Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 25: Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam today chaired a meeting to review district level monitoring of various developmental programmes.
Administrative Secretaries of Departments of School Education, Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare, Revenue, Power Development, Social Welfare, Planning, Development & Monitoring, Youth Services & Sports, Higher Education, besides, Divisional Commissioners along with all Deputy Commissioners participated in the meeting.
During the meeting it was informed that a mechanism is being devised to dedicatedly monitor the outcomes of developmental works and achievements registered under various welfare schemes, on a monthly basis, both at UT and district levels.
The Chief Secretary while emphasizing the importance of regular review of progress, impressed upon the Deputy Commissioners to monitor 30 flagship programmes of the government as per devised formats and resolve bottlenecks, if any, for ensuring their timely completion/coverage.
While reviewing the schemes of Agriculture Department, the Chief Secretary directed the concerned to ensure universal coverage under Kisan Credit Card scheme, besides, verifying the credentials of beneficiaries under PM KISAN Yojana.
The Chief Secretary directed School Education, Skill Development, Higher Education and Social Welfare departments to regularly review disbursement of various scholarships for ensuring universal coverage of eligible students in the academic year 2020-21. He also directed for undertaking a beforehand assessment of students eligible for grant of scholarship under various schemes and monitoring the progress thereof. Further, School Education Department was asked to undertake a drive for enrolling out-of-school children towards universal enrolment at primary level.
Youth Services & Sports was directed to track the progress of playgrounds being constructed across the Panchayats and expedite their completion.
Reviewing delivery of services by Revenue Department, Chief Secretary laid emphasis on exclusive monitoring of pendency regarding issuance of domicile / category certificates and adherence to the respective timelines. He added that suitable arrangements must be madeto ensure issuance of domicile certificate to PRC holders and migrants withinfive working daysin accordance with the Domicile Rules, whichhavebeen accordingly amended today. The department was also directed to undertake anti encroachment drives and initiate eviction process to retrieve state land in a timely manner.
Rural Development Department was directed to ensure disbursement of wage payments to MGNREGA workers within 15 days of muster roll generation, besides, monitoring progress under NRLM.
Further, Chief Secretary directed the concerned to ensure universal coverage of beneficiaries under individual beneficiary schemes including Integrated Social Security Schemes, National Social Assistance Programme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, Poshan Abhiyaan, among others. It was also entrusted that benefits under these schemes must be Aadhaar seeded by September, 2020, after which the financial benefits will cease to be credited into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Srinagar, Aug 25: Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha will chair first Administrative Council meet here on Thursday ( August 27), wherein according to sources, some key decisions are likely to be taken.
According to KNS LG Sinha who assumed chair two weeks ago is going to preside the first Administrative Council meeting on August 27, 2020.
An order issued by GAD reads, “16th meeting of the Administrative Council is scheduled to be held on 27th of August, 2020 (Thursday) at 04:00 PM, at Raj Bhawan, Srinagar”,
“All the Advisors to Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Secretary are requested to kindly attend the meeting through video conferencing from the Meeting Hall, 4th Floor, Civil Secretariat, Srinagar”, order reads.

Srinagar, Aug 25: Ahead of heavy rain , thunderstorm and gusty winds during the next 48 hours, heat wave continued on Tuesday in the Kashmir valley, where mercury remained above normal though sun was playing hide and seek.

There could be flash flood at some places in the Kashmir valley on August 26 and 27 , a Met department spokesman said this evening.

He warned of heavy rain, thunderstorm with 30 km to 40 km per hour gusty winds at isolated places in the Kashmir valley which could result in flash floods at some places during the next 24 hours. Widespread moderate rain and thunderstorm could occur during the subsequent two days, he said.

Though sun was playing hide and seek throughout the day today, the mercury remained above normal in the region, he said.

He said Gilgit in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) the maximum temperature remained unchanged at 39.5 degree, hottest in the region followed by Mirpur 37 degree, Muzaffarabad 35.7 degree and Skardu 35.5 degree (all in PaK).

World famous ski resort of Gulmarg, where heavy rain was recorded today , the maximum temperature was 23.8 degree, 3.6 notches above normal. The road from Tangmarg to Gulmarg was closed today following imposition of fresh lockdown by district administration for five days from today.

Famed health resort of Pahalgam also recorded 4.3 degree above normal maximum temperature, he said.

However, there was some improvement in the weather in summer capital, Srinagar though the mercury remained above normal. Against yesterdays 34.6 degree maximum temperature, it was 32.9 degree which was 3.7 degree above normal.

He said there could be moderate rain and thunderstorm and the maximum and minimum temperatures would be around 28 degree and 20 degree respectively in Srinagar during the next 24 hours.

Srinagar, Aug 5: The J&K administration on Tuesday directed the competent authorities to issue domicile certificates to the Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) holders and migrants of Jammu and Kashmir within five working days.

Ordering amendment in Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate Procedure Rules, 2020 issued vide notification (S.O. No.166 of 2020 dated 18.05.2020), the government ordered: “In sub-rule(i) of rule 6.- (a) The following first proviso shall be added, namely,- “Provided that any person eligible for Domicile Certificate for category of domicile as provided under clause l(a) and clause 4(a) of the Table appended to Rule 5 shall be issued Domicile Certificate on the basis of Permanent Resident Certificate only and no further verification or inquiry shall be undertaken by the Competent Authority in such case.”

“ The Competent Authority shall issue Domicile Certificate in such cases within a period of five working days from the date such application is received by it.; (b) Existing first proviso and second proviso shall be renumbered as second and third proviso respectively; and (c) In the said renumbered proviso(s), the words “provided that” and “provided further” shall be substituted by words “provided further” and “provided also” respectively.”

Earlier, the Government had fixed 15 days for issuance of the domicile certificates in J&K.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday directed the officers concerned to speed up the process of issuance and delivery of domicile certificates in a hassle-free way, as he appreciated the enthusiasm shown by the applicants.

“All pending applicants be provided domicile certificates within 15 days, and deadline of September 10 is being set, after which no long pendency shall be excused and action against the responsible, underperforming officers shall be taken,” Sinha had said, chairing a meeting here to review ongoing development activities in Jammu district. (GNS)

Jammu, Aug 25: A 24 yr old boy who was on interim bail in POSCO case on Tuesday jumped from river Tawi bridge and committed suicide alleging harrasment in the hands of police and health department.
As per his lawyer, Y M Khan, a youth identified as Akshay Kumar, who was on interim bail since March 13, his bail was rejected and the court ordered his arrest.
“The court ordered his arrest after rejecting application seeking extension of his bail period and termed it culprit in POSCO case,” said the lawyer.
He said that he (deceased) before jumping from the bridge, shot his video and circulated to his friends and the lawyer also wherein he alleged that the Court directed the police to get his Covid test done before lodging into the jail.
“As per him, he produced himself produced before the police but the concerned SHO of police station Janipur, allegedly harrassed him and sent for COVID19 test, which was not conducted by hospital staff without police presence,” said the advocate.
He however, rued that if police would have taken him to the hospital for the test, he would have been alive and not taken an extreme step as he was already in distress.
Meanwhile police and SDRF teams rushed to the spot on receiving information about the incident and launched operation to recover his body from river waters.

Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 25: : Various public deputations and individuals Tuesday met Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan, here at the Civil Secretariat.
The deputations and individuals hailing from various parts of the Union Territory met the Advisor Khan and brought their problems into his notice and sought their early redressal.
The Advisor said that public grievance redressal is a priority of the government and added that a robust mechanism has been put in place for quick response and remedy.
Responding to the demands of the visitors, the Advisor resolved several of them on-the-spot by giving directions to the concerned departments for time-bound solution of the same.
A deputation comprising Civil Society members sought intervention of the Advisor for addressing their demands including better health care facilities in Pulwama hospital, installation of electric poles for improving power distributions system and many other issues. The Advisor gave directions to the concerned officers to look into the matter so that the unused electric poles will be utilized gainfully for the public good.
A deputation of Hindu Welfare Society with the members hailing from various areas of Kashmir, projected several of their demands and said that they have been internally displaced and should be provided residential quarters in Kashmir on the analogy of the migrants. They also sought reservation in jobs for their children besides other things.
A delegation from Sopore demanded shifting of Tehsil office from Panpoora to Tarzoo, besides several other demands related to health, education, roads etc.
Meanwhile, several individuals also met the Advisor and registered their grievances and issues for their resolution.
The Advisor gave a patient hearing and assured the people for redressal of all their genuine grievances and said every genuine issue/demand would be resolved on priority. He said the grievances registered would be forwarded to the concerned department for redressal in a time bound manner.

‘Steps underway to increase horticulture produce’
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 25: Advisor to Lt. Governor, KK Sharma Tuesday said steps are underway for ensuring increase in horticultural produce of Jammu and Kashmir so that the quantum of fruit produce gets increased resulting in enhanced income of Horticulturalists.
He was speaking at a meeting convened to review Apple High density Programme which was attended by Director Horticulture Kashmir, Aijaz Bhat and other senior officers.
Advisor on the occasion advised the Department to formulate a plan for import of elite bud wood/graft of super varieties for production of good plants as well as for distribution to farmers for better results.
Advisor stressed to cover all the feasible areas under High Density Programme including Jammu province.
He said that we have to ensure the successful implementation of the scheme so that all areas of Jammu and Kashmir are covered having potential of producing Apples.
The Director Horticulture Kashmir informed that till date 240 ha of land has been brought under the High Density Programme and Department is taking all steps to remove bottlenecks in the scheme and shall ensure that farmers are fully benefitted by this scheme.
Various issues related to scheme were also discussed threadbare in the meeting.
Director Horticulture Kashmir informed that the strategy of the Department is to cover fallow areas under High Density Plantation Programme and convert old orchard area under High Density Plantation as well.

Precious Kashmir News
Kathua, Aug 25: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Tuesday inspected progress on upcoming health and Road infrastructure, besides Shahpurkandi Dam Project during an extensive tour of Kathua district.
During his visit to District Hospital Kathua, Advisor Bhatnagar inspected newly established RTPCR laboratory for COVID-19 testing and Intenstive Care Unit (ICU). He enquired about the functioning of RTPCR lab and ICU.
The Principal Government Medical College Kathua briefed the Advisor about the facilities provided to the patients in the hospital.
He also inspected the under construction building of Government Medical College and hostel for boys and girls and enquired about the progress of the work.
Executive Engineer PWD briefed about the progress of the under construction Buildings. The technical issues were also discussed during the visit. The directions were passed to the XEN PWD for time bound completion of the project.
Advisor Bhatnagar also visited the under construction Shahpurkandi Dam and reviewed the progress of the project.
Chief engineer Shahpurkandi Dam, S.K Sauja, briefed the Advisor about design and structure and the progress of work on the Dam project. The work on Ravi canal on J&K side from Shahpurkandi Dam and the aqueduct from Sukhal Khad would start by the end of this year, the Advisor was told. The technical issues related to the project were also discussed.
On way back from Shahpurkandi Dam, the Advisor conducted surprise inspection of Lakhanpur COVID-19 Facilitation centre and enquired about the facilities provided to the incoming and outgoing people.
The Advisor listened to the problems faced by the people and issued instructions to the concerned officers.
Meanwhile, the Advisor also inspected pace of upgradation work of double lane Janglot link Road; two kilometer portion of which has been blacktopped. The blacktopping work on three kilometer Dhaloti Link Road was also inspected. The directions were passed to PWD to maintain the quality of work.

Precious Kashmir News

Ganderbal, Aug 25: The Department of Religious Studies (DRS), Central University of Kashmir (CUK) Tuesday organized an international webinar on “Talking about Environment Ethics in Pandemic Times” at Green Campus here.

The event began with recitation of verses of the Holy Qur’an by Ishtiyaq Ahmad Wagay, Research Scholar, DRS.

In his presidential address, Vice Chancellor Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir lauded the Department for organizing innovative lectures having far-researching implications. He emphasized the importance of environment and ethics and said the current pandemic has given many lessons to mankind. “We are responsible for air and water pollution.  But pandemic has healed the environment,” he said and congratulated the department for organizing the webinar.

Earlier, in his address, Head, DRS Prof. Hamidullah Marazi, welcomed all the guests and participants and also introduced key-note speaker, Prof. Ibarhim Ozdemir. Uskudar University Turkey. He discussed the objectives of the webinar and thanked the Vice-Chancellor for reposing trust and encouraging the department for all such initiatives. He also thanked Prof. Ibrahim Ozdemir for accepting the request.

Marazi  quoted various Quranic verses wherein the importance of conservation of environment is emphasized.

He impressed upon the participants that all religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, Christianity, etc lay emphasis on the conservation of the environment.

The event was attended by Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, Director, Research and Development, Prof. Abdu Gani, Dean, Social Sciences, Prof. G.M. Bhat, and the participants included professionals, research scholars and students all across the globe.