Leh, August 2
Ladakh has now become a favourite destination among the domestic tourists in the country.

People associated with the tourism industry in Leh are claiming that this year, Ladakh has remained the number one tourist destination in the country and ranked 20th in Asia on the basis of search on Google search engine.

A record of number of tourists - about 80,000, including 70 per cent from within the country - visited Leh till the mid of July.

The tourism industry is expecting that the arrival of tourists will cross the one-lakh mark, which will be a new record in Ladakh, if the trend continues in August and September.

Usually, the tourism in Ladakh gains momentum in August when tourists, especially foreigners, visit the region for trekking, mountaineering and river rafting. Everyone involved in the tourism trade from the guide, ponywallah, cook and tent attendants earn maximum income as these activities need assistance of such professionals. The last year’s cloudburst tragedy brought huge loss to tourism and shattered the sole income sources of many small players in the tourism industry.

The growing interest about Ladakh among the domestic tourists has got further boost by the media coverage of last year’s devastating cloudburst, followed by the wide publicity as one of the major tourist destination in the state by the Tourism Ministry during various travel and trade fairs held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

All Ladakh Tour Operator Association (ALTOA) president Tsering Namgyal said, “The media coverage had created curiosity among the domestic tourists to come and see the barren and colourful mountains and experience the culture and hospitality of Ladakh. The idea of Leh being a difficult and remote area is now vanishing from the minds of people as it is just at an hour’s distance from Delhi by air.”

Most of the airlines have doubled the flight operations between Delhi and Leh with eight flights a day and kept the airfare at average cost during the whole tourism season. Local travel agents are also offering cheap tour packages to meet the budget of all visiting tourists.

Although Ladakh is known for adventure tourism with variety of trekking routes, starting from two days to one-month long, rafting in the Indus and Zangkar rivers and mountaineering with Stok Kangri and Nunkun as famous peaks, majority of domestic tourists visit for leisure trips. Pangong Lake, Khardong Pass, sand dunes and double-humped camel safari are famous in the itinerary of domestic tourists visiting Ladakh.

Jammu, August 2
The Drugs and Food Control Organisation has warned the chemists and druggists in the state to stop the illegal practices as the organisation is all set to launch a massive drive against the defaulters.

Giving the information, after the recent confiscation of a consignment worth Rs 3.5 lakh at Lakhanpur, which was being imported to the state without purchase bills, Lotika Khajuria, deputy controller, Drugs and Food Control Organisation Jammu, said, “The organisation has directed all its officials to remain vigilant throughout the day and launch a massive drive against these law violators.”

Khajuria said that acting on a tip-off, the organisation recently confiscated a consignment worth Rs 3.5 lakh under the provision of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

The consignment comprised of four cartons containing Ximeceff-200 and Lupicef CL200 of various batches manufactured by Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, SIDCUL, Haridwar. It was being imported to the state without purchasing bills, which is an illegal act, Khajuria added.

The raid was conducted by Sanjeev Gupta, Drug Inspector, Kathua, who intercepted a truck at the toll post in Lakhanpur, which was carrying certain medicines bound for Srinagar to be delivered to Sane Enterprises, Masooma, Srinagar.

Gupta said that it was detected that the medicines were being imported into the state without purchase bills and during the investigations, involvement of all offenders was established.

It has been learnt from the past incidents that the smuggling of drugs, medicines and various other products from Punjab to J&K has become rampant and the officials of the Excise and Taxation Department proved a failure in curbing it.

Jammu, August 2
In this humid weather when irregular power supply has been giving a tough time to the locals, a sudden increase in the number of mosquitoes due to poor sanitation has added to their worries.

The monsoon season is on and the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), which is responsible for carrying out mosquito-killing operation in the city, has so far failed in performing its basic duty of spraying the anti-mosquito repellent in the city.

As a result, a large number of people have been visiting various hospitals these days to know about the precautions against dengue and cholera.

The residents are blaming the JMC authorities for the poor sanitary conditions. “Go to any part of the city and you will only find heaps of filth and garbage, which have become the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. But the authorities seem not to be in a mood to spray the anti-mosquito repellent to save the people from the outbreak of any disease,” said Rashmi Thakur, a local resident.

She added that the situation was worst in the Old City where the people had already requested the authorities to save them from the outbreak of dengue and cholera, but their requests fell on deaf ears.

Shallu Rani, another resident, said: “Unscheduled power cuts and mosquitoes are giving sleepless nights to everyone. The officials concerned are sleeping in palatial houses so they don’t have any problem, but the common people, especially infants, are facing the worst-ever situation”.

Meanwhile, the demand of mosquito repellents like coils and fluids has increased in the market.

Doctors also suggested that the residents living in the low-lying areas, where the rainwater gets accumulated, should use some anti-mosquito cream to save themselves from mosquitoes and use sheet while sleeping.

The authorities of Government Medical College and Hospital said the situation was so far under control and not even a single case of dengue was detected till date. However, they advised the people to use precautions.

Jammu, August 2
Patients coming from far-off areas and remote villages to Jammu will have no more difficulties at the government hospitals here, as the super-speciality hospital is almost ready to become functional.

The 200-bed hospital, which is said to be the brainchild of present Union Health Minister and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, will have six super-speciality streams and provide AIIMS-level facilities to the people of Jammu region.

Minister for Medical Education RS Chib, who recently visited the hospital to take stock of the construction work, said that the super-speciality hospital would be made functional in a short period, as the last moment works of furnishing, fitting and commissioning of medical equipments were going on.

Chib said, “The executing agency has been directed to complete the work at the earliest so that the people could be benefited from this prestigious hospital.”

He also convened a meeting of all senior officers, wherein executing agency and Medical Education Department functionaries briefed him about the preparations being made for early commissioning of the hospital.

Chib also directed the Power Development Department to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

A senior official accompanying the minister said the issue of lawns, multi-level parking and installation of oxygen concentration plant were also discussed during the meet.

Chib said that it was the prime objective of the state government to provide better healthcare facilities to the people.

There are only two main government hospitals in Jammu - Government Medical College and Hospital, and SMGS Hospital - which cater to thousands of patients daily and are overburdened.

Srinagar, August 2
Underlining the importance of personal development for moulding young children into capable and responsible citizens, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked the educational institutions to focus on all-round development of students while attending their academic excellence.

Speaking at a platinum jubilee celebrations of Presentation Convent School here recently, the Chief Minister said the holistic development and growth of young boys and girls was the need of the hour to enable them face futuristic challenges with capacity and calibre.

“They should be trained to compete at the national and international level with confidence and competence,” he said adding that after completing education, they had to step in a wider world to make a dent.

The Chief Minister said the government had flagged education as one of the important sectors in the policy planning and this sector was receiving up to the mark attention for balanced growth and improvement.

Omar appreciated the management and faculty of the institution for providing befitting education to the students and expressed the hope that it would continue to endeavour for the all-round development of students along with imparting moral education to them.

Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir, Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani, Chairman, J&K Bank, Mushtaq Ahmad, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Asgar Samoon, and Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Shant Manu, were among others present on the occasion.

In her welcome address, the principal of the institution expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for being the chief guest on the occasion. She also presented resume of the academic and extra-curricular activities of the institution.

The students on the occasion presented a colourful and enthralling cultural programme which was appreciated and applauded by the audience present on the occasion.

Srinagar, August 2
Stating that there had been paradigmatic shift in the strategy of dealing with disasters, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that preparedness, protection and mitigation have now been prefixed to rescue, relief and rehabilitation concept.

Speaking at a one-day workshop on Disaster Preparedness and Roadmap for Its Management at SKICC here recently, the Chief Minister said though nobody could forecast disasters, fully preparedness and a proper roadmap to deal with eventualities were of significant importance on this count.

“By being fully prepared for natural or man-made disasters, we can reduce the loss of lives and property, besides fast tracking the evacuation and rescue operations,” he said, adding that while God had gifted the state with enormous natural beauty, it was also confronted with enormous dangers of earthquakes and other disasters.

“While we talk of learning lessons from the disasters that take place but for not having a proper strategy, trained disaster management force and purposeful equipment and authority in place, we forget about the dangers and wake up at the time when God forbid earth shakes under our feet during an earthquake,” he said laying stress on a comprehensive roadmap and fully preparedness to deal with disasters in the state.

Omar said the government had already constituted the Disaster Management Authority in the state and expressed the hope that the National Disaster Management Authority in whose collaboration the workshop had been organised would extend its expertise to the state to strengthen its efforts to deal with eventualities in future.

The Chief Minister asked the workshop, in which vice-chairman and members of the National Disaster Management participated, along with the members of the State Disaster Management Authority and experts on the subject, to formulate guidelines for the political leadership regarding their visits to the disaster-affected areas during the time of an emergency.

“Political leaders are always on the receiving end. If they immediately visit the affected areas, they are being blamed for diverting the attention of concerned from the real job. If they do not visit these areas, they are termed callous and heartless”, he said, adding that in his opinion monitoring operations during disasters could be managed from the well-equipped and well-connected control room efficiently.

Addressing the workshop, Minister for Revenue and Rehabilitation Raman Bhalla said the government had constituted the State Disaster Management Authority with its branches at the divisional and district levels.

Bhalla said the Apex Body was chaired by the Chief Minister and takes regular reviews to strengthen the efforts of sensitising government departments and general public about various aspects of dealing with natural or man-made disasters.

“We are also working to put in place a strategy and a roadmap for dealing with disasters,” he said adding that expert assistance from the National Disaster Management Authority would be sought for the purpose.

Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani underlined the need for preparedness to deal with disasters and reduce the chances of losses to human lives and property.

“The 2005 Earthquake and the recent flash flood in Leh have left so many lessons for us to learn,” he said stressing on public awareness and preparedness in this direction.

MS Ready, vice-chairman, National Disaster Management Authority, also spoke on the occasion and explained the purpose of organising such a workshop in the state which falls under the Seismic Range V. He said the authority would provide every assistance to the state in strengthening its authority and preparing a well-managed roadmap to deal with disasters.

Srinagar, August 2
The government is taking measures to ensure a time-bound stocking of foodgrains in the frontier region of Ladakh, which remains cut off from the rest of the state during the winter.

The Minister of State for CAPD, Transport, Power and Forests, Shabir Ahmad Khan, who visited the region recently to take stock of the functioning of the CAPD and other departments, said providing of ration to the people of the Ladakh region with any hassles was a priority of the government.

The minister inspected the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Leh and Phyang. He also inspected several CAPD outlets and the PDD infrastructure in the area. He was told that 8,275 metric tonnes of rice, 10,664 metric tonnes of wheat and 608 metric tonnes of sugar were available in the FCI godowns of Leh district.

The minister was informed that of the total annual allocation of 1,38,600 quintals of different kinds of foodgrains for the Leh people, 53,580 quintals, including 25,740 quintals of rice, 25,000 quintals of flour and 2,840 quintals of sugar, had so far been provided to the CAPD Department, Leh, for onward distribution to the ration card holders.

The minister was also told that the annual consumption of kerosene oil in the district was 24.50 lakh litres and of which 6.59 lakh litres had been received till date.