Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 18: The two-day long encounter between militants and the joint team of police, CRPF and Army in the orchards of Kreeri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district ended on Tuesday, consuming eight lives in all—three of them militants including top Lashker-e-Toiba commanders, two army soldiers, as many paramilitary CRPF men besides an SPO.

Having been suspended on Monday night, the firefight resumed at first light this morning, leading to the killing of the hiding militant, Usman of Pakistan.
Also, one among the two soldiers succumbed to the injuries, taking the fatality toll of soldiers in the gunfight to two.
“Two soldiers who were critically injured succumbed to their injuries,” Army’s Srinagar based spokesman Lt Col Rajesh Kalai told GNS.
He said two AK rifles and three pistols were recovered from the encounter site.
“Conspirator Sajjad alias Haider and one foreign militant Usman involved in the killing of BJP leader late Waseem Bari, his father and brother have been killed,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said.

“Haider was also instrumental in recruiting youth into militant folds and was involved in several attacks on Police, security forces, civilians and political workers,” he said. The search operation in the area is in process, the official said
The encounter had ensued after a joint team of Police, CRPF and Army launched a cordon-and-search-operation following the attack in the morning in which two CRPF men and an SPO were killed.
“At about 0915hrs on Monday, (militants)fired indiscriminately upon a joint naka party of Police and security forces from nearby orchards at Nawan mode Kreeri area of Baramulla,” a police spokesperson said. In the militant attack, he said, two CRPF personnel of 119 battalion and a police personnel(SPO) sustained grievous gunshot injuries. “The injured were evacuated to nearby hospital for the treatment of their injuries. However, all the three injured personnel succumbed to their injuries”. They were identified as SPO Muzaffar Ali of District Police Baramulla, Constables Lokesh Sharma and Khurshid Khan of 119 batallion CRPF. “In the initial retaliatory firing one militant got injured.” He said the militants were engaged till the area was completely cordoned off with the help of reinforcement and the search operation was thereafter jointly launched by Police, 29RR and CRPF. “In the ensuing encounter, two militants were killed on Monday.”
Two Army personnel also sustained gunshot injuries and were shifted to hospital where one among them died yesterday. The militants who were killed yesterday included Sajad Ahmad Mir alias Haider alias Jaja of Brath KalanSopore (LeT Chief of North Kashmir) and Anayatullah Mir of Andergam Pattan, affiliated with LeT.

Addressing reporters, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh rated Sajad among top ten militants in Kashmir and top most in north Kashmir.
“He had joined militancy in the 2016 winters and used to work on same pattern as that of Burhan Wani. He was active in north Kashmir. If Burhan Wani turned many to become militants in south Kashmir, he spared no efforts in north Kashmir. So far we have arrested at least 20 militants recruited by him apart from many Over Ground Workers(OGWs),” he had said. (GNS)

‘DNA samples of Rajouri families sent for matching with slain militants’
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 18: Army on Tuesday said that a high-level Court of Inquiry set up by it into the July 18 encounter at Amshipora Shopian was under way.
Three militants were claimed to have been killed in the encounter by army who was “later” joined by police and paramilitary CRPF. However, the families of three persons from Rajouri who after failing to contacted their loved ones since July 17 and after seeing pictures on social media claimed slain to be their kin. They filed a missing report with concerned police following which the army ordered an inquiry.

“As intimated on 11 August 2020, a high level Court of Inquiry into Op(eration) Amshipora , Shopian on 18 Jul 2020 is under progress. Statements of key witnesses are being recorded and progress is being monitored closely,” Defence spokesman Rajesh Kalia said in a statement.
“Additional civil witnesses are being asked to depose before the Court of Inquiry,” he said, adding, “Concurrently, DNA samples have been collected from Rajouri under the aegis of JKP and sent for matching with the (militants) killed on 18 Jul 2020.”
He said Indian Army is committed to “ethical conduct of all Counter militancy operations”.
“Cases where doubts are raised are investigated under due process as per the law of the land. Since the case is under investigation, further details will be shared periodically, as appropriate without affecting due legal process,” he added.
Last week, a police team headed by a DySP ranked officer from Kashmir collected DNA samples of the families.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar told reporters recently that “there are two aspects of the investigations. One is matching the DNA and then we will be also investigating whether these youths, who had come to work in Kashmir, had any links with militants. We will be going through their call details and other technical aspects as well.”
On July 18, police in a statement had said that three militants were killed in gunfight with joint team of police, army and CRPF in Shopian district on an input by army.

“On a specific input by 62RR about presence of (militants) in village Amshipora area, an operation was launched by them in the area,” a police spokesperson had said.
During search, he had said, the militants fired upon Army and encounter started. “Later on police and CRPF also joined. During encounter three unidentified militants were killed,” he had said in the statement, adding, “Bodies of all the killed three (militants) were retrieved from the site of encounter.” However, he said, the identification and group affiliation of the slain was being ascertained.
“Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter,” he had said.
All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other militancy-related incidents, he had said.

“The bodies have been sent to Baramulla for their last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA,” he had said.

Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 18: Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh was on Tuesday given a detailed brief about the functioning of Crime Branch (CB) in the Jammu and Kashmir, a police spokesman said this evening.

He said DGP today visited CB Headquarters, Srinagar where he reviewed its functioning and discussed the measures to enhance its capabilities.

During the meeting the officers deliberated upon functioning of different wings of Crime Branch including CB Jammu, Kashmir, Anti Narcotic Task Force (ANTF), CCTNS, State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), Photo Section, Finger Printing and Canine Section. The issues of these wings along with different proposals with regard to the infrastructure and staff were discussed threadbare, spokesman said.

The IGP Crime Branch, J&K, M K Sinha gave a detailed power point presentation regarding the functioning of Crime branch.  He also briefed the DGP about the preliminary verifications, FIRs under investigation, cases challaned and conviction rate. The IGP also highlighted various proposals and requirements of Crime Branch to tackle the economic offences, Cyber Crime and for building capacity as well as infrastructure development of Crime Branch Jammu and Kashmir.

The performance of newly created Anti Narcotics Task force (ANTF) was reviewed. The DGP expressed his satisfaction with the performance of ANTF and urged the officers to work with greater zeal and eradicate the menace of drug trafficking.

The DGP expressed his satisfaction over the functioning of the Crime Branch and its different wings. He emphasized that Crime Branch is the premiere investigation wing of J&K Police and assured all support to make the Crime Branch more effective. He said a number of measures have been taken to strengthen this wing by providing additional manpower and resources. A few proposals with regard to infrastructure, manpower, latest equipments, computer hardware and software are under process. The DGP assured that all the issues and proposals under the purview of PHQ will be looked into favourably and those with UT government will be followed up.

>Says Govt committed to initiating developmental programmes with active public participation
> Interacts with public delegations
> Reviews developmental scenario; inspects various projects

Srinagar, Aug 18: Common Man should not suffer for getting even simpler services. People have high expectations from the government and there is need to make positive changes on the ground rather than limiting them to papers only.

These remarks were made by the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha during his extensive tour of Ganderbal District where he inaugurated developmental projects; reviewed developmental scenario, inspected ongoing works and met with various public delegations.
He was accompanied by his Advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan, BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Public Works (R&B) and Social Welfare Department; Pandurang K. Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Sheetal Nanda, Secretary to the Government, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj; Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir; Shafqat Iqbal Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal; Khalil Ahmad Paswal, SSP Ganderbal; Chief Engineers; HoDs and senior officers.

Giving a push to the Government’s agenda of development and progress, the Lt Governor e-inaugurated 12 completed developmental projects worth Rs 54.57 crore, laid e-foundation stone of 3 projects of public importance costing Rs 2.57 crore. He also inspected ongoing work of widening/ 4 laning of road from Pandach Chowk to Beehama Chowk under CRF costing Rs 20 crore.

During his visit, the Lt Governor took a detailed review of the development scenario of the Ganderbal District and enquired about the progress on various ongoing developmental works undertaken by different departments, besides implementation of several schemes launched by the Central and the UT Government for welfare of the public.

Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, Shafqat Iqbal gave a PowerPoint presentation on the overall developmental scenario in the District.

The Lt Governor directed the officers for making dedicated efforts to ensure 100% saturation of Centrally Sponsored and Social Security Schemes. He further directed them to ensure that 100 % payment with Aadhaar linkage is done to benefit the beneficiaries under Social Security Schemes. He asked them to revisit Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism and work with humility so that the public issues can be addressed in true sense. He also called for prioritizing the completion of all pending major projects.
On Back to Village works, the Lt Governor observed that the Government is going for the third party audit of the works executed under B2V, so make sure that the pending works are completed early with adherence to all the quality norms.

Taking strong note of the slow execution of projects by JKPCC, the Lt Governor directed them to speed up the execution. He also asked the Works Department to ensure that projects do not remain languishing unnecessarily.
The Lt Governor passed necessary directions for the mandatory payment under MGNREGA within 15 days. He directed the Deputy Commissioner for 100% coverage of the Pre- Matric & Post Matric Scholarship in a time-bound manner.
The Lt Governor further called for increasing the coverage under PM KISAN and PMSYM so that the maximum beneficiaries can reap the benefits out of these schemes.

Carrying forward the Government’s Public outreach programme to take stock of the public issues and their developmental needs, the Lt Governor met with various delegations at Ganderbal and Kangan including BDC Chairpersons, Sarpanches, Pahari speaking people, representatives of Gujjar-Bakerwal Community and Pithoos working enroute Shree Amarnath ji Yatra, Senior citizens, Transporters, Traders federation, Fruit and vegetable growers, Students’ representatives, Sportspersons, Shia Muslims organization, Social and political activists and took stock of their concerning issues and developmental needs of the area.
While interacting with the members of the delegations, the Lt Governor observed that equitable development of all the regions and all the sections of the society is the focus area of the Government. The Government is committed to initiating developmental programmes with active public participation and reach out to the people so that requisite measures can be taken to address their issues and meet their development aspirations, he added.
On being apprised of the issue of facing difficulty in obtaining the Domicile Certificates, the Lt Governor directed the concerned officers for ensuring hassle free issuance of the certificates for PRC holders and simplifying the issuance process so that people do not suffer in this regard.
The members of the delegations also put forth various issues and grievances pertaining to accommodation and security of PRIs; augmentation of roads & drinking water facilities; effective Solid Waste Management; languishing PMGSY road in Gund Block; Political reservation for Gujjar- Bakerwal community; implementation of Forest Rights Act for welfare of tribal community; Hostels for Pahari students; problems faced by Pithoos; issues concerning KCC guarantees; start of 93 MW HEP on Nallah Sindh etc.
The Lt Governor assured them that their projected issues would be analysed and the issues requiring immediate attention would be taken up for redressal immediately. Others requiring planning and long term working schedules would also be examined at taken up on merit, within available resources.

The Lt Governor also made onsite inspection of various projects at Kangan including Mother and Child Care Hospital (MCCH) under Centrally Sponsored Scheme, NHM costing Rs 27.5 crore with capacity of 46 beds; Construction of Class Rooms and Labs for Government Degree College (6 Class Rooms and 01 Psychology Lab), under languishing, costing Rs 4.8 crore and Construction of 75 Bedded Girls Hostel at Government Degree College under RUSA at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore.

The Lt Governor set a timeline for the completion of Mother and Child Care Hospital (MCCH) before November 2020. He further directed for completion of Construction of 75 Bedded Girls Hostel at Government Degree College by December 2020.

Later, the Lt Governor paid obeisance at Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple and prayed for peace and prosperity in J&K and well-being of its people.

The 12 projects worth Rs 54.57 crore e-inaugurated by the Lt Governor includes – Unani Medical College and Hospital Nawabagh, Rs 32.50 crore; 70 meters Span (2×20 mtrs + 1×30 mtrs) Yachama Bridge, Rs 7.73 crore; Office of the Chief Medical Officer Ganderbal, Rs 1.80 crore; Sheep Extension Centre Naranag Kangan, Rs 0.47 crore; 1×20 meters Girder Bridge Over Canal at Branwad Project, Rs 7.14 crore; Veterinary Dispensary Dab, Ganderbal, Rs 0.17 crore; Veterinary Dispensary Hospital Sehpora, Ganderbal, Rs 0.17 crore; Augmentation of Receiving Station Wussan Kangan 10MVQA to 16.3 MVH,Rs Rs 1.05 crore; 6 Ton Capacity Refrigerated Van, Rs 0.29 crore; Basket Ball court at GMS Chundina, Rs 0.12 crore; Solid Waste Management Plant at Sonamarg, Rs 3 crore and Basket Ball Court at J&K Sainik School Mansbal, Rs 0.12 crore.

Besides, the 3 projects worth Rs 2.57 crore for which e-foundation stones were laid includes- construction of Additional Class Room at GMS Rangil, Water supply scheme Banjar Basti Wussan Kangan and Construction of Additional class Rooms at Government Primary School Payeem Bela Wussan.

Designates officers to receive grievances, feedback
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 18: In a first to bring added transparency and accountability into public expenditure, the government has put all of the 10573 infrastructure projects completed during 2019-20 into public domain for registering public grievances and feedback as well.

The Finance department has released a number of e-books depicting the pictorial images and all the relevant details of these projects for general public to see, analyse and give their necessary feedback regarding the same.

Pertinently, there are a significant number of projects completed this year as compared to previous achievements in raising the developmental infrastructure in the UT. Contrary to previous financial year of 2018-19 when 8106 projects were dedicated to the public, this year the number has raised to 10573 despite many challenges faced by the administration on account of Corona pandemic and transition from state to UT.

Also, this innovative practice has been initiated for the first time to put every government work into public domain so that people participate in ensuring transparency and monitoring of expenditure being incurred under various schemes. The objective behind this measure is to take the first hand appraisal reports from the people so that the public money is saved from going down the drain and is spent as per the needs and aspirations of general public. This is, as per the government, going to fill the gap between what is projected on papers and what actually transpires on ground.

This novel initiative is also expected to make the administration more responsive and inculcate a kind of responsibility among all the stakeholders from top to grassroots level. It will further sensitise actual beneficiaries to be watchful and take due interest in making every penny spent from government coffers attain what it is envisioned to achieve originally while envisaging such developmental activities.

The details as provided in the e-books depicts that 6972 projects in UT sector (6829 in 2018-19), 1165 in District sector (1277 in 2018-19), 1930 and 506 works under Back to Village and JKIDFC respectively have been completed during 2019-20. Pictorial and other relevant details of all of the projects have been showcased in the e-books released by the Finance department recently.

Further, the department has also designated the officers to receive the grievances and feedback, if any, from the general public regarding these projects. The quality or amount of work as detailed in the e-books should be analysed by the general public with that actually found on ground and any discrepancy identified therein should be escalated to the relevant authorities.

The Finance department has designated Shamim Ahmad Wani, Special Secretary Finance to receive the feedback from public regarding the JKIDFC works. He can be reached at [email protected]. The feedback with respect to UT sector projects can be sent to Tariq Ahmad Khan, Director General Expenditure Division-II at [email protected]. While any grievance regarding the works done under ‘Back to Village’ programme could be sent to Ajay Kumar Sharma, Director Expenditure Division-I at [email protected]. Besides, people aspiring to escalate their grievances to Financial Commissioner, Finance office directly should reach out to him at [email protected].

The e-books that have been released on the web portal of finance department (jakfinance.nic.in) included Finance Department’s First Book: Promoting Good Governance, Pictoral journey of 1930 projects completed under ‘Back to Village’ Programme, Book showing 1165 projects completed under district CAPEX, and few coffee table books showcasing projects completed under languishing category by JKIDFC.

The department has urged upon all the Deputy Commissioners to host the relevant portions of these e-books under each category on their district websites so that maximum number of people get access to the same. They have further been urged to encourage people to come forward with their feedback so that necessary action is initiated as per their complaints or suggestions.

New Delhi, Aug 18: Ashok Lavasa on Tuesday resigned as Election Commissioner and would soon be joining the Asian Development Bank as vice president, sources in the poll panel said. Lavasa was next in line to head the EC.

Lavasa, the sources said, has sent his resignation to Rashtrapati Bhavan and has requested to be relieved on August 31.
He would be joining the Philippines-based ADB sometime in September, they added.
He was named the bank’s vice president last month.

Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar, Aug 18: The process of recruitments in various government departments is likely to expedite in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Government of India (GoI) has already announced on the floor of Lok Sabha that 50000 vacancies would be filled in government departments in J&K during the ongoing fiscal.
A budgetary provision of Rs 2000 crore was also earmarked for the recruitment process in J&K UT’s maiden budget presented in the Parliament earlier this year.
Sources told news agency KINS that the high-level panel already constituted to fast-track the recruitment process have been asked by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha led administration to speed up the work.
The four-member panel was tasked to identify the vacancies with priority to Class-IV jobs, to finalise the procedures to be adopted, to obtain necessary sanctions.
Sources said that the government has asked the panel to meet regularly and submit the recommendations to recruiting agencies.
The constitution of the panel was a major step in the administration’s endeavour to restore employment in the UT, which is witnessing the ever-growing unemployment, even as some of the past recruitments turned out to be full of irregularities.
The panel was asked to finalise the procedure to be followed for recruitment, so that the principles of transparency and inclusiveness are maintained and the process of recruitment is concluded speedily.
The committee was also asked to ensure that necessary sanctions/approvals are obtained, rules notified (wherever required) for enabling Services Selection Board to commence the process of recruitment immediately and removing hitches in the recruitment process, if any.
The government had ordered the Committee to meet frequently, if necessary on a daily basis, and interact with Administrative Secretaries to ensure that the indents for recruitments are forwarded to the Service Selection Board by 22nd May, an official order in this regard had said.
“The Chairman-Nodal Officer shall be responsible for the tasks assigned to the Committee and he shall be assisted by other officers of the Committee,” it had said.
It was informed that the panel will continue to monitor the process till the recruitment process is completed.
In order to restore the employment, the government had also set up a task force which was directed to formulate a time-bound plan for recruitment to government jobs at different levels, to resume the delayed and halted recruitments.
The eight-member task force led by the Financial Commissioner Finance Department was asked to submit its report before May 15.
A consolidated date estimates around 81000 vacancies in various government departments in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
To fast track the vacant posts the government recently appointed B R Sharma as Chairman Public Service Commission (PSC).
It may be recalled that the erstwhile JKPSC was wounded up following the re-organization of Jammu and Kashmir State into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
As per the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the JKPSC will continue to be a recruiting agency for various posts in J&K UT while recruitments in Ladakh would be done by the Union Public Service Commission.
Sources said that the failure of the previous government to appoint the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) was delaying the recruitment for various gazetted posts of the candidates, who were shortlisted for various posts including administrative services and Assistant professors. (KINS)