Jammu, May 25
Students who made it to the merit list of the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) examination for class X have proved it yet again that it is the hard work that counts at the end of the day.

Russell Khajuria, state board topper from Holy Cross Convent High School, RS Pura, broke the myth of city education transforming the definition of competitive education by scoring 97.8 per cent.

Though this is not the first time that Russell has tasted success. He was the zone topper in class VIII by securing 94 per cent two years ago.

An aspiring student preparing to become an architect, Russell credited his success to the encouragement received from his parents and teachers.

“I had tremendous support of the family, which has always stood by me. My consistent hard work kept me motivated to score the top position this year. I am thrilled at standing first in the state,” said Russell on scoring the top rank in the JK board examination.

Vivek Gupta scored the second position this year after losing out by just 1 mark to Russell with a total of 97.6 per cent. Vivek followed in his sister Ruchi Gupta’s footsteps who had secured second position in 2009.

“I could not have achieved this feat without my family’s guidance and faculty’s support. My parents are private teachers and their experience saw me through this competition as well,” said Vivek.

“I hope to crack the IIT examination and further my academic ambitions,” said Vivek on his future plans.

Girls were not far behind in scoring the other top positions. Pallavi Verma and Ankita Gupta shared the third position. She expressed her gratitude towards her faculty for helping her score high and said she planned to become a doctor in the future.

Ankita, on the other hand, wished to serve the society by aspiring to become an IAS officer. “I plan on taking up both medical and non-medical streams so that my option for preparing for the IAS examination remains open,” said Ankita, who became the first member in her family to make it to the JK board merit list.

Namrata Kotwal, who secured the fourth position, said: “God has rewarded me for my hard work because scores of students work hard but very few make it to the top five. I am happy that I have made my school and family proud.”

Barbie Charak, the fifth rank holder in the result, credited her success to the conducive environment at home and school, which helped her concentrate on her preparation.

Jammu, May 25
Students of the Jammu region excelled in the CBSE class-X results, as most of those who appeared in the examination under the new CGPA grading system were happy to score between 8 and 9 points out of 10.

Students of KC Public School were among the top rankers in the state, while the overall performance of students from Kendriya Vidyalaya and Army School showed improvement from the last year’s result.

Army School, Udhampur, threw up an exceptional result with 13 per cent students scoring a perfect 10 on the point scale. Over one-third of the total students secured over 9 CGPA aggregate marks. — OC

Jammu, May 25
While the authorities blame the drivers of minibuses and heavy vehicles for a rise in the number of deaths on city roads, the latter say illegal parking and encroachments along the roadside are the real cause of accidents.

Accidents between two-wheelers and minibuses or heavy vehicles end up killing an average of two persons every week on city roads, reports suggest.

Eyewitnesses say minibus drivers often indulge in rash driving and flouting of the traffic norms.

Over 1,500 minibuses carry commuters on 10 major city routes and a majority of the population depends on this affordable means of transport for their daily commuting.

Sidharth, a commuter who resides at Janipur, said: “Most people like me depend on minibuses for commuting. I cannot afford to hire an auto-rickshaw to go to my workplace every day. I have to change two minibuses to reach Baribrahmina. In a bid to ferry more passengers, the drivers seldom follow the lane rule.”

Jammu SSP (Traffic) Manmohan Singh said they had been taking measures to assure that drivers of minibuses and heavy vehicles adhered to the traffic norms.

“The offenders are regularly challaned and penalised. If someone is found flouting the norms repeatedly, complaints are forwarded to the Regional Transport Officer for the cancellation of their licences or route permits.”

“We had recently observed a ‘Road Safety Week’ wherein drivers and commuters were made aware about the traffic rules. We are now planning to make the minibus drivers and conductors wear uniforms. It will make a huge difference in their approach.”

Darshan Mehra, president, Minibus Union, Jammu, said it was not their fault alone. “Shopkeepers have encroached on roadsides. Illegal parking remains unchecked and our drivers find it hard to drive through narrow roads. Also, commuters force the drivers to halt the buses at unscheduled stops, further adding to the chaos.”

Jammu, May 25
Protest against steep hike in petrol price continued for the second consecutive day today as political parties today taken to streets to force the government to rollback hike in the price.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) organised a massive demonstration against anti-poor policies of the Congress-led UPA government and the National Conference-led state government.

Shouting slogans against the government for its failure to control the prices of essential commodities and to check corruption in the administration, PDP activists blamed rampant corruption for unprecedented hike in the prices of essential commodities.

The demonstration passed through different areas of the city before turning into a rally which was addressed by senior party leaders.

PDP leaders asked the state government to withdraw taxes on petrol to give relief to the common man who were facing hardships due to the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. They also flayed the NC-led state government for its failure to check corruption.

They said in the recent few months, price hike became a big issue as the prices of all the essential commodities increased like anything making life unbearable for consumers.

They regretted that the government had failed to control the prices of essential commodities and the common man was facing hardships due to hike in the prices. They asked the state government to take example of the some other states and withdraw taxes on some essential commodities.

Ved Mahajan, Fallail Singh, RK Bali, Rashid Malik, Surjeet Kour, Sushila Jamwal, Nadeem Khan and others also addressed the rally.

Meanwhile, state unit of the All-India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) expressed anguish and resentment over the petrol price increase. In a meeting held in Jammu today, the AILU condemned the action of the Union government for raising petrol price by Rs 7.54 per litre. The AILU demanded immediate rollback of recent hike in petrol price.

Participant advocates included MM Baru, HC Jalmeria, BL Kalgotra, BS Manhas, Shabir Ahmed Salaria, H. Rehman, JA Kazmi, S. Daljit Singh, BB Kotwal, DK Khajuria, Surinder Kour, Madan Gandotra, Amrit Sareen, Abdul Rouf, RP Sharma, HA Saddiqi, Tahir K Raina, SS Ahmed, Bansi Lal Sharma, Rajinder Jamwal, Arvind Singh, Rjiv Gorka, Rajiv Sharma, Kunal Chib, S. Amrik Singh and KS Parihar.

Poonch, May 25
The Zila Sainik Board organised an ESM rally to redress the grievances of ex-serviceman and war widows today. Brig MK Mago, Commander, Poonch Brigade, and District Development Commissioner Ajeet Kumar Sahu along with some officials were present.

The ex-servicemen raised issues related to the facilities being provided to them through various central and state-sponsored schemes.

They demanded the revival of supply ration to their families, issuance of gas connections, canteen facilities to those who had not received canteen smart card and streamlining the process of making income certificates for availing of benefits of different schemes.

Some ex-servicemen alleged that they had to bribe officials to get certificates and documents from civil departments and sought the intervention of the Zila Sainik Board.

Brigadier Mago and DDC Ajeet Kumar redressed some grievances on the spot and directed the authorities concerned to do the needful in other cases.

The DDC has asked the ex-servicemen to use the RTI Act to get information and assured cooperation from civil departments. The Public Services Guarantee Act had been enforced to provide certificates and documents in a stipulated period, he added.

Rajouri, May 25
Lok Sabha member from Jammu-Poonch segment Madan Lal Sharma today said All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi would visit the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri to assess the ground situation here.

Inaugurating the historic Baripatten Bridge in the Nowshera area of Rajouri district, Sharma said Rahul Gandhi was schedule to visit the area within two months by road to boost the moral of the residents of this border belt.

“Rahul Gandhi would visit the two districts and their adjoining areas like Nowshera, Sundarbani and other far-flung border areas to assess the problems being faced by the people, who had suffered and remained isolated from the other parts of the country since Independence,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi was shocked to see the condition of the people of this border area during 
his last visit to this belt,” Sharma said. — TNS

Jammu, May 25
Kids of Mothers Pride and Joy Pre-School held a “Lemonade Day” at the school campus today. They learnt, prepared and relished refreshing sweet n’ sour lemonade as part of the project.

“At our school, we believe in giving the children hands-on experience or learning by doing,” said Mona Khurana, principal/director of the school.

The children were also told about the benefits of citrus lemon fruit. — TNS

Jammu, May 25
Youngsters of Sigdi village have demanded an inquiry into the “arbitrary” manner in which selections were being made under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). They accused the authorities of favouritism while selecting youths for jobs in Kishtwar district.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Muhammad Mateen Bhutt, spokesperson for the aggrieved candidates, charged the chairman of the Selection Committee, Assistant Commissioner Development, Kishtwar, and three other members of the committee with selecting non-deserving candidates for various works.

“Of the five shortlisted candidates for a single post, the committee recently selected a candidate who was at the bottom of the list and had secured just 28 points. Meritorious candidates who had secured higher points were ignored,” he alleged.

The youngsters have appealed to Rural Development Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar to intervene in the matter and streamline the selection process.

The aggrieved persons said they would fight for their rights and approach the Chief Minister or even the Prime Minister for justice.

Jammu, May 25
Shaheedi Divas of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru of Sikhs, was observed across the Jammu region with religious fervour today. Besides holding religious functions in different Gurdwaras of the Jammu city on the occasion, “Chabeels” were also organised by various Sikh and Hindu religious and social organisations in different parts of the city.

The Shaheedi Parav of Guru Arjan Dev was also organised at Gurdwara Sahib Arjun Dev Ji, Damana (Akhnoor Road), here today by the District Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Jammu.

On the occasion, Ragi Jatha’s of the District Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Jammu, recited the Shabad Kirtan and pracharak of the Committee also threw light on the life of the fifth Guru of the Sikh community and his sacrifices for the cause of humanity and religion.

Members of the Sikh community, various Gurdwaras, traders and social organisations installed “Chabeels” to serve “sharbat” (soft drinks) to the people. “Chabeels” were installed in front of Gurdwara Nanank Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, RS Pura, Gole Gujral, Digiana Ashram, Chand Nagar, Dogra Chowk and other places in Jammu city.

A large number of volunteers form the Sikh and other communities participated in this social work and offered cold drinks to the passers-by.

Jammu, May 25
Simran Gupta thrashed Arvinder Kour in the summit showdown to clinch the badminton girls’ singles title in the Inter-House Sports Meet of Government College of Engineering and Technology (GCET) here on Tuesday.

Simran also emerged winner in the table tennis singles event by beating Pallavi Khajuria.

Further in the badminton girls’ doubles event, the duo of Simran Gupta and Arvinder Kour had the last laugh against Pallavi Gupta and Urvi to bag the top honours.

In doubles event in boys’ section, the pair of Gourav Singh Bandral and Anit Singh fetched the title by beating Arjan Lal and Sachin. Anit Singh also lifted the boys’ singles title by drubbing Gourav Singh in the final. In table tennis boys’ singles event, Harpreet Singh cruised past Mohit Jamwal in the final. The chess title went to Sachin Suri. Prof Bhopinder Singh, Principal GCET, was the chief guest on the occasion. — TNS