Jammu, September 19
The Divisional Railway Manager (DTM), Ferozepur division, Northern Railway, NC Goyal today announced that Jammu Railway Station would soon get an additional platform and an extra railway line for yards.

Goyal along with Choudhary Lal Singh, Member of Parliament, from Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary constituency, said: "An additional platform and an extra line for yards would cost Rs 18 crore. We have already sanctioned Rs 5 crore for initiating the process in this direction."

He said in Jammu and Kashmir, new signals would be installed on railway tracks and new cabins constructed for signal maintenance officials .

He said he had inspected three railway stations, including Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi along with the Member of Parliament and had enquired about the status of the project at the railway stations, particularly in Udhampur and Reasi.

Goyal said he was briefed about the various time bound steps taken by the Northern Railway to provide best facilities to the people.

Speaking on occasion, Lal Singh raised various problems and complained about lack in proper registration system, poor sanitation at these railway stations and inadequate compensation to the people whose land was acquired for various railway projects in the state.

He also demanded opening of Divisional Railway Manager Officer in Jammu and said that he would vigorously take this demand to the higher railway authorities.

Jammu, September 19
BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas yesterday stated that the NDA has given a call against the recent steep hike in the prices of diesel, cooking gas and permitting the foreign companies to open retail shops in the country.

Addressing a press conference, the BJP leader appealed to public, various trade, transport, educational and social organisations to support the September 20 ‘Bharat bandh’. Manhas said the Congress led UPA government at the Centre has been taking one decision after the other to add to miseries of common man across the country to make their lives miserable; the recent decision on FDI and hike in diesel price are the latest actions in this direction.

“There is a general widespread anger and resenment throughout the country against the UPA. The BJP has always stood for the cause of masses and has always opposed all such decisions of the government which are aimed at enriching a handful of people at the expense of common man and reducing him to penury,” said Manhas. He said the BJP along with other constituents of the NDA has appealed to people of the country to cut their political, social and religious affiliations and come forward to support the September 20 ‘Bharat bandh’ call.

Jammu, September 19
A few days after the Supreme Court directed Jammu and Kashmir to explain its failure in filing affidavits on banning manual scavenging in the state, the Social Welfare Department has directed municipal bodies in the state to conduct detailed survey on the number of scavengers within three weeks .

Despite the J&K Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Probation) Act-2010, there are more than 1,78,443 families who are dependent on human waste carriers.

Officials said the directions were given by Minister for Social Welfare Sakina Itto following her meeting with Union Minister for Social Justice Mukul Wasnik in Srinagar. The duo also discussed the rehabilitation of manual scavengers, Scheduled Castes and disabled persons.

Officials said manual scavenging, which is banned by law, is still prevalent in the state, even in capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar. “The Union Minister has assured that liberal funding will be given for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers. A detailed survey has been ordered to know the exact number of such people,” said Itto.

She said the District Magistrates and municipal bodies had been directed to conduct a detailed survey regarding the presence of dry or insanitary latrines.

Demanding action to stop the practice, the Supreme Court had recently asked Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to appear before the court in this regard.

Jammu, September 19
The management of Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) Institutes has claimed that they had been deceived by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Secondary Education regarding the streamlining of left-out students of ETT course for the academic session 2011-13.

According to sources, after declaring the results of first year for the academic session 2011-13, the board of secondary education had withheld result of more than 5,000 students due to non-submission of some formalities. Those students then approached their respective colleges for submission of their formalities.

Sources claimed that a committee was constituted by the board of secondary education to look into the regularisation of admission process of left-out candidates enrolled in the first year for the academic session 2011-13 on or before September 23.

“On the request of the chairman, board of secondary education, we had agreed to conduct the counselling process but instead of inviting new applications for the admissions, the board authorities had started the admission process without informing us,” said one of the owners of ETT institutes.

The owners of ETT institutes had also alleged that JKBOSE was promoting agent culture. They claimed that only 1,500 applications were received for the ETT academic session 2012-14 due to the prevailing chaos in the board of secondary education.

The owners said speedy issuance of no objection certificates based on compromises and vested interests was responsible for mushrooming of corrupt practices in the school education department. He said after witnessing a chaos in admission process the then Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed had chaired a meeting with the then chairman and secretary of board of secondary education on November 11, 2009 to frame an ETT academic calendar but nothing significant has been done so far.

The institutes alleged that instead of keeping a complete check on wrong doings, the board of secondary education had indulged in promoting corruption at all levels, including the secretariat office wherein the brokers were openly allowed to collect money for the unjustified no objection certificates process.

When contacted, a senior board of secondary education official said, “We are very much aware of the hardships being faced by the ETT aspirants who were left out but at the same time there are certain guidelines which are to be followed by us.” 

Batote, September 19
Ramban MLA Ashok Kumar has demanded sanctioning of 13 more public health centres (PHCs) at an earliest as for 71 Panchayats their are only three PHCs in Ramban.

He said this today while inaugurating a one-day National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) mela organised by Block Medical Officer Ramban Dr Anirudh Slathia at Sher-e-Kashmir Memorial Emergency Hospital, Batote.

He said on the directions of Union Health Minister GN Azad, out of the 30 sub-centres recommended by him the sub-centres for Chakwa, Thopal in Batote and Tatarsu Sund Gali in Ramban were also included.

The mela was presided over by MLA Ashok Kumar and attended by all the asha workers, female multi-purpose health workers, anganwadi workers, supervisors, doctors, paramedical staff, sarpanches, panches and prominent citizens participated in the day-long awareness session under the NRHM national flagship programme .

On the occasion BMO Dr AS Slathia, Dr Dinesh Kumar, Dr Rekha, Dr Rifat, NRHM district programme manager Waseem Raja, NRHM block programme manager, Danish Hussain Bhat and FMPHW Misra Bano, MLA Ashok and Dr Salthia answered the NRHM and other health facility related queries of members from the audience.

Ashok called for the better synergy and coordination among all the components such camps in remote areas along with the maintenance of sanitation and corruption-free work culture in all the health institutions entrusted for spreading cheap and prompt 
health benefits to the poor persons.

The Ramban MLA also stressed the need to bring down mother and child mortality rate by improving facilities.

Jammu, September 19
After securing a gold medal in the 10th Junior National Wushu Championship held at Jharkhand, Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh has been selected for the 4th World Junior Wushu Championship slated to be held at Macau in China from September 17 to 25.

Another Jammu wushu player Gurdeep Singh will accompany the Indian team as a physiotherapist. However, Asif Hussain from Jammu and Kashmir, who attended the India camp for seniors at the Sports Authority of India, Bhopal, from April 15 to April 18, could not make it to the Indian Wushu team for the 8th Asian Wushu Championship at Vietnam. — TNS

Jammu, September 19
A large number of medical students today staged a demonstration outside the office of director, health department, Jammu, to protest the delay in declaration of results of para-medical courses.

The students assembled under the banner of National Secular Forum (NSF) and raised slogans against the department. The state senior vice-president, NSF, Surjit Choudhary, who led the protest, alleged that the department was maintaining a stoic silence over delay in declaration of results of various para-medical courses.

“The department is ignoring the youth of Jammu region in jobs and the authorities are playing with the sentiments of students,” said the NSF leader.

Choudhary said the exams of MMPHW, FMPHW, medical assistant, x-ray assistant, dental assistant were conducted about eight months ago but authorities have failed to declare the results till date.

He warned that they would intensify their agitation if the department doesn’t declare the results soon. 

Jammu, September 19
Baba Club, Thannamandi, and Girls High School, Palam, lifted the boys and girls titles, respectively in the Rajouri District Volleyball Championship.

Skippers Basharat Khan, Shahzad Raina, Aijaz Wani and Azhar Aziz Raina helped Baba Club to script a resounding 3-0 win over formidable Pintoo Club in the boys section. In the girls section, GHS Palam defeated Nawaz Public Higher Secondary School, Palam, by 3-2.

The matches were officiated by Gulzar Ahmed, Khalid Hussain, Mohammad Kabir, Koushal Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Mohammad Ayub and Mohammad Jameel.

Shabir Ahmed Khan, Minister of State for Power, CAPD and Forests was the chief guest on the occasion. 

Jammu, September 19
The Jammu boys’ team got the better of the Kathua in the summit clash to clinch the Divisional Level Inter-District U-19 Boys Volleyball Tournament which concluded at the Youth Hostel, Nagrota, here today. Spikers Anil and Aman of the Jammu team played outstandingly to help their team script a 3-1 win. The set score read 25-23, 25-22, 18-25 and 25-19.

Earlier, in the semifinals, the Jammu trounced the Reasi by 25-23, 18-25 and 25-21 while the Kathua outdid the Udhampur in two straight sets by 25-23 and 25-22. Deepak and Amit were the standout performers for the Kathua. The matches were officiated by Tarseem Singh, Ravan Gupta, Milak Raj, Anju Gupta and Jagjeet Singh.

The State Commissioner, Bharat Scouts and Guides, ID Soni, was the chief guest on the occasion and the Zonal Commissioner, Bharat Scouts and Guides, MM Joshi, was the guest of honour. Reasi District Youth Services and Sports officer Swaran Singh Chib was also present in the event. — TNS

Jammu, September 19
Government Higher Secondary School, Gandhri, clinched the volleyball title while Friends Club, Kabhi, bagged top honours in tug-of-war competition in the rural sports meet organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports, Ramban, at Government Higher Secondary School, Gandri.

Over 400 players drawn from rural areas of the district participated in the championship which was held in the disciplines of volleyball, kabaddi, tug-of-war, cock fighting, stone lifting and wrestling. The meet was held under the overall supervision of Dewan Chand Thakur, District Youth Services and Sports Officer, Ramban.

The matches were officiated by Shah Mohd Hussain, Azad Ahmed, Vijay Gupta, Mohammad Iqbal and MH Wani. Ashok Kumar, MLA, Ramban, was the chief guest on the occasion who distributed prizes among the winner and the runners-up teams. Subash Chander Sharma, principal, HSS Gandri, and OP Thakur, zonal education officer, were present during the match.

Jammu, September 19
The cueists Aditya Sharma, Sajal Kohli and Gourav Badgotra started their campaign on a winning note in the junior snooker category in the ongoing 22nd Jammu District Open Junior and Senior Billiards and Snooker Championship 2012 organised by the J&K Billiards and Snooker Association (JKBSA) at Billiards Hall, MA Stadium.

Aditya defeated Ashwani Sharma by 2-0. Aditya pocketed the first frame by 55-47 and then continued his dominance in the next with 56-36 win to emerge victorious.

Sajal defeated Kunal Rampal by 2-1. Kunal got off to a flying start with 47-4 win but could not get his momentum going. Kunal drew parity in the second frame with 53-23 win. Sajal got his act together in the third frame and registered win with a frame margin of 80-21 to emerge triumphant.

In another match, Gourav Badgotra defeated Vidyush Chowdhary by 2-1. The frame score read 39-67, 52-51 and 65-41.