Srinagar, Oct 1: The fast-unto-death started by Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS) president and youth leader in support of their demands ended after 248 hours last night after District Magistrate (DM) Srinagar handed over a written assurance that their demands will be addressed.
A spokesman of the Samiti said today that KPSS president Sanjay K Tickoo and youth leader Sandeep Koul have started fast-unto-death in support of their demands, including recruitment of over 500 unemployed youths of non-migrant Kashmiri pandit community who did not migrated from here when majority members of the community migrated to different parts of the country in early 90s due to eruption of militancy.
He said at around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, Deputy Commission Srinagar, Shahid Choudry visited Tickoo at Sidhi Vinayak Ganesh mandir Ganpathyar Habba Kadal in the old city and handed over a written assurance that the demands projected by KPSS will be addressed and taken to logical conclusion.
He said earlier emissaries of the Chief Secretary as well as the Additional Deputy Commissioner visited the venue a number of times to negotiate with the KPSS President in the last two days.
The fast has ended after 248 hours, he said and thanked all political parties and individuals who supported the KPSS demands.
The KPSS has alleged sabotage by Disaster Management Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (DMRR&R) Department for the past two years despite orders by High Court, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the appointment of 500 unemployed youth of the community.
Other demands were easy and stress free process of providing bonafide certificates to all Pandits, monthly financial aid to 808 non-migrant Pandit families living in Valley, providing accommodation to all deserving Pandits as per recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs and extension of benefits of Migrant Welfare Fund to the non-migrant Pandits living in the Valley.
KPSS ends fast-unto-death after 248 hours
Blow siren before releasing water from reservoirs: Police to NHPC and LJHP
Baramulla, Oct 1: Concerned over deaths due to drowning in river Jehlum after release of water from reservoirs without blowing siren, police has taken up the matter with National Hydroelectric Power Company (NHPC) and Lower Jhelum Hydro Project (LJHP) in border town of Uri to install sirens and take other measures to prevent such accidents in future.
Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Uri Junaid Wali has written a letter to General Manager of NHPC and Executive Engineering (EE) LJHP on Thursday that sirens installed are not being regularly blown before the water is released from reservoirs into the river leading to drowning accidents in Gantamullah and Uri.
The letter further said that in order to make the siren more effective to warn people while taking bath, security guards be deployed near the siren or alarm lighting installation. However, the letter further said that there are some area where no siren has been installed.
Wali in the letter said the people of the adjacent villages living on both sides of the dams and river are complaining that they have lost various human lives due to release of water from reservoirs without siren. Residents are demanding installation of the siren on both sides of the river on a priority basis so that such incidents can be avoided.
The letter said that non-installation of siren and fencing accounts for negligence from the concerned agencies since it is the primary responsibility of these agencies managing the hydel projects to take preventive measures.
Wali further said it is such requested that the above-mentioned demands with respect to dam sites on river Jhelum and LJHP canal be kindly fixed.
The letter also mentioned the names of youth who died due to drowning while taking bath in the river in the recent past due to release of water without blowing siren.
Ensure constant monitoring of home isolation COVID patients: Dullo to DCs
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 1: Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo Thursday chaired a meeting to review the status of COVID-19 across Jammu and Kashmir at Civil Secretariat here.
The meeting was attended by Director National Health Mission (NHM), Bhupinder Kumar, Deputy Commissioners, CMOs of all the districts through video conferencing while as Director Health Services Kashmir, Samir Mattoo and other senior officials of health department attended the meeting in person.
Speaking during the meeting, Atal Dulloo impressed upon the officers to make public adopt the COVID appropriate behaviour strictly besides increasing the frequency of daily testing.
The Financial Commissioner further stressed upon the Deputy Commissioners and other officials to keep themselves prepared for the forthcoming winter season and festive season and ensure that the unlock 5.0 guidelines are strictly implemented.
Dulloo directed the officers for constant monitoring of home isolation patients besides regular monitoring of health through phone in facility. He exhorted upon the officers to increase the frequency of calls to home isolation patients.
Underlining the need for effective strategy for containing the spread of virus, the Financial Commissioner asked the DCs to follow the strategy of constant surveillance, proper clinical management besides adopting other SOPs strictly.
Dulloo directed the DCs to constantly attend the training sessions with National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) teams regarding containment of virus and other strategies. He asked them to increase the contact tracing by forming teams at lower levels besides uploading the reports of tests conducted on ICMR portal.
The Financial Commissioner further asked the DCs that Govt. of India is starting Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaign regarding COVID-19 from 7th October, 2020 for sensitising the people regarding developing COVID appropriate behaviour. He impressed on the DCs that the campaign will mainly focus on informing people regarding use of wearing masks, maintaing social distance, hand hygiene and other measures for containing the virus.
Dulloo exhorted upon the DCs to utilise the services of PRI representatives, teachers, Asha Workers, Anganwadi workers and other frontline workers besides religious leaders for reaching out to the masses during IEC campaign.
During the course of meeting, Director NHM gave a detailed presentation regarding status of COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Woman sets herself ablaze in Baramulla
Baramulla, Oct 1: A woman allegedly attempted to commit suicide by setting herself on fire on Thursday in apple township of Sopore in this north Kashmir, official sources said.
They said a 32-year-old women allegedly set herself ablaze after pouring kerosene oil over her body at her Sadiq Colony residence in Sopore this morning.
However, she was immediately rushed to Sub District Hopsital (SDH) Sopore from where she was referred to Srinagar in a critical condition.
It was not immediately known why she tried to took this extreme step, they said adding police has registered a case and initiated proceedings.
Police prevents youth from joining militancy in Ganderbal
Precious Kashmir News
Ganderbal, Oct 1: Police in Ganderbal have apprehended a youth who has been misled to join militant ranks.
“Based on credible input from various security agencies, police apprehended a youth identified as Umar Nazir resident of Ganderbal,” a police spokesman said.
He said preliminary investigation reveals that the subject was in constant touch over social media with some suspects in Bandipora & Pulwama and had developed tendency to join militant ranks.
“The arrested youth was properly counselled by police in presence of his parents and later handed over to his parents,” the spokesman said.
Div Com reviews implementation of centrally sponsored schemes in Cantonment area
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 1: Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir Pandurang K Pole Thursday chaired a meeting of officers to review the implementation of centrally sponsored schemes in Cantonment area Badami Bagh.
Stressing on the speedy implementation of all schemes, the Div Com directed that the Cantonment board should be intimated by the concerned officers before execution of any developmental work in the area.
In order to ensure better health care facilities, the Div Com emphasized on establishment of health sub- centre in the area. In this regard the Director Health Services was directed to submit a proposal to the government and hire a rented accommodation for operation of health centre.
Commissioner, SMC Srinagar was instructed to ensure construction of community toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission at all places, identified by the CEO Cantonment board.
While taking detailed review implementation of schemes, the Div Com instructed that ADDC Srinagar and CEO shall jointly be holding monthly meeting of all concerned officers for the smooth implementation of all schemes.
He said since the information of schemes is available on web portals, the officers shall provide excess of portals to CEO so that bottlenecks, lacunas or any impediments hampering implementation of schemes is addressed accordingly.
Among others the meeting was attended by Commissioner SMC, CEO, Cantonment, CMO Srinagar and other concerned.
10-days research methodology workshop in Social Sciences begins at CUK
Precious Kashmir News
Ganderbal, Oct 1: The 10-day research methodology workshop for Research Scholars in Social Sciences’ organised by the School of Social Sciences, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) began from Thursday at Green Campus here.
Faculty members and research scholars from the three departments, Economics, Politics and Governance and Religious Studies were present during the function, which was chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir.
Prof. Pulin Nayak from Delhi School of Economics joined online from New Delhi to deliver the special lecture.
Addressing the participants, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din, said the present world has found itself in a new reality which has changed the way of operations at all levels and the same is true for Research Methodology.
He stressed the need for adopting the interdisciplinary approach and said that there is no fun in simply getting a degree if the research is not used for the benefit of the society.
Prof. Pulin Nayak’s lecture focused mainly on inequality.
He said inequality is not only an economic phenomenon, but is a socio-political phenomenon as well and it must be understood in a holistic manner.
LAWDA demolished illegal structures
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 1: The Enforcement Wing of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) continue demolition drive of illegal structures built by encroachers at several locations.
During the drive, several structures were demolished in the area of Baghi-Roop Singh Nowpora, Saderbal & Karpora which were raised by some violators taking the undue advantage of Covid-19.
On the occasion the Enforcement Officer said strict action shall be taken against those found indulging in any sort of illegal constructions/encroachments in LDA jurisdiction.
He said it is also impressed that no construction activity within 200 meters from the lake and the other restrictions imposed under Master Plan should come up and the violators shall be dealt-with strictly under the law. He further added that the public residing within the LDA jurisdiction are hereby directed not to go for any sort of illegal constructions.
Moreover, all the Tipper/Load carrier owners are directed not to carry construction material in the territorial jurisdiction of J&K LDA without seeking permission from the competent authorities and should desist while carrying it to the prohibited area.
The officer warned the unscrupulous elements creating hurdles during demolition of illegal constructions that action will be taken against them under law.
CAG And Official Slackness
The latest audit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as regards the Government’s performance on various accounts does not present a picture worth appreciation but merits consideration beyond doubt. In fact, there have been many shortcomings pointed out in the administration’s performances and lack of seriousness, leading to delay in various projects of immense importance.
One such example has been the administration’s failure to set up International Trade Centre at Pampore. As pointed out by the CAG, Rs 3.94 crore was blocked for more than a decade while there has been an “unfruitful” expenditure of Rs 1.06 crore.
As per it, the Government of India released had Rs five crore as the first installment of the project to the SIDCO for setting up the the facility in December 2008.
The funds were retained by the Corporation for around two years and transferred to the bank account of Managing Director, Handicrafts Department in January 2011 after the GoI sought utilization certificates.
Out of the funds released, the CAG revealed that an amount of Rs 1.01 crore was advanced to R&B department between September 2012 to January 2016 for construction of fencing around the land identified for the project and an expenditure Rs 0.05 crore incurred for obtaining license under the Companies Act 2013.
The work on the project couldn’t be taken up due to multiple reasons, although the land measuring 371 kanals was transferred in favour of Director Handicrafts for establishment of ITC way back in 2004, it revealed.
The DPR was prepared in January 2014 but the project works could not be taken up as the decision with regard to identification of executing agency between SICOP and JKPCC and finalisation of the DPRs was not taken, it added. This is not one of the cases where the administration’s performance has been point out in the CAG report in a bad light. There are plethoras of cases and such state of affairs cannot be approved of. As should be the purpose of the CAG reports, the concerned officers should be held accountable for slackness.
The Executive is answerable to the legislature and to the people for all its decisions. The answerability is enforced through the CAG where it involves finance and accounts. The CAG of India has, not for the first time, pointed out the inadequacies but there seems to be a lack in fixing the responsibility.
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Schools reopening experiment fails in Kashmir
Students stay away; parents want normal schooling after COVID-19 vaccine
Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, Sep 30: Experiment of the School Education Department (SED) to reopen the schools from class 9th to 12th on voluntary basis amidst pandemic has not worked as the students have stayed away.
It may be recalled that SED officials had to cut a sorry figure after circular asking the parents to send their children to schools on their “own risk and responsibility” had gone viral on the social networking sites.
A parent while talking to Precious Kashmir said, “No parent will ever put the life of his/her ward at risk. All of us are aware of the fact that the COVID-19 virus is very much active and it is infecting the people daily. Sending children to schools at this point of time could have proved disastrous.”
The parent said that soon after the schools were reopened in the United States of America and Israel number of COVID-19 cases had witnessed a massive spike.
The educational institutions in Kashmir have remained closed since August 5, 2019. The schools had opened briefly in the month of March but after the outbreak of the COVID-19 these were closed again. “Students have suffered immensely during the past one year and the SED by making an attempt to bring them back to schools was a bold move, but the medicos and experts had opposed it due to many reasons,” said an analyst.
He said, “The winter is coming near and none of us knows how the virus will behave. So reopening schools at this point of time was not a good idea. Parents have listened to the advice of the experts and have prevented their children from becoming a part of a dangerous experiment.”
The analyst said that people will have to wait till the vaccine comes. “We have waited for more than a year, so it’s no point hurrying up. The COVID-19 has to go. It’s just a matter of time before the vaccine comes and people get a protective shield,” he added.
An official of the School Education Department said, “J&K is not the only place where schools have been reopened. The educational institutions have been thrown open in many states and union territories. We are not forcing the parents to send their children to schools. Whosoever wants to come is welcome. There is no compulsion from our side.”
The official said that terming the reopening of schools as a “failed experiment” was being unfair.
