Jammu, May 17
In its recent drive under the PNDT Act, the Health Department sealed as many as 25 ultrasound centres for running without authorisation. However, not a single case of sex determination has come to light.

An impression is being given that the department has started the drive in the face of declining sex ratio, but that is not the case.

Many owners of ultrasound clinics that have been facing government action complained that they had applied for registration for long, but the files have been gathering dust with the advisory committees for the past many years as the same are non-functional.

This clearly highlights the inefficient monitoring system that is prevalent in the Directorate of Health Services for the past several years.

The department started a drive against unauthorised centres on April 28 and within a week sealed at least 25 private ultrasound centres, which were found violating the provisions of the PNDT Act.

The drive has remained restricted to six districts of Jammu province, comprising Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu, Kathua, Samba and Udhampur. As of now, only 60 ultrasound clinics are registered with the department.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Health Services, Jammu, has asked all government hospitals to get its ultrasound machines registered and maintain proper record of investigation.

Sources said most of the hospitals and private ultrasound clinics were not maintaining record of investigations. Besides, many of them had not renewed their registration, which is supposed to be done after every three years under the state Act.

“We have not found any clinic indulging in sex determination tests or other related practices,” said AK Sharma, director, health services.

“There is a need for streamlining the system as the district advisory committees have not been holding regular meetings whereas the divisional advisory committee is defunct. I have written to divisional commissioner to renew the committee,” he said and added, “The fate of unauthorised clinics would be decided in the meetings of the district advisory committee and divisional advisory committee in the next couple of days”.

“The unauthorised clinics would not be imposed any penalty as there is no such provision under the state Act,” the director said and added that the clinics were not sealed for conducting prenatal sex determination test.

However, he did not rule out the possibility. “It is a social problem. If prenatal sex determination tests are being conducted at some centres, we can only create awareness about it. Action could only be initiated if someone is caught red-handed,” he added. 

Jammu, May 17
With an aim to providing health facilities to people at their doorsteps, the state government has decided to further accelerate its endeavour to strengthen the network of government institutions across the state, especially in the rural areas. Besides strengthening the network of government institutions, the government has also decided to encourage private sector.

Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma said a substantial network of health institutions had been developed over the years. “At present, we have more than 3,400 health institutions, over 6,500 doctors and 13,000 beds, 22 district hospitals, 77 sub-district hospitals, 375 primary health centres, 238 allopathic dispensaries and 2,253 sub-centres,” he said. He admitted that a lot more needed to be done to provide health facilities to the people.

In order to overcome the shortage of manpower and provide better working environment, the government has taken up several new initiatives, he said and informed that 2,279 posts, including 37 A-grade specialists, 281 B-grade specialists, 305 assistant surgeons and 17 dental surgeons, had been created for various health institutions.

The Minister admitted that the shortage of manpower, especially doctors and nurses, and the dearth of infrastructure and equipments in some institutions were impediments in providing health care. The Minister claimed that during the last two years, some serious efforts have been made to upgrade the healthcare facilities in the state and to make them accessible and affordable for commoners.

Pointing towards the condition of the Health Department, the Minister admitted that despite the pumping of huge funds to develop health infrastructure, 19 per cent of the community health centres and 59 per cent of the primary health centres were still housed in rented buildings or have insufficient accommodations. Similarly, 47 per cent of the community health centres and 54 per cent of the primary health centres were without staff quarters.

The Minister, who in his tenure has introduced Professional Audit System, said this system was introduced to enhance the accountability and to bring transparency in the Health Department. As per this system, the work done by various healthcare institutions, availability of manpower and other resources were being monitored and evaluated by a high-level committee.

Sharma further said the department was continuously focusing on the capacity building of doctors and other paramedical staff. “A large number of doctors and paramedics have been trained in IMNCI, EMOC, anaesthesia skills, laparoscopic sterilisation, MTP, alternative methodology of IUCD, ARSH, etc.

Similarly, to develop administrative skills in the doctors working in administrative posts, training programmes in hospital administration at the divisional level had been started. “As many as 18 doctors from the state have been made to train and attain diploma in Public Health Management from the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi,” he added.

Jammu, May 17
With the release of two more books by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages recently, there has been a further addition to the literature-in-exile. “Vadi Hai Na Manush” and “Aahi’’, written by PL Swadeshi and PN Koul Sayil, both Kashmiri Pandit migrant writers, were released at KL Saigal Hall by the academy in collaboration with the Nagrai Literary Forum.

The forum has been projecting a number of migrant KP writers to publish their literary works and to give a vent to their feelings. Most of such books speak of their longing for Kashmir or cursing those ugly moments when they had to forcibly leave their homes and hearths back in the Valley.

During the past over 20 years, about 200 such books have been written by promising Kashmiri Pandit writers. Prior to their migration, there were a few writers amongst the community to add to the Kashmiri, Hindi or Urdu literature either through prose or poetry.

The most noticeable feature has equally been that over a dozen female poets and writers have also emerged during the period of exile. Prior to 1990, there were a few Pandit poetesses but now Bimla Raina, Girija Koul, Santosh Nadan, Prabha Raina and Mohini Koul are some to name, who have already books, both in Nastaliq and Devnagri scripts, to their credit.

Noted Kashmiri poet Jawahir Lal Saroor said the migration had definitely left a deep scar on the psyche of Kashmiri writers and poets living in Jammu or elsewhere. “As is reflected from their literary works, one can draw inference that most of the writers have touched the pain of migration”, Saroor said.

Panun Kashmir leader and eminent poet Dr Agnishekhar, who was recently felicitated by the state government for his book “Jawahar Tunnel”, has earlier too penned down pain of migration in his book “Much Se Cheen Li Gai Meri Nadi”. While Maharaj Krishan Santoshi has revealed pain and pathos in his book “Yeh Samay Kavita Ka Nahin’’, Arvind Gigoo has beautifully written “Ugly Kashmiri”.

Books written in Kashmiri by late Arjan Dev Majboor, PN Shad, ML Kanwal, Dr KL Choudhary, Dr Maharaj Krishan Bharat and Brij Hali also hit the stands during all these 20 years of migration.

Srinagar, May 17
Minister for Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmad has called upon the people to contribute towards the upliftment of downtrodden sections of society. He was speaking at a function at Madar-i-Meharban Women and Child Welfare Institute, Miskeen Bagh, organised in connection with providing donation to underprivileged women’s orphans and widows here recently.

He added that serving the poor and needy was the real form of worship to God and urged the rich with means to invest for the welfare of the poor people.

The function was organised by the University of Kashmir, Directorate of Life-Long Learning (DLL).

The minister on the occasion distributed donations among the beneficiaries. The function was attended by vice-chancellor, Kashmir University, Prof. Reyaz Punjabi, Prof. Neelofar Khan, director, DLL, chairman, Madar-i-Meharban Women and Child Welfare Institute, Miskeen Bagh, Srinagar, Prof. Suriya Mattoo, president, Private B.Ed College Association, Prof. CL Vishnu, director, Social Welfare, Kashmir, Hilal Ahmad Parray, Mumtaz-ul-Nissa Soz and Dr. Girja Dhar. The Minister said the government was endeavouring to solve the problems of the people, particularly the problem of unemployment.

He said it was not possible to provide jobs to all in public sector, but the youth could be trained and acquainted with technical know-how to venture in the private sector. In this connection, he praised the initiatives of the DLL for nurturing technical cultural in the Valley by providing unemployed youth with gainful training in job-oriented trades, adding that the present function was a well-conceived effort in this direction.

He said the beneficiaries that had been provided donation would also be imparted training in various trades to enable them to take up self-employment. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Reyaz said the technical training to downtrodden people of society in the rural areas would also be started in the coming days through the DLL. He said technical guidance to the people in the neglected areas would help them to be economically independent and would improve their life standard.

Udhampur, May 17
The J&K Chapter of WWF-India in collaboration with the Centre for Environment Education and Training (CEET), Arjun Youth Club, Doda, and the Departments of Education and Forests, organised a one-day teacher training workshop under the “Paryavaran Mitra” programme launched by the Union Ministry for Environment & Forest, Arcelor Mittal and CEET, at Government Girls Higher Secondary School (GGHSS), Bhaderwah, in Doda district.

Inaugurating the workshop, regional director, CEET, Dr Abdhesh Gangwar, said climate change was the biggest-ever threat to humanity world over and warranted immediate attention.

He said the project Paryavaran Mitra would help children undertake conservation projects to curb climate change. Though small but cumulatively put together, the efforts by children across the country would make a big change. The project would definitely help children make inventory and document local environment and monitor its quality. The children through this project would be able to reduce their carbon footprint and increase hand print. The project would also help teachers make their teaching interesting, locally relevant, he added.

Chairperson, WWF-India (J&K Chapter), Dr CM Seth, emphasised that the local traditional knowledge about the varieties of local crops, domestic animals, fruit trees, forest trees, medicinal plants, birds, art, culture, heritage, which were rich in this area, needed to be understood, recorded and then popularised on a scientific basis.

Chief education officer, Doda, Yogeshwar Raj Thusoo, threw light on the activities being done in schools in the district under the National Green Corps, the National Environmental Awareness Campaign and Paryavaran Mitra schemes.

He assured cooperation and called upon all zonal education officers, ZRPs, CRPs, teaches and students to implement these schemes successfully and take full advantage of them in making teaching learning interesting and useful.

Principal, GGHSS, Bhaderwah, Ashwani Kumar Kaul, talked about the botanical garden and solid waste management pits they have sent up in their school and how teachers and students are using them as educational tools. The Teachers and students of various schools of the district who won prizes in the national, state and zone-level competitions also expressed their views on the occasion.

As the panchayat elections are coming to a close, expectations of the rural populace are increasing. In the absence of rural bodies, the development process had been negligible or very slow in villages. No wonder, development remained the poll plank of the candidates, who promised the voters to provide them all kind of facilities in their respective areas during their campaign (see picture).