Jammu, September 14
Lack of coordination between Pollution Control Board (PCB) and traffic police has led to delay in action against high polluting-causing vehicles in Jammu city, which are major cause of toxic fumes. Air pollution continues to remain the biggest cause of respiratory diseases among city residents.

The Pollution Control Board (PCB) has admitted that residents are inhaling poor quality air and this is likely to worsen in the coming years, keeping in view the high concentration of vehicles per kilometre and expansion of industries, but multi-agency coordination needed to deal with the threat is missing and remains only on paper.

Government data says that about 7,96,493 vehicles were registered in Jammu and Kashmir till December 2010.

The vehicles include 10,310 buses, 15,348 mini buses, 48,983 trucks, trailers, 24,729 taxis, 39,294 three-wheelers, 1,87,170 cars, 11,749 jeeps, 4,24,768 two-wheelers and 34,142 other kinds of vehicles. As per the norms, vehicles have to comply with the emission norms set by government and they are being checked regularly by the authorised stations established by the PCB, but many of the vehicles don't follow the norms.

"Airborne suspended particulate matter is an important marker of air quality. Particulate matter includes organic and inorganic matter, Nitrogen compounds, Sulphur compounds, polycyclic aromatic, hydrocarbons and several heavy metals. Vehicles, industries and heavy generators are major causes of increase in concentration of carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide," said Bushan Parimoo, an environmentalist.

People with symptoms of respiratory disease, burning eye and skin allergy have increased as most of them are exposed to smoke and dust for 12 to 16 hours every day and toxic fumes have long-term effect on people's health.

As per data gathered by State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Respiratory Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) has witnessed a steep rise in the past two decades, mainly because of the increase in the number of vehicles and dust generated by construction activity.

The normal limit of SPM that should be 100 micrograms is 110-114 micrograms and the RSPM (normal limit around 200 micrograms) is around 220-230 micrograms, indicating that the air quality is poor at most of the places.

Jammu, September 14
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits today observed Martyrs’ Day to pay homage to Tikalal Taploo, a prominent community leader who was gunned down by militants in Srinagar in 1989.

Several organisations paid tributes to the leader and thousands of other people who fell victims to bullets of terrorists in the past two decades of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

A demonstration was organised by Joint Forum of Kashmiri Pandit Organisation. Tough action was demanded against the separatist elements in the state who are openly propagating secession from the Indian Union.

Raising slogans against the state and Central governments for their apathy towards the displaced community, the speakers urged the nationalist people in the state to stay united. Speaking on the occasion, Panun Kashmir president Ashwani Kumar Chrangoo said Martyrs' Day reminds the community of historical facts regarding "ethnic cleansing from the Valley by terrorists".

“Those who forget history are condemned to live it again and that is why the leadership of the community has to remain on guard against any hasty decision regarding resettlement in Valley,” he said.

Panun Kashmir reiterated its demand for a separate homeland for the displaced Hindu community in Kashmir to safeguard their cultural and political rights which is the only solution to the issue as they have lost faith in the so-called rehabilitation process announced by the government.

The demonstration was addressed by HL Chatta, president, ASKPC, DN Kissu, RK Raina, senior vice president, ASKPC and Virender Raina, spokesperson, Joint Forum, VHP president Rama Kant Dubey and BJP spokesperson, Dr Jetinder Singh. The participants raised slogans against the apathy of the government towards the displaced community for the last more than two decades. “We are the primary victims of terrorism in Kashmir. The government and the world community should take note of the plight of the people who have been hounded out from their villages and homes,” said HL Chatta.

Jammu, September 14
Civil society members and RTI activists today welcomed the decision of the state government to include more services under the ambit of J&K Public Service Guarantee Act 2011.

In a joint statement issued by prominent lawyer Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, RTI activists Raman Sharma and Balvinder Singh, Dewaker Sharma, advocate, M Ashaq Raza, chairman, Change Attitude International Organisation, Parveen Sharma, an educationist and director, SR College of Competitions and PV Rawal, senior citizen, said the decision of the state government deserves a lot of appreciation as it would not only help in getting rid of corruption in the system but also it would ensure time-bound delivery of services to the citizens.

"With the recent inclusion of more services in the PSGA, the government has set 30 working days time limit for settlement of final refund cases of GPF, maturity claims at the time of retirement, issuance of Transfer Entry (TE) Advice and settlement of pension cases; services of the state's Tax and Excise departments are also included in the Act, which would provide a sigh of relief to the citizens, especially the elders and people belonging to the business community who otherwise have to wait for years together to get refund of their taxes," they said.

They also demanded that the government should launch vigorous mass awareness programme for PSGA and RTI Act in the state.

Jammu, September 14
Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution (CAPD), Transport, Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan today said the state government had decided to open 6,000 new public distribution centres in Jammu region to expand the Public Distribution System (PDS) network to inaccessible areas.

The minister was addressing a meeting of senior officers of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) and Legal Metrology Department convened to review the stock and supply position in Jammu region.

The meeting was attended by Director, CA&PD, G.S Chib, Managing Director JKSRTC, JS Tandon, General Manager, RS Jamwal, Deputy Controller, Legal Metrology, Manoj Prabhakar, Joint Controller, Amar Singh, besides district heads and other officers of the department.

The minister asked director CA&PD to identify the places for opening new depots by giving preference to the inaccessible and uncovered areas.

He said the step had been taken to ensure better services to consumers at their doorsteps, adding that it will also help in employment generation.

Reviewing the status of home delivery of LPG, Ramzan directed those concerned to ensure 100 per cent home delivery to eligible households in district headquarters and major towns.

He also asked the CA&PD authorities to conduct random market checks to curb the menace of overcharging and adulteration besides putting in place an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure accountability in Public Distribution System.

The minister asked the officers to strictly adhere to the fresh guidelines set to further streamline the public distribution system. He asked the officers to supply adequate foodgrains and essential commodities to far-off areas of the state as per requirement.

He also asked the Director CAPD to personally check the quality of ration being received from Food Corporation of India (FCI). He said the Government of India has also sanctioned sufficient quota for Kashmiri migrants. — TNS

Jammu, September 14
Sleuths of Excise today seized 1,900 kg banned herb from a truck at Lakhanpur toll plaza. The herb was being smuggled outside from Kashmir valley here.

The Deputy Excise Commissioner, Toll Post Lakhanpur, Mushtaq Ahmed, said they intercepted a truck and subjected it to physical checking after the driver, Liaqqut Ali, son of Raj Ali, resident of Jandrah, district Jammu, declared that apples were loaded in the truck.

"The vehicle was put to physical check in a routine checking. During the course of checking, a total of 1,900 kg of banned herb was found loaded in the vehicle," the Commissioner said.

He said the vehicle, along with loaded goods, would be handed over to the Commercial Taxes Department and Forest Department after compounding fine.

The detection was made in the presence of excise and taxation officers, Ravi Thakur, Sanjay Bhat, Sahil Jandyal and Lekh Raj, Inspectors Excise, Razi Ahmed, Mohd Saleem and Farooq Choudhary and Sub-Inspector Excise Rajesh Sharma, Kamaljeet Shan and Dheeraj Kumar and Brij Pal Singh.

Jammu, September 14
National Conference (NC) provincial president of Jammu Devender Singh Rana has constituted a state central labour wing of Jammu.

He said the constitution of the state central labour wing was for the larger interests of the party, particularly the labour class.

Those included in the wing are Swaran Singh Chib, chief patron, Nar Singh Narayania, president, Karan Singh, senior vice-president, Baldev Raj, vice-president, Thoru Ram Mandi, vice-president, Vinod Tak, vice-president, Deep Mehra, general secretary, Joginder Singh, organising secretary, Muhammad Sharief, chief organiser, and Parsotam Lal, cashier.

Rana said the team would visit all districts headquarters and would constitute district-level labour wings with consultation of the respective district presidents.

Rajouri, September 14
A medical camp was organised by Rashtriya Rifle Battalion at Kalakote under aegis of the Reasi-based Rashtriya Rifle Headquarter at Songri village.

The camp witnessed an unprecedented response from the populace as people from far-flung villages came to attend the camp, including prominent members of the civil administration and number of panchs and sarpanchs. A team of Army doctor’s, along with civil doctor Dr Abdul Rehman and nursing staff from Public Health Centre, Moghla, attended the patients arriving at the camp.

A total 317 patients that included 72 men, 126 women and 119 children were benefited from the camp.

Apart from medical checkup, patients were provided with free medicines by the Army. Dental patients were examined and critical cases were referred to hospital for further treatment.

Lectures on family planning and prevention against water-borne diseases were also conducted.

Speaking on the occasion, sarpanch of Songri village Abdul Khaliq expressed gratitude to the Indian Army for the kind gesture. Patients requested the Army to organise more of such camps in the area.

Jammu, September 14
Four climbers-- Shashi Kant, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Singh and Ashish Thakur, today left for Delhi to attend a climbers’ training course being conducted by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF).

A total of 30 climbers from across the country will participate in the training programme. Whereas Shashi Kant and Abhishek Singh are state champions in the men’s and boys’ category, respectively, Akshay and Ashish are the runners up in the respective categories.

During the week-long training programme, which will be conducted under the supervision of Chinese instructors, the participants will be imparted training in the latest techniques of climbing in lead, speed and bouldering on the international standard climbing walls in the IMF complex.

The purpose of the training programme is to improve the overall standard of climbing for the Indian sportsperson.

Earlier, all the four climbers called on the general secretary, Mountaineering Association of J&K, Ram Khajuria, who is also secretary of the IMF, North Zone Committee.

Khajuria told the climbers that it was a rare opportunity for them to get training under international coaches and exhorted them to work hard during the training to learn the finer points of the game.

Prominent among others present on the occasion were Shawetica Khajuria and Sumit Khajuria.

Jammu, September 14
Sakshi Koul of MHAC Nagbani bagged a gold medal in the 200 m event in the under-17 girls’ category during the Jammu district inter-school athletic meet that concluded today.

Vandana of GHS Barui and Guddi Sharma of HSS Kathar Manwal claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.

In high jump under-14 girls, Rajni Devi of BHS Simbal Camp, Safia of GHS Chowadi and Sushriya of APS Domana clinched gold, silver and bronze medal respectively. In high jump under-17 girls, Sameeksha of GHS Sangrampur won a gold medal while Rozeena Choudhary and Bandana of GHS Barui fetched silver and bronze medals respectively.

Rajni of HSS RS Pura clinched gold medal in high jump under-19 girls while Neena Sharma of HS Gundia had to be content with a silver medal.

The triple jump under-17 girls gold medal went to Roseena Choudhary while in the under-19 girls triple jump, the gold medal medal was bagged by Fahira.

Aditi Uppal of MHAC Nagbani won the gold in the 200 metres under-19 girls event while the gold medal in the 400 metres under-14, under-17 and under-19 girls went to Kulvinder of APS Miran Sahib, Kajal Kumari of BHSS Karah and Kamini Chib of APS Domana respectively.

The 1,500 metres under-17 and under-19 girls gold medals were bagged by Jameela Akther of GHSS Nariwala and Neelam Devi of GHS Gondia respectively.

The gold medal in discus throw under-14 girls went to Harsimran of BHS Simbal Camp while in under-17 and under-19 discus throw, Harneet Kaur of BHS Simbal Camp and Mamta of APS Kalu Chak claimed gold medal.

APS Miran Sahib, APS Domana and GMS Satwari claimed gold, silver and bronze medal in under-14 girls 4X100 metres relay respectively while in under-19 girls, APS Domana bagged gold medal, Jodhamal clinched silver medal and APS Kalu Chak bagged bronze medal.

The meet wherein 400 girls participated was organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports under the patronage of Navin Aggarwal, Director General, Youth Services and Sports.

Jammu, September 14
Vanshika Joon of Udhampur clinched a gold medal in the sub-junior girls’ .177 air pistol event, while Righa of Jammu and Anubha Suryavanshi of Samba bagged silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the 5th J&K State-Shooting Championship organised by the Jammu District Rifle Association and Delhi Public School under the aegis of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifle Association (JKRA) today.

Dr Mohan Pal Singh Ishar, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu, was the chief guest on the occasion, who gave away medals and certificates to the champions.

Brig Ganguly was the guest of honour.

In his address, the Vice-Chancellor lauded the efforts of the JKRA in promoting the medal winning sport in the Olympics.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Additional Director General of Police Dilbag Singh, who is also the president of the association, said around 200 shooters, drawn from 23 district Rifle associations and clubs, participated in the tournament.

Srinagar, September 14
Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services and Sports Taj Mohi-ud-Din inaugurated a basketball court at SK Indoor Stadium today. The ultra-modern astro turf, made according to the national standards would be the first such sports field in the Valley.

The minister also witnessed an inaugural match between two teams.

Interacting with the officials, coaches and players on the occasion, Taj impressed upon them to use the infrastructure facilities more often and organise more and more sporting events. He said the government was extending and strengthening infrastructure all across the state for the benefit of the youth.

An official spokesman said Taj also visited the Aqua Sports Centre at Nehru Park, where youth would be coached in swimming, kayaking, canoing and other water sports.

“Taj directed the officials to immediately clean the swimming field and re-activate the centre for training more and more youth in water sports. He asked the state sports council to be in touch with all the associations of water sports and start holding competitions and events,” the spokesman added.

Secretary, the J&K State Sports Council, Dileep Thusu, Joint Directors of Youth Services and Sports Department, Madan Lal and Neelofar and other officers accompanied the minister.