Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Superintending Engineer (Distribution) JPDCL, O&M Circle Kathua has informed that to carry out the branch cutting of trees under the corridor of 66 KV Sarna-Kathua Line, the power supply to Keerian Local, Industry (Crushers), CNC Keerian and adjoining areas will remain affected on November 5 from 9 am to 2 pm.
Similarly, to carry out the branch cutting of trees under the corridor of 66 KV Pathankot-Kathua Line, the shutdown of shutdown of 66 KV Pathankot-Kathua line is being observed.
During the shutdown, the affected load shall be accommodated on Grid Station Kathua.
Meanwhile, to execute reconductoring work with Dog/Rabbit and tapping of 11 KV new line in IPDS /PMDP Scheme, the power supply to Garib Basti, Lakhanpur Bazar, Goplden Gate, Mahabti, Kattal Chowk etc will remain affected on November 3, 5, 7, 9 from 9 am to 2 pm.
However, for testing of CT/PT Units, the power supply to all Industry Units on 11 KV Industry-II, IGC-I Phase-I, Samba will remain affected on November 05 from 12 noon to 2 pm.
Similarly, the power supply to all Industry Units on 11 KV Industry-V, IGC-I Phase-I, Samba will remain affected on November 5 from 1 pm to 4 pm.
Chief Engineer (Distribution) JPDCL, Jammu has informed that the shutdown of 33 KV line from Khour to Kaleeth is being observed.
During the shutdown, the power supply to Kaleeth, Khour town, Gigral Kharah, Dhanger, Chack Malal Aizal Mallal and adjoining areas will remain affected on November 05 from 8 am to 3 pm.

Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, Nov 2: A meeting was held under the chairmanship of Commissioner Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, UT- Ladakh Rigzin Samphel, regarding the nurses issues in SNM, Hospital here.
Director Health Services, UT- Ladakh, President, All Medical Employees Federation of UT-Ladakh, Leh and representative nurses of different sections of SNM Hospital, Leh were also present in the meeting.
Samphel assured the nurses that 200 more nurses on contractual basis will be appointed for the deployment of 100 each for Leh and Kargil districts.
He expressed his appreciation for the selfless work done by the paramedic staff of both Leh and Kargil during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He further assured that the Department of Health and Medical Education UT-Ladakh will take all measures to safeguard the interest of the paramedic staff.

Excelsior Correspondent

LEH, Nov 2: The calm and quaint Himalayan terrains of Kargil and Leh are booming with production activities as a result of the self-sustainable employment created by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in the region.
Since the year 2017-18, KVIC has set up nearly 1000 different small and medium manufacturing units under its flagship Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) scheme in Kargil and Leh creating over 8200 employments for local youths in just three-and-half years and released margin money to the tune of Rs 32.35 crore since 2017-18 to support these units.
From cement blocks manufacturing to manufacturing of iron and steel items, automobile repair workshops, tailoring units, wooden furniture manufacturing units, wood carving units, cyber cafe, beauty parlors and manufacturing of gold jewellery etc are the few which the KVIC has supported thus enabling the locals to earn respectable livelihood. Even during the first six months of 2020-21, which has been marred by the Covid-19 lockdown, KVIC helped locals to set up 26 new projects in Kargil and 24 new projects in Leh in different sectors that created 350 jobs in the two regions.
Notably, KVIC is the nodal implementing agency for the PMEGP scheme. From 2017-18 to 2020-21 (up to September 30), KVIC established 802 projects in Kargil and 191 projects in Leh region creating 6781 jobs in Kargil and 1421 jobs in Leh respectively. While KVIC disbursed Rs 26.67 crore as margin money for these projects in Kargil, it disbursed Rs 5.68 crore in the Leh region during this period.
KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena attributed this employment spree in Kargil and Leh to the Prime Minister’s vision for all-round development of the environmentally challenging Leh-Ladakh region which is accessible only six months in a year. “Kargil and Leh have shown immense potential for sustaining various manufacturing activities. Leh and Kargil remain disconnected from rest parts of the country for almost six months. However, these production units will ensure local availability of goods in these regions throughout the year,” Saxena said.
The beneficiaries in Kargil and Leh expressed happiness saying they did not have to flock to other states in search of jobs after they started their own production units. And this not only created self-employment for them but also created job opportunities for many other unemployed youths in the region.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Piece Workers & Contractors Association (PWCA) of Jammu & Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) Limited elected its office bearers as well as projected their burning demands in a general body meeting of all the piece workers and contractors of the Corporation.
The meeting elected Rakesh Jalali as president of the association, Sunil Sahib as general secretary and Mohinder Kohli as office secretary/treasurer. The newly elected body also comprises of three executive members– Rajesh Jain of M/s Jain Marbles, Rahil Malick (contractor) and Sumit Malhotra (local manufacturer).
During the 90-minutes long meeting, two important issues among the various issues were discussed threadbare. The first and main important issue, which figured in the discussion, was long pending liabilities of the piece workers/contractors which has accumulated in crores of rupees over a long period of past 4 to 5 years.
Rakesh Jalali appealed the J&K LG Manoj Sinha to kindly look into the matter personally as it is a subject matter of most paramount importance and any further delay into the matter would be more detrimental to the cause of JKPCC piece workers, contractors, specialised firms etc, who have already borrowed the huge finances from the various banking & non-banking institutions and in return paying the hefty sums in terms of bank interest.
He expressed his disappointment on a recent development wherein, the Corporation started inviting tenders from only PWD/CPWD and other Government card holders barring all the registered and existing piece workers of JKPCC who have been otherwise, the part and parcel of JKPCC for past 55 years. He made a humble plea to the LG to intervene into the matter and verify the facts, figures of this controversial verbal order.
General secretary of the Association stressed for the immediate need of the officials, who are sitting on the helm of affairs, to timely allocate the funds to all the respective units of JKPCC to take out from the morass all the affected contractors, piece workers and firms, who are at the verge of collapse.

Excelsior Correspondent

SAMBA, Nov 2: Samba Police in a joint drive with Traffic Police and Municipal Committee Vijaypur, today cracked down on violators of COVID-19 SOPs and traffic rules at Main Bazar, Main Chowk Vijaypur with the aim to remove the congestion on Vijaypur – Ramgarh road as well as from Main Chowk NHW Vijaypur.
During the drive, the persons who were found without wearing face mask were challaned on the spot for which fine to the tune of Rs. 8500 was realised from them.
For traffic rules violators, Samba police jointly with Traffic police, challaned and seized 20 wrongly parked vehicles in the Bazar and along the by lanes of Jammu-Pathankot NHW. An amount of Rs 10,500 generated from challaned vehicles has been deposited in Government revenue and the seized vehicles have been kept under the custody of Police Station, Vijaypur.
During the joint drive with Municipality Committee, Vijaypur, shopkeepers were also challaned to the tune of Rs 20,800 for not following COVID SOPs and displaying their goods on road side causing traffic jam and inconvenience to general public visiting Main Market Vijaypur.

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Nov 2: Two persons were killed and one was serious injured in separate road accidents in Kathua district since late last night.
According to reports a motorcyclist was killed while his pillion rider was seriously injured after the bike they were riding skidded off the road and fell into a gorge near Dodla -Shera in Basohli tehsil late last night.
The dead was identified as Shambu Singh, 21, son of Neelam of Dodla. He died on spot. The injured has been identified as Vishal son of Sher Singh. The passers by informed the Basohli police who rescued the them and brought them to Sub District Hospital Basohli where the Shambu was declared as brought dead while the Vishal was given first aid and later referred to Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH), Kathua for treatment.
The Basohli Police has registered a case under Section 304/279 and 337 IPC and started investigation. The dead body of Shambu was handed over to family after postmortem today for last rites. They were on way from Basohli to Dodla Shera when the accident took place.
In another accident an unknown girl was hit by an unknown vehicle at Palli in Kathua district late last night. The vehicle fled after the accident and the body of the girl has been brought to DH, Kathua for postmortem and identification. The Kathua police has registered a case in this regard under the relevant sections of the law.

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Nov 2: The farmers of Hiranagar border areas held a strong protest demonstration against the new land law in J&K UT.
A large number of farmers drawn from border area led by Border Welfare Committee today assembled at SDM Office, Hiranagar and lodged strong protest against the UT Government decision. They were raising the anti land law slogans and demanded justice for farmers.
While addressing Border Welfare Committee, president, Bharat Bhushan said that the border farmers are already facing numerous problems and they have small portion of land to cultivate and earn their livelihood. The latest land law and Government order to vacate the State land, Custodian land, Kahcharai land and also cancellation of the Roshni Act allotment land will render them landless and bring them on foot path.
The protestors said that more than 80% farmers has State land to cultivate and main source of their livelihood. In such circumstances hundreds of farmers will become landless and have nothing to earn for their families. The BDC chairmen Ram Lal Kalia and Karan Kumar also condemned the new order. They warned the Government to repeal the land law otherwise the farmers will come on the roads. They also submitted a memorandum to SDM Hiranagar addressed to LG of UT of J&K.

Excelsior Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Nov 2: The police recovered nearly 6 kg of charas along with cash more than Rs 1 lakh from six narcotic smugglers at Thard, on National Highway near Udhampur today.
Official sources said that based on a reliable information, police party from Udhampur led by Vijay Singh, SHO under supervision of Rajinder Katoch, Addl SP Udhampur the police team intercepted one Tavera vehicle and two Scooties bearing registration No. JK03D/ 6434 (Tavera), JK02BS/ 5440 and JK02CJ/ 0708 for thorough search at Thard, on National Highway.
During search of the vehicles nearly 6 Kg of charas like substance along with cash more than rupees one lakh, were recovered from the possession of six people on board. They were taken into custody.
They were identified as Nissar Ahmed Bhat, son of Mohd Rafi Butt of Momen, Danjipura, district Anantnag; Irfan Pal, son of Abdul Rashid Pal of Babapul Shopian; Samrat Mugal, son of Mohd Waris of Gujjar Nagar, Jammu; Amir Choudry, son of Abdul Rashid of Gujar Nagar, Jammu; Nazer Mohd, son of Aijaz Ahmed of UP, at present Sunjwan in Jammu and Azam Mohd of Bathindi in Jammu.
The said narcotic peddlers along with consignment and cash were arrested. In this connection, a case FIR No. 566/2020 was registered U/S 8/20 NDPS Act at P/S Udhampur and further investigation was underway.
Meanwhile based on a specific information, a team of Police Station Basantgarh led by Kulbir Choudhary SHO, conducted a raid in the house of Yash Pal, son of Hem Raj of Upper Balota in Basantgarh and succeeded in recovery of five litres illicit desi liquor and around 80 litres of Lahan from their house and also apprehended Yash Pal along with Ravi Kumar.
In this regard, a case under relevant section of law stands registered at Police Station Basantgarh.

Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Nov 2: After coming together and creating a website to connect the COVID-19 patients with the plasma donors, the ‘GetPlasma’ website has so far succeeded in getting more than 100 such patients registered including more than 60 donors.
The website was created by two friends from Kashmir -Vidhur Tickoo and Jaswinder Singh – with an aim of helping the COVID-19 positive patients to get in touch with the plasma donor.
Vidur is working as an engineer with Mercedes Benz Research & Development, Bangalore and Jaswinder is working as an engineer in Classic Informatics, Chandigarh.
The website has attracted the COVID-19 positive patients across the country, while those who have expressed their willingness to donate plasma have also registered from various parts of the country.
“The response has been great so far, we have been able to pull in various donors who were willing to donate their plasma and also several patients who needed plasma,” Vidhur Tickoo told Excelsior.
As per data that has been provided to this reporter by Vidhur, there are 107 COVID-19 patients who registered on the website and also, there are 66 donors who have also registered themselves-expressing the willingness of donating the plasma.
In the case of patients who were need of plasma, the majority of registrations have been recorded from Srinagar (17) followed by Bangalore (10).
Regarding the donors, Bangalore has the highest number of plasma donation registration (20) followed by Srinagar with 12 such registrations.
The website www.getplasma.in has attracted people from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand.
The primary job of the website is to connect the patient with the donor; however, it does not track it down to the lower level: how donations materialize on the ground.
“We do not have that data as of now; however, we have all the details regarding what has been our primary aim. We have connected those in need with those who have expressed their willingness to donate the plasma by registering on the website,” he said.
He said the website has helped them spread the awareness about plasma therapy among people. “Apart from this, our website as witnessed more than 5000 pages visits from different parts of the country,” he said.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 2: Special Judge CBI Rajesh Sekri has rejected the bail application of Shadab Chowdary, Junior Assistant in Tehsil Supply Office Manjakote, who was caught red-handed by the CBI while accepting bribe money.
“The corruption related cases have shown an alarming surge from the past many years with this part of the country emerging as a breeding ground entrapped in the tentacles of this scorn”, the court said, adding “it may seem to be an ordinary crime but there is no denying the fact that the money generated from it, finds its use in financing the acts inimical to the stability of the nation”.
“The offence committed by the accused, in the instant case, is highly pernicious with unpropitious ramifications on the society. Duty of the court in such type of cases becomes more pronounced”, the Judge said, adding “there is cogent material available on record regarding prima facie culpability of the accused in offence punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, but not less than three years”.
“There is every apprehension, as such, that bail at this juncture, if granted to him, may no longer render the case conducive to investigation and subsequent trial”, the court said.