from the Baglihar hydroelectric project, Sawalakote project to Kishenganga project and now, this artificial lake, Pakistan has raised objections to almost all projects which either came up or have been proposed on the Indus, Chenab and the Jhelum, the sources added.

Gulmarg, February 25
Even as the fresh spell of snowfall in the Kashmir Valley has revived the hopes of the tourism industry, the state has so far failed to encash winter tourism.

The two-day snow festival held at Gulmarg turned out to be a damp squib as not many tourists turned out this year to participate in the event.

The people associated with the tourism industry say that after the fresh spell of heavy snowfall they were hopeful that tourism the sector would see a revival but not many tourists have so far turned up this year.

“All our expectations have fallen flat, there are not much tourists here this season. We are running in huge losses,” said a hotel owner in Gulmarg.

A tour operator said “The loss of the Kashmir Valley has benefited other hill states as the tourists who were expected to visit Kashmir were now turning towards other hill stations.

“The loss of Kashmir has turned out to be a benefit in disguise for other hill stations, including Patnitop, and Himachal Pradesh as the tourists are going there,” said Iftiqar Ali, a tour operator.

The main reason for tourists not turning up this year is said to be the aftereffects of the five-month summer unrest in the Kashmir Valley last year, which has created a fear psychosis amongst tourists.

“The summer unrest has playing havoc for our industry as the tourists are still afraid of coming here. Those who have already arrived don’t venture out much as they are afraid that they might get caught in such a situation,” said Suhail Ahmed, a hotel operator in Gulmarg.

The people associated with hotel industry say that the state government should take serious measures to attract tourists to visit Gulmarg lest the industry should be ruined.

“The government should adopt a wholehearted approach otherwise the tourism industry would perish. The snow festival in Gulmarg this year was an example of a half-hearted approach of the Tourism Department. Lakhs of families in the Valley are directly or indirectly associated with this sector,” said Touseef Ahmed, a tour operator in Gulmarg.

Jammu, February 25
The state Prison Department has formed first-of-its-kind Inmates Pipe Band at the high security Central Jail, Kot Bhalwal, here.

It is one of the few bands formed by jail inmates in the country. The band was inaugurated by BR Sharma, principal secretary, Home Department, at a function in the jail premises recently.

Rajni Sehgal, jail superintendent, said, “The idea behind the creation of this band is to train the inmates in a vocation as a rehabilitation measure and create an atmosphere of inmate-civil society interaction by sending this band to functions outside the four walls of the prison”.

During the inaugural function, the inmates as well as professional artistes showed their talent and enthralled the audience.

BR Sharma lauded the efforts of the Prisons Department in launching various vocational programmes for jail inmates to ensure their respectable settlement in society after they go out of prison.

Impressed with the performance of the artistes, he said, “This vocational training will not only earn livelihood for them but also prove beneficial for the people”.

He expressed happiness and congratulated the jail authorities for organising the musical programme.

Jammu, February 25
With a large number of people are being killed in road mishaps every year, streamlining traffic has become a major challenge before the state government. Every time when a road mishap takes place, the Police Department is blamed for poor traffic management.

However, DGP Kuldeep Khoda, in an exclusive talk to The Tribune, has expressed helplessness in solving the traffic problem and making the roads safer.

“We are committed to check the number of road mishaps on state roads so that innocent lives could be saved, but the traffic police is not solely responsible as most of the city roads are narrow and there are not enough parking lots in all major cities,” he said, adding. “How it is possible to check traffic violations when the infrastructure is grossly inadequate”.

Speaking on traffic-related issues like overloading and the mess created by mini-buses, he said, “It is a wrong perception that all mini-buses violate traffic rules. When you will not provide them facilities like parking lots, how can you expect them to follow all rules?”

“However, it does not mean that I am running away from my responsibility or shielding someone. We are trying our best. Recently, we launched a website on traffic issues and created an account of the traffic police on Facebook to get suggestions from the public. At the same time, there should be some plans to expand the city roads and increase the number of public transport vehicles,” added Khoda.

He further said they had also sent a proposal to install electronic traffic signals in Jammu and Srinagar, which would be installed shortly as the project had been cleared.

It has been learnt that most of the fatal accidents occur on hilly roads, especially in the remote areas, and due to overloading of passenger vehicles.

On this, the DGP said, “We have lesser number of transport vehicles and inadequate staff to deal with the violators. It has been seen that most of the mishaps took place in the hilly areas in the last route buses in the late evenings when everyone tries to reach home and the buses normally get overloaded with passengers, making them prone to mishaps”.

“Though our personnel levy fine on overloaded vehicles, they cannot stop any individual from boarding a overloaded bus as most of the people give the plea that they have to reach their home in time,” he added.

He also said 2010 had proved far better than 2009 as the number of road accidents were lesser in 2010 and hoped to make 2011 even safer.

Srinagar, February 25
A national-level conference on disaster management held in New Delhi recently has laid stress on the belief that people affected by disasters have a fundamental human right to assistance and all measures need to be taken to ensure dignity and respect of the disaster-affected people.

The meeting was organised by Sphere India, a national coalition of humanitarian agencies, comprising key nodal agencies from the Government of India, UN agencies, international NGOs, NGO networks and national NGOs on the occasion of its eighth annual day .

It was attended by representatives from 20 states from across the country, including J&K, and inaugurated jointly by Dr Muzaffar Ahmed, Major-Gen JK Bansal, members of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), among others.

The conference was aimed at bringing together key stakeholders for obtaining views about national disaster management legislation and disaster management policy issues and to share and disseminate the learning emerging from response to disasters, with a view to improving future humanitarian responses. The participants reflected on the functioning of the Unified Response Strategy (URS) in order to help build common understanding among government and non-government agencies by forming inter-agency groups (IAGs).

The Conference, according to Aamir Ali, head, disaster management cell in the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, pledged to strengthen the inter-agency coordination and widen the scope of work to other arenas of humanitarian interventions like disaster risk reduction and promote social audit. The inter- agency groups (IAG) resolved to strengthen coordination among themselves and with the government at the national, state and district levels and to promote co-ordination among IAGs in times of emergencies.

Dr Muzaffar Ahmed, member, NDMA, from J&K, emphasised the government’s commitment to ensuring faith- building among all stakeholders and maintain a transparent and accountable system for the benefit of the community. He urged the need for governments and humanitarian agencies to work together for effective and timely response to disasters. He shared his recent experience about the Leh flash floods and said that it was an excellent example of the government and NGO coordination and joint actions. He advocated that similar practices needed to be replicated in other parts of the country whenever disasters occurred.

The menace of touts is nothing new in the Valley like in any other part of the state or the country. It changes its style from place to place keeping in tune the way of exploiting innocent masses. This was witnessed in the open Army recruitment rally under way at Sainik School, Mansbal, in nearby Ganderbal district. Two such touts, who had been on the prowl for young aspirants, fell into the police net. It is learnt that the touts using the names of some Army officers posted in the area and supervising the recruitment rally, assure the young aspirants of arranging their recruitment in the Army, without even having been known to these officers.

Many young poor aspirants from distant places do fall in the net and get exploited. As per practice, these touts after getting the details and fleecing young men find the names of those recruited and accordingly inform the candidates concerned. These touts get a fixed amount from about 50 candidates and in case 10 of them get enlisted later after going through the rigorous exercise of various tests and examinations, their money goes into the pockets of the touts.

Jammu, February 25
The birthday of Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh was celebrated as “Guru Pooja Divas” recently. To mark the occasion, cleanliness and plantation drive were organised all over the country and abroad by the branches of Sant Nirankari Mission.

In Rajouri, the cleanliness drive started with followers sweeping the streets and cleaning choked drains. Saplings were also planted in various government institutions. Around 120 saplings were planted, including 20 in Government PG College, Rajouri; 40 in Nirankari Sant Nirankari Bhawan; 20 in District Hospital; 20 in Eid Gah; five in Girls Higher Secondary School, Rajouri; 15 in DC Colony, Rajouri. At the inauguration of the drive, Anil Kapoor, pramukh, Sant Nirankari Mandal, Rajouri, was present with GA Khwaja, DDC Rajouri, besides Shabeer Shah, principal of Government Degree College, Prof Hakeekat Singh, and Zahoor Shawl, medical superintendent.