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New transport policy on the anvil
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Congress taps women vote bank in Poonch-Rajouri
IT student comes up with mobile recharge service
Elderly easy target for domestic helps
Police promises help to released militants
Reasi school cries for attention
Jammu DIARY
Health Minister reviews NRHM projects
Bandipora rock band to promote music
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New transport policy on the anvil
Official sources said the state government had constituted a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Madhav Lal to coordinate with various departments for working out a comprehensive transport policy in view of the rising number of vehicles as well as deaths on roads, especially in hilly regions. “A Transport Advisory Committee (TAC) headed by Minister for Transport Qamar Ali Akhoon has also been constituted to work in close coordination with various agencies and suggest the government
necessary steps which need to be taken for improving traffic scenario in the state,” the sources maintained. “RITES, the Government of India enterprise, has been engaged by the state government for formulating the transport mobility plan,” they said. The sources said: “RITES authorities have been asked to prepare short-term and long-term plans for improving roads and traffic scenario in the state. They have been asked to prepare the short-term plan within six months, while a year’s time has been fixed for them to design the long-term plan”. Under the new transport mobility plan, the government would prioritise the construction of four-lane roads, start of metro rail in the twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar, construction of parking slots, new strictures for private vehicle owners and installation of traffic signals. “Computerisation of all regional transport offices (RTOs) and assistant regional transport offices (ARTOs) will be the priority of the government and it will be completed by the end of this year. After the formulation of the transport
mobility plan, the Transport Department will definitely be in a position to streamline the prevailing chaotic situation,” a senior official of the Transport Department said. The official said vehicular population in the state had touched the 10-lakh mark, which was nearly 18 times more than what it was two and half decades ago. The winter capital city has already entered the “Traffic Danger Zone”, while nearly 70,000 new vehicles were hitting the roads every month. In addition, 10 lakh to 12 lakh vehicles, including buses of Vaishno Devi pilgrims, tourists and Amarnath pilgrims entered Jammu and Kashmir from other parts of the country during the year. It may be placed here that the calendar year 2011 had the dubious distinction of witnessing over 1,000 deaths on ‘killer’ roads in Jammu and Kashmir, which was much higher than the number of casualties in militancy related, incidents during the period. The year 2010 had devoured 1,042 precious human lives in 6,136 road mishaps. The number of road accidents took place in 2009 stood at 6,006 wherein 1,126 people had lost their lives.
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Congress taps women vote bank in Poonch-Rajouri
Jammu, January 31 President of the Pradesh Mahila Congress, Indu Pawar has assigned the job to party workers to concentrate on the remote areas of state to ensure mobilisation of women supporters from these areas. As 33 per cent seats are reserved for women in the civic bodies, the party has decided to select potential candidates for the coming civic bodies elections. Pawar said that they had started a special campaign in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri to enroll maximum number of women members. Pawar, who conducted an extensive tour of the Rajouri district, claimed that a large number of women were coming forward to become members of the Congress party. She further claimed that their tour to Rajouri was encouraging because large number of women attended their meetings and expressed their desire to actively participate in political activities. Citing one of the reasons for large number of women joining the Congress, she said, “Congress president Sonia Gandhi is a source of inspiration for women who are coming forward to play active role in the politics”. Out of the total 7 Assembly seats in the Poonch-Rajouri belt, Congress has managed to get only 2 while National Conference won 3 and remaining 2 went to the PDP. Congress had won Rajouri seat by a narrow margin and had lost Nowshera seat, which was considered as the party bastion.
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IT student comes up with mobile recharge service Srinagar, January 31 Abid Rashid Lone from Khanyar of old city here might not be getting big returns yet from his newly-launched website, but the response from the people in the Valley has been encouraging. He said his site was getting encouraging response from the people as they often found it difficult to go out of their houses for recharging their cellphones due to frequent shutdowns. “It took me a month to create this website and it is now working for the past 50 days. Each day, new users are coming for recharging their mobile from Rs 10 to any amount,” Lone said. The website 'www.fuelmyphone.com' became operational in December last year, and in 50 working days, it has done transactions of over Rs 1.50 lakh. Buoyed by the increasing trend of e-commerce, Lone, a graduate with a diploma in computers and programming, had earlier also started an online shopping portal www.kashmirstore.com for selling Kashmiri willow, saffron, shawls and bats. The website, which failed to make profits, was a Kashmiri version of the global online auction and shopping website ‘ebay’. The failed attempt, however, did not deter Lone from experimenting with other ideas. The young man has more innovative ideas to further his online recharge service. Now, he is planning to rope in auto-rickshaw drivers as his mobile recharge outlets. Lone is also taking the help of social networking sites like Facebook and micro-blogging website Twitter to popularise his online recharge service.
— PTI |
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Elderly easy target for domestic helps
Jammu, January 31 In one such incident, an old woman, a patient of dementia, has been cheated by her domestic help and her brother. Since the girl, aged around 16 or 17 years lived close to the house of the old woman in the Sarwal area, she had engaged her as a domestic help, said sources. But, the disgruntled girl took the advantage of the woman taking away her two gold rings and a gold bangle on the pretext of attending a marriage. Though when the old woman somehow recollected her memory and asked the domestic help about her belongings, the latter returned one ring, they added. Furthermore, in due course of time the girl’s brother also mingled with the poor lady and cheated her of her pension amount. He used to withdraw pension from the old woman’s bank account after getting her signatures on the cheques. Instead of giving her the full pension amount, he used to give her a few hundred rupees before pocketing the remaining amount of the money. In this way the boy cheated the woman and withdrew around Rs 45,000 from her account, said the sources. The sources also divulged that the boy, whose father is an alcoholic, of late purchased a new two-wheeler out of the old woman’s petty savings. “Both the brother and sister, I would call them Bunty and Babli, kept on cheating the old woman till her children, who lived outside, returned. Now, they have lodged a complaint with us and now we are looking into it,” said a police
officer. The officer further said over the years, crime against elderly by their domestic helps had seen an upward swing in the capital city. It may be recalled here that an old Kashmiri Pandit couple
was found murdered in their house in posh Trikuta Nagar locality last year. |
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Police promises help to released militants
Srinagar, January 31 During a workshop on the rehabilitation of released militants held recently at Baramulla district of north Kashmir, IGP, Kashmir zone, SM Sahai said: “The released militants are part and parcel of society and in no case should they feel any alienation. The police is committed to facilitating the rehabilitation of the released militants so that they are fully amalgamated in the national mainstream. We will provide every possible assistance to them.” About 200 released militants from North Kashmir participated in the workshop. Speaking on the occasion, DIG, North Kashmir, Muneer Ahmad Khan said there were around 20,000 released militants in the North Kashmir range. Most of them are poor and have meagre sources of income, he added. Five representatives of the released militants also spoke on the occasion and talked about their issues before senior police officials. The issues faced by them like verification of character, passport and service verification of their children and employment were discussed during the workshop.
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Reasi school cries for attention
Reasi, January 31 Though the school authorities a few months ago had upgraded the institution from high school to higher secondary school, the infrastructure almost remains the same. There are at least 400 students who have joined the institution for the higher secondary education. Moreover, the school provides education from Class I to Class XII. Whenever it rains junior classes go back home as there is no alternate arrangement for them. There are only eight classrooms, one of which is used for the preparation of midday meals, library and storage of sports items. Anju, a student of the school, said: “I have just attended my class for five days after the winter vacation as it rains almost everyday. I am losing my time, my parents are also worried about the issue. On the other hand, local residents whose children are studying in the school said the government should come forward and make the necessary arrangement for students. Principal of the school Bansi Lal Sharma admit that “the school lacks rooms and other infrastructure. We need almost 10 more rooms to accommodate all the students. We had also brought the matter to the notice of higher authorities of the Education Department.”
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Jammu DIARY At every public meeting of the PDP, one can always spot this man waving the party flag. He is PDP’s staunch supporter Master Bhagwan Dass, who has attended almost all the public meetings addressed by former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Jammu. As soon as senior leaders start addressing the rally, he starts waving the flag to register his presence (see photo).
He is a die-hard supporter of the PDP patron. Though he is not an office-bearer of the party, he is known to every leader of the party. A retired teacher from the Education Department, Dass has been associated with the PDP since the formation of the party in 1999. “I have attended all the public meetings addressed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Jammu and its adjoining localities,” he says. Writer declines award Eminent writer and Kashmiri Pandit leader Dr Agnishekhar declined to accept the Best Book Award for 2011 conferred on him by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and Languages (JKAACL). His reason for not accepting the award was that it would be “unethical” to receive the award from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, president of the JKAACL. However, Omar made things easy for him by skipping the award presentation ceremony. The absence of the Chief Minister was a great disappointment for the other writers present on the
occasion. (Contributed by Dinesh Manhotra
and Sonika Raina)
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Health Minister reviews NRHM projects
Jammu, January 31 Commissioner/Secretary, Health and Medical Education, GA Peer; Mission Director, NRHM, Dr Yashpal Sharma; Director, Health Services, Kashmir/Jammu, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman; Dr Madhu Khullar, Director, Family Welfare; Dr TK Moza, and other officials of the NRHM and allied wings of the Health Ministry were present at the meeting held here recently. The minister took a detailed review and status report of several projects undertaken under the NRHM and the State Programme Implementation Plan of the NRHM for the next year to be submitted to the Central Government. He emphasised the need for prioritising the projects which were to be taken up during the current financial year for upgrading healthcare infrastructure in the state. He also reviewed the status of medical mobile units, procurement of critical care ambulances, CT scan units, setting up of biomedical waste units in Jammu and Srinagar. He stressed on expediting the process so that the same could be procured at the earliest to avoid cost escalation. The Health Minister called for timely completion of various ongoing projects and making judicious use of unspent funds. He also directed for submitting utilisation certificates to the Central Government in time to secure balance funds for various ongoing projects. He directed both the directors to make nomination of doctors, paramedical staff for undergoing various training courses in a systematic and regular manner to achieve the objective of the provisions. The Mission Director, NRHM, informed the meeting that a tentative action plan under the NRHM for upgrading the health infrastructure and to complete several ongoing projects in the state had been finalised to the tune of Rs 496.75 crore for 2012-13. |
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Bandipora rock band to promote music
Srinagar, January 31 “Instruments to the band has been gifted by the 14 Rashtriya Rifles. The objective of forming the band is to engage youth, promote love for music and nurture and develop talent in the district,” an Army spokesperson said here. The band presented its maiden performance at the Kharpura Camp here recently in the presence of Manzoor Ahmad Lone, Deputy Commissioner, Bandipora, Brigadier Anil Puri, Commander, 81 Mountain Brigade, Bashir Ahmad Khan, Superintendent of Police, Bandipora, and around 100 local youth. “The performance of the band was appreciated by one and all. The band is likely to further enhance its talent and will motivate other youth to join it. It is a beginning for the conduct of Bandipur Idol,” the Army spokesperson said.
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Jammu, January 31