Worst-hit areas
Shahabad, Warnow, Charkote, Cheepora, Darpora, Devar, Maidanpora, Wavoora, Shah Muqam and Khurhama

Srinagar, August 28
Hectic canvassing was witnessed on the last day of campaigning for the candidates seeking election to the new Bar executive body on August 30, today. The day saw candidates vigorously campaigning, seeking support of the members with their promises.

A large number of lawyers were seen canvassing for their favourite candidates at the Lower Courts Complex and at the High Court.

As the lawyers at the High Court assembled in the main lobby during the lunch break today, one of the candidates, Shabbir Ahmad Bhat, met with lawyers one-on-one, seeking their support during the elections, which are slated for August 30. Shabbir also visited lawyers in their chambers seeking their vote.

“I have been campaigning vigorously for the past one week and hope to get a good number of votes,” said Shabbir, who is contesting the post of joint secretary in the J&K High Court Bar Association.

He said he would work for the welfare of the Bar and lawyers if elected to the executive body.

A senior High Court lawyer sought the support of his fellow lawyers for a particular candidate. Another lawyer remarked that he had already signed the posters of the candidates he was canvassing for.

A total of 11 candidates are in the fray for election to different posts of the Bar executive body.

The Bar Election Commission has received two nominations for the post of president from Zafar Qureshi and Nazir A Ronga. Further, it has received papers from Ajaz Bedar and Bashir Dar for the post of vice-president.

For the post of general secretary, four nomination papers have been received from GN Shaheen, incumbent secretary, M Ashraf Bhat, Showkat Ahmad Khan and Bashir Siddique.

For the post of joint secretary, two members — Shabbir Ahmad Bhat and Javed Samad — have filed their nomination papers, while for the post of treasurer, Bilal Wani and Muzaffar Rather have filed their nominations papers.

Bar insiders say the elections to the Bar are going to be closely fought this time.

“Last year, the contest was one-sided. But this year the fight for the top post is going to be very close as the incumbent Bar president has opted out of the race for the post,” said a senior Bar lawyer, who has been closely following the Bar elections.

Srinagar, August 28
A local court today granted bail to a minor boy who was arrested on Sunday on charges of setting ablaze a police vehicle on Eid-ul-Fitr when protesters had clashed with the police in the old city here.

The court of Principal Sessions Judge ordered that the minor be “released on the furnishing of bond by his father under the Juvenile Justice Act”.

“The juvenile is directed to be released and handed over to his father against proper receipt,” the court ordered.

The class-VI student, a resident of Ganderpora locality of old city, was arrested on Sunday and was lodged at the Safa Kadal police station.

A remand court had yesterday directed the authorities to keep the boy in the Juvenile Home, Harwan, on the outskirts of the city, under proper supervision till September 10.

The minor was booked under Section 307 (attempted murder), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 152 (assaulting or obstructing a public servant when suppressing riot), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage).

A police official said the boy was arrested after the police identified him from a video footage of the protest last week when youths had clashed with the police outside an Eidgah (a special Eid prayer ground) in the city after intercepting and setting afire a police vehicle.

The police vehicle, carrying police personnel from Qamarwari to Soura, was torched and three policemen were beaten up when the vehicle was intercepted by an angry mob on August 20.

The minor’s arrest had brought the number of those arrested in the case to five. Burhan Lone (19) of Noor Bagh, Srinagar; Mohammad Younis Sheikh (21) of Dana Mazar, Safa Kadal; Abid Beg of Maharaj Bazar, Srinagar; and Hilal Ahmed Sofi (25) of the old city were arrested last week.

Srinagar, August 28
The first All-India J&K Bank Gold Cup Football Tournament will be held in the summer capital of the state in October later this year. This was stated by a J&K Bank spokesperson yesterday.

“The country’s top teams, including Air India, Mumbia FC, United Sikkim, Royal Wangdoh, Titanium FC and Punjab Police, will be competing in this maiden tournament, which is expected to emerge as one of the top national-level tournaments in future,” said the spokesperson.

Top 12 teams of the state would also be participating in the tournament.

Mohammad Amin Khan, secretary, J&K Bank Sports Board, said: “The tournament was scheduled to be held in August but was postponed due to the All-India Postal Football Tournament, which is currently under way and also the School National Football Tournament, which is slated for the first week of September.”

The bank spokesperson said: “All-India J&K Bank Gold Cup Football Tournament is going to be a mega event and a first of its kind. Football lovers are eagerly waiting for the event, as they are keen to see the country’s top teams playing here in Srinagar.”

top teams
Top teams, including Air India, Mumbia FC, United Sikkim, Royal Wangdoh, Titanium FC and Punjab Police, will be competing in the tournament.

Handwara, August 28
Residents of Zachaldara and its adjoining villages in Handwara held a demonstration on Sunday against the authorities for ignoring repair work of the 15-km-long dilapidated Zachaldara-Bahnipora road.

They blocked the road for hours and prevented the movement of traffic. The angry protesters, including women and children, raised slogans against the government and demanded immediate repair of the road.

“It takes over two hours to cover the distance, which could be covered in 30 minutes. The road is dotted with large potholes till Bahnipora,” said a protester. Drivers of various passenger vehicles later joined the protesters. The vital link connects at least 18 villages with Handwara town. These include Ahgam Rajpora, Satpaji, Wanipora, Nachhama, Surmarg, Lachsunpora, Daggerpora, and Hamla.

“Students face hardships as they have to leave their homes early morning to reach schools. Patients also face inconvenience due to the worn-out road,” said Mohammad Sultan, an elderly person.

They said the patients were the worst-hit due to the poor state of the road.

The protesters were pacified after Zachaldara SHO assured them that their demand would be taken up with the district administration.

Srinagar, August 28
Chief Secretary Madhav Lal today asked government departments to take the lead in building institutional framework for effective implementation of e-governance. Presiding over a meeting of the board of governors of Jammu and Kashmir E-Governance Agency (JAKEGA), Lal described e-governance as a major thrust area of the government.

The state government has designated JAKEGA for all e-governance projects in the state. “All departments should build institutional framework for effective implementation of e-governance. The initiative to automate the government process and function will ensure simple, reliable and transparent service to the people on time,” he said.

He said, “JAKEGA and the IT department must provide assistance and 
technical inputs to other departments related to their IT- components, including application (software) development.”

The departments have to work hard to develop a robust mechanism to deliver services as they switch over to e-governance, he said. Each department must be fully equipped with the requisite infrastructure along with trained resource personnel to provide quality and guaranteed service to the people.

Earlier, Commissioner Secretary Science and Technology, Bipul Pathak, gave a brief power point presentation highlighting progress of various e-governance projects in the state. He said the work on State Data Centre will be finished by November and the remaining ‘Khidmat centres’ will be rolled out by March 2013.

“As many as 708 CSCs out of 1,109 have been rolled out in the state,” he added.

Under the state service delivery gateway (SSDG), he said six e-services covering three departments are proposed to be launched by October.

Under the capacity building programme to train government employees in various basic computer courses, Pathak said 1,150 employees working in various capacities are being trained in the current phase.

Matters pertaining to community information centres (CICs), e-district project, recruitment of project managers etc were also discussed at the meeting.

Among those present were Commissioner Secretary Industries and Commerce, Shant Manu, Commissioner Secretary, Agricultural production Shaleen Kabra, Secretary Health and Medical Education Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Secretary GAD, Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed, Secretary Rural Development, Farooq Ahmad Peer, Senior officers of JAKEGA, IT, University of Kashmir and other departments.

Srinagar, August 28
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today emphasised the need for the creation of necessary infrastructure without infringing on the inherent beauty of the tourist resorts in the state. Reviewing the progress and performances of the Wular Manasbal Development Authority and the Sonamarg Development Authority in different meetings, Omar Abdullah, who chaired both meetings, said the maintenance of ecosystem and preservation of natural beauty of tourist places should form the necessary ingredient in the facility creation and infrastructure development plans. 

“The tourism sector offers wide-ranging economic activities and it has a greater role to play in the economic development of the state. But the sustenance of tourism depends directly on the strategy we adopt to preserve our natural wealth,” he said. He said it was the duty of all citizens to conserve and preserve the natural resources, bio-diversity, water bodies and diverse tourist attractions that god had bestowed on this part of the world. He gave his nod to various proposals put forth by the CEOs concerned to develop eco-tourism. —TNS

Srinagar, August 28
Kashmir University employees yesterday held a protest against the dismantling of their residential huts in the green belt area of Naseem Bagh. A girls’ hostel warden was denied permission to host the wedding of her daughter at the place due to the dismantling of the huts. Rehabilitation of these employees has not yet started even though the demolition is under way.

Raising slogans against the university authorities, the employees said they were not informed about this step beforehand and that they would not allow work on dismantling the heritage huts to continue if they were not provided with new residential quarters.

“We have been living here for the past 10 years. We have now been asked to leave. We have not even been shown our new accommodations. They brought bulldozers, but we stopped them somehow,” the protesters said.

They said the new accommodation being provided to them is far away from the campus. “If the entire faculty and the high-rung staff have been provided residential quarters all over the campus, we should also get the same on the campus,” an employee said.

The authorities, however, say the demolitions are being carried out to save the green belt area of the campus and increase its dimension. “The entire green belt area should have fewer constructions hence the dismantling of these huts was important. We are looking for adequate accommodation but as of now they will be shifted outside the campus,” a PRO official of the university said.

Srinagar, August 28
The teams of Kerala and Karnataka will clash in the final match of ‘Srinagar-2012 - All India Postal Football tournament’ at Bakshi Stadium tomorrow. Kerala beat West Bengal three goals to one in the first semi final while Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh two goals to nil in the second encounter at Bakshi stadium.

The tournament began on August 25 and 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, took part in the tournament.

The Jammu and Kashmir team was ousted from the tournament after it lost to Karnataka one goal to nil yesterday.

The Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather, will be the chief guest.

John Samuel, Chief Postmaster General, J&K circle, said the Department of Posts (DoP) was organising sports activities to involve youngsters with the post office and it also had plans to organise water sports activities.

The School National Football tournament is scheduled to be held in the first week of September to be followed by the All India J&K Bank Gold Cup Football Tournament in October.

Srinagar, August 28
The police has arrested four persons, including a former militant, from Baramulla for allegedly trying to frame a man by dumping ammunition in his premises.

Those accused have been identified as Nazir Ahmad Khatana, a former militant and a resident of Batapora Kupwara; Abdul Majeed Malla, a resident of Khasipora Khore, Pattan; Mohammad Saleem Mir, a resident of Hanjivera Pattan and Sona Ullah Wani, a resident of Singhpora, Pattan.

“A team of the police and 22 Rashtriya Rifles searched the house of Mehraj-u-din Sheikh at Khasipora village in Pattan on July 30 and seized 110 rounds of AK 47 and 47 rounds of Pika. Investigations revealed that the ammunition former militant Khatana and his three aides had allegedly dumped the ammunition to frame Sheikh in a false case,” a spokesperson of the police said.

The police said the accused took the ammunition from Kupwara to Pattan and dumped it under the hut of Sheikh to frame him in a false criminal case.

“Out of the four accused, two accused had a personal animosity with Sheikh. They roped in two others and hatched a conspiracy to frame him,” a police officer said.