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Alarming rise in suicides
Dog menace
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Sealing of medical shops
Achabal-Chattapal road project
Absence of bridge adds to villagers’ woes
In the absence of a vital bridge, villagers pass through a nullah at Kanthpora Lolab. Photo by writer
KU’s Institute of Kashmir Studies fails to attract research scholars
Students enter the Institute of Kashmir Studies at Kashmir University in Srinagar on Monday. Photo: Yawar Kabli
Football tournament: Kerala, West Bengal to lock horns today
A match of All India Postal Football tournament in progress at the Polo Ground in Srinagar on Monday. Photo: Amin War
class iv posts in education department
National training camp inaugurated
Man critically injured in bear attack
Minor boy, SPO killed in road mishaps
25 kg poppy husk seized
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Alarming rise in suicides
Srinagar, August 27 In a five-day period this month, between August 20 and 25, eight suicide cases have been reported in the Valley. Among the dead was one 11-year-old girl, two 15-year-old girls, a 50-year-old woman and two girls who were in their early twenties. Dr Amin Tabish, Medical Superintendent at SK Institute of Medical Sciences, the only tertiary care hospital in Kashmir, said they were receiving suicide cases on a daily basis. “It is a continuous process. We get these cases on a daily basis,” he said. A doctor at the SMHS Hospital, which is a major primary and secondary care hospital, said they were receiving 7 to 10 cases of attempt to suicide every day at their hospital. “The situation is very alarming. These patients mostly consume readily available poison like pesticides,” he said. A majority of them, who commit suicide or attempt to kill themselves, are women. The development, which has become more alarming, is many of the victims are turning out to be teenaged
girls. Dabla, who researched the sociological pattern in 2,700 suicides, which were committed and reported between 2009 and 2011, said consuming a poison is the most opted method of suicide followed by hanging, immolation and drowning in the river. “There are more suicides that are happening. I have only researched 2,700 cases," he said. In one of the most high-profile suicide cases in Kashmir, a young doctor ended her life when she slit her throat at her house on the outskirts of the city in June this year. Twentynine-year-old Midhat Amin, who was an MD in microbiology, bled to death when her US-based Kashmiri fiancé broke engagement with her. Experts say relationship stress, marital discord, family strain and non-availability of employment options are featuring as the paramount causes of suicides. The extreme decision to end lives may have surprised many, but there is not a single Kashmiri psychiatrist who says that suicides have increased “phenomenally” in Kashmir since 1995. “Suicides in Kashmir began to increase phenomenally from 1995 onwards. Depression has become very prevalent here and there are also stress-related problems,” Dr Mushtaq Marghoob, a Srinagar-based psychiatrist, said. He said there was no one reason for this spurt and warned against compartmentalisation of factors. “It is a very complex situation,” he said. Margoob blames crumbling social institutions like families, snapping of communication between different generations within a family, psycho-social factors, growing materialism, and dearth of moral education classes in schools as some of the reasons which have incremented the suicide rate in Kashmir. He said the number of suicide and attempt to
suicide cases in Kashmir are much more than what gets reported. “Some families do not even report a suicide in their family, or they do not report the attempt to suicide by a member of their family,” he said. Margoob said a “collective effort” is needed to tackle the increasing suicides in the Valley. “Every one has to contribute,” he said. He said the reason for high percentage of suicide deaths among teenagers is that they are taken by the society as “miniature adults”. There are no specialised counselling centres in the Valley, he said. “People are enormously suffering, but there is no counselling about how to deal with it,” Margoob said. |
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High Court grants govt three weeks to file report
Ishfaq Tantry Tribune News Service
Srinagar, August 27 The high court, which is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an end to the increasing number of stray dogs in Srinagar, had on July 9 directed the authorities, including the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), to invite suggestions from people in this regard on behalf of the Expert Committee. It had further directed that the Expert Committee should compile a report based on suggestions received from public and submit it to the court. However, as the PIL came up for hearing before a Division Bench of the high court comprising Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Verinder Singh today, Advocate-General M Ishaq Qadri sought time to file the report of the Expert Committee, saying that the Committee could not meet as two members of the committee are from outside the state. After hearing all the sides in the PIL, the Bench, however, granted the state government three weeks’ time to file the Expert Committee report based on the study of suggestions. The case has been listed after three weeks. The Expert Committee, which was constituted by the government on June 25, has the Administrative Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, as its chairman, while Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Director, Animal Husbandry, Kashmir, Dr MR Fazli, associate professor, Veterinary Clinical Complex, FESE Shuhama, Dr Shabir Ahmed Mir, veterinary assistant surgeon, Wildlife Department, Jasjit Purewal, Animal Welfare Board of India, and Rahul Sehgal, Director Humane, Society International, Ahmedabad, are its members. The Committee is tasked to “suggest action plan other than the Animal Birth Control Programme” for controlling the dog menace in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley. In the PIL filed by advocates Nadeem Qadri, AR Hanjura, and a law student Syed Musaib, intervention of court has been sought to address the dog menace in the Srinagar city, whose population according to the SMC has touched over 1 lakh. Besides, there are daily reports of canine attacks on humans from different parts of Srinagar and other areas in the Valley. Cull stray dogs, says public
Most of the suggestions received by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) from general public have called for culling/ destruction of street dogs as the “only solution” for getting rid of rising canine population Following directions from the high court, the SMC had in July invited suggestions from general public seeking an end to the growing dog menace in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley. The corporation has received more than 30 suggestions, mostly from eminent citizens of the state. “Most of the suggestions received by the SMC have called for culling stray dogs as the only solution to control the dog menace in the city”, a government lawyer associated with the case informed The Tribune. The suggestions, received by the SMC, have already been forwarded to the government for its study by the Expert Committee constituted by the government. |
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File reply within two days, HC tells GB Pant Hospital
Ishfaq Tantry Tribune News Service
Srinagar, August 27 Both the shops, which used to run on the hospital premises, were sealed on the orders of Dr Muneer Masoodi, medical superintendent, GB Pant Hospital, on July 24, as the authorities found that these shops were selling spurious drugs. The owners of these shops approached the hospital administration with a petition besides a defamation suit filed against the authorities, which ordered the sealing of their shops. As the application came up before the High Court Division Bench, which is already hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking probe into death of infants at the hospital, the lawyer representing the shop owners submitted that the shops of his clients had been sealed on mere allegations. “The charge that shops were selling spurious medicines is a mere allegation,” said Bashir Ahmad Bashir, an advocate from the counsel representing the shop owners. The Bench after hearing the counsel directed the respondent authorities, including the medical superintendent of the GB Pant Hospital, Cantonment Board Srinagar, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and SHO Ram Munshi Bagh, to file their response within two days besides listing the matter for further consideration on August 30. The high court is monitoring the developments at the Valley’s lone tertiary children hospital following submission of a PIL in May this year which pleaded that the court must direct the state government to order an inquiry into the high infant mortality rate at the hospital.
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Achabal-Chattapal road project Suhail A Shah
Anantnag, August 27 According to the residents, halt in the work is taking a toll on their daily lives. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 26.5 crore. The project was aimed to get a stretch of 22 km so that Chattapal, a picturesque hill resort located 37 km away from the south Kashmir town, could be featured on the tourist map. “In 2009, the project was handed over to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGYS) and tenders were subsequently floated in June,” said Raja Abdul Majeed Khan, Executive Engineer, PMGSY, Anantnag. He said although the deadline for the completion of the project was set to be 18 months from the date of commencement of the work, only 10 per cent of the total work had been completed. “Taking stock of the situation, the chief engineer, PMGYS, decided to terminate the contract of the local firm, as it was liable under standard bidding document laws,” said the executive engineer. He said as the PMGYS was contemplating to go for fresh notice inviting tenders, the contractor of the said local firm went for a writ petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court following which the tenders were put on hold. “After moving from one court to another, the contractor finally appealed to the double bench of the high court, where we were allowed to do some repair work on the road,” said the Xen. He said, “The high court has decided that new tenders must be floated for the work. The department is hopeful that the work will commence soon. We will have a meeting tomorrow in this regard and hopefully the work will resume soon.” The people of the area had pinned hopes on the project as it would have opened new chapters of economic development for them. “Instead of economic growth we are finding it hard to cope up with all the mess that was caused due to the delayed construction,” said a local resident.
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Absence of bridge adds to villagers’ woes
Kupwara, August 27 “Many marriage proposals have been rejected only due to the absence of a vital bridge which connects hamlets with Kanthpora and the rest of Kupwara town. The hamlets are cut off from Kanthpora and are considered backward,” said sarpanch Ghulam Mohammad Malik. Disgruntled local residents claimed that many girls in the hamlets have already crossed the marriageable age as nobody comes forward to seek their hand. A local resident said, “Few families had to face embarrassment as the would-be groom’s parents untied the nuptial knot citing backwardness of the hamlets as a major reason.” The absence of a long-pending bridge has resulted in the casualties of
at least eight persons, including two women, since 2003. “People who tried to cross the nullah were washed away by the fast current of water in the nullah,” said Javid Ahmad. The absence of bridge has also badly affected education of children adding to woes of the residents. “Many children were forced to abandon their studies as they had to walk 3 km to reach the high school located on the other side of the nullah,” said Shabir Ahmad. Since 2004, the Project Construction Corporation (PCC) had erected only one pillar of the bridge and has abandoned rest of the work. “The Home Minister had also visited the site last year but apparently the condition has only deteriorated. Former Kupwara Deputy Commissioner had promised to start work on the forsaken bridge,” said a local resident. Approximately Rs 4 crore was earmarked in 2004 for the construction of the vital bridge. Due to deficiency of funds, the work on the bridge had been suspended. “We have already taken up the construction of the Lolab bridge with the government on a priority basis. The allocation of funds is a major problem as the bridge does not fall under the district fund but the state fund,” said Sarmad Hafeez, Deputy Commissioner,
Kupwara. Impact
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KU’s Institute of Kashmir Studies fails to attract research scholars
Srinagar, August 27 The institute has been inaugurated twice since 2006 and is being funded by the UGC and South Asia Foundation (SAF). However, to date it has failed to attract a good number of university students due to alleged lack of commitment by the authorities. Currently, the institute is being headed by two directors, which makes a little sense since there are just five students who are researching on Kashmir-related studies here. “After the former Vice-Chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology, Prof Sidique Wahid, took over as Director here, another post for the Director, Research, was created, which seems redundant as the department is already overstaffed,” an official wishing anonymity said. Besides a few students from SAARC countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, who are currently doing their research work here, the department has failed to attract research scholars and students from within the university for carrying out their research and thesis work. Sources said despite huge funding by SAF, the institute’s role has been almost negligent in publishing any major research work on Kashmir. “The purpose of the institute is nearly defeated if for a span of six years there has not been a single research-oriented publication made. Most of the research papers and journals produced annually are not in line with Kashmir-related studies,” the sources said. Governor NN Vohra, who is also the Chancellor of the university, has directed the research work of the institute to be made public. |
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Football tournament: Kerala, West Bengal to lock horns today
Srinagar, August 27 The final of the tournament, which began on August 25, will be played on Wednesday. The tournament was inaugurated by Governor NN Vohra during a function at the Bakshi Stadium. Nine teams representing various postal circles of the country, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Delhi, Orissa and hosts Jammu & Kashmir are participating in the tournament. In the other matches played today, Kerala beat Delhi 3-0 while Tamil Nadu thrashed Orissa 2-0. The game between Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu ended in a draw. The final match will be played at the Bakshi Stadium and a good number of football lovers are expected to witness the game. Earlier in May, Bakshi Stadium had witnessed an unprecedented rush of foorball lovers to witness a friendly football match between Mohammedan Sporting Club, Kolkata and J&K-XI. John Samuel, Chief Postmaster General, J&K circle, said: “The department of posts (DoP) was organising sports activities to involve young people with the post office it We also have plans to organise water sports activities.” The DoP also intends to hold three state-level sporting events later this year, including Speed Post Football Tournament and India Post Badminton Tournament. |
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class iv posts in education department Amin Masoodi
Kupwara, August 27 “I have 31 points (combined from 10th and 12th standard marks). The cut-off points for the handicapped category is 22 but I have not been shortlisted for an interview,” said Sajad Anwar, an applicant. Sajad is a graduate in arts with degree in BEd. He has applied for the job on the basis of Class 12. “I will cross the age limit for a government job in another two months. So I had no option left but to apply for the post,” he said. The candidates have threatened that they will move to a court if the discrepancies were not addressed at the earliest. Bilal Ahmad Bhat of Batergam, Kupwara, has 36.78 points in the same category. “I have not been shortlisted for the interview. Today, I visited the office of the Chief Education Officer (CEO), Kupwara, but he has gone to Machil,” he said. The office of the CEO, Kupwara, had advertised Class IV posts in the education department in a notification number 20138-42 dated 12-02-2011. Sources in the CEO’s office said a total of 150 vacancies had to be filled for which over 35,000 applications were received. The department has postponed the interviews, which were scheduled to be held from August 27. Another dropout, Tanvir Ahmad Bhat, said, “I have 24 points but my name does not figure in the list. They must re-frame the list and accommodate genuine candidates.” In the general category also, candidates have alleged discrepancies. Mohammad Shafi Rather, Director, School Education, said: “The candidates should visit the CEO’s office concerned for the redressal of their problem. We have a transparent system of recruitment and all the data is available at the office of the CEO, Kupwara.”
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National training camp inaugurated
Srinagar, August 27 The camp is being organised by the Special Olympic Bharat (SOB) - J&K Chapter- in collaboration with Sahyog India Limited. Besides the athletes, 100 coaches from 12 states are also participating in the camp. During the training-cum-coaching camp, the athletes would be imparted training in different sports at the Amar Singh College, Srinagar. Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services and Sports RS Chib inaugurated the camp. Welcoming the delegates, the minister said they will get a unique experience by visiting the state. Admitting that the people of the state were not much aware about the working of SOB, he urged the people of the state to come forward and contribute for the welfare of these special children in the society. “It is our collective responsibility to come
forward and help these special children so that they do not feel any kind of isolation in the society,” he said. SOB state president
Dr Ashwani Jojra and National Director SOB Victor Vaz also spoke on the occasion. |
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Man critically injured in bear attack
Srinagar, August 27 The spokesman said Naik was shifted to a hospital in Srinagar city where he is undergoing treatment. There have been regular wild animal attacks in the region, which, experts blame on the shrinking forest space for these animals and growing intrusion of humans into the wild animals’ habitats. In Kashmir's mountainous and forested areas, residents venture into the woods to collect firewood and sometimes trespass into the space of wild animals leading to a bloody and violent confrontation. Many of the attacks have led to fatalities or severe injuries.
— TNS |
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Minor boy, SPO killed in road mishaps
Srinagar, August 27 A police spokesman said the boy, identified as Ubaid Rashid Bhat, died on the spot. In north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, a
load carrier turned turtle at Kunzer resulting in the death of Shabir Ahmad Bhat, an SPO, who was travelling in the vehicle. The spokesman said Bhat, a resident of Srinagar’s Batamaloo locality, died on the spot
while another person identified as Mudasir Ahmad Bhat of Bemina, Srinagar, was injured in the
mishap. A 50-year-old woman was injured in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district when she was hit
by a car, the spokes-man said. |
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25 kg poppy husk seized
Srinagar, August 27 He said, “A case under Section 8/15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered.” Several districts of south Kashmir had recently emerged as cultivators of poppy and cannabis forcing the police and the local administration to launch a crackdown on the cultivators and smugglers. |
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At least 7 to 10 Kashmiris, mostly teenaged girls and women, attempt to commit suicide daily in Kashmir even as experts say this number is just a fraction of the bigger unseen and unreported picture.
In a five-day period this month, between August 20 and 25, eight suicide cases have been reported in the Valley.
Kupwara, August 27
The Kashmir University’s Institute of Kashmir Studies, which was established in 2006 with a purpose to produce a comprehensive compilation on Kashmir’s economy, history and geography, has failed to do so.
The institute has been inaugurated twice since 2006 and is being funded by the UGC and South Asia Foundation
(SAF). However, to date it has failed to attract a good number of university students due to alleged lack of commitment by the authorities.
Srinagar, August 27
Bashir Ahmad Dabla, who teaches sociology at University of Kashmir and has done a research on the trend of suicides here, said nearly 60 per cent of those who end their lives are women, most of them in the age group of 15-35.