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House panel begins probe into Rs
300-cr JAKFED scam
CAG pulls up govt for supplying contaminated water to Budgam
Spurious drugs scam
After LeT militant’s arrest, police claims multiple attacks solved
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War of words between NC, Cong intensifies
Shabir seeks Rs 30 lakh compensation for ‘illegal’ detention
Jammu’s groundwater high in toxicity, says research
Governor, CM for setting up incubation centres at varsities
Guv inaugurates hi-tech lab at Jammu varsity
Remembering eminent teachers, scientists must, says Vohra
Srinagar’s pride: Shalimar Hammam opens for public
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House panel begins probe into Rs
300-cr JAKFED scam
Jammu, April 22 The House Committee was constituted during the just concluded budget session of the Assembly, when members cutting across party lines had alleged huge bungling in this cooperative society. Minister of State for Cooperatives Manohar Lal Sharma had himself admitted on the floor of the Legislative Council that from 1997 to 2001, 22 FIRs were lodged regarding different scams in
JAKFED. He, however, said that 14 FIRs were closed due to lack of evidence. One of the members of the House Committee told The Tribune on condition of anonymity that many big sharks were involved in embezzlement and bungling in
JAKFED. “It was all due to the pressure of these influential people that no action has been taken so far against the accused who were involved in the JAKFED scams involving crores of rupees,” he admitted. He, however, asserted that this time the responsibility would be fixed on officers who were at the helm of affairs at the time of embezzlement and bungling. “In our first meeting today, we asked the officers concerned to produce all documents,” he said, adding that the formal investigation would start from April 25, when the second meeting of the House Committee would be held. Meanwhile, an official handout issued by the government stated that the House Committee constituted to examine the details of the alleged bungling in JAKFED convened its first meeting here today under the chairmanship of Khalid Najib
Suharwardy. The other members of the Committee who attended the meeting included Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Ali Mohammad Dar and Syed Rafiq Shah. The Committee sought a detailed report of the special audit and its outcome, CAG report, action taken report, copy of the FIR along with the names of the officers, officials and suppliers allegedly involved in the scam and the inquiry
(Pillai Committee) report. Bungling allegations
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CAG pulls up govt for supplying contaminated water to Budgam
Srinagar, April 22 The report, which was released here by the Principal Accountant-General (Audit) earlier this month, reveals that out of 75 water supply schemes under execution during 2007-12, only 40 (47 per cent) had been completed at an expenditure of Rs 77.63 crore as of March, 2012. Pointing out that there was no water-testing laboratory at the district level, the report said contaminated water was being supplied to several areas of Budgam. “There was no water-testing laboratory at the district-level. The only Public Health Engineering (PHE) divisional level laboratory available at Budgam was a skeletal Water Testing Laboratory which caters to divisional area only…audit scrutiny of the records revealed that there were 244 water supply schemes in the two PHE divisions of the district. Out of these, filtration plants were available for 70 (30 per cent) schemes and the rest 170 schemes were without filtration plants indicating that water was being fed to the people without any filtration and purification system,” the report said. Quoting audit of the state Health Department, it said bacterial analysis of water had been conducted during 2011-12 for the presence of faecal contamination. The report further states that samples were collected at different places and sources, out of which 28 were found unsatisfactory and were declared unfit for human consumption and other uses. The report said several schemes for water supply had not been completed in Budgam. “The completed schemes had resulted in the coverage of 261 villages benefiting 3,95,204 people. Out of 34 schemes taken up during the period prior to 2006-07 at an estimated cost of Rs 40.32 crore, 28 schemes had been completed after a delay of four to 11 years and with a cost-overrun of Rs 26.20 crore (2011-12). Out of the 24 schemes taken up during 2007-08 and 2008-09 at an estimated cost of Rs 53.65 crore, only 12 schemes had been completed,” it said. To ensure that quality drinking water facility is provided to consumers, the CAG report said it was essential that the water supply schemes feeding local population were provided with filtration plants to make water worth drinking and free from harmful elements and chemicals. It has also urged the authorities to ensure timely completion of in-hand schemes in a time-bound manner and enhance water-testing mechanism for timely detection of contamination. Poor execution of schemes
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Spurious drugs scam
Jammu, April 22 A senior officer of the Crime Branch said Amardeep Raina was arrested from New Delhi late last night. Amardeep is Ashok Raina’s brother, who was arrested by the Crime Branch yesterday afternoon after a case was registered in connection with the purchase of spurious drugs. “Following a tip-off, a Crime Branch team was deputed to New Delhi to nab Amardeep,” the officer said. He said Amardeep was reportedly one of the proprietors of the company which supplied the fake drugs. Raina has been brought to Jammu for further questioning. The search is on to nab another accused, Akhil Gadoo, who is the second proprietor of the company, the officer said. The Crime Branch team has seized important documents and some material
in connection with the case during raids at various places in Jammu and outside. The inquiry committee constituted by the government to probe lapses in purchase of spurious drugs, submitted its report on Saturday. The panel had given a clean chit to former Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma but blamed Life Line Pharmaco Surgical Company for the supply of spurious drugs. The inquiry committee had ordered a probe by the Crime Branch and the Vigilance Organisation against the proprietors of Life Line Pharmaco Surgical and officials of the purchase committee of the Medical Education Department. Meanwhile, a special investigation team has been constituted by the Crime Branch to conduct investigation into the case on a day-to-day basis under the supervision of the SSP, Crime Branch, Jammu. Raina was today produced before the Court of the Additional Munsiff (Forest Magistrate), Jammu, which has remanded him in police custody for eight days. |
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After LeT militant’s arrest, police claims multiple attacks solved
Srinagar, April 22 The arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) commander Qari Naveed, alias Fahadullah, a Pakistani national, last week and subsequent arrests of his accomplices has helped the police to create a map of over a dozen attacks carried out in north Kashmir in recent months. A senior police officer said the arrests had helped solve a dozen grenade attacks and the killing of a youth inside a mosque in March and provided “crucial clues” regarding the killing of sarpanch Ghulam Mohammad Yatoo of Palhalan and former counter-insurgent Bashir Ahmad Ganaie of Kunzer in
Tangmarg. All these attacks took place in various parts of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. “With the arrest of the LeT commander in Sopore and subsequent arrests, we have been able to solve the murder case of Suhail Ahmad
Sofi, besides getting some crucial clues about the killings of Yatoo and
Ganaie,” the officer said. While Suhail Ahmad Sofi was killed inside a mosque on March 19 in the Doabgah area of Sopore town, Yatoo was killed at Palhalan village in September last year and Ganaie was killed on March 8 this year near his house. The officer said Feroz Ahmad Dar, a resident of Alsafa Colony of Sopore town, has been arrested in Sofi’s killing case. “On eyewitness account, his own confession and recovery of the weapon of offence and the matching empty cartridges recovered from the crime scene, a case of murder was prima facie established against accused Feroz Ahmad Dar and co-accused Fahadullah who provided him a pistol to kill Suhail Ahmad
Sofi,” he said. The official said Dar chased Sofi and shot him dead inside a mosque as the militant outfit had suspected Sofi of being “an informer of security forces”.
LeT militant Shabir Ahmad Sheikh, who was killed last week in an encounter at
Amargad, Sopore, was “behind the killing” of Yatoo, a sarpanch from
Amargad, the officer said. Others, who took part in the killing, have also been arrested. The officer said Sheikh was also involved in the killing of former counter-insurgent Bashir Ahmad Ganaie at
Kunzer. The police has arrested several conduits of the militant outfit and solved a dozen cases of grenade attacks in and around Sopore town, the officer said. His role
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BJP may contest only 27 of 87 Assembly seats
Jammu, April 22 Although the BJP in its state executive committee meeting, which concluded on Sunday, announced that it would contest the Assembly elections to form the government, party insiders say that the state unit is not in a position to find potential candidates even to replace the seven MLAs who were expelled from the party on charges of cross-voting. Seven
MLAs, including veteran party leader and former Union Minister Chaman Lal Gupta, were expelled from the BJP after party legislators had allegedly voted in favour of National Conference and Congress candidates in the Legislative Council elections held on April 13, 2011. Sources in the BJP said the Central leaders who were present in the executive committee meeting had asked the state unit to identify potential candidates but the party had so far failed to find candidates for these seats. “As the masses are fed up with the conduct of the present leaders, new faces are not coming forward to join the
BJP”, a source said while alleging that that senior leaders were themselves not interested in the growth of the party because they wanted their political dominance to continue. The sources said during the executive committee meeting some leaders flatly said that the party was in a position to contest only 27 Assembly seats. “These 27 seats would be categorised into A, B and C category seats,” a source said, adding that at present the party was considering just six seats in “A” category. It is all due to the eroding credibility of the BJP that seven expelled MLAs have refused to accept the offer of the party leadership to rejoin the party. The expelled MLAs have succeeded in creating an impression among the BJP workers that they were victimised by senior central leaders to protect their blue-eyed boys, who are known for their “proximity” to the National Conference. Just before the 2002 Assembly elections too, the BJP had faced a credibility crisis when two party MLAs had joined the National Conference and the party was completely wiped out from the Jammu region. |
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War of words between NC, Cong intensifies
Jammu, April 22 As provincial president of the NC Devender Singh Rana had yesterday flayed J-K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Saifuddin Soz’s remarks on the poll prospects of his party, the JKPCC spokesman today hit back at Rana. Taking strong exception to Rana’s statement JKPCC spokesperson Ravinder Sharma reminded the NC leader that it was the Congress which had two-thirds majority when power was handed over to Sheikh Abdullah in 1975, keeping in view the larger interests of the people. “It is unfortunate that the NC leader is not aware of the history of the Congress, which has always played a crucial role in the state to strengthen mainstream politics and democracy in the state,” Sharma stated in a statement issued here today. He said, “The Congress has always promoted secular forces in the state and for this purpose entered into an alliance, from time to time, to provide democratic governments in the state”. Sharpening the attack on the NC, he said: “It is with this responsibility that the
Congress entered the coalition with the NC, which was in wilderness from 2002 to 2008.” The Congress leader was referring to the six years when the NC was part of the Opposition. However, it was only after the NC refused to form the government that the PDP and Congress cobbled together a coalition that collapsed six months before its full tenure. Sharma, however, added that the coalition would last its full term. Rana on Sunday, while reacting to Soz’s claims, had made a veiled attack on the Congress leadership. He flayed Soz for announcing that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party in the 2014 elections. — TNS |
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Shabir seeks Rs 30 lakh compensation for ‘illegal’ detention
Srinagar, April 22 The J&K High Court has taken his plea as a habeas corpus petition which came up before the single bench today. The HC has given the government and other official respondents two weeks’ time to file their objections in this regard. The police had arrested Shah on February 9 and lodged him in Central Jail,
Srinagar, to ward off protests in the wake of Afzal Guru’s hanging in
Tihar. Shah, who is also a senior executive member of the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was later shifted to the Kotbalwal jail in Jammu from Central Jail on March 16. He was released on April 16 after two months of the preventive detention. Shah had challenged his arrest under Section 107 (preventive detention) and his subsequent lodging at the Kotbalwal jail in Jammu in the high court wherein he had termed his shifting as “illegal”. “My client has been released since but the plea seeking compensation of Rs 30 lakh for his illegal detention and shifting. The high court today directed the authorities to file their objection within two weeks,” Shah’s counsel Mir Shafaqat Hussain said. The state government, in its earlier response, to the court had submitted that Shah was shifted to the Kotbalwal jail on the orders of the DG (Prisons) following overcrowding in Central Jail, Srinagar. “Under the law, the jail authorities cannot shift a person detained under preventive custody to another jail. Only an executive magistrate can order this,” Shafaqat said. |
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Jammu’s groundwater high in toxicity, says research Jammu, April 22 The non-biting midge fly is an insect that resembles a mosquito and is a bio-indicator of stress, in response to different pollutants present in the water. Pragya, who has been assigned a project - “Physico-chemical and microbiological analysis of underground water in and around Jammu region and study on genotoxic effect of different pollutants” - has also found that a majority of industrial units in the region either do not have effluent treatment plants (ETPs) or have faulty ones as they continue to dump toxic effluents directly into drains and nullahs (freshwater rivulets) thereby polluting groundwater and affecting aquatic life in rivulets. But State Pollution Control Board chairman Arun Tickoo doesn’t agree with the research findings, saying the ETPs are in place wherever needed. A source in his office, however, not only admits that a majority of industrial units in the state either lack ETPs or have faulty ones but also says the project of having six common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) - three each in industrial estates of Jammu and Srinagar - hangs in the balance. The process was initiated three years ago, he says. “If reconciliatory measures are not initiated immediately to check effluents contaminating groundwater and freshwater streams like Basantar, Balole and Devak, the situation will assume alarming proportions over the next 10 years, causing diseases such as cancer to people,” she warns. |
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Governor, CM for setting up incubation centres at varsities
Jammu, April 22 The Governor and the Chief Minister were addressing the University Council meeting of the University of Kashmir at Raj Bhawan here today. The Governor stressed the importance of a corpus fund being established by pooling resources to provide help to needy students in pursuing their education and research aspirations. The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, stressed the importance of a small expert group being set up for evolving a broad approach in identifying subjects and courses which may be offered to students in both Kashmir and Jammu universities which are in sync with the emerging and future job market requirements. He observed that there was also a need for imparting teaching in particular courses in which skills are also imparted to enable the youth of the state to get jobs. Referring to the functioning of the Institute of Kashmir Studies at the University of Kashmir, he observed that the contents of courses offered by it should adequately reflect on the pluralistic foundations in the centuries past and the Sufi traditions for which J&K has been known all over the world. The Governor and the Chief Minister observed that the youth of the state, who are second to none in talent, caliber and capacity and have proved their mettle in all spheres of human endeavour, are capable of performing even better when provided enabling opportunities. Omar, who is the Pro-Chancellor of the University, emphasised the need for the autonomous centres of the state universities committing themselves by entering into result framework commitments to become fully answerable. Minister for Higher Education Mohammad Akbar Lone put forth various suggestions for improving the quality of teaching and research on a sustainable basis and making the universities and other institutions of higher education in the state centres of excellence. Prof Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir, in his powerpoint presentation, dwelt on the status of various ongoing research projects and those in the pipeline, achievements of the university since the last meeting of the Council, courses introduced and initiatives in the pipeline. He also gave details of the functioning of the off-site campuses of the university and the courses offered. The meeting discussed agenda items and took decisions thereon. The meeting was attended by Prof MPS Ishar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu; RP Aggarwal, former secretary, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development; Deepak Pental; KB Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, Higher Education; BB Vyas, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Principal Secretary, Finance; Navin K Choudhary, Principal Secretary to the Governor; and Prof Zafar Ahmad, Registrar, University of Kashmir. |
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Guv inaugurates hi-tech lab at Jammu varsity
Jammu, April 22 Speaking on the occasion, he emphasised on the need for working out collaborative arrangements with other universities in the state to optimally benefit from this facility to promote the economic advancement. He asked the Head, Department of Computer Science and IT, Jammu University, to draw up a practical time frame for the optimum utilisation of this laboratory to maximise its benefits. Vohra, who is the Chancellor of the University, suggested the Vice-Chancellor to consider running short-term certificate courses, besides commencing the projected M Tech programme. He observed that this would enhance the skills and efficiency levels and employability potential of those, who receive such training. The Governor lauded Reapan Tikoo, CEO, Powai Labs, Mumbai, for his efforts in contributing to establishing this valuable facility in the Jammu University. He gave away certificates to some of the faculty members on the occasion. Earlier, he inaugurated the lab and was briefed about the software developed for the programmes being carried out here. He also witnessed a step-wise demonstration on the functioning of the laboratory. Prof MPS Ishar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, thanked the Governor for inaugurating the laboratory which is very important addition to the hi-technology in the university. He said that it would increase the employability of the students. Earlier, in his welcome address, Prof Vibhakar Mansotra, Head, Department of Computer Science & IT, University of Jammu, said the Image VLSI and Embedded System Laboratory was bound to boost academics and research in the area of Image VLSI and Embedded System in the state. He said with the setting of this high-tech laboratory, the facilities of specialised in-depth training in the field of VLSI and Embedded Technology had become available to the students from different streams, particularly in chip verification and design. |
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Remembering eminent teachers, scientists must, says Vohra
Jammu, April 22 The Governor observed that it was important in the process of nation building to remember eminent teachers and scientists for their contributions to various spheres of human endeavour in taking the country forward. He recalled the contribution of Prof DN Wadia who laid the foundation of geological investigation in India. He also remembered the pioneering work done by him in mapping the Himalayas. The Governor paid tribute to Prof Wadia for his contribution and expressed the hope that the coming generations would benefit from the museum. Earlier, the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, unveiled the bust of Wadia and planted a sapling of Magnolia Grandiflora in front of the museum. He went around the museum and took a keen interest in the mineral, rock and fossil sections. Prof MPS Ishar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu, thanked the Governor for his keen interest and support in establishing the museum at the university. Prof Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir, congratulated the University of Jammu for setting up the museum and assured all possible support it required for the museum. Prof GM Bhat, Head of the Department of Geology, University of Jammu, gave details of the aims and objectives of establishing the museum. Prof SK Khosa, Dean Sciences, University of Jammu, presented a vote of thanks. A documentary was screened which threw light on Prof Wadia’s life and research contributions. |
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Srinagar’s pride: Shalimar Hammam opens for public
Srinagar, April 22 Hundreds of years later, the Shalimar Hammam in the picturesque Shalimar Mughal garden has been brought to life and glory by the Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage (INTACH). The doors of the luxurious Hammam, used only by Jehangir and his wife in the 17th century, are now open to the public. The J&K Chapter of INTACH took up restoration of the heritage site in 2003. It evacuated intact architectural components from the heritage site and cleaned up the debris that had made the historically significant monument lose its glory. “Fortunately, there was no major damage to the interiors of this Hammam, especially the exquisite Badshahi bricks (small kiln burnt bricks) of which it is made. As we dug deeper, we found that its glass tomb was perfectly intact. Our first step was to conserve all the structures at this heritage site,” Saleem Beg, chairman of INTACH’s J&K Chapter, said. The manner of construction of the Shalimar Hammam reveals many facets of the life of Mughal emperors. “It is basically a square structure comprising five chambers. Each chamber was known as a ‘khaana’. There were two ‘Rakh Khaanas’ (changing rooms), a ‘Jam Khaana’ (rest room), a ‘hauz’ (bathing pool) and a toilet used by Emperor Jehangir and his wife,” Beg said. While not causing any major alteration to any structural entity of the monument, INTACH has set up multi-colour skylights in the corridors and on the ceilings and walls of Shalimar Hammam. “Archaeological surveys show that traditional water channels that still run in the Shalimar Garden where this monument is located were made of ceramic back then,” Beg said. Symbol of love
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Srinagar, April 22
Governor NN Vohra inaugurated hi-tech image VLSI and embedded systems laboratory at the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Jammu here today.
Speaking on the occasion, he emphasised on the need for working out collaborative arrangements with other universities in the state to optimally benefit from this facility to promote the economic advancement.
