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Rs 24.51-cr makeover for Mubarak Mandi Complex
Traffic management a casualty on cramped roads
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Yatra vehicles stranded
Bar assn strikes work over Act
Minister for better healthcare facilities at GMCH
Control rooms to deal with man-animal conflict
Traders fume over power outages
Fulfil promises made to youth, NSUI to Omar
Regional folk music festival on July 23
Bovine smuggling bid foiled, five arrested
‘CM’s silence on use of narcotics surprising’
Budha Amarnath yatra flagged off
Workshop on child-friendly policing held
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Rs 24.51-cr makeover for Mubarak Mandi Complex
Jammu, July 20 The Mubarak Mandi Jammu Heritage Society (MMJHS) has also decided that the conservation works would be executed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which had already carried out renovation work of Army Headquarter of the palace. The ASI is likely to restart the renovation within a month. The renovation work
was started in 2008 during the tenure of the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and was stopped last year due to paucity of funds. “The Central government has sanctioned Rs 16 crore under a mega tourist destination project and Rs 8.51 crore under the 13th Finance Commission for conservation work. The society has also unanimously agreed not to engage any private agency to execute the work. The ASI would be entrusted with the task,” said Robin Singh Mehta, executive director, MMJHS, while talking to The Tribune over phone from Srinagar after attending the 20th executive body meeting of the society at Civil Secretariat there. The meeting was chaired by Minister for Tourism and Culture Nawang Rigzin Jora, while Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pardeep Gupta; Chief Engineer PDD (M&RE), Jammu, Sehnaz Goni; Chief Engineer R&B, Jammu, Toshin Mustafa; consultant tourism and culture MY Qadri and non-official members of the society among others attended the meeting. Mehta, who is also the Director Tourism, Jammu, said they would get a formal order vis-à-vis funds sanctioned by the Centre for the conservation of the complex in the next few days and work would be restarted immediately thereafter. He said the Centre had sanctioned only Rs 16 crore against Rs 25 crore sought under the mega project. “The estimated conservation cost of Raja Ram Singh Palace is Rs 13.92 crore. We will work out the modalities and start the renovation work on the palace keeping in view the available funds. A courtyard and two more components will also be covered under this project,” he added. Earlier, the Centre had released a meagre Rs 3 crore, while the state government had provided Rs 1 crore for the renovation work. A total of Rs 3.69 crore was spent on the conservation of Army Headquarters. The Government of India had announced Rs 296 crore, including Rs 52 crore under the 13th Finance Commission, for the renovation of the entire complex after the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) submitted a detailed project report on the complex. The MMJHS, which had been entrusted with the task of supervising the work, was constituted on December 28, 2006 under the Societies Act and according to its bylaws, the Chief Minister was its ex-officio chairman. MAJOR DECISIONS
The 187-year-old Mubarak Mandi Complex is spread over 14 acres in the heart of old city. The oldest building in the palace complex dates back to 1824. The complex was built strategically to give an unobstructed view of the Tawi on one side and old city on the hillock on the other for security reasons |
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Traffic management a casualty on cramped roads
Jammu, July 20 A walk in the bustling areas of old city, including Jain Bazar, Panjtirthi, Parade Shalamar, Purani Mandi, Raghunath Bazar, BC Road, High Court Road and Canal Road, becomes a nightmare for pedestrians, as vehicles jostle for space. Accidents and incidents of road rage are commonplace there. A senior official in the Traffic Department said: “Various projects to streamline traffic have run into rough weather due to lack of coordination between different departments.” Some areas in the city have become so congested that it is hard to even find space to park a vehicle. At several places, haphazard parking of vehicles leads to bottlenecks. Some motorists even park their vehicles overnight at marketplaces. Also, it is commonplace to see commercial vehicles parked along roadsides, which results in traffic jams. “At night, residents of nearby areas park their vehicles in the bylanes, thereby blocking the road. In case of an emergency, there is little space for ambulances or fire engines to manoeuvre,” said Randeep Sharma, a resident of Rehari colony. The state government had decided to formulate a comprehensive city transport policy for scientific management of traffic in the urban centres of the state. Around four lakh vehicles run on city roads, besides floating vehicles that bring in pilgrims and tourists to the state. Traffic congestion has emerged as one the biggest problem areas for the authorities as over 50,000 vehicles are being added every year to the already overcrowded roads of the city. The number of vehicles in the city has swollen to 4.54 lakh till March this year, excluding the vehicles belonging to the security forces and tourists. The city has a total road length of 704.22 km, leaving the density of vehicles at 574 per km.
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Yatra vehicles stranded
Batote, July 20 The landslides led to a massive traffic jam on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, delaying the entry of the cavalcade to the Valley. “As the cavalcade arrived at Banihal after midnight, the number of security escort vehicles was increased to eight to provide additional security to the yatris,” said Banihal SDPO Abdul Quyoom. The highway remained blocked for over 12 hours due to landslides at several places between Karol (Jaiswal) bridge and Seri in Ramban. The landslides were triggered by overnight rain yesterday. Police sources said the biggest landslide occurred near the Kowbagh checkpoint, around 150 km from Jammu, around midnight on Wednesday. The traffic police stopped the vehicles at Ramban, Chanderkot, Patnitop and Kud after the landslides. Around six shops were damaged after a landslide hit a shopping complex in Ramban. |
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Bar assn strikes work over Act
Jammu, July 20 The association convened a meeting of representative lawyers of Bar associations from districts and mufassils across the Jammu province at the Justice AS Anand Hall, High Court Complex, to discuss the repercussions of the Act and come up with a strategy to oppose the enforcement of the Act. The Bar association, during its executive committee meeting held recently, had resolved to abstain from work on July 20 and 21 to oppose the enactment of the Act. The association had called upon all Bar associations in the Kashmir province, and districts and mufassils to lodge similar protests in their respective areas. Lawyers across the state today abstained from appearing in courts on the first day of the protest, impressing upon the government to reconsider its unilateral decision to impose an “anti-people” law on the residents of the state. While welcoming the representative lawyers from different district and mufassil Bar associations, Vikram Sharma, general secretary, Bar Association, Jammu, detailed the members about the anti-people provisions of the Act and the implications it would have for the residents of the state. He lamented that the government, while enacting the law, had divested the civil courts of their powers to adjudicate the landlord-tenant disputes, which had a peculiarity in terms of legal complexities involved in such disputes. “The vesting of these powers with the assistant commissioners and tehsildars cannot be justified and therefore the Act is draconian and a brutal attempt to scuttle the delivery of justice to the common man,” said Sharma. BS Slathia, president, Bar Association, Jammu, in his concluding address said Mian Abdul Qayoom, president, Kashmir Bar Association, had expressed his support on the issue to the Bar Association and that they had also decided to abstain from work in protest. Slathia urged the representatives of the different Bar associations to raise awareness amongst people about the ill-effects of the new Act in choking the justice at the hands of bureaucrats.
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Minister for better healthcare facilities at GMCH
Jammu, July 20 He hailed the remedial measures being suggested by the media to augment medical education and patient care in the state. While reviewing the functioning of the GMC and Dental College, the minister directed the hospital management, medicos and paramedics to be more prompt and proficient towards patient care, especially in view of the sultry weather conditions. Expounding certain media reports regarding various shortcomings in the health institutions, the minister said it was a laudable effort on part of the media to highlight such flaws, as it helped the government to further streamline the functioning of its institutions. “We should optimally utilise the media reports in a constructive manner and treat them as a guiding principle to correct the existing faults,” he maintained. Chib asked the hospital management, medicos and paramedics to evolve need-based innovations in their functioning so that the patient rush could be tackled in a professional manner. He exhorted the doctors to be polite towards the patients and maintain a good rapport with their attendants for the smooth functioning of hospitals. He stressed the need for improving coordination among all agencies concerned to maintain proper sanitation in health institutions. He expressed dismay over the presence of a large number of attendants and said it not only created obstacles in providing better services to the patients but also jeopardised the efforts of maintaining health and hygiene, which was an important prerequisite for the health of a patient. He asked the authorities concerned to regulate the flow of visitors to hospitals with the help of security deployed for the purpose. The minister directed the principle and medical superintendents to conduct regular rounds of the hospital premises and wards to ensure that proper sanitation was being maintained and patients were getting appropriate treatment. He also asked them to discourage the presence of medical representatives and other agents in the hospitals. The minister also took stock of various renovation and construction works being carried out at the GMC and Dental College and directed the executing agencies to accelerate the pace to meet the deadline. The minister also directed the authorities to formulate and submit a proposal for the creation of a unit for blood component preparation at the GMC. GMCH exposed
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Control rooms to deal with man-animal conflict
Jammu, July 20
The control rooms will also be engaged in raising awareness among the rural population to minimise the chances of conflict. Sources said directions had been issued after the the Union Environment Ministry rejected the proposal of the state to establish primary reaction teams (PRT) comprising village volunteers. Several measures taken by the government earlier to deal with the man-animal conflict have failed to yield the desired results. The control rooms will be established in every district and will monitor such encounters besides creating awareness among people about ways to deal with the growing appearance of wild animals in residential pockets of rural areas. “Environmentalists have been expressing their concern over the battering of animals by people and the failure of the wildlife department to take effective measures to deal with the problem,” said an official. The government records suggested that Rs 3.91 crore had been spent on various wildlife development works during the last financial year, which included improvement of the habitat, development of infrastructure, anti-poaching duties and handling of man-wild animal conflicts. The government had proposed to involve villagers in curbing the man-animal conflict and raise awareness among the people, but it was rejected by the Centre. The wildlife department had identified nearly 150 villages across the state to implement the scheme. Officials said the control rooms would be equipped with vehicles, tranquilliser guns, cages and nets to deal with the menace at the local level. Due to growing encroachment by people on the forest land over the years, man-wild animal conflicts in the state have reached alarming proportions. Proactive move
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Traders fume over power outages
Jammu, July 20 The traders, shopkeepers and businessmen have alleged that they suffered tremendous loss due to frequent power outages. In an emergency meeting of Jammu Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI) chaired by its president YV Sharma, the office bearers registered a strong protest against the state government, particularly the PDD authorities for their failure to come
up to the expectations of the people. “The day the secretariat moved from Jammu to Srinagar, the powers of the PDD to supply power in Jammu also moved with the Secretariat,” they observed. They alleged that people of Jammu are facing huge inconvenience because of repeated power cuts and breakdowns. Both scheduled and unscheduled power cuts were resulting in huge loss of industrial production, commercial sector and causing discomfort to thousands of pilgrims visiting both Vaishno Devi and Amarnath cave shrine. The traders said the failure of the PDD to supply power in the hot summer had paralysed the life. “It is a matter of great concern that for diverting the attention of the people, PDD launched Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme (VLDS) without proper guidance to the consumers and started unannounced inspections of the genuine consumers putting them to a lot of harassment,” they said. The JCCI members said they failed to understand the logic behind the inspections, especially when there was no power supply available to the people. While demanding an efficient system to plug the pilferage of power, they lodged protest against “harassment” to genuine consumers and alleged the government was trying to divert the attention of the people from their own failure and mismanagement. The JCCI office bearers said they would assemble at Raghunath Mandir Chowk and would proceed towards City Chowk where they would show their strong protest with black flags in their hands tomorrow. |
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Shot in the arm for protesting state home guards
Jammu, July 20 Talking to the mediapersons here, Ramesh Sauli, national chairman of the association, said it was “highly unfortunate” that home guards were being maltreated by the state government and it seemed that it was least bothered about the problems being faced by them. “We have decided to take up the issue with various Members of Parliament and will request them to raise this issue in Parliament. Despite liberal funding from the Centre for the welfare of the home guards, the state government had diverted the funds for other activities, subjecting them to great hardships,” Sauli added. Flanked by AK Mishra, vice-president, and other members of the association, he said they had held various meetings with the protesting home guards, who had apprised them of their day-to-day problems. “We demand that the state government should increase their working days to 30 days from the existing nine days. They should also be paid under the law. So far, they are being paid a paltry amount, which is in gross violation of human rights and other labour laws. The state government should adopt the model of its neighbouring states where home guards are being paid good salaries,” he said. The state home guards had been staging a sit-in at Mubarak Mandi complex since November 14, 2006 to get justice either in the form of confirmation of their jobs or enhancement of their monthly wages on a par with their counterparts in Punjab and other neighbouring states. |
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Fulfil promises made to youth, NSUI to Omar
Jammu, July 20 Addressing a press conference, NSUI state vice president Abhishek Koushal said that promises such as stipends to all educated unemployed youth, post middle-school scholarships for all the students, one job for every house, infrastructure and funds for all new colleges and university campuses, were still a far cry. He said the government was yet to make a start on any of these. Koushal said the youth of the state fully supported Omar as he was himself a leader. The NSUI leader said the NSUI was worried about the exploitative politics of opposition parties including BJP and PDP and some elements in the collation who were trying to destabilise the government. He said only the present collation government can deliver a sustainable development and employment for youth. He also appealed the Chief Minister to start work at the central university in full swing and set up the IIM in Jammu that had already been granted to the state by the Centre. Raqiq Ahmed Khan, former NSUI provincial vice president, said that it was an utter failure on part of the authorities that quality of education was unsatisfactory on the campuses of Poonch, Kathua, Reasi, Udhampur and South Campus Kashmir. Khan said that people of Poonch felt aggrieved by the kind of politics played with them for the last so many years in the name of university campus. Those present on the occasion were Arif Choudhary, Amjad Bhat, Arun Khatri, Satwant Singh and others.
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Regional folk music festival on July 23
Jammu, July 20 Giving details of the event, RKJ spokesperson said, “This is part of the festival being organised in 14 cities of the country simultaneously. Waheed Jeelani from Srinagar, Tapsi Nagraj from Jabalpur and Shiv Rattan Yadav from Sagar, Chatterpur, shall be performing in this concert.” He said that Waheed Jeelani, a Kashmiri light music artist of All India Radio, who belongs to Srinagar, was influenced by the melodious voice of his mother and influenced by natural beauty in Kashmir. The spokesman said Waheed Jeelani received initial guidance from Ustad Ghulam Nabi Sheikh and got further training at Radhika Music Institute, Mumbai. Besides being a celebrated singer and composer, Jeelani is associated with several cultural and social organizations, he said. Tapsi Nagraj from Jabalpur, one of the top artistes of the All India Radio in light music, will participate in the festival. She has rendered her musical performances on AIR, Doordarshan and other TV channels. Shiv Rattan Yadav, an artist of Bundeli Lok Geet and who works with All India Radio will also be part of it. He jails from Sagar, Chatterpur. |
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Bovine smuggling bid foiled, five arrested
Jammu, July 20 In two different incidents, 17 bovines were rescued and three vehicles were seized in this connection. Reports said that after receiving information about bovines being transported towards the Valley, the police laid a naka on the national highway near Shan Palace. The police party intercepted two Tata Mobiles carrying 11 bovines from these. Both the vehicles were seized and the arrested persons have been identified as Zulfkar Ali of Dalwas Ramban, Farid Ahmed of Qazigund, Mohd Iqbal of Chamalwas, Banihal and Mohd Rafiq of Magarkote, Ramban. A case under Section 188 of the RPC, 3 PCA Act has been registered at Ramban police station. In another incident, the police laid a naka on the NHW-1A at Ramsoo. The police party intercepted one Mahindra headed to Kashmir carrying six bovines which. The vehicle was seized and the driver Fayaz Ahmed of Chamalwas was arrested. A case under Section 188 of the RPC, 3 PCA Act has been registered at Ramsoo police station. The investigation is still underway in this connection.
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‘CM’s silence on use of narcotics surprising’
Jammu, July 20 Gupta also cautioned that a growing use of capsules was more dangerous for health than tobacco and its allied products. “The capsules and other drugs are being sold at sensitive places such as educational institutions. Little effective steps are being taken to check the abuse,” he said. Gupta also voiced his concern over the galloping use of liquor in Jammu areas. “No awareness campaign is seen on the adverse effects of different kinds of liquor on human health,” he said. Gupta said the government has issued large number liquor licences, including a number of politicians. — TNS
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Rally to redress grievances of ex-servicemen
Katra, July 20 The aim was to address the problems of veterans by providing them with a platform to ensure speedy redressal of their grievances. The rally commenced with an address by Commanding Officer S Rama Krishna. A large number of veterans along with women and children attended the rally. A medical camp was also organised in which doctors from the civil administration examined the patients. Representatives from the District Soldier Welfare Board and ECHS (Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme) listened to the grievances of the veterans regarding documentation and pension.
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Budha Amarnath yatra flagged off
Rajouri, July 20 “We have no specific inputs about any threat to the pilgrimage. But we preferred to amplify security by deploying additional CRPF, SOG forces and Jammu and Kashmir police personnel on the national highway to avert any attack,” DIG, Rajouri-Poonch range, Manish Kumar Sinha said while flagging off the Budha Amarnath pilgrimage today in Rajouri. “Our forces are well equipped to foil any untoward incident,” the DIG said. Asserting that militancy had almost been wiped out from Rajouri-Poonch region, Sinha informed there were still around a dozen militants present in the thick forests of Deera Ki Gali and Manjakote. “We have no inputs if they are well-equipped but they certainly possess AK47 rifles and some other sophisticated weapons. Sinha took serious note of militants infiltrating into the Indian territory citing example of a commander of Jamite-E-Islamie, Sarfraz Ahmed, who had crossed over to the PoK in 1999 for arms training and was arrested along with his Pakistani wife at Mendhar. “Most of the incidents involving illegal crossing is done via Nepal routes. We have taken up the issue with Central agencies to tighten the noose against infiltrators,” Sinha said.
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Workshop on child-friendly policing held
Jammu, July 20 The workshop was conducted in association with NGO Child for Rights under the supervision of IGP Jammu, Dilbag Singh. Singh stressed upon the need to have a comprehensive policy in dealing with child-related matters and highlighted the need for collaboration of police, Social Welfare Department and other stakeholders to provide the better outcome for children and juveniles. He said the police should play a constructive and proactive role in protecting and promoting rights of children. The IGP said the basic objective of the workshop was to sensitise the police force and educate them how to play more proactive role in saving children from sexual abuse, child labour etc. — TNS
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Jammu, July 20
The ever-increasing number of vehicles coupled with limited road infrastructure and paucity of parking space has been playing havoc with the traffic management in the city.
A walk in the bustling areas of old city, including Jain Bazar, Panjtirthi, Parade
Shalamar, Purani Mandi, Raghunath Bazar, BC Road, High Court Road and Canal Road, becomes a nightmare for pedestrians, as vehicles jostle for space.
Jammu, July 20
Historical background
Official sources said the proposal to set up control rooms was mooted by the J&K Forest Ministry in view of the growing number of causalities due to man-animal conflict across the state.