Samooh organises Theatre workshop at Vidya Mandir

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, June 12: The month long Childrens Theatre workshop organized by Samooh Theatre in Bharatiya Vidya Mandir, Ambphalla culminated on Monday. Twenty five students of different classes participated n it.

The 30 day long workshop started on May 10 and concluded on June 11. During the workshop, the theatre experts trained the students in various theatre games, techniques and other basic and important theatre elements of Indian theatre.

The special classes on mime and movement, voice and speech, singing in theatre and other important skill training and lecture on express of feelings and thought , role of theatre in the personality development was given by the Director Sudhir Mahajan.

The main objective of the workshop was to keep our Indian tradition and culture alive and make the new generation aware of the values which they are lacking due to the worst impact of globalisation.

On the concluding day of the workshop a play related to basic problems was staged. The improvised play "Yeh Desh Hamara Hai"was highly appreciated by the students, staff and parents of the students.

The workshop was conducted under the supervision of Mr Sudhir Mahajan who was assisted by Messrs Daya Ram and Swatantra Bharti.

Principal of the School while addressing the students, staff and participants stressed on imparting moral and cultural education keeping in view the challenges of 21st century.

DCC-I Rajouri justifies Qureshi’s action

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, June 12: District Congress Committee Rajouri in a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Vinod Sharma expressed full faith in the leadership of PCC president Mohd Shaffi Qureshi.

The meeting also justified the action of Qureshi in suspending eight members from the party for a period of three years for their anti-party activities.

Meanwhile, some DCC office bearers of Rajouri denied that they had signed any memorandum which was submitted to AICC president yesterday. Ayub Pehalwan, Babu Ram Sharma, Alam Din and David Farooq said that they were astonished to see their names in a section of the press. They said that their names have been included without their consent.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting included R S Sharma, Liaqat Ali, Bhola Ram, Ashan Malik, Abdul Majid, Lovely Gupta, Lalit Gupta, Vijay Kumar, Mohd Shafa, Khem Raj Sharma, Kashmir Singh, Suram Singh, Amar Singh, Yogesh Sharma, Pritam Singh, Kewal Sharma, Sat Pal Sharma, Davinder Sharma, Rajinder Singh, Mirza Haq Nawaz, Kuldeep Sharma, Vishat Sharma, Ashok Sharma, Parveen Gupta, Onkar Nath Choga, Gouri Shanker Sharma, Ram Pal Bari, Bodh Raj Gupta, Subash Sharma and Romesh Chander.

Kamal stresses on technology upgradation
modevnization to concept market

Excelsior Correspondent

Jammu, June 12: The Minister for Industries and Commerce, Dr. Mustafa Kamaal has said that the WTO would not affect the industries whose products have local consumption.

Speaking after the inauguration of product display-cum-sale centre set up by the J&K Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation (SICOP) at the Exhibition Grounds here last evening, Dr. Kamal, however, said that we have to go for technological upgradation and modernization to withstand the market competition within and outside the country.

He said the industrial infrastructure is over 40 year old and the immediate need is to modernise it. This, he said, is the demand of all the States and was raised in a recent meeting in New Delhi. For modernization and technological upgradation, he said, the Centre has to provide financial assistance. He said the Prime Minister is taking personal interest in the industrial sector.

Regretting that the State is not being provided the special package as available to North- Eastern States, Dr. Kamaal said that even after the lapse of three months of the current financial year, the annual plan outlay for the State is yet to be decided despite providing of necessary details for the purpose by the State. He said even a portion of last year’s plan allocation have not been released as yet. He cautioned that such an indifferent attitude towards the State could give rise to bitterness among the people which will have bad repercussions. He said that Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah and he himself have time and again urged the Centre to provide liberal financial assistance to the State.

Ridiculing the demand for trifurcation of the State, Dr. Kamal said that National Conference which has massive public support will never allow the efforts of dividing the State in the name of religion or region. He said that people of the State have proven during the last 54 years that they are firm believers in ‘unity in diversity’ and expressed the confidence that people will foil unitedly such divisive designs of some elements.

Asking the industrial units to get their brands registered with the concerned agencies, Dr. Kamal said this will help the unit holders to market their products without any problem. He said the State government bears the cost of about Rs. 2.50 lakhs for branding the products produced in the small scale industrial sector. He said that the demands like capital subsidy, etc have been taken up with the Centre and was hopeful that this amount will be disbursed soon.

Lauding the efforts of the SICOP for opening the Centre, the Minister said this would provide an opportunity to the buyers to know about the products produced within the State and evaluate their quality. This, he said, would provide an opportunity to the manufacturers to market their products. He asked the industry to give due attention to the quality of the products and the competitive rates so that they are able to face the competition in the changed business environment.

Dr. Kamal said that the State Government has been making every endeavour to give boost to the industrial sector. For this purpose, numerous self employment schemes have been launched to help the educated unemployed youth to set up their own units. Besides solving the unemployment problem, he said, this would improve the economic condition of the State. The Government, he said, has succeeded to a great extent to salvage the industrial sector from the damages caused to it by the over decade long militancy. For providing marketing facilities to the manufacturers of the State, two buyer seller meets were arranged where representatives of several Central Government Ministeries were invited. He said former Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, was taken aback when he found that the State was producing quality goods which could meet the requirements of various Central government organisations. He, however, asked the industrialists that they should get their units and products registered with some Central Government agencies like DGSD. He said the Chief Minister has ordered all the State government departments to purchase their requirements from the local industrial units only.

Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Mr. H.S. Pandit, speaking on the occasion exhorted the industry to go for standardisation mark, like BIS and ISO, etc. He said that the SICOP will shortly get the ISO-9002 mark and is launching website of its own. Referring to the paradigm shift of the Government policy of gradually withdrawing granting Government support to industries, he said the time is now ripe to be self reliant. He said the industry cannot develop if it continued to depend upon the Government support.

The Director Industries, Mr. M.S. Beig emphasised that survival of industry lay in the production of quality goods at the competitive rates. He underlined the need for creating more avenues for marketing the products so that the units are able to sustain themselves.

In his welcome address, the Managing Director, SICOP, Mr. A.K. Khullar said that the efforts of the Corporation have all along been to provide different types of services to the small scale sector in the State. The Product display-cum-sale centre, a show window first of its kind in the State, he said, was intended to create wider public awareness about the products that the State entrepreneurs manufacture. He said the local entrepreneurs produce goods that match in quality and prices to similar goods produced outside the State. However, he said, the State units suffer for want of market and become unviable. Show windows like the present one is intended to bridge this gap and help in creating wider consumer awareness about the goods produced within the State. These windows, he said, will enable the intending Government departments to develop a comprehensive idea about the range of products available and also provide units access to private buyers as well. He said Corporation plans to set up a similar show window at Srinagar shortly.

The president SSI Association, Digiana, President, Association of Industries, Gangyal, President Chamber of Industries, Kashmir and President Association of Industries, Bari Brahmana, Jammu also spoke on the occasion.

Kamal releases first issue of Trikuta Lalkar

Excelsior Correspondent

Jammu, June 12: The Minister for Industries and Commerce, Dr. Mustafa Kamal released the first issue of Trikuta Lalkar magazine here yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kamal urged the media to ensure the credibility of the news reports they publish in their newspapers. He referred to a news report captioned "Elder brother proposes, younger brother disposed" published recently in a local daily and said that a deputation of hoteliers and restaurateurs of Jammu had pleaded that base camp for ensuing Amarnath yatra should not be set up at Nagrota. Shri Amarnath Ji yatra Board has recently been set up under the chairmanship of the Governor. The Commissioner/Secretary Tourism who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Board said that as the Board was set up very recently it will not be advisable to make any change in previous year’s yatra arrangements. As such the arrangements made last year have been repeated this year also.

Referring to the use of MAM Stadium for ceremonial programmes and other activities than sports, Dr. Kamal said it was not advisable to keep the stadium out of bounds for sports for two months at a stretch. To overcome this problem, he said he is in touch with the military authorities to persuade them to spare Zorawar Singh Stadium for the ceremonial programmes. He said we cannot deprive the sports persons using the stadium for sports activities.

Special recruitment drives in Ladakh also: CS

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, June 12: Several measures were discussed to speed up development of Ladakh region at high level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary, Mr Ashok Jaitly here today.

The meeting decided that strict action will be taken against officials who do not join their place of postings in Leh and Kargil districts. The concerned administrative departments will ensure that the calendar for issuing orders for Ladakh transfers is strictly adhered to so that people do not suffer due non-availability of officials. Possibilities were also discussed for providing some incentive to the employees who opt voluntarily for serving in remote areas of Ladakh.

Measures were also discussed for filling up vacancies in different departments in Leh and Kargil districts, specially in health and education departments.

The Chief Secretary asked the employment department to ensure that special employment cell set up by the State Government in Delhi also registers unemployed youth from Ladakh region for recruitment in private sector, central public sector undertakings, defence forces and other establishments.

Mr Jaitly said that Army, Navy, Air Force and Railways will be approached to launch special recruitment drives for youth of Leh and Kargil districts also. He said coaching facilities will also be provided for educated youth of the area for appearing in various competitive services like IAS, IFS, IPS and KAS.

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