The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

JU staff suspend strike
Vice Chancellor promises their demands will be seriously looked into
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
Jammu University administration today heaved a sigh of relief after the non-gazetted and causal employees, who were on a token strike for the last 15 days, announced to suspend their agitation till March 30 following assurance of the Vice-Chancellor Professor Mohan Paul Singh Ishar that he would “seriously look” into their demands.

Over 700 non-gazetted employees comprising Class IV and casual workers have been demanding removal of pay anomalies, regularisation of causal workers and reduction in the period of conducting test for promotion of Class IV employees from five years to three years.

“We have decided to suspend our agitation till March 30-the deadline given by the Vice-Chancellor to concede our major demand for regularisation of causal workers. He (V-C) has also assured of early fulfilment of other demands. Our employees will wait till March 30 and if our demands are not met by then, we will revive our agitation," Krishan Chander, president of the Jammu University Non-Gazetted and Causal Workers Association said. He said the employees would resume their duties from tomorrow.

The Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of the varsity met the striking employees and told them their demands had been discussed in the University Council, the supreme executive body of the University vested with all administrative and academic powers. They assured them that their issues would also be resolved soon.

The V-C had earlier constituted a committee to hold a dialogue with the employees. He had said there were only 70 to 80 posts against 705 applicants and most of them had been "absorbed without completing legal formalities and without against any post". The employees abstained from their duties for half day and held a demonstration on the campus.

Power, LPG shortage: Rajouri residents chop trees to overcome
Ranjit Thakur

Rajouri, February 18
Shortage of LPG and snapping of the 132-KV power supply line for past two months in the upper riches of Peer Panchal areas of Rajouri and Poonch owing to heavy snowfall have forced residents of rural areas to cut trees for their survival.

The open loot of state's "green gold" can be seen at Deera Ki Gali, Bafliyaz, Channi Mad and many other areas on the outskirts of the border district Rajouri, where continuous heavy snowfall and rainfalls have turned life out of gear over past few months.

As the Mughal Road was closed due to heavy snowfall, people started chopping trees in these areas. Sources said thousands of trees have been felled due to avalanches at Pir Panjal area especially on the Mughal road.

Mohammed Abdullah, a local resident, claimed power and LPG supply have been disrupted in the area over past two months. This has forced residents to steal timber for survival.

A resident of Channi Mad village said, “Chopping of trees is illegal and it also affects the environment but owing to government negligence people chop trees for their survival. The government needs to provide basic amenities to people in the snow-bound areas to save these trees," he added. "What can people do, when there is not gas supply or electricity, we have no option but to chop trees damaged due to avalanche and otherwise in this chilly weather condition to cook food," a villager said.

A long queue of women can be seen transporting timber on the Mughal road. Heaps of chopped wood is lying on the roadside. Government or forest department employees are nowhere to be seen here to stop chopping of trees. Forest conservator, Rajouri, was unavailable for comments.

Rs 26 cr sanctioned to buy buses for Jammu, Srinagar
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
Government has sanctioned Rs 26 crore to procure 150 buses, 75 each for Jammu and Srinagar under the urban infrastructure development for small and medium towns (UIDSSMT).

Minister for Urban Development and Local Urban Local Bodies, Nawang Rigzin Jora, has asked the concerned functionaries to speed up work to ensure timely completion of projects taken up under the Centrally-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) for the state. He was reviewing the status of the projects taken up under the JNURM in the state at a meeting here today.

Commissioner Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Jeetlal Gupta, senior officers of SMC, JMC, ULD, Kashmir and Jammu and STRC were present.

The centre had sanctioned 108 projects under this programme, while Rs 548 crore had been spent against the total sanctioned cost of Rs 1,312.64 crore.

Under the Integrated housing and slum development programme (IHSDP), the Centre has approved 50 schemes at the cost of Rs 147.60 crore against which Rs 66.07 crore have been spent so far.

Jora asked officers to include all expenses while preparing detailed project reports (DPRs), including the cost to shift utilities to avoid delay in the completion of works. "No excuse will be entertained in the execution of the projects," he said. He asked the officers monitoring the progress of the projects to seek help and advice of the administrative department to remove bottlenecks, if any.

Jora has asked the officers concerned to hire consultants wherever required and ensure that consultant is present at construction sites till the completion of the projects. He also asked the officers to take necessary guidance and advices of the administrative department and ensure that projects were completed in a time-bound manner.

MC staff to go on strike from Feb 26
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The Civic Safaikaramchari Union today announced that the workers and other employees would go on a three-day token strike from February 26. The employees are protesting against the failure of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to address their service related demands.

Union president Devanand Gill said the employees would go on an indefinite strike from March 1 if their demands were not met before February 28. “We are left with no option but to resort to the path of agitation as the JMC authorities have failed to fulfill our demands. The employees will observe two-hour-long strike from February 26 and if their demands are not met before February 28, they would go on an indefinite strike from March 1," Gill said. He said the main demands of the employees include promotions through the Department Promotional Committee (DPC) for all category employees as the JMC authorities had recently promoted only 10 employees against 85 eligible ones, release of two-and-a-half day's salary for the employees, including the field staff, weekly off for field staff (safaikaramcharis), enhancement of salary for the casual workers.

Lack of parking facilities irks Reasi residents
Devinder Thakur

Reasi, February 18
People visiting the main market here face great inconvenience due to non-availability of proper parking area. "It is one of the oldest and biggest bazaars in the district headquarters with a large number of visitors, but the problem of parking is worsening day by day," said Rajesh Kesar, a shopkeeper.

He said both stallholders and shoppers were in trouble due to lack of parking lots.

A motorist Ashok Sharma said the visitors to the market have to park vehicles along the main road that not only leads to traffic jams, but also results in inconvenience for the visitors.

Shiv Kumar, a visitor to the main bazaar, said if there were proper parking arrangements at the bazaars, no one would park vehicles on the roads.

A stallholder at the main bazaar said lack of parking space was affecting his business and also creating problems for shoppers. Executive officer, Municipal Committee, Reasi, Rattan Lal Sharma, said the civic body was aware of the problems faced by the people and would try its best to address these problems.

Govt allocates Rs 50 crore to preserve heritage sites
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The third meeting of the J&K Heritage Conservation & Preservation Authority was held under the chairmanship of Minister for Housing, Horticulture & Culture, Raman Bhalla, to review the progress on the restoration work on various heritage sites across the state.

Commissioner/ Secretary Tourism and Culture, Atal Dulloo, Commissioner/ Secretary R&B, Tanveer Jehan, Secretary JKAACL, Khalid Bashir Ahmed, Consultant Tourism and Culture, KA Qadri, Special Secretary, PWD, Special Secretary, Revenue, Deputy Director Archives besides other senior officers were present.

Bhalla said the government had earmarked a corpus fund of Rs 50 crore to meet expenditure on the conservation and preservation of the rich heritage assets of the state, against which Rs 2 crore had been released to be invested in long and short-term measures for the purpose.

Bhalla said initially three heritage sites one each in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh would be taken up for conservation. He directed the officials concerned to prepare conservation plans for these sites.

He also stressed upon the authorities to take necessary steps to make the authority result-oriented. He said the state had 5,000 years of living traditions, enormous number of monuments, heritage places archaeology sites and their preservation has been the focus of the state government. He said over past four years strenuous efforts were being made to preserve the cultural legacy of the state.

He said enactment of the Heritage Conservation and Preservation Act would help conserve the distinct heritage assets of the state. He said the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act was also updated after a gap of 19 years and rules and regulation for both the Acts were in force for the purpose.

Woman dies of burns; four of in-laws’ family arrested
Our Correspondent

Rajouri, February 18
Fozia Rani, 25, died of burns at the Government Medical College and Hospital here today. The police has arrested four members of her in-laws family for allegedly killing her at her home at Rajal village in Nowshera on February 11. The accused include her husband.

Married four years back, she had two children aged three and a-year-and-a-half.

She was referred to GMCH from a local hospital in Nowshera.

In her statement recorded with the police, Fozia said her mother-in -law Razya Begum, her two sisters-in-law Rubina and Nowseen and her husband Asif had poured kerosene on her before setting her ablaze. Additional SP, Nowshera said the victim’s body was taken to Dalogra to her mother’s house and the accused were arrested.

victim’s statement

Power, water supply repair to cost Rs 10 cr: DC
Darshan Bharti

Poonch, February 18
Poonch Deputy Commissioner Ajeet Kumar Sahu has said the restoration of power and water supply, which was affected due to heavy snowfall, would cost over Rs 10 crore and that the exercise was a major challenge before the district.

He said the Restoration of power supply was a challenge as a number of 132-KV towers were uprooted. He said the 33-KV lines from Mendhar and DKG were made functional in the shortest possible time but the extensive damage to the HT/LT and distribution network would take some time.

Sahu said a large number of projects were under way in the district. He said 75 roads under the PMGSY and 45 roads under the NABARD, having a collective road length of 138 km, were under construction. Another mega road projects are the 52-km-long Mandi-Fagla road and the 44-km-long Sakhi Maidan-Kalai road.

Talking about the power sector, Sahu said a total of 248 new substations had been set up and 148.4 km of HT and 443.52 km of LT lines had been laid to improve the power supply in the district. He said some hydro power projects for local generation of electricity were under way.

He said various buildings were being set up in the district, including the trade facilitation centre in Poonch, a stadium, emergency block of the District Hospital, tehsil office complex in Mandi, Mini Secretariat in Poonch, Mini Secretariat in Mendhar.

Regarding criticism over the monitoring of Centrally sponsored schemes such as MGNREGA, PMGSY and SSA, the Deputy Commissioner said action is taken in cases of embezzlement which come into the notice of the government and administration.

He said the district administration was trying to increase transparency by improving the system, defining procedures and reducing discretions. He appealed to people to use tools such as the RTI and the PSGA in case they come across irregularities or have doubts regarding the same to expose corruption.

Over the lack of parking space in the Poonch town, he said providing “free or subsidised” parking space was not the obligation of government anywhere in the world. He said the government policy was based on the development of the public transport system and to discourage private vehicles as land was being exhausted. He said sufficient parking places were available in the city and asked people to use them reasonably.

BDO holds meeting on delegation of powers to panchayats
Our Correspondent

Rajouri, February 18
Acting on the directions of Rural Development Minister Ali Mohammed Sagar to ensure and facilitate the devolution of powers of 14 departments to panchayats, Nowshera BDO Rajeev Khajuria conducted a meeting of panchayat members, including 36 sarpanches, of Nowshera block.

In the meeting, Khajuria told the panchayat members about the will and seriousness of the government, especially the Chief Minister and the Rural Development Minister to empower the panchayati raj institutions.

He said the government wanted to involve panchayat members in the formulation, execution and supervision of all plans pertaining to 14 departments.

He said to ensure and facilitate the process of transfer of powers to panchayats, he would conduct monthly meetings with officers of 14 departments and panchayat members.

Khajuria was the first to hold the capacity-building camp of panchayat members in Nowshera block. In the meeting, sarpanches appreciated the cooperation of certain departments such as the Rural Development Department, Agricultural Department and the CAPD.

The next meeting of officers of 14 departments and panchayat members will be held on February 20 at the block headquarters.

Health schemes discussed
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
A five-day training programme on Health Management Information System (HMIS) and Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) organised by the State Health Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, began at Jammu University today.

During the event, all programme management units, including Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), Block Medical Officers (BMOs), District Programme Managers (DPMs), District Monitoring and Evaluation Officers (DMEOs) and Block Monitoring and Evaluation Officers (BMEOs) from across the Jammu region will be imparted training on the HMIS and the MCTS.

Dr Yashpal Sharma, Mission Director, NRHM, J&K, inaugurated the training programme wherein over 50 participants attended the first-day session.

Speaking on the occasion, the Mission Director apprised the resource persons from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare about the challenges being faced by the Health Department in the implementation of the MCTS and the HMIS system in the state, including poor Internet connectivity.

He told the participants that they should take maximum advantage of the expertise and experiences of the resource persons and all doubts regarding proper implementation of the HMIS and the MCTS must be shared with the experts to get suitable solutions.

Revealing the importance of the HMIS, he said, “These tools are very important for the purpose of monitoring as these are helpful in tracking all services given to pregnant women and children.”

The Mission Director also insisted upon the CMOs and BMOs to closely monitor the implementation of the HMIS and the MCTS in their respective districts and blocks.

Punjab beat J&K in Vijay Hazare trophy
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The Punjab team beat the J&K team by 48 runs in a match of the North Zone Vijay Hazare Inter-State Cricket Tournament organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at the Cricket Stadium, Dharamshalla, in Himachal Pradesh.

Batting first, the Punjab rode on a quick-fire opening partnership of 102 runs in 12.5 overs from Ravinder Singh and Chandan Madan. Overall the team made 168/8 in 23 overs. The overs were reduced due to rain.

Parvez clean bowled Madan at his individual score of 38 runs off 45 balls. He struck four hits to the fence. Ravinder Singh was the next man to go with an individual score of 60 runs that came off 126 balls.

Parvez then accounted for the dismissal of his IPL teammate Yuvraj Singh by LBW for a naught after beating him twice in the same over. Arshad Sheikh then dismissed GR Singh for 15 runs at the team's total of 131/4 in 18 overs.

Ramdayal Punia then accounted for Taruwar Kohli and Amitoze Singh after the latter made 20 runs off 9 balls. RP Sharma was dismissed by Zahoor Sofi.

For the J&K, Ramdayal Punia and Parvez Rasool claimed two wickets each while Arshad Shekh and Zahoor Sofi took one wicket each.

In reply, the J&K team made 120 runs in 20.4 overs. Openers Shubam Khajuria and Ahmed Umar Banday accumulated 40 runs in five overs. Shubam contributed 25 runs, including a four and two sixes, off 24 balls while Banday scored 11 runs, with a four and one six, off 10 balls.

Skipper Ian Dev Singh fell for duck while Parvez scored 33 runs off 34 balls with the help of four boundaries. Wicketkeeper Obaid Haroon and Hardeep Singh made 17 and 12 runs, respectively. Yuvraj Singh was the pick of the bowlers for Punjab with a three-wicket haul by conceding 17 runs in his 2.3 overs while RP Sharma and RJ Singh claimed two wickets each.

All Star XI, YCC script wins in T20 tourney
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The All Star XI and the Young Cricket Club (YCC) notched up victories in their respective matches to advance into the next round of the ongoing Shaheed Manjeet Singh Memorial Twenty20 Tournament being played at Government Degree College Ground, Poonch, today.

In the first match, the All Star XI got the better of the Prince XI by four wickets. Earlier, batting first, the Prince XI accumulated 114 runs for the loss of all wickets.

Manzoor was the top scorer with 30 runs while Yafir and Basher contributed 18 and 14 runs, respectively. From the All Star, Farhan took four wickets and Gurmeet claimed three wickets.

In reply, the All Star XI chased the score in 17 overs for the loss of six wickets. Dharampal made 42 runs while Rijwal made 19. Lucky and Yafir took three wickets each for the Prince XI. Dharampal was adjudged the man of the match.

In another match, the YCC toppled the Shanker Nagar Club by five wickets.

Batting first, the Shanker Nagar garnered 142 runs for six with Prince being the highest scorer with 51 runs. Gourav and Pankaj contributed 11 and 18 runs, respectively. Rouf Mir Milinga and Balal scalped three and two wickets, respectively, for the YCC.

In reply, the YCC overhauled the target in 17.2 overs with five wickets intact.

Balal and Munna were the top scorers with 37 and 32 runs, respectively. From the Shanker Club, Koushal took two wickets followed by Prince and Rahul who claimed a wicket each.

Balal was declared the man of the match for his all-round performance. The matches were officiated by Pritpal Singh, JP Singh, Pravez Khan, Nawaz Rather and Gurvinder Singh.

Training programme on ‘Aquifer Information System’ begins
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
Five-day-long tier-two training courses on ‘Aquifer Information System and Management Plan’ organised by the Central Ground Water Board for the north western Himalayan region commenced at the JKEDI Udyog Bhawan here today.

The training programme is aimed at building capacity among scientists, engineers, scholars, NGOs and other stakeholders in the water resources sector. The training programme has been organised under the aegis of the National Training Institute of Central Ground Water Board and the Rajiv Gandhi National Ground Water Training & Research Institute, Raipur.

Raghuvir Singh, Director, Geological Survey of India, Jammu, was the chief guest in the inaugural function while Manoj Shrivastava, Regional Director, CGWB, Jammu, presided over the function. Lakhwinder Singh Ravi, Director (Operations), Geological Survey of India, Jammu, also attended the inaugural session.

NR Bhagat, scientist, CGWB, Jammu, briefed about the activities and achievement of the Central Ground Water Board in the state and informed the trainees about the future activities of the board.

‘Moral values must for all-round growth of children’
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The World Women Awakening Organisation (WWAO), J&K Chapter, in collaboration with the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages today organised a seminar to celebrate the ‘Rashtriya Chintan Divas’.

Sabita Bakshi, Additional Secretary, J&K Cultural Academy, presided over the function.

The title of the seminar was ‘Shiksha-Kal, Aaj Aur Kal’, wherein various speakers expressed their views.

Prof Sarla Kohli in her address emphasised the need for all-round development of children by inculcating social and moral values.

Veena Handa highlighted the importance of ‘gurukul’ education.

Sneh Bali, general secretary of the organisation, said youth were influenced by Western culture and that there was a need to teach them Indian social and moral values.

Villagers educated about marketing
Our Correspondent

Rajouri, February 18
The Planning and Marketing wing of the Horticulture Department today organised an awareness programme on packing and grading of products for residents of Dangri, an area on the outskirts of the border district Rajouri.

The head of the Planning and Marketing wing, Rajouri-Poonch, VK Langer, said the awareness camp was organised only for the people of their region so that they could learn how to increase the cost of the product in an open market.

A large number of villagers, panches, sarpanches, senior officials of the state Kissan Advisory Board, Floriculture Department Deputy Director Ashok Kumar attended the camp.

The villagers appreciated the department for educating them about new trends and techniques to improve the market value of products.

PDP protests against minister
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today held a protest against Minister of State for Industries and Commerce Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo. They were protesting against the encroachment of farmland at Mandhera area of Samba by the SIDCO authorities.

The protest was led by PDP leader Sunny Sangral. Villagers also joined the protest.

Sangral alleged that encroachment of the farmland by SIDCO authorities had destroyed standing crops by pushing around tractors. When women tried to stop the employees from pushing tractors they allegedly misbehaved with them. Sangral demanded from the MoS Industries and Commerce to provide compensation to farmers for their loss. He also demanded that the encroachment should be stopped by the SIDCO immediately.

Protest against rising prices of veggies, fuel
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
To protest against rising vegetable and fuel prices, members of the state units of the Dogra Front and the Shiv Sena, led by president Ashok Gupta took out a rally from Raghunath Mandir at Hari Market which culminated at the Press Club.

The protesters held lemons, ginger, potatoes, onions etc in their hands.

They also raised slogans against the UPA government. The rising prices had made life of the common man very difficult, they said.

Deputations call on Tourism Minister
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18
Minister for Tourism Ghulam Ahmed Mir today said the government was committed towards providing better basic amenities to the people of the state and that a massive infrastructure development programme was under way.

He said this while interacting with deputations who had called upon the minister from Valley here today.