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1,449 industrial units in state Smoke comes out of the chimneys of brick-kiln at the Akhnoor Road in Jammu on Wednesday. Tribune Photo: Inderjeet Singh
Superspeciality Hospital
Safai karamcharis protest in front of the Superspecialty Hospital in Jammu on Wednesday.
Tribune Photo: Inderjeet Singh |
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Ensure regular water supply or stop installation of meters: Hoteliers
Rally held against drug abuse, trafficking
Visitors look at paintings on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at the University of Jammu on Wednesday. Tribune Photo: Inderjeet Singh
AMARNATH YATRA
Jagti dwellers threaten to block Jammu-Srinagar NH
Jammu University holds workshop on cross-LoC investment
Children enthral audience as dance workshop concludes
Girls perform during a dance workshop in Jammu on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Anand Sharma
Army’s educational tour for students concludes
SBI RSETI holds quarterly meet
Oncologist felicitated in Mumbai
Protest against Power Dept in Reasi over youth’s electrocution
NGO inspires youth to live drug-free life
J&K Scouts executive committee holds meeting
Farmers sensitised on use of paddy transplants
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1,449 industrial units in state ‘highly polluting’
Jammu, June 26 There are clear directions by the Supreme Court to close down polluting industries, but the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has failed to take any effective action as only warnings have been issued against such units. Officials said some of the units have installed control devices, but majority of them have failed to adhere the norms set by the state government, while operating their units. It is important to mention here that under the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines, industrial units are categorised as red, orange and green according to the level of pollution they emit in air, water or on ground. The units falling under the red and orange category have to install special anti-pollution devices and set-up treatment plants before disposing of their effluents from their industries. Arun Tikku, chairman, SPCB, said, “These units have been asked to install pollution control units. We are also providing our expertise to anyone who want technical help. At times, heavy fines have been imposed.” Tikku said the upgrade of control device was a continuous process and the industries were made to go for the Best Available Technology (BAT) in the field. Cement industries in the state have begun online monitoring and two cement plants have already made the system functional on this behalf. However, an official said a very few guidelines are being followed on the ground. “Guidelines are being openly floated by the people while the state government has failed to initiate firm measures,” said a PCB official. “In the recent years, suspended particles in the air have shown constant increase due to vehicles, industrial units and
dust generated by the construction activity", the official said. Despite increase in water pollution in the past two decades, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has no infrastructure to conduct analysis of micro pollutants like pesticides, toxic metals and bacteriological parameters. The board is still dependent on other labs to conduct regular checks, particularly, industrial effluents being dumped in water bodies of Jammu and Kashmir. Why The ‘Red’ category?
Official speak Guidelines are being openly floated by the people while the state government has failed to initiate firm measures. — A PCB official
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Contractual safai karamcharis miffed over ‘apathetic’ attitude of management
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 26 Denied salaries for a month, about 15 workers engaged on contract for the last over six months have been entrusted with the job of keeping the entire hospital block clean. A union member said though the Medical Superintendent has remained supportive towards sanitation workers working in the hospital, the administration’s apathetic attitude has led to frustration among the workers. “There was an argument on the issue of maintaining sanitation in the hospital. The safai karamcharis told the superintendent they are doing their work with dedication, but the hospital management should pay their regular salaries. This led to an argument,” said a senior doctor. The Superspeciality Hospital is a prestigious centrally sponsored project under which, two such modern hospitals were sanctioned for Jammu and Srinagar. The hospital, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore, was to become a icon of Jammu region as due to lack of funds and required doctors. It has become a burden on the state. Its state-of-the-art building and other infrastructure remain unutilised. The hospital needs nearly Rs 65 crore every year to run its services, but Rs 4 crore sanctioned in February lapsed due to administrative inertia. “Our contractor has been paying us salary every month from his own pocket, but the hospital management is apathetic towards us. No one is hearing our pleas,” said Asha, a contractual worker. Hospital superintendent Dr Riyaz Ahmed was not available for comment.
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Ensure regular water supply or stop installation of meters: Hoteliers
Jammu, June 26 A meeting of the association was held here today under the chairmanship of its president Inderjeet Khajuria. Participants observed that the entire attention and emphasis of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department was on installation of water consumption meters in commercial establishments while the water supply position was going from bad to worse. “The water supply through PHE pipelines, which was made twice a day, was later reduced to only once a day, but of late, water is being supplied on alternate days to the hotels and lodges in the city,” they said. They said the hoteliers had been suffering a huge loss in view of erratic water supply as the customers who check into the hotels are irked by non-availability of water in the bathrooms, even for toilets and washing of hands. Khajuria told the meeting that their deputation had called on the minister for PHE Sham Lal Sharma, complaining about the worsening water supply position. “The minister had assured that he would look into the matter and ensure regular water supply, but since then, the situation has worsened,” he said, adding that the hoteliers had assured the minister that on their part, they would fully cooperate with the authorities in installing water consumption meters and charging reasonable tariff against water supply to their establishments. “The department has failed to honour the commitment and insurance of the minister. Hence, they should not expect cooperation from hoteliers in installation of water consumption meters,” stated Khajuria. He said the private tankers supplying water to their establishments had increased the rates steeply and they had been charging anything between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 per tanker. “We think there is a nexus between the PHE officials and the private tankers as far as the prevailing crisis is concerned. The excuse offered by the PHE authorities for their failure to ensure regular water supply - low voltage and frequent power cuts, hold no ground,” he said. |
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Rally held against drug abuse, trafficking
Jammu, June 26 The rally was flagged off by Ajit Kumar Sahu, District Development Commissioner, Jammu, from Mini Stadium Parade Ground. The rally, after passing through Shalimar Road, City Chowk, Ragunath Baazar, Hari Market and Jewel Chowk, culminated at the MA Stadium here. More than 600 persons, including women, NCC cadets, sportspersons from the State Olympic Association, volunteers of the Health and Education Department, Nehru Yuva Kendra, ICDS, Care College students, Nav Durga Kala Manch artistes, members of chemists’ association and staff of NCB and Drugs and Food Control organisation participated in the rally. In addition, the CRPF and BSF also supported the cause of fight against drug abuse and illicit trafficking and participated in the rally. The Narcotics Control Bureau organised many programmes this month, including seminars, painting competitions and nukkad nataks to make the general masses aware about drug abuse. The Department of Students Welfare, University of Jammu, organised a poster exhibition to observe the day. A painting exhibition on the topics Drug Abuse, AIDS and No Smoking was held by the alumni of the university, research scholars and the students pursuing post graduate courses. The exhibition was inaugurated by JS Tara, Director, Poonch Campus, University of Jammu. Tara said drugs continued to be a serious threat to public health, safety and well-being of humanity, in particular youth. He urged the youth, especially the students, to come forward to spread the anti-drug abuse message and help in creating a society free of drug abuse. Meanwhile, Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, also organised an awareness programme to sensitise people against drug abuse.
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Spot registration closed for Baltal, Pahalgam base camps
Tribune News Service
Addressing the meeting, Sahu asked the duty magistrates to keep a close liaison with officers concerned of different departments so that the arrangements put in place for the pilgrims were ensured properly. He also directed them to ensure that all the information regarding the yatra was accurate so that no wrong information was disseminated to the pilgrims. It was also informed in the meeting that for this year’s yatra, the spot registration has been closed at Baltal and Pahalgam base camps. He said without compulsory health certificate, no one would be registered for Amarnath yatra and for the same purpose, a list of notified doctors had also been issued. The DDC said a comprehensive disaster management plan was also being formulated to tackle with any kind of natural or manmade calamity during the yatra. Meanwhile, the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims was flagged off at Lakhanpur by the district development commissioner, Jitendra K Singh, along with the DIG, Jammu-Kathua Range, Shakeel Ahmad Beig. The DDC also inaugurated the registration counter established at Lakhanpur toll plaza and control room set up there. He said all vehicles en route the shrine of Baba Amarnath would be registered here and issued with receipts and stickers for the pilgrim vehicles.
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Jagti dwellers threaten to block Jammu-Srinagar NH
Jammu, June 26 Committee members appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene into the issue and direct the state government to ensure that the displaced Hindus living in Jagti get regular supply of electricity. Terming the township as ‘concentration camp’, the community members alleged that despite directions from the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), the Power Development Department (PDD) was curtailing supply to the inhabitants, which was grave human rights violation. JTC president Shadi Lal Pandita alleged that due to long power cuts, inhabitants had developed many health problems. “We are receiving electricity supply for just six hours, which has made our life miserable. It seems the government is totally apathetic to our plight and deliberately inflicting pain on the people”, Pandita said. Nearly 5,000 people are living in the township, constructed under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Plan (PMRP) as part of rehabilitation process of terrorism affected families from Kashmir valley. The township project was started in 2007, envisaging construction of 4,218 two-room flats for migrants with all other facilities like hospitals, schools, community halls, parks, etc. On March 22, the state government had made it clear that required electricity will not be allotted to Jagati township, inhabited by displaced Kashmiri Hindus, till they paid for the electricity being used by them. |
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Jammu University holds workshop on cross-LoC investment
Jammu, June 26 The event was organised by the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
(SHTM) and Department of Economics, University of Jammu (JU) in collaboration with Conciliation Resources, UK.
Parikshat Singh Manhas, associate professor, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, was the coordinator of the workshop. Deepak Raj Gupta, Director, SHTM and Dipankar Sengupta from Department of Economics conducted the workshop. Eminent people from various industries discussed problems related to the people who were interested to investing across the LOC and what benefits were accruing to them through
investments. Manhas briefed all the participants about the basic theme of the workshop and explained them that its main focus was to find out the opportunities and main attractions for the businesses and to suggest models to create a conducive environment for them. Robin Singh
Mehta, Additional Commissioner in the Divisional Commissioner's Office, Jammu, who attended the workshop, said bureaucrats must know more about cross LOC trade. “In case of cross LOC tourism, we first have to ensure peace and stability in the region and subsequently the rest of the things would follow,” he said. Anil
Suri, president of Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA), Jammu, said trade was based on demand and supply and added that there were various limitations in cross LOC trade. |
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Children enthral audience as dance workshop concludes
Jammu, June 26 The workshop was conducted in the discipline of painting, theatre and dance which culminated in two sessions. During the second session, small children gave a beautiful performance under the guidance of the most experienced and trained choreographer of the state, Randhir Kumar, who was assisted by Bishan Dass, a national reputed artiste. Shabir Ahmed Buch, director, Doordarshan, Jammu, who was the chief guest on the occasion, expressed gratitude to the academy for holding such an important workshop for the school-going children. The participants of the workshop were Abhishek Sharma, Khushboo Sharma, Marushika Suri, Arjun Mahajan, Shweta Sharma, Aryan Choudhary, Anisha Choudhary, Sayam Gupta, Manya Sharma, Aryaveer Sharma, Nirbhey Khajuria, Arnav Sharma, Samarth Bhatia, Muskan Sahil, Sahil Choudhary, Arshi Kohli, Shrnya Kohli, Arjun Sharma, Punika Kohli, Bharat Abrol, and Nandita Sharma.
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Army’s educational tour for students concludes
Jammu, June 26 During the flagging-in ceremony, senior Army officers and civil dignitaries as well as parents of the students welcomed the students and congratulated them on their arrival. A total of 23 boys from various schools participated in the tour which commenced on June 15. The tour was organised under the supervision of two teachers, an Army officer and three other representatives from the Army. The students visited various historical places at Hyderabad and Secundrabad, including Golconda Fort, Osmania University, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad Public School, Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Nehru Zoological Park, Charminar and Hi-Tech City. The students also met ESL Narasimhan, Governor, Andhra Pradesh, who hosted them for a tea interaction. Enroute the students also got an opportunity to visit India Gate and Red Fort at the national Capital. Shabir Khan, a student, who participated in the tour said, “We had earlier read about the places we visited in the books and now with the help of the Army, we got an opportunity to visit these and see the beauty of India.”
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SBI RSETI holds quarterly meet
Jammu, June 26 Tickoo laid emphasis on the need for creating awareness among the people so that unemployed youth take advantage of free-of-cost training facilities being provided by the institute. Director SK Kandroo presented the annual activities report giving details about conducting of various programmes, trainees settled and credit linked by the institute during 2012-13. Tickoo exhorted upon all departments and agencies concerned to cooperate in sponsoring maximum number of youth for undergoing training in various activities to root out menace of unemployment. The committee also approved the annual action plan for 2013-14. Rohit Mehta, lead district manager, stressed on the need of maintaining close coordination among all agencies concerned to make this social initiative of the SBI RSETI a big success. The members suggested that the list of passed-out trainees should be provided to various departments to ensure credit linkages as per the scale of finance.
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Oncologist felicitated in Mumbai
Jammu, June 26 He is presently working as a consultant in the Department of Surgical Oncology, Asian Institute of Oncology, Mumbai, and also on the panel of experts with the Bombay Hospital, Leelawati Hospital and SL Raheja Hospital Fortis Associate. The book was released recently by Dr JK Singh (Padma Shri), secretary of the BCFI, and Dr MK Mahajan, former president, BCFI, and a renowned radiation oncology felicitated Dr Kirti with certificates of honour and memento. The book co-authored by Dr Sanjay Sharma (renowned surgical oncologist) will be sent to about 200 institutions, including medical colleges, cancer hospital and leading hospitals of the country. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kirti revealed that the recent reports of the Indian Council of Medical Research have predicted a rise of 1,00,000 patients who are diagnosed annually with breast cancer. He emphasised the need to have a comprehensive understanding of molecular biology epidemiology, pathogenesis, staging and treatment modalities so as to improve survival in breast cancer patients. |
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Protest against Power Dept in Reasi over youth’s electrocution
Katra, June 26 The protesters took to the streets and staged a protest at the Reasi Deputy Commissioner’s office under the leadership of local MLA Baldev Raj Sharma, demanding registration of a criminal case against the department’s officials. As per reports, Sunil, son of Prittam Chand, a resident of Chapannu village, died last night when a loose high-tension transmission wire fell over a low-tension wire. Soon after the body was handed over to the family after postmortem, villagers took to the streets, demanding action against the erring PDD officials. Soon after the body was handed over to the family after postmortem, villagers took to the streets, demanding action against the erring PDD officials. Later, protesters met the Reasi Deputy Commissioner Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, who assured the protesters that the family would be provided assistance and compensation under rules and ordered a magisterial inquiry.
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NGO inspires youth to live drug-free life
Rajouri, June 26 Appreciating the role of the NGO for working on crucial topic and giving detailed awareness on this day, the newly appointed Superintendent of the hospital, Arun Sharma said, “The day is celebrated as an expression of determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of drug-free society.” Dr Sharma said, “We are also going to open an OPD for drug-addicts, where we can provide them specialised treatment and counselling which would help them to live drug-free life.” He appealed to the drug-addicts to come forward. Dr Sharma appreciated his staff members, paramedical students and other sanitation staff for their cooperation for improving hospital services and sanitation. He also gave best awards to his two sanitation staff members and students for making awareness chats. |
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J&K Scouts executive committee holds meeting
Jammu, June 26 The points included the construction of state headquarters in a youth hostel complex, Srinagar, establishment of state training centres in Jammu and Srinagar, raising of Scouts and Guides funds in schools, provision of free uniforms to Scouts and Guides members studying in government schools, renovation of state headquarters, Jammu, and enhancement of grants in aid. RS Chib made a commitment to solve all issues at the earliest. |
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Farmers sensitised on use of paddy transplants
Marh, June 26 Chief Agriculture Officer, Jammu, Jatinder Sharma highlighted the urgent need of paddy transplanters in view of scarcity of labour at the time of transplanting. He further said mechanised transplanting had great potential in increasing the yield by maintaining the right spacing, proper depth and number of seedlings per hill. District Agriculture Officer, Jammu, Vinod Ganjoo informed the farmers that rice yield could be increased up to 10 per cent as compared to conventional techniques and there was 62-65 per cent labour saving by this method.
— TNS |
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About 1,449 industries in Jammu and Kashmir are now listed in red category, a label which is given to highly polluting industries. The number was 850 in 2010. With no definite policy to deal with pollution, tonnes of toxic waste and fumes are mingling in air and soil, thereby becoming a major threat to human life.
Safai karamcharis in the Superspeciality Hospital went on strike after a ‘verbal duel’ with the hospital’s Medical Superintendent on Wednesday morning.
Several functions were organised to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in the city today.
The Narcotics Control Bureau and Drugs and Food Control organisation held a rally in coordination with the District Administration.
The second phase of 20-day-long children’s workshop organised by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages concluded with a thrilling and heartthrob performance by children at KL Saigal Hall, Cultural Academy, Jammu.
Savita Bakshi, additional secretary, J&K Cultural Academy, Jammu, in her welcome address, congratulated the children who took part in the workshop.
Jammu, June 26