List includes serving retired IAS, KAS officers

Nasir Azam

Srinagar, Dec 29: Jammu & Kashmir’s prestigious anti-graft body has revealed that it is probing 65 cases involving serving and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers.
In its reply to an application filed under Right to Information Act-2005, a copy of which is with KNO the central public information officer (CPIO) of ACB has disclosed that 65 cases are being probed against the former and serving IAS and KAS officers in J&K.
The RTI application seeking list of IAS and KAS officers against whom the anti-graft bodies are probing the cases was filed by M.M. Shuja, journalist and activist.
The ACB, previously known as Vigilance Organization (VO) is mandated to probe corruption cases against public servants.
After re-organisation of erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, the ACB is under director control of Lieutenant Governor of J&K Union Territory.
The Crime Branch has also disclosed that 11 cases involving IAS and KAS officers are either under investigation or awaiting sanction from government for launching prosecution. These cases involve 15 serving and retired IAS and KAS officers. In one of these cases, proceedings have been stayed by Jammu & Kashmir High Court.
Interestingly, some of the officers figuring in the list are holding significant positions at different levels in the administration presently. (KNO)

Weatherman predicts dry weather till Jan 3
Owais Gul
Srinagar, Dec 29: The night temperature increased across Kashmir as many areas including Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Tuesday morning while the weatherman here has predicted dry weather till January 3.
There is no forecast of snowfall anywhere in J&K and Ladakh on New Year eve, Director Meteorological department (MeT), Sonum Lotus told KNO.
The southern districts as well as Srinagar district and some higher reaches of north Kashmir including the world famous ski-resort, Gulmarg, received a fresh snowfall today following which the weather improved in the afternoon. The occasional sunshine was also witnessed in many parts of the Valley.

Lotus said that the night temperature has although improved in the Valley, but would fall in the coming days again, adding that the day temperature will increase also.
He added that as per the prediction, there is no possibility of snowfall and rainfall till January 03, saying that the weather would remain mainly dry in higher reaches as well as in the plains of J&K and Ladakh.
Lotus further stated at present, there is some system from January 04 onwards but can be ascertained in the days to come.
Meanwhile, a fresh avalanche warning was issued for upper reaches in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours.
Director Disaster Management J&K Governor Aamir Ali said that there is a threat of medium danger avalanche in the upper reaches of Poonch, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts of Jammu region.
Low level avalanche warning has been issued for the upper reaches of Kupwara, Bandipora and Ganderbal districts in Kashmir.
During the past 24 hours, moderate to heavy snowfall was experienced in the Kashmir valley while summer capital, Srinagar turned white briefly on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the highways including Srinagar-Jammu and Srinagar-Leh remained open for the vehicular movement despite fresh snowfall since Tuesday morning, officials said.
However, the historic 86-km-long Mughal road remained closed due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions, they added.

Total cases 120,527; death toll mounts to 1,879
Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 29: Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday recorded four fresh deaths due to COVID-19 taking the death toll to 1,879 in the Union Territory while as 234 positive cases were reported taking the tally of positive cases to 120,527 in J&K.

Of the exact number of 120,527 cases, 70,800 are from Kashmir and 49,727 from Jammu division. Officials told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that among 234 new cases, 131 belong to Kashmir division while as 103 are from Jammu division, adding that the total number of positive cases in Kashmir division have reached to 70,800 including 68,046 recoveries and 1,185 deaths while as total number of positive cases in Jammu division have reached to 49,727 including 47,514 recoveries and 694 deaths.

The officials said that total number of active cases in Jammu and Kashmir are 3,088 including 1,569 from Kashmir division and 1,519 from Jammu division. With 299 more recoveries, the tally of total recoveries in Jammu and Kashmir has reached to 115,560 which is 95.89 percent of the total cases.

“Cases tested positive in J&K include 69 from Srinagar, 06 from Baramulla, 15 from Budgam, 04 from Kupwara, 21 from Pulwama, 05 from Anantnag, 03 from Bandipora, 03 from Ganderbal, 01 from Kulgam and 04 from Shopian in Kashmir division while as 103 from Jammu division include 65 from Jammu, 05 from Udhampur, 05 from Rajouri, 03 from Doda, 11 from Kathua, 00 from Kishtwar, 03 from Samba, 03 from Poonch, 07 from Ramban and 01 from Reasi,” officials disclosed.

Notably, in the last 24 hours four persons who were tested positive for COVID-19 have died, among them two belong to kashmir division and two to Jammu division.

As per media bulletin, patients who have died include two from Srinagar in kashmir division and one each from Doda and Reasi in Jammu division.

As per officials figures, 25,216 positive cases including 449 deaths and 24,213 recoveries are from Srinagar, 7,931 including 172 deaths and 7,635 recoveries are from Baramulla, 7,582 including 7,308 recoveries and 108 deaths are from Budgam, 5,517 including 5,294 recoveries and 91 deaths are from Kupwara, 5,531 including 88 deaths and 5,263 recoveries are from Pulwama, 4,774 including 4,591 recoveries and 83 deaths are from Anantnag, 4,640 cases including 4,526 and 60 deaths are from Bandipora, 4,459 including 4,316 recoveries and 43 deaths are from Ganderbal, 2,657 including 2,536 recoveries and 53 deaths are from Kulgam and 2,493 including 2,364 recoveries and 38 deaths are from Shopian.

In Jammu division, 23,649 including 22,445 recoveries and 354 deaths are from Jammu district, 4,076 including 3,945 recoveries and 57 deaths are from Udhampur, 3,832 including 3,591 recoveries and 54 deaths are from Rajouri, 3,380 including 3,260 recoveries and 63 deaths are from Doda, 3,182 including 3,069 recoveries and 48 deaths are from Kathua, 2,717 including 2,675 recoveries and 21 deaths are from Kishtwar, 2,725 including 2,534 recoveries and 38 deaths are from Samba, 2,442 including 2,393 recoveries and 23 deaths are from Poonch, 2,101 including 2,043 recoveries and 21 deaths are from Ramban and 1,623 including 1,559 recoveries and 15 deaths are from Reasi.

As per the daily information bulletin, 875,756 persons in Jammu and Kashmir are under observation while 15,018 persons have been kept under home quarantine besides that 3,088 persons are in isolation.

According to the bulletin, 825,700 persons have completed surveillance period and 30,071 persons are under home surveillance besides that so far results of 3,768,849 samples are available.

Out of 3,768,849 the number of samples tested negative stands at 3,648,322 while as 120,527 have tested positive, among them 3,088 persons are active, 115,560 persons have recovered and 1,879 persons have died—(KNO)

Poonch, Dec 29: A day after taking oath, the recently elected District Development Council (DDC) member was on Tuesday tested positive for novel CoronaVirus in Poonch district, forcing authorities to direct all the participants of Oath ceremony held yesterday to undergo isolation and to get themselves tested.

“Please pray for my good health as I have tested positive for Coronavirus,” DDC member from Mankote DDC constituency of Mendhar Sub Division said.
The DDC member, who was tested positive today, is affiliated with the Congress party. He also took oath yesterday in Poonch Degree College as DDC member.

Notably, the Oath ceremony was attended by hundreds of Civil Society members, political leaders and government officers.

A government officer said that they have asked all the participants of Oath ceremony to immediately isolate themselves and to get themselves tested also in days to come which is mandatory as per SOP. (KNO)

New Delhi, Dec 29: India with the continuing downward trend in the daily spike of nCoV cases on Tuesday clocked a fresh rise of 16,432 new infections during the past 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry update said here.

With the latest spike in cases, the COVID case tally of the country as now reached 1,02,24,303.

Since Monday, the active case load of the country has dropped by 8,720 cases, and presently, the nation is home to 2,68,581 active cases, the government data update added.

India’s current active caseload consists of just 2.63 per cent of its total positive cases and the figure has reduced, going back similar to what it was around six months ago during the month of July.

There were 24,900 patients who recovered from the infection during the past one day, taking the total recoveries from COVID so far to 98,07,569.

However, the country has lost 252 more lives to the virus spread since Sunday and the pandemic death toll has now reached 1,48,153.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research , 16,98,01,749 cumulative samples have been tested till date for the nCoV infection.

In percentage, the deaths are 1.45 per cent, recoveries 95.92 per cent and the active cases now 2.63 per cent of the total case count of the nation so far.

Srinagar, Dec 29: The government Tuesday issued a list of 18 officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service who will retire after attaining the age of superannuation in the calendar year 2021.
A government stated that 18 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service will retire on attaining the age of superannuation in 2021.
“It is hereby notified that the following members of the Jammu and Kashmir Administration Service shall retire on attaining the age of superannuation, in the afternoon’ of the date, as indicated below during the calendar year, 2021,” the order states.

According to the order the officers include Hashmat Ali Khan, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Rohit Khajuria, Vir Ji Hangloo, M S Choudhary, Rifat Arif, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, Ravinder Nath Sadhu, Shahnawaz Bukhari, Nazir Ahmad Baba, Mohammad Hanief Malik, Nazir Ahmad Lone, Kuldeep Kumar, Sepolia, Abdul Rashu Bhat, Attam Dev Singh, Muhammad Ayub and Bharti Sharma.

Srinagar, Dec 29: Lauding the resilience of party workers, National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said that the thumping victory of his party candidates in District Development Council (DDC) elections shows how deep-rooted the party is across Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Abdullah, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Srinagar, made these remarks while addressing a function to felicitate newly elected DDC members from NC at the party headquarters in the summer capital, Srinagar.

He said it was the ideological congruence with socio-political and economic emancipation of the poor at its core that helped the party to withstand the hostile and challenging times.
The Party, he said, has endured its character by working for the poor and destitute to iron out social and economic disparity in Kashmir by making recurring drastic and pro poor contributions in all areas from time to time.
An NC spokesperson said that on the occasion, the triumphant DDC candidates of the Party were individually festooned by the party president with garlands. “The party vice President Omar Abdullah, General Secretary Haji Ali Muhammad Sagar and Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani also felicitated the Party’s DDC candidates hoping that the winning candidates would live up to the obligations and responsibilities of the post,” he said.
Expressing gratitude to the people for their overwhelming support to the National Conference, the Party President said the people have done their bid and that now it was the turn of elected DDC members to pay off by rising up to the expectations of people with pure and simple service motive.
“I am hopeful that the Party’s DDC members will devise an all inclusive strategy to serve people, address their concerns and become a voice for the voiceless. We in our party have always upheld that people are the real source of power; therefore it is more binding for our elected DDC members to keep in touch with their constituents. Unfortunately we have lost half a decade since 2015, now I am hopeful that the newly elected DDC, keeping up with the party agenda will make most of the bottom-up style of development envisioned and introduced by Sher-e-Kashmir and work day in, day out to make a discernible difference in people’s lives,” he said.
Extolling the functionaries and workers to heap on their public outreach, Dr Abdullah said that there was no scope for resting as the forthcoming days and months would be equally challenging.

“We saw how brazenly the administration discriminated against our contesting candidates and created hurdles to impede our public outreach by flaunting all democratic norms. The anti democratic forces will again contrive to rein in and encumber our efforts underway for the restoration of people’s rights. However our workers and functionaries withstood all sorts of difficulties on their own with no support coming from any quarter. I am hopeful that the party rank and file will keep up with the resolute behavior. Unity holds the key to success. In the days our detractors will employ all sorts of enticements, coercion and intimidation to break our unity. We on our behalf have to strengthen our rows against their machination and face the challenges ahead of us resolutely,” he added.

Srinagar, Dec 29: Police on Tuesday solved the murder case of a three-year-old boy by arresting three accused in central Kashmir district of Budgam.
A senior police official said that a written complaint was received on December 1 by Police Station Beerwah from one Hilal Ahmad that his minor son Burhan was missing from his residence at Chewdara in Budgam.
”On this complaint, a case was registered and investigation taken up,” he said, adding that during search, the body of the missing boy was recovered from a canal outside the village on December 2.
He said after following various leads, police questioned the cousin of the victim. ”During questioning, the cousin of the victim named two more persons in the case,” he added.

He said all the accused were currently under custody. ”The case is under investigation and will be charge-sheeted within the shortest possible time,” he added.

Faizan Wani

Srinagar, Dec 29: Stating that SARS-CoV-2 might be much ‘aggressive’ and spread more rapidly between people in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior medico at the valley’s top tertiary care hospital SKIMS Soura Tuesday advised people to follow SOPs properly to avoid falling prey to ‘mutated’ virus.

Talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Medical Superintendent SKIMS Soura, Dr Farooq Jan said 40 percent antibody response and vaccine efficacy can also contain the variant which is referred to as SARS-CoV-2.

He said there is no firsthand information about the mutated virus available at the moment but the positivity rate of the new strain might be much higher than its older version (COVID-19).

“We really don’t have any firsthand information about this new strain, the positivity rate of Mutated Virus is high and it can be much aggressive as well. But with 40 percent antibody response and effective vaccination we can resist the disease,” MS SKIMS added.

It is pertinent to mention that India recorded the first six cases of mutant Corona-Virus strain after six persons, who returned from the United Kingdom (UK) were tested positive.

Dr Jan also said the positivity rate of COVID-19 has reduced in Jammu and Kashmir while a significant drop of patients admitted with deadly disease has been witnessed in hospitals over the past few months.

He said the SKIMS administration is fully prepared to tackle any eventuality and advised people to follow Standard Operating Procedure SOPs like wearing face masks, maintaining social distance to avoid falling prey to the variant called SARS-CoV-2.

“We are fully prepared for any eventuality, I hope this disease will not visit the valley and in case it happens, we will do our best to contain the same until some vaccine is introduced,” Dr Jan said.

Srinagar, Dec 29: A week after going missing in Kulgam, a Special Police Officer (SPO) was arrested along with an AK-47 rifle in south Kashmir district on Tuesday.
Official sources told GNS that SPO Zakir Ahmad Malik (No. 967/K) son of Mohammad Sikinder Malik of Hangir was arrested along with the rifle, one magazine and 24 rounds.
He had deserted along with an AK weapon, one magazine and 30 rounds from police station Frisal on 22 December. A senior police officer confirmed the arrest and said that furth investigations are underway.