Srinagar, May 27
An attempt of casual workers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department to gherao the Civil Secretariat was foiled today after the police sprayed coloured water and took several protesters into preventive custody.

The protesters under the banner of PHE Joint Employees Association (PHEJEA) gathered outside the Exhibition Ground, which is close to the Civil Secretariat, here to raise their concerns. Talking to mediapersons before the ghearo bid, PHEJEA president Sajad Ahmad Parrey said they would intensify their protest if their issues continued to remain unresolved.

He said they would sit on a four-day long hunger strike from June 5 if their issues were not addressed by then.

Parrey said several casual employees had been working in the PHE department for more than 10 years and were still waiting for regularisation of their services. The PHEJEA demands include regularisation of services and release of pending salaries. The protesters were also demanding that the salaries of the casual employees be released on a monthly basis.

After protesting outside the Exhibition Ground, the PHEJEA members tried to take out a procession towards the Civil Secretariat. However, the police sprayed coloured water from a water canon to disperse the protesters. Several protesters were also taken into preventive custody, as per eyewitnesses.

The PHEJEA’s protest and subsequent police action temporarily affected the flow of traffic at the busy Exhibition Road-Jehangir Chowk crossing.

In the past, the association had been holding frequent protests in support of their demands.

Srinagar, May 27
A girl was drowned and all schools were closed for a day on Monday in Baramulla district following heavy rain on Saturday night and Sunday. The rain had created a flood-like situation in many areas in the district.

The directions to close down all schools in the district were issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, who toured many areas affected by the heavy rainfall and flood water.

Following heavy rain the region, day temperature plunged by nearly 10 degrees on Sunday.

The rain began on Saturday night and continued throughout the day on Sunday across the region, inundating many areas in Kashmir.

“The directions to close down the schools for a day were issued in view of the heavy rain, which has created a flood-like situation and submerged many areas,” said Baramulla Deputy Commissioner Ghulam Ahmad Khawaja.

He said the extent of damage by the flood water was being assessed, adding that the areas worst affected by the flood water included Trukumbal, Qazipora and Hanjiwera of Pattan tehsil in the district due a breach in a canal.

He said the death of a girl in Dangiwacha area of the district was due to drowning and teams were being deputed to dewater the flooded areas.

Though there were no directions to close down the schools in neighbouring Kupwara district, however, the district administration said schools would remain closed at the local level in areas affected by the heavy rain.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, including Srinagar, the weather improved today with temperature improving substantially. The schools in the city functioned normally as the sunshine in the morning provided a respite from the overnight rain.

Landslides triggered by heavy rain also closed the Srinagar-Jammu and Srinagar-Leh highways on Sunday. “However, both the Srinagar-Jammu and Srinagar-Leh roads were opened for traffic this evening,” said an officer manning the traffic control room in Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the weather department said there might be a respite from heavy rain in the region. “Light rain and thundershower could occur at isolated places over the state in the next 24 hours,” the department said.

The weather department had on Sunday evening issued a warning about heavy rain in the region.

Srinagar, May 27
Three persons were drowned when their vehicle slipped into a river near Drass town in Kargil district, while four others were injured in separate road accidents in the Valley.

A police spokesman today said three persons were drowned when the vehicle they were travelling in slipped off the road and plunged into Shangoo river at Shemsha near Drass town of Kargil district. The mishap took place yesterday evening near the remote town, which remains cut-off from rest of the Valley due to heavy snowfall along the route for most of the winter season.

The spokesman said efforts were on to retrieve the bodies of the victims.

A cab driver was injured in a separate incident when his vehicle rammed into an electric pylon near Shurat in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, the spokesman said. The injured was shifted to a hospital for treated.

In another accident, a motorcycle collided with a truck near Town Hall in central Kashmir’s Budgam district resulting in injuries to the motorcyclist. The injured was shifted to a hospital for treatment, the spokesman said.

Two persons were injured in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district when two cars collided with each other near the Government Degree College, the spokesman said. Both the injured were shifted to the hospital for treatment.

budgam Boy injured by lightning

* A teenaged boy was injured in central Kashmir’s Budgam district when he was hit by lightning, a police spokesman said today.

* Nisar Ahmad Rather, a Class X student, was injured when he was stuck by lightning at Khag, the spokesman said.

* The injured was shifted to a hospital for treatment, the spokesman said. 

Kupwara, May 27
The unscheduled power cuts have become a routine matter in Kupwara for the past one week. The power woes worsened in the town and its adjoining villages after rainfall and windstorm during the past two days.

Residents of many villages, including Ticker, Batergam, Gulgam, Trehgam and Gushi, said electricity was playing hide and seek for past one week. They said they were forced to pay the power tariff according to the curtailment schedule but electricity was not provided in accordance with the schedule.

“Electricity is playing hide and seek and often we do not see it for days. Unscheduled power cuts have become a routine matter for the past one week. After rainfall and windstorm, the power woes worsened,” said Altaf Ahmad of Trehgam.

Residents of Guziryal and Dooniwari said instead of aluminum wire, the power officials had erected barbed wire on poplar and other trees. They said at many places, the wire remained loosely suspended posing threat to their lives. “We have requested officials of the power department several times to properly erect the poles and tie the aluminum wires for smooth supply but they ignored our pleas time and again,” said Bilal Ahmad Lone.

In Handwara tehsil, the situation is no better. Student said erratic supply had badly affected their studies. “We are forced to study under candlelight. Power scenario worsens in the evening hours and often supply is snapped for hours,” said Aijaz Ahmad from Handwara.

Residents of Rafiabad and Watergam in Baramulla district also complained of frequent power outages.

“We will be forced to take to the streets if the department did not restore the power supply to normal at the earliest. Why are we subjected to power outages time and again when we pay the tariff in time,” said Jahangir, a Rafiabad resident.

An officer of the Kupwara power division said, “We are trying to ensure that power received by the division is supplied to the consumers in accordance to the curtailment schedule. The windstorm in the past two days, however, badly affected the power supply,” he said.

Srinagar, May 27
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today protested the recent killing of Congress leaders and workers in Chhattisgarh. The BJP leaders and workers led by state vice-president and in charge Kashmir affairs advocate Ramesh Arora held a sit-in at the Press Enclave and also observed a five-minute silence to protest the killings.

“We condemn Naxal and all forms of terrorism that pose a danger to the integrity of the country. The incident is not a moment of sadness for the Congress but for the entire country,” Arora said.

Several other local BJP leaders including GM Mir and Mohammad Maqbool War were present at the sit-in.

BJP Kashmir unit spokesman Mohammad Altaf Thakur said they had risen above party interests to protest the act of terror.

Pertinently, the BJP was scheduled to launch its “Jail Bharo” agitation across the Valley in three phases from today. However, it was postponed.

Srinagar, May 27
A new post office was inaugurated at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K) by Chief Postmaster General, J&K Circle, John Samuel.

SKUAST Vice-Chancellor Tej Partap was also present on the occasion. A Department of Posts (DoP) official said the new post office would have 190025 Pin Code. “The post office will serve the needs of the university and Shalimar area. The area was earlier served by Brein post office. The office is fully computerised and also has post shop facilities. This is the first new post office to be opened in Srinagar in 2013,” the official added.

Speaking on the occasion, Samuel said: “As this university is a centre of higher learning and also ranked among top agricultural universities in the country, the university was in need of a post office to serve the postal needs of the students and officials.” 

Srinagar, May 27
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said his endeavour was to reach out to all areas of the region. He complimented people for extending wholehearted support to restore peace and tranquillity and strengthen institutions for public empowerment, transparency and good governance.

“The unabated and definite public support to my efforts even in the most challenging situations has acted as an elixir to carry forward the peace and development agenda on firm footing and meaningfully,” he said and expressed gratitude to the people for the faith they had shown in him and his government.

Speaking to various deputations from all across the state, who called on him at an ‘Awami Mulakat’ here today, the Chief Minister reiterated his commitment for inclusive and equitable development of all regions and sub-regions of the state.

“Regardless of any consideration, my endeavour is to reach out all areas and all sections of the society in the process of development and facilitate resolution of all political issues in a peaceful and amicable situation,” he told a delegation of Gujjars and Bakerwals from Khonmoh and assured them of the commitment of his government for all weaker sections of the society, including Gujjars, Bakerwals, Pahari speaking, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and other backward sections.

The Chief Minister said besides normal development schemes, special programmes for the uplift of weaker sections of the society were in place and various welfare boards pertaining to the welfare of these sections were looking after their progress and development. 

Srinagar, May 27
The much-awaited foundation stone laying ceremony of the Central University of Kashmir (CUK) is going to be held on May 28 at Ganderbal district of central Kashmir. Union Minister of Human Resource Development MM Pallam Raju will be laying the foundation stone in the presence of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Minister for Higher Education Akbar Lone and CUK Chancellor Sri Kumar Banerjee.

The foundation laying ceremony will be followed by the presentation of the University Tarana (anthem), welcome address by Vice-Chancellor Prof Abdul Wahid, addresses by Chancellor, deputy Chief Minister, Union HRD Minister and presidential address by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

The vote of thanks will be presented by CUK Registrar Abdul Gani. 

Srinagar, May 27
Under the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) scheme of “Capacity Building of Women Managers” (CBWM) in Higher Education, Women’s Studies Centre, University of Kashmir organised a week-long workshop on “Management Skills Enhancement Modules”, which began here at Gandhi Bhawan.

In her inaugural address, former chairperson UGC and Chairperson (CBWM) in Higher Education, Armaity S Desai said they had come a long way and grown to develop the sensitivity, awareness and motivation (SAM) among the participants with the help of these workshops.

She said the programme had been mooted with an aim to increase the women participation in policy and decision-making as well as ensuring gender sensitivity in governance and administration in the university system of education.

In his presidential address, Dean Academic Affairs, University of Kashmir, A M Shah said unlike past, organisations today were facing a tough time as there were challenges everywhere and managers should be trained to tackle the chaotic situation and they should act as change agents to their organisations.

“Managers should have the skill of managing the organisation and develop different tool sets. They should develop right kind of attitude and act as change agent. He said the leader should either be creative or visionary, so that he can see what is unseen to others or he should be generous to learn the vision from others. A leader should be able to identify the need, then the vision evolves itself,” he added.

Co-chairperson (CBWM) in Higher Education, Susheela Kausik, who also spoke on the occasion, said future plans were ambitious and new schemes were being formulated and resource methodology module was one of them.

“In terms of figures of last 10 years, we have done more than 250 workshops and trained more than 7,000 women across India,” she added.

She said these schemes were a big success as the neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, were also adopting the same.

Core group resource person (North-West) Region, Ram Rajput termed the scheme as visionary and explained its benefits of enhancing the potentials of women on managerial positions. “The scheme is reaching to every area and so far we have trained more than 800 women in the North-West region,” she added.

The workshop is being sponsored by the UGC and National Consultative Committee for Capacity Building of Women Managers in Higher Education and is the first of its kind in the North-West region.

Prof Neelofar Khan, Director Women’s Studies Centre, University of Kashmir and Local Coordinator and Regional Coordinator (North-West) Region for CBWM programme is coordinating the event.

Prof Harsha Parekh, a noted financial management expert spoke about costing, budgets and budgeting concepts in the first three technical sessions held in the conference room of the Ghandi Bhawan.

Noted speakers from across the country will act as resource persons in 20 technical sessions which are to follow for another 6 days. 

Srinagar, May 27
J&K's first Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) GR Sufi, in a special lecture, organised by the Kashmir University’s Academic Staff College, apprised academicians about the role of RTI in the society.

Sofi was talking at the valedictory function of the month-long refresher course in Basic and Applied Sciences- organised by Academic Staff College, which concluded today.

As many as 40 college and university teachers were undergoing training at a three-week-long refresher course in basic and applied sciences.

Encouraging the participants to make use of the Revolutionary Act, Sufi said, “The usage of RTI is gaining ground in Kashmir, but it should be the right of every individual of the society.

Giving the academicians an overview of the act, State Information Commissioner Nazir Ahmad said the RTI was an endeavour to promote transparency and contain corruption. “The JK RTI Act was enacted in 2009 to make public authority subservient to people. People have the right to seek information that is held by the public authority and it’s the duty of the Public Information Officer (PIO) to disseminate the required information within a specific period of time,” he said. “If someone is denied information, he/she can directly appeal to the State Information Commission.

Speaking on the occasion, Academic Staff College director Dr Farooq Fayaz also informed the teachers about the judicious use of the RTI. "Before any common person makes use of the act, it becomes obligation for a teacher to use the act with an intention to make the society better," he said.

Srinagar, May 27
A two-day national symposium on the scenario of “Post Harvest Management of Fruits in India” was organised by the Department of Food Science and Technology, University Of Kashmir, at the University of Kashmir today.

While speaking at the inaugural function, Rajesh Kapoor, adviser, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, who was also the chief guest on the occasion said the two-day symposium would help in the emergence of great ideas and innovative measures aimed at improving the scenario of preservation of fruits across the country.

Appreciating the role of the Department of Food Science and Technology for holding such an event regarding the preservation of fruits after the post-harvest production, Kapoor said, “Great ideas emerge from such events and what we have to keep in mind is that the post-harvest handling is important in generating the revenue and in development of the state. We have to use both quality and assurance parameters for safeguarding the fruits.”

Briefing the participants about the relevance of the topic, Kapoor urged the department to undertake major intervention in safeguarding and protecting the fruits from the fungal toxins so as to boost the economy.

He said, “There is an urgency of protecting and safeguarding the fruits from the fungal toxins and the department in this regard can make a huge contribution through some intervention and technological innovation so as to increase the shelf life of the fruits which otherwise gets rotten within a less span of time.”

University of Kashmir Registrar Prof Zaffar Ahmad Reshi, who was the guest of honour on the occasion, stressed on the technical intervention for the preservation of fruits and vegetables. “The Horticulture sector is the backbone of the economy. Therefore, the stress must be on the preservation of fruits and vegetables through scientific measures to increase more shelf life, besides the nutrient value,” Prof Reshi said.

He said the innovative thinking was the need of the time for increasing the shelf life and quality of the fruits and vegetables so as to become self reliable.

Research dean KU Prof Khursheed Andrabi called for the innovative thinking for increasing the post-arvest production in the state. He urged the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to continue its support in terms of providing the technical expertise so that the state and all stakeholders in the horticulture sector could overcome the impediments they face during the storage and preservation of the fruits and vegetables.

Dean Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology Prof MY Shah emphasised on indulging in good practices and research for increasing the post-harvest production in the state.

Earlier, Coordinator and Head of the Department, Food, Science and Technology, Farooq Ahmad Masoodi, said it was felt that as per the national institute of nutrition recommendation, the daily per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables should be 300 gm per day in view of such figure there is a short fall of about more than 200 million tonnes in India. 

Anantnag, May 27
CPI(M) state secretary and MLA, Kulgam, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said the mud-slinging between the coalition partners, Congress and the National Conference, is hampering the development process of the state.

“Unfortunately, two of the coalition partners have no common agenda except levelling serious accusations against each other,” Tarigami said, adding that, “How can the officers deliver while their ministers are busy slinging mud at each other.”

He said the present government had proved to be a failure on all aspects and have failed to live up to the expectations of the people. “The tall promises that the government had made have remained unfulfilled right through five years of their tenure.”

Tarigami was addressing a gathering of CPI (M) activists, who were protesting against dismal functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS), food security bill, hike in electricity fee, miserable power scenario and pending pension cases of widows, old age, orphans in the Social Welfare Department.

Criticising the government on acute shortage of power supply, Tarigami said there was no movement forward vis-à-vis the much-hyped return of power projects from the NHPC.

“The state government takes pride in saying that it purchases power on a much higher rates than the consumers of the state have to pay,” said Tarigami.

He said it’s ironic because the statement puts a question mark on the administrative efficiency of the government.

Criticising the Food Security Bill, pending in Parliament, Tarigami said the proposed legislation would make the Public Distribution System (PDS) dysfunctional.

“The state government must cut the unproductive expenditure and spend it on food for the poor,” Tarigami said, “The state government should take a lead from other states of the country and provide ration at Rs 2 per kg to the poor, like they do.” 

Srinagar, May 27
The moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has hailed European (EU) Parliament for adopting a resolution over Afzal Guru hanging, which called for returning his remains to his family.

European Parliament had passed the urgent resolution on Afzal Guru’s execution on May 24 with the majority of voting for the motion.

The urgency resolution on the secret hanging of Afzal Guru was moved by EU members, following lobbying by ICHR. Subsequently, the proposed motion was discussed and voted in the European Parliament’s plenary session on May 24.

“Hurriyat Conference has hailed and expressed its satisfaction over the recently passed resolution by European Parliament over secret hanging of Afzal Guru, wherein the parliament has expressed its strong reaction and demanded that his remains be handed over to his family,” the Hurriyat faction, led by Mirwaiz, said in a statement here.