Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: The Literary Club of the Model Institute of Engineering and Technology was today formally inaugurated at its Kot Bhalwal Campus. Prof Lalit Magotra, former Dean and Professor, University of Jammu and literary luminary was the chief guest on the occasion, while Dr Arun K Gupta, Chairman MIER Group was the guest of honour.
The Literary Club which is the first of its kind in the region has been setup through a student initiative with an ambitious vision of promoting creativity and imagination among the students leading to holistic development. Other dignitaries present on the occasion were Prof Ankur Gupta, Joint Director, MIER Group, Prof S K Sharma, Principal, MIET and Prof GS Sambyal, Senior Professor MIET and former Registrar, University of Jammu.
On this occasion, several literary events including poetry writing, painting, debating, quizzing and short-story writing were organized in which over 100 students participated.
Prof SK Sharma, Principal MIET presented welcome address.
Dr Arun K Gupta described Literature as a great source of insights into the finer aspects of culture and humanity.
Chief guest, Prof Lalit Magotra encouraged the students to develop interest for literature, art and culture.
Prof Ankur Gupta presented the roadmap of the Club.
The student conveners of the Literary Club, Bushra Hasan, Deepika Pandita and Rishabh Magotra were felicitated on the occasion.
MIET Literary Club inaugurated to preserve heritage
Symposium on Narcotic Control held
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
Jammu, Jan 23: A function on ‘Narcotics Control Campaign’ was organized today in the premises of Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School Mubarak Mandi Jammu under the aegis of Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs (Govt. of India).
MLA East Ashok Khajuria graced the occasion as chief guest and Director School Education Tushar Kanti Sharma was the guest of honour.
Principal of the school Shashi Prabha presented welcome address.
A slide show highlighting various aspects of the narcotic control campaign was presented by Luv Kumar, Lecturer.
Chief guest while addressing the students laid stress on mot to use narcotics as it leads mental as well as social degradation. He impressed upon the youth to carry forward the message of Narcotics Control Campaign.
A symposium on the topic Use of narcotic drugs was organized on the occasion in which 10 students participated. Proceedings of the programme were conducted by Deepak Kumar, Sr. Lecturer Physics and same was organized by Aseem Gupta.
The vote of thanks was presented by C.D Sharma.
Prominent among others present on the occasion were Rajesh Gupta, Subash Gupta, Kuldeep Kandhari, Raj Singh and R.S Sharma.
Anchal wins silver in National Karate C’ship
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: Anchal Kumar Sharma won silver medal in the 26th All India National Karate-Do Championship held at Tata Nagar in Jamshedpur.
Apart from Anchal, Rohit Kumar and Rewati Nandan also played superbly in the Championship.
The Championship was organized by All India Karate-Do Federation (Mumbai) and hosted by Uttrakhand Karate Association.
The participants from Jammu and Kashmir were led by Sanjeev Dewan, Governing Body Member of AIKF.
NCC cadet gets ‘Raksha Mantri Padak’
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: NCC Directorate of Jammu and Kashmir brought laurels to the State as its cadet Sheikh Aamir from Army Goodwill Public School Pahalgam was awarded ‘Raksha Mantri Padak’ with a cash award of Rs 10,000 in function at Delhi.
Mr Aamir was chosen for the award for his outstanding contribution in rescue and rehabilitation of victims of devastating fire, engulfing village ‘Frislan’ in Pahalgam in March, 2013.
The cadet alongwith Lt Farooq Ahmad, Associate NCC Officer were the first to join Fire and Emergency Department to overcome the disaster and save precious lives.
For outstanding leadership, Lt Farooq Ahmad was also awarded Commendation Card from Director General NCC Delhi and Commendation Card from Corps Commander 15 Corps. 30 other cadets were also felicitated on the occasion.
Sanjay Dutt prays at temple, dargah for his wife
MUMBAI, Jan 23:
Actor Sanjay Dutt, whose wife Maanyata is currently undergoing medical treatment at a hospital, visited a temple to pray for her recovery.
Earlier this month, Maanyata was admitted to a private hospital in suburban Mumbai after being diagnosed with a tumour in liver and a suspected heart ailment.
Dutt, who is under emotional distress because of his wife’s ill-health, recently visited Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir in Dadar and the holy Sayyed Haji Abdul Rehman Shah Baba Dargah in Dongri to pray for her recovery.
On December 21, the 53-year-old Bollywood actor and 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case convict was granted a month’s leave from Yerwada Jail in Pune after he filed an application citing his wife’s illness.
Earlier this week, the Maharashtra government extended his parole by another 30 days on the ground of his wife’s illness.
“My wife has a tumour of the liver. There have been many cancer instances in my family. Doctors are investigating. Please pray for my wife. We will follow medical course after the investigation,” Dutt had said earlier.
Dutt had been convicted by the Supreme Court last year and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 bomb blasts.
He had already served 18 months of his term and is currently undergoing the remaining 42 months of his sentence. (PTI)
Sikh organisations pay tributes to riots’ victims
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: Paying rich tributes to the innocent victims of January 1989 anti-Sikh riots, here today, various Sikh organisations condemned the State Government for its failure to publish Ansari Commission Report and demanded to publish the same at the earliest.
Senior leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Sikh Students Federation, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Sikh Intellectuals Circle, Jammu Kashmir Sikh League and Sikh Welfare Front, today paid rich tribute to the victims of anti-Sikh in a joint meeting held here today. All the leaders strongly condemned the Government for its continuous discrimination with Sikh community in every field and silence over the genuine issues and grievance of the Sikh community.
“It is unfortunate that successive Governments in the State have failed to publish Ansari Commission Report and to lodge a single FIR in this connection, they said, adding the present State Government has miserably failed to do justice with Sikh community in the matter of employment, settlement of refugee’s issue, introduction of Punjabi language in schools and minority status to Sikhs of the State.
The leaders also urged the State Government to immediately complete all the formalities at each district for the smooth conduct of long pending Gurudwara Elections.
Star India to invest over Rs 1,500 crore in hockey
Mumbai, Jan 23: India’s leading sports network, Star Sports today announced that it will invest over Rs 1,500 crore in the sport of Hockey over next 8 years. With this unprecedented investment in the history of the game,Star India has become truly the biggest global investor in Hockey and along side Hockey India and International Hockey Fedration (FIH) embarked upon a journey to promote the game.
Nitin Kukreja, sports business head of Star India, said, ‘Our aim is to transform the sporting landscape and imbibe a culture of multiple sports in India. Sports broadcasers in India have traditionally invested only in Crkcket, but shied away from committing such heavy investments in other games. We believe Hockey has potential for growth, but needs certain key ingredients to come together.’
‘We believe that a vibrant local league, international events in India including the 2018 Hockey World Cup, world class production coverage are essential ingridents to popularize the sport and help nurture future champions,’ he added.
Star Sports is set to create a new global benchmark in Hockey broadcasting with the telecast of the second edition of the Hockey India League. The channel has invested over Rs 100 crore in the promotion and production of the second edition of HHIL, which starts in couple of days. The HIL Broadcaster will use as many as 20 cameras for the very first time in the history of the sport for each and every match during the league-covering every piece of action on the Astroturf.
On the occasion, Viren Rasquinha, former India Hockey captain and former Pakistani Hockey captain Tahir Zaman were also present. (UNI)
DAHWA holds rural awareness- cum-public grievances camps
Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Jan 23: To have on the spot feel of people, especially the women, and to generate awareness about various welfare measures initiated by the Government, the Destitute And Welfare Association (DAHWA) held several rural awareness-cum-public grievances camps in various villages in Majalta, Udhampur.
Major thrust of these camps was to seek the attention of the targeted segment of population towards various schemes aimed at their socio-economic emancipation and to motivate them to derive optimum benefits. The resource personnel of DAHWA gave an account of the initiatives taken by the Government to enhance the quality of life of the people by way of empowering them and launching various community development schemes to ensure basic services.
At Mansar, the locals projected demands related to their areas, which mainly pertained to construction of lanes and drains at SC Mohalla near PHC, acute shortage of drinking water supply at Kattal and Jasoor besides water supply to the reservoirs constructed under Gambhir WSS project. At Bharanara, the people demanded installation of electric poles and water connections in Megh Mohalla besides opening of new anganwari center at Mohalla Pir Galli Bharnara.
Similarly at Dhema, the locals demanded water connections as just 20 per cent of the population has been covered under tapped water, the local Sarpanch said.
Chairperson DAHWA, S.S.Sumbria, dwelt on the programmes aimed at rural empowerment and assured the people that their association will help them get maximum benefit of these schemes.
KKR name Raman as batting coach
Kolkata, Jan 23: The Kolkata Knight Riders have appointed W V Raman as the batting coach.
Raman has had a distinguished track record in both domestic and international levels and has coached Tamil Nadu and Bengal in domestic competition.
Commenting on the announcement, KKR CEO Venky Mysore said ‘ We are delighted to have Raman join our coaching staff. He joins a strong core group of Trevor Bayliss, Wasim Akram and Vijay Dahiya. His experience with the Bengal team and at the Eden Gardens will be really useful going into the new season.’ (UNI)
Govt determined to encourage new farm sector in State: Bhalla
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) J&K Regional Office organised a State Credit seminar which was inaugurated by Minister for Housing, Horticulture and Culture Raman Bhalla, here today.
Commissioner/Secretary Agriculture Production A H Samoon, Chief General, NABARD Dr. B G Makhopadhyay, Director Industries and Commerce Gulzar Ahmed Qureshi, Registrar Cooperative Society Sudershan Sharma besides senior officers from Handloom, Sheep Husbandry, Industry, NABARD, SKUAST and representatives from various banks were present in the seminar.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Bhalla reiterated that credit flow to agriculture and allied sector is one of the critical factors which affect growth of the State economy and the State Government is determined to provide conducive policy environment which will fully support and encourage new farm sector investments in the agriculture sector.
Four per cent target for growth in agriculture which is critical for inclusive growth and food security must be achieved in the 12th Five Year Plan by increasing productivity for major crops by applying modern agronomic practices and better price discovery using post harvest management systems duly supported by institutional credit.
Acknowledging the long and fruitful partnership between State Government and NABARD for creation of various infrastructure facilities in the State, Mr. Bhalla reiterated that the RIDF support has enabled creation of 14,000 KMs rural roads, bringing additional one lakh ha under irrigation besides creation of other infrastructure. He further added that State Government has taken a note of the fact that under various sectors NABARD has identified some of the critical infrastructure requirements which may be taken up for development during 2014-15.
The Minister expressed his concern over low CD ratio which hovers around 37% and called upon all the bankers to fully meet the credit requirements of the farmers as well as other entrepreneurs to address this concern and support capital investment in the State.
Mr. Bhalla also released the State Focus Paper 2014-15 prepared by NABARD and Model Schemes for Apple Orchards.
Chief General Manager NABARD Dr. B G Mukhopadhyay highlighted that the State Focus paper identifies thrust areas and credit potentials for various sub-sectors and required infrastructure support for smooth and adequate credit flow in rural areas. In the State, NABARD has identified total credit potential under priority sector lending of Rs. 12377.45 crore which includes Rs. 2941.14 crore for crop production, maintenance and marketing, Rs. 1672.63 crore for investment credit for agriculture and allied activities, Rs. 2877.37 crore for micro small and medium enterprises and Rs. 4886.31 crore for other priority sector for financial year 2014-15.