Pays tributes to JCO killed in Pak firing
Jammu, Oct 6: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today visited the family of slain BDC chairperson of block Khag, Bhupinder Singh, who was killed by militants last month at his native village in Budgam district.
Visiting the family of Bhupinder Singh at his residence in Jammu, the Lt Governor expressed grief and solidarity with the family members of the deceased. The Lt Governor said that such attacks on flag bearers of democracy in Kashmir would not be tolerated, and the perpetrators would be dealt with by appropriate agencies. He assured them all support from the government and reaffirmed the government’s resolve of bringing normalcy to life in Jammu & Kashmir.
Pays tribute to JCO
Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha paid tributes to Subedar Sukhdev Singh, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of Indian Army who died during the cross border shelling along the Line of Control in Rajouri district on Monday.

Saluting the courage and valour of the valiant soldiers, the Lt Governor said that our brave Army personnel are serving the nation with utmost dedication and determination.
“The nation will remain indebted to brave hearts like Subedar Sukhdev Singh who made supreme sacrifice to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity and ensuring a safe and secure environment for our citizens”, said the Lt Governor.
The Lt Governor has expressed solidarity with the bereaved family members and prayed for eternal peace to the departed soul.

Need to preserve our culture, recognize the talent: Sehrish

Precious Kashmir News

Srinagar, Oct 6:  The Cultural Wing of Department of Information & Public Relations (DIPR), Kashmir, Tuesday organized a cultural programme highlighting the importance of ‘Back to Village’ phase III here.

Director Information and Public Relations, Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar, while speaking on the occasion said that B2V3 is getting huge response from the people who are thronging the events with all enthusiasm.

“People have become quite aware of the government’s developmental efforts through its Back to Village programme and they are taking advantage of it,” she maintained.

Sehrish, who was the chief guest on the occasion, stressed on the need to organize cultural events on regular basis to keep it alive for the posterity. “Our composite culture and traditions are globally known and recognized and we need to preserve and conserve it with all our heart. Such cultural events aptly highlights our cultural heritage and traditional legacy”.

She said that the department couldn’t perform various planned events and activities due to COVID 19, however, said DIPR is playing a vital role in reviving cultural activities that have remained dormant due to the global crisis. She assured that more such cultural events would be organised in days to come.

Sehrish also highlighted the works of the artists of the Valley saying that we have good talent and we need to hone these skills further.

Sehrish launched a book “Kashmir Main Tarjumay ki Tareekh” written by Jan Muhammad Azad.

Cultural activities including Kashmiri Mushaira, besides ghazals were presented during the function.

A galaxy of prominent and budding poets participated in the Mushaira who presented poetic verses touching all aspects of society enthralling the audience.

Joint Director, Information Kashmir, Haris Ahmad Handoo, Deputy Director Central Subash Dogra, Information Officers, other officials of DIPR and artists were present on the occasion.

Srinagar, Oct 6:  A moderate intensity earthquake rock Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh Tuesday morning forcing people to rush out of their homes in panic, official sources said.

They said tremors measuring 5.1 on Richter Scale were felt at 0510 hrs this morning. People, some still in their sleep, rushed out of their houses in panic. However, there was no report of any loss of life or damage to property due to quake.

A Met department spokesman said its epicenter was in Ladakh region and its depth was 10 km inside the earth. He said its latitude was 34.36 degrees north and longitude 79.46 degrees east.

For the past one month about five tremors were felt in Ladakh region which was something unusual for the residents of UT.

Meanwhile, the UT government has also urged people not to panic and take proper precautions in case of quake.

Naveed Ul Haq

Budgam, Oct 6:  A youth from Chadoora area of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, who had developed a mobile application for sharing files as an alternative to SHAREit and an alternative to Cam Scanner, with support of his brother has now come with an alternative app to TikTok, which was recently banned across India by the Union government.

The 33 MB application, which is now available on Google Play Store, titled ‘Nucular-Start Your Amazing Short Video Reactions’ was developed by Tipu Sultan Wani and his brother Mohammad Farooq Wani as an alternative to TikTok.

Pertinently, the government had banned TikTok, Cam Scanner, SHAREit and 57 other applications across India after India and China face-off in the Union Territory of Ladakh last month.

Tipu Sultan said this is not just a TikTok clone and they could have gone with the same design as TikTok and other similar Apps “but we have opted for a more unique design to mark our product as an alternative and not as a clone to TikTok.”

He said that they have designed the App keeping in view the 2G internet services in Jammu and Kashmir. “We have used video compression and cache to help load a video faster and quicker, this helps those who use this app on slow internet networks like 2G and 3G, as we have in Jammu and Kashmir. We have tried our best to optimize the uploading and downloading but these factors are dependent on network speed and are out of our hand.”

He said that they have used the latest technology in ARmask and beauty filters and currently this is the only app in the Indian market with many filters and VR backgrounds. “We will keep adding more and more filters and editing tools as we grow.”

He said the user can upload any video length between 5 seconds to 60 seconds and he can edit, cut and add music to any video file.

His brother, Farooq Ahmad Wani said the future updates (within a month) will include user-uploaded music files, searchable music files, live streaming, rewards (people can earn money for every video for every like, follower and share they generate) and much more.

“We will run a contest in the coming days wherein people with more than 5000 followers can get a chance to earn Rs. 2000 worth voucher,” Farooq said. (KNO)

Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Oct 6: Amid rumors of mass promotion to elementary classes from 5th to 9th standard, the Jammu and Kashmir government is likely to take a final call in weeks’ time with regard to the term end examinations.
Officials at the erstwhile State Institute of Education (SIE) Srinagar said that a meeting in this regard was convened by the Board of School Education (BOSE) chairman last week.
They said the BOSE in the meeting directed all heads of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) to register all the candidates from 5th standard to 9th standard.
“As on date, nothing was decided as to whether the government will announce mass promotions or will conduct examinations,” the official said.
BOSE Chairman, Veena Pandita said the board will take the final call in a weeks’ time.
“In coming days, we will take a final call with regard to conducting examinations of elementary classes,” Pandita said.
She said, “As on date, term-end examinations of these classes remain stand.”
Earlier this year, a number of students said they couldn’t appear in the assessment of ‘Term-1 online exams’ of 8th standard due to lackadaisical approach of the School Education Department.
They said that during the online exams, the Google classroom forum link created by the School Education Department to hold online T-1 exams was not functional for all students.”—(KNO)

Nasir Azam
Srinagar, Oct 6: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pulled up the Jammu & Kashmir government for poor progress in completion of roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
In its report tabled in the Parliament on September 23, the CAG has pointed out poor performance of the authorities in implementation of 100 percent centrally funded rural road connectivity program in J&K. “Out of sanctioned 1,769 road projects involving road length of 9,383.07 kilometers under construction during 2013-18, only 810 road projects (46 per cent) having a road length of 4,172.50 kilometers were completed as of March 2018,” reads the report, a copy of which is with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
“The year-wise completion rate of road projects during 2013-18 ranged between 8 to 19 per cent. Due to problems in land acquisition, forest clearance, etc. 467 road projects (road length: 2,577.88 km) sanctioned prior to April 2013 for connecting 175 habitations were incomplete, as of March 2018.”
The report also lays bare that planning for implementation of PMGSY in J&K was deficient as district rural road plan was neither prepared in most of the sampled programme implementation units nor approved from the intermediate panchayat/ district panchayat/ district rural development department and state level standing committee.
“Core Network did not cover all the eligible habitations, inadmissible road projects were included in the Core Network and road projects which were not in Core Network were taken up for execution,” the report states.
The monitoring and quality of works executed under the scheme has also been questioned by the CAG.
“No Action Taken Reports (ATRs) were submitted by any of the PIUs in respect of 492 inspections conducted by the State Quality Monitors during 2013-14 to 2017-18,” it states.
According to the report, 159 inspections were graded as ‘Un-satisfactory’ and the remaining 333 ‘Required improvement’.
“In eight sampled districts, Action Taken Reports in respect of 221 inspections conducted was awaited from PIUs. Against 180 meetings required to be conducted by DVMC/ DISHA in nine sampled districts for monitoring the PMGSY works, only six meeting were conducted in two districts, during 2013-18,” it reads. (KNO)