Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday extended greetings to the students, who passed Class 10^th exams.

In a tweet, Sinha wished luck to all the students for their bright future.

“Congratulations to all my young friends who have successfully cleared @jkboseofficial class 10th examinations, Annual, Regular-2021, Kashmir Division,” Sinha said in a tweet. “Compliments to teachers, parents & @jkboseofficial. Best wishes to all the students for their bright future,” Office of J&K LG tweeted.

Secy, DARPG, CS review functioning of DGGI portal

Srinagar: Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), GoI and the Chief Secretary, J&K, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Thursday co-chaired a meeting to review the development and functioning of District Good Governance Index (DGGI) portal and Dashboard for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, General Administration Department, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi; DG IMPARD, Saurabh Bhagat; Secretary IT, Prerna Puri; Secretary, PDMD, Sushma Chauhan; CEO, JKEGA, Amit Sharma, senior officers of J&KIMPARD.

The portal has been made with an objective to monitor the progress of districts on several given indicators, identification of key areas improvement and assessment of comparative performance of districts on a real time basis.

Speaking during the meeting, the Chief Secretary said that the launch of District Good Governance Index (DGGI) for the UT of J&K was a remarkable achievement for the administration of J&K as it is a major step towards enhancing efficiency in governance and improving the Public Service Delivery on the ground. He added that to reap the benefits of DGGI for each district and improve governance and public service delivery, this portal has been formed which will make them result-oriented on services provided and also improve their public service delivery mechanism. The Chief Secretary directed the officers to host diverse information on the DGGI dashboard alongside the results of the index so that the public gets aware about the performance of their respective districts.

The Chief Secretary also directed the officers of Planning Department to utilize the services of District Statistics Evaluation Officers (DSEOs)  for compiling the comparative data to be hosted on the DGGI portal. He also directed the DG, JKIMPARD to organize training for the DSEOs in consultation with the DARPG so that they get well acquainted about the objective and purpose of the DGGI portal and can compile the data of their respective districts accordingly.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, DARPG, V Srinivas remarked that the launch of DGGI and now formation of DGGI portal and dashboard  is a huge administrative reform initiated by the government of J&K which has a lot of national significance. He added that the J&K has opened the door for further promoting competitive federalism at district level and several states are approaching DARPG for framing of DGGI in their respective states.

For the DGGI portal and dashboard, ten sectors have been identified for monitoring like agriculture and allied sector, industry and commerce (including tourism), human resource development, public health, public infrastructure & utilities, social welfare & development, financial inclusion, legal empowerment & public safety, environment and citizen centric governance. The portal and dashboard will be web based for all stakeholders with monthly data entry provision for each district.

Simultaneously, the Chief Secretary and Secretary DARPG also reviewed the progress of the Union territory on the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA)-2021.

During the meeting, Senior Technical Director, NIC, DARPG informed the meeting that the UT of J&K and improved significantly and has achieved number one rank among all the UTs in the NeSDA-2021. It was also given out that the UT Portal has higher compliance to the assessment parameters like accessibility, ‘Information Security and Privacy’, ‘Content Availability’ and ‘Ease of Use’.

The Chief Secretary complimented the officers of IT department, GAD and others for this remarkable achievement and asked them to bring more services on the digital platform so that maximum people take benefits out of this.

Dr. Mehta asked the IT department to complete end to end digitization of all services, integrate all public services on a single platform and also develop a feedback mechanism for the same in the given timeframe. The Chief Secretary further asked the officers to bring more services on the Rapid Assessment System (RAS) platform so that J&K can improve the performance on  NeSDA and become number one performing UT among all States and UTs of the country.

Dr. Mehta asked the officers of the IT department to calibrate the services on the RAS platform as per the public feedback received. He also asked them to launch an awareness campaign for the public so that maximum people can register feedback regarding the services provided through the RAS platform.

Pertinently, RAS provides a platform for submitting the online applications for different services like issuance of domicile certificate, benefits under the MUMKIN scheme, commercial water connection, license for selling fertilizers, license for pesticides, license for opening nurseries and other services of public importance. The platform also has a user-friendly digital feedback mechanism that enables citizens to provide effective feedback on the services provided to them. The departments are also provided a graphical user interface (GUI) for assessing the feedback from citizens and incorporating suitable changes to further enhance efficiency in the service delivery mechanism.

Srinagar: National Investigation Agency on Wednesday carried raids at nine locations in Kashmir Valley in connection with a case regarding recovery of IED from Bhatindi Area of Jammu in June last year, officials said.

“NIA in coordination with Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF carried out searches at 9 locations in the districts of Srinagar (2 locations), Kupwara (2), Anantnag (1), Pulwama (1), Bandipora (1), Kulgam (1 location) and Baramulla (1 location) in NIA case RC-04/2021/NIA/JMU,” NIA said in a statement.

The case pertains to recovery of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) from Bhatindi area of Jammu, it said. “After investigation five accused persons have been arrested in the instant case till date, out of which three accused were chargesheeted on 22.12.2021,” NIA said, adding, “During the searches conducted today incriminating material and digital devices have been seized from the premises of suspects in the case.”

Further Investigation in the case continues, the NIA added.

Meanwhile, National Investigation Agency (NIA) also carried out raids at multiple locations during the investigations of a case related to radicalising, motivating and recruiting youth of J&K into militancy.

A spokesperson of NIA said the raids were conducted in coordination with Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF at three locations across Kashmir.

“During the searches incriminating materials and digital devices were seized,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“This case pertains to radicalising, motivating and recruiting of youth of J&K to effect violent activities in J&K and rest of India by Sajjad Gul, Salim Rehmani @ Abu Saad and Saifullah Sajid Jutt, Commanders of LeT/TRF,” it said, adding four persons have been arrested in the instant case so far.NIA said further investigation in the case continues.

Srinagar: State Investigation Agency (SIA) have arrested ten “identified” persons for allegedly working as Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of Jash-e-Mohammad during raids in south and central Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.

“The SIA was constituted recently with mandate to investigate (cases) connected with (militancy) and secessionism, conducted overnight raids at ten different locations in various districts of south and central Kashmir,” SIA said in a statement.

“These raids were primarily focused on the network of JeM. Ten identified persons who were part of OGW modules and taking instructions from (JeM) commanders have been arrested,” it said, adding, “The module whose members were organised in to sub-modules, in the form of verticals, so that in the event of detection of one member the bigger network does not get compromised had been painstakingly discovered through discreet surveillance in which corroborative intelligence capable of being converted to admissible evidence in court was used to ascertain and confirm the OGW membership of the individuals.”

The “module”, the SIA said, could be connected to other modules through higher levels of JeM leadership. “Their discovery is likely as the investigation rolls out in coming days,” the SIA said.

The detected portion of the module, it said, had been active in recruiting other young persons, arranging finances, transporting weapons in south and central Kashmir besides providing other logistic support.

“In the searches, besides arrests, cell phones, SIM cards, records to show use of banking channels and even a dummy pistol were seized.” Among arrested persons, there is one at whose house four militants had been killed on 4 April 2020, it said.

“The hitherto unknown module was working towards furthering (militant) activities in south and central Kashmir,” the SIA said. The arrested members were mostly recruiting vulnerable “school and college” going students as a few of them are students themselves, the SIA said.

They were in close connection with the regular militants of JeM outfit and had been under surveillance for quite some time, the SIA said.

“The digital records seized is being sent to FSL for evidence analysis and the arrested persons would be presented before the NIA court in Srinagar seeking permission for custodial questioning,” the SIA said, adding, “It is believed the arrests and subsequent follow up investigation would dent the upper ground network of (JeM) and degrade its ability to undertake (militant) activities across valley.” (GNS)

Srinagar: Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested four OGWs of TRF in Srinagar.

“On the basis of reliable intelligence input, it was found that the (militant) organization “The Resistance Front (TRF) is active in J&K and is being orchestrated by handlers based in Pakistan. Two active (militants) namely: Basit Ahmed Dar of Redwani Kulgam and Momin Gulzar of Eidgah Srinagar are using the network of over ground workers in the valley for subversive activities. These OGWs are providing logistic support and are harbouring these (militants) in Kashmir Valley,” a police spokesman said.

Accordingly, he said, a case FIR (No 10/2022) Under Sections 13,18,38,39 of Unlawful activities Prevention Act and Section 120B of IPC was registered in Police Station Kothibagh.

“Four hardcore OGWs have been arrested in the case so far,” he said and indentified them as Basharat Ahmed Pampori son of Basir Ahmed Pampori of Maidanpora Srinagar, Adil Shafi Bhat son of Mohammad Shafi Bhat of Daresh Kadal, Srinagar, Muzamil Fayaz Sofi son of Fayaz Ahmed Sofi of Bagh-e- Sundar Payeen Kaksarai, Karan Nagar, Srinagar and Adil Mushtaq Mir son of Mushtaq Ahmed Mir of Bagh-e-Sundar Payeen Maidanpora.

“These OGWs were also found to be involved in creating content of the threatening posters issued by TRF time to time. Through these posters they aimed to threaten Govt employees, Police, Armed Forces, elected PRls and non-local businessmen and to cause disaffection against the state,” he said, adding, “It was also found that they had recently provided logistic support to three (militants) namely Momin Gulbar, Arif Ahmed Hazar and one foreigner by providing them shelter and also facilitated them in carrying out attacks in Srinagar city.” He said further investigation was continuing “so as to identify other OGWs involved in this network.”