Jammu, May 27
To ensure punctuality and curb the menace of absenteeism in educational institutes, the department concerned has started taking some hard steps. The officials have been ordered to conduct surprise visits and prepare report cards of every institute.

In a recent order, the Director School Education, Jammu, GA Qureshi, has directed all chief education officers (CEOs) and zonal education officers (ZEOs) in Jammu division to conduct surprise visits in schools falling under their respective zones for at least three days in a week.

“These officers will conduct raids between Monday and Saturday and then furnish consolidated reports on next Monday,” Qureshi said.

He also ordered the constitution of a monitoring committee under the supervision of personnel officer, Directorate of School Education, for prompt cognisance of the absentee cases reported by the CEOs/ZEOs so that further action should be taken.

The decision has come out as a large number of teachers were being found absent from their respective schools during duty timings.

An official of the department said these people were bringing bad name to the entire community, so it was necessary to keep a check on them so that the purpose of education could be achieved.

“Earlier, whenever we conducted surprise visits to keep a check on absenteeism, we found two to three teachers absent in every school or institute, so the decision of the director will surely bring some results, as the absenteeism was increasing with every passing day,” he said.

He further appealed to the teachers and other staff of the Education Department to be punctual and perform better to avoid any departmental action. 

Srinagar, May 27
The famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir has won the best adventure destination category award in skiing in 2010-11 on the basis of an online survey conducted by “India Today”, an official spokesperson said recently.

A certificate has been presented by the India Today Group to Tourism Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora here, the spokesperson said.

Expressing pleasure over the declaration of Gulmarg as the best skiing destination, Jora said the famous tourist hotspot had won the award for its Gondola service, besides other factors.

He said this distinction would catapult Gulmarg to the global stage to host international and national-level skiing events.

He said the government was endeavouring to explore the potential of adventure tourism in the state.

“Installation of parallel chairlift from Kongdori to Marri Shoulder will not only provide added attractions to tourists, but will also help in organising world-class skiing events and other winter games at Gulmarg,” he said.

He directed the managing director, Cable Car Corporation, to ensure its timely completion.

He also directed the state's Tourism Department to explore more adventure activities like grass skiing, snow tubing, river rafting, rock climbing and mountain biking. — PTI

Srinagar, May 27
Minister for Tourism and Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora has said that the government is keen to preserve the cultural heritage of the state, which has tremendous potential for the promotion of cultural tourism.

This was stated by the Minister during his visit to the world famous Buddhist site at Harwan near here recently. Director Libraries and Research, Khalid Bashir, consultant, Tourism and Culture Department, Khurshid Ahmed Qadri, were among others accompanied by the Minister.

The site was identified by Sir Aurl Stein at Harwan earlier. It is an internationally reputed place where third Buddhist Conference was held during the fourth century.

Spanned over 90 kanals, the site is centrally protected monument presently looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

During excavation of the site, stupa figured type pavement rooms which served as chappals for residential purposes, besides terrocata figures, clay votive tablets bearing in relief miniature stupa giving idea about the early kind of stupas in Kashmir.

The tile design consists of wavy lines, fish boom patterns, conventional flowers and leaves of aquatic plants commonly found in the Dal Lake. The tiles found at the site are numbered in Khoroshti script depicting the perfect wavy tile laying. The tiles found at the site are mostly preserved with the ASI and some in SPS Museum, Srinagar, and also in some museums of the world repute.

The Minister took detailed stock of the site. He directed the consultant, Tourism and Culture, to submit a detailed report of antiquities excavated at neolithic site at Burzahama, ancient Buddhist site at Srinagar and Gilgit manuscripts lying with the National Archaeological of India so that the matter would be taken up with the Union Ministry of Culture for their return to the state.

The Minister said for giving protection to the ancient monuments, the Preservation Act of 1920 was also amended after a period of 90 years. Moreover, for wider protection of heritage assets tangible, intangible and natural, the Heritage Conservation and Preservation Act had been also enacted and its implementation was under process, he added.

Jora said: “The state has the highest number of monuments which are known for their historical, archaeological and architecture importance”.

He said during the past few years, the number of steps had been taken to identify and declare unprotected monuments as the state protected besides conservation and restoration had been taken up at number of monuments.

He said more monuments were under the process of conservation which include Hariparbahat Fort, Srinagar, ancient temple and spring, Khotyar, mosque and tombs of Maidin Sahib, Beamgarh Fort, Reasi, Mughal Sari Chingus, Rajouri, Bhau Fort, Jammu, Jandi Fort Kathua and Samba Fort.

The Minister said the number of such monuments was enormous and scattered all over the state. He said presently 69 centrally protected monuments were looked after by the ASI, while 38 state-protected monuments were looked after by the state government.

Gasso (Srinagar), May 27
From a humble beginning 10 years ago, he has now become a role model for the farmers of the Kashmir valley, who are now imitating him and following in his footsteps to earn their livelihood.

For the past three years, Abdul Ahad Mir, a farmer from the Gassa area of Srinagar, has been bagging the first prize from the Union Agriculture Ministry for being the most innovative and progressive farmer, who had transformed the entire landscape in his area.

Since 2001, Mir has been growing strawberry in his 20 kanals at Bhatpora village. Seeing his success, around 80 per cent of the population of the village has started cultivating strawberries in their lands. “Earlier one kanal used to earn us Rs 5,000 per year, but since I started cultivating strawberry the income has jumped to Rs 70,000 per kanal,” Mir told The Tribune.

He said the people in the area were skeptic of growing strawberries in their fields, but after seeing Mir succeed and the income he generated from the crop a majority of the farmers in the area have started growing strawberry.

“We were impressed by the income being generated by Mir. With his guidance and help we too started cultivating strawberry in our fields and the results are encouraging. Our income has risen steeply over the years,” said Bashir Ahmed, another farmer in the area, who was inspired by Mir’s success.

A senior official in the state Horticulture Department told The Tribune that the success story of Mir had not only inspired the people of his own village, but also farmers across the Valley who were now shifting from the traditional farming to growing strawberries.

“Last year, we purchased around six lakh strawberry plants from him and distributed them among the farmers in the Kashmir valley, besides in Jammu and Ladakh,” said the official. Around 1,000 families in the Gasso Bhatpora area of Srinagar city are now engaged in strawberry farming and are thankful to Mir for showing them the way.

Mir has now become a household name in the Kashmir valley and since 2009 he has won various awards. His name was also recommended for the Padam Shri.

“I have introduced inter-cropping in Kashmir and due to which the land is being used for different purposes. I have also planted lemon trees in my orchard and some of them have started giving fruit. This is the first time that lemons have been successfully grown in the temperate climate of Kashmir,” Mir said.

Srinagar, May 27
Students in the schools of the Kashmir valley are being given the training in disaster management so as to prepare them to deal with any type of manmade or natural disasters.

The Divisional Disaster Management Cell, in collaboration with the School Education Department, Jammu and Kashmir State Red Cross Society, Civil Defence Organisation, Fire and Emergency Services and Youth Services and Sports Department, is conducting six days School Safety and Disaster Preparedness Programme in Government High School, Panthachowk.

“As many as 57 students, including 13 girls from classes VIII, IX and X, along with the principal of the school, Sabiya Drabu, and all staff members, are participating in the programme,” Amir Ali, head of the Disaster Management Cell, Kashmir, said.

An interaction session was also held in which senior officials of the Disaster Management Cell and the Civil Defence Wing interacted with the trainees.

During the training, the students and the teachers were introduced to the Red Cross, the Red Crescent movement and the Civil Defence Organisation setup.

The trainees were taught the basics of first aid, process of performing cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and handling of casualties, procedure of lifting injured. They were also taught the procedure to handle patients with severe bleeding, wounds, fractures, spine injuries, burns and cases involving choking, animal, snake bites and procedure of preparing make-shift stretchers.

The trainees performed CPR on rubberised dummy models provided by the organisers and evinced a keen interest in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The students were educated about various categories and common causes of fires, its preventive measures and methods of extinguishing fire with the help of portable fire extinguishers.

The trainees were explained about the precautions to be taken while handling LPG. They were also explained about the fire safety drill and school safety and disaster preparedness plans.

The trainees were taught the procedure of making various knots, including reef knot and chair knot, by the expert trainers from the Civil Defence. The trainees attending the programme are showing a keen interest and are actively participating in the demonstration. After the completion of the training, the trainees will be eligible to become Red Cross and Civil Defence volunteers.

The divisional commissioner has announced that the school safety programme would be conducted in other schools of the Valley as well so that the student community was better prepared to handle emergencies.

The ongoing panchayat elections, which began on April 13, have provided the rural masses an opportunity to identify their problems and issues before sarpanches and panches ahead of their election. Majority of the masses have been engaged in the elections process and are immensely participating in the democratic process (see photo).

The masses have great expectations from their local representatives elected from within their lot to address their issues. Many people firmly believe that they would not have to wait for days or months to get their grievances addressed by the respective MLAs, ministers or the civil administration.

There might be cases for which the individuals would have to reach the MLAs, ministers and the district level administration.

Srinagar, May 27
Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda had a detailed review of the functioning of police-public schools and the implementation of various programmes being carried out under its welfare schemes for serving, retired and martyrs’ families.

Addressing a high-level meeting of police officers held at the Police Headquarters (PHQ), Khoda dwelt on the initiatives taken in the recent past with regard to upgrading of police-public schools, functioning of newly established schools at the district level and welfare schemes for the serving, retired and martyrs’ families and gave an overall view of the achievements registered on these accounts.

The meeting, which was chaired by Khoda, who is also the patron of these institutions, had threadbare discussions to improve the quality of education in these schools. It was told that effective steps had been taken to equip the institutions with modern facilities to achieve desired results. It was decided that facilities in the newly established schools would be upgraded to further enhance their efficiency.

Expressing satisfaction over the results achieved during 2010, Khoda stressed upon the management and the staff of these institutions to work with more dedication and commitment to make them exemplary institutions.

He said all required facilities, including library, computers, education aids and sports kits, would be provided to the schools enabling them to compete with other schools. He asked the school administration to maintain liaison with the parents of students and convene frequent meetings with them to get feedback and improve their results.

It was also decided in the meeting that free coaching classes for the wards of martyrs would be arranged through reputed coaching centres.

Discussing the working of police welfare establishment centres, it was informed that the organisation has taken a number of initiatives in the recent years for the rehabilitation of wives of police martyrs. Besides, retired police personnel have been top on the organisation’s agenda and a beginning has already been made at the district and the zonal level.

“These welfare centres are designed to provide jobs to the wives of police personal and widows of martyrs, and those having proficiency in different trades are engaged in these centres, which inter alia undertake fabrication of uniforms for police personnel and preparation of other handcraft items like embroidery, sozni work and ari work,” said Khoda.

He further said the products of these vocational centres would be marketed in a big way and put on display for sale during the annual police-public melas, thus providing jobs to 250 women in these centres.

As a step towards achieving better quality in their production, latest equipments of cutting and tailoring had been made available at these centres and steps were underway to upgrade these centres on modern lines, said Khoda.

He said the PHQ had also provided gensets to ensure uninterrupted power supply to these centres during the working hours. He reiterated that the organisation would work in other fields to provide quality education to the children of martyrs with impetus on modern academics based on IT.

He hoped that these measures would enable the children and the families of police personnel to attain academic excellence besides facing the challenges of competition with more vigour and confidence.

Srinagar, May 27
The Jammu and Kashmir Sericulture Department earned revenue of Rs 11 crore from the sale of cocoons reared in the Valley last fiscal, an official spokesperson said here.

This was announced by J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Kisans vice-chairman Rachpal Singh during a review meeting of the agriculture and allied sectors recently, the spokesperson said.

He said 26,000 families were engaged directly with the silk industry, while 173 mulberry tree nurseries had been established in the Valley.

During the current year, 20 lakh mulberry saplings had been planted in the Valley, he added.

The chairman was apprised of various steps taken to revive the silk industry in Kashmir, which include setting up a power loom by the department for weaving silk fabric.

In a review of the performance of the Animal Husbandry Department, the meeting was informed that annual production of milk in the Valley was 11.5 lakh tonnes.

A sum of Rs 5 lakh had been provided to farmers for purchasing cows to increase milk production in the Valley under the dairy enterprises scheme, the spokesperson said, adding that the farmers were given a 25 per cent subsidy under this scheme. — PTI