In October last year 40 students of the school had a narrow escape when the brakes of the bus they were traveling in failed near Raghunath Temple. They were on their way back home. The bus driver lost control over the vehicle after the bus hit a Santro-make car. Later, passersby and the traffic policemen stopped the bus and rescued the children.

Jammu, February 7
Nearly 800 ambulances run by the Health Department in the urban areas and under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) will get new exterior design and colour coding for proper identification. Tenders have been floated under the name of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) for the makeover.

Though the state is facing shortage of ambulances and is far behind other states in providing such a service to the people, but under the centrally-sponsored scheme, it has been made mandatory to upgrade the emergency health vehicles, absence of which hudreds had lost their lives every year.

As per the tender issued by the health department, the ambulances will now have the logo of NAS and 102 toll free number on it painted in red colour for identification. It will also have ambulance written in Hindi and Urdu so that it can be identified properly by the people.

It was also proposed to install Global Positioning System (GPS) on these vehicles, but in view of the infrastructure and separate manpower needed for the project the idea has been put on the backburner.

In the present system, there are control rooms in all district hospitals of the state. Those requiring the ambulance service calls these control rooms. The officials in the control room then inform the Block Medical Officers (BMOs), Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) or the Superintendents concerned who then send the ambulances.

A senior officer said under the NRHM, procurement of 25 ambulances and 11 medical mobile units for high focus districts is in process. After the procurement is finalised, each of the critical care and medical mobile unit will be deployed in the districts, including erstwhile Doda district.

new look

* Nearly 800 ambulances run by the Health Department in the urban areas and under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) will get new exterior design and colour coding for proper identification

* Tenders have been floated under the name of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) for the makeover

* Under the centrally-sponsored NRHM scheme, it has been made mandatory to upgrade the emergency health vehicles

* The ambulances will now have the logo of NAS and 102 toll free number on it painted in red colour for identification

* The vehicles will also have ambulance written on them in Hindi and Urdu

Jammu, February 7
Clamouring for jobs hundreds of youth from the region had a harrowing time today as they stood in long queues to submit forms at the administrative office of the JK Service Selection Board (SSB) at Paloura here. Youth jostled with each other at the office of the SSB to submit the forms for the recently advertised posts for the state, divisional and district cadres.

However, the department has extended the last date for submission of forms till February 20. A total of 3,193 posts were advertised by the SSB on December 28, 2012.

"Though, the application form is OMR based but still we have been asked to submit a photocopy of all the necessary documents and that too attested by a Gazetted officer. Interestingly, the cost of the application form was raised from Rs 100 to Rs 200. Further, the jobs notified by the SSB will fetch meagre salaries to the selected candidates for the first five years, as the new recruitment policy has replaced the salary content with stipend," said an applicant.

Jammu, February 7
The city unit of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today alleged that the Government Medical College (GMC) was discriminating with poor patients.

Addressing mediapersons, Vikram Singh, senior party leader asked the Health Minister to provide treatment to the critical patients in the emergency ward of the hospital and provide them free medicines.

The PDP leaders have demanded that senior doctors be present for 24-hours in the hospital emergency ward. They have also demanded that more ventilators be provided as the hospital had only five ventilators.

He also demanded that an ambulance be provided with ventilator in the Hospital for critical emergency cases as there were many cases which were referred by the Government Medical College to other states.

Girish Sharma, district vice president of the party has condemned the negligence of the authorities in solving the problems at the hospital which was facing lack of medical staff as well as medicines. He alleged that the authorities were not heeding to several appeals made to solve the problems in the hospital.

Jammu, February 7
Minister for Housing, Raman Bhalla, today said the government has started development of all the periphery localities of urban pockets under a comprehensive plan to create adequate infrastructure to improve basic amenities.

The minister was interacting with the residents of Preet Nagar and Udham Singh Nagar after inaugurating Rs 26 lakh development works here today.

Bhalla asked the Jammu Municipal Corporation to complete the works like upgrade of the lanes and drains deadline.

He also asked them to use quality material. He said the government was committed to create durable infrastructure with a prospective planning.

Jammu, February 7
Jammu born model Sourab Khajuria is hogging the headlines in the United Kingdom these days as he has been short-listed for the crown of Britain's Best Groomed Man. He beat off thousands of entrants and will now battle it out with an online public vote all over the world.

Sourab, 28, of Holland Road, Radford beat thousands of competitors to make it to the list of 30 finalists, who will now battle it out through an online public vote from all over the world. Sourabh is the only Indian among the finalists.

The winner will bag one-year modelling contract as the face of The Bluebeards Revenge, a male grooming brand.

A recent survey by the firm found the best groomed celebrity in the country was Scottish actor Gerard Butler followed by Gary Barlow of Take That and style icon David Beckham.

Sourab, 28, said, “I started modelling a few months back. I've been acting in short films, and in this industry, looks are very important. It's good to get into a routine of grooming in the morning and I am the only one representing India here. I have a friend who died of cancer in his 30s. My driving instructor's brother also died of cancer recently. I know that lots of people get it and I don't think men take it as seriously. Not enough people get themselves examined. I think that getting examined for signs of cancer should be a natural part of the grooming process," he said.

The competition was launched after a recent survey found that while men are getting more and more into grooming, they still do not get themselves examined for cancer, unlike women.

Jammu, February 7
The All Jammu and Kashmir Forestry Graduates’ and DDR Association (AJKFG & DDR) asked the government to take a final call on the Rehbar-e-Janglat project, in which forestry graduate students were to be absorbed on the pattern of Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) and Rehbar-e-Zirat (ReZ) projects.

The association said they would head towards New Delhi to meet the Central Government and hold protest at the Jantar Mantar if their demand was not met.

In a press statement, the association leaders said in 2004 the government had advertised the posts in the Forest Department through the Service Selection Board (SSB), in which 30 points were to be given to class XII pass outs, 25 points to B Sc and forestry/DDR pass outs, 10 points to M Sc pass outs.

However, when the posts were advertised in 2006, the same criteria was not followed and the points for the students, who had professional degree in forestry/DDR, were decreased and points for class XII pass outs were increased.

The deduction of points for the forest graduates continued in 2008 and in addition to this PhD degree in forestry was excluded from the criteria. When the SSB advertised posts in 2010, the criteria was changed and the points for forestry graduates/DDR were further decreased.

At that time, the SSB offered 10 points to B Sc graduates, five points to DDR, five to M Sc forestry.

The association has claimed that the candidates were called for fitness test and they were asked to appear in the written test, which were not mentioned 
in the advertisements, issued in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010. 

Jammu, February 7
The Jammu Private Schools’ and ETT Institutes’ Association (Progressive) held a meeting under the chairmanship of its President Deep Singh today.During the meeting, the association criticised the functioning of the Directorate of School Education and said that State Institution of Education was depriving private educational institutions of participation in the science exhibitions, being held time to time.

The association also added that private teachers were also not being considered for various government awards despite their significant contribution in the education sector.The association expressed resentment over the announcement of holidays in the recent past. The association said the holidays were needed to be announced from January 1 to 15 instead of December 24 to 31.

Deep Singh said the long-pending recognition of middle schools due to alleged controversy over the SRO-123 was causing unrest among promoters. Others who attended the meeting, included Pankaj Sangral, KK Rao, Dr Ghanshyam Singh Charak and Saraf.

Jammu, February 7
Jagti Tenement Committee, Jagti Nagrota, on Thursday held a meeting under the chairmanship of BL Raina to discuss the issues, related to Kashmiri pandits (KP). While addressing the meeting, Shadi Lal Pandita, president of the committee, demanded relief for the month of February 2013.

Besides, he demanded that the arrears should be paid to the migrants so that they could celebrate the Shivratri festival with gaiety.

Referring to the little increase in the cash relief granted to the migrants by the government, Pandita said the increase had not been made in tune with the extent of market rise and as per the demands of the migrants.

He also appealed to the government to reconsider the matter.

Shadi Lal Pandita also criticised the government for not filling all the posts, provided under the employment package of the Prime Minister of India and urged the government to make a pace in this direction. He said the unemployed youth of the migrant community were suffering a lot.

“To do away with the migrant status of the KPs, who have been in exile for the last 23 years, we demand one time return and rehabilitation should be done in favour of KP migrants, rehabilitating them at one place in the valley and granting them compensation for the losses, suffered during all the years of migration,” Pandita said.

Those who attended the meeting, included M L Akhoon, B L Dhar, V K Bhan, Rajinder Dhar, Shiban Ji Raina, Rattan Lal Bhat, Vijay Kumar Pandita, Ramesh Bhat, Roshan Lal Bhat, Satish Pandita and Satish Bagati.

Jammu, February 7
Arrangements for the day-long Police Public Mela, being held in Jammu were finalised at a high-level police officers’, meeting held at Armed Police Headquarters (APHQ) today. The meeting was chaired by K Rajindra Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Armed/Law and Order.

Addressing the meeting, Rajindra said the Police Public Mela would be inaugurated at 10 am on February 24 and raffle draw for 5,606 fabulous prizes would be held at 4 pm in the presence of public. He sought reports from the committees, constituted for making required arrangements, and asked the organisers to make the event a success. He said the event, being organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Police Wives Welfare Association (PWWA), was one of the grand events of the organisation. The mela has assumed importance and has brought the police and public closer.

Rajindra said people’s participation had encouraged the organisation to conduct the event regularly in Srinagar and Jammu. Products of different regions of the state have been put up for sale at the stalls established by the different units of the organisation. People have shown great interest in the purchase of these products and children’s participation in painting competition and different games is a special attraction in the mega event. Bumper prize has also attracted people to purchase the raffle draw tickets, which have already been put up for sale at different prominent places across the state.

Chennai, February 7
The Minister of State for Health (independent charge), Shabir Ahmad Khan, said that Jammu and Kashmir had recorded a landmark achievements in the health sector and this was made possible by the efforts of the the state government and liberal financial assistance provided by the Centre under the flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

He said this during a three- day long summit on “Call to Action for Child Survival and Development”, organised by the Union Health Ministry at Mahabalipuram, Chennai, to demonstrate joint commitment of the Central and State Governments to support the broad range of interventions for improving maternal and child health in the Country.

The conference was chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and attended by the Health Ministers of various States besides senior functionaries of the Centre and state health departments.

The State Health Minister said health indicators in Jammu and Kashmir had improved and were comparatively better than the national average.

He said the TFR of the state had reduced from 2.3 in 2006 to 2.0 in 2010 and the state has been able to cross the stipulated target of 2.1 by 2012 under the NRHM.

Shabir said the infant mortality rate had come down by 11.0 points from 52 in 2006 to 41 in 2011 against the national average of 44 points.

He said the neo-natal mortality rate had also declined from 39 in 2007 to 35 in 2011.

He said efforts were being made to reduce it further by laying stress on facility-based and home-based neo-born care.

Jammu, February 7
A committee constituted by the Legislative Council has directed the Department of Home to resolve issues faced by refugees from the Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) who are living in Jammu and Kashmir. The Departmental Related Standing Committing (DRSC) of the Legislative Council met here yesterday under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ghulam Rasool.

The committee also reviewed the working of the on the Department of Home.

Rasool also highlighted the role of the police in maintaining the law and order situation and stressed upon senior functionaries to be more people-friendly while performing their duties. He also called upon the police to work in coordination with the civil administration for better and effective policing.

Rasool also held discussions on implementation of the rehabilitation policy for militants. The committee members also stressed upon the department to strengthen women police cells and strengthen criminal law in the light of the National policy, better management of traffic and improvement in regulation in the hill areas of the state.

The committee members also took a serious note of the death of more than 5,000 persons road accidents over last three and half years and called for effective measures to stop such mishaps. The committee has suggested setting up of a high-level inter-departmental coordination committee to sort out the issues regarding licence procedure, validation of route permit, road safety measures.

Poonch, February 7
To lend a helping hand to the children of remote areas under the operation “Sadbhavana”, 15 Jat Battalion under the aegis of the Poonch Brigade distributed furniture and books among five government schools of Mandi Tehsil, which include GMS Dunnugam, GMS Jandrola, GMS Bedar, GMS Kinari and GMS Nakla Sathra.

The furniture and books were distributed by the Doda Battalion, located at Sekloo area in Mandi Tehsil. The books and furniture were donated to provide better education facilities to the children, studying in the remote areas of Poonch. A remarkable cultural programnmee was also presented by the students. Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Khaliq, a student, said,” I am happy to see the new books and furniture. It will be good when the school reopens after vacations. we will sit on the new desks and benches. We are grateful to the Army"

Brigadier M K Mago SM, Commander, Poonch Brigade, said:" The Army will continue to assist schools by providing basic necessities for the better education. He said arming the next generation with quality education would ensure a bright future for the nation.

The students and the staff members appreciated the initiative of the Army, which will contribute towards improving the standard of education in the schools. The teachers promised to make full use of the furniture and books for the students of these remote areas. Army officers also promised to provide all possible assistance to the needy children in future also. 

Jammu, February 7
Krishna Cricket Club (KCC) got better of Bhagat Cricket Club (BCC) by 36 runs in the ongoing T20 Cricket Tournament, being played at Sarore village today. Batting first after winning the toss, KCC accumulated a challenging total of 187 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs. KCC batsmen took full advantage of some wayward bowling by the BCC bowlers, who lacked the sting.

Atul was the main scorer for KCC. He scored brilliant 72, studded with eight boundaries. His knock also contained two mighty heaves for the maximum. Ravi and Shankar chipped in with handy knocks of 15 and 19 runs respectively.

For BCC, Jugal was the wrecker-in-chief with a haul of two wickets while Vikas and Vivek claimed one wicket each. In reply, BCC lost wickets at regular intervals, making it hard to chase the target.

The team got out for 151 runs in 18.3 overs. Sourab was the only batsman who waged a lone battle against the accurate bowling of KCC bowlers.

He scored a gutsy 56 while the remaining batsmen cut a sorry figure. For KCC, Nishant was the chief destroyer with four wickets while Sachin and Ramesh shared two wickets each.

Jammu, February 7
The Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department on Thursday re-fixed the rates of chicken and eggs following an increase in the wholesale prices of poultry products, for next 10 days.

In a notification, Director, CAPD Department, said chicken (live) would now cost Rs 130 per kg, whereas the price of eggs had been fixed at Rs 50 per dozen.