Bengaluru: Chief of the Army Staff General M M Naravane on Wednesday said the Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and stability along the border and is ready for every possible danger.

“Today the Indian Army is passing through a challenging phase. All of you are fully aware of the activities on our borders. The Army is committed to maintaining peace and stability along the border. But I would definitely like to say that we are ready and alert for every possible danger,” Gen Narvane said.

He was speaking to four parachute battalions here.

Gen Naravane said along with the changes in the battlefield, there have also been changes in the organization of the armies, weapons, accessories and methods of expression. “With new weapons and modern equipment, the armies have increased their capability even more,” he said.

Although the process for change is continuous, in the last two to three years there is a new intensity and momentum in these efforts, Gen Naravane said.

Lauding the parachute battalions, he said the country was safe because of “brave heroes”.

The 11 Para (Special Force), 21 Para (Special Force), 23 Para and 29 Para were presented the President’s Colours. (UNI)

Srinagar: The government on Wednesday ordered a probe into yesterday’s self-immolation attempt by a youth in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.

According to an order issued by Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, P K Pole, Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC) Ganderbal, Khurshid Ahmad Shah has been appointed as an enquiry officer to probe the incident.

“Taking cognizance of the media reports of the unfortunate incident of alleged self immolation in District Ganderbal on 22nd February, 2022. Khurshid Ahmad Shah, KAS Additional District Development Commissioner, Ganderbal is appointed as an Enquiry Officer to enquire into the whole gamut of episode and furnish his findings alongwith his definite comments/recommendations within a period of 10 days positively,” reads the order issued under number Div.Com 6290/2012, dated 23-02-2022.

Meanwhile, owing to mishandling the issue, the government has also ordered transfer of Tehsildar Ganderbal with immediate effect.

“In the meantime, Tehsildar Ganderbal is transferred with immediate effect and his services are kept at the disposal of Deputy Commissioner Bandipora owing to mishandling the issue,” it added.

As per the separate order under number630-DIVCOM of 2022, dated 23-02-2022, Tariq Ahmad Bhat, Tehsildar Tulail, is hereby transferred with immediate effect and his services are kept at the disposal of DC Ganderbal.

“Consequent upon the transfer of Tehsildar Ganderbal, vide this office Order No: Div.Com/629 of 2022 dated 23-02-2022, Tariq Ahmad Bhat (KAS) Tehsildar Tulail, is hereby transferred with immediate effect and his services are kept at the disposal of Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal,” it reads.

Pertinently on Tuesday, a youth set himself ablaze during a demolition drive in Ganderbal village.

He took the extreme step to prevent the demolition of his under construction complex, the officials had said.

Jammu: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha Wednesday approved the Policy for Promotion of Foreign Investment in the industrial sector in Jammu and Kashmir- 2022.

Farooq Khan and Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisors to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K, and Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.

The new policy is based on the guiding framework on FDI issued by the Government of India through the RBI and DPIIT and will be valid for the next 10 years. It aims to facilitate large foreign investments greater than Rs.100 crore with a minimum of 51% foreign stakes.

The policy also provides for identifying parcels of land in various industrial estates to be given exclusively to industries with foreign investments including vertical rise premises in the form of multi-purpose buildings/complexes, with plug and play facilities.

The land allotment process will be regulated by the J&K Industrial Land Allotment Policy, 2021-30, whilst, such units will also be eligible for benefits, incentives, and support under the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Policy 2021-30 and New Central Sector Scheme for the industrial development of Jammu and Kashmir.

For optimal utilization of land resources and to provide integrated services to multiple players, the policy also envisages the establishment of multipurpose complexes for foreign investment by developing IT tower projects through private players in Sempora, Pampore and Exhibition Ground, Jammu. These towers will house different business activities and will form a part of the ‘Industrial Complex for Foreign Investment’

Jammu: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha Wednesday approved the proposal of Revenue Department to transfer various parcels of land for public purposes.

Farooq Khan and Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisors to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K and Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.

The Administrative Council approved the transfer of land measuring 63 Kanal 04 Marla in favour of Higher Education Department for construction of a new Government Degree College in village Firsal, District Kulgam.

The decision aims to provide quality higher education opportunities to students of the region and boost employment of teaching and non-teaching staff through various recruiting agencies.

Moreover, approval was given to the transfer of land measuring 02 kanal and 05 Marla in favour of Health & Medical Education Department for construction of a health centre at Jawaharpora in District Pulwama. Once completed, the institution will provide modern medical facilities to the people of the area.

The Administrative Council further approved the transfer of land measuring 05 Kanal in favour of Revenue Department for construction of a police post at Newa at village Malawari, District Pulwama. The new police post in the local area will keep a check on illegal activities, security-related incidents, and will allow the police to respond to any law and order situation and natural disaster in a timely manner.

Another parcel of land measuring 148 Kanal situated in village Dambra, Tehsil Mahanpur, District Kathua was transferred in favour of Prisons Department for construction of High Security Prison in the district along with the transfer of State land measuring 160 Kanal 04 Marla under situated at village Dambra, Tehsil Mahanpur, District Kathua as Shamlat Deh (Mehfooz Kahcharai) in lieu of the land proposed for High Security Prison.

The construction of High Security Prison for lodging treasonous and insurgent criminals aims at meeting the security requirements of the region and strengthening the national security.

Srinagar: At least 15 police officers including a Deputy Superintendent of Police rank were transferred on Wednesday while Mohd Ishaq has been appointed as Station House Officer (SHO) of Kothi Bagh Police Station.

According to the order, Anubhuti, a DYSP rank officer has been appointed as PS R.M Bagh as SHO for two months as part of practical training programme while Iftikhar Hussain has been transferred from PP Qamarwari and appointed as PS Nowgam as SHO.

The others who were transferred include Taseer Hamid, Adil Rashid, Majid Hussain, R.P. Singh, Khushab Kumar, Sabzar Ahmed, Rabinder Singh, Mudasir Nazar, Mohd Ishaq, Sheikh Adil, Towseef Ahmed, Suhail Anees and Abid Ali.

Taseer has been transferred to PC Srinagar while Adil Rashid has been appointed as SHO M R Gunj.

According to the order, Majid Hussain, R.P. Singh, Khushab Kumar, Sabzar Ahmed, Rabinder Singh, Mudasir Nazar, Mohd Ishaq, Sheikh Adil, Towseef Ahmed, Suhail Anees and Abid Ali have been appointed as PS M.R. Gunj as SHO, PS. Khanyar as SHO, DPL Srinagar, PS Harwan as SHO, PS Kralhud as SHO, PS Rajbagh as SHO, PS Sadder as SHO, PS Kothibagh as SHO, PS Nowhatta as SHO, PP Bgiyas as IC PP, PP Qamarwari as IC PP and PP Hazratbal as IC PP respectively.

‘Your Mobile Our Office’ app to be rolled out within 15 days

Jammu: Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Wednesday asked the department to speed up the development of UT dashboard and ‘your mobile our office’ app to enable J&K to go fully digital in next three months.

He made this comments in a meeting held to review the development of UT Dashboard. The meeting was attended by the secretaries of a few identified service oriented departments including IT secretary.

The objective of the portal will be to monitor the progress of various development schemes/activities of the government departments and will enable single point view/oversight to the top echelons of the J&K Government.

The implementation of the schemes will be assessed on real time basis based on the key performance indicators identified/set out by the respective departments.

The Chief Secretary asked the IT department to integrate the DGGI dashboard with 50 indicators and 140 data points besides also incorporating the 55 beneficiary oriented schemes with the UT dashboard to make the dashboard a real time one stop viewing/monitoring platform for all the schemes in the UT.

He said going forward the scope and sweep of the dashboard can be further enhanced by adding more schemes and services including the deliverables assigned to all the departments.

Earlier IT Secretary, Prerna Puri made a small presentation on the progress achieved in developing the dashboard and outlined the steps being taken to roll out the initiative and ‘your mobile out office’ app.

Prerna said ‘your mobile our office’ app is in the final stages of the development and will be rolled out shortly.

She said that in the beginning this app will be enabled to provide only five services on line on end to end basis and the number of the services will be extended going forward based on the lessons learnt in the process.

Dr Mehta asked the department to launch ‘your mobile our office’ app within 15 days with 5 services to begin with. The Chief Secretary advised the department to also explore the possibility of providing 200 services available on Umang app on this app.

He asked the department to run the media campaigns about the utility of the app for the benefit of the people.

Saying that ‘janbhagidgari’ portal has become now more user friendly after it was moved to a different server, he asked the department to sensitise the people about the portal so that more and more people can avail its benefit and become truly empowered.

He added that the government’s ongoing digital push will improve governance and public service delivery on sustainable basis.

Inspects damaged power towers at Hablish, Malipora

Anantnag: Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole Wednesday visited twin Anantnag and Kulgam districts of South Kashmir to take stock of restoration of power supply and other essential services besides Snow clearance operations.

On the occasion, the Div Com visited Receiving Station (RS) Wanpoh at Anantnag to take on spot appraisal of restoration of power supply.

At Wanpoh receiving station, the SE KPDCL informed the Div Com that restoration work has been completed on 4 feeder lines and restoration is underway on Ashajipora and SICOP 33 kv lines. He said that personnel have been pressed into service throughout the district.

Speaking on the occasion, the Div Com said that the Snowfall is essential for the economy particularly for the agricultural sector. He said that the focus of the administration is on restoration of power supply and clearance of roads and the same has been taken up on a war footing basis.

He said adequate provision of ration supply is available at all places therefore people need not to worry for want of essentials.

The Div Com said that major highways have been cleared and major arterial roads within districts have also been cleared. He said in 40 municipalities more than 85% of the roads had been cleared by 3pm and all the roads will be cleared by evening. He said manual labour has been pressed into service for clearance of lanes and sub lanes.

The Div Com was accompanied by DC Anantnag Dr Piyush Singla and other senior officials of district administration.

Later, the Div Com visited Kulgam to take first-hand appraisal of the situation arising due to Snowfall and restoration of essential services.

He on the occasion visited Malipora and  Hablish areas of the district and took stock of damage caused to electric towers due to Snowfall, these towers supply power to Kulgam grid station.

The Div Com directed the concerned officers to ensure repairs of these power towers on a war footing basis.

Deputy Commissioner Kulgam, Dr. Bilal Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat, ADC, ACR, officers of PDD besides others accompanied the Div Com during the visit.

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir reported 100 fresh Covid-19 cases even as there was one death due to the virus in the last 24 hours, officials said on Wednesday.

They said 70 of the fresh cases were reported from Jammu Division and 30 from Kashmir Division, taking the overall tally to 452647.

Giving district wise details, the officials said Srinagar reported 12 cases, Baramulla 5, Budgam 6, Pulwama 0, Kupwara 2, Anantnag 3, Bandipora 2, Ganderbal 0, Kulgam 0, Shopian 0, Jammu 29, Udhampur 03, Rajouri 1, Doda 25, Kathua 6, Samba 1, Kishtwar 0, Poonch 1, Ramban 4 and Reasi 0.

There was one death reported, from Jammu division, in the last 24 hours, they said. So far 4748 persons have succumbed to the virus—2325 in Jammu and 2423 in Kashmir.

Besides, they said, 182 Covid-19 patients—90 from Jammu and 92 from Valley— recovered during the time. So far 446534 people have recovered, leaving the active case tally at 1365— 764 in Jammu and 601 in Kashmir.

They said there was no new confirmed case of mucormycosis (black fungus) reported today. So far 51 black fungus cases have been confirmed in J&K, the officials said. They also informed that 15747 doses of covid-19 vaccine were administered during the time in J&K. (GNS)