Srinagar, January 12
The GB Pant Hospital here has become the first centre in the country to provide free of cost surfactants, a chemical which helps patients breathe by improving the respiratory function of the lungs, to premature babies having respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) to premature babies with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).

“The RDS condition is present in 6.4 to 14.1 per cent of premature babies at the time of their birth and is a leading cause of deaths of such babies worldwide,” Dr Muneer Ahmad Masoodi, Medical Superintendent, GB Pant Hospital said.

To decrease the mortality and morbidity in premature babies because of RDS, the surfactant replacement therapy is used the world over.

“As we have already put in place bubble Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) in neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) six months back, providing surfactants shall further reduce morbidity and death of preterm babies referred and admitted in GB Pant Hospital, Srinagar," says Dr Muneer Ahmad Masoodi.

A large portion of our population is unable to avail surfactant therapy even though it was included in the WHO Essential Drug List. The medicines are being provided free of cost to neonates under the Janani Shishu Surakhsha Karikram (JSSK) scheme of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Dr Masoodi said mothers at the risk of delivering babies with less than 34 weeks (8 months) pregnancy should be given antenatal steroids according to the established guidelines to prevent consequences of premature birth on lung function.

“This will help in better survival of preterm neonates along with the provision of postnatal surfactant therapy at specialised centres like the GB Pant Hospital, Srinagar," he added. “Infants who are delivered at less than 29 weeks gestation outside of a tertiary centre should be considered for immediate incubation followed by administration of surfactant after stabilisation. As the facilities and availability of surfactants is a big issue, provision of surfactants at GB Pant Hospital shall be beneficial if such preterm babies with respiratory distress are referred urgently," Dr Masoodi said.

Srinagar, January 12
The Kashmir authorities have informed that there will be a power shutdown in many areas for three days starting Monday.

“According to the Power Controller, Power Development Department, Kashmir, to facilitate termination of 132 KV Pattan Sheeri Circuit of 132 KV Lower Jehlum Transmission Line at 220/132 KV Delina Grid Station, power shutdown of 132 KV Pattan Sheeri Circuit line and 132 KV Lower Jehlum Transmission Line-Delina Amargarh Circuit shall be done on January 14, 15 and 16 from 9 am to 5 pm and 10.30 am to 2 pm, respectively,” an official spokesman said here.

He said the power supply to areas which are fed by these lines would be affected.

Kupwara, January 12
Fresh snowfall last night forced closure of the Karnah-Kupwara road, the only link connecting border areas of Karnah and Keran with Kupwara and the rest of the Valley.

The closure left many passengers, including women, stranded in Kupwara. “We are praying for snowfall to stop at least for a day,” said Majid Khan of Kandi village in Karnah.

A senior official of the district administration said at least three feet of snow had collected on the road near the high-altitude Sadhna Top. It was snowing heavily when reports last came in. He said heavy snowfall had blocked the road for traffic on the 80-km long road and it can be cleared for traffic if the weather improves tomorrow.

“Two snow cutters have been pressed into service to clear the road near Sadhna Top. Officials of 109 regiment of Beacon organization are overseeing the snow clearing operation. Snowfall at regular intervals since last evening is hampering the clearance of roads,” he said. Reports said dozens of passenger vehicles were stranded near Chowkibal, the gateway to Karnah.

At least five inch of snow had got accumulated on the ground in Kupwara till evening. Reports said the upper reaches in Kupwara had received one feet of snow affecting normal life. Movement of traffic was affected due to slippery roads.

Pedestrians faced great difficulty in walking through the water-logged streets in the town and bus stand at Kupwara.

Reports said power supply remained affected in few villages of Lolab and Handwara. Local residents have appealed to the Power Development Department (PDD) to restore power supply.

Srinagar, January 12
Killing of innocent persons had no place in a civilised society, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said during her visit to Bomei today.

Condoling the killing of the village sarpanch, she said her party strongly condemned such acts of violence. PDP president told the family and a large number of people gathered at the village that it was unfortunate that the government had put the lives of elected members of village bodies in jeopardy through its selfish and narrow minded policies.

She said if the government should have provided security to the elected representatives at the village level. This would help them perform better and take benefits of the Panchayati Raj to the people. “Instead of doing that the government had used panchayat elections as a slogan of achievement and panches as mere audience for party functions.”

Calling upon the government to come out with investigation reports of the half a dozen village representatives killed so far, Mehbooba said it was not enough for the Chief Minister to dub these killings ‘local conspiracies’ and then forget about them.

She said, “If there were any conspiracies involved why doesn’t the government come out with full details? The victims have been peace loving respected members of the society and the government cannot escape accountability for their killings if it is not able to unravel the perpetrators even after claiming that these were the result of conspiracies" she said.

Mehbooba said the Chief Minister had stated that security would be provided to panches and sarpanches at least in areas where the threat perception suggested it.

Like all his announcements this one too has turned out false, she said. The attacks on panches cannot be reduced to non events by attributing them to routine village level conspiracies without the government offering a response, she added.

Mehbooba said the government had failed on all fronts and had created an atmosphere of mistrust and crisis of credibility for all state institutions. The panchayats too were unable to escape that stigma and their disempowerment had only made the lives of panchayat members more vulnerable.

She said despite receiving huge funds from the Centre, the state had failed to provide remuneration to the panches and sarpanches. Those funds were utilised only to provide luxury to the rulers and organising undeserved celebrations and propaganda campaigns of non existing achievements, she said.

Srinagar, January 12
The January 15 deadline for private coaching centres to get themselves registered with the Directorate of Education has been extended to January 31. These centres have come under the scanner after the recent acid attack incident in Srinagar.

Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr Asgar Samoon, has directed owners of private coaching centres to get registered with the Directorate of Education before January 31. The earlier deadline was set by the Director, School Education. The managements of these centres had asked for an extension of the deadline.

Samoon convened a meeting of officers and officials of private tuition centres today to issue guidelines to streamline the functioning of private tuition centres in Kashmir.

Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Director, School Education Kashmir, Mohammad Shafi Rather, Additional Advocate General, Shabir Naik, Principal, Amar Singh College, Mohammad Yaseen, Superintendent of Police Traffic, Srinagar, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Superintendent of Police, CID, Srinagar and representatives of private tuition centres were present in the meeting.

Samoon exhorted upon the authorities concerned to inculcate moral values among the students by imparting them moral education. He also stressed for quality education to enable students to compete at the national as well as international levels.

It was also decided in the meeting that every private tuition centre shall maintain an admission register indicating the detailed particulars of the candidates and shall notify and display monthly tuition fee charged from students. The representatives of private tuition centres were also told that adequate accommodation and separate waiting room, separate drinking water

facilities must be provided for girls in their tuition centres and the same must be ensured within a week. They were also directed to ensure proper heating arrangements in the tuition centres immediately.

All Chief Education Officers were directed to submit report about the availability of these facilities being made available in tuition centres to the District Magistrates concerned within 15 days and were also authorised to monitor their registration of respective districts.

It was also decided that the students of the tuition centres shall be issued identity cards by the tuition centres concerned within 15 days.

To finalise the tuition fee structure in the tuition centres, a committee headed by the Director School Education with the Chief Education Officer, Srinagar, and Additional District Magistrate, Srinagar, besides representative of tuition centres as members was constituted at the meeting.

Representatives of the tuition centres were asked to maintain adequate teacher-student ratio.

Samoon also directed the Director, School Education, Kashmir, to submit a list of the teachers of the School Education Department taking tuition classes at private tuition centres. He also directed Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, to mark parking slots on a cluster basis in consultation with the Superintendent of Police Traffic, Srinagar.

Srinagar, January 12
Traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway will be allowed to from Jammu if weather permits on Sunday, a senior official said here today.

“Subject to the weather conditions and condition of the roads, private and commercial vehicles would be allowed to move from Jammu to Kashmir in a regulated manner,” the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Traffic, said.

All vehicles are required to cross TCP Nagrota by 1300 hours, Udhampur by 1430 hours and TCP Banihal by 2200 hours, the IGP said. He said vehicles will not be allowed to proceed towards Kashmir beyond these timings. The Srinagar-Jammu highway was briefly shut on Saturday as snowfall along the route made the highway slippery for the vehicular movement. The road was later cleared.

Light to moderate snowfall and rain throughout the day today are likely to continue on Sunday, as per the state weather department.

Srinagar, January 12
Tension on the Line of Control notwithstanding, trade on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road is going on across the LoC.

Goods worth Rs 19.92 crore were exchanged during this week at the Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre in Uri sector, which witnessed the first round of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops on January 6, sources said.

They said goods worth Rs 8.19 crore were exported to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir while goods worth Rs 11.73 crore were imported. —PTI

Kupwara, January 12
To curb smuggling of timber in north Kashmir, the Department of Forest is planning to engage residents of areas most prone to smuggling of timber to protect and grow forests. Under the newly-introduced Complete Afforestation Management Programme (CAMPA), the department plans to motivate and engage especially jobless youth to work at plantations and fencing of forests, sources said. Most of the illicit timber over the past 10 days was recovered from Kandi and Rafiabad forest ranges, an official of the forest Department said.

“Under this programme, residents would be engaged in the fencing of forests and plantations. The department has decided to take the step after great thought and research especially in the smuggling-prone forest ranges,” sources said. They said the decision was taken during a meeting of the forest officials chaired by Conservator of Forests, North circle, Farooq Ahmad Geelani, in Kupwara on Wednesday. Senior forest officials, including DFOs, foresters and officials of the Forest Protection Force took part in the meeting.

Increasing incidents of timber smuggling in the smuggling-prone ranges of Kandi and Rafiabad in north Kashmir were discussed at the meeting.

Geelani urged officials and the field staff to intensify drive against timber smugglers and conduct more awareness programmes on the importance of forests. “During the meeting, the officials supported the idea of engaging people likely to indulge in timber smuggling in fencing of forests and plantations. Under the programme, they will be engaged as casual labourers and paid remuneration on a monthly basis,” sources said.

The forest divisions of Langate, Rafiabad and Kamraj have recovered 760 cubic feet of smuggled timber this month. At least eight horses allegedly used to carry the smuggled timber have also been recovered, sources said.

“The forest officials have now launched a drive to arrest smugglers. The smugglers chop timber at night and use horses or tractors to carry it. We want help of the police and the forest protection force to nab them,” said a forest official.

• The scheme was introduced under Complete Afforestation Management Programme
• The department plans to motivate and engage jobless youth from smuggling-prone areas to work at plantations and fencing of forests

Srinagar, January 12
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) today organised a medical camp in a government school at village Gud Suthoo in Budgam district. Doctors examined and provided free medical assistance to around 1,000 persons here.

The camp was organised by 43 Battalion of the CRPF. “Sudhir Pratap Singh, IGP (CRPF), Srinagar, inaugurated the medical Camp in which around 1,000 men, women and children were examined by a team of six CRPF doctors.

Medicines manufactured by reputed companies were also distributed free of cost to the needy,” CRPF spokesman Sudhir Kumar said in a statement.

He said the CRPF was committed towards helping the needy by way of such camps.

Jammu, January 12
The Jammu Sports on Saturday registered a 4-1 win over Young Star to strengthen their position in the ongoing 7th Christmas Gold Cup Football Tournament being played at Mini Stadium, Parade Ground here.

All the five goals were scored in the first half making it an interesting and decisive phase of the match. Harpreet Singh scored first goal in the 8th minute and second goal came through Harminder Singh in the 15th minute.

With 0-2 down, Young Star made some attempts to minimise the goal margin but in vain. Amandeep Singh then struck another goal in the 22nd minute to make it 3-0. Fourth goal for the Jammu Sports came through Sushil Michal in the 25th minute while Aklesh of Young Star managed to reduce the margin in the 24th minute but by then the writing was on the wall.

In another match, NGR got walkover Young Hero.The matches were officiated by a panel of referees, including Vijay Kumar, Koushal Kumar, Saudagar Matoo, Clint Mattoo, Harmanjeet Singh and Tanpreet Singh.