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Plan to revamp Raghunath Bazar derails
Parking woes put Gandhinagar in disarray
Traffic signals jump deadline
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Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme comes a cropper
NC responsible for not empowering
panchayats: MP
Grameen Dak Sewaks demand departmental employees’ status
Lawyers to suspend work
72 solar lights go missing
Panchayat Secy held with charas
MP reviews work on schemes
Sports Council likely to convene DPC soon
State speedball team selected for Nationals
Emphatic wins for Iqbal Sports, Punjab Police
SCC secures berth in semis
Kashmir Gymkhana Reds log win
Young Boys beat Royal Challengers
MCC Reds, Ashraf Club register wins
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Plan to revamp Raghunath Bazar derails
Jammu, July 10 Sources say as various departments are not adhering to the time frame in completing their respective allocated work, the modernisation plan is running behind schedule, thereby shattering the dream of citizens to see the area as a major tourist attraction of the city. Under the project initiated in 2008, 400 metres of the bazaar, one of the oldest business area in the temple city established in 1856, it was proposed to modernise the market by upgrading power distribution network, shifting of cables, paving the entire road passing through the bazar with tiles, installing fire hydrants, and providing benches for sitting. The bazar renowned for its dry fruit shops is a busy market where one can see designer boutiques and shops showcasing modern trends in fashion and accessories. RBBA president Surinder Mahajan said the work was delayed as there had been some technical difficulties on the part of agencies involved in the modernisation plan and there were no differences within the association. “The issues are being sorted out and the government has assured us that all the works will be completed in the next few months,” Mahajan said. Sources said some members of the association were of the view that the project had not been formulated in a proper way and their opinion was not taken into account in the document prepared for the project. Divisional Commissioner Pradeep Gupta said the project work would soon be completed as all the departments were working in a coordinated way. “The PHE, the PDD, the PWD and BSNL have been asked to speed up the work so that the market becomes a major tourist attraction,” said Gupta. He said six more transformers would also be installed in the area to reduce fluctuation and mitigate the overloading problem. The work on the famous bazar, build around historic Raghunath temple, was started by the founder of Jammu and Kashmir state, Maharaja Gulab Singh, in 1850 and was completed by Maharaja Ranbir Singh. It has a approach from Hari Market, Swami Vivekananda Chowk, City Chowk and Residency Road. The Project
n Under the Rs 6-crore modernisation project initiated in 2008, it was proposed to modernise the market by upgrading power distribution network, shifting cables, paving the entire road passing through the bazar with tiles, installing fire hydrants and providing benches for sitting |
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Parking woes put Gandhinagar in disarray
Jammu, July 10 Traders in the market are sick of long power cuts, forcing them to become dependent on generators. “We always cut a sorry figure in front of our customers when there is no electricity. Though we have generators but the additional cost of running them is eating into our finances. Though there is nothing new about this problem, our business is bound to suffer without a permanent solution to this problem,” said Rajesh, owner of a showroom in the Gandhi Nagar area. A supervisor of a well-known grooming centre said, “The power cuts are getting worse with each passing day. Since most of our work requires adequate lighting and air conditioning, we are attending to limited customers as we cannot handle all of them in the wake of unscheduled power cuts. Despite four working cubicles in our centre, we work in only two in order to save electricity.” Apart from the power cuts, haphazard parking is another cause of worry for the traders and shopkeepers located around Apsara Road. “Despite repeated requests to the traffic police and local MLAs to pursue the matter, no systematic plan for parking has been drawn yet,” said Ashwani Khullar, a trader. “This is not a new problem. Vehicular traffic is increasing everyday and in the absence of a centralised parking system, the road is always blocked with vehicles parked on either side. Though I had proposed that Dasehra ground or Central Park could be used for basement parking, no plan has been drawn as yet. It is very difficult for us to take care of our business with such infrastructural problems. We hope the parking issue will get resolved soon since it is leads to a chaos everyday. It is high time the police and the local MLA take cognisance of the issue and some corrective measures are taken,” he added. |
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Traffic signals jump deadline
Jammu, July 10 The state authorities had started the process of installation of traffic signals almost three months ago and fixed May 18 deadline to make these signals functional. Even after the lapse of about two months, these lights are still non-functional, with authorities turning a blind eye to the project. Sources said New Delhi-based Onnyx Electronics had installed traffic signals at 25 intersections, some on experimental basis for technical analysis in the city, but so far, none of these is functional. The Traffic Police Department in coordination with the state Transport Department and the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) had identified 30 vital intersections of the city where traffic signals were to be installed on a priority basis in the first phase. The traffic signals in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, had already been made functional, but authorities have resorted to delaying tactics for making these functional here. Rumour mills have been agog over the non-functioning of traffic signals with citizens raising questions over the planning of the project, said a senior government officer on the condition of anonymity. Mahesh Koul, a Jammu University scholar, said the whole project was reflection of the government’s myopic approach. “Condition of the roads is fast deteriorating and has disrupted the lifeline of the city through indiscriminate digging of roads. These traffic signals would be of no use, if the authorities do not repair the damaged roads.” Senior Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Jammu Manmohan Singh said the agency that was entrusted with the task has installed traffic signals on 25 locations and the remaining signals were being installed. “In the next couple of days, they would electrify these signals. We are hopeful that these signals would be made fully functional soon,” he said. The state government has identified 31 crossings in Srinagar where traffic signals are to be installed. Some of these signals have been made functional there, but the Jammuites are still facing hardships due to non-functional of these signals. Places to get traffic lights
Satwari Chowk, Main Stop, Gole Market, Green Belt Gandhi Nagar, Chattri Point Gandhi Nagar, Bikram Chowk, Jewel Chowk, K C Crossing, Shakuntla Crossing, Medical College Crossing, Ambphalla Chowk, Canal Head Crossing, Bakshi Nagar Pulli, Talab Tillo Chowk, BSF Paloura Crossing, Library Chowk, Vigilance Rotary, Parade Chowk, Rameshwar Temple, Shalamar Chowk, Indira Chowk, Vivekanand Chowk, Saheedi Chowk, Panama Chowk, Janipur Main Chowk, Janipur-Roop Nagar Crossing, High Court Turning, Kunjwani Chowk, Narwal Chowk and Bathandi Bypass road. |
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Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme comes a cropper
Jammu, July 10 Officials of the Power Development Department (PDD) said despite the announcement for general amnesty for the illegal users of electricity under the scheme, it has not generated much response from the local populace. The scheme was started about three months ago with an aim to know the total load on the grid stations of the state and formulate a new plan for the distribution of power in different parts of the state. “If people who are illegally drawing the electricity from power lines declare their actual load, fines, disconnection and imprisonment as per clause of the Electricity Act-2010 would not be imposed”, said an official. He said the people are taking the steps initiated by the government for granted. “Though some of the consumers have submitted their details, but in general, not much has been achieved by this exercise and there is a need to take strict measures against the power thieves”, official said. However, the Chief Engineer, Sehnaz Goni, said the date has been extended so that people are able to complete the formalities smoothly. “It cannot be said that the scheme has failed, as a large number of people across the region has come forward”, he said. At the moment, installed capacity of every transformer is about six times the total agreed load of consumers. The rate of damage of the transformers increases every month during summers in the Jammu region and winters in Kashmir valley. Reality Check
n According to the department, against a demand of 2,600 MW, the agreed load is around 1,600 MW only for all categories of consumers, mainly because people are drawing excess of electricity n
The Department supplies 11 billion units of power which costs the state a whopping Rs 3,000 crore annually and only 4 billion units worth Rs 1,200 crore are billed by the consumers n As per the government data, the illegal load has become a major killer of nearly 40,000 transformers installed across the state as around 15,000 of these get damaged annually because they are not been able to hold the additional illegal load
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NC responsible for not empowering
panchayats: MP
Poonch, July 10 He said, “Since the elections of panchayats in J&K, the Congress is battling to strengthen the PRIs. Ministers, MLAs and MLCs do not want to give powers to sarpanches and panches. They treat them like untouchables and feel that empowerment of the PRIs would undermine their powers”. Later, speaking at an awareness camp, Dhargloon, Sharma expressed his resentment over the implementation of various flagship schemes in the rural areas. He said due to the non-awareness of various schemes among people, difficulties in availing the benefits are leading to the failure of many schemes for the rural development. Project Officer, DRDA, Poonch, Ashok Bhagat, explained the formalities for availing the benefits of various flagship schemes. ACD, Manzoor Hussain, BDO, Balakote, Deepak Dubey, also expressed their views on MGNREGA and other schemes. Besides sarpanches and panches, a large number of villagers also took part in the awareness camp.
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Grameen Dak Sewaks demand departmental employees’ status
Rajouri, July 10 Kewal Krishan Sharma, Divisional Secretary, Grameen Dak Sewa Union, said “over 300 employees are on one-day hunger strike against the department as they were not taking us as a permanent employee of the department. We are demanding GDS employees should be given the departmental employees status”. Kewal Krishan said despite spending so many years in the department, we were receiving low salaries wages of Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per month. The department also shows discriminatory attitude towards us as we are receive Rs 2,500 and departmental employees receive Rs 3,500 as Diwali bonus. “We have nearly 180 Grameen post offices in the Rajouri district with 300 employees, but not even a single employee till date has received any medical facilities. We are requesting the concerned authorities to solve our pending demands and provide us with equal status which other employees of the department enjoy”.
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Lawyers to suspend work
Jammu, July 10 Addressing a press conference, president of BAJ BS Slathia said the association supports the resolution of the Bar Council of India to protest against the move of the Central Government to take over the powers and functions of the Bar Council while proposing to constitute an authority to regulate the standards of legal education in India. Slathia alleged that the Bar was empowered under an earlier Act of Parliament to recognise the institutions, colleges imparting legal education, so as to enrol those students who pass out from the Bar Council of India-recognised institutions to be advocates on rolls of Bars across the country. “Under the proposed Bill, the government, particularly the Human Resource Development Ministry, is contemplating to take away the powers of Council whose practice has been in existence since many decades,” he said. He alleged that if the proposed Bill was passed and enacted, the future of lakhs of students opting to become advocates would be at stake as the proposed Bill would enable introduction of foreign colleges and institutions, which would lead to the commercialisation of legal education. The BAJ also opposed the passing of J&K (Residential and Commercial) Tenancy Act, 2012, by the state government. Vikram Sharma (general secretary), Parimoksh Seth (joint secretary), Rohan Nanda (president YLA), DK Khajuria, and DS Saini were also present on the occasion.
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72 solar lights go missing
Rajouri, July 10 The solar lights were to be distributed among the Below Poverty Line (BPL) people of remote areas of the district under a centrally sponsored scheme. Block Development Officer Tanveer said, “I was shocked to find the solar lights missing from the store even as locks were intact and nothing else was displaced. I have issued a notice to four employees of the Rural Development Department who were on duty and they have to give their explanation within two days.” Each solar light costs Rs 20,000 and these were to be distributed among the rural and BPL families under subsidised rate of Rs 500, a senior officer of the department said.
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Panchayat Secy held with charas
Poonch, July 10 “Mushtaq Hussain is being quizzed to ascertain his links with the narcotic smugglers and about the source of obtaining the substances,” the SHO, Poonch, Sanjeev Singh, said. According to the police, accused has been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
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MP reviews work on schemes
Rajouri, July 10 The meeting was held under the chairmanship of MP, Jammu-Poonch Constituency, Madan Lal Sharma, who is also chairman of the Committee. Minister of State for Power, Forest, Transport and CAPD Shabir Ahmed Khan, members of the Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, besides district officers who were implementing the centrally sponsored schemes, also attended the meeting. Shabir gave a detailed account of the problems being faced in the district. The officers concerned also provided the details about the physical and financial achievements of various schemes. Reviewing the status of various schemes, Sharma directed the district officers to implement the centrally sponsored schemes in letter and in spirit and take corrective measures to remove the discrepancies pointed out by the members of Vigilance and Monitoring Committee.
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Sports Council likely to convene DPC soon
Jammu, July 10 According to sources, the newly appointed Secretary, J&K State Sports Council, Dalip Thusoo, had taken a serious note of this prolonged delay and have issued instructions to move the file from Sports Council office to the Minister for Youth Services and Sports, R S Chib, for further necessary action. The officer cadre of Sports Council has welcomed the initiative taken by the Secretary, State Sports Council, Dalip Thusoo. “Although, we are yet to interact with the newly appointed Secretary but he seems to be pretty much aware of the problems being faced by all employees of State Sports Council,” said one of the officers of State Sports Council. “Everybody in the Sports Council is performing duties in a thorough professional manner and it is our right to get timely promotion for the efforts we put in to hone skills of budding sportspersons of the State”, he said. “Apart from promotion issue, there are some other important matters as well, which must be discussed during the forthcoming DPC meeting”, said another officer. Earlier, resentment was brewing up among the officials of the State Sports Council working at various positions who were not promoted due to the alleged inordinate delay in the conduct of the DPC. The issue was also taken up during the recently held Standing Committee meeting of the Sports Council held under the chairmanship of Sports Minister, R S Chib, which was attended by former Secretary, State Sports Council, Kiran Wattal. A senior official of State Sports Council said, “No date has been fixed yet for the conduct of the DPC but efforts are on for the timely completion of the process which has already been delayed so much”.
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State speedball team selected for Nationals
Jammu, July 10 The Minister for Sports, R S Chib, interacted with the selected probables. Anil Nanda and Sunny Nanda, president and general secretary, respectively of J&K Speedball Association were also present on the occasion. The selected players included Pranav Gupta, Aryan Sharma, Neel Bhan, Ishaan Datt, Spandana Fotedar, Nandni Sharma, Dhruv Sharma, Sugandh Mehta, Sahil Janjua, Uditi Verma, Abhinay Raina, Gurmehar Singh, Amit Kour, Aditya Pratap, Sarthak Luthra, Neha Syal, Jatin Koul, Mohd Majeed, Sachin Sharma, Shrea Sharma and Vikas Sagar. Mohammad Majeed and Manika Sharma will accompany the team as manager and coach, respectively.
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Emphatic wins for Iqbal Sports, Punjab Police
Jammu, July 10 In another match, Punjab Police thrashed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by the same margin of 2-0. The matches were officiated by a panel of experts including Nazir Sofi, Zahoor Ahmed, Farooq Shaheen, Koshal Kumar, Farooq Khan, Rakesh Kumar Muzafar Ahmed, Riyaz Ahmed, Mohd Shafi and Hilal Ahmed. The Director General of Police (DGP), K Rajendra Kumar, witnessed the matches and also interacted with the players. Other Police Officers and members of Jammu and Kashmir Football Association who witnessed the matches included Rouf-ul-Hassan, IGP Armed/IRP Kashmir, T Namgyal, DIG Armed, SA Hamid, DIG IRP, Sheikh Mehmood, SSP, Kefyat Haider, SA Hameed, Jamir Thakur, Fayaz Ahmed Sofi andBA Shah.
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SCC secures berth in semis
Jammu, July 10 Batting first, SCC garnered 124 runs in the stipulated 20 overs losing eight wickets in the process. Rinku was the top scorer with 35 runs containing four delectable hits to the fence. Amit and Sahil contributed 16 and 15 runs, respectively. For TCC, Mukesh and Vicky shared three wickets apiece while Ravi and Arun chipped in with a wicket each. TCC, in reply skittled out for 104 runs in 17.3 overs. Arun Sharma and Sunny were the notable contributors with 32 and 30 runs, respectively. Amit Sharma was the wrecker-in-chief for SCC, who snared five important wickets by conceding 13 runs in his quota of four overs. Channi took two wickets while Rinku and Sunny claimed one wicket each. Amit Sharma was adjudged the man of the match which was officiated by Vikas Bali, Jimmy Mangotra and Srikant.
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Kashmir Gymkhana Reds log win
Jammu, July 10 In reply, the opening duo of Gymkhana Reds - Arshad and Sajad - produced a brutal batting display by hammering AI bowlers all over the park. The team overhauled the target in just 7.3 overs. Sajad remained unbeaten on 52 while Arshad contributed 49 runs. In another match, Sangam Blues trounced Budgam-XI by five wickets. Batting first, Budgam Blues was bundled out for 142 runs. Bilal Ahmad with 23 was the top scorer while Mudasir took two wickets for Sangam Blues. In reply, Sangam Blues did the needful in 18 overs for the loss of five wickets. — TNS |
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Young Boys beat Royal Challengers
Jammu, July 10 Young Boys team won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored 110 runs in 19 overs. Muhammad Hussain was the top scorer with 39 runs. Chasing 111 runs to win, Royal Challengers could manage only 99 runs in their allotted quota of overs. For Young Boys, Mubashir Lone and Khursheed shared three wickets. Ajaz Ahmad took two wickets. Khurshid War was declared the man of the match and Mubashir Lone was declared the man of the series. |
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MCC Reds, Ashraf Club register wins
Jammu, July 10 Batting first, MCC Reds scored 178 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. In reply, Khushal Sports was bowled out for only 54 runs. Ajaz was adjudged the man of the match. In another match, Ashraf Cricket Club, Sopore, defeated Asian Computers Cricket Club (ACCC) by 13 runs. Feroze Ahmed was declared the man of the match.— TNS |
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Jammu, July 10
Jammu, July 10
