People protesting at Suchani against road mishap. -Excelsior/ Gautam
JAMMU, July 19: The residents of village Suchani today protested against the Central University authorities who are constructing its campus at Rahya in district samba.
The people came out of their houses when a tanker bearing No. JK02K-7814 rolled down from the link road of village Suchani near the village resulting into the death of the helper of the tanker.
The deceased was identified as Saquib Hassan from Delhi. The driver fled form the spot. The protestors, demanding widening of the road said earlier due to lack of proper road accidents took place resulting in the death of three persons.
The villagers said that government as well as the management of Central University is duty bound to widen the road and construct the bypass road for the Central University. Those who participated in the protest included Sarpanch Yogeshwer Singh, Panch Bhupinder Singh, Satish Sharma and Romesh Singh etc.
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 19: A Special Police Officer died after slipping into a deep gorge in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
A police spokesman said Mohammad Ashraf, working as a SPO in police station Kralpora of the district, slipped and fell into a 40-feet gorge at Rangwar-Asmaldar Behak while he was on duty.
The critically injured Ashraf was shifted to a hospital for treatment where doctors declared him ‘brought dead.’ The body was handed over to his relatives for last rites, the spokesman added.
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 19: The wholesale shoe merchants of Jammu decided to observe two day holiday on July19 and 20.
In a meeting of the Wolesale Shoe Merchants Association Jammu held under the chairmanship of Bharat Bhushan Kerni (president), it was resolved to observe holiday on July 19 and 20 and take break from the business for picnic to Patnitop. All the shops/ outlets of the Wholesale Shoe merchants of Jammu would observe shut down on these two days.
Meritorious students of Jodhamal School posing alongwith Principal and other officials during felicitation function.
JAMMU, July 19: In the recently held Asian Matsogi-Do Championship-2014 at Kathmandu, Nepal, the students of Jodhamal Public School, while representing India won 4 medals, with three gold and one bronze.
The gold medal winners included Ansh Gupta, Aditi Sharma and Kanwarpal Singh Sudan, while Nikunj Langer won bronze.
The winners were awarded prizes by Mian Altaf Ahmed, coach of Pakistan team and Javed Abdul Khawar, coach of Afghanistan team.
Vishal Samrat and Gurdeep Singh were the In-charge of the Indian team.
Jodhamal School Coach, Vishal Samrat also bagged gold in the men’s category.
School Principal, Trilok Singh Bist felicitated all five of them in a special assembly for their outstanding achievement.
Excelsior Correspondent
KARGIL, July 19: Sessions Court Kargil today acquitted six persons of the charges of forgery as prosecution failed to prove the case against them beyond reasonable doubt.
The case pertains to an FIR which was registered 19 years back in the Police Station Kargil. Initially, the FIR was with regard to embezzlement of scholarship, uniform, furniture, TV etc in the schools but during the investigation it was found that school leaving certificates were also forged by the accused, who were having the charge of the record ranging between the period 1990 to 1995. During this period, they allegedly made insertions in the certificates.
After hearing Advocate Talib Hussain for the accused and PP Mazoor, Principal Sessions Judge Kargil observed, “start witnesses—Headmaster and ZEO deposed that during their tenure between 1992 to 1995 no certificate was issued. Even all the witnesses who have been cited by the prosecution didn’t specifically mentioned which documents stand seized by the police and how does alleged insertions made in the documents”.
“The prosecution tried to strengthen his case on the basis of the report of the FSL. However, neither the IO, who sent the document to FSL has been examined in the court with regard to duly submission of the same nor the prosecution produced the expert of FSL who has given the report of the same as to prove the contents of the document”, the court said.
“There is no direct evidence in the case against the accused and the prosecution is connecting the accused on the basis of circumstantial evidence”, the court said, adding “there is breakage at every stage of evidence. Therefore, the accused cannot be linked with the commission of the crime”.
With these observations, court acquitted the accused for the commission of the offences and disposed of the challan of prosecution.
JAIPUR, July 19:
BJP MLAs today demanded that the Rajasthan Government ensure the safe return of pilgrims from the state who were stranded in Kashmir following clashes at Amarnath Yatra base camp near Baltal.
BJP MLA Gyandeo Ahuja sought attention of the Speaker and said that nearly 100 people who had gone to the pilgrimage to Amarnath from Ajmer were trapped and 30-35 of them were also injured.
He also informed that he has asked Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to make the same kind of efforts which were made to bring back Indians from Iraq.
Two other MLAs also raised the similar matter after which Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister G C Kataria, assured that he will collect all the information related to the matter and share it with the House before its adjournment today.
At least 37 persons, including few security force personnel, were injured in the clashes that broke out yesterday morning after a dispute between pony owners and those running community kitchens followed by the alleged high-handedness by CRPF personnel.
The Amarnath yatra, which was suspended yesterday resumed today after normalcy returned to the Baltal base camp.
Later, Kataria informed the House that all members who had gone to Amarnath Yatra from the state were safe.
The Minister said that he spoke to authorities who informed that people from the state were safe there. (PTI)
With the level of river Ganga rising, the CBI constituted medical board to look into the alleged rape and murder of two girls in UP’s Badaun district will exhume the bodies of the victims today for fresh autopsy.
CBI has earlier planned to carry out the process tomorrow but in the wake of rising levels of Ganga threatening to inundate the graves, the medical board has decided to do so today.
CBI sources said the agency has made all the arrangements to conduct fresh autopsy near the graves.
Unless there is a compelling reason to do post-mortem elsewhere, the medical board will undertake the process on the spot.
The sources said the board of three-forensic experts has recommended that fresh autopsy was needed before forming any opinion which will necessitate exhumation of bodies.
Following the recommendation, CBI has taken permission from appropriate authority, to exhume the bodies and proceed with fresh postmortem.
The sources said there was no need to take consent of the family members and only permission required is from the local authorities.
Concerns were raised by locals that level of Ganga river, which flows adjacent to the grave of the minors, is rising because of heavy rains in Uttarakhand and might inundate it.
The need for fresh autopsy was felt after the postmortem report of the local doctor was only suggestive of rape without conclusively proving it.
Highly-placed sources in the agency said the first post-mortem was conducted at night, which is usually against laid down procedures. Post-mortem is not conducted after sunset except in emergency cases.
The postmortem was conducted by a lady doctor who had apparently no prior experience of it, said the sources. (PTI)
Left embarrassed after photographs of him dancing shirtless in a nightclub were splashed across newspapers, England batsman Gary Ballance said he would never repeat such behaviour even though he was merely trying to have some fun.
Ballance more than made up for the episode by scoring 110 runs in the ongoing second cricket Test against India here, adding to his century tally at Lord’s, where he got his maiden Test hundred earlier in the summer against Sri Lanka.
This was his second century in four Tests and helped England finish the day at 219/6, 76 runs behind India’s total.
“Just to score a hundred at Lord’s is amazing really. It’s been an interesting week. I didn’t really expect it, but it’s nice to score some runs and put us back in a decent position,” he said, referring to the night-club incident after the drawn Test in Nottingham.
The batsman had been photographed dancing with his shirt off and although he didn’t break any curfew rules after the Test was over, he was slapped on the wrists by the ECB for indecent public behaviour.
“I didn’t see it coming, and it was a bit embarrassing. I was probably a bit naive, but I didn’t really break any rules. I was just having fun after a Test match. But I’ll learn from that, and probably won’t do it again,” said Ballance admitting regret.
“I felt a bit of pressure turning up here on day one, with what happened. But everyone around me was very supportive – the coaches, all the players, my family were backing me and saying mistakes happen. You’ve got to learn from it, and move on,” Ballance said.
Ballance said patience was the key to his knock which pulled England out of trouble here.
“It is a nice place to play cricket, and I just love batting here. I thought that I will have to scrap hard on this wicket. It will not be pretty or exciting to watch, but at the end of the day, it’s about doing a job. I tried to be patient,” Ballance said after his hundred yesterday.
“I knew I was going to play and miss, so tried to leave as much as I could and just waited for anything with a bit of width or anything too straight. Luckily, I fought hard – got an edge through the slips early on – and being patient paid off,” he added.
The edge he mentioned was induced by Stuart Binny in the 40th over of the innings and skipper-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni let it go as Shikhar Dhawan watched frozen at first slip. Ballance was on 32 at that time and made this chance count. (PTI)
NEW DELHI, July 19: Pressing ahead with its policy to promote domestic military industry, the Government today cleared procurement proposals worth over Rs 21,000 crore and also okayed a project for the production of transport aircraft which is open only to Indian private sector companies.
Among the major proposals to receive approval is a Rs 9,000 crore tender to provide five fleet support ships for the Navy, for which the Request for Proposal (RFP) would be issued to all public and private sector shipyards, Defence Ministry officials said.
The majority of the proposals cleared would involve only Indian public and private sector firms and are aimed at increasing the indigenisation of military hardware, they added.
Chairing his first meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said, “There are many proposals in the pipeline for the defence forces and, today, we have tried to expedite quite a few of them.”
Thus, a proposal for supply of 32 HAL-built Advanced Light Helicopter, ‘Dhruv’, to the Coast Guard and the Navy at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore was also okayed, officials said.
Under the proposal, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd will supply 16 helicopters each to the Coast Guard and the Navy and also provide maintenance for the machines to ensure the “highest level of operational maintenance and efficiency”.
DAC also cleared an IAF proposal for issuance of a tender for construction of 56 transport aircraft by private industry players to replace the force’s fleet of Avro aircraft, they said.
“This is going to be a significant project in which the private sector would be the sole player and lead to capacity- building in the private sector,” Jaitley said in reference to the tender for replacing the Avro aircraft.
As per the proposal, private Indian defence companies such as Tata and Mahindra would be issued tender and they would build the aircraft in partnership with foreign firms.
The proposal was stuck under the previous UPA Government after the then Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel wrote to the Defence Ministry against the decision to keep out public sector firms from the project.
Defence Ministry had referred the matter to the Law Ministry, which opined in favour of the proposal for capacity- building in the domestic aerospace sector, Ministry officials said, adding that the tender would be issued soon.
Under the project, which was cleared earlier and is expected to cost over Rs 20,000 crore, the first 16 aircraft would be built at the facilities of the foreign vendor while the remaining 40 aircraft would be manufactured in India.
This would be the first time that the private sector would be allowed to manufacture a complete aircraft without participation of the public sector HAL, the only aerospace firm in the country.
The meeting also cleared the procurement of five Fast Patrol Vessels (FPV) and Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) each for the Coast Guard at the cost of Rs 2,360 crore.
The FPVs and OPVs would be built by the state-owned GRSE and Goa Shipyards Ltd, respectively, Ministry officials said.
A proposal to procure Search and Rescue (SAR) equipment for the three services at a cost of Rs 900 crore, too, received the green light.
The last meeting of the DAC was held on February 24 under the then Defence Minister AK Antony.
The NDA Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stressing on indigenisation of the military industry given that India has to import 70 per cent of its defence hardware.
In its first few days in office, the Modi Government has hiked the FDI limit in defence to 49 per cent from the earlier 26 per cent and significantly pruned the list of defence items whose production requires manufacturing licenses. (PTI)
Youth participating in Army recruitment rally at Sunjwan.
JAMMU, July 19: Army Recruiting Office, Jammu under Headquarters Recruiting Zone (Punjab and J&K), Jalandhar Cantonment, organized an Army Open Recruitment Rally in Zorawar Stadium, Sunjwan.
Prospective candidates of seven districts, including Samba, Kathua, Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Reasi took part in the recruitment rally from July 11.
Around 23,000 candidates have been screened and medical examination of successfully screened candidates is under progress. Written examination of successful candidates would be held at Sunjwan rally site on July 27, 2014.
This is second consecutive rally conducted by Army Recruiting Office, Jammu in last six months. The hard work put in by each candidate to give his best could be seen from their participation and preparation.
According to an official handout, general public has been informed that the recruitment in the Army is completely free service and anyone and everyone who meets the eligibility criteria can participate in the open rally, which will conclude tomorrow.
