Jammu, April 30
The Jammu Tawi railway station now has a modernised post office. Round-the-clock postal services have been made available at the post office. Chief Post Master General (CPMG), J&K Circle, John Samuel, dedicated the modernised Jammu Tawi Railway Station Post Office complex under ‘Project Arrow’ today. It is the third post office which was modernised this year after Qazigund and Gulmarg post offices.

The post office has a speed post centre, mail business centre, mail processing centre and has been designed on modern lines and provided with best infrastructure to provide postal facilities, including the tourists under one roof. He said, “Thousands of tourists from across the world arrive at the railway station. The railway station is ideal for the Department of Post (DoP) to provide services to the visitors and we have upgraded the complex to facilitate 
the tourists.”

Samuel said the complex has been tailor-made to fit the needs of customers as well as tourists. He said it has post shop facilities such as packaging material, dry fruits and saffron for sale. He also briefed about the department’s plan to improve the postal infrastructure in the state. He said 20 post offices, including New University Campus, Talab Tillo, Vijaypur, Jourian, Lakhanpur, Ramban, Reasi, Banihal and Batote, will also be modernised soon.

Director Postal Services, J&K, Jagdeep Gupta and Director Finance (Postal) J&K, Amit Sharma also spoke on the occasion. Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Rattan Lal presented vote of thanks. RN Meena, DTM Jammu Railways and SP GRP Jammu, Shiv Kumar Sharma were also present.

Rajouri, April 30
Minister of State for Health Shabir Ahmad Khan, during his tour to border areas of the Manjakote block, today reviewed several ongoing projects and directed executing agencies to complete the projects with in the deadline.

He reviewed the pace of progress on three water supply schemes (WSSs). He was apprised that till date Rs 3.69 crore has been spend on the execution of these WSSs, which are expected to be commissioned within two months.

Responding to complaints of locals that substandard material had been used for constructing the Water Supply Scheme at Mangalnar, the minister directed Executive Engineer PHE, Rajouri, to investigate the matter and submit a factual report to the government within a week.

He asked the sectoral officers to ensure use of quality material in execution of projects and conduct frequent visits to the project sites.

He addressed public meetings at border villages Mangalnor and Bareri and assured the people that their genuine demands would be fulfilled in a phased manner.

He said Rs 7 crore had been earmarked, this year, for the development of rural infrastructure in the Manjakote block.

Rajouri, April 30
The police has arrested four persons, including two policemen and two government employees, for adduction and rape of a 2--year-old woman in Thanamandi area of Rajouri.

The victim has identified the other accused as a forest guard, Ishtyaq Hussain Shah of Manyal in Thanamandi and Mohammed Sarfaraz Khan of Manyal a class IV employee of the education department.

The police arrested a head constable Muslim Hussain Shah posted at Budhal under Section 109 for hatching a conspiracy.

The victim was rescued within 24 hours from Challasa area of Mendhar from the clutches of the accused constable Sajjad Hussain Shah of Mendhar posted at Banihal in Ramban and arrested him. —OC

Katra, April 30
Defying the government order on fixation of fare, minibus and bus operators here continued to overcharge passengers. They are being charged Rs 30 instead of Rs 26.5 for the Katra -Reasi route.

Many passengers have complained that the minibus operators misbehaved with them when they insisted to pay the fare fixed by the government.

The bus operators have been fleecing the passengers in contrary to the assurance given by Reasi Assistant Regional Transport Officer Shami Kumar, who also holds the transport portfolio.

Chain Singh, a passenger from Narloo, said the passengers were being charged Rs 40 instead of Rs 31(fixed by the government) for the Reasi-Narloo route

Ashok Sharma, another passenger who frequently travels between Reasi-Katra, said they were being charged Rs 30 instead of Rs 26.5 for Katra -Reasi route and when they complain, the operators used to misbehave with them.

Meanwhile, Reasi SSP Thakur Raghuvir Singh asked the passengers to lodge complaints with the police or the Transport Department in case any minibus, bus operator overcharged or misbehaved with them.

Batote, April 30
Solar power plants shall be set up at all district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centres and public health centres, besides the higher educational institutions.

This was informed by the Minister of State with independent charge Science and Technology, Information Technology, Medical Education, School Education and Youth Services and Sports, Feroze Ahmed Khan while commissioning a 15 kw solar power plant at the Sher-E-Kashmir Memorial Emergency, Hospital, here today. This plant having a power back-up of more than 4 hours, in addition to its inverter capacity, and constructed at a cost of Rs 40 lac by the J&K Energy Development Agency of the Department of the Science and Technology, is the only second such plant in any hospital in the state, the first being the SDH at Chattergam in Srinagar. This plant will bear the power load of almost all the important sections of this hospital.

He said the Centre had now decided to provide the solar power lights to even those areas which were supplied with a 5 or 6 hour of power . 

Batote, April 30
Farmers in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban have a reason to cheer as hot and humid weather promises to help in a record yield of wild mushroom this year.

"Given the prevalent humid and less hot weather which is most suitable for the production of the all kinds of mushrooms, the record production of mushroom at the higher reaches especially in jungles particularly those having Deodar trees, is expected. As the soil in the base around the Deodar tree is the most suitable substratum for the growth of the mushrooms so they are likely to grow here in abundance," said PR Bhagat, District Mushroom Officer, Doda.

Guchhi, an edible fungus rich in amino acids or proteins and antioxidants, is likely to attain size up to 10 inches than their normal size of 5 or 6 inches. An edible Guchhi, 10 inches in size, which is rare was found from Tringla village on the leeward slope of Patnitop here. Sources said mushroom is sold by the villagers involved in its collection, to the whole sellers or contractors for Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per Kg.

DFO, Bhaderwah, Mushtaq Hussain Choudhary, a contractor, had a successful tender bid of Rs 19 lakh for the Guchhi mushroom collection from all the six forest divisions of the Chenab Forest Circle comprising the vast forest of DKR. “Last year the government earned Rs 16.93 lakh through its tender bid from the same region. The International market price of this mushroom is approximately Rs 18,000 per Kg," he said.

Jammu, April 30
Providing a bundle of joy to budding archers of the state, the Directorate of Sports and Physical Education, University of Jammu (JU), has decided to introduce archery as one of the disciplines in the next edition of inter-collegiate competitions.

With the move, archers will get an opportunity to showcase their skills at state-level competitions.

Confirming the move, Directorate of Sports and Physical Education director Dhian Singh Bhau said, “Yes, competitions in the discipline of archery 
will be held in the next edition of Inter-Collegiate Tournament.”

“The department initially has purchased archery equipment at the cost of Rs 1.73 lakh. We have not made large-scale purchases as it is important to know the response during the upcoming event. Only after the event, we will decide about the future requirements,” Prof Bhau said.

“Keeping in view the interest of students from the Ladakh region, the department has submitted a proposal to Vice-Chancellor Mohan Paul Singh Ishar to construct an archery centre at an approximate cost of Rs 20 lakh,” the Director Sports said.

Sources said Dhian S Bhau had recently visited National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, and he came to know that students of the state, particularly from Leh, Ladakh, had taken admission in the institute and other colleges around the city to learn the skills of archery. They had also bagged medals in national and international level competitions.

“There is no dearth of talent in archery in the state. We should provide adequate infrastructural facilities to these promising archers so that they can prove their mettle at higher levels. Though it may take some time to complete the project of the archery centre, we can now conduct competitions at college levels to tap the hidden potential of the students, Prof Bhau said.

“Instead of increasing the medal tally of other institutes or states in archery, it is imperative that we should open an archery centre at the University of Jammu to further upgrade skills of the archers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the construction work for a training-cum-sports hall (80x45 ft) on the university campus is going on. It will be constructed at an approximate cost of Rs 3.8 lakh and will cater to the disciplines of wrestling, boxing, table tennis, judo, wushu and taekwondo.

Kishtwar, April 30
Minister of State for Home Sajad Ahmad Kichloo today said the state government would fulfil all its promises made to the public in the remaining 18 months of its tenure.

“The government is pooling all the available resources to fulfil the promises made to the people,” Kichloo said while addressing a gathering at Thathri in Kishtwar district on the first day of his four-day visit to the remote and far-flung areas of the district.

Employment generation for the youth of the state is top most priority of the government. All the possible employment opportunities in both public and private sectors are being exploited to provide dignified jobs to the youth, Kichloo said.

He called upon the youth to come forward to adopt self employment methods to earn a livelihood. In this way, educated youth can become job providers rather than job seekers, Kichloo asserted.

He urged the people to take benefits of the incentives available under the existing central and state industrial policies.

Kichloo assured the people that upliftment of the poors, especially living in the backward and mountaineous and Kandi belts, is the main concern of the state government. 

Reasi, April 30
The pace of work should be accelerated for developing necessary infrastructure in the district in view of a steady inflow of tourists, said Chief Secretary (CS) Mohd Iqbal Khanday while taking stock of development works here today.

District Development Commissioner Reasi Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, who was also present at inspection, gave a brief resume of the various development-related activities taken place in the district.

He apprised the CS that an amount of Rs 6667.48 lakh was released from the annual budget of Rs 7526.73 lakh and Rs 6586.13 lakh was reported as the total expenditure.

The CS discussed proposals on tourism, health, medical education, higher education, mineral resources development, skill development, urban administration and development.

Khanday sought information about activities being carried out for catering tourist inflow, institutions and achieving goals of infrastructure development in various sectors.

Later, various deputations apprised the Chief Secretary about various problems being faced by people of Reasi. Khanday assured them that the issues would be resolved on a priority basis.

Reasi, April 30
To review the achievements made by different departments in the district, the newly posted District Development Commissioner (DDC), Reasi, Dr Shahid Iqbal Chourdhary, convened an introductory-cum-review meeting of various developmental activities and schemes being implemented in the district on Monday.

In order to acquaint himself with various development activities, the DDC reviewed the progress of agriculture, horticulture, PDD, PWD, PHE, irrigation, ICDS, rural development, industries, health, education and other important sectors. The officers of the sectors concerned were directed to step up the developmental activities so that the benefits of these schemes and activities might percolate to the masses.

Choudhary said regular check on the construction and development works was important for a time-bound completion and quality of works and directed the officers to work with honesty and dedication and come up the expectations of the public.

Among others, Reasi SSP Thakur Raghuvir Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajinder Singh Tara, Assistant Commissioner, Revenue, Nawab Din, Assistant Commissioner, Development, JS Rai and sectoral officers of various departments participated in the meeting. The DDC exhorted the officers to expedite the pace of development works and achieve the tangible targets to facilitate the people and redress their grievances at their doorsteps.

Jammu, April 30
Gandhi Nagar House got the better of Tagore House by three points in kho-kho final (boys) of the Intra-Mural Competition of Satwari Zone here today. Gandhi Nagar House also clinched the kabaddi trophy by beating Tagore House by five points.

Earlier, Gandhi Nagar House trounced Nehru House by five points while Ambedkar had last laugh against Tagore House by eight points.

In other matches played, Tagore House beat Nehru House by two points and Gandhi Nagar House drubbed Ambedkar House by eight points.

In kho-kho (boys), Gandhi Nagar House beat Tagore House by 14 points while in kabaddi, Nehru House overcame the challenge of Bhagat Singh House by 10 points. In the girls’ section, Bhagat House toppled Gandhi House by six points whereas in kabaddi (girls), Nehru House defeated Tagore House by 11 points.

The tournament is being organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports under the overall supervision of Sroman Dogra, Zonal Physical Education Officer, Satwari Zone. The matches were officiated by Manju and Gurbachan Singh.

Meanwhile, the Intra-Mural Competition was also held at Middle School, Rakhwala, under the supervision of headmaster Jasbir Singh. The matches were officiated by PET Vishal Singh. 

Jammu, April 30
As the summer is getting warmer by the day, people have started to sport an array of summery shades to beat the heat. While the mercury is rising on daily basis, colours are way to look cooler during the hot season in Jammu.

Everyone likes to wear cool shades of sky blue, grey, light red, violet during the summer months, when the mercury hits 45 degree Celsius.

“A colour is like a visual treat on a warm summer day. From slender, long shirts to short, peppy tops, caters to all during the season. The shade adds life when the sun shines overhead,” said Sonali Sharma, a college student.

However, a trained fashion designer, Rupali Sharma has some different views about Jammu’s fashion. “Jammu is a bit slow in changing fashion trends, but somehow for this reason only, fashion sense of the people here cannot be underestimated,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city today recorded maximum temperature of 31 degrees and it is expected to reach 34 degrees by May 4.

As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) there will be increase in the temperature during next two weeks and trend will continue till the arrival of monsoon. As per IMD, the Minimum temperature till May 4 will remain at 20 degree Celsius.