|
|
|
|
Efforts on to improve delivery of health services in state: Omar
Despite having address, Nari Niketan inmate not restored to her family
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Balwant Thakur’s Choona Hai Aasmaan staged at five places
Srinagar Diary
CM announces Rs 2 cr for Sainik School
Govt to create investment-friendly environment in state: Omar
|
|
Efforts on to improve delivery of health services in state: Omar
“Unless we achieve the mark in universalising healthcare facilities across the state, particularly in rural, far-flung and remote areas, we cannot achieve the target of prosperous Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding that his government had focused on the development of the health sector on priority. Addressing a National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) sammelan at Ganderbal on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said while secondary and tertiary health institutions at district and divisional levels were being upgraded and strengthened according to modern healthcare trends, the equal attention was being paid to improve the health service delivery in rural areas. “We have to put in more efforts to bring rural health centres at par with hospitals in the towns and cities,” he said, adding that the NRHM has an important role to play in this direction. Omar Abdullah said in order to equip hospitals in rural areas with necessary equipment and manpower befitting measures had been taken and special packages for doctors and paramedical staff provided to make them work in rural areas comfortably. The Chief Minister underlined the importance of mother-baby care and said ASHA and anganwari workers had special role to play in creating awareness among the people about the healthcare facilities available under it and other health schemes. He said his government provided adequate matching share for the successful implementation of health schemes sponsored by the Central Government. Omar Abdullah asked the Health Department to work hard to maintain the number one position it had obtained in the healthcare sector last year. “You have to put in redoubled efforts to maintain this grading,” he said assuring full support of the government for the development and upgradation of health facilities in the state. The Chief Minister presented awards to the best ASHA workers and Block Medical Officer on the occasion.
|
||
|
Despite having address, Nari Niketan inmate not restored to her family
RS Pura, October 28 Her sad story is a narrative of lack of coordination between various state government departments and official inaction. The insensitivity of the Department of Social Welfare, which runs the Nari Niketan, and the Police Department could be gauged from the fact that the girl has not been approached so far to know her whereabouts and initiate the process for her reunion with the family. Senior inmates say that most of the time she is silent and keeps herself isolated. Unlike her classmates she cannot write the name of her school as she fails to concentrate on her studies or anything else. Tears well up in her eyes as she recalls her family: “My father Gopal Kumar and mother Rukmani, besides my siblings live in Dharamjuli village in the Achrighat area.” “My parents are very poor. They sent me to Delhi along with my uncle for a job. Thereafter, he got me an employment of domestic help in Delhi. But my employer used to beat me. He did not pay me for my services. Later, I was sent to Jammu by a Delhi-based agent, who arranges domestic helps for people,” she said. “In Jammu I had lost touch with my parents and uncle. My employer in Jammu was also treating me badly. I ran away from his home,” she said, adding that she approached the police for the help. “But the police instead of reuniting me with my family brought me here,” she added. Another inmate at the home, Anjali (10), was recovered by the Child Line and brought to the Home in February this year. She was recovered from two old beggars. However, the police has not located her parents as well. Anjali, as per the Superintendent at the Home, Parveen Kumari, tried to flee from the Home twice, but every time she was located by the police and brought to the Home again. Parveen Kumari said: “The police did not approach us after they left these two inmates here. We do not have resources to locate their families.” Deepika Singh Rajawat, a rights activist and a member of the Juvenile Welfare Board, Jammu, said : "It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that such children are sent back to their families, but the government agencies concerned do not have will to work.” “In the case of Meena Kumari, the police was supposed to contact the Assam Police, but unfortunately, it never did so,” she said. District Social Welfare Officer Rajiv Salaria said: “The police has made our welfare homes dumping stations. Once it leaves the missing or abandoned children in welfare homes, it stops probing the particulars of such children. Lately, in Kathua district also the police did not cooperated with us on a similar issue.” “In these particular cases, if the police did not cooperate with us, the department will try to restore the girls with their families at its own,” he assured. Despite repeated attempts, senior police officers could not be contacted for their comments.
|
||
|
Balwant Thakur’s Choona Hai Aasmaan staged at five places
Srinagar, October 28 The play had a highly appealing theme, effective presentation and innovative direction. The shows, organised by the J&K Police, were held at Awantipora, Kulgam, Kupawara, Pulwama and Zevan. A 20-actor group of Natrang was camping in Srinagar and at each venue the brilliant performers surprised everyone by infusing new improvised acts to make the presentation more relevant to the local realities. Exclusively written for the youth of Kashmir, the play not only aspires the youth to strive for excellence, but also conveys a strong positive message of peace and prosperity. The play begins with local problems like growing involvement of the youth in drugs and the decaying respectability among the youth for elders. Later, a young man emerges in the scene, who represents the youth, the biggest workforce of Kashmir. This young man wants to lead in the world. He also wants to be like the people of the most progressive nations of the world. He is shown striving for progress and excellence in life. But in the absence of cordial and conducive environment he is not able to achieve his desired goals. Despite making all-out efforts, he finds that he is unable to make any headway in the present circumstances. He is shattered by finding that people out here are engaged in petty fights initiated by the anti-nationals. Young minds are being infused with negative thoughts, thus ruining their life and career. The progressive nations have arisen above such small things. The boundaries are being broken and the nations are coming together to see the larger welfare of the mankind. He finds himself trapped in such a system where people instead of supporting him and his vision are pushing him towards darkness where he will end up ruining himself. The people out here are being exploited and pushed to a path of darkness for small petty political gains. He feels strongly that peace is the pre-requisite for any kind of progress and development. His aspiration of scaling new heights and touching the skies could only be achieved when there are no disturbances, no chaos, no space for hatred for each other, but an inspiring peaceful environment which encourages everyone to aspire and achieve. He has a dream for his village where no one fights in the name of religion, where there is no hatred, no separatist thought, but a vision of progress and prosperity. The play underlines the importance of peace for the prosperity and development of the state. It advocates the importance of brotherhood and communal harmony and advises the audience not to get into the trap of anti-social elements and finally appeals to the audience to give peace a chance. The play concludes with the youth pledging to rise above small issues to touch new horizons and scale ultimate heights. The artists who participated in the play included Neeraj Kant, Dimple Sharma, Gaurav Jamwal, Rahul Singh, Sajra Qadir, Rajni Bhatti, Tajasvi Sharma, Mohd Yaseen, Balwinder Singh, Uplaksh Singh Kotwal, Syed Fardeen, Sushil Raina,Pankaj Kumar and Abhinav Vimersh. The light and sound was looked after by Shummy Kalotra and his team of technicians.
|
||
|
Srinagar Diary The charcoal, for use in the kangri or fire pot to keep warmth during chilly winter days, is also being accumulated by burning of the fallen and dried-up leaves of the hefty chinar and other trees. These days only these activities are going on as any bad weather condition would spoil the whole activity. These preparations for winter months are also coupled with those for the Eid-ul-Azha, which is about 10 days away. As the days for the celebrations are coming nearer the hustle and bustle in the market places is increasing. The purpose is twin, winter and Eid shopping. Power shortage The power shortage due to decline in the availability of power and greater demand during winter months has begun to hit the common man in Kashmir. Though a number of efforts, like the installation of electronic meters, have been taken to prevent the “misuse” of power and overcome its shortage, there is no end to the woes of the common man. Most of the areas, particularly in the villages, continue to remain without power for days together because of one or the other problem, which have been hindering the smooth power supply. Officials opine that people in general “misuse” power and thereby increase burden on the transformers, which usually get damaged due to overloading. With the result many areas remain without power supplies for days or weeks together and that too in winter months, when it is most needed for light and heating purposes. The main problem in this sector is the lack of proper supply of power across the valley. The valley being rich in water resources needs to be brought under a massive programme to provide adequate supply throughout winter months, which could also enable the state to export power than importing it throughout the year. (Contributed by Ehsan Fazili)
|
||
|
CM announces Rs 2 cr for Sainik School
Srinagar, October 28 Terming students as the architects of future, Omar urged them to make merit benchmark of their education. He said merit was the only key to success and the students should exhibit their meritorious capacity to seek admission in reputed colleges and universities and compete at the national level. Omar also announced an assistance of Rs 2 crore for the infrastructural development of Sainik School, Manasbal, and called for the holistic development of the students. He also said that the Government would extent all help to the Sainik School for its overall development. Emphasising the need to make institutes centres of personality development, Omar said along with academic excellence, extra-curricular activities should also be a part of the syllabus. The Chief Minister said students would lead the country and they should prepare themselves for this stupendous task to lead the nation to prosperity. Speaking at the occasion, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah asked the management of the school to prepare a proposal for the use of solar energy in the school. Minister for Education Peerzada Mohammad Sayed said 60 residential schools would be set up in the state in which students from weaker sections would be provided free boarding, lodging and education. The principal of the school projected the annual report of the school and said the school had been founded by late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1980 as a first of its kind residential school in the Valley. Omar interacted with the students and enquired about their education and other aspects of the school.
|
||
|
Govt to create investment-friendly environment in state: Omar
Srinagar, October 28 “While development of skills and enhancement of employability of the youth is receiving priority attention, the government is striving for creating investment-friendly environment in the state,” he said, maintaining that focus was on encouragement to the local industrialists and budding entrepreneurs. Inspecting a cement plant launched in the private sector by a local entrepreneur at Khrew, the Chief Minister appreciated the young entrepreneur for leading the way for local investors and said the tendency in young educated people was good omen for industrialisation in the state. Omar Abdullah said the package of incentives and concessions available to entrepreneurs would be further strengthened to encourage the launch of feasible ventures by the local investors in the state. He said Jammu and Kashmir possessed rich potential for investment in agriculture, horticulture, food processing, power generation, software technology, floriculture, health, education, tourism and similar other sectors. The Chief Minister said the Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Programme for the Youth (SKEWPY) launched in the state is aimed at creating MSME environment in the state by providing financial, logistic and technical support to the educated youth to take to livelihood earning ventures and give boost to the economy at one hand and generate employment opportunities for them and their brethren on the other. “Though the government is striving for providing employment in the government sector to the youth, yet the unemployment crisis needs to be tackled by various other measures and industrialisation and entrepreneurship development is the right initiative in this direction,” he said. In a power-point presentation, the young owner and Director of the plant stated that the project had been launched with an investment of over Rs 240 crore and was first of its kind in the private sector launched by a local entrepreneur. He gave details of various units of the plant and explained the scientific mechanism put in place in the plant for pollution control and safety of the functionaries. He said more than 150 truck-loads of cement was being produced at the plant daily.
|
|
||
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Srinagar, October 28
The old adage of “Make hay while the sun shines” is aptly discernible in Kashmir these days. The rural as well as urban population is fast making preparations for the winter ahead as the cold weather conditions have already gripped the Valley. The harvesting of paddy, Kashmir’s main crop, having already been finished, the entire population is gearing up to make stocks of foodgrains and other essential commodities, particularly the firewood and charcoal, to last for the winter months. There is also a rush to make sufficient stocks of the woollens, jackets and pharons (Kashmiri long robe) to fight the winter chill. Many people living on the city outskirts and villages are engaged in the preparation for firewood and charcoal for use during winter months. The use of kangri (see pic) has already started as it is the best tool to fight the winter chill.
