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Peerzada under pressure to quit after ‘adverse’ probe report
CABINET DECISIONS
Power Department daily wagers call off strike
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Uneven fund allocation
Education back on track in state
Fake Resident Certificates
Eid-i-Milad Celebrations
Medical camp begins at RS Pura
Scholarship given to students in Reasi
BSF begins plantation
drive to pay tribute to martyrs
Jammu varsity pays
musical tribute to Bapu
'Hali, Shibli aur
Azad Tehqeeq ke Aayene’ released
Gujjars not to oppose
OBC status to Paharis
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Peerzada under pressure to quit after ‘adverse’ probe report
Jammu, February 8 Though there were rumours that Peerzada had offered to resign after the report was submitted, the minister attended the Cabinet meeting which was held this evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Sources said after the Cabinet meeting, Peerzada went to the chamber of the Chief Minister and had a one-to-one meeting with Omar Abdullah on the issue. After media reports about the use of unfair means to benefit Peerzada’s son in secondary school examination, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had handed over the case to the Crime Branch of the police on January 30 and had directed the authorities concerned to submit the inquiry report within seven days. The Chief Minister had also announced that the next course of action in the case would be taken after the Crime Branch submitted its report. Peerzada had rubbished the charges, saying a conspiracy had been hatched to tarnish his image. He had also welcomed the inquiry ordered by the Chief Minister. Sources said the Crime Branch in its report has found that there was some irregularities in the answersheets of Peerzada’s son Imam Sauban as two writings were found on answersheets. The Crime Branch, sources said, had also identified three officials of the Education Department involved in the case. The answersheets of the candidate were sent to the General Examiner of Questioned Documents, who concluded that the three answersheets had two different handwritings, the sources said. The three officials who were found involved in the case belonged to the Kashmir division of the JKBOSE. Earlier in January 2008, Peerzada was forced to resign as Education Minister after Independent legislator Shoaib Lone had alleged that he had bribed personal staff of the minister. Lone had charged Peerzada with demanding and accepting illegal gratification of Rs 40,000 from him. Lone had later joined the Congress and had remained president of the Pradesh Youth Congress (PYC). Meanwhile a meeting of Congress leaders was held this evening to discuss the issue. No Congress
leader was ready to speak on the case. Case Relook On January 30, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had asked the Crime Branch of the police to submit a report within seven days on media reports accusing Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed of allegedly using unfair means to benefit his son in secondary school examination. Probe findings Sources said the Crime Branch in its report has found that there was some irregularities in the answersheets of Peerzada’s son Imam Sauban as two writings were found on answersheets. The Crime Branch also identified three officials of the Education Department who were involved in the case. Tainted Past Earlier in January 2008, Peerzada was forced to resign as Education Minister and JKPCC chief after Independent legislator Shoaib Lone charged him with demanding and accepting illegal gratification of Rs 40,000 from him.
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CABINET DECISIONS
Jammu, February 8 It was also decided that the authorities concerned would be given directions to expedite the process of completing the elections in the stipulated time. The opposition parties, especially the PDP, had stepped up attack on the coalition government for not conducting civic bodies elections, which were scheduled to be held in January 2010. Sources said it was all due to the pressure of the Congress, a partner in the coalition, that the government today arrived at a decision on the civic bodies elections. Minister of Health Sham Lal Sharma was conspicuously absent from today’s Cabinet meeting. Although personal staff of the Minister clarified that Sharma was not feeling well so he could not attend the meeting, sources said the Minister had skipped today’s meeting to express his resentment against the decision taken by the government in the official document leakage controversy in which his (Sharma’s) name was also figured. Nod to hike in salaries
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Power Department daily wagers call off strike
Jammu, February 8 “The government will release all the pending wages of daily wagers by February 28. We will release Rs 6.5 crore for the purpose. Similarly, all the genuine demands of the daily wagers, including the regularisation of their services will be taken care of by March 31 and they will be regularised against the posts lying vacant in the department,” Minister of State for Power Shabir Ahmed Khan told reporters after holding a meeting with PDD daily wagers here this evening. Official sources said the government had decided to regularise 2,800 daily wagers in the first phase while others would be regularised in a phased-manner. President of the Jammu and Kashmir PDD Daily Wagers’ Union Tarun Gupta expressed his gratitude to the ruling dispensation for accepting their demands. The daily wagers also chanted slogans in favour of the government and danced to drum beats. Political adviser to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Devender Singh Rana, Commissioner Secretary, PDD, Sudhanshu Pandey, Power Development Commissioner and Chief Engineer (M&RE) were also present in the meeting. Earlier, daily wagers of the Power Development Department (PDD) today held a protest in support of their demand for regularisation of their service. The protesting wagers under the banner of the All J&K Daily Wagers Association raised slogans against the state government. The leaders of the association appealed to the PDD daily wagers to halt their work by observing a complete strike to pressurise the state government to accept their demand. The protesters had alleged that the indifferent attitude of the government towards their demand had demoralised the daily wagers, who had been working round the clock to maintain power supply in Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, senior vice-president of the Awami National Conference (ANC) Muzaffar Shah has strongly criticised the National Conference (NC)-led coalition regime in the state for its failure to fulfil its commitments with government employees. Shah urged all parties to come forward to hammer out a formula to the satisfaction of the aggrieved employees. In a statement issued here today, Shah said the government had entered an agreement with representatives of the government employees but had backed out of the promise, forcing the employees to adopt the agitational path. He criticised the government for enhancing the salaries, allowances and other privileges of 22 Ministers, 66 MLAs and 27 MLCs at the cost of the public
exchequer.
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Uneven fund allocation
Jammu, February 8 The twin lakes of Mansar and Surinsar do not have all-weather roads While over one crore tourists visit Jammu annually, generating a revenue of Rs 2,000 crore, only 12 lakh people visit Kashmir every year, generating a revenue of Rs 500 crore. However, the Union and state governments were allocating 100 times more funds for the development of tourism in Kashmir than in Jammu, claimed Inderjeet Khajuria, president,
AJHLA. Khajuria said while Rs 1,000 crore was sanctioned by the Centre to cleanse and develop the Dal and Wullar lakes in Kashmir, another Rs 356 crore was sanctioned for dwellers’ rehabilitation around the Dal lake after evicting them from the banks of the lake. Against this, the lakes and other water bodies in the Jammu region were being completely ignored, so much so that the twin lakes of Mansar and Surinsar did not even have all-weather roads, he added. “No funds have been sanctioned for the widening of the road from Chichi Mata to Mansar. The link road between Mansar and Surinsar is in a shambles, causing hardship to the tourists visiting the area. The Sanasar lake has since long dried up and no steps have been taken to revive the same. Similarly, five small lakes in Rajouri district are in complete neglect,” said Khajuria. The Central government has sanctioned only a paltry sum of Rs 6 crore for the development of border tourism at Suchetgarh and adjoining spots like Chamlayal, which have a vast potential to attract tourists. Similarly, the Gharana wetland in RS Pura along the international border, where hundreds of migratory birds visit from Siberia and other countries, has a vast tourism potential. But the government is paying no attention towards exploiting this potential, he added. Prof Virender Gupta, president, Jammu State Morcha, has also criticised the Centre as well as the state government for discriminating against the Jammu region. Sanctioning a package of Rs 386 crore exclusively for the Dal lake in addition to the allocation of Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 356 crore for the preservation, development and beautification of Dal and Wullar lake, respectively, with no mention of any such allocation for lakes, particularly Mansar and Surinsar, in the Jammu region reflects the apathy of the government towards the development of tourism in the Jammu region, he said.
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Education back on track in state
Jammu, February 8 Not only were 800 school buildings burnt after militancy erupted in the state in 1990, but the system too was shattered with endless strikes and violence. However, different governments in the state made restoration of the education system their priority. They also saw some success with the literacy rate now being at 64 per cent, against the national average of 74.04 per cent. The literacy rate in the state in 2001 was 54 per cent. Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed recently said the dropout rate was enormous from 1990 to 1995 when militancy was at its peak. “But now in the last five years, it has come down from 3,67,000 to 39,000.” “Militants burnt schools in the early 1990s and an atmosphere of fear due to militancy and counter-militancy operations kept children away from schools in many parts of the state
in the past two decades,” Sayeed said. “The government reconstructed the damaged school buildings first and now new buildings are being constructed so that schools have proper
infrastructure,” the minister added. In reply to a query by IANS under the Right to Information Act, the Education Department stated that now there were sufficient numbers of teachers in all levels-primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools. The teacher-student ratio in primary and middle schools is 1:16, in high schools the ratio is 1:22 and 1:25 in higher secondary schools. There are over 1.7 million students and around 75,000 teachers in 20,000 government schools in the state. Data about the number of private schools was not available with the department. An official of the Education Department, requesting anonymity, said there could be over 5,000 private schools in the state. “But we were dragged back by over two decades of militancy. The schools would remain closed in the Kashmir valley, particularly in remote areas because of regular gun battles, curfews, cordons and search operations by the security forces as well as shutdowns,” the official said. According to the RTI reply, 4,242 primary and 616 middle school buildings have been constructed in the past five years. Recruitment of new teachers is being taken up at a fast pace by the state Subordinate Services Recruitment Board (SSRB), which has selected 6,000 teachers in the last two years and more vacancies have been referred to the recruiting agency. “There is significant improvement in the quality of studies in government schools,” Majid Qureshi, a Class X student of Doda Government Higher Secondary School told IANS over the phone. But there are still hurdles in the path of progress of the state’s education “Studies of students get hindered when teachers are frequently deputed on special duties like elections, census, VIP visits etc,” said Sajjad Hussain, a retired principal in mountainous and border Poonch town. “We need to take immediate corrective steps on this,” he said. Another incentive for poor people to send their children to schools is the mid-day meal scheme. “Honestly speaking I started sending my son to school, as he gets a
meal there. Gradually he developed interest in studies and is now among toppers in Class V,” said Jahangir Matoo, a resident of Assar village near Doda.
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Fake Resident Certificates
Jammu, February 8 The accused were identified as Krishan Gopal Gupta, Rajnesh Kumar Gupta and Dular Chand Gupta, residents of Patna in Bihar, presently residing at Qasim
Nagar. The challan was produced before the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu, today. An official spokesperson said the complainant, Romesh Chander Sharma, of Qasim
Nagar, Jammu, had lodged a complaint wherein he had alleged that several people from
Patna, Bihar, had got licences of ration and Kerosene oil depots on the basis of the fake
PRCs. The complainant had specifically mentioned that Krishan Gopal Gupta, Rajnesh Kumar Gupta and Satish Gupta had two such kerosene oil depots and three ration depots in Qasim
Nagar, Rajiv Nagar and Kranti Nagar. During the course of investigation, the statements of witnesses were recorded and the records from the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) and Revenue Departments were seized. It transpired that the accused Dular Chand of
Narayanpur, Patna, had come to Jammu along with his family about 30-35 years ago. He had started working at the Railway Station and settled at Company
Bagh. In 1989, people living near the Tawi banks got affected due to flash floods and taking benefit of the natural calamity, Dular had managed to get a licence of a ration depot. A kerosene oil depot was also allotted to him. In 1998, he had approached the Food and Supplies Department for getting ration and kerosene oil depot licences for his sons Rajnesh Gupta and Krishan
Gopal, when he came to know that PRCs were mandatory for the issuance of such
licences. The accused in connivance with Revenue Department officials managed to prepare fake PRCs in favour of his sons. Later, he also managed to get the licences of ration and kerosene oil depots. |
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Eid-i-Milad Celebrations
Srinagar, February 8 The minister was informed that foolproof arrangements had been made on this account and various departments had established camps at Dargah Hazratbal to facilitate the pilgrims. Khan was told that adequate stocks of essentials were available in the Valley. He was informed that 2.13 lakh quintals of rice, 1.24 lakh quintals of wheat and atta and 11,600 quintals of sugar was available in the godowns of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) Department and the Food Corporation of India. The minister was further informed that an adequate quantity of petroleum products was also available in the Valley. He was told that rice, atta and kerosene oil and other goods had been adequately stored in border areas for six months. While reviewing the supply of electricity, the minister was informed that the number of transformers installed in the Valley had risen to about 18,000. The position of power supply has been improved and damaged transformers are being replaced in the shortest possible time. The meeting was attended by Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Asgar Hassan Samoon, DIG Police, Kashmir, AG Mir, Deputy Commissioners of the Kashmir valley, Chief Engineers of various disciplines and Directors of the CA&PD, Health and Animal Husbandry Departments, besides other officials. |
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Medical camp begins at RS Pura
Jammu, February 8 Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services and Sports RS Chib was the chief guest on the occasion. Chib said, “The provision for better health care facilities to the people of rural, far-off and border areas of the state is the priority of the government,” adding that holding of a medical camp in the border area was a step in this regard. Besides, the minister said check-up and consultation, medicines free of cost and diagnostic facilities would be provided to the patients. He added that the patient having major problems would be referred to tertiary care hospitals or ASCOMS Hospital and will be treated on priority. Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, Principal of the GMCH, Jammu, Dr Rajinder Singh and Dr Aniece Choudhary were also present on the occasion.
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Minor girl killed, 5 injured in fire
Srinagar, February 8 The victim Noreen, daughter of Showkat Ahmed Dhobi, was charred to death in the blaze. Four other children and a woman received burn injuries. The injured have been shifted to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh
(SMHS) Hospital for treatment. The cause of the fire was being ascertained, the police said. Legislator Habba Kadal Shamima Firdous regretted the incident and has directed the Deputy Commissioner,
Srinagar, to take prompt measures for the rehabilitation of the affected family. She also thanked Red Cross for donating Rs 10,000 to the fire-affected family. Later, the Deputy Commissioner released Rs 79,000 as ex gratia relief out of Calamity Relief Fund to the fire victims. Meanwhile, three structures were damaged in other fire incidents across the Kashmir valley. Fire broke out in two wooden huts at Lalpora in Kupwara district. Both huts were gutted completely. Fire also broke out in a residential house in
Zakoora, resulting in partial damage to the structure. However, no loss of life or injury was reported from the fire incidents in Lalpora and
Zakoora.
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Scholarship given to students in Reasi
Katra February 8 A function was organised on the premises of Government College, Reasi, and cheques amounting to Rs 2,50,600 were distributed to 147 meritorious students by Sheetal Nanda, Deputy Commissioner, Reasi, and C B Singh, General Manager, Salal Power Station. Speaking on the occasion, Singh highlighted the works done by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporationto create infrastructural facilities for the student community. He said the NHPC was reaching out to needy students living in remote areas and helping them pursue their education. Sheetal Nanda appreciated the efforts made by the NHPC to uplift the poor and deserving students in far-flung areas. Nanda asserted that teachers were pillars of society and they should lay more stress on preparing students to learn modern educational trends to make them compete in all fields.
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BSF begins plantation
drive to pay tribute to martyrs
Jammu, February 8 Poonch
Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Kumar Sahu was the chief guest on the occasion
and the DIG, BSF, R S Kataria, was the guest of honour. Both officials
inaugurated the drive by planting saplings. A total of 5,000 saplings
were planted on the first day of the drive and 5,000 more saplings would
be planted this month. Speaking on the occasion, Sahu lauded the noble
initiative of the BSF and stated that it would help improve the vital
forest cover and help combat global warming and deforestation. Kataria
in his address said tree plantation was a noble cause and every one
should come forward to contribute their bit. Commanding Officer of
the 94 Battalion, G S Dhaliwal, said the objective of the drive was not
only to pay homage to the martyrs but also to inspire students and
others about the positive dividends of plantation. Students from
various schools presented a colourful cultural programme on the
occasion. |
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Jammu varsity pays
musical tribute to Bapu
Jammu, February 8 Mukteshi Sharma
presented a concert, which lasted for about two hours. She sung seven
classical vocal music performances, in the form of Ram Dhun, Vaishnav
Jan Tote ne Kahiye, Kabir Das and Bhulle Shah bhajans and Sufi kalaams. The
accompanist included Rakesh Anand, Darbari Lal and Ashutosh Magotra. Certificates
of excellence were also given away to Banday Zain-ul-Abdeen and Kiran
Kumar Sharma for their accomplishments on the national and international
levels, as the students of the Department of Political Science and
volunteers of Gandhian Centre, Jammu varsity. Nearly 350 students and
teachers were present on the occasion. Dean Students Welfare, JU, NK
Tripathi spoke on the importance of remembering Mahatma Gandhi and his
philosophy of truth and non-violence. Director of the Centre Anurag
Gangal stressed on the life and work of Gandhiji. |
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'Hali, Shibli aur Azad Tehqeeq ke Aayene’ released
Jammu, February 8 Minister for Higher Education Abdul Gani Malik was the chief guest on the occasion and Prof Mohan Pal Singh Isher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu, presided over the function. The minister congratulated the author. He said Urdu was the official language of the state and various initiatives had been taken to promote it. Prof Isher said, “The Urdu language does not belong to any particular religion and is a universal language.” Prof Qudose Javed, former Head of the Department of Urdu, University of Kashmir, presented a detail critical paper on the book. Earlier, Head of the Department, Urdu, Prof Shohab Inayat Malik highlighted various activities, which were organised during the last two and a half years. — TNS
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Gujjars not to oppose OBC status to Paharis
Jammu, February 8 In an official handout issued
here yesterday, Javaid Rahi, secretary of the TRCF, stated that their
community would neither oppose nor support the new demand of the Pahari-speaking
people to categorise them under the Other Backward Classes (OBC/OSC)
category. “The Gujjars have been opposing the grant of the ST status
to the Pahari-speaking people since 1991 and now they have softened
their stand on the new demand of the Pahari-speaking people to place
them in the OBC category,” he added. He said the decision was a
reaction to a 16-page report submitted to the government wherein the
State Advisory Board for Development of Paharis had sought the OB or OSC
status.
— TNS |
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Empower panchayats or
face protest, govt told
Jammu, February 8 They have demanded empowerment of the newly elected
panchayats on the lines of states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. The
sarpanches demanded the implementation of the 73rd Amendment to Indian
Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir. Talking to mediapersons at Rajouri
yesterday, Shafiq Mir, sarpanch of Poshaana village, said panches and
sarpanches were formulating a strategy to launch an agitation against
the callous attitude of the state government towards basic democratic
institutions.
— TNS
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Public Health workers
threaten strike
Jammu, February 8 According to eyewitnesses, about 50 employees of the
Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department staged a protest outside the
office of the Chief Engineer, PHE, today for the early resolve of their
long-pending demands and raised slogans against the PHE authorities.
Their prominent demands included hike in wages and regularisation of
services.
— TNS
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Srinagar to be
tobacco-free
Srinagar,
February 8 |
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Senior Congress leader and Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, who has been accused of misusing his official position to help his son in the secondary school examination, is facing intense pressure to resign from the Cabinet after the Crime Branch of the police today submitted an “adverse” report on this high profile case.
