Precious Kashmir News
Jammu, Dec 25: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha paid tributes to former Prime Minister, Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary.
“Atal Ji was a distinguished statesman, cherished leader, prolific poet, and a social reformer who deeply enriched the Indian political space and contributed immensely to our Nation’s progress. The country also remembers 25th December as Good Governance Day to honour Atal Ji. We must pledge to devote ourselves to this cause”, said the Lt Governor.
The Lt Governor observed that the former Prime Minister made a significant mark as a political figure in our nation’s history with his incredible intellect, fairness, and modesty. “He was a stalwart loved and respected across all sections of society. His great wisdom and faith in the power of democracy will continue to guide our future generations”, the Lt Governor added.

Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 25: A ‘lull’ prevailed after a brief exchange of fire between militants and security forces in Kanigam village of Imamsahib belt in South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Friday.
A senior police officer told KNO that after initial exchange of fire, search operation has been launched in the area. “After initial contact, no fresh contact has been established yet,” he said.
He said initial exchange took place in nearby orchards of the village and during initial exchange militants managed to run towards the residential houses.
“All entry and exits points have been sealed and lights have installed in the area, so that militants don’t flee from the spot,” the official said.
Earlier, an official said that a joint team of Police, Army’s 44 RR and CRPF launched a Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) on specific information about the presence of militants in the area.
He said that as the joint team of forces approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon them, which was retaliated, triggering an encounter.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, internet services have been snapped in Shopian district.

Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 25: In a recently held District Development Council (DDC) polls, independent candidates have emerged as kingmakers as they managed to win 18 per cent of the total seats while registering a win on 50 seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Several independent elected Block Development Councillors (BDC) said that they are being approached by various parties, however, any decision, whether to join any party or not, lies with the people who voted in their favour.
Peer Shahbaz, an independent winning candidate from Shahabad block of Anantnag district said that after bagging DDC seat various parties have been approaching him.
“I have received several calls from workers and leaders of different parties to join them. Whatever decision my voters will take, I will do the same,” he said.
Shahbaz was expelled from Congress before DDC election. He later contested the polls as an Independent candidate and defeated Naseer Ahmad Mir son of Congress chief G A Mir by 639 votes.
Another independent BDC Bilal Ahmad Deva from Vessu Qazigund also said that various parties have been approaching him, however, after consulting with his workers, he has decided not to join any party and serve people as an Independent candidate.
“I got votes for being an independent and my workers and voters are of the opinion that is should continue as an independent,” he said.

Abdul Rashid another BDC from Safapora Ganderbal also echoed the same voice and said that it is up to voters and workers and he can’t take any decision of his own to join any party.
“We have to work for the development which we can do very well as an independent. I am not desirous to join any party, however, my workers and voters have the ultimate right to take a decision in case they want me to join any party,” he said.
Notably, in the last two days, at least three independent DDCs two from Shopian and one from Srinagar have joined newly floated Altaf Bukhari led Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party. (KNO)

London, Dec 25: British epidemiologists found the new mutation in coronavirus when they were investigating the reason for the surge of cases in the southeast part of England despite the imposed restrictions that controlled the spread in other parts of the country.
The public health officials who were out searching the reason for the surge initially presumed that a superspreader event or negligent behavioral patterns like disregarding social distancing norms, illegal house parties etc, had caused the rapid rise of cases in the area, as per the Wall Street Journal.
It was on December 8 when the group of scientists, Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium(COG-UK) that collects, monitors and researches on the virus discovered the new variant with 23 mutations, in a test of a patient from Kent, near the centre of outbreak in late September, that consequently led to the world isolating the UK. The same variant was also found in a sample tested in London a day after, WSJ reported. These new mutations were found to have increased the communicability of the virus.
While researchers have said that the virus has mutated numerous times since the inception of the spread in 2019, WSJ said the variant has caused global worries specifically because of the greater number of mutations that affected the code of the amino acid responsible for producing proteins constituting the virus.
The new variant can help the virus in infecting the people more efficiently as two of the mutations affect the spike protein of the virus that makes it easy to stick to the human cell wall and enter the body.
The mutation had caused global worries at a time when the vaccines are being rolled out for emergency use in many parts of the world as scientists say that the nature and number of mutations are unprecedented.
The British officials in recent weeks have been clandestinely looking for patient zero. They have been through the contacts of two people identified early carrying the variant, neither of whom was sick including others infected earlier. The hypothesis around patient zero is that the variant must have born out of its weak immune system. Compromised and deficient immune system is mostly the best place for the virus to evolve with high mutations as it is able to survive in that environment for a longer period of time, WSJ reported.
“In an ideal situation you would know who the index case was,” Sharon Peacock, microbiologist leading the genomics team at the University of Cambridge was quoted by WSJ “We don’t know at all, if this has arisen in a patient in the UK or if it has been introduced, we categorically can’t tell at the moment.”
The concerns about the new-found virus were made public on December 14 when the Health Secretary Matt Hancock informed the lawmakers that the new variant was accountable for 1000 cases in London and southeast England. Hancock had said, “Initial analysis suggests this variant is growing faster than the existing variants”.

Washington, Dec 25: US-based pharmaceutical company Moderna expects that its COVID-19 vaccine would be effective against the new strains of the coronavirus that have discovered in the United Kingdom.
In an official statement, Moderna said, “Based on the data to date, Moderna expects that the vaccine-induced immunity from the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine would be protective against the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus recently described in the UK. We will be performing additional tests of the vaccine in the coming weeks to confirm this expectation.”
London confirmed that a new strain of coronavirus has been detected in the country, adding that the new variant is 70 per cent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants.
After this declaration many countries suspended travel to and from the UK. However, there is no evidence that the new strain is more pathogenic.
On Wednesday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that a second new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 allegedly originating from South Africa was found in the country. On Thursday, the United Kingdom banned entry for passengers traveling from South Africa .

New Delhi, Dec 25: Domestic violence against women remained a prime cause of concern for the Ministry of Woman and Child Development in 2020 with over 5,000 such complaints received in the year.

The National Commission for Women was flooded with complaints of domestic violence in March as the lockdown, imposed in view of the coronavirus outbreak, forced women to remain confined in their homes with their abusers.

The number of complaints went on increasing through the months and in July, a record number of 660 such complaints were received.

Over 5,000 complaints of domestic violence were received by the NCW in 2020.

NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma has attributed the rise in complaints to factors like economic insecurity, financial instability and isolation among others.

“Victims of domestic violence are distanced from their regular support systems making it difficult for them to call out for help. The series of COVID-19 lockdowns in India reduced the opportunities of reporting of domestic violence cases,” Ms Sharma told PTI.

She said the lockdown incapacitated women by preventing them from moving to safer places in cases of violence and abuse, reduced contact with the natal family which is usually the first point of contact for the victim.

“The machinery under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act had not been identified as an essential service during the lockdown. Hence, protection officers and NGOs were not able to visit households of victims, and police officers being at the frontline to tackle COVID-19 were overstretched to help victims effectively,” she said.

Sharma said the NCW launched a WhatsApp helpline number for emergency response during the lockdown to deal with the increased number of complaints of domestic violence.

According to her, the NCW’s audio-visual media outreach program aims to create awareness about legal provisions for protection of women and to apprise women to approach the government through various helplines and institutional support.

Speaking about how the year 2020 has been for children, apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said education posed as the biggest problem for children in the country.

“We were not in the habit of educating our children online but when COVID-19 came it was a challenge. We, however, started overcoming it by different means and now the situation is improving. We succeeded in ensuring that children kept in touch with their schools whether it was private or government schools,” he said.

“The most important role played by teachers and anganwadis was to deliver midday meal at the doorsteps of children which was tremendous work done by them,” he told PTI.

On concerns that there may be a rise in the dropout rate of schoolchildren due to the pandemic, Kanoongo said having such apprehension even before the schools reopen is “not correct”.

“Once the schools reopen, we will bring the children to schools. And in fact online education has kept all children in touch with schools,” he said.

The NCPCR also came out with family-centric recommendations to combat child trafficking at “source, transit and destination hotspots” amid concerns over its rise post the COVID-19 lockdown.

The government developed a new standard operating procedure for care and protection of street children to strengthen the processes and interventions so that there should not be any child in a street situation and they should be with their families.

Srinagar, Dec 25: Traffic was on Friday suspended on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, for maintenance work while the historic 86-kms-long Mughal road remained closed due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.
However, one-way traffic continued on the 270-km-long Srinagar-Leh highway, the only road linking Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir despite accumulation of snow on the road, particularly at Zojila.
No traffic will be allowed on 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway today in view of maintenance and repair of the road, a traffic police official told UNI.
The UT administration had announced the suspension of traffic on Friday to allow National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to undertake necessary maintenance and repair work on the road.
He said the Mughal road, which is seen as alternative to Srinagar-Jammu national highway, remained closed due to accumulation of snow and slippery conditions. There is very less chances of resumption of traffic in near future on the road, which connects Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region.
Meanwhile the Srinagar-Leh national highway remained functional as traffic was allowed on it was through for traffic, he said, adding that today vehicles will ply from Kargil in Ladakh to Srinagar.
However, Kashmir-bound vehicles had to cross Minamarg between 0900 hrs to 1400 hrs, he said, adding that no vehicle will be allowed after cut off timing.
He said vehicles are advised to carry anti skid chain to gain more grip on the slippery road conditions. However, night travel between 1800 hrs to 0900 hrs next morning will remain banned due to slippery conditions.

Recruitment process to begin in Kashmir shortly
Precious Kashmir News
Jammu, Dec 25: Police kick started the recruitment process of the 2 border Battalions for the remaining 13500 aspiring candidates of Jammu and Samba districts.
The recruitment process was postponed in March 2020 due to the outbreak of Pandemic COVID-19.
The Physical Endurance Test and Physical Standard Test (PET/PST) for the remaining candidates of Jammu district started from 24th of December 2020 at the already earmarked venue UTDRF ground adjacent to Gulshan Ground Jammu wherein 800 aspiring candidates appeared and today on 25th December 2020, 1000 aspiring candidates were called.
The test for remaining candidates of Jammu district will continue upto 1st January 2021. Similarly, for the remaining candidates of Samba district, the test will be held from 2nd January 2021 till 8th January 2021.
Taking all the precaution and following all the health protocols five medical teams from CMO Jammu have been deployed at the venue for the screening and conduct of RAPID test for COVID-19 of all the appearing candidates besides maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks, and sanitizing of candidates during the recruitment process. All the staff involved in the process has been directed to use issued Personal Protecting Kits.
The notification for the test was issued by the Chairman Recruitment Board on 10th of December 2020, whereby all the remaining candidates who had applied for the post of constable in 02 Border Battalions in J&K Police were advised to download their fresh admit cards and undertaking/no risk certificates which were made available on the official website of J&K Police. All the candidates were advised to be in possession of a COVID free certificate with them before appearing for the test.
The Chairman Recruitment Board ADGP Dr.S. D. Singh Jamwal has said that after completing the recruitment process of PET/PST in Jammu Province, the recruitment process for the candidates of Kashmir Province will begin soon.
Pertinent to mention that PET/PST test for 02 Border Battalions started in the month of March 2020 and was completed in Poonch, Rajouri, Kathua districts. The test was going in Jammu and Samba district when it was stopped due to Pandemic, 19203 candidates had already appeared then for the PET/PST test.
Meanwhile, Police has issued notification for the conduct of steno/typing test for the induction of in-service police personnel of J&K Police to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector (Stenographer) and Selection Grade Constable ( ministerial executive cadre).

Srinagar, Dec 25: The Army on Friday said two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, who had surrendered during an encounter in south Kashmir district of Kulgam earlier this week, had contacted Pakistani-based handler through social media.
An Army official, however, said that no weapon training was organized for the duo, who was assigned to target political leaders. “The Pak-based handler had later introduced the youth to an Anantnag-based recruiter, Khalid, and a militant Mohammad Abbas Sheikh,” he said.
He said the duo met Khalid in Anantnag who provided them weapons. “They spent days hiding in various parts of South Kashmir. They were tasked to kill Political leaders,” he added.
Officials said that following specific information, troops of Rashtriya Rifles (RR), CRPF and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police launched a joint CASO at village Tongdounu in Kulgam in the wee hours on Tuesday.
However, when the forces launched house-to-house search operation, militants hiding there, opened fire. “The fire was returned ensuing in an encounter, they said.
They said after identifying the holed up militants, there family members were brought at the encounter site who appealed them to surrender. Security forces also assured militants that they will not be harmed if they surrender. Later, both the militants surrendered alongwith incriminating materials, including one AK with 30 rounds, two pistols and as many hand grenades.

Jammu, Dec 25: The the Special Operation Group of Jammu Police have reportedly arrested one person with weapons from Narwal area here.
Reliable sources here said that one person from Kashmir was nabbed late on Thursday night from Narwal area.
“Weapons and some incriminating material is learnt to be recovered from his possession,” they said and added that more details are awaited as the matter is under investigation.