JKDF merges into BJP in an impressive function Div Com, IGP

Golden Yug
Daily English Newspaper
e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Vol. 2 ISSUE NO. 277
Jammu,
RNI No. JKENG/2013/48845
TITLE CODE: JKENG-00999
Website: www.goldenyug.com
Sunday 16, November 2014
PAGES 8
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of April 18, 2013 under the chairmanship of joint director, horticulture (P&M), Delhi, S L Hangloo
who reported that tendering
process had not been started by the
engineering wing of the department for the construction of prefabricated structure at Salt Lake,
Kolkata, on leased plots 3 and 5.
letter
bearing
No
The
EEHPP/2013-14/87 dated April
20, 2013, says: “The report of the
joint director is a matter of great
concern with regard to the inviting
of tender notice vide government
order, on constitution of committee members, which was issued on
April 9, 2013. The tendering
process for the work will involve
not less than three weeks as a
result of which the deadline of the
work set by the Kolkata government as April 30, 2014, will
expire.”
The delay for floating the tender seems to be deliberate. Insiders
alleged that the process of e-tendering the work was deliberately
delayed as the officials concerned
wanted to do it departmentally and
not through registered contractors.
Taking cover of this departmentally created delay, AE R K Pandita,
whom the Xen has termed as “well
trained”, was deputed to Kolkata
on April 16, 2013 to assess the
process of construction of pre-fabricated structures at Salt Lake.
After visiting the site, Pandita
called dasti quotations/offers as
the matter was “sensitive and prestigious”, the letter said, adding that
the AE was able to engage a firm
for the construction work.
“Housing, horticulture and culture
minister Raman Bhalla then talked
to the AE over phone on April 19,
2013 at 9.15 pm and ordered him
to go ahead for the construction of
the sub-structure works up to
plinth level on war-footing departmentally and complete it up to
April 30, 2014, without any further
delay,” the RTI reply says.
Astonishing to find that the
minister directed for the work to
be taken up departmentally
notwithstanding the fact that his
government has already issued
directions to all the departments to
put to tenders/e-tenders all works
costing Rs 5 lakh and above.
According to the RTI reply, the AE
took up the work on April 20. The
RTI reply is, however, not clear
about the amount spent on the construction up to the plinth level.
According to the final
excess/surrender statement (plan),
given to the applicant in the RTI
reply, against the release of Rs 57
lakh for the construction of “prefabricated structure on plot No
LA-5, sector 3 and plot No CP-12,
sector 5”, an amount of Rs
38,69,000 had been consumed up
to February 28, 2014 and Rs
17,67,000 up to March 2014. A
total of Rs 56,36,000 is shown to
have been spent on this work. The
reply is, however, not clear if this
amount was spent on the pre-fabricated structures up to plinth level
or on some other work at Salt
Lake. In addition to this, an
amount of Rs 6,51,290 was spent
on consultancy from a firm. In the
letter, the Xen is shown to have
demanded Rs 10 lakh more to execute the work without any further
delay.
In reply to another point in the
RTI application, the Xen, through
his letter No EEHPM/201415/200-04 dated 6-6-2014, says
that “no TA/DA has been drawn in
favour of the officials under whose
supervision the works at Kolkata
were executed”. It is astonishing to
find that an official visits the eastern state of West Bengal and does
not draw any TA! Why should he
spend from his pocket? When this
question was asked to a senior horticulture department (P&M) officer, he preferred to keep mum. It is
pertinent to mention here that the
work of raising pre-fabricated
structure up to plint level is different from the work of constructing
a Kisan Ghar at Salt Lake that was
put to tender on January 9, 2014,
vide e-NIT No 19 of 2013-14. This
tender was surprisingly not floated
in national dailies and Kolkatabased newspapers. Also, the cost
of the tender was enhanced from
Rs 3 cr to Rs 3,66,98,274 after its
allotment to Satish Ganjoo, son of
Dwarka Nath Ganjoo, of Kallar,
Udhampur, on May 5, 2014.
Another work worth Rs
38,66,383 for the construction of
one-room accommodation as part
of extension of Kisan Ghar at BR2, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi, by
way of construction of RCC structure of basement, was allotted to a
B-class contractor for being the
lowest bidder in 2009. The work
could not take off in 2009 and in
2013, it was got executed through
the same contractor on much
higher rates. Astonishingly, the
work was not put to e-tendering
afresh. It can be construed as the
best example of flagrant violation
of government directive of
putting all works of Rs 5 lakh and
above to tenders. The work on
February 5, 2009, was allotted to
B-class contractor Bhushan Lal
Raina of Subash Nagar here by
executive engineer (Xen), horticulture (P&M) department,
through a letter bearing No
EEHPM/94-97, according to the
information received through
RTI.
The Xen’s allotment order
addressed to the contractor said:
“For and on behalf of the J&K
governor, the above mentioned
work is hereby allotted to you as
approved/recommended by the
state level purchase/contract committee in its meeting held on
February 3, 2009, in the office
chamber of then horticulture
director (P&M) department near
Narwal Sabzi Mandi and minutes
of the meeting were circulated by
accounts officer, horticulture
(P&M) vide February 5, 2009,
letter No DHPM/101/200809/5676.” The conditions for the
contract laid down in this letter
said that item No 8, as per the
advertised rate list, shall be got
executed and paid at the rate of 80
pc and all other items of the work,
except the one specified above, as
per the rate list shall be got executed and paid at 52 pc above
SSR of CPWD of 2007.
As per the contract allotment
letter, the work worth Rs
38,66,383 was to be started within seven days of its issuance and
completed within four months. It,
however, could not be started due
to the objections by New Delhi
Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
It took the horticulture department over four years to get the
building
permission
from
NDMC. Even as the start of work
got delayed for such a long time,
the department did not cancel its
allotment to Bhushan Lal and in
2013, it allowed him to begin the
work departmentally, throwing all
the government norms in this
regard to winds. The decision for
the re-allotment of work to
Bhushan Lal was taken by then
horticulture (P&M) director
Showkat Ahmad Zargar on
September 21, 2013, in a meeting
with seven state level purchase
committee (SLPC) members.
The names of SLPC members
were approved by the government
on September 18, 2006, vide its
order No 240-Agri. The director
convened the SLPC meeting
despite the fact that the committee
was stated to have already lost its
relevance. How can a committee,
constituted by the government
seven years back, give its
approval for the allotment of
work without putting it to e-tendering? When the attention of a
senior horticulture officer was
drawn towards this point, he did
not have any convincing reply. He
parried other queries.
The SLPC members included
horticulture joint director (P&M)
S L Hangloo, horticulture duputy
director (P&M), Kashmir, Q A
Rashid, horticulture deputy director (P&M), Jammu, J P Sharma,
horticulture Xen (P&M), Jammu,
R K Makroo, horticulture Xen
(P&M), Kashmir, Altaf Ahmad,
horticulture accounts officer
JKDF merges into BJP in an impressive function
GY NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, NOV. 15:
The State BJP got one more
shot in its arm on Saturday
when JKDF State President
Anil Gupta announced the
merger of his party into BJP,
where the entire team pleged
to work for strengthening BJP
and mobilizing public opinion for achiveing Mission
44+.
In an impressive function
held at Eden Garden on
Akhnoor Road, Anil Gupta
and his team was welcomed
into the party fold by State
President Jugal KIshore
Sharma, National Executive
Member Shamsher Singh
Manhas,
BJP
State
Spokesperson
&
State
Election Media Incharge
Arun Kumar Gupta, Party
Spokespersons- Farooq Khan
and Sunil Sethi (Adv.), BJP
Kashmir Cell National Coconvener Chander Mohan
Sharma, Party MLA Bharat
Bushan,
Jammu
West
Candidate Sat Sharma and
other leaders.
Jugal Kishore Sharma
while welcoming the JKDF
team into BJP, said that the
efforts of Anil Gupta and his
colleagues will prove to be
boon for party as each one of
them is well versed with the
principles and ideology of our
party. He said that the BJP has
proved its credentials time
and again and the people have
themselves realized that it is
only BJP which can be trusted, which can bring change
and which can provide a people friendly government.
Avinash Rai Khanna, on this
occasion said that with each
passing day the BJP parivar is
getting more and more larger
with the joining and mergers
of other political parties and
leaders of high statures, has
frustrated the parties like NC,
Congress and PDP and they
are feeling helpless in facing
the public while our candi-
dates are getting over whelming response.
Anil Gupta said that he
has always worked for
strengthening the nationalist
forces and defeating the
designs of anti-national forces
and has found BJP as only
option which is strong enough
to safe guard the national
interests in Jammu and
Kashmir. He assured to work
whole heartedly for the BJP
candidates in the ensuing
assembly elections.
(P&M), Srinagar, C J Kachroo
and horticulture information officer, Srinagar, Reyaz Ahmad.
The decision of the horticulture department to allot the work
without putting it to e-tendering
has been termed by some insiders
as arbitrary and against the set
government norms in this regard.
Also, according to the
October 9, 2013, government
order No DHPM/ 401/2013/
3679-88, the government has
approved a total of Rs 415.25
lakh for the work.
The insiders said though Rs
415.25 lakh were approved by the
government for the construction
of one-room accommodation by
extending Kisan Ghar, Delhi, the
tender
of
lesser
amount
(Rs38,66,383) was floated to
allegedly benefit the contractor.
The rest of the amount was to be
consumed through departmental
works at the site, they alleged.
Minutes of the October 9,
2013, meeting are: “After getting
the administrative approval vide
July 16, 2009, government order
No 25-Agri, an amount of Rs
415.25 lakh, the engineering wing
of the department allotted the
work for construction of the basement of the said building after
proper tendering and approval
from the competent authority to
the lowest bidder Bhushan Lal
but the work could not be started
due to the non-availability of
building permission from NDMC
which was pre-requisite for the
construction of any structure in
their jurisdiction as per the requisite bye-laws and rules, the
department has reframed drawing
and requested NDMC/DDA
(Delhi Development Authority)
for building permission which
was obtained during the year July
2013 after about three years with
the condition that the project
should be started before
December 31, 2012 and its completion before April 2017.
Subsequently as per bye-laws and
rules of NDMC/DDA, the DRP
(Departmental Project Report)
was formulated for an amount of
Rs 427 lakh and AAA was
accorded vide government order
No 320-Agri of 2012 dated 2311-2012 after getting NOC from
NDMC/DDA, the department
authorised the XeN horticulture
(P&M), Jammu, to get the works
executed after observing all the
codal formalities keeping in view
the time line. The Xen has initimated that the basement construction of one-room accommodation
stands already allotted to
Bhushan Lal based on the
plan/drawing and design prepared
by the state architect for an
amount of Rs 38.66 lakhs but the
work could not be taken up due to
the non-availability of building
permission. The Xen has stated
that the contractor was asked to
start the work after rainy season.
In the meantime, the contractor
has moved an application for
escalation of 45 pc in respect of
material as well as labour cost
escalation in the market in the last
three years. The department has
authorised the Xen to execute the
work to the tune of Rs 80 lakh
vide
letter
No
DHPM/401/2013/11884 dated
18-08-2013.”
While the original cost of the
allotted work stood at Rs 38.66
lakh, the meeting enhanced it to
Rs 80 lakh. This shows how the
department benefitted the contractor without putting the work
to e-tendering even when the
work cost moved double the cost
of the allotted work.
The meeting also said, “Due to
delay in start of work, the escalation of rates was expected and its
delay cannot be attributed to the
contractor. Accordingly, the horticulture director (P&M) was
apprised of the same and a meeting
was held in his office chamber for
considering the escalation in rates.
The committee members had indepth deliberations on the issue
and the Xen was asked to prepare
an analysis of the cost escalation
for the allotted portion of the work
as per the present approved market
rates which has been submitted to
this department vide letter No
EEHPM/2013-14/546-47 dated 88-2013. The committee recommended that since there has been
cost escalation for both labour and
material from February 2009 to
July 2012, the rate escalation as
proposed to be given to the contractor for civil works of the basement subject to the condition that
the basement work is completed
with a DPR ceiling cost of Rs
167.28 lakh.” How cleverly the
department moved in benefitting
the contractor can be gauged from
the fact that the department finally
enhanced the work cost from Rs
38.66 lakh to Rs 167.28 lakh.
This is an enough proof of the
violation of government norms
by a handful of officials. Will the
authorities concerned fix its
responsibility on horticulture
department (P&M)? Who is to be
held responsible for the loss
caused to the state exchequer?
These are some of the questions
which need to be answered by the
authorities concerned. Had the
work been put to e-tendering,
there would have been a competition among contractors at the
national level, definitely leading
to the lowering of the construction cost.
Div Com, IGP discuss election
related security issues
GY NEWS SERVICE
RAMBAN, NOV. 15:
In a high level meeting
today chaired by Divisional
Commissioner
Jammu
Shantmanu and attended by
IGP Jammu Rajesh Kumar
in the conference hall of
Deputy
Commissioner
Office complex at Ramban.
Various security issues
related to free and fair conduct of elections in the district were discussed with the
district civil, police and
other security agencies
DEO Farooq Shah Bukhari,
ROs of AC- 55 and AC-56
and all the Commandants of
various security agencies
who are linked in one way
or the other way with the
election were also present in
the meeting.
D i v i s i o n a l
Commissioner and IGP
Jammu discussed all the
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Govt unresponsive to newspaper reports of alleged
violation of its norms by horticulture deptt
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: The government is expected to take note of
every complaint of corruption
against its employees but it has
been noticed of late that it remains
unresponsive to even the newspaper reports in this regard. This
newspaper had in the recent past
highlighted the blatant violation of
the set government norms by the
construction wing of horticulture
department, planning and marketing (P&M), but no anti-corruption
body ever took notice of it despite
the fact that the allegations were of
very serious nature.
On November 3 last, an RTI
activist was called by the executive engineer (Xen), horticulture
department (P&M), who is also
First Appellant Authority, to his
office for hearing his two appeals.
But when he entered his office, the
Xen, instead of making him feel
comfortable, asked him to first
prove his identity. He felt that
there was hostility in his behaviour
was because the information
sought in the RTI applications pertained to his department. Apart
from these two appeals, there are
also three other appeals of the RTI
activist which are still to be heard
by the department. The activist
filed appeals after he was provided
incomplete
information
in
response to replies of his RTI
applications. Neither the director
concerned nor the Xen are parting
with the requisite information. The
Xen, when he was PIO of horticulture (P&M) department, had asked
the RTI activist to deposit in the
department photostat charges for
double set of documents (one set
for office record and the other for
the activist) but later he modified
his own order and asked him to
deposit photostat charges for single set only. This had resulted in
wastage of time of the information
seeker. The RTI activist said it
called for a probe by the director.
He also said that his three pending
appeals be heard by the director
himself.
The RTI activist said the Xen
disliked him because he had earlier highlighted the “blunders” committed by the department in the
allotment of different construction
works. All the information in this
regard was taken by the activist
from the department through RTI.
In reply to his previous RTI application, the department had handed
the applicant a letter of (Xen), horticulture (P&M) division, Jammu,
which he had written to the director of his department.
According to this letter, a committee was framed by the government on April 9, 2013, vide order
No 147-Agri of 2013 and
DHPM/2013-14 camp Dli/49-53
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security related issues,
transportation plan and
coordination with the civil
administration and the
observers appointed by the
Election Commission of
India for ensuring smooth
and trouble free conduct of
elections.
It will be pertinent to
mention here that the two
constituencies of the district, Ramban 55 and
Banihal 56 are going to witness the remarkable democratic process of voting on
25th of November 2014.
Both the officers put
emphasis upon the communication as the basis for
reporting of election related
events from their locations
to the district and the divisional headquarters for
quick disposal of grievances
if any.
National Lok
Adalat on Dec 6
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15:
All the concerned are
informed that a National
Lok Adalat is scheduled to
be held on 06th December
2014. The litigants are
informed that in case they
are interested to settle their
cases in the said Lok
Adalat, they shall approach
the concerned courts on or
before 23-11-2014 so that
the same can be taken up in
the said Lok Adalat.
Power shut down
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: In
order to carry out the erection of 13 Mtr. Steel
Tubular Poles & stringing
of ACSR Panther conductor for shifting/strengthening of 33 KV G-7 lines,
branch cutting on G-3
feeder and allied line
works, the power supply to
the Channi Himmat, Sainik
Colony, Transport Nagar,
Narwal, Bathindi, MES
Sunjwan Cantt. Railway
Colony, Bahu Plaza,
Nanak Nagar, part of
Trikuta Nagar, Gandhi
Nagar and adjoining areas
fed from 33 KV G-3, G-6,
G-7 lines and part of LT
Line of auxiliary transformer in Gladni, will
remain affected on 16th of
November, 2014 (Sunday)
from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Pakistan resorts
to firing along IB
in Jammu
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15:
The Pakistan Rangers on
Saturday violated the
ceasefire by resorting to
brief firing along the
International Border in
Jammu district, forcing
BSF troops to retaliate.
"The Pakistani troops
resorted to few rounds of
firing on forward Border
Out Posts (BoPs) along IB
in Arnia belt in Jammu district today," a senior BSF
official said.
BSF troops retaliated
briefly, he said, adding,
there was no injury to anyone in the firing.
VK Singh taunts
Chidambaram over
his AFSPA remark
GY NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, NOV.
15: Minister of State
(MoS) for External Affairs,
General (retired) VK
Singh, on Saturday took a
jibe at senior Congress
leader P Chidambaram's
comment on the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA), saying the latter
did not even know in what
context he was making
such a remark.
"I don't give much
weight to what Mr
Chidambaram says. He
says one thing at one time,
second day he says something else. He doesn't even
know in what context he
was talking of," said
General (retired) Singh.
"Armed Forces Special
Powers Act is only an enabling
act. It does not give unlimited
powers," he added. Lauding the
Indian Army, General (retired)
Singh said: "Where mistakes
occur, as it happened, the army
has been quick to take action.
We have seen what has happened
in
Himachal."
Chidambaram, who yesterday
welcomed the army's decision
to grant life sentence to five personnel in Machil fake
encounter case in Jammu and
Kashmir, had called AFSPA an
"obnoxious law", and said that
it has no place in a modern,
civilised country.
2
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
Australian PM suggests G20
leaders use first names
BRISBANE, NOV. 15: Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott asked G20 leaders in Brisbane Saturday to use
first names to show "personal warmth" and to "speak from
the heart, not from notes" to make the summit the best it can
be. Abbott made the remarks at the opening of the leaders`
retreat ahead of the formal G20 sessions in which the leaders were given five minutes each to talk about any issues
they wished.
"The only rules are if we can speak from our heart
rather than from a script that would be good," he said. "If
we could use first names, that would be good as well
because, whatever disagreements we might have, it helps if
there can at least be personal warmth amongst us," Abbott
said. Abbott said the world was looking at G20 leaders to
demonstrate their ability to boost economic growth and create more jobs, according to Xinhua.
"That`s our challenge, to leave this G20 meeting in 48
hours and instil more confidence in the people of the
world," he said. "We may not always be able to agree but I
hope we can at least be open with each other over this
time," he said.
Navy SEAL who shot bin
Laden was at war for years
WAShINGtON, NOV. 15: Former Navy SEAL
Robert O'Neill, who says he fired the shots that killed
Osama bin Laden, played a role in some of the most consequential combat missions of the post-9/11 era, including
three depicted in Hollywood movies. And now he's telling
the world about them.
By doing so, O'Neill has almost certainly increased his
earning power on the speaking circuit. He also may have
put himself and his family at greater risk. And he has earned
the enmity of some current and former SEALs by violating
their code of silence.
But O'Neill, winner of two Silver and five Bronze Stars,
makes no apologies for any of that. In a wide-ranging interview yesterday with The Associated Press, he said he
believes the American public has a right to more details
about the operation that killed the al-Qaida leader and other
important military adventures. And he insisted he is taking
pains not to divulge classified information or compromise
the tactics SEALs use to get the drop on their enemies. "The
last thing I want to do is endanger anybody," he said. "I
think the good (of going public) outweighs the bad."
O'Neill, who last week began discussing his role in the bin
Laden mission, was in Washington for a round of television
and media appearances that drew both praise and criticism.
After helicoptering to the compound in Abbottabad,
Pakistan, assaulting the house and killing three men and a
woman, some of the SEALs reached the third floor, where
a CIA analyst had told O'Neill that bin Laden would be.
O'Neill followed an unnamed point man into bin Laden's
bedroom, he told the AP, and the point man tackled two
women, believing they had a bomb, in what O'Neill calls an
incredibly selfless act. "A few feet in front of me, on two
feet, was Osama bin Laden," O'Neill said. "I shot him three
times in the head and I killed him."
Many are impressed by the deed, but not everyone is
impressed with the telling. "We work in secret and we pride
ourselves on that, so if somebody comes out and spills this
much, it angers the rest of us," Jonathan Gilliam, a former
SEAL, said in an interview.
But Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles
Burlingame was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed
into the Pentagon, has said that O'Neill's descriptions were
gratifying to the relatives of victims at a 9/11 museum ceremony where he donated the uniform he was wearing.
O'Neill's key role in the 2011 bin Laden raid was hardly his
only brush with a high-profile mission. He was on the 2009
mission to rescue the captain of the merchant ship Maersk
Alabama, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates. That
episode was featured in the Tom Hanks movie "Captain
Phillips." And he was part of the group that helped retrieve
Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a four-man team
attacked in 2005 while tracking a Taliban leader in
Afghanistan. The Luttrell episode was featured in the 2013
film "Lone Survivor."
Long before those operations, O'Neill came to embody
the dramatic transformation of the role of US special operations over the last 13 years.
Lebanon Army maintaining
calm on Israel border: UN
BEIRUt, NOV. 15: UN Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL) Force Commander Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano
has appreciated the Lebanese army for maintaining calm
and stability along its border with Israel.
According to a statement by UNIFIL, Portolano discussed the situation in UNIFIL`s area of operations in separate meetings with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam
Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri, Xinhua reported.
"I was encouraged to hear from them very strong words
of support for UNIFIL and the work we are doing on the
ground, as well as reaffirmation of Lebanon`s commitment
to the implementation of resolution 1701," UNIFIL said.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ended the 33day war between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006, and
expanded the mandate of UNIFIL which was originally
formed in 1978. Tripartite meetings between UNIFIL and
senior Lebanese and Israeli officials are routinely held to
discuss developments along the border.
Russia sees chance of deal
at nuclear talks with Iran
BRISBANE,
NOV.
15: A senior Russian
diplomat said a deal could
be reached this month
between world powers and
Tehran on curbing Iran`s
nuclear programme if
there is the will in
Washington and Tehran.
In Australia for a meeting
of the G20 major and
developing economies,
Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergei Ryabkov told
reporters six world powers
and Iran had never been so
close to an agreement and
it could be reached by a
Nov. 24 deadline.
"Therefore,
from
(Nov.) 18 to 24 there is
enough time for such decisions to be taken," he said.
"But there is no guarantee
that these decisions will
be taken in those capitals
where there are the
biggest problems with
current solutions, I mean,
- Washington and Tehran."
Six powers - Russia,
China, the United States,
France,
Britain
and
Germany - want to ensure
Iran`s nuclear programme
does not enable it to build
nuclear weapons, though
Iran says its nuclear work
is for civil needs.
Some officials, including from Russia, have
expressed doubts a deal
can be reached in the
timeframe. Ryabkov also
said that after President
Vladimir Putin and U.S.
President Barack Obama
spoke in China on the
sidelines of a summit
there had been no new
impulse for "the normalisation" of bilateral relations.
Ties between Moscow
and Washington have
plunged to lows unseen
since the Cold War over
Ukraine, where Russia
annexed Crimea in March
and is accused by the West
of sending arms and soldiers to support a separatist rebellion in its east.
Moscow
denies
the
charges and has criticised
the United States for
imposing sanctions on
Russia over Ukraine.
Asia's security must not be
based on ''intimidation'': Obama
BRISBANE, NOV. 15:
Security in the Asia-Pacific
region must depend on
international law and the
peaceful resolution of disputes, not on "intimidation",
US
President
Barack
Obama said Saturday ahead
of the G20 summit here,
media reported. Addressing
students
in
Brisbane,
Obama emphasised that
Asia`s security must be
based on mutual alliances
and big nations must not
bully smaller ones, according to a BBC report.
"We believe... that any
effective security order for
Asia must be based not on
spheres of influence, coercion or intimidation, where
big nations bully the small,
but on alliances for mutual
security, international law
and... the peaceful resolution of disputes," Obama
was quoted as saying.
He warned of the dangers posed by territorial
disputes in the South China
Sea, where Beijing`s perceived assertiveness has
raised concern among its
neighbours. There was "no
question" over US`s commitment to its Asia-Pacific
allies, Obama added.
President Obama said
Russia`s
"aggression"
towards Ukraine was a
"threat to the world", citing
the downing of the
Malaysia Airlines flight
MH17 last July.
Putin
was
earlier
attacked by both Australian
Prime
Minister Tony
Abbott and British Prime
Minister David Cameron
over what the West
believes to be Russian
complicity in the downing
of the flight. Thirty eight
Australians were among
the 298 people who died
when the plane was
brought down over rebelheld eastern Ukraine, by a
missile that the West
believes was supplied by
Russia. However, Russia
stridently rejects the claim.
Abbott, who discussed
the issue with Putin in
Beijing earlier this week,
described Russia`s actions
in Ukraine as part of a
"regrettable pattern" and
that Russia should aspire to
be a superpower "for
peace, freedom and prosperity" instead of "trying to
recreate the lost glories of
tsarism or the old Soviet
Union". Obama used this
speech to also announce
that the US would contribute $3 billion to an
international fund to help
poor countries cope with
the effects of climate
change.
Historic photos of dead Che Guevara resurface in Spain
MAdRId, NOV. 15:
Lost for half a century, historic photographs of Cuban
revolutionary Che Guevara
taken by an AFP photographer shortly after his execution have come to light in a
small Spanish town. The
dark-bearded guerilla leader
lies in a stretcher with his
dead eyes open, his bare
chest stained with blood and
dirt, in the eight black and
white photographs taken
after he was shot by the
Bolivian army in October
1967.
The photographs belong
to Imanol Arteaga, a local
councillor in the northern
Spanish town of Ricla. He
inherited them from his
uncle Luis Cuartero, a missionary in Bolivia in the
1960s. "He brought back the
photographs when he came
for my parents` wedding in
November 1967," said
Arteaga, 45. "My aunt and
my mother told me a French
journalist had given them to
him."
He and his aunt found
the
photos
among
Cuartero`s belongings after
the missionary died in 2012.
"I remembered he had photographs of Che Guevara
and my aunt said: `Yes, I
know where they are,"
Arteaga said. "They were in
boxes with a load of photos
of Bolivia."Other rare
colour photographs of
Guevara`s body by AFP
correspondent Marc Hutten,
taken after it was laid out by
Bolivian soldiers, were published in the international
media at the time.
But one of the newly
discovered shots seems to
have been taken at a different moment. In it, Che
appears with matted hair
and a jacket crudely buttoned around his chest. The
missionary`s stash of pictures also includes a photo
purportedly of the body of
Guevara`s revolutionary
companion Tamara Bunke,
laid on a stretcher with her
face disfigured.
An Argentine-born doctor, Ernesto "Che" Guevara
came to world prominence
as a senior member of Fidel
Castro`s
revolutionary
regime in Cuba. Hunted by
the CIA, he was captured by
the military in Bolivia on
October 8, 1967, and executed the following day. His
body was displayed to the
press in the village of
Vallegrande before being
North Korea condemns South
Korea over warning shots at MDL
Seoul, nov. 1: Days after South Korean
soldiers fired warning shots at a patrol near
the North Korea border, the latter on
Saturday warned the former of retaliatory
strikes.
The Front Command of the North's military while warning South Korean troops
said that their act may invite retaliation
strikes. South Korean troops on Monday
fired warning shots as the North`s patrol
approached the military demarcation line
(MDL) that designates the border, but there
was no exchange of fire and the group eventually turned back.
"The south Korean puppet military warmongers should be mindful that such reckless military provocations in the area of
MDL may invite unforeseeable retaliation
strikes, which will immediately lead to a
great war of justice for national reunification", the Front Command of the North`s
military said.
"If they continue the military provocation despite our warning, they will have to
pay at the cost of their blood." There have
been a series of minor skirmishes, involving
exchanges of fire but no casualties, along
the inter-Korean land and sea borders in
recent months.
The two Koreas are still technically at
war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an
armistice, not a peace treaty.
The Korean peninsula is divided by a
2.5 mile-(four kilometre)-wide band known
as the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that runs
248 km (155 miles) from east to west.
The DMZ is something of a misnomer
as it is one of the world`s most heavily militarised frontiers, bristling with watchtowers and landmines.
Separately, North Korea`s military decision-making National Defence Commission
(NDC) on Saturday repeated its call for a
stoppage to annual South Korea-US military exercises and anti-Pyongyang leaflet
launches across the border.
An NDC spokesman reaffirmed
Pyongyang`s stance of ruling out any dialogue with the South unless it stops antiPyongyang "confrontational rackets".
buried in secret.
Arteaga believes it was
Hutten who gave the photographs to Cuartero, possibly as a means of getting
them quickly out of the
country. "He asked my
uncle to take the photos
because he was the only
European leaving Bolivia at
that moment." After Arteaga
rediscovered the pictures,
he said, "I searched on the
Internet for `French journalist Che dead`, and Hutten`s
name came up, along with
some photos that are just
like mine." After Cuartero
took the photos, his family
had no further contact with
Hutten, who died in March
2012, shortly before the
missionary himself.
Arteaga had the photographs examined by an
expert who said they were
printed on a kind of paper
that has not been made for
decades, confirming that
they date to the 1960s.
"Hutten told us he had sent
four or five reels of photos
to AFP in Paris," said
Sylvain Estibal, current
head of photography for the
Europe and African region
at the world news agency.
But when Hutten passed
through Paris a few months
after Guevara`s death, he
found that "only a few of his
photographs" from that
batch had made it to his editors, Estibal said.
"Where the others
ended up is still a mystery."
Arteaga said he spoke to his
beloved uncle every day for
the last 14 years of his life,
but that whole time "the
photographs were left
unmentioned". "What matters to me is that these photos were my uncle`s. They
have sentimental value,"
Arteaga said. "But now I
realise they have historical
value too."
Brazil police arrest 27 in
widening Petrobras probe
RIO dE JANEIRO, NOV. 15: Police
made 27 arrests in raids across Brazil on
Friday in a widening investigation into allegations of a multi-billion-dollar kickback
scheme at the state-owned oil giant Petrobras.
Among those swooped on by 30 police teams
that fanned out across the country was Renato
Duque, the former Petrobras director of engineering and services, while several prominent
construction companies have also now been
dragged into the scandal that has touched the
Brazilian president. Authorities, under pressure to get to the bottom of the escalating crisis at Petrobras, also froze assets worth 720
million reais ($277 million) belonging to 36
suspects and three unnamed companies. After
an early delay in trading on news of the police
action, Petrobras stock slumped initially on
the Sao Paulo market before ending the session 2.66 percent off at 12.78 reais.
Petrobras -- also the subject of an investigation by US authorities -- had announced
Thursday that it was delaying release of its
third-quarter results because of "investigations regarding allegations of conspiracy,
embezzlement and corruption." According to
former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto
Costa, the company allegedly paid millions of
dollars in kickbacks to politicians and members of the ruling Workers Party between 2004
and 2012 to buy influence in what critics say
was a collusion between Petrobras and politicians. Costa, who is under house arrest, has
been acting as whistleblower as part of a plea
bargain with prosecutors. The allegations roiling Petrobras have been dubbed "Operation
Car Wash." Police estimate more than 10 billion reais of kickbacks were made in all.
Nobody has been convicted, but Costa is
awaiting trial over the allegations that forced
President Dilma Rousseff into denials in a
hotly contested election that she won last
month after a bitter runoff. Many more are
expected to follow Costa into court as the case
unravels.Friday`s arrests on suspicion of
money laundering and fraud were made in
five states and the capital Brasilia. Some of
those police detained were top executives
from top construction firms who had allegedly signed suspect contracts with Petrobras.
US nuclear woes: Pentagon chief orders a shakeup
MINOt AIR FORCE
BASE
(NORth
dAkOtA, US), NOV. 15:
Pledging firm action to support the men and women
who handle the world's
most powerful and deadly
weapons, the Pentagon will
spend an additional USD 10
billion to correct deep problems of neglect and mismanagement within the
nation's nuclear forces,
Defence Secretary Chuck
Hagel said. Hagel ordered
top-to-bottom changes in
the nuclear arsenal's management, which he said had
been allowed over the years
to backslide, afflicted by
broken and missing equip-
ment, poor leadership and
inadequate training and
staffing.
Hagel told a Pentagon
news conference yesterday
morning, before flying to
Minot Air Force Base in
North Dakota where many
of the nuclear force troubles
began, that the Defence
Department will boost
spending on the nuclear
forces by about 10 per cent
a year for the next five
years, saying there is no
problem on this issue the
Pentagon can't fix. That
would be a total increase of
about USD 10 billion over
the five years. Currently the
Pentagon spends about
USD 15 billion a year on the
nuclear mission.
"The internal and external reviews I ordered show
that a consistent lack of
investment and support for
our nuclear forces over far
too many years has left us
with too little margin to
cope with mounting stresses," said Hagel, who was
flanked by senior Air Force
and Navy officers. "The
root cause has been a lack of
sustained focus, attention
and resources, resulting in a
pervasive sense that a career
in the nuclear enterprise
offers too few opportunities
for growth and advancement." Hagel, who was get-
ting briefings at Minot yesterday and then planning to
speak to airmen there,
ordered two reviews in
February, one by Pentagon
officials and a second by
outside experts, as a result
of a series of Associated
Press stories that revealed
lapses in leadership, morale,
safety and security at the
nation's three nuclear Air
Force bases.
Hagel acknowledged
years of neglect since the
Cold War's end rendered
America's nuclear mission
less relevant in a world of
drones and counterterrorism. And he vowed renewed
accountability. One of
Hagel's
predecessors,
Robert Gates, fired his top
military and civilian Air
Force leaders in 2008
because of similar problems. But Hagel said,
"Previous reviews of our
nuclear enterprise lacked
clear follow-up mechanisms."
The new reviews concluded that the management
structure of US nuclear
forces is so incoherent that
top-level officials often are
unaware of trouble below
them. The reviews also
found
a
"disconnect"
between what nuclear force
leaders say and what they
provide to troops in the
field.
To illustrate the degree
of decay in the intercontinental ballistic missile
force, the reviews found
that maintenance crews had
access to only one tool set
required to tighten bolts on
the warhead end of the
Minuteman 3 missile, and
that this single tool set was
being used by crews at all
three ICBM bases, in North
Dakota, Wyoming and
Montana. When one crew
needed it, it was sent by
another, by Federal Express.
Hagel said yesterday the
crews now have tool kits at
each of the three bases and
will soon get two each.
3
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 15 | 2014
15-day disaster management training programme
for SMVDSB employees concludes at the Shrine
GY NEWS SERVICE
kAtRA, NOV. 15: As
a part of its continuing
effort towards Disaster
Management preparedness,
a 15-day hands on training
programme for preparedness
and
response
Mechanism in Disaster situations organised for the
employees of Mata Vaishno
Devi Shrine Board concluded at the Shrine today. The
training was imparted by a
10 member's team of
experts of National Disaster
Response Force (NDRF).
As many as 150
employees of the Shrine
Board participated in the
training programme which
comprised Basic Training
Programme and Advance
Training Programme. Of
them, 100 employees took
part in the 5-day Basic
Programme from 1st to 5th
November and 50 employ-
ees comprising the Disaster
Management Task Force
(DMTF) setup to most
effectively respond to any
emergency situations participated in the 10-day
Advance Programme from
6th to 15th November,
2014.
The Basic Programme
included brief over-view of
major disasters, search and
rescue in collapsed structures, rescue strategy and
techniques, lifting and stabilizing loads, basics of medical first response, basic life
support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, rescue supervision and safety
management etc. Similarly,
the Advance Programme
comprised disaster response
mechanism, evaluation and
simulation exercises, search
and rescue related inputs,
rope rescue, emergency
techniques from higher and
lower elevations, water rescue technique, climbing,
crossing and descending
techniques, tying knots and
hitches, use of conventional, modern and advance
equipment etc.
Dr. M. K. Bhandari,
Chief Executive Officer,
Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine
Board, giving details of the
programme, informed that
on the directions of N. N.
Vohra, Governor, who is
Chairman of Mata Vaishno
Devi Shrine Board, a very
high priority has been laid
an
effective
Disaster
Management Plan for the
pilgrimage by building
capacities of the Shrine
Board employees and
evolving a culture of preparedness and response to
deal effectively with emergent situations.
CEO said that, on the
advice of the Governor,
NDS (Regd.) organises "Ek Sham - Sanjay Vidrohi Ke Naam"
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15:
NDS (Regd.) organised "Ek
Sham - Sanjay Vidrohi Ke
Naam"
composed
by
Composer SURAJ SINGH
at K. L. Sehgal Hall, Jammu
in which D. C. Raina,
Former Advocate General,
J&K was the Chief Guest.
Jenab
Sohail
Kazmi,
Veteran Journalist and
Secretary General, Press
Club of Jammu was the
Special Invitee. S. K.
Kapoor, AGM, SBI, Jammu
was the Special Guest. S. S.
Anand
Lehar,
Senior
Advocate, Supreme Court of
India Presided over the
Function and Advocate
Dogra
Harish
Kaila,
President, Nami Dogri
Sanstha (Regd.) also shared
the dias.
The Programme was
started with the lightning of
traditional lamp by all the
dignitaries. Singers viz
Sumit Bhardwaj, Rakesh
Deol, Vandana, Karuna,
Pallavi Koul, Sonia, Priya,
Shabnam, Zulekha Farid,
Ajay Bhagat, Gurjeet Singh,
Sumant, Suraj Singh, Arun
Singh, Amrit Kaur, Rohit
Sharma, Sahil, Meenakshi
Sharma recited songs
penned by Sanjay Vidrohi.
On Tabla : Rajesh Kumar
and Joginder Pal, On Guitar
: Sanjay Pashi, On Dholak :
Satish Lalotra and On Synth
: Johny.
The Chief Guest, D. C.
Raina, Former Advocate
General, J&K while speaking on the occasion appreciated the Songs of Sanjay
Vidrohi and Compositions
of Suraj Singh and also
appreciated the singers who
sung the compositions in a
beautiful manner. He further
said that writers have big
vision and bring their vision
in black and white and the
coming generations do take
benefit from their knowledge and vision.
The Special Invitee,
Jenab
Sohail
Kazmi,
Veteran Journalist and
Secretary General, Press
Club of Jammu while speaking on the occasion said that
Art and Culture are our rich
heritage and writers play an
important role in social
progress.
The Special Guest, S. K.
Kapoor, Assistant General
Manager, State Bank of
India, Jammu shared the history of Sanjay Vidrohi and
Suraj Singh with the audience. And also congratulated NDS (Regd.) for the
cause of Music, Literature,
Art & Culture.
S. S. Anand Lehar, who
presided over the function
congratulated Suraj Singh
and Sanjay Vidrohi and the
entire team of Singers.
Lehar further said that
Society should take hope
from the writers who have
so beautiful thoughts that
society can be benefitted in
a creative manner from the
thought process of such
writers who being themselves dependent but have
such a great creative
approach
for
the
humankind. The President,
Nami
Dogri
Sanstha
(Regd.), Advocate Dogra
Harish Kaila said that you
may take any language but
don't forget your mother
tongue Dogri. You may eat
any Junk Food but don't
leave eating Dogri recipes.
Yash Pal Yash, General
Secretary, Nami Dogri
Sanstha compared the programme and Capt. Lalit
Sharma IFS presented the
Vote of Thanks.
Present on the occasion
were Sham Talib, President
Adbi Kunj, Aaresh Om
Dalmotra, Dr. Chanchal
Sharma, Convener, Savitri
Kala Kunj, K. L. Mast, Ravi
Razdan, Randhir Singh
Raipuria, President, Dogra
Mandal, Ramesh Rahi,
General Secretary, Dogra
Mandal, Smt. Raj Kumari
Sehgal, Smt. Chand Deepika,
Smt. Neelam Verma, Rakesh
Sharma 'Tript', Nidhi Kaila,
President, Youth Wing, NDS,
Rajeshwar Bhakhri, P. L.
Parihar, Ravi Abrol, Aditya
Sharma, Meharban Singh,
Amit Gupta, Sudershan
Kumar, Deepak Attri and
Sunil Khajuria.
these training programmes
are being regularly organised for the employees of
the Board since the year
2009. He added that so far
about 1800 employees have
been provided hands-on
training in different aspects
of Disaster Management by
organising 22 rounds of programmes of different durations.
The Shrine Board has
also set-up a number of
Disaster
Management
Stores at different locations
on the Track and these have
been equipped with Disaster
Management equipment.
These stores are being
strengthened from time to
time by adding latest gadgets. The team of experts
from the National Disaster
Response Force also undertook audit of these Disaster
Management Stores for
their further strengthening.
The same Congress worked for
defeat of Dr. Ambedkar during
1953 by election from Bhandara
constituency. In other words, it can
be concluded that Congress leadership of early 50s and after that also
never wanted a SC to rise to any
respectable position. Ramesh
Chandra said that a number of persons were decorated with Bharat
Ratan by successive Congress
governments but a SC as genius as
Dr. Ambedkar was, never treated
suitable for such an honour.
Terming BJP as only political
party which from day one of its
birth has been treating SCs as
equal as others, he said that BJP
supported V.P. Singh government
showered Bharat Ratan on
Ambedkar due to BJP's efforts.
The portrait of Dr. Ambedkar was
also fixed in the Parliament galaxy
during this period. The respect for
Dr. Ambedkar in the scheme of
things of BJP can be well judged
from the fact that during NDA
rule, Mau-the birth place of Dr.
Ambedkar- was beautified and
renovated and named as Ambedkar
Nagar, Deesha Bhoomi, where Dr.
Ambedkar embraced Budhisam,
was also beautified by BJP coalition government of Maharashtra,
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: Career Counselling
Cell of Govt. College for Women, Parade Jammu
organised a seminar cum workshop in collaboration with "Career Launcher Jammu "on Aptitude
Skills for all competitive exams like CAT (MBA),
Bank PO, IAS (CSAT) and Staff Selection
Commission examination in the college`s auditorium.
Workshop was conducted by J & K`s one and
only Aptitude Guru Mr. Ayush Nargotra, Director
Career Launcher Jammu, who is a serial CAT
Topper and has cracked many Bank and allied
exams. More than 350 students attended the
workshop and showed keen interest. They were
enlightened by the tips and tricks given to them.
Students demanded more such workshops in
future also, so that they get proper guidance and
counselling for building their career. Principal, Dr.
Hemla Aggarwal alongwith Dr. Shivani Suri
Verma Convener Career Counselling Cell assured
students of such programmes in future also. The
aspirants had the opportunity to interact with special speaker. The students had in depth discussion
with Ayush Nargotra on various facets of the
exams ranging from prelims to interview stage.
The Workshop covered topics like preparation
strategy, material selection, time management and
exam taking strategy. In IAS 2014, Career
Launcher 1000+ students cleared IAS Prelims
and 9550+ got calls from IIM`s. "Career launcher
Jammu" was started with a mission to provide
quality guidance and support to the students of
Jammu and Kashmir, as most of the aspirants find
difficult to go to Delhi or Chandhigarh to get proper coaching and guidance. Director Career
Launcher Jammu, Ayush Nargotra NIT graduate
and CAT 2013 topper with 99+ percentile& All
India Rank of 47 in CMAT is providing Aptitude
Coaching for Exams like CAT(MBA), CSAT,
BANKING, SSC. Special discounts are also provided to students of weaker sections as he firmly
believes that lack of financial resources should not
be a deterrent to anybody`s dreams.
Cong-NC Govt betrayed poor daily wagers: Bali
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: Lambasting
Omar
Abdullah
led
National
Conference-Congress government for
betraying over 62,000 daily wagers of
different government departments, BJP
candidate for Raipur-Domana assembly
segment, Bali Bhagat exhorted the people to teach these parties a lesson for
playing with the future of thousands of
these poor employees. Addressing
series of public meetings in RaipurDomana assembly segment, Bali
Bhagat said that during the last six years
this dispensation has done nothing to
address grievances of people. "Instead
of addressing problems of different sections of the society, this regime is
indulged into deceitful tactics to hoodwink the masses", Bali regretted and
pointed towards conditions of daily
wagers who are glaring example of the
anti-poor policies being propagated by
Omar Abdullah government with the
criminal connivance and support of
Congress ministers, who remained a
mute spectators to the all misdeeds of
the government just to enjoy powers.
Bali Bhagat said that during the last
six years this regime has adopted antiemployees policies and it was result of
such anti-people policies that every sec-
Congress always exploited SCs: Ramesh
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: Charging
the Congress of exploiting the
Scheduled Castes for decades, BJP
Anusuchit Jaati Morcha National
General Secretary Ramesh Chandra
Ratn said that even Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar was repeatedly ignored
by the Congress ignoring his contribution for the society and the
nation.
He was addressing media persons at Jammu on Saturday alongwith BJP State Spokesperson &
State Election Media Incharge
Arun Kumar Gupta, State
Spokesperson
Sunil
Sethi,
Anusuchit Jaati Morcha State
President Surinder Bhagat and
Morcha State Prabhari N.D.
Rajwal,
Ramesh Chandra, while elaborating the charges, said that Dr.
Ambedkar,
world's
best
Constitution's Architect, delivered
to the then union government
headed by Jawahar Lal Nehru and
instead of honouring him,
Congress played proxy to check
his growing popularity. During
first Lok Sabha elections Congress
worked towards getting Dr.
Ambedkar defeated from Bombay.
Seminar cum workshop orgnaised at CGW Parade
Similarly, the BJP-led NDA paid
rupees 16 crores to get vacated 26Ali Pur Road bungalow, where Dr.
Ambedkar had his last breathe, to
set up an international level
Memorial in memory of Dr.
Ambedkar.
Ramesh Chandra Ratn said that
facts themselves speak that while
Congress always exploited the dalits and even adopted biased
approach towards SC leaders, BJP
always, whether in coalition or
independent, took a number of initiatives for the welfare and upliftment of SCs besides giving due
respect and honour to leaders like
Dr.Ambedkar.
It is only BJP which deserves
the votes of SCs and the members
of this community also displayed
their pledge during the recently
held assembly elections in
Maharashtra and Haryana. The
same wave now is witnessed in
Jammu and Kashmir, where the SC
voters want to get rid of mis-governance, corruption, dynasty rule
and want to bring in BJP as they
are yearning for a government
which has concern for the dalits
and respect for their leaders, said
Ramesh Chandra.
tion of the society was on agitation path
be it employees, technocrats, unemployed youth, daily wagers, farmers or
students. "Coming assembly elections is
an historic opportunity to give a befitting reply to those who are responsible
for their miseries", he said and exhorted
the people to exercise their right to franchise in good number to make Jammu
and Kashmir free from corrupt parties
like Congress and National Conference.
Bali Bhagat said that Congress was
a sinking ship and genuine people were
leaving this party because instead of
serving the common masses, Congress
leaders were more concerned about
their petty personal interests. Assuring
that BJP led government would carve
out a new path of growth, development
and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir,
Bali said that BJP was contesting elections to change destiny of the people of
the State. He said that BJP has a comprehensive vision of the whole state in
general and Jammu province in particular because this region was deliberately
neglected by the successive state governments. Earlier during his visit to
Barnai area of Raipur-Domana segment, Bali Bhagat was accorded rousing
reception. Large numbers of people
were gathered to receive Bali Bhagat.
Voters facilitation centre
inaugurated at Wave Mall Jammu
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: Voter
facilitation centre has been
inaugurated at "Wave Mall
Jammu" to facilitate eligible
persons to enroll themselves as
voter as well as to promoting
awareness for exercising voting
rights. The facilitation centre
was inaugurated by the District
Election Officer Ajeet Kumar
Sahu, IAS at Wave Mall Jammu
today which is 50th voter facilitation centre made functional till date in
District Jammu.
It is to mention that voter facilitation
centre provide solution for on spot registration as well as checking of names in the voter
list which has facility for online access to
election data base . Any person can check if
their name is in voter list or not as well as
also can see his polling station and name of
his BLO. These centres also provide facility
for online registration as well as manual registration for which sufficient number of
Form 6 is available at these centres. These
centres have been established as SVEEP
activity under the banner of Wake Up
Jammu. The details of these 50 centres are as
Jammu West 5 centres, Marh Constituency`
3 centres, Akhnoor Constituency 10 centres,
Raipur Domana Constituency 5 centres,
R.S.Pura Constituency 4 centres, Chamb
Constituency
5
centres,
Bishnah
Constituency 7 centres, Suchetgarh
Constituency 4 centres, Jammu East 4 centres and Gandhi Nagar 4 centres.
Voter facilitation centres at Wave Mall
has been opened for targeting urban women
for enrolment as well as voting who hesitate
in visiting the polling station for casting
their votes. As per data available with
regard to parliamentary elections 2014
nearly 80% of rural women voters have participated in the elections but only 60 %
urban women voters have reached to the
polling stations to cast their vote. This trend
does not reflect encouraging picture as
urban women are more educated and aware.
Hence malls and cinema halls are being targeted by the DEO to approach the urban
women voters and motivate them to exercise their rights to vote.
NC believes in action, not populism: Rana
GY NEWS SERVICE
NAGROtA, NOV. 15:
Provincial President National
Conference Devender Singh
Rana on Saturday said that
politicians can't afford to take
public for ride by indulging in
rhetoric and populism, as
they judge their representatives on the basis of their
actions and not words. "Trust
deficit is a big challenge for
politicians, which they will
have to surmount by keeping
up commitments", Rana said
while addressing several
election meetings in Nagrota
Constituency.
Rana was accompanied
by National Conference leaders Ch Mohammed Alam,
Som Nath Khajuria and
Block President Rameshwar
Dutt Sharma. He said success
of politicians lie in their comprehension of understanding
genuine problems of the people and come up with
answers to redress these in a
time
bound
manner.
"Sloganeering and false
promises have terribly
marred the credibility of
those in public life, which
should be a cause of concern
for the politicians", he said
while stressing the need for
corrective measures by
promising what is achievable.
Referring to his vision of
converting Nagrota as a
model constituency, Rana
said it is a mission which he
believes can be achieved with
the support of people and sincerity of purpose. He made a
mention of effort made in the
past few years across the constituency and said the people
can judge for themselves by
measuring the schemes
implemented for laying a
sound developmental edifice
across Nagrota.
The Provincial President,
who is NC candidate for the
constituency, said that the
works executed over the
years in different sectors were
discernible which have
instilled hope among the people about holistic development of Nagrota. He said in
his capacity as Member
Legislative Council, he has
endeavoured to meet the
most needed services in a
time bound manner.
Rana assured the people
that given their support he
will transform the developmental profile of Nagrota in
next six years. "The potential
of the constituency is
required to be explored optimally", he said, adding that
being in the close vicinity of
the capital city there was
immense scope for Nagrota
to become a modern satellite
township. "What I have been
talking about Nagrota to be
transformed into Nava
Jammu is an agenda to be
pursued and accomplished in
next six years", he asserted.
Referring to the challenges
confronted to the state, the
Provincial President said that
these can be met by having a
strong and stable government
in the state which shall be
fully accountable to the people for failures as also successes. In this context, he
made a mention of frivolous
propaganda unleashed by
Congress blaming National
Conference for shortcomings
and taking credit for all the
good done by Omar led government during the past six
years. "The trend of shifting
blame will come to end when
the state gets a stable government", he maintained.
Rana gave an overview
of the achievements registered in various sectors of
development under the leadership of Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah and said this
journey will gain further
momentum in the next six
years. He hoped that people
will again repose their trust in
National Conference by voting its candidates to victory
with a huge margin.
4
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
Golden Yug
EDITORIAL
Security forces
held to account
The life sentence recommended by the General
Court Martial to five Army personnel of the 4
Rajputana Rifles — a Colonel who was the commanding officer of his unit, a Captain and three
soldiers — for staging a fake encounter in
Kashmir has come not a day too soon. The five
were found guilty of killing three innocent men on
April 30, 2010 and passing them off as Pakistani
militants to collect cash rewards for the
“encounter”. Massive protests engulfed the Valley
after the killings, leading to the four-month long
“stone-pelting agitation” in which 120 more
Kashmiris, mostly teenagers and youth, were
killed in street confrontations with police and the
paramilitary. After a police investigation, 11 persons, including a Colonel and two Majors, were
charge sheeted in a criminal court at Sopore. The
Army successfully stalled the proceedings before
a trial court and opted for a Court of Inquiry,
which too arrived at the same conclusion as the
police. It was on the basis of the CoI report, which
was not made public, that the Army ordered the
court martial in December 2013. The proceedings
began in January and ended in September, when
the court reserved orders. After the Pathribal experience, in which the military court closed the case
against the accused Army personnel citing absence
of evidence, the court martial in the Macchil case
ordered just a few days later, did not inspire much
hope that justice would be done. But the punishment is certainly exemplary and will hopefully
serve as a deterrent against wrongdoing. The sentence will take effect when it is confirmed by the
Northern Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. G.S. Hooda.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah even called it a
“watershed” moment for Jammu and Kashmir.
At a time when the Valley is once again
seething at the killing of two young boys at the
hands of soldiers, the conviction and the sentencing shore up the image of the Army as an institution that can hold its men accountable through
internal processes. The Army would build more
trust with the people of Kashmir if it also reopened
the Pathribal fake encounter case in which a
Brigadier, a Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, and a
Subedar of 7 Rashtriya Rifles were the accused.
The justice done in the Macchil case is certain to
be held up as an example of why there is no need
to do away with the Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act or the immunity clauses in it. But the
Army cannot portray itself as a fully accountable
institution so long as it takes shelter under the nonaccountability provisions of AFSPA, and puts itself
outside the scrutiny of civilian courts. After all, it
was only the pressure of a mass civilian protest and
a police charge sheet pointing to clear evidence of
crime that forced the Army’s hand and led to the
initiation of action in the Macchil case.
The lost university
BY pRAtAp
BhANU MEhtA
legacy
of
One
Jawaharlal Nehru that has
been systematically dismantled over the years: his
instinctive understanding of
higher education.
The financial outlays to
higher education have
increased. The clamour for
more higher education has
been growing. But we have
failed to create the capillaries that can sustain and
nourish a vibrant higher
education system. It is a
sector peculiarly resistant to
reform. This has one reason,
which Nehru recognised
well. Education, more than
any other sector, depends on
the accumulation of a lot of
soft skills and tacit understanding, which if lost, are
hard to recreate. This is
reflected, for instance, in his
deep concern about the
quality of academic leadership in education. It is a
concern we barely seem to
understand. Nehru’s weakness on primary education
was, in retrospect, a great
failing. But he was more
clear-headed on higher education. He realised that
independence in thinking
and technical capacity was a
necessary correlate of political independence. While it
was necessary to be open to
ideas from everywhere, it
was also important to develop an independent locus of
thought. Above all, this has
meant that we have an elite
that is not content with the
idea that much of our
research and higher education can be outsourced. But,
though we do not say so,
implicitly, we are quite content with outsourcing higher
education to the United
States. We cannot “make in
India” if we don’t “think in
India”.
Nehru realised that
higher education is also the
main instrument of a new
form of sociability. It should
be a site where group identities can be transcended. Just
read his speech from the
Aligarh Muslim University
convocation, in which he
warns against the dangers of
aligning reason and identity.
But sectarian universities
have become even more
ghettoised. Nehru also
realised that an indigenously educated middle class
that has not seceded is necessary for an enlightened
vanguard. He was perhaps
overly optimistic about how
higher education could produce it, but the aspiration
was not off the mark.
But higher education is
going to be hard to reform.
As a culture, we have lost a
sense of the appropriate
relationship between political structures and education
institutions. It is hard to get
across the idea that the
political class ought not to
be micromanaging higher
education. The idea that
universities should be at the
beck and call of ministers,
on everything from canteens to exams, curriculum
to degree structures, is preposterous. Independent regulatory bodies, like the
UGC, which commanded
enormous respect from
Nehru, have become worse
than bureaucratic conduits
for state power. These days,
it is near impossible to even
explain what a different culture of the relationship
between state and academia
would look like: those
habits that Nehru cherished
have long been lost.
This malaise has afflicted all political parties.
There is nothing more than
bad faith in the Left and
Congress’s crocodile tears
over the decimation of high-
er education. It is an interesting fact that in almost all
other sectors, we can point
to examples of innovation
in the states, dynamic chief
ministers who have set
something right. But except
some marginal differences
in the nature of private education acts, it is hard to
think of any chief minister
who has left a lasting
impression on higher education. A few exceptions
apart, academic cultures in a
large number of universities
have deteriorated to the
point where it is hard to see
how they can be retrieved.
Politicians have often
stepped into the self-abdication of academics who have
let them in, without resistance, for their own partisan
squabbles. The social credibility of the academic profession, by which Nehru set
so much store, is in serious
jeopardy. Credibility is
earned; it can never be commanded. The balance of
respect has tilted in favour
of the state. One of the sad-
dest facts about higher education is that tolerance for a
diversity of institutional
forms, each with its own
identity and strengths, is
low among academics.
Even academics proposing
reforms often make the mistake of thinking that all
institutions must correspond
to the same template. The
Nehruvian sensibility we
have lost is the idea that
higher education is something more than instrumental. The instrumental character of education is manifested in two ways. First,
the effective control of education has gone into the
hands of those who come to
the sector for extraneous
reasons: the nature of regulation ensures that, with a
few exceptions, there is
adverse selection in the
kinds of entrepreneurs that
enter higher education. This
private lobby, which has
benefited from the decimation of public institutions
and a low-quality equilibrium, has done much to
ensure that few meaningful
reforms take place. A genuine not-for-profit sector
has an enormous role to
play in higher education.
And some interesting experiments are now underway.
But the maturation of this
sector is a long way off.
There is as yet no happy
alternative between bureaucratic logic on the one hand
and commercial logic on
the other. Second, there is,
rightly, a new emphasis on
skilling and employmentoriented courses. But it is
an intellectual mistake to
think that even these can be
divorced from a larger culture of intellectualism.
Nehru was himself clear
that a culture that thinks of
education only instrumentally would not be well educated in the long run. There
is an odd assumption many
economists make: that manufacturing requires a lowlevel of skills, that a mere
tinkering at the edges of
skills will somehow produce an employable workforce. Even manufacturing
has to now be nested in a
far greater diversity of cognitive attributes. In the
Nehruvian
imagination,
there was nothing embarrassing in thinking about
universities as places for
the cultivation of intellect
and humanity. The idea was
that the university was a
space where faculty was
trying to retrieve a modicum of intellectual order in
a chaotic universe. This
consideration, above all
else, defined a university’s
mission and identity.
There are glimmers of
hope. India now seems to
be experiencing a minor
turnaround in science and
technology. But this turnaround is very fragile and
will not be sustained without a drastic reorientation in
the approach to research.
There is also now a yearning for new forms of education. But this has not yet
found adequate institutional
articulation.
But
the
Nehruvian ideal of the public university as a space
defined by the highest intellectual values lies in ruins.
It will be a tall order to
recover it.
Ravi Chopra – The man without whom childhood wouldn't have been as sweet
BY ApARNA MUdI
Growing up, Sunday
was everybody's
favourite day. It probably still is. But it was
different for the 90s
kids. It was the only day
when there were interesting television shows
which we were allowed
to watch. There weren't
a lot of channels to
choose from. But the
national television then
had a lot to offer. And
for us, Sunday mornings
were a treat. Every
Sunday, after breakfast
we would start with cartoons and soon be joined
by our parents for
'Mahabharat'. As
Mahender Kapoor started singing the title song,
my mother would start
hurrying with her
chores, and my father
would be sure to put the
newspaper down, or put
down the last letters in
his crossword.
If I was spending my
summer vacations with
my grandparents, I was
sure my grandma would
have set her alarm clock
to see Krishna in all his
glory on television,
looking on with such
immense devotion, as if
God himself has come
down to feature on the
little black and white
screen.
Even though
Ramanand Sagar's
'Ramayan' was already
being telecasted, I loved
this epic more. It was
part of the ritual. The
death of Ravi Chopra
brought back all the nostalgia of 90s television.
Belonging to the
illustrious director producer BR Chopra, Ravi
Chopra is also the
nephew of Yash Chopra.
He had directed several
movies, including 'The
Burning Train' and more
recently 'Baghbaan'. But
he will be remembered
for the television epic
'Mahabharat' which is
considered a cult classic
on the small screen, and
also was screened on
BBC. Many well known
faces of today started or
built their careers
through the show.
He worked with BR
Chopra and Yash Chopra
as an assistant director
for several films. He
also produced and coproduced many flicks,
many of which went on
to do well at the Box
Office. After his father's
death in 2006, Ravi
Chopra has only produced 'Bhoothnath' and
the more recent
'Bhoothnath Returns'
His passing away is a
sad day for Bollywood,
but his legend will continue to live on for all
those people who grew
up in an era where television was a privilege.
He made our weekends a
cultural event - with the
three generations of the
same family watching a
single show with the
same amount of devotion as you may see in a
temple.
An appeal to India’s conscience
ANIL dIVAN
Justice Krishna Iyer,
who enters his hundredth
year today, took the
Supreme Court in a new
direction while evolving
radical principles
Justice
Vaidyanathapuram Rama
Iyer Krishna Iyer was
born on November 15,
1915, was sworn in as a
judge of the Supreme
Court on July 17, 1973
and retired at the age of
65 on November 14,
1980. He now starts his
journey to complete a
century.
Justice Krishna Iyer’s
elevation to the Supreme
Court raised eyebrows
and scepticism in many
legal circles. I must confess that my scepticism
soon turned into admiration.
Several judicial
activists reached the
Supreme Court of India
in the mid-seventies.
Justice Krishna Iyer
wielded considerable
influence on the thought
processes of his colleagues such as Justice
P.N. Bhagwati (later
Chief Justice of India)
and Justice Chinnappa
Reddy. They were articulate, sensitive and had a
strong desire to translate
the vision of the constitution makers into reality.
A new direction
By 1980, Justice
Bhagwati and Justice
Krishna Iyer became
senior justices and took
the Supreme Court in a
new direction while
evolving radical principles. Justice Krishna
Iyer, a revolutionary at
heart, principally triggered this internal revolution in the thought
processes of his colleagues — a movement
vigorously carried forward by Justice Bhagwati
and Justice Chinnappa
Reddy.
A new public interest
jurisprudence was fashioned, the old ‘locus
standi’ rules were jettisoned, epistolary litigation was encouraged and
a strategy was evolved
for giving relief to the
disadvantaged and underprivileged. Procedural
‘due process’ was
restored to centre stage,
overruling earlier decisions. Consequently this
radical transformation
gave high international
stature and visibility to
the Supreme Court. It
was an explosive enlargement of the court’s jurisdiction. It carved out a
niche in the common citi-
zens’ heart whose respect
and adoration for the
higher judiciary reached
glorious heights.
Justice Krishna Iyer’s
prolific judgments, his
gentle and disarming
demeanour as a judge,
his unrivalled grasp of
facts and law, his empathy for the disadvantaged, and his courtesy
and consideration for the
young lawyer appearing
before him was a unique
blend of judicial virtues.
Justice Krishna Iyer’s
interim order of June 24,
1975 — a day before the
Proclamation of
Emergency on June 25,
1975 — in the Indira
Gandhi case has a historical significance. Mrs
Gandhi lost her election
case and was disqualified. He did not give Mrs
Gandhi, the serving
Prime Minister, an
unconditional stay
despite huge media hype.
She was allowed to function as Prime Minister,
attend the House, but
without a right to vote
following well-settled
precedents.
H.M. Seervai, the
great constitutional
lawyer but no uncritical
admirer of Justice
Krishna Iyer, wrote: “As
the historian turns from
the High Courts to the
Supreme Court his task
will be harder, for the
history of the Supreme
Court during the
Emergency is a history of
two different periods: the
first began a day before
the Emergency and ended
with Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi’s Appeal in
the Election Case; the
second began with the
Habeas Corpus Case and
ended with the revocation
of the Emergency by a
defeated Mrs Gandhi,
unwilling to put into the
hands of her opponents a
weapon she had forged
and used against them.
Of the first period, the
historian will say that the
Supreme Court moved
towards its finest hour, a
day before the
Proclamation of
Emergency, when, on 24
June 1975, Krishna Iyer
J., following judicial
precedents, rejected an
application made by Mrs.
Gandhi that the
Allahabad High Court’s
order, finding her guilty
of corrupt election prac-
tices and disqualifying
her for 6 years, should be
totally suspended. In the
best traditions of the
judiciary, Krishna Iyer J.
granted a conditional stay
of the Order under
appeal, although he had
been reminded by her
eminent counsel, Mr.
N.A. Palkhivala, “that the
nation was solidly behind
(her) as Prime Minister”
and that “there were
momentous consequences, disastrous to the
country, if anything less
than the total suspension
of the Order under appeal
were made”.”
Justice Krishna Iyer
earned the unintended,
unforeseen and doubtful
distinction of having
judicially fathered the
Emergency leading to
preventive detention of
many opposition leaders
including Jayaprakash
Narayan, Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, L.K. Advani
and Morarji Desai.
He recalls in his book
Off the Bench how the
then Law Minister H.R.
Gokhale, a good friend,
expressed a desire to
meet him at his residence
after Mrs Gandhi’s disqualification by the
Allahabad High Court
judgment in connection
with her appeal. He
politely refused to see
him and indicated that
the correct way was to
file the appeal in the
Registry which would be
taken up promptly.
After retirement
Justice Krishna Iyer’s
crowning glory and finest
hour were after retirement. He spurned the
lure of pelf and power
and governmental patronage and became an unrivalled champion of social
justice, constitutional
values and the rule of
law. He blossomed into
an iconic and inspirational figure both nationally and internationally.
The renowned
Australian Judge Michael
Kirby, a former President
of the International
Commission of Jurists,
described him as “incontestably one of the great
spirits of the common
law of this century.”
Justice Krishna Iyer’s
services to the nation, the
rule of law, the judiciary
and the disadvantaged
and underprivileged give
him a stature comparable
to many who have been
honoured with a Bharat
Ratna. Many believe that
his unique, lustrous and
incomparable contributions earn him the sobriquet of Nyaya Ratna.
5
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
Sonia, Rahul Gandhi adopt villages
under Modi's model village scheme
NEW dELhI, NOV.
15: Congress President
Sonia Gandhi and Vice
President Rahul Gandhi
have adopted one village each in their
respective constituencies to develop them
into model villages
under "Saansad Adarsh
Gram Yojana" launched
by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last
month.
Party sources said
that while Sonia Gandhi
has selected village
Udwa from Jagatpur
block in her
Parliamentary seat
Raebareli, Rahul has
chosen village 'Deeh' in
Jagdishpur block in
Amethi constituency, an
area industrialised during his father late Rajiv
Gandhi's Prime
Ministerial tenure.
Udwa in Jagatpur is also
the birthplace of Rana
Beni Madhav and has a
rich historical background.
Party sources, however, said that adopting
the villages does not
mean endorsing the
scheme launched by
Modi. Modi had
launched Saansad
Adarsh Gram Yojana on
the occasion of birth
anniversary of Jai
Prakash Narayan last
month as was promised
in his maiden
Independence Day
speech.
Launching the
scheme, Modi had said
that if nearly 800 MPs
develop three village
each by 2019, around
2,500 villages will be
covered in the country
and the initiative will
Dalit killings in Maharashtra:
NGO to stage protest today
MUMBAI, NOV. 15: A city-based NGO will on
Saturday stage a protest here against the recent killings of
Dalits at a village in Maharashtra. Noted personalities like
Nana Patekar, Amol Palekar, theatre and film director
Jabbar Patel, film producer N Chandra and singer Faiyyaz
are likely to participate in the protest.
The protests will be organised at Shivaji Park here.
"Atrocities against Dalits and tribals have increased
over a period of time. The conviction rate is only 5.5 percent and many of them are living under tremendous fear.
The protest is to show solidarity towards the society and the
backward class people who are still not getting justice,"
Congress MP Husain Dalwai, who runs the NGO, had told
reporters here late Thursday evening.
Describing the Indian society as a multi-cultured fabric,
Dalwai said efforts should be made to keep all the communities united.
"However, the dalits, women and tribals are deprived of
their constitutional rights on several occasions and they are
facing a lot of challenges even after 65 years of independence," he lamented.
Dalwai condemned the brutal murder of three members
of a Dalit family at Javkheda village in Maharashtra's
Ahmednagar district last month and also the earlier killings
of people from the community at Khairlanji, Sonai and
Kharda villages in the state. He demanded that the government should take immediate steps to arrest the culprits in all
these cases. The Congress leader also demanded appointment of a panel to probe such matters and a separate committee under a judge for the protection of the victims.
change the face of the
country by chain reaction.
The Centre had
recently extended the
deadline by one more
week for adopting villages under the plan.
The Prime Minister
himself has adopted
Jayapur village in his
Parliamentary constituency Varanasi.
According to Rahul's
local representative
Chandrakant Dubey,
Akhilesh Singh who
died in a plane crash in
Uttarakhand while participating in the rescue
operation during last
year's deluge, belonged
to th village Rahul is
adopting. Dubey said
after that tragic incident
Rahul had visited the
village to pay his last
respect to Singh.
Mete told reporters after the
meeting. "The government
will approach SC next week,"
he added. The BJP government in the state will be
behind
Marathas
and
Muslims, Mete added.
Former Congress minister Naseem Khan who, too,
attended the meeting, said,
"The government will constitute an all- party committee
on the issue of reservations
for Marathas and Muslims.
"The state government is
fully supportive of the
Maratha quota. We will
appeal in SC on the HC rul-
NEW dELhI, NOV. 15: In a completely unexpected reaction, National
Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam on Saturday
refused to make a comment on reports that
women inmates of a Karnataka prison were
being pushed into "forced sex", as it was a
weekend. “My office doesn’t work on
Saturday and Sunday even if I do. I will get
more details on Monday,” said the NCW
chairperson when asked to make a comment
on the incident.
Slamming “irresponsible attitude” of
Kumaramangalam, All India Democratic
Women's Association's activist Saba
Farooqui said the NCW has been constituted to address women issues. Prominent
lawyer and activist Pramila Nesargi also
reacted against Kumaramangalam, saying:
“It is callous. You must have an eye open
24X7 else you are unfit to be the NCW
chief.”
Describing Kumaramangalam's remark
as “extremely unfortunate”, women rights
activist, Kavita Srivastava, said women in
custodial or remand homes are the most
vulnerable. “If the NCW is not proactive,
who will take accountability of what is happening inside prisons.
The Karnataka government on Friday
directed the Department of Child and
Women's Welfare officials to probe reports
that women inmates of the central prison in
Bengaluru were being pushed into "forced
sex" with male convicts within its complex.
The officials had been asked to submit the
report in the next 15 days after which the
government would take action if the prison
officials are found guilty, Home Minister K
J George told reporters here.
The government action came in the
wake of a media report that some jail wardens at the Parapana Agrahara Central
Prison here allegedly force women convicts
to have sex after charging Rs 300 or Rs 500
from the male inmates. According to the
report, the matter came to light after a judge
received two letters written by a group of
women jail inmates which he forwarded to
the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice DH
Waghela for action.
The letters sought Chief Justice's intervention to end the exploitation of women
inmates who had also reportedly named
wardens and official involved and claimed
that the wardens threaten to spoil their
chances of parole by complaining to their
superiors about their "misconduct".
Chinese troops training Pakistani
Army along border with India: Report
NEW dELhI, NOV.
15: The Chinese troops are
training Pakistan Army personnel right across the IndiaPakistan border in Jammu
and Kashmir, a report said on
Friday. This comes as a
major worrying factor for
India.
As per a report submitted
by the Border Security Force
intelligence
wing,
the
Chinese troops have been
seen training Pakistani
Armymen in "weapon handling" techniques bang opposite Rajouri sector of
International border. The
report, accessed by a news
agency, said these military
manoeuvres were being conducted at forward defence
locations of Pakistan which
are usually manned by border guarding personnel-- the
Pakistan Rangers.
Preliminary
inputs
analysed by BSF also
showed some Pakistan Army
Maharashtra govt to approach SC
on Maratha reservations
MUMBAI, NOV. 15:
Maharashtra
government
Saturday decided to approach
Supreme Court after Bombay
High Court stayed the move
to grant 16 per cent reservation to Marathas in public service and educational institutions in the state. The decision
was taken at an all-party
meeting chaired by Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis
here.
"The state government
today assured us that it will
approach SC against the interim ruling of the HC," Shiv
Sangram leader Vinayak
Alleged forced sex in Bengaluru jail: NCW chief
doesn't have comment because it's weekend
ing. We will take measures to
ensure that the quota
remains," Fadnavis had said
yesterday, reacting to the HC
ruling.
"If the court has pointed
out any discrepancy in the
law, we will remove any lacunae in it during the winter session of the state legislature in
Nagpur," the chief minister
had said.
The high court yesterday
stayed the implementation of
the controversial decision of
the erstwhile Congress-NCP
government in Maharashtra
to provide 16 per cent reservation to Marathas in government jobs and educational
institutions announced ahead
of the Assembly poll. HC also
stayed the decision to provide
five per cent reservation to
Muslims in government service but allowed quotas for
them in educational institutions, citing "abysmally low"
educational achievements and
the need to draw the community into the "mainstream of
secular education".
units have taken over paramilitary posts of Rangers
opposite Sriganganagar sector.
BSF also found a handful
of new observation towers
have also been set up by
Pakistan in recent past along
Abohar and Gurdaspur sectors in Punjab. The BSF
intelligence reported that
phone intercepts along the
border indicate that Pakistan
Army and Rangers are planning to deploy snipers and
sharp shooters at strategic
locations and posts to target
Indian soldiers and assets.
The Border Security
Force intelligence also
reported that a special squad
of Pakistani Army commandos have been placed at
select locations along the IB
and LoC, which may attempt
to carry out raids and Border
Action Team (BAT)-sponsored attacks into the Indian
territory.
It also said a large grouping of terrorists has been
detected along Sialkot area in
Pakistan which may be planning to infiltrate into Jammu
and Kashmir at a time when
Assembly polls are scheduled in the state.
It also said agencies have
detected a few launch pads
for terrorists to infiltrate
along either the International
Border (IB) or the Line of
Control (LoC).
The Indo-Pak border,
which has been witnessing a
series of ceasefire violations
in the last few months is
peaceful but tense, in the last
few days, the report said. The
BSF report said that along
the Indo-Pak border in the
Sir Creek area near Gujarat
about 25 Indian fishing boats
and 155 fishermen had been
apprehended by Pakistani
maritime authorities in the
current fishing season.
During the spate of
recent ceasefire violations in
October, the report said,
retaliatory action by BSF
killed at least 5 jawans on the
other side.
Chhattisgarh sterilisation mishap: 'Rodenticide
mixed drugs could have led to deaths'
BILASpUR, NOV.
15: In a shocking revelation, the state health
authorities on Friday
said medicines contaminated with zinc phosphide, which is used as
a rodenticide, could
have led to the death of
13 women who underwent tubectomies in
government sterilisation
camps in Bilaspur district.
"Prima facie it can
be said that the condition of the women (operated at camps) deteriorated after consuming
zinc phosphide-contaminated drugs. The symptoms witnessed in
women were those generally seen after consuming zinc phosphide
commonly used in
rodenticide," Principal
Secretary of Health
Department Dr Alok
Shukla told reporters
after visiting the affected women here at
Apollo Hospital.
Ciprocin-500 tablets
manufactured by
Mahawar Pharma Pvt
Ltd were administered to
the women both at
Pendari and Gaurela
sterilisation camps after
their procedures. During
the raid at the manufacturing unit of company
in Raipur, rodenticide
was found lying there,
in which zinc phosphide
is used for killing rats,
he said.
Samples of the medicine have been sent to
Kolkata, Delhi and
Nagpur labs for its testing while viscera samples of the women died
after consuming the
drugs were also sent for
examination, he said.
"After receiving all
the reports, we can come
to the conclusion about
the exact cause behind
the deaths," he said. He
further said round 43.34
lakh tablets of various
substandard drugs,
including antibiotics and
pain killers, manufactured? by Mahawar
Pharma Pvt Ltd were
seized from government
and private hospitals,
medical stores and
wholesaler of various
districts today. The
seizure includes, two
lakh tablets of Ciprocin500, he added.
"Presently as many as
122 women are undergoing treatment at different hospitals of Bilaspur
in which 61 are admitted
in Apollo, 37 in CIMS
(Chhattisgarh Institute
of Medical Science) and
24 in district hospitals,"
he said. Every step is
being taken to ensure
best medical facilities to
the patients, he said.
As many as 13 have
died due to botched
surgeries at different
sterilisation camps held
under national family
planning programme in
Bilaspur, the home district of health minister
Amar Agrawal.
New LPG subsidy scheme to begin in 54 districts today
NEW dELhI, NOV. 15:
Beginning today, LPG consumers in 54 districts of 11
states will start getting cash subsidy so that they can buy the
cooking fuel at market price.
The ambitious plan, launched
by the previous UPA government in June 2013 but abruptly
stopped earlier this year following court orders, has been modified to exclude the requirement
of unique identification number
(Aadhaar) for availing the cash
subsidy.
"The Direct Benefit
Transfer for LPG (DBTL)
scheme was launched on June
1, 2013 and finally covered 291
districts. It required the consumer to mandatorily have an
Aadhaar number for availing
LPG subsidy. "The government
has comprehensively reviewed
the scheme and after examining
the difficulties faced by the consumer substantively modified
the scheme prior to launch. The
modified DBTL scheme is
being re-launched in 54 districts
on November 15 in the 1st
Phase and in the rest of the
country on January 1, 2015," an
official statement said.
Under the scheme, LPG
consumers will get cash subsidy
in their bank accounts so they
can buy a cooking gas cylinder
at market price. Cash equivalent
to the difference between the
current subsidised rate and the
market price is transferred to the
bank account of a consumer the
moment he or she makes the
first booking for a cylinder after
joining the scheme. After the
consumer takes delivery of the
cylinder, another advance cash
subsidy is transferred to the
bank account. "Consumers who
had joined the scheme earlier
and had received cash subsidy
in their bank accounts do not
need to do anything further. To
confirm this, they should check
their CTC (cash transfer compliant)
status
on
www.MyLPG.In," it said.
The statement said consumers who do not have
Aadhaar number can receive
cash directly in their bank
account without producing
Aadhaar. "However, as and
when they get Aadhaar they
may have to shift to Aadhaar
based
cash
transfer."
"Consumers who are not CTC
will get a three month grace
period during which they will
receive the cylinders at subsidised rate. After the grace period, they will get an additional
period of 3 month as Parking
Period. During the Parking
Period they will have to buy
cylinders at the market rate. If
the consumer joins the scheme
within the Parking Period, the
subsidy as per entitlement and
consumption during Parking
Period will be transferred to his
bank account," it said.
DBTL is designed to
ensure that the subsidy meant
for the genuine domestic customer reaches them directly and
is not diverted. Government is
looking at saving Rs 10,000
crore in subsidy by curbing
diversions and pilferages. In the
54 districts covering 11 states,
the scheme will cover 2.33
crore households. Currently, the
Aadhaar generation level is 95
per cent in these districts. "The
customers who have already
given Aadhaar number to the
LPG distributor but not to the
bank are requested to link their
Aadhaar numbers with their
banks immediately.
Karnataka govt orders probe
into alleged forced sex in jail
BENGALURUM, NOV. 15: The Karnataka government on Friday directed the Department of Child and
Women's Welfare officials to probe reports that women
inmates of the central prison here were being pushed into
"forced sex" with male convicts within its complex. The
officials had been asked to submit the report in the next 15
days after which the government would take action if the
prison officials are found guilty, Home Minister KJ
George told reporters here.
The government action came in the wake of a media
report that some jail wardens at the Parapana Agrahara
Central Prison here allegedly force women convicts to
have sex after charging Rs 300 or Rs 500 from the male
inmates. According to the report, the matter came to light
after a judge received two letters written by a group of
women jail inmates which he forwarded to the Karnataka
High Court Chief Justice DH Waghela for action. The letters sought Chief Justice's intervention to end the exploitation of women inmates who had also reportedly named
wardens and official involved and claimed that the wardens threaten to spoil their chances of parole by complaining to their superiors about their "misconduct".
Deputy Inspector General of Prisons VS Raju said
there are no chances for women inmates to come in contact with male prisoners as they are guarded by women
staff round the clock. Also, there are rules in place that the
police staff and officials in the jail cannot meet the prisoners alone. He also said "....We have come to know only
through media reports that a judge has received letters
from the suggestion box. We have not got the letter yet.
One getting the letter, we will find out truth about it, and
take action."
PM Modi greets people of
Jharkhand on foundation day
NEW dELhI, NOV. 15: Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Saturday greeted the people of Jharkhand on the
state's 14th Foundation Day. Modi is currently on an official visit to Australia to participate in the G20 Summit.
"PM Narendra Modi has conveyed his greetings and
best wishes to the people of Jharkhand on the state's foundation day," said Prime Minister Office's Twitter account.
Jharkhand was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on
November 15, 2000 as the 28th state of India.
AIADMK wants effective
implementation of RTE Act in Pondy
pUdUChERRY, NOV. 15: Opposition AIADMK on
Saturday asked the government to initiate steps to implement effectively the provisions of Right to Education Act
in the Union Territory. AIADMK Deputy Legislature party
leader A Anbalagan said the purpose of the Act was to
ensure education was accessible to children of poor families and to ensure 25 per cent quota of seats in schools for
children of BPL families. But government was sluggish in
implementing RTE, virtually denying the children the
opportunities. He said government should also encourage
girl children in education by providing them special incentives. These would not only lure them into educational
institutions, but also prevent dropouts. Anbalagan also
demanded that surprise inspections of industries and
organisations be taken to check child labour. Children in
dangerous establishments should be rescued and rehabilitated in educational institutions, he said. He also said provisions of funds under special component plan meant for
the downtrodden should be utilised for the purpose the
funds were meant.
Bangladesh to upgrade
its mission in Agartala
AGARtALA, NOV. 15: India has conveyed its concurrence to Bangladesh for the latter to upgrade its diplomatic mission in Tripura capital Agartala to an assistant
high commission, an official said here on Saturday.
"The Bangladesh government had earlier sought to
upgrade its diplomatic mission in Agartala to an assistant
high commission. India of late conveyed its concurrence
to Dhaka in this regard," a Tripura government official
said quoting an External Affairs Ministry's communique.
"India's decision to do so is in keeping with the existing
friendly relations between the two countries and will further strengthen Bangladesh's diplomatic representation in
India," the official added.
The visa office of the Bangladesh government was set
up in Agartala in 1974. The official said Bangladesh has
also been urged by India to set up its new diplomatic mission in Assam's main city of Guwahati. Currently,
Bangladesh has deputy high commission offices in
Kolkata and Mumbai, besides a high commission in New
Delhi. A Bangladesh government official here said: "With
the upgrade, trade and business and people-to-people contact would be further improved."
Swamy finds Chidambaram's
suggestion to dilute AFSPA 'idiotic'
NEW dELhI/BhOpAL, NOV. 15: Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday
lashed out at Congress leader P Chidambaram over his
comment that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA) should be amended during the Winter Session of
Parliament, saying it was an idiotic suggestion.
"It's an idiotic suggestion, and this is only going to
help the terrorists and Pakistanis, and encourage them. We
will not under any circumstance dilute the AFSPA, and if
the militancy continues, we will strengthen it. We stand by
our BSF jawans, CRPF jawans, and the military. Kashmir
is an integral part of India. If you try to take it by force; we
will use 10 times the force to suppress it," said Swamy.
Meanwhile, Major General (retired) SR Sinho said the
Army won't be able to function in insurgency-hit areas if
there is no AFSPA. "There has been a huge hue and cry
over Special Powers Act in the northeast and Jammu and
Kashmir. It is given to armed forces to carry out raids,
arrest people, which are in normal circumstances, and this
helps the army otherwise they will have to depend for
every action of theirs either in Jammu and Kashmir or
northeast for apprehending people right on the spot on
emergency basis," said Major General Sinho.
6
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
China launches new
remote sensing satellite
BEIJING: China today launched a new remote sensing satellite into scheduled orbit from Taiyuan Satellite
Launch Centre. The satellite Yaogan-23 will mainly be
used for scientific experiments, natural resource surveys,
crop yield estimates and disaster relief, state-run Xinhua
news agency reported.
It was carried by a Long March-2C rocket, marking the
198th mission for the Long March rocket family. China
launched the first satellite in the "Yaogan" series, Yaogan1, in 2006. The new satellite was put in orbit amid plans
announced by China on November 10 to launch around
120 more applied satellites to "accommodate economic
and social needs". Yang Baohua, deputy general manager
of the China Aerospace Science and Technology
Corporation, said Chinese economy will continue to record
relatively high growth, generating more demand for aerospace technologies. He, however, did not specify time span
during which the satellites would be launched. "We will
focus on building a self-controlled national space infrastructure that can operate continuously and stably for a
long time," he said. China will launch about 70 remote
sensing satellites to detect the near-Earth space environment and predict extreme events and also launch about 20
communication satellites to meet communication demand
in national security and public services, he said.
In addition, China will launch about 30 navigation
satellites to provide accurate and reliable global positioning and navigation services, he added.
Massive whale beached
in southern Nicaragua
MANAGUA: A huge whale was stranded on a white
sand beach on Nicaragua's southern Pacific coast, despite
efforts by dozens of tourists and residents to get it back to
sea. The whale, estimated at 18 metres (59 feet) long,
beached itself yesterday morning at Popoyo beach, in the
town of Tola, some 111 kilometres south of the capital,
according to the Environment Ministry's delegate in the
region, Mario Rodriguez.
More than 50 people - from Nicaragua and elsewhere spent the day trying to get the whale back into deeper
waters, but gave up in exhaustion as the sun went down.
Police and officials from the environment ministry
travelled to the scene to discuss strategies to try to save the
massive marine mammal, which may be a humpback. The
Pacific region off Nicaragua's southern coast sees a lot of
humpback whales and dolphins at this time of year.
Biggest parrot-beaked dinosaur
fossil found in Siberia
kEMEROVO (RUSSIA), NOV. 15: Fragments of the
skeleton of the biggest known psittacosaurus sibiricus, or a
parrot-beaked dinosaur, have been unearthed near the village of Shestakovo in Russia’s Kemerovo region in western Siberia. Large-scale excavation has been taking place
in Shestakovo for the last 60 years.
The excavations have yielded fragments of skeletons
of eight dinosaurs -- from small raptors to a giant 30-metre
tall sauropod. But the most important finds are two well
preserved skeletons of endemic parrot-beaked dinosaurs
that roamed the Earth some 125 million years ago.
Dinosaurs of the psittacosaurus family lived in Asia
about 100-130 million years ago. They were about the size
of a gazelle and walked normally on two legs. They had a
short snout with a powerful "beak" on their upper jaw,
making them look like a giant parrot. "Psittacosaurus sibiricus is believed to be about twice as big as psittacosaurus
gobiensis found in Mongolia. Now that we have fragments
of the skull and a vertebra we think it was an adult dinosaur
some 1.5 times as big as the ones found here before. It
probably reached three metres," Konstantin Tarasenko of
the Russian Academy of Sciences' Paleontological Institute
said Friday. He said that the new fossil finds, if they
belonged to an adult dinosaur, would make it possible to
trace changes in a psittacosaurus skeleton as the animal
was maturing. Apart from that, these finds would add to the
knowledge of their behaviour patterns, for instance, scientists would be able to reconstruct their mode of walking, he
said. The rare finds will go on display at a local museum
later this month.
Ocean temperatures are now
highest ever on record
WAShINGtON: Scientists have recorded the warmest
global mean sea surface temperatures ever. Axel
Timmermann, climate scientist and professor at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa, said that the temperatures
even exceeded those of the record-breaking 1998 El Nino
year. From 2000-2013 the global ocean surface temperature
rise paused, in spite of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. This period, referred to as the Global Warming Hiatus,
raised a lot of public and scientific interest. However, as of
April 2014 Ocean warming has picked up speed again,
according to Timmermann's analysis of ocean temperature
datasets. Timmermann explained that the 2014 global ocean
warming was mostly due to the North Pacific, which has
warmed far beyond any recorded value and had shifted hurricane tracks, weakened trade winds, and produced coral
bleaching in the Hawaiian Islands.
He described the events leading up to this upswing as
follows: Sea-surface temperatures started to rise unusually
quickly in the extratropical North Pacific already in January
2014. A few months later, in April and May, westerly winds
pushed a huge amount of very warm water usually stored in
the western Pacific along the equator to the eastern Pacific.
This warm water has spread along the North American
Pacific coast, releasing into the atmosphere enormous
amounts of heat-heat that had been locked up in the Western
tropical Pacific for nearly a decade. Timmermann said that
record-breaking greenhouse gas concentrations and anomalously weak North Pacific summer trade winds, which usually cooled the ocean surface, had contributed further to the
rise in sea surface temperatures. The warm temperatures
now extend in a wide swath from just north of Papua New
Guinea to the Gulf of Alaska.
Textbook for our time
BY ApOORVANANd
Tavleen Singh is rightly
upset that the Union human
resource development minister is seriously consulting
the luminaries of the RSS,
who have a very limited
view of education (‘Cultural
renewal’, IE, November 2).
Depicting the RSS as a
group led by “doddering
old bigots and provincial
intellectuals”, she criticises them for their concerns
about textbooks that they
claim portray a “Western”
view of history.
Singh rightly points
out that the problem with
school education in India
is not about history textbooks alone. One cannot
agree more with her when
she says that our children
grow up with a sense of
identity tied only to their
religion. For this, she
blames the prevailing
schooling that gives very
limited courses in Vedic
Hinduism, Sanskrit literature and ancient India. She
feels a need for a cultural
renewal for which professionally trained educationists
need
to
be
approached, and not the
ideologically motivated.
Singh is talking about
school education, and yet
is sadly unaware of the
massive transformation
that Indian school education has undergone in the
last 10 years. Otherwise,
she would have discovered to her delight that
nowadays,
curricular
thinking in India does not
feel burdened with the
task of providing “a correct or authoritative”
answer, approved by the
state, to the children.
Instead, teachers, textbook
writers and pedagogues
are asked to take up the
challenge of exposing students to alternative viewpoints and making their
own decision. Children,
the current curriculum
document says, are to be
seen as responsible agents,
not merely passive receptors.
Likewise, teachers are
not to be seen as deliverers of the “correct knowledge” that is produced at a
remove from them and the
children. In short, the
objective the new curriculum document sets for
school education is to
inculcate in young minds a
critical spirit that is confident enough to examine
all authoritative accounts.
One must say that this
is only a beginning and
people still need to be persuaded and convinced that
the intelligence of children needs to be respected. It was one of the major
achievements of the two
UPA governments that
school education, especially the curricular part,
was left to professional
educationists. Ironically,
the credit for insulating
the NCERT from ideological pressures should go to
the much-vilified Arjun
Singh, who saw to it that
the curricular discourse is
freed from the secularcommunal or saffronisation-desaffronisation binary. The physical and intellectual labour that thousands of teachers and pedagogues put in to create
focus-group papers and
the new curriculum document were, however, forgotten very soon.
Singh calls for history
to be seen and written with
new eyes. This is precisely
what the history, political
science and social science
textbooks tried to do after
the introduction of the
National
Curricular
Framework 2005. She
seems to be ignorant of the
battles these textbooks had
to fight, as they represented neither a “left” nor a
“right” point of view. She
also seems to be unaware
of the attack the new
Hindi language textbooks
had to face in the Rajya
Sabha at the hands of
MPs, cutting across political ideologies, for “defiling” young minds. Sadly,
the newly born textbooks
were left alone in their
fight for autonomy and did
not get support from the
media.
It is not surprising that
the media discourse on
school education is caught
in a time warp. How does
one explain the silence of
veteran journalists like
Tavleen
Singh
when
Parvin Sinclair was forced
to resign from the post of
director, NCERT, for having dared to resist the
attempts of the present
regime to set norms for the
revision of the NCF 2005?
She went down fighting
for the hard-earned autonomy of the curricular
process. But no tears
were shed and no words
of solidarity were offered
to her in her hour of
humiliation. It speaks a
lot about the callous
indifference with which
the job of academics is
treated in this country.
We, who are in the
business of academics,
have a lot in common
with journalists. Both of
us work with language. It
care
and
demands
responsibility. That is
why when veteran hands
like Tavleen Singh feel a
need to make hasty
proclamations, like the
one she has made about
Romila Thapar, one feels
utterly dismayed. She
claims that historians
like Thapar have sought
to deny demolitions of
Hindu
temples
by
Muslim invaders and had
she been writing about
present times, she would
have said that the
Bamiyan Buddhas crumbled on their own and
were not blasted out of
existence by the Taliban.
I would not normally like
to claim that an experienced writer like Singh
writes without basis, but
it can be safely said that
she has not read Thapar
carefully. I am not referring to her by now
famous
book
called
Somanatha, but to her
book Early India, which
is more than four decades
old. While discussing the
exploits of Mahmud, she
writes, “Added to the
desire for wealth was the
motivation,
religious
iconoclasm being a meritorious activity among
some
followers
of
Islam.” She adds, “In
1026 Mahmud raided
Somanatha, desecrated
the temple and broke the
idol.” As a society, we suffer from a habit of careless
reading, and the otherwise
well-intentioned piece by
Singh is also a victim of
this. History-writing has
also come a long way and
now, the intention of a historian like Thapar is not to
reconstruct the event but
“rather to see the sources
as presenting various perspectives, either directly or
by implication, and to
search for clues as to how
the event was perceived”.
History has become more
interesting now. It refuses
to reside in the shade of
certitudes. But it is hard
work. As hard and difficult
as journalism. What is at
stake at this point of time
is the threat of losing this
understanding altogether.
The least we expect
from our colleagues in the
field of journalism is to
appreciate the struggle and
gains made in the last
decade in curricular discourse, and their help in
defending it.
Riding the train to reform
BY AShWANI kUMAR
The railway ministry
has become a hot seat.
With the prime minister
emphasising the modernisation of rail infrastructure, there is
renewed pressure to
deliver. The Narendra
Modi government wants
the Indian Railways (IR)
to be at the vanguard of
the change envisaged for
the country. So, incremental growth for the IR
will not suffice — it
needs a metamorphosis.
In his first press
briefing, the new railway
minister, Suresh Prabhu,
outlined his priorities:
passenger safety and customer satisfaction.
Improving safety
requires the replacement
and modernisation of
railway assets. Customer
satisfaction is a more
complex goal. First, it
requires the creation of
extra capacity to satisfy
unmet demand for passenger and freight services. Second, the IR
needs to become cleaner,
faster and more comfortable. This calls for a
quantum jump in capital,
as well as revenue
expenditure. It also
requires a break from the
past in policy and
process.
The railway bureau-
cracy, renowned for its
diligence, has been
accused of being intransigent and lethargic. But
the political leadership is
more to blame for a lack
of vision and commitment. In the past, but for
a few honourable exceptions, the IR was treated
as a fiefdom and milked
for political ends.
Fortunately, the present
political dispensation
seems determined to set
things right. There are no
quick fixes, however,
and a consistent longterm vision with measurable milestones should
be the basis of any strategy to transform the railways.
First, the IR needs to
streamline its policymaking process to plan and
handle transformative
changes. Despite constraints, the IR performs
well in its core job of
train operations over a
huge, creaking network.
It has a disciplined,
skilled workforce of
more than 1.3 million
with a stellar industrial
relations record. It boasts
a rich talent pool of civil
servants and engineers.
There is no reason it cannot deliver higher standards in safety, speed,
cleanliness and courtesy.
However, its top policymaking body, the
Railway Board, is
unwieldy and riven with
turf wars. It needs to be
restructured to be more
effective in spearheading
policy changes. The key
objective should be to
make the board work as
a cohesive unit in the
interest of the country.
There is also a big reservoir of technical and
managerial talent within
the organisation that
should be tapped.
Second, there is an
urgent need for massive
capital investment in rail
infrastructure and services. It has been about
two decades since the IR
first invited the private
sector to invest in rail
infrastructure and rolling
stock. Most such investment involves railway
lines linking the IR network to ports, with the
ports facing a Hobson’s
choice of funding rail
links for their own survival. There are some
private companies operating container trains and
they have a litany of
complaints against the
rail administration.
Basically, private sector
participation in railways
has been lukewarm at
best.
Much of the external
funding to the IR has
been facilitated by the
government through budgetary support, market
borrowings and World
Bank/ Japan Bank loans.
This is not unique to
India. The world over,
most rail infrastructure is
directly or indirectly
funded by governments,
especially for passenger
services. However, private industry has played
a big role in the development and production of
locomotives, rolling
stock and a variety of
equipment.
Unfortunately, in India,
the private sector was
permitted to play only a
fringe role.
The Indian government also did not invest
much in railways, which
has led to a stagnation in
terms of network expansion and modernisation.
Though there is no
commitment to increase
the budgetary support for
modernisation, the Modi
government has allowed
100 per cent FDI in rail
infrastructure and rolling
stock, with the hope of
bringing in new technology and management
practices, along with
investment.
Could this be a
gamechanger?
Though the new policy opens up a potentially
huge and untapped railway market to foreign as
well as collaborating
domestic companies,
there is also much apprehension. For rail infrastructure, the IR would be
the licensor, operator and
the regulator. Similarly,
for the manufacturing
industries, the IR would
be the main buyer. So,
the government must create an independent
omnibus rail regulator to
ensure coordination, standardisation and fair play.
Rail regulation is a complex and evolving area
due to vexatious day-today operational and
timetabling issues,
besides tariffs and access
charges. The regulator
has to safeguard and balance the interests of
investors, customers,
operators, the government
and the public. Along the
lines of the British rail
regulator, it can also be
entrusted with the preparation and approval of
model concession agreements to instil more confidence in investors.
7
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
SC verdict will make things Saina storms into
clear: Gavaskar on IPL scam summit clash of
neW deLHI: Former
India captain Sunil
Gavaskar on Friday
said the whole IPL
spot-fixing
scandal
will become clear once
the Supreme Court
verdict is out in the
open.
“I think the AGM has
been postponed. So if
the AGM is postponed
then I believe they
are allowing the SC to
act in a couple of
weeks’ of time. From
then on, things will
get a little more
clear,” Gavaskar said.
The SC on Friday
named
Board
of
Control for Cricket in
India (BCCI) president n. Srinivasan,
his
son-in-law
G u r u n a t h
M e i y a p p a n ,
Rajasthan
Royals
owner Raj Kundra
and IPL CeO Sundar
Raman in the IPL-6
scam.
Gavaskar
though said it’s better
to wait and watch
than jump the gun.
“Apart from the fact
that
he
(n.
Srinivasan) has been
suspended (from acting as BCCI president), there is no ruling that bars him
from contesting an
election. Over a period of time we will get
to hear from SC,” he
said.Reading out from
the report, a bench of
the Supreme Court
headed by Justice
T.S. Thakur disclosed
these names but said
the identity of the
players should not be
made public at this
stage. “They should
be left out for now”.
Virat Kohli can be the
best player in the world,
says Adam Gilchrist
Sydney:
ASSUMInG the Test captaincy against Australia
will prove the making
of Virat Kohli but
cricket’s fragile fabric
is threatened if India
liquidates a faltering
West Indies board,
warns legend Adam
Gilchrist.
Former
Australia
wicketkeeper-batsman
Gilchrist is an ardent
admirer of Indian
skipper MS dhoni.
However the superstar
gloveman will miss
India’s Test series
opener
against
Australia in Brisbane
next month due to a
cracked thumb.
Kohli, 26, is blessed
with exquisite timing
and
comprehensive
scoring arc - averaging
40 after 29 Tests and
50 through 145 oneday appearances. The
charismatic batsman
can become the game’s
premier force, predicts
Gilchrist, with a landmark
tour
of
Australia.
“Virat has the capability of being the best
player in the world,”
Gilchrist said of Kohli,
destined to inherit 33year-old dhoni’s fulltime captaincy and
$30 million annual
earnings.
“He has some learnings that he will need
to overcome away from
India but I believe he
can do it and has the
game and hunger to do
it.”
Kohli has led India in
one-day action against
Sri Lanka while dhoni
convalesces but will
make his Test captaincy
debut
against
Michael Clarke’s unit
at the Gabba.
“He may well thrive
with this opportunity,
is a big game player, so
I think he will really
enjoy taking on that
responsibility,”
Gilchrist said of Kohli,
whose maiden ton
against Australia in
Adelaide three years
ago was overshadowed
by his accusations of
abuse by fans and
speedster
Ben
Hilfenhaus.
dhoni has been
India’s guiding light
on
the
way
to
supremacy across all
formats. A seven-year
tenure as skipper has
delivered the 2007
World Twenty20 title,
no.1 Test ranking
China Open
CHInA:
Olympic
bronze-medallist
Saina nehwal stood
just one win away
from clinching her
maiden China Open
title after she stormed
into the finals of the
USd 700,000 Super
Series Premier tournament here today.
In her sixth appearance in the prestigious
tournament,
Saina
continued her rampaging run as she produced another good
show to outclass World
no. 17 Liu Xin of
China 21-17 21-17 in
the women's singles
semifinals that lasted
47 minutes at the
Haixia Olympic Sport
Center.
The World no. 5
Indian will take on the
winner
of
match
between fifth seed Bae
yeon Ju of Korea and
Akane yamaguchi of
Japan, in the summit
clash tomorrow.
Saina took time to get
going initially as Liu
opened up a slender 74 lead but the Indian
soon clawed back and
went into the interval
with a narrow 11-10
lead. She came out all
guns blazing after that
to create a huge 19-13
gap. The Chinese girl
reeled off four points
to reduce the margin
but the Indian soon
pocketed the first
game.
In the second game,
Liu
once
again
marched ahead 5-2 but
Saina didn't take
much time to draw
level and entered the
break with a two-point
lead.
Saina's angled strokes
had Liu struggling but
the Chinese kept herself in close range
after the Indian stumbled on some unforced
errors.
At 14-14, Saina hit
long allowing Liu to
take the lead. The
Chinese then won an
aggressive rally when
Saina failed to connect
and
hit
wide.
However, Liu then fell
pray to a series of
unforced errors as
Saina soon moved to a
three-point cushion.
Liu once again hit
wide helping Saina
clinch her place in the
final.
The last time Saina
reached the finals of a
tournament was at the
Australian
Super
Series, where she
defeated
Spain's
Carolina Marin to win
the title. The Indian
had won the Syed
Modi
International
Grand Prix gold early
in the year.
I see a bit of myself
in Kohli: Ravi Shastri
KOLKATA:
Team
director Ravi Shastri
on Friday was all
praise for stand-in
skipper Virat Kohli
and batsman Rohit
Sharma.
“He’s aggressive and
he’s very young, so the
exuberance is still
seen in him, which is
very good for the team.
And I see a bit of
myself in him,” Shastri
said.
Lavishing praise on
Sharma, the former
India skipper said, “I
just told him to spend
some time in the middle and he responded
well to the pressure.”
“even when I was 2022 years of age, the
adrenaline was running high. We’ve have
been playing some
good cricket. It’s a passionate bunch of boys.”
With Rohit Sharma
going berserk in a
breathtaking
world
record 264, India piled
404/5 for yet another
merciless win against
the Lankans.
“Sometime having butterflies in your stomach is good...
He was under pres-
sure scoring the initial
10-15 runs, but once
he
overcame
the
phase, everything fell
in place,” he said.
Shastri also hailed the
ICC’s recent crackdown on bowlers with
suspected actions and
said it was better late
than never.
NEUFC out to avenge loss against Pune
GUWAHATI: After
spending almost four
weeks on the road
during which they
played four matches
in different parts of
the
country,
northeast United FC
(neUFC) are back in
their own den - the
Indira
Gandhi
Stadium here - where
they face FC Pune
City in their eighth
match of the Indian
Super League (ISL)
on Saturday evening.
The first-leg fixture between the two
teams in Pune earlier
this month had seen
neUFC go down 0-1 their only loss on the
road.
Ricki
Herbert's
boys will be looking
to avenge that loss in
front of their home
fans.
Currently in the
fifth spot with nine
points from seven
matches, a win on
Saturday will not
only enable neUFC
to break a threematch winless streak
but also see them
leapfrog Pune City
(11 points from seven
games) into the third
place.
A win for
Pune City could well
see them rise further
up the table.
For a team whose
Indian
contingent
comprises
mostly
youngsters from the
n o r t h - e a s t ,
Herbert's boys did
reasonably well in
their last four away
matches, picking up
five points, including
an impressive win
over Mumbai City
FC.
They were held
goalless by delhi
dynamos
before
going down to Pune
City.
neUFC players,
however, will be
buoyed by the manner in which they
came back twice to
eke out a 2-2 draw
against Chennaiyin
FC in their last outing.
Incidentally,
Pune FC too played
their
last
match
against Chennaiyin
FC, earning a 1-1
draw. After making
a stuttering start in
the ISL, Pune City
appear to have got
their act together.
Bailey and bowlers give Australia 32-run win
from december 200911 and the World Cup
in 2011. “dhoni is a
wonderful leader of
Indian cricket, has had
a huge impact,” said
Gilchrist, who has
released a new book,
Adam Gilchrist, The
Man, The Cricketer,
The Legend.
“There has been a
calmness about him
and the way they go
about their business.”
Humble former ticket inspector dhoni has
smoothed over the
divisions that bubble
close to the surface in
India sides. Kohli’s
audition as skipper
will be provide an
insight into his personal evolution.
“People
have
thrown questions up
but they have done it
in all forms under
him,” said Gilchrist of
88-Test
veteran
dhoni, injured during
the early stages of a
troubled tour that the
West Indies abandoned last month in
India.
Gilchrist is ideally
placed to comment on
the light and shade of
Indian cricket as a
linchpin of the Indian
Premier League and
only skipper of an
Australian Test series
triumph on the subcontinent in four
decades. The Indian
Cricket Board (BCCI)
is initiating legal proceedings against the
West Indies Cricket
Board, seeking $65
million in compensa-
tion given three Tests,
50-over and Twenty20
clashes were unfulfilled last month.
However
Gilchrist
shares former West
Indies skipper Carl
Hooper’s fear that
Caribbean
cricket
may never recover
from pending financial ruin, ultimately
striking a mortal blow
to the traditional format. “If that lawsuit
goes through that will
cripple the game there
in the West Indies
clearly and we don’t
have enough legitimate Test playing
nations as it is to start
wiping others out,”
Gilchrist told news
Corp Australia.
“That needs to be
thought through.”
There is irony in
the BCCI complaining
about
abandoned
tours when it threatened to boycott the
2008 tour of Australia
at the height of
‘Monkeygate’ tensions
over
spinner
Harbhajan
Singh’s
alleged racial slur
against Australian allrounder
Andrew
Symonds. Gilchrist, a
deep thinker who has
concluded a six-year
contribution as national
Australia
day
Council chair, hopes
common sense prevails.
“We have to be consistent with these
things and it is just
not good for the game
for these situations to
arise,” said Gilchrist.
PeRTH: It was a tale
of three captains at the
WACA, where Michael
Clarke was injured
while batting, his
deputy-cum-replacement George Bailey
rebuilt
Australia's
innings, and their
South African counterpart AB de Villiers
threatened to pull off a
record
chase.
Ultimately the difference was in the fortunes of Bailey and de
Villiers: Bailey was
dropped four times on
his way to 70; de
Villiers
made
a
chanceless 80, then
was run out in a mixup with a tail-ender.
The loss of de Villiers
ended any hope South
Africa had of overtaking Australia's 8 for
300. never before had
a team made that
many to win a one-day
international at the
WACA, and in the end
South Africa didn't get
especially close. A 46run last-wicket stand
could not disguise the
lower-order collapse the previous five wickets fell for 20 runs and South Africa were
dismissed for 268, giving Australia a 32-run
win and a 1-0 lead.
The target was always
going to be a challenge, and especially
so
after
Mitchell
Johnson's
pace
accounted for Quinton
de Kock and Hashim
Amla in the first five
overs of the chase.
Farhaan Behardien
was caught for 20
pulling to deep midwicket off nathan
Coulter-nile, who finished with 4 for 48,
and Faf du Plessis
received a send-off
from bowler Shane
Watson after he pulled
to fine leg for 31.
But de Villiers and
david Miller then put
on 126 for the fifth
wicket, first steadying
South Africa and then
steering
them
into a position
from which they
could
have
dreamt of victory. Miller was
strong through
midwicket and
struck five fours,
plus one six that
he launched over
long-off from the
bowling
of
Watson.
As usual, de
Villiers scored all
around the wicket. He was given
lbw off Mitchell
Marsh for 13 but
had the decision
overturned
on
review - it was
clearly missing
leg - and went on
to bring up his halfcentury from his 53rd
delivery with a six
over midwicket off
Glenn Maxwell. But
the partnership ended
when Coulter-nile had
Miller caught at midon for a run-a-ball 65.
South Africa were by
then 5 for 202 in the
37th over, and with a
required run-rate of
7.07 and de Villiers at
the crease on 70 from
67, it could have gone
either way. But the
wickets started to
tumble. In the same
over,
Coulter-nile
bounced
Ryan
McLaren and flicked
the glove on the way
through to Matthew
Wade,
and
Josh
Hazlewood
had
Vernon
Philander
caught behind in the
next over.
Then came the crushing blow for South
Africa, as dale Steyn
pushed to the off side
off Hazlewood and
took a couple of steps;
his partner de Villiers
overcommitted,
turned back and was
caught short by the
direct hit of substitute
Steven
Smith.
Coulter-nile
dismissed Steyn and then
Morne Morkel and
Imran Tahir showed
some fight, but it was
all over in the 49th
over.
It was not what de
Villiers had in mind
when he won the toss
and
sent
the
Australians in. Two
partnerships did the
job for Australia: a 94run opening stand
from Aaron Finch and
david Warner, and
then a 92-run rebuilding effort for the sixth
wicket between Bailey
and Wade. Between
those, Philander and
his bowling colleagues
caused some problems.
Warner
crunched
three
sixes,
including two
off the fast
men, on his
way to a rapid
46 from 49
balls,
and
Finch found or
cleared
the
boundary five
times during
his 35 from 40.
But Philander
had them both
within
the
space of three
balls, Warner
caught off a
pull to deep
midwicket and
Finch caught
behind off a
tentative push
outside off.
Clarke
had
scored only 11 when
he tried to hook Steyn
but was through his
shot early and gloved
the ball through to de
Kock, and Watson was
caught at short fine
leg off Tahir for 13.
Bailey was challenged
from the outset - first
ball he ducked a searing bouncer from
Steyn that grazed his
shoulder and flew over
the head of the wicketkeeper.
South Africa's bowlers
made life difficult for
Bailey in the early
stages but the team's
catching left him off
the hook. Twice Bailey
was dropped on 2, first
when he cut hard off
Morkel and Miller at
point spilled an easy
chance, and then
when a leading edge
off Tahir lobbed back
to the bowler, who
grassed an even simpler opportunity.
The Bailey let-offs cost
South Africa. After
Marsh was bowled for
10
by
a
lovely
Philander
delivery
that seamed back in,
Bailey and Wade combined for a partnership that was initially
scratchy but ultimately importantly steady.
They came together at
5 for 144 in the 30th
over and pushed the
ball around for a
while, happy to rotate
the strike and prevent
any further collapse.
It took Bailey until his
50th ball to strike his
first boundary, when
he lofted Morkel back
over his head for four
during the batting
Powerplay, and the
runs began to flow a
little easier. But there
were two further lives
for Bailey: on 39 he
slogged McLaren high
and Philander running back to long-on
failed to cling on, and
on 47 he pulled
Philander and was
dropped in the deep by
Farhaan Behardien.
Bailey's half-century
came from his 69th
delivery and he then
started to go after the
fast men, thumping
McLaren for two sixes
down the ground in
one over, before also
depositing a Steyn
slower ball over the
long-on rope.
8
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 16 | 2014
Scrutiny for 2nd phase held
Nomination papers of 183 candidates cleared, 26 rejected
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15:
The scrutiny of 209 candidates who file their nomination papers for 2nd
phase of Assembly
Elections-2014 was held
today in the offices of
Returning officers of their
respective constituencies,
in which 183 candidates
were found eligible whereas nomination papers of 26
candidates were rejected.
In 01-Karnah
Assembly Constituency,
papers of 8 candidates Ali
Asgar Khan (INC),
Ashfaq-Ur-Rehman (BJP),
Jahangir Khan (JKNPP),
Javid Ahmad Mirchal
(PDP) Covering
Candidate, Kafil-UrRehman (NC), Raja
Manzoor Ahmad (PDP),
Aijaz Ahmad Badhana (All
J&K Kissan Mazdoor
Party) and Mohd Saleem
Mir (J&KPC) were
cleared.
In 02- Kupwara
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
12 candidates Sardar Khan
(BSP), Saifullah Khan
(NCP), Ab Rehman Lone
(BJP), Gh Rasool Malik
(INC), Mir Saifullah (NC),
Mir Mohd Fayaz (PDP),
Wali Mohd Khan
(JKNPP), Adv. Bashir
Ahmad Dar (JKPC), Gh
Hassan Sheikh, Kissan
Mazdoor Party and 3
Independent candidates
Javid Ahmad Wani, Adv.
Mohd Amin Peer and
Mustaq Ahmad Sheikh
were cleared.
In 03- Lolab Assembly
Constituency, the nomination papers of 9 candidates, Gh. Ahmad Malik
(JKNPP), Ab Haq Khan
(PDP), Gh. Nabi Shah
(BSP), Qaiser Jamsheed
Lone(NC), Ab. Rasheed
Zargar (BJP), Haji Farooq
Ahmad Mir (INC), Ab.
Rehman Wani (JKPC),
Mohd Sultan Magray
(Kisan Mazdoor
Party(Ind), and Suraya
Bano (RPI) were cleared.
In 04-Handwara
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
12 candidates Chowdry
Mohamad Ramzan (NC),
Sajad Ahmad Pir (BSP),
Mohd Abdullah Bhat
(NPP), Ghulam Mohi-UlDin Sofi (PDP), Mohd
Yaseen Bhat (INC), Sajad
Gani Lone (J&KPC), GH.
Qadir Mircha (All J&K
Kissan Mazdoor Party)
Ajaz Ahmad Sofi (AIP),
Haneefa Begum
(JKNPPF), Abdul Rahman
Tantry (Independent),
Anaytullah Lohar,
(Independent) and Hilal
Ahmad Tantry
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 05-Langate
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
12 candidates Ab Ahad
Khan (BSP), Bashir
Ahmad Wani (INC), Javid
Ahmad Najar (JKNPP),
Mohd Maqbool War (BJP),
Gh Nabi Ganie
(Pandithpori)(PDP), Wali
Mohd Bhat, (NC), Er.Ab
Rashid Sheikh
(Independent), Advocate
Mohd Abdullah Mir
(J&KPC), Irshad Hussain
Ganie (Independent), Haji
Mohd Akbar Ganai
(Independent), Mohd
Ramzan Malla
(Independent) and Mudasir
Ahmad Tantray
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 37- Noorabad
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
16 candidates, which
include Abdur Rehman
Magray (BSP), Manzoor
Ahmad Zargar (INC),
Mushtaq Ah Malik (BJP),
Abdul Majeed Padder
(PDP), Mushtaq Ahmad
(JKNPP), Sakina Itoo
(NC), Ab Rashid Bhat
(Independent), Akther
Hussain Shah
(Independent), Bashir
Ahmad Bhat
(Independent), Bilal
Ahmad Bhat,
(Independent), Gulzar Ah
Mir (Independent),
Mehraj-ud-Din Dar
(Independent), Mohd Amin
Teli (Independent),
Mushtaq Ahmad Dar
(Independent), Mushtaq
Ahmad Dole (Independent)
and Tawseef Ahmad Dar
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 38- Kulgam
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of 8
candidates Peer Nazim-udDin (INC), Riyaz Ahmad
Shah (BSP), Imran Nabi
Dar (NC), Ghulam Hassan
Zargar (BJP), Mohammad
Yousuf Tarigami (CPI-M),
Nazir Ahmad Laway
(PDP), Towseef Ahmad
Shah (Independent) and
Rashida Mir (Independent)
were cleared.
In 39-HumshaliBugh
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of 8
candidates Bashir Ahmad
Bhat (BSP), Ab. Gaffar
Sofi (PDP), Ab. Majeed
Bhat (NC), Anayatullah
Rather (INC), Ghulam
Nabi Dar (BJP),
Mohammad Ayoub Sheikh
(NPP), Mohd. Amin Bhat
(SWP) and Abdul Bary
Naik (Independent) were
cleared.
In 41-Devsar Assembly
Constituency, the nomina-
BJP National Gen. Secy (Org.) Ram Lal inaugurated
IT & Communication War Room in Rehari
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15: BJP National
General Secretary (Org.) Ram Lal,
alongwith State President Jugal
Kishore Sharma, National Morcha &
Cells Incharge Mohinder Pandey, State
General Secretary Kavinder Gupta,
BJP State Spokesperson & State
Election Media Incharge Arun Kumar
Gupta, State Spokespersons- Lalit
Moza and Sunil Sethi and IT Cell State
Convener Jaidev Rajwal, inaugurated
IT & Communication War Room in
Rehari area of Jammu city on Saturday.
Ram Lal and other leaders also visited different sections of this war room,
interacted with the social media
experts and sought their suggestions as
to how to reach maximum population
during the election campaign through
this medium. Later, while congratulating the State IT team for setting up of
such a hi-tech war room, Ram Lal said
that ours is a cadre based party and this
centre will act as a bridge between the
party leaders and activists at the national, state, district, mandal and booth levels in providing the latest feedback,
which can be very effective and useful
for election campaigning. He said that
the war room has more significance in
view of the ensuing assembly elections
as it will take the programmes and policies of the BJP to every nook and corner of the state besides serving as a
round the clock information center
with fully equipped with the desired
information related to the candidate,
constituency and election campaign
being undertaken by respective candi-
dates. He said that the war room will
also remain in touch with such people
who have public standing and seek
their valuable suggestions in making
the centre more result oriented besides
getting their views on various subjects
and issues which need to be compiled
in party's manifesto. He said that the
efforts of this war room will obviously
contribute in achieving BJP's Mission
44+.
Jaidev Rajwal, on this occasion,
gave point to point representation to
the BJP leaders through a very highly
qualified team which has gained expertise in election campaigning through
different means of social media and
assured that IT Cell will not rest till last
voter castes vote.
Mohan Singh Chouhan, Neeraj
Gour, Vikram Gour, Yudhvir Sethi,
Balbir Ram Rattan, Aseem Gupta,
Priya Sethi, Subash Jandiyal, Arvind
Gupta,
KB
Mohtra,
Sanjeev
Manmotra, Adarsh Bhagat, Vijay Dhar,
M.K. Razdan, Hardeep Singh, Ajay
Kumar, Abhishek Khajuria, Parshotam
Vaid, Prediman Raina, Parvesh Kumar,
Ashutosh Sharma, Dr. Sumit Gupta,
Sunil Sharma, Inderjeet Kaur,
Sumandeep Kaur, Ritu Kalotra,
Bachinder Singh, Manmohan, B.R.
Sharma, Adarsh Kumar, Rakesh Koul
and many others were present on the
occasion.
tion papers of 8 candidates
Peerzada Gulam Ahmad
(NC), Fayaz Ahmad Bhat
(BJP), Mohammad Amin
Bhat (INC), Mohammad
Sartaj Madni (PDP),
Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat
(BSP), Asif Jeelani
(AIFB), Mudasir Rashid
Mir (Independent) and
Nisar Ahmad Hajam were
cleared.
In 57-Gulabgarh
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of 8
candidates, Bashir-Ud-Din
(JKNPP), Pardeep Singh
(BJP), Jawahar Singh
(BSP), Shafiq-Ur-Rehman
(PDP), Abdul Gani Malik
(NC), Mumtaz Ahmed
(INC), Shaber Ahmed
(Hindustan Janta Party)
and Mohd Ayub
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 58- Reasi Assembly
Constituency, the nomination papers of 14 candidates, Om Parkash (CPIM), Ajay Nanda (BJP),
Balwan Singh (JKNPP),
Jugal Kishore (Congress),
Jagjiwan Lal (NC), Karan
Singh (BSP) and 8
Independent candidates
Anil Kumar, Baldev Raj
Sharma, Bansi Lal, Rano
Devi, Saraf Singh, Karnail
Singh, Kuldeep Singh and
Meenakshi Shasrma were
cleared.
In 59-Gool Arnas
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
10 candidates, Ajaz Ahmed
Khan (Congress), Imtiyaz
Ahmed Shan (PDP),
Shiban (BSP), Shakeel
Ahmed (JKNPP),
Shamshad Bano (NC),
Kuldeep Raj Dubey (BJP)
and 4 Independent candidates Arjun Singh, Romail
Singh, Abdul Rehman and
Gulzar Ahmed Wani were
cleared.
In 60- Udhampur
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
10 candidates Ashok
Kumar Gupta (INC),
Balwant Singh Mankotia
(JKNPP), Pawan Khajuria
(BJP), S. Ranjit Singh
(BSP), Sukhdev Sharma
(PDP), Sunil Verma (NC),
Dharam Paul (Hindustan
Janta Party), Anil
Khajuria, Pawan Kumar
Gupta (Independent) and
Soma (Independent) were
cleared.
In 61- Chenani (SC)
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
7 candidates Dhani Ram
Atri (JKNPP), Dina Nath
(BJP), Sansar Chand
(NC), Krishan Chander
(INC), Mohinder Kumar
(BSP), Hans Raj (PDP)
and Pushpa Devi (SP)
were cleared.
In 62- Ramnagar
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
7 candidates Raj Kapoor
(NC), Ranbir Singh
Pathania (BJP), Prof.
Sukham Chand (BSP),
Vinod Kumar Sharma
(INC), Harsh Dev Singh
(JKNPP), Sanju Kumar
(Independent) and
Hadayat Ullah
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 85-Surankote
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
10 candidates, Mohd
Akram (INC), Mohd Taj
Khan (BJP), Naseer-UlIslam Ahmed (BSP),
Ashfaq Rana (JKNPP),
Iqbal Hussain Shah
(PDP), Mushtaq Ahmed
Shah (JK-NC), Javid
Ahmed (All India forward
block), Ayaz Ahmed
Mughal (Independent) and
Mohd Sadiq Qureshi
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 86-Mendhar
Assembly Constituency,
the nomination papers of
13 candidates, Javed
Ahmed Rana (NC),
Zulfqar Hussain Khan
(BJP), Mohd Shafeeq
Khan (BSP), Mohd Tariq
Khan (JKNPP), Mohd
Mahroof Khan (PDP),
Murtaza Ahmed Khan
(INC), Mushtaq Ahmed
(Pir Panjal Awami Party),
Abdul Majeed Chowan,
(Independent), Mohd
Sharief Khan
(Independent),
Mohammed Azim Khan
(Independent), Nisar
Ahmed Khan (Nil), Nisar
Hussain Shah
(Independent) and Yaar
Mohammad Khan
(Independent) were
cleared.
In 87-Haveli Assembly
Constituency, the nomination papers of 11 candidates, Ashfaq Ahmed
(BSP), Ajaz Ahmed Jan
(NC), Ch Bashir Ahmed
Naz (INC), Pardeep
Sharma (BJP), Shah Mohd
Tantray (PDP), Mohd
Rashid (JKNPP), Mohd
Younis (JK Pir Panjal
Awami Party), Ameer
Hussain Shah
(Independent), Javid Iqbal
Reshi (Independent),
Chaudhary Abdul Ghani
(Independent) and Mohd
Kabir Qureshi
(Independent) were
cleared.
The last day for withdrawal of nomination
papers has been fixed on
17th November, 2014 and
polling for this phase is
scheduled to be held on
December 2, 2014
(Tuesday).
JCWSBJ celebrates 61st National Cooperative Week
GY NEWS SERVICE
JAMMU, NOV. 15:
The Jammu cooperative
Wholesale Ltd Super Bazar
Jammu hosted and celebrated today the 61st national
cooperative week at its
premises at its Head Office
in City Chowk Jammu. In
the function Secretary to
Government, Cooperative
Department Ramesh Kumar
Koul was the chief guest
and Registrar Cooperative
Societies J&K. Basharat
Saleem was the Guest of
Honor.
Among others Smt.
Anjana
Tickoo
Addl.
Registrar Jammu, Smt.
Trishla
Kumari
Joint
Registrar Special, Tanvir
Malik Joint Registrar Audit,
Bharat Bhushan Managing
Director J&K Cooperative
Housing Cooperation, G.D
Bakshi General Secretary
J&K Cooperative union
Ltd and the function of
various
cooperative
Societies of Jammu was
present. The flag was
hoisted by the Chief Guest
while addressing the welcome speech; General
Manager Super Bazar Ram
Kesh Sharma welcomed
the guest and revealed that
the Super Bazar Jammu is
continuing making profit
for the last 4-5 years. He
disclosed various strategies and new innovation
which are introduced to
improve the working of
Super Bazar Jammu such
as Video Surveillance emonitoring and online
shopping.
While addressing the
gathering the various
speakers threw light on the
values and the importance
of cooperative movement
and suggested various
steps and majors to make
the cooperative relevant
and competitive. The relevance of cooperative was
stressed and it was felt that
there is more need of
awareness. Among the
general public in which the
principal and values of
cooperatives are need to be
underlined.
While speaking on the
occasion Additional registrar suggested that the customer satisfaction should
be the prime objective of
the Super Bazar Jammu. It
should make necessary
improvements for the
greater satisfaction of its
valuable customers. The
Registrar Cooperatives,
Basharat Saleem while
speaking said that those is
always a scope for
improvement and growth
therefore as per the changing needs, new techniques,
marketing strategies and
publicity must be given to
attract more customer to
increase the business of the
cooperative Super Bazar.
He said that the department
is always ready to extend
hand of help to the societies to make the same
functional and revival.
The chief guest, R.K.
Koul stressed that values of
Cooperatives must be inculcated to make the cooperative sector vide and visible.
He said that through the celebration of this week, a new
message should travel to the
grass root level among the
stake holders and everybody must pledge to work
with zeal, dedication, innovation and with a sense of
selfishlessness to make the
cooperative sector to take a
new price and complete
with the private market. The
proceedings of the function
were conducted by Udham
Dass
Sharma
Deputy
Registrar,
Cooperative
Societies Jammu.
Influential Islamia School Kargil extends support to PDP
We will liberate Ladakh from mentality of siege: Mufti
JK poised for political, economic transformation: Beigh
GY NEWS SERVICE
kARGIL, NOV 15:
Resolving to liberate the
mountain locked regions of
J&K from the state of siege,
PDP
Patron
Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed today
said that places like Kargil
and Leh would be brought
into the economic and
development mainstream.
Addressing large public
meetings at Kargil and
Drass, Mufti said the
tremendous potential of
these areas will be harnessed for the benefit of residents by improving connectivity and addressing
political urges and socioeconomic needs.
Accompanied by senior
PDP leader and Member
Parliament
Muzaffar
Hussain Beigh and Moulvi
Imran Raza Ansari and the
local candidate Haji Inayat
Ali, Mufti went to the
Islamia School Kargil, the
famous seminary to hold
discussions with its president Aga Jamal and other
scholars. They latter went in
a procession alongwith the
Islamia School leadership
upto the venue of the public
meeting after Islamia
School extended its support
to the PDP's political and
developmental vision. Mufti
said PDP's vision of Jammu
and Kashmir becoming a
bridge between India and
Pakistan
contains
the
important feature of opening Kargil-Skardu road. He
said the decision taken on
reopening this road and
starting a bus service on its
was taken by India and
Pakistan many years back
but because of lack of follow-up there was no movement forward on this initiative. "PDP would work for
its implementation alongwith its engagement with
the union government to
strengthen the cross-LoC
confidence building measures which have direct
impact on places like Kargil
and Drass which have
immensely suffered the
impact of hostility in the
past."
Mufti said the winds of
change blowing throughout
the state have crossed
Zojilla pass as well and it
looks that Kargil is ready to
become part of the political
transition that the state is
witnessing. He said the
National Conference and
Congress reduced governance to plunder of state
resources and nefglected
genuine needs of even those
areas which had remained
loyal to them inspite of their
failures and repeated let
downs. Mufti said Leh and
Kargil were the shining
examples of PDP's policy of
empowerment of regions,
sub-regions and the com-
mon citizens. He said the
establishment
of
Hill
Development Councils in
Leh and Kargil represented
an ideal administrative
response to the complex
problems of the State where
people have to face hardships on account of topography, climate and distances.
"I am satisfied that in our
brief tenure we could
empower you to run your
own government locally,
But it is regrettable that
NC-Cog
government
degenerated the functioning of Hill Development
Councils infighting for
power, positions and helping the favourities, while
ignoring the actual agenda
of development," he said
and added that we will set
right the functioning of
the Hill Development
Council once the PDP is
able to form the next government.
Appreciating the initiative of the Islamia
School and Haji Inayat
Ali, the President of its
Youth Wing, in joining
hands with PDP, Mufti
said Inayat would be the
representative of Kargil in
the next cabinet which
God willing the PDP
would
constitute.
Referring to the inability
of the UPA government at
the Centre and in the State
to carry forward the work
on
upgradation
of
Srinagar-Leh
highway,
Mufti said Zojilla tunnel
should have been ready by
now, but it was restricted
only to foundation stone
laying 2 years back without any follow up work.
He said the new government would make an effort
to have the construction
work started both from
Sonamarg and Drass ends.
About the energy
needs of the Kargil, Mufti
said the Suru Hydel
Project would be taken up
in the state sector and the
functioning of Chutak project would be streamlined.
Similarly, places like
Drass and Suru valley
would be developed as
independent tourist destinations, like Leh and
Kashmir valley Kargil
also can benefit from
tourism as it has so far
been deprived of the benefits of its immense tourism
potential. Mufti said the
horticulture having a good
potential in many areas of
Kargil and apricot being
its main produce the next
government would develop it substantially alongwith other farming activities including livestock
development,. He said add
value to apricot, food processing units would be set
up to increase the returns
to the farmers.
Addressing the rallies
Muzaffar Hussain Beigh
appealed to the people to
vote wisely in the elections so as not to waste it
by using the ballot in
favour of those parties
who have no chance of
forming the government.
He said the formation of
the next government by
PDP under the leadership
of Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed is writing on the
wall and it will be share
wastage of some still sides
with parties like NC or the
Congress who have been
rejected thoroughly in the
Parliament
elections.
Beigh said the state is
poised for a revolution not
just on political front but
development as well after
the coming elections. "For
regions like Kargil and
Leh it will be beneficial to
bond politically with rest
of the State so as to
become partners in this
change and revive the
development process that
the previous PDP-led government had initiated.
Addressing the gathering Moulvi Imran Raza
Ansari said the youth will
have to actively work for
the change that is taking
place in the state to shape
their own future. He said
PDP is an organization that
thinks and works differently in order to provide space
for everybody who is interested in the welfare of the
state and its people. He
expressed the hope that the
new atmosphere of hope
generated in Kargil will
help the party to enlist the
support of younger generation and write a new destiny for them. PDP candidate for Kargil Assembly
segment Haji Inayat Ali
also addressed the rallies.
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