Precious Kashmir

Sgr-Jmu highway to remain open for 1-way traffic today

Jammu & Kashmir

12/01/2022

Sgr-Jmu highway to remain open for 1-way traffic today

Jammu: The Jammu-Srinagar Highway, the only surface link connecting Kashmir with the outside world, shall remain open for one-way traffic on Wednesday, officials said.

“Tomorrow (Jan 12), subject to fair weather and better road condition LMVs Passengers shall be allowed from Jammu towards Srinagar (only one way) in view of narrow and slippery conditions of road at many places on Jammu-Srinagar highway and shall be allowed from Nagrota Jammu at 0600 hrs upto 1200 hrs & from Jakheni (Udhampur) at 0700 hrs upto 1300 hrs,” a traffic department official said.

He said no vehicle shall be allowed before and after cut off timing.

Meanwhile, Mughal Road, connecting Shopian with Poonch and Rajouri districts, remained closed for vehicular movement in view of snow accumulation at Peer Ki Gali.

Also, Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri road remained shut for vehicular movement in view of snow accumulation on Zoji la axis and has been closed till further orders.

Traffic movement on kishtwar-sinthan road also has been halted on Kishtwar-Sinthan road in view of snow accumulation, they said.

Punjab resident arrested on abduction charges

Jammu & Kashmir

Precious Kashmir

12/01/2022

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested a Punjab resident for allegedly abducting a girl from south Kashmir.

Police said they received a written complaint on January 10 from a south Kashmir resident alleging that his daughter has been kidnapped by Sanju Singh, a resident of Pundail in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

Accordingly, a case under relevant sections of law was registered at Police Station Awantipora and an investigation was initiated.

“During the course of investigation, a police party headed by Station House Officer Awantipora with the assistance of a technical team tracked down the location of the accused person in Banihal area,” a police spokesman said. “Immediately a police team was dispatched to Banihal to rescue the abducted girl. The team was able to recover the kidnapped girl from Sheer Bebi Banihal and arrested the accused person involved in the commission of crime within 5 hours.”

After fulfilling all medico-legal formalities, the girl has been handed over to her legal heirs, the police said, adding further investigation into the matter is in progress.

2 patients airlifted from Gurez to Bandipora

Jammu & Kashmir

Precious Kashmir

12/01/2022

By: Sajid Raina

Bandipora: The administration in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Tuesday airlifted two patients from snowbound Gurez valley to Bandipora for immediate medical relief, officials said.

Officials said that on the directions of Deputy Commissioner, Bandipora, Dr Owais Ahmad, the duo patients requiring emergency evacuation from Gurez Sub Division airlifted from Baduaab and Neeru to Bandipora.

Notably, the snow-clad Gurez valley remains cut off from the rest of the Kashmir parts during winters, owing to heavy snowfall in the valley. (KNO)

Amid closure of coaching center, students asked to pay hefty amount

City

Precious Kashmir

12/01/2022

By: Bhat Imran

Srinagar: Following the government directives to switch the online mode of teaching in view of rise in COVID-19 cases, some private coaching institutes in Kashmir are forcibly, asking the students to pay the hefty amount.

It has been leant that the students are being forced to pay the hefty amount in the name of tuition charges that too at the time when the government has ordered the private coaching institutes to switch the teaching to online mode.

One of the students said, “I am pursuing NEET coaching in one of the leading private institutions wherein the management is forcing us to pay the charges at earliest. The compulsions were made after the government ordered them to change the mode of teaching from offline to online.”

The student said that earlier there used to be no such compulsion. “But, now they (management of coaching centers) seem to be insecure about the fee they collect from the students.”

Meanwhile, another 11th standard student said that she is pursuing private coaching in one of the leading institutes.

“I have been pursuing coaching for only the past few weeks. For the past two days, concerned officials of the management at the coaching institutes have been entering class only to announce that they are collecting 60 percent of the charges,” she said.

In the meantime, the concerned officials at Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK), did not respond to the calls.

Pertinently, the government earlier this week has ordered the private coaching institutes of Jammu and Kashmir to adopt the online means to teach the students in view of steep rise in COVID-19 cases. (KNO)

PMGSY: J&K Govt submits proposals worth Rs 2462 cr to Centre

Anchor stories

Ibni Maqbool

12/01/2022

PMGSY: J&K Govt submits proposals worth Rs 2462 cr to Centre

By: Ibni Maqbool

Srinagar: In a significant development, the administration of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory has submitted projects worth Rs 2462.71 crore to the Government of India for sanctioning under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III.

Documents in possession of The Precious Kashmir reveal that J&K UT administration has submitted project proposals of 235 roads involving 1782.72 kilometers to the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NIRDA) for sanctioning under PMGSY.

“Out of 235 roads, 173 roads of 1108.46 km have been proposed with 3.75 m carriageway width at an average cost of Rs 125.21 lakh/km, 58 roads of 621.04 km have been proposed with a carriageway width of 5.50 meter with an average cost of Rs 156.73 lakh/km and 04 roads of 53.27 km have been proposed with carriageway width of 7.00 m at an average cost of Rs 190. 38 lakh/km,” reads the documents.

The projects involve total financial outlay of Rs 2462.71 crore- of which Rs 2188. 25 crore has been proposed as GoI’s share and Rs 274.76 crore as UT share.

The projects came up for discussion during the pre-empowered committee meeting held at New Delhi on December 9, 2021 through videoconferencing. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of additional secretary (Ministry of Rural Development) and Director General, National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA).

The Centre is likely to take a final call on the projects during the empowered committee meeting which will be held after the J&K government responds to observations raised by the Centre during the preliminary meeting.

The PMGSY is an ambitious road connectivity programme launched by the Government of India to provide all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages.

Exercise Caution, Do Not Panic

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Oped

Precious Kashmir

12/01/2022

Although belated, Omicron presence has been confirmed in Kashmir Valley. Jammu has also reported five more cases, taking the overall tally in J&K to 13.

There is also a surge in overall covid-19 cases. More than four thousand cases have been confirmed in the last less than a week.

As per experts, the current surge in COVID-19 cases in India is driven mostly by the Omicron variant. They said the rise in numbers was expected to continue for the next few weeks. At present, COVID deaths were being reported mostly among those with co-morbidities, the experts said.

The early indication given by the IIT Kanpur model noted that transmission was taking place very actively and that India should be reaching its peak in the near future.

The peak will depend on the virus transmission, and how well the community adheres to the COVID-appropriate behavior, experts said, which underlines that a lot can be avoided by people. If the norms are violated, a faster and taller peak is likely to occur.

The initial experience from the genomic surveillance shows that from 10 days to two weeks, over 90% of the virus circulating in big cities in India was the Omicron variant.

Advisories by the government need to be taken seriously given that the virus surge is linked to affecting livelihood besides life itself. There should be no laxity in enforcement of Covid Appropriate Behaviour. There is need for increasing testing capacity, besides declaring micro-containment zones and hot spots in areas registering increase in the cases, and to avoid crowding at public places.

The message to the public at large needs reiteration on a daily basis as the Covid-19 cases mount: let’s not panic, but let’s also exercise utmost caution. There is need to ramp up infrastructure including the production and distribution of medical oxygen, while ensuring that health facilities have their own captive oxygen generation plants and storage tanks.

The focus at present has to be on the preparedness status of the entire spectrum of equipment, as also mock drills to ensure all preparations are in place before they are needed critically.

While it is true that cowering in fear of the virus can no longer be an option, as sustenance of everyday life has to be ensured, the government and people cannot take things for granted. For activities to continue, both the government and the public must not allow virus free run.

Delhi govt will not impose lockdown: CM

National

Indo Asian News Service

12/01/2022

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday reiterated that the Delhi government is fully prepared to deal with any kind of problem posed by the Covid-19 situation. However, it will not impose a lockdown.

“We are fully prepared. We have the ability to extend up to 37,000 beds if necessary. Our 37,000-bed capacity has yet to be utilised. If necessary, we may prepare 10000-11000 ICUs in Delhi by preparing 37,000 beds. However, there isn’t much of a need for that right now,” the CM said in a statement after reviewing the Covid preparedness at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

He added: “Today, I held a meeting with Dr Suresh Kumar, Director, LNJP and the entire team at LNJP Hospital. I came here to take stock of the Covid preparations. It treated the highest number of patients successfully. More than 22,000 patients have returned home after receiving treatment at this facility.”

Speaking on the Covid-19 restrictions, he said, “I would like to convey to them that these restrictions were imposed under compulsion. I understand that we have to maintain a very delicate balance at this time. On the one hand, it concerns the employment of people, and if restrictions are imposed, people’s jobs will be jeopardised. On the other hand, if we do not impose limitations, your health and life will be jeopardised.”

Talking about the restrictions in the areas surrounding Delhi he said, “This I will appeal to the central government. We also requested the central government representatives who attended the DDMA (Delhi Disaster Management Authority) meeting that imposing limitations simply in Delhi would not work; you would have to include the entire NCR. They have assured that these limits would be implemented throughout the NCR.”

Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.

Rathour praises Kohli for being more disciplined, says his batting was never a concern

Sports

Indo Asian News Service

12/01/2022

Rathour praises Kohli for being more disciplined, says his batting was never a concern

Cape Town: India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Tuesday praised Virat Kohli for being more disciplined in his off-side play during his fighting knock, adding that the skipper’s batting was never a concern for him.

A determined Kohli showed tremendous application and his masterclass was the batting highlight of the fast-moving opening day of the third Test and if not for his effort, India could have landed in a much deeper hole against South Africa at Newlands.

“There was never concern with the way he (Kohli) was batting, I mean he was always batting well, I thought as a batting coach, I was never concerned that he is not batting well, he was looking very good in the nets, he was looking very good in the game also, he was getting starts,” said Rathour at the post day press conference.

“One good change today, he was more disciplined, I agree with that, so he really looked good, really good and solid and with a bit of (more) luck, he could have converted (his knock) into a big one, but I am happy (with) the way he played,” he added.

However, the coach wasn’t pleased with the overall batting performance of his side, saying that batters could have done a better job especially in avoiding soft dismissals.

“These are challenging conditions, not easy conditions to score runs in, but you are right, we are below par. We could have scored 50/60 more runs, that’s what we were at least expecting,” he said.

“Virat played a phenomenal innings…Pujara was looking really good, but then they bowled a good spell in the morning, the conditions were overcast and they were challenging (for batting), but again I thought there were some soft dismissals in the latter part of the innings, we could have done better definitely,” he added.

Rathour also hoped that the visitors would restrict the hosts to a low total on the second day of the ongoing Test.

“The fewer the runs, I hope it will be an equal innings and they won’t get a big lead,” he said.

File defining Legislative Assembly recruitment rules ‘missing’ in GAD

Anchor stories

Precious Kashmir

11/01/2022

File defining Legislative Assembly recruitment rules ‘missing’ in GAD

LG Secretariat asks deptt to find ‘real culprit’ hell bent to dump revision of rules

By: Sameer Lone

Srinagar: The Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha led administration which has received accolades on the administrative front for some speedy processing of pending issues, has taken a strict note of the file that is gathering dust in the coffers of the General Administration Department.

According to sources privy to the development told the Precious Kashmir that the LG secretariat has asked for the fate of the file that was formulated and named as The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2019, aimed at to streamline the human resource management in J&K Assembly.

It has been learnt that the Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department has been told to find the “real culprit” hell bent to dump the revision of rules for this institution and fix responsibility for delaying the formulation of fresh recruitment rules.

In absence of a proper set of the rules, it has stalled the career progression of highly eligible officers as well as low rung officials, said a top official, saying some people in GAD and Law Department don’t want this file to go through for their unknown personal reasons.

“These revised set of rules were examined by Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, ARI and Trainings and General Administration Departments threadbare and later Law Department vide No. U.O LD(SL) 2001/16 –Assembly Dated 28.3.2019 through the General Administration Department submitted these rules in coordination to the then Governor of J&K for accord of approval but surprisingly the said file was returned by General Administration Department to Law Department for some clarifications,” they said.

Sources added that the authorities of the Law Department resubmitted the file to the General Administration Department vide U.O.No. LD(SL)2001/18/Assembly Dated 21-10-2019 after providing the sought clarifications but the matter never culminated as GAD again returned the file to Law Department vide their U.O No. GDC-46/CM/2019 Dated 17-12-2019 and sought fresh clarification on four points inter alia directed the concerned Department to examine the proposal in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019 and resubmit it in accordance with S.O 01 of 2019 Dated 31st October 2019 read with Government Order No. 50-JK (GAD) of 2019 Dated 19.11.2019.

However, in July 2020, the Department of Law, Justice and PA’s vide Letter No. LD (SL) 2001/14 Dated 21.7.2020 sent back the file containing the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2019 to the Assembly Secretariat.

It may be recalled that in 2011, the Law Department in its letter bearing No. LD (SL) 2001/16 Dated 20-4-2011 dashed to Assembly Secretariat on the subject acknowledged slackness in updating the Recruitment rules of Assembly and candidly mentioned that “Recruitment Rules of Legislative Assembly are under review from the year 2001 and their finalization has become inevitable”.

In the erstwhile State unwarranted delay in review or formulation of the fresh Recruitment Rules and Service Conditions of the employees of Assembly Secretariat was said to be a loophole beneficial to many and needs to be plugged through revision of recruitment rules.

Dr. Nirmal Singh, the last Speaker of erstwhile J&K Legislative Assembly had during his short tenure got the revision of rules completed and later updated version was forwarded by the J&K Assembly Secretariat to Law Department vide No. LA-857/Adm/2019 Dated 28-2-2019.

LG launches Covid-19 booster dose vaccination drive

Front

Precious Kashmir

11/01/2022

LG launches Covid-19 booster dose vaccination drive

Appeals eligible people to get their jab at earliest

Jammu: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Monday launched the precaution dose vaccination for healthcare & frontline workers and those over 60 years of age with co-morbidities.

The drive for precautionary dose was launched for the UT of J&K from District Hospital, Gandhi Nagar Jammu where the Lt Governor also received the vaccine shot along with JMC Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta, and Advisor to Lt Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, besides health care workers.

The Lt Governor appealed to all the eligible people to get their precautionary vaccine shot at the earliest.

On the occasion, the Lt Governor also flagged off 34 Advanced Life Support Ambulances of 108 services for Jammu Division, procured under World Bank funded Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project.

The UT Government is making several interventions to strengthen public health response to COVID-19. Advanced life support ambulances will be a step in the fight against the global pandemic, said the Lt Governor.

The Lt Governor was informed by the senior health officials that as per the directions, all necessary arrangements have been made for administering the precautionary dose to eligible population through walk-in and pre-registration mode.

Pertinently, on December 25, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a precautionary dose of vaccination for healthcare and frontline workers as well as those above the age of 60 years who have comorbidities.

The vaccination drive for the 15-18 year age group which was launched on January 03 this year is going on smoothly across the UT.

Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department; Dr Raghav Langer, Divisional Commissioner Jammu; Choudhary Mohammad Yasin; Mission Director NHM; Dr. Saleem-ur-Rehman, Director General, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization; Anshul Garg, Deputy Commissioner Jammu; Dr. Shashi Sudhan Sharma, Principal & Dean GMC & AHs, senior health officials were present on the occasion.

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