DIG B A Itoo receiving guard of honour at Srinagar on Sunday.
SRINAGAR, Jan 19: The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) celebrated its 2nd annual Raising Day today at SDRF 1st Battalion Burzulla. Deputy Inspector General of Police, SDRF, HG & CD, Kashmir, B.A. Itoo was the chief guest and took salute on march past.
The chief guest while addressing the participants elucidated the importance of disaster management, preparedness and mitigation in the State.
Commandant SDRF 1st Bn, Mehraj Shah, in his speech gave brief description of the activities carried out by the SDRF last year especially during Shri Amarnathji Yatra-2013 and imparting of awareness and training to the college, school students, ASHA workers, NCC cadets and the general masses throughout Kashmir valley including Leh and Kargil.
A good number of officers from various departments and prominent citizens attended the Raising Day function.
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 19: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Council today adopted a strong worded political resolution denouncing terrorism, Chinese aggressions and Pakistan’s support to militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj moved political resolution in the National Council being held in New Delhi. Former BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu dwelt in detail on the resolution, which the National Council unanimously adopted along with the amendment of BJP national executive members and party’s senior leader, Dr Jitendera Singh.
The resolution voiced deep concern over China’s territorial ambitions in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh, Pakistan’s support to terrorism and UPA’s soft approach toward terrorism as well as China and Pakistan.
The resolution said terrorist has been spreading not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also other parts of the country due to `soft policies’ of the UPA Government, which has miserably failed to check the menace.
The resolution also called for taking tough stance against China for its frequent aggressions in Leh and Pakistan’s attempt to foment trouble on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Anil Gupta providing relief material to a beneficiary at Jammu on Sunday.
JAMMU, Jan 19: JKDF State president Anil Gupta today reiterated that party was determined to work for the welfare and resettlement of ex-servicemen and their families.
Participating as chief guest in the 3rd Raising Day of All J&K Paramilitary Forces Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association at Muthi, Anil Gupta said that JKDF would raise the issue of granting dual pension to personnel of Paramilitary forces in case a retired person from these forces is reemployed in any Civil Department of Central or State Government.
The Government decision to grant dual pension in this regard is currently applicable to only retired defence forces personnel.
“Keeping the Paramilitary forces out of these recommendations is unfair as well injustice to the thousands of retired personnel and their families of this country,” Anil Gupta said and alleged that these disparities have arisen due to lackadaisical approach of Government to recognize the services of ex- Paramilitary forces personnel at par with the Defence forces.
J S Bajju, president of All J&K Paramilitary Forces Ex-servicemen Association highlighted some other demands also, which include ex-Gracia to handicapped/medically ground ex-servicemen CAPF persons by the concerned State, 20 percent reservation to the wards of Para military forces ex-servicemen persons for recruitment, 15 percent quota for railway reservation, allotment of hostel for the CAPF ex-servicemen personal at the district level, free medical facility in State Government hospitals, free legal counseling, Rs 50000 from State Government to the personal who are awarded with gallantry award by the Central Government, VAT exemption on CSD Canteen items, revised pension cases accordance to the Sixth Pay Commission, one rank/one pay, pension on last revise pay scale, etc.
MoS Health, Shabir Khan administering pulse polio drop to a child on Sunday.
JAMMU, Jan 19: First round of Intensified Pulse Polio Immunization Programme began today with the administration of Pulse Polio drops to children at various places across Jammu and Kashmir.
Over 19.50 lakh children are being administered pulse polio drops through 11,477 booths established across the State in the first phase of the campaign. 45,370 trained personnel have been deployed to man the polio booths as also undertake door-to-door campaign with 315 mobile and 298 transit teams. For the purpose, 25 lakh pulse polio doses (vaccines) have been kept available at the hospitals and designated booths in both the divisions of the State.
This campaign will continue for another two days by way of house-to-house activity to trace and administer polio drops to the children left out on the first day of the round.
Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services and Sports, Taj Mohi-ud-Din launched the programme by administering Polio drops to children at SMGS Hospital Shalimar, Jammu while the Minister for CA&PD and Transport, Ch Mohammad Ramzan administered Pulse Polio drops to several children at District Hospital Handwara.
Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmed Khan formally launched first round of pulse polio immunization campaign 2014 at Kond Mohalla Dalgate, Srinagar this morning by administering pulse polio drops to new-born and other infants.
The Minister was accompanied by Secretary Health Services, Gazanfar Ali, Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, Mission Director NRHM, Dr Yashpal, Director Family Welfare, Dr Baldev Sharma, State Immunization Officer, Dr Dolamo and other senior officers of the Health Department.
On his return to Jammu this afternoon, the Health Minister straight way drew to Sarwal where he also administered pulse polio drops to 4 children including one newborn at Government Hospital, Sarwal.
Member Legislative Assembly, Prof Chaman Lal, Director Family Welfare, Dr Baldev Sharma, Mission Director, NRHM, Dr Yash Pal Sharma, Chief Medical Officer, Jammu, Dr Javid Bakshi were among others present on the occasion.
The Minister said it should be ensured that the children of snow-bound areas like Gurez, Machal and Karnah, Zanskar, Drass, Numa in Kashmir division and Padder, Warwan and remote and snow-bound areas of Rajouri, Poonch, Bani in Jammu division are covered by extending the drive for two to three days more in these areas.
The Intensive Pulse Polio Campaign in Reasi was launched at District Hospital by DDC Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary who was accompanied by Dr Mohd Younis, Chief Medical Officer.
At Katra, Pulse Polio campaign was launched by Additional SP Katra Kulveer Singh at Community Health centre in the presence of Deputy Chief Medical Officer Reasi Dr K C Dogra, Block Medical Officer Dr Gopal Dutt, staff member and locals.
SDM Mahore Ashwani Khajuria and DSWO supervised the campaign in Mahore and CEO Ashok Kumar Sanyal supervised in Pouni block.
More than 53,000 children in age group of 0-5 will be covered in three days through door to door campaign for eradication of pulse polio in Reasi. 364 centres have been established and 17 mobile teams constituted for ensuring 100 percent coverage. In 21 critical areas special teams have been distributed. In all 1638 officials are involved in the campaign. The monitoring cell in the office of Deputy Commissioner is constantly evaluating the field progress through random checking and feedback.
In Udhampur, over 84,500 children in the age group of 0-5years were administered oral Polio Vaccine. The DDC Udhampur, Yasha Mudgal launched the drive by administering Oral Polio vaccine to a baby in the District hospital. Chief Medical Officer, Dr Arun Sharma, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Santosh Sharma, Medical Superintendent, Dr Chander Parkash, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr Deepak, staff members, volunteers and ASHA works were present during the programme.
The first round of nationwide IPP was started in Doda by DDC Mubarak Singh who administering Polio drops to the children at New District Hospital. ADC Doda Imam Din and Chief Medical Officer Ajay Kumar Gupta besides Doctors and senior functionaries of the Health Department were present in the programme. The
DDC said that 610 Pulse Polio Immunization Booths have been established, 180 in Ghat Block, 90 in Bhaderwah, 125 in Assar, 70 in Gandoh and 145 in Thathri Block to provide vaccine to 78518 children. He also revealed that 2440 workers have been engaged for Booths and house to house activities which comprises of 680 workers for Health Department, 520 from ICD’s, 975 ASHA workers and voluntary workers, and 265 from Education Department.
In Samba, IPPI campaign was formally launched by DDC R K Varma at District Hospital Samba by administering polio drops to the children in the age group of 0-5years.
Chief Medical Officer Samba Dr Kartar Chand District Immunization Officer Dr Parminder Singh and Medical Superintendent District Hospital Dr A S Slathia besides doctors and senior functionaries of the Health Department were present on the occasion.
Lions Club Vijaypur Gourav organized a camp where children below the age of five years were administered pulse polio drops. Sat Dev Slathia coordinated between the Lions Club and Health Department in organizing the camp.
A Pulse Polio immunization Camp was organized under the aegis of BWWA at Ftr Hospital BSF Jammu today. The camp was inaugurated by Sweety Raina, acting president (BWWA) and Dr Vinod Kumar, Comdt (Med) along with its Hospital staff.
Total 121 children were administrated Pulse polio Vaccine during the camp. Similar Pulse Polio camp will be organized on February 23 in Ftr hospital BSF Jammu.
A Pulse Polio immunization camp was organized by 76th battalion of CRPF at Sector-7 in Channi Himmat Jammu, under the supervision of Dr Supinder Singh, Medical Officer and under command of Commandant Vikram Singh Thakur. Besides, the team of CRPF also administered polio drops to about 170 children by visiting door-to-door in the area.
Ex-servicemen (J&K) Cell organized a Pulse Polio camp at Buta Nagar where 51 children were administered the drops. The camp was supervised by Bishmaber Singh, who was assisted by Vijay Singh, Meenakshi Raina and others.
Rotary Club organized Pulse Polio Immunization camps at SIDCO Morh and Sarore Adda where children. In these camps, a number of children were administered pulse polio drops. Jai Ram, Kewal Gupta and Rajan Badyal supervised these camps.
At Baramulla, Pulse Polio Immunization Programme was inaugurated by the DDC Ghulam Ahmad Khawaja from slum area.
At Gurez, SDM inaugurated the Programme in the Tehsil in presence of the field staff while at Budgam, Chief Planning Officer, Noor Mohammad Wani administered Pulse Polio drops to the children upto 5 years of age at Chief Medical Officer’s office Budgam.
At Anantnag, PPIP was launched by the DDC Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone while at Kulgam, DDC Jehangir Mir administered Pulse Polio drops to children for formally launching the campaign.
At Bandipora, District Development Commissioner, Bandipora, M Y Zargar along with Chief Medical Officer Bandipora launched the Programme at Aham Sharief Bandipora where about 20 children were administered polio drops.
At Shopian, DDC Bashir Ahmad Bhat launched the campaign by administering polio drops to several children at District Hospital Shopian. 215 polio booths were established where 902 employees were deployed for the said programme.
At Pulwama, Chief Medical Officer, Pulwama launched the campaign and informed that 74,106 children are being covered in the district. For the purpose, 457 polio booths were established where 1828 employees were deployed.
In Ganderbal district, 43,139 children under the age of 0-5 years are being covered under PPI Programme. For the purpose, 223 polio booths were established where 936 employees were deployed for the said programme.
At Leh, 21,511 children under the age of 0-5 years were covered under the Programme in the district. 376 polio booths were established for the purpose.
Despite cold and minus temperature, parents got their wards administered polio drops at nearest Booths in Kargil district. The Health department had dispatched logistics and vaccine to far flung areas of the district two day earlier and established 382 booths, 10 transit camps and 3 mobile teams.
NEW DELHI, Jan 19:
Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen is planning to abduct Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for release of its key member Yaseen Bhatkal who was arrested from Indo-Nepal border on August 27 last year, police sources claimed today.
A team from the security wing of Delhi Police has briefed Kejriwal about this threat and requested him to take ‘Z’ category security cover, the top sources said.
However, it was not immediately clear what was the response of the Delhi Chief Minister in this regard. Senior Police officials said that they have received an input in this regard from intelligence agencies.
Kejriwal has been declining to take security cover keeping up with his Aam Aadmi Party’s policy to end VIP culture in politics.
A special NIA court on Friday allowed the plea by Karnataka Police to interrogate Bhatkal, 30 in connection with the blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in April, 2010.
Bhatkal, who hails from Bhatkal village in Udupi district of north Karnataka, was allegedly involved in a string of terror attacks in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad, the NIA had said.
He was earlier associated with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and is alleged to have hatched a conspiracy with others to wage a war against India.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal today declined the Delhi Police offer to give him ‘Z’ category security cover after an alleged threat by terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen to kidnap him.
“I am not afraid of my life. As I said, I strongly believe in God. I will not take any security,” Mr Kejriwal said. A team from the Delhi Police has offered ‘Z’ category security cover to Mr Kejriwal after an alleged threat by terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen to kidnap him, sources said.(Agencies)
Napier, Jan 19:
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today said his team’s failure to build partnerships after losing early wicket was the cause of the defeat against New Zealand in the first one-dayer and asked his batsmen to step-up with more consistent performances.
Chasing 293 for victory, India lost the first ODI of the five-match series here by 24 runs despite Virat Kohli (123) scoring a superb century.
“We lost three quick wickets of Virat, Ravindra Jadeja and mine, and that was the turning point of the match,” said Dhoni at the post match press conference.
“That was when we needed a partnership and we need to learn out of this. It is important to get partnerships going. The number four and five batsmen haven’t been consistent for us. Even if we don’t get hundreds or fifties from them, those slots are crucial when the opposition scores 280-300 runs. After we lose early wickets, we need partnerships to rebuild and cannot play catch up, thus putting pressure on the lower middle order,” he added.
Dhoni, however, said the fact that the team got close to the target showed that the batsmen have a lot of firepower.
“At the same time, we can say that not many batsmen scored runs but we were still able to get close to 290 runs. It means that we have got plenty of firepower. We just need to apply ourselves better and it will see us through,” he said.
Four out of the top six batsmen — Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself — fell to short balls or bouncers, perhaps underlining a growing weakness in the Indian batting line-up. But the wicketkeeper-batsman was quick to negate the theory.
“One of the options is, not to play the shot but our strength has been to play shots,” he opined. “At times we will get caught because it’s a difficult shot to play. But we need to play it and master this shot because overseas you cannot allow the bowlers to dominate and cannot leave all of them.
“But we can always pick and choose when to play and when not to play this shot,” Dhoni explained. (PTI)
Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Jan 19: One person was killed while another seriously injured after a tractor trolley rolled down into a gorge near Nowshera today.
A police spokesman said that one Mushtaq Ahmed, son of Lal Din, resident of Gagrote village was killed on the spot when his tractor No. JK-11/6428, fell into a gorge near the village today. One Tariq Ahmed, son of Ghulam Din of the same village, who was sitting with the driver, sustained serious injuries. He was admitted at Nowshera Hospital. The police has taken cognizance of the matter.
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 19: To pick the players for representing Jammu and Kashmir in the 20th Junior, Senior and Mastermen/Handicaped National Strength Lifting Championship, to be held at Ravindera Bhawan Bally Howrah in West Bengal from February 12 to February 14, 2014, the Jammu and Kashmir Strength Lifting Association is holding selection trials on January 21, 2014 at Royal Health Club, Gujjar Nagar here.
The Association has advised the players interested to take part in the trials to report at the venue at 11 am on the aforementioned date.
Bhubaneswar, Jan 19:
Hockey India (HI) today announced a panel of umpires for the second edition of the Hero Hockey India League to be played between January 25 and February 23.
Bjorn Isberg will lead the team of umpires as tournament director in the league to be played across Delhi, Mumbai, Mohali, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Lucknow, HI sources said.
In recent years, Bjorn has conducted many events as Tournament Director including 2012 London Olympics, FIH Champions Trophy tournaments at Lahore (2004), Kuala Lumpur (2007) and Auckland (2011) and FIH Indoor World Cup 2011 in Poland.
Bjorn will be supported by Claudius de Sale and Shakeel Quereshi as Assistant Tournament Directors while Craig Gribble will be the Umpires Manager for the Tournament with ten national and international umpires to support him during the event, sources said.
Gribble expects this to be a wonderful opportunity for the Umpire group to develop and apply their craft to an exciting brand of hockey, sources added.
Gribble will have a team of well known international umpires including Diego Barbas from Argentina, Eduardo Lizana from Spain and Jakub Mejzlik from Czechoslovakia.
The Indian contingent includes Javed Shaikh, Raghu Prasad, G S Sangha, Pankaj Tyagi, Ripudaman Sharma, Harshwardhan.
The entire team of Umpires has established credentials of adjudging many international tournaments.
In a statement, chairman of Hero Hockey India Leage Dr Narinder Batra said: “I am extremely delighted to have such a strong and well established panel of technical experts to judge the tournament. This clearly raises the profile of the League many folds amongst international audience. The team is amongst the chosen few experts who are well respected across the world for their precise and fair decisions.”
Team of Indian Judges include Devendra Bhatia, Anjali Sharma, Sania Bhatia, Michael Lal, Milind Narvekar and Avinash Srivastava. (PTI)
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 19: Police today claimed to have arrested a drug peddler in Sirgufwara area of district Anantnag and recovered 19 kgs of cannabis from him.
A police spokesman said the peddler has been identified as Gulam Hassan Bandroo of Satkipora, Sirgufwara.
“An FIR No. 4/2014 has been registered and further investigation has been started, the spokesman said.
In another incident, 8 kgs cannabis was recovered from a residential house at Pampore.
The spokesman said on a tip off, police raided a house at Dhobi Mohalla, Kadlabal, Pampore. During the search police recovered the cannabis from the house of Abdul Hamid Mir alais Hamid Charsi son of Ghulam Rasool.
He was taken in to custody for questioning after a case FIR No.10/2014 under Section 8/20 NDPS Act was registered.
He said the investigation has been started, more recoveries and arrests are expected.
