Srinagar, October 13
Two employees of the Forest Department were among four persons injured in two cases of bear attacks in Anantnag district recently.

The police said two guards with the Forest Department Ali Mohammad Najar and Bashir Ahmad Rather were injured when they were attacked by a bear in the compartment number 59 of Lissar forest in Anantnag.

Both victims are forest guards and were admitted to the Sub District Hospital at Dooru at Anantnag, the spokesman said.

In another incident, a bear injured two men on Friday evening at Dadoo village near Sangam town in Anantnag district, the spokesman said. The spokesman identified the two victims as Asadullah Khan, 44, and Seer Mohammad Khan, 30. The victims have been admitted to the hospital for treatment, the spokesman said.

Kupwara, October 13
The fear of wild animals has gripped residents in the upper reaches of Kupwara and Handwara towns. The residents of Moori in the remote area of Kalaroose and Dardpora in Lolab say the animals enter the residential areas especially in the evening hours.

Residents of Haphrada area of Handwara town said they feared to step out of their houses in the evening hours due to the increasing movement of wild animals.

“Wild animals have been on the prowl in our area over the past few days. They have devoured many cattle and pose a threat to humans as well,” said Shabir Ahmad Khatana of Moori, 24 km from Kupwara.

The residents got some respite from wild animals in September but in October they have once again turned to the human habitations.

Residents of some other villages in Lolab, including Charkote, Dardpora, Maidanpora and Warnow, said the increasing movement of wild animal poses great threat to the safety of humans. They appealed to the wildlife department authorities to put cages in these areas to trap wild animals. They said the animals had killed dozens of cattle, most of them sheep, in these areas. These villages are close to forests and hillocks.

“The children are more vulnerable to attacks by wild animals. We spotted a leopard late last evening. We fear to step out of our homes after sunset,” said Jamal-u-din Gojri of Ophan in Lolab.

In Handwara villages too, the scare of wild animals continues to haunt residents, especially those living close to the forests. “To scare away wild animals on a prowl, we arrange major fires in the village. The animals have intensified their movement for over past one week,” said Shamas-u-din, a resident of Haphrada.

The wildlife authorities and troops of 6 RR, in a joint operation on September 12, had shot dead a man eater leopard in Ramhal area of Handwara town. The leopard was declared a man eater by the wildlife department after it killed a five-year-old girl in Malikpora Villgam of Handwara on September 3.

Despite repeated attempts, wildlife officials could not be contacted for comments.

Srinagar, October 13
The state government has chargesheeted former Medical Superintendent of GB Pant Children's hospital for alleged administrative failure and negligence, which resulted in the alarming neo-natal deaths. It is the Valley's only tertiary-care children's hospital.

The former medical superintendent and the Head of Department (HoD) Dr Javid Chowdery, who was attached on May 17 by the Jammu and Kashmir government has been asked to explain the charges leveled against him within 15 days.

“On the basis of an inquiry headed by the Director of Shere-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Professor Showkat Ali Zargar, we have presented a chargesheet against Dr Javid Chowdery asking him to explain the lapses that led to the high number of infant deaths,” the Secretary Health and Medical Education, Manoj Kumar Dewidi said.

“As per the service rules, the former MS has been asked to explain the administrative failure and we expect his reply soon. He has to explain the lapses that resulted in deaths of infants for which he is answerable,” Dewidi added. Over 500 neo-natal and infant deaths were reported in the first five months this year. The government later asked SKIMS Director to conduct an inquiry into the deaths at the children's hospital after public outrage in May.

Zargar who submitted a final report with the government had indicted the former MS for administrative lapses.

A house panel was also set up by the Speaker of the J&K Assembly to look into the alarmingly high number of infant deaths at the GB Pant Hospital. 

Srinagar, October 13
Following assurance from the government over a majority of their demands, the employees of the Power Development Department (PDD) have suspended their 12-day long strike.

The Kashmir Electrical Employees’ Union (EEU), which spearheaded the agitation, has appealed to its members to resume their duties immediately.

Over 20,000 employees of the Power Development Department have been on a strike for past 12 days and the protest has badly affected electricity supply in many parts of the Valley.

The employees had earlier decided to hold protest demonstrations at their respective divisional and district headquarters to press for demands.

The decision of the EEU to call off their strike was taken after a meeting with the PDD Commissioner Sudhanshu Panday here in Srinagar.

The EUU submitted a 22-point demand note with the authorities. During the meeting, the employees received a positive response on 19 demands, said Kashmir Electrical Employees’ Union (EEU) president Abdul Salaam Rajpouri.

He said, “During the meeting, the government has agreed to implement SRO 59 and, defining designations in keeping with work. Besides, it was also assured that the nearest of the kin of the daily wage workers who died in accidents on work will be considered for employment in the PDD.” He said on the demand for health insurance for the PDD employees the government has sought time.

“At the meeting, the authorities denied any roposal to privatise the department. They said the proposed restructuring in the PDD is to carve out four government-owned corporations,” Slaam said.

The other projected demands of the EEU include health insurance, proper distribution of welfare fund, designations in keeping with work and fixing of duty hours for the PDD employees.

Kupwara, October 13
Reckless driving is behind the rising number of gross violation of traffic rules has led to an increase in the number of road accidents in Kupwara for over the past one year.

Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO), Kupwara, said compound challans amounting to more than Rs 4 lakh had been imposed on 600 erring drivers found violating the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) between February 2011 and September this year.

The locals said in the absence of traffic police, drivers violate the traffic rules leading to accidents. At least 15 persons were killed and 72 were injured in 28 accidents between January 2011 and September, according to the data available with the Kupwara and Kralpora police stations.

Most of the accidents take place between Kralpora and Vohdpora, the road leading to Srinagar and Chowkibal in Kupwara. Police sources said most of the accidents were caused due to reckless driving.

Expressing concern over the steep rise in the number of accidents, with most of them proving fatal, residents said the drivers were flouting traffic rules in the absence of monitoring by traffic cops and the police. “The traffic police officials rarely visit this frontier town. Drivers do not follow any rules here and most of them drive recklessly on the busy roads leading to accidents,” said Nazir Ahmad, a teacher.

Over the past few years, movement of public and private transport in Kupwara and Handwara has increased manifold. At least 570 Tata Sumo vehicles play on the busy Kupwara roads.

The locals allege that the drivers overtake in narrow roads and overcrowding in buses and other passenger vehicles has become a routine matter. “Overcrowding in buses and other public vehicles on local roads has become a cause of concern. The drivers overtake on narrow roads and often collide with vehicles coming from the opposite direction,” Altaf Ahmad, a trader said.

ARTO Kupwara said the transport office conducts surprise checks on different routes on regular intervals to impose fine on erring drivers found without licences, registration certificates or insurance cover. “We have imposed compound challan against 600 erring drivers to the tune of over Rs 4 lakh for past more than one year. The drive against erring drivers will be intensified in view of the rising number of accidents,” said Abdul Ahad Yatoo, ARTO Kupwara.

Srinagar, October 13
Jammu and Kashmir Traffic Police has issued fresh guidelines to tackle the threat of mishaps on the accident-prone and mountainous Srinagar-Jammu highway. The measures which are being implemented immediately for “smooth regulation of traffic” have aim to ensure safety of the passengers, an official spokesman said.

The spokesman said new measures have been ordered in wake of the growing threat of shooting-stones on some stretches of the mountainous highway which has increased due to heavy movement of nomads along the route.

Nomadic families, along with their herds of sheep and goats, have begun their journey back to the Rajouri and Poonch districts of the Jammu division after spending the summer in the Valley. These nomads trek along the Srinagar-Jammu highway and their movement can trigger the stones to fall from high altitude along the highway.

“To ensure safety of passengers on the National Highway-1A called the Srinagar-Jammu highway and in view of the shooting stone stretches and accident-prone areas especially Ramsoo-Ramban sector coupled with heavy movement of nomads and poor road condition in this particular sector and at other places of the highway, the traffic police has taken measures with immediate effect to regulate traffic,” the spokesman said.

As per the new guidelines, all Jammu-bound Passenger Service Vehicles (PSVs) from Srinagar will have to cross Qazigund, the gateway town to the Valley on the southern edge of the valley before noon. All Srinagar-bound PSVs coming from Jammu will have to cross Nagrota before 11 am and Udhampur by 12:30 am, the spokesman said. “Multi-axle vehicles shall be allowed for onward journey from Srinagar towards Jammu from 6 pm to 11 pm. Similarly, the movement of multi-axle vehicles bound for Kashmir from Jammu shall be allowed for onward journey at Udhampur from 6 pm to 11 pm,” the spokesman said.

“The movement of load-carriers and trucks bound for Srinagar from Jammu shall be allowed from Udhampur after 3 pm. However, the load carriers carrying essential commodities like rice, livestock, vegetable, milk, LPG and oil tankers shall be allowed to move towards Srinagar up to Chanderkote and thereafter will be released for further journey towards the Valley after 5 pm,” the spokesman said.

Srinagar, October 13
Kashmir University (KU) is bending its rules, surpassing its own committee norms and earning the rage of its teaching and non-teaching staff members, by providing selective accommodation to blue-eyed staffers inside the campus.

Both the Kashmir University Teaching Association (KUTA) and Kashmir University Ministerial Staff Association have condemned the recent accommodation allotment to some favourite candidates, allegedly on the behest of the senior management officials without having to go through the University norms.

Sources said there were two allotment committees at the KU which look into providing campus accommodation to the teaching and non-teaching staff members respectively. The two committees were headed by Prof Mohammad Ashraf Wani (HoD, History Department) and Prof Khaliq-uz-Zaman (HoD, Chemistry Department).

The accommodations were provided after recommendations of the two committees who have their separate norms for the allocation of lodging facilities.

Sources said despite 70 associate professors waiting-in-line for the campus accommodation, one associate professor from the Department of Biotechnology was provided the space out of turn, causing anger among the other aspirants.

Another incident was of the space allocation to a Class IV employee in the office of Dean Research, who has been provided the accommodation against the norms. Mohammad Ashraf Wani, chairperson, allotment committee for the teaching staff, said, “Though every member has to follow the committee guidelines when applying for an accommodation, but there are some exceptional cases when the University allots the space to the staffers on humanitarian grounds, particularly the health grounds and places of origin.”

“I would see into the details of fresh allotments and if they are against the committee norms, then even the committees would raise voice against the orders,” he said. 

Srinagar, October 13
In the absence of proper supplementary exam system, the engineering students of Baba Ghulam Shah Baadshah University (BGSBU) are struggling to complete their degrees in time.

The university officials, however, say the chances given to the students are enough and the ones who need more chances do not deserve to become engineers.

The students say while all engineering colleges, running under other universities of the state conduct supplementary exams regularly, their university is unnecessarily putting their careers at stake, by not conducting these exams.

“The National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, too has the provision of supplementary exams or for that matter any other engineering college in the country. What is wrong with our university conducting such exams,” said a third year engineering student of BGSBU.

The students say the university authorities, despite repeated requests by the students, do not pay any heed.

“They ask us to appear in the regular exams of the next batch but it’s not possible to appear in the exams as our regular exams are conducted at the same time,” said another student.

Another problem, the students say, is that the university has not kept any provision for the re-evaluation of papers.

“There are some cases where the students have been awarded zero marks in some external exams, however, the university authorities do not let us get our papers re-evaluated,” said another student.

The Dean Students Welfare of the University, Muhammad Asghar; however says there is no sizable number of failures in the newer batches, for whom the supplementary exams are not being conducted.

“Secondly, it is not possible to conduct supplementary exams in the semester system. It will be too time consuming,” said the Dean.

He said the students do get enough chances to clear their backlog. “The ones who cannot clear their papers in the four chances given to them don’t deserve to be here.”

On not letting the students get their papers re-evaluated, the Dean said we will need more manpower for the same. “It will be a cumbersome task and once we let one of the students see his papers, everyone would want to see their papers,” the Dean said. 

Srinagar, October 13
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) will organise a memorial lecture on the present status of Urdu research in memory of Dr Akbar Hyderi, one of the tallest Urdu researchers of modern times who passed away recently.

A noted writer, scholar and Head, Department of Urdu, Aligarh Muslim University, Prof Abul Kalam Qasmi, will deliver the Akbar Hyderi Memorial Lecture on ‘Urdu Tehqeeq Aalmi Maiyar Ke Hawalay Se’ (Urdu research and the World standard) at the Academy’s conference hall, Lal Mandi in Srinagar on October 20.

The memorial lecture, first to be organised by the Academy, is the recognition of the quality research work done by Dr Akbar Hyderi who passed away on September 18.

Dr Hyderi wrote about one hundred research oriented books. His in-depth research works include books on Iqbal, Ghalib, Mir, Anees and Dabeer.

Srinagar, October 13
The death of Kashmir University professor Dr Altaf Hussain Tak has been widely condoled in Kashmir. While as the moderate separatist leader and Hurriyat chairman expressed his shock over Tak’s death, the Kashmir University today held a condolence meeting to mourn his death.

Professor Tak, who formerly served as Dean Faculty of Arts and head of English Department at Kashmir University, breathed his last on Friday. He joined the University in 1987 and was due to retire in 2013.

“A joint condolence meeting was held at the Gandhi Bhawan in the University today, which was chaired by Kashmir University Vice-chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad,” a Kashmir University spokesman said.

The KU release described professor Tak as an erudite scholar, a wonderful teacher, a generous and caring human being.

Expressing shock over Tak’s demise, APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq offered his condolences to the bereaved family. “As soon Mirwaiz was intimated about his death, he visited the bereaved family located at Umar Heer, Buchpora and expressed his sympathy with the mourners,” a Hurriyat spokesman said.

Mirwaiz said Professor Tak was a great teacher and a good human being, who took pains to teach him English and literature.

Srinagar, October 13
The public department employees today protested at the Press Enclave, Residency Road today against the public concerns of inflation and LPG cap issue.

The protest was led by Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) faction leader Eijaz Ahmad Khan. The employees said thousands of public department employees would face the brunt of the price hike of essential commodities in the market and non-availability of subsidised LPG supply, especially in the coming winters.

They said it would be the common man who would face the impact of the negative trends, as the bureaucrats were too affluent to be affected by the rising prices. The employees said the state government had failed to address the public grievances, adding that they had also not given the employees their due rights by withholding the arrears and not upgrading their salaries as per the sixth-pay commission scales.

“It is people like us, who depend on the monthly salaries, and are on streets protesting against the inefficient state government which seems to be hell bent in increasing the financial burdens on a common man,” said Eijaz Ahmad, leader EJAC.

Later, the police stopped the protest march and took a dozen of employees in a preventive custody at Kothibagh Police station. The employees flayed the police action and said the police was acting at the behest of the state government which was hell bent on muzzling the voices of a common man. 

Srinagar, October 13
The Greater Kashmir Autumn Golf Festival with three participating teams - Greater Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh- today reached Asia’s highest Gulmarg golf course to resume the game.

The second day’s play was teed-off at the Gulmarg golf course by captain of Greater Kashmir team BR Singh.

The three-day tournament, which is being organised by Greater Kashmir Communications Private Limited, has involved three major golf circuits of the Valley, including Lidder Valley Golf Course (LVGC) at Pahalgam, Gulmarg Golf Course and Royal Spring golf Course (RSGC) in the city.

Around 108 golfers, including 52 golfers from outside the state are participating in the tournament.

The Greater Kashmir team is led by Singh while Lalit Kapoor heads the Delhi team and Col AP Dhillon leads the Chandigarh team.

The tournament’s last and the final day will be played at RSGC here on Sunday.

The golfing event is being organised in collaboration with Mushtaq Group of Hotels, JK Toursim, Al-Khuddam, JK Bank and others.

Jammu, October 13
Chakraborty Tamojit of West Bengal, Dubey Dheraj of Madhya Pradesh and Manuja Piyush are jointly leading the points tally with 4.5 points apiece after the completion of five rounds today in the ongoing Patnitop FIDE Rating All India Chess Tournament being held at picturesque Patnitop here.

As far as hosts Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, there is not much to cheer as the players are still struggling to get into their groove.

Rather Adil Ashraf of J&K scripted a win over his compatriot Singh Ajit to take his points tally to 4. Another state player, Chatanya Sharma had to suffer defeat at the hands of Sumi Itokhu.

Taranjeet Singh of J&K put up a spirited fight against T Kumaran of Tamil Nadu who proved too good for him. Taranjeet dominated the proceedings from the onset by making decisive moves but Kumaran kept his cool and eventually sealed the issue.

Another state player, Rohit Bhardwaj managed to script a win against Sahil Mehta of Gujarat. With that win, he fetched 1 point. Ankush Singh Pathana of J&K lost to Iyeer Mahalaxmi Nishi while Meenal Gupta drew with Jitender Rawat.

Kanav Gupta and Soham Gupta of J&K lost their matches tamely while Sangam Angural managed to restore some pride for J&K by notching up a win against Paryul Jain. With just two days to go in the championship, J&K players will really have their task cut out to finish among top ten players.

Other Results: Deep Kapoor (Delhi) drew with Niklesh Kumar Jain (M P), Mughaho (Nagaland) lost to Piyush Manuja (Chandigarh), Somil Randheliya (MP) drew with Mahendra Singh Rathore (Rajasthan), Akshat Aggarwal (MP) beat Mrudul Gattani (MP), Raghav Aggarwal (MP) beat Dewang Gupta (J&K), Eshat Gupta (MP) beat Shivanshu Aggarwal (MP), Sahil Choudha (MP) lost to Suresh Kumar, Rishika Jain (MP) lost to Puneet Choudhary (J&K), Rounak Sarawagi (MP) lost to Dwivedi Rupesh (MP) and Surinder Taneja (Delhi) lost to Ashok Kumar Anand (J&K). 

Srinagar, October 13
Star cricket club Ompora defeated Humama Cricket club by 37 runs to lift the Synergy Cup T-20 Cricket Tournament.

The tournament was organised by CRPF 35 Battalion at the Budgam sports stadium in central Kashmir.

The tournament was inaugurated on October 9 by Minister for Medical Education and Sports RS Chib.

A total of eight teams participated in the tournament which was played on knock-out basis. The participating teams were Humhama Cricket Club, Star Club Ompora, Burn Hall School, Budgam Blues, SSP Budgam-XI, CRPF-XI, Airlines XI, Media XI. Riyaz Ahmed of Star cricket club Ompora was declared man of the series.

Chief Guest of closing ceremony Vivek Dubey, Additional DG, J&K Zone CRPF appreciated the participation of youth and said such tournaments would give the opportunity to enhace the talent of the local youth.

“I appreciate the special efforts of the CRPF being done to bridge the gap between forces and people of Kashmir,” Dubey said.

During the closing ceremony, Sudhir Pratap Singh, IGP/CRPF Srinagar sector and other senior officers of CRPF, along with senior functionaries of state, Airforce, Airlines and the local people were present.