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Governor reviews medicare, sanitation at Nunwan base camp
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PDP for safety of shrines in Valley
Graft ails power dept, admits Omar
J-K has highest unemployment rate among four neighbouring states
Missing Engineer Case
Andrabi Case
Will ensure electricity during sehri, iftaar, says Omar
Prasad to join as DGP today
Sageer Report
KU IT head dies
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Amarnath Pilgrimage
Srinagar, July 22 The dead have been identified as Raghunath Singh, a resident of Punjab, HP Buryani, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, Lalita Dand, a resident of West Bengal, Umesh Shah, a resident of Ludhiana, Ram Babu, a resident of Maharashtra, Lakshmi Priya and Kulmani Sanapati, both residents of Orissa. The dead include two sadhus whose identity could not be ascertained. Most of the yatris have died of cardiac arrest. The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) has been regularly issuing appeals to the pilgrims to follow health advisories issued by the Shrine Board. The Supreme Court on Friday set up a high-power committee headed by Governor NN Vohra, who is also the SASB chairman, to suggest steps for preventing the growing number of casualties among the pilgrims. The Amarnath yatra, which commenced on June 25, is going on smoothly with pilgrims thronging the 3880-metre high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas from the Baltal and Chandanwari routes. Over 5.75 lakh pilgrims have had darshan of the naturally formed iced Shivalingam at the cave shrine so far. A fresh batch of 5,000 yatris left the base camps for the cave shrine today morning. The yatra is performed through the Baltal route in Ganderbal district and Chandanwari route in Anantnag district. While the steeper Baltal route is preferred by those who wish to return to the base camp in a day, the other route, which is longer, is preferred by elderly and hardcore devotees, who believe that Lord Shiva took the same route to the cave shrine. The traditional Chhari Pujan will be performed tomorrow on Nag-Panchami here. “The puja will start at 5.15 pm for an hour,” said Krishnanand Bharti, publicity secretary of “The True Trust”. The trust looks after the Chhari Pujan arrangements and the subsequent pilgrimage to the cave shrine. The Chhari Sthapana ceremony was performed today with the chanting of Vedic hymns at the Shri Amareshwar temple here this morning by Mahant Deependra Giri ji. The Chhari Mubarak (Holy Mace), one depicting Lord Shiva and another Goddess Parvati, has been kept for darshan at the temple till July 28. After being carried to the Amarnath shrine, the Chhari Mubarak will return to the Amareshwar temple on August 4. |
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Governor reviews medicare, sanitation at Nunwan base camp
Srinagar, July 22 The Governor, who is also the chairman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), went around the Nunwan base camp for a detailed inspection of logistic facilities and other arrangements made for the pilgrimage. He reiterated directions to all officials concerned to effectively ensure the collection and disposal of solid wastes on a daily basis in the entire yatra area. Interacting with doctors and paramedical staff, the Governor told them to conduct a thorough health check up of all the yatris. Later, the Governor chaired a meeting of the Shrine Board and government officials where he reiterated the importance of focusing on healthcare facilities and availability of portable oxygen cylinders in sufficient quantity at all the camp locations and en route to the Amarnath cave shrine. The Governor directed the Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board to prepare a camp and route-wise action plan for the next year’s yatra keeping in view the experiences gained this year. |
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PDP for safety of shrines in Valley
She was addressing a public gathering yesterday at the Dargah of Hazrat Baba Hanifuddin at Rathsuna in the Beerwah area of Budgam district, which was gutted in a fire recently. Mehbooba expressed a deep sense of loss at the fire incident. She expressed shock at the insensitivity of the government in its response to the tragic incident. She said shrines were the spiritual nerve centre of society and there was a need to protect the legacy of tolerance preached by the saints and seers. She said the Dastageer Saheb tragedy and the attempted damage of Khankah Faizpanah at Tral demanded a serious response from the government. The PDP president was accompanied by chief spokesperson for the party Naeem Akhtar and MLA Beerwah, Mohammad Shafi Wani. The shrine of Hazrat Baba Hanifuddin is located on a plateau near Rathsuna. Locals of the Beerwah area alleged that no official had visited the place after the fire incident. |
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Graft ails power dept, admits Omar
Omar, who holds the power portfolio, admitted that there was corruption in the Power Development Department (PDD). His reaction came after members, cutting across party lines, cornered the government on the deteriorating power situation in Jammu. The members also drew his attention to mismanagement at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Jammu, a premier health institute catering to the needs of the entire province. Sources said BJP leader Ashok Khajuria drew the attention of the government towards the power crisis in the Jammu region. He said the region had been facing power cuts for hours together and the government was not interested in solving the problem. He was joined by party colleague Jugal Kishore Sharma, who said the power system seemed to have collapsed in the region. “While the temperature has been hovering between 42 and 45 °C in the Jammu region, the government has failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the people,” he said. Veteran leader Chaman Lal Gupta highlighted the plight of the people of Jammu and said the region had been witnessing power cuts for over 18 hours, but no sincere efforts were being made by the authorities to solve the crisis. Some Congress members also raised the issue. The Chief Minister, while responding to the concerns raised by the MLAs, admitted that corruption in the PDD was leading to power theft in the state. The Chief Minister said the Jammu region had received more power this year as compared to last year. “But the degree of satisfaction among consumers does not appear to correlate with the enhancement made in the power supply,” he said, while asking the PDD to look into this aspect and take appropriate measures to mitigate the difficulties of the people. The members also raised their concern over the functioning of the GMCH. A BJP leader, while highlighting the problems being faced by people at the facility, said most of the machines were not functioning at the health institute. He claimed that half of the ventilators in the emergency wing were out of order. The members went all out to corner the government on the issue, taking advantage of Health and Medical Education Minister RS Chib’s absence from the meeting. |
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Nod to Rs 105-crore annual plan for Jammu district
Jammu, July 22 The Chief Minister said the coalition government was focussing all areas to mitigate the difficulties of the people. He said a well-defined State Planning Board would address all issues pertaining to development across the state. The Chief Minister approved a Rs 105.62-crore plan for Jammu district for 2012-13. The Chief Minister said the management of planning and allocation of suitable funds to all areas across the state in accordance with the public demand was an uphill task in a state like Jammu and Kashmir, where indigenous income was meagre and losses on account of electricity supply amounted to around Rs 2,500 crore annually. “We thank the Union Government for providing funds to the state to carry forward the development process. But the funds allocated come with a rider. We have to abide by the allocations earmarked for particular projects,” he said while underlining the need for generating own resources. On the development of Jammu, the Chief Minister said Rs 35 crore had been spent on the blacktopping of city roads last year, while Rs 20 crore had been spent on the repair of roads in the rural areas. Around 200 roads had been upgraded last year, while 257 were being blacktopped this year. Another Rs 50 crore was being spent on the repair of roads in the district
this year. He added that funds were being arranged for a circular road in the city. Twenty new schemes were being taken up under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The Chief Minister said the construction of the Bikram Chowk flyover was likely to be taken up by December. The land acquisition process for the project was under way. The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Minister for Health Sham Lal
Sharma, Minister for Revenue Raman Bhalla, Minister for Industries SS Slathia, adviser to Chief Minister Mubarak Gul, political adviser to Chief Minister Devinder Singh Rana, Deputy Commissioner (Jammu) Sanjeev Verma, IGP (Jammu),
head of departments and other officials.
On the anvil
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J-K has highest unemployment rate among four neighbouring states
Jammu, July 22 This has been revealed in the 66th round of the NSS survey based on the Usual Principal Status (UPS). The data says the overall unemployment rate in Punjab is 4.5 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 2.8 per cent, Delhi 2.7 per cent and Haryana 2.6 per cent. These states are better placed than Jammu and Kashmir. The all-India unemployment rate stands at 2.6 per cent only. Official figures have revealed that the unemployment rate of males in J&K is 3.6 per cent while that of females is 17.1 per cent, which is far too high, when compared to Punjab 11.7 per cent, Haryana 2.8 per cent, Delhi 2.8 per cent and Himachal Pradesh 2.5 per cent. The report says the number of registered job seekers have increased form 1.11 lakh in 2007 to 6.01 lakh in 2011 (November end), thereby registering an increase of 439 per cent. “The problem of unemployment among females is predominant in Jammu and Kashmir based on the UPS as the gap between the unemployment rate of females in J&K is 17.1 per cent and at the all-India level is 3.6 per cent,” said an official. The survey further says work opportunities have not kept pace with the increasing population. The incidence of unemployment is more among the educated youth and nearly 70 per cent of marginal workers are associated with agriculture and allied activities. The 2001 Census says the literacy rate of the state stood at 55.5 per cent, which has increased to 68.74 percent as per the 2011 Census. The provisional population (7 years and above) of the state as per the 2011 Census is 125.48 lakh persons out of which 72.450 lakh persons are literate. There are two main sources of unemployment data, NSS Surveys on Employment-Unemployment and the District Employment and Counselling Centres (DECC). The report says unemployment is more prevalent in urban areas of the state than in rural areas. “The unemployment rate in urban areas based on the 66th round of the NSS survey stood at 6.5 per cent against 4.9 per cent in rural areas, which is a matter of concern.” The survey says while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has shown an increasing trend both at the national and state level, but growth is not inclusive and benefits of development initiative programmes do not percolate to all the sections of society, especially to poor at the grass-roots level. This leads to problems like regional disparity, poverty and unemployment. |
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Missing Engineer Case
Srinagar, July 22 The family claimed that they had not been informed officially about the findings of the report by the police. “We believe the case is being hushed up. The body seen in a photograph shown by the police resembled with that of Bali. The family had identified the body on the basis of the birthmarks,” claimed RPS Bali, missing engineer’s uncle. “Engineer Bali had a mole on the right shoulder, which was also visible in the photograph. Further, two teeth were missing from the denture, clearly suggesting that the body buried in Awantipore was that of my nephew,” he added. Bali’s wife Sukhbir Kaur said they had already expressed these apprehensions to the Pulwama Deputy Commissioner and the Awantipore SP. “The police claim that the DNA did not match with that of the children only strengthens our doubt. We have not been informed about the DNA findings so far,” she said. “The CBI should conduct a probe and look into all aspects of the case.” Bali, who worked with the state Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department, went missing after he left his Magarmal Bagh residence in Srinagar on February 18. A missing person’s report was lodged with the police the next day. On April 17, an unidentified body was fished out from the Jhelum in Awantipore and was later buried. The Bali family moved an application before the Pulwama District Magistrate seeking exhumation of the body, which they suspected was that of Bali. The body was exhumed on April 21 and DNA samples of Bali’s children were also taken. Last week, the J&K Police said the DNA report findings showed that the body buried in Awantipore was not that of the missing engineer. |
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Andrabi Case
At the hearing of the case before Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajeev Gupta yesterday, the prosecution said they were yet to get a confirmation report on Singh’s death from the nodal agency. The court granted 38 days to authenticate Singh’s death for further proceedings in the case. The next hearing will now take place on on August 29. On June 13, the CJM was informed about Singh’s death at his US residence, after which the court directed the prosecution to produce an authentication report. Singh had allegedly shot himself after killing his two children and wife at his California residence on June 9. The former Army officer had fled to the US after being accused of killing Jaleel Andrabi, whose body was fished out from the Jhelum on March 27, 1996. Andrabi was kidnapped on March 8, 1996 by counter-insurgents allegedly working for Maj Avtar Singh of the Territorial Army. An investigation by a special investigation team constituted by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had “identified an Army Major posted in the Rawalpora camp of 103 Territorial Army” as prima facie responsible for Andrabi’s death. Soon after being accused of the murder, Singh fled to Canada and later settled in the US. Case History
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Will ensure electricity during sehri, iftaar, says Omar
“We will ensure as much electricity as possible during sehri and iftaar, but there will be load shedding during the day,” Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. He said this after receiving a complaint over load shedding on the first day of Ramadan yesterday. A follower of Omar on Twitter welcomed his comments by tweeting: “That is acceptable during the day, but sehri & iftaar is tough. Thank you.” The Power Development Department (PDD) has already issued notices in local newspapers urging people to make judicious use of electricity so that it can ensure smooth power supply during sehri and iftaar. Kashmir is observing the longest fasting days of nearly 16 hours since 1979. People start eating sehri after 3.00 am and break their fast around 7.45 pm. Therefore, power cuts during these intervals pose many problems to the people. Omar had earlier defended the harsh power curtailment schedule during summer, as the Valley faces an average of 10 hours of power cuts daily. The power curtailment programme was announced in the Valley last winter. The PDD had then said the power cuts were inevitable as water bodies had dried up. Load shedding continued in summer despite abundant rain and snowfall received in the winter and spring seasons. |
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Presidential Poll
Srinagar, July 22 Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called Mukherjee’s rival PA Sangma a “poor looser”. “Sangma couldn’t have chosen to win but he could have chosen to lose with grace & dignity. Shame he had to be such a poor loser,” Omar wrote on
micro-blogging website Twitter. Mukherjee is scheduled to be administered oath on July 25. |
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Prasad to join as DGP today
Jammu, July 22 After the retirement of former DGP Kuldeep Khoda on May 31, the J&K cadre IPS officer of 1984-batch, K Rajendra Kumar, was officiating as the DGP. Earlier, it was reported in a section of the media that Prasad was expected to join as the DGP on July 31 evening. Sources said all decks for Prasad’s appointment and joining on July 23 were being cleared. |
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Sageer Report
Jammu, July 22 In a statement, Agnishekhar said without having reached unanimity over sensitive matters like grant of autonomy to the state, self-rule and refugee problems within the divergent coalition partners, the Cabinet sub-committee was planning to come out with an interim report to expedite the process of finalisation of the report. Agnishekhar voiced his concern over the prejudiced conduct of the working group on the Centre-state relationship headed by Justice Sageer Ahmed, as was highlighted in consequent seminars, debates and reported in the media by a majority of participants of the working group from the Jammu region, cutting across party lines. He said Justice Sagheer Ahmed’s inclination towards granting autonomy, which was aimed at diluting the sovereignty of India in the state, made the whole report objectionable for nationalist forces of the country.
— TNS |
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KU IT head dies
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad and top university officials attended the funeral prayers and expressed their sympathy with the bereaved family. |
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Srinagar, July 22
Jammu, July 22
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Srinagar, July 22