Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 23: The authorities have failed to maintain a proper check and regulate the traffic in Jammu city even after the protests by people.
The traffic chaos has been a common problem in Jammu city and almost all routes face daily jams. The problem, however, becomes worst after the darbar move from Srinagar to Winter Capital.
The people accuse Government of its total failure in finding an everlasting solution to the problem, which is getting compounded day by day. Though various social and political organizations from Jammu constantly demand widening of the city roads, construction of alternative roads and flyovers especially from Jewel to Ambphalla and Canal to Talab Tiloo, the successive Governments failed to pay any attention to it, said Ram Kumar a social activist.
He said hundreds of new vehicles are adding to the public and private transport every month in Jammu alone while the width of the roads is over three decades old and till authorities pay attention to this issue, the traffic chaos will be a continuous problem in Jammu.
The people are confronted with traffic problem on every city road especially B C road from Shakuntala Cinema to Rehari Chungi, Canal road
to Jewel Chowk, Basant Nagar, Paloura to Disco Morh, Janipur and Ambphalla to New Plots said Satish Poonchi president Jammu Kashmir Peoples Front.
He said the demand for construction of flyovers and circular roads in these areas is a long pending one but Government is always making false promises with the people in this regard.
The people fail to reach their destinations in time due to traffic jams in the city as it takes a vehicle not less than 20 to 30 minutes to reach from Canal to Jewel a distance which can hardly be covered in three minutes.
Same problem is being faced by the commuters at B C road from Shakuntala Cinema to Rehari Chungi. On this road the traffic jam is witnessed throughout the day. To reach their destinations in time and save themselves from being trapped in the jam for a long time the two wheelers and some LMVs usually ply on the footpath.
To get rid of this problem the army has erected barricades on the foot path at B C road so that no two wheeler or LMV could cross over the foot path during traffic jam.
Though the Government is ceased of the issue, it has failed to pay attention to the problem for reasons best known to it, said Mr Poonchi.
He warned if the problem is not paid immediate attention it will become more complicated in future.
The Government should look into the problem immediately and give topmost priority in widening city roads, construction of circular roads as well as flyovers, said Mukesh Sharma another social activist.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 23: Minister for Rural Development, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar today said that the new rules regarding the Registration of Hindu Marriages (RHM) would be people friendly and would cater to the aspirations of every section of the society.
The Minister was speaking at a Cabinet Sub-Committee meeting constituted under his chairmanship. The Minister for Industries and Commerce S. S. Slathia and the Minister for Health and Horticulture Sham Lal Sharma, members of the Committee, besides Commissioner/Secretary Law G. H. Tantary, Special Secretary Law R. K. Koul and other senior officers of Law Department were present.
The Minister said that the views and suggestions have been obtained from prominent religious leaders, representatives of various religious organizations, members of Bar Association, faculty of Law School Jammu and due consideration was given to them in the light of Supreme Court directions and in accordance with the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Hindu Marriage Act 1980. He said that the model of rules of other neighboring states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh have also been taken into consideration while drafting the new rules.
It is pertinent to mention that the need for framing Hindu Marriages Registration Rules (HMRR) has arisen due to the Court judgment in the case of Seema V/s Ashwani Kumar where in it had directed that marriages of all persons who are citizens of India shall be compulsorily registerable in their respective states. In this connection every State Government and Central Government was directed to notify the procedure for registration of marriages by amending the existing rules, if any, or by framing new rules.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 23: A large number of Government employees from various departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) today staged protest demonstration near Press Club in support of their demands.
The employees and workers under the banner of Govt Employees Joint Action Committee (GEJAC), assembled near Exhibition Ground, adjoining Press Club Jammu in the morning and then held demonstration. A strong contingent of police force was already deployed there to stall their march towards Civil Secretariat. They were shouting slogans in support of their demands and also against the Government attitude.
Several leaders of the Employees Joint Action Committee including Suresh Sharma, Sushil Sudan, Subash Verma, Aijaz Khan, Shabir Lingu, Ishtiaq Beg, Gh Hassan Malik, Suman Sharma, Bashir Mir and Mohd Farooq addressed the gathering. They strongly criticized the Government for causing delay in releasing of 6th Pay Commission arrears of the workers, removal of pay anomalies, regularization of daily rated/ consolidated workers and implementation of Pay Commission recommendations in PSUs fully.
They pointed out that Government has failed to honour its commitment. They said that employees will give 15 days time to the Government and if it failed to honour its commitment, the employees will be forced to start agitation. This symbolic protest must be considered as a warning signal, they maintained.
Later, the employees tried to march towards the Civil Secretariat in the form of a rally but they were not allowed beyond Dogra Chowk by cops. The workers showed some resistance but they were cane charged and forced to confine to the specific area selected for protest.

Khurshid, while campaigning for his wife Louise, a Congress candidate from Farrukhabad in UP, had promised the electorate last month that the party would increase the sub-quota for minorities to 9%, out of the 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation.

AHMEDABAD: A magisterial court on Thursday issued notices to Supreme Court-appointed SIT after social activists Teesta Setalvad and Mukul Sinha filed two separate applications seeking the copies of the SIT report filed in the Zakia Jafri case.

The court of metropolitan magistrate M S Bhatt issued notices to the SIT and posted the hearing to Feb 13.

The SIT on Wednesday filed a closure report in the sealed cover on the complaint of Jafri, wife of ex-Congress MP Eshan Jaffery.

Jafri in her complaint had sought prosecution of Modi, along with 57 others, for aiding and abetting communal riots.

Ehsan Jafri was among the 69 persons killed in the Gulberg Housing society riots. Around 1,200 people were killed in the communal riots.

On September 12 last year, the Supreme Court had refused to pass any order on Modi’s alleged inaction in containing riots in 2002 and left it to the concerned magistrate’s court to decide the course of action against him on the basis of the SIT report.

In the petition, Zakia had alleged that Modi and 62 top government officials deliberately refused to take action to contain the state-wide riots, triggered by the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage.

The SC had further said that in case the magistrate decides to drop proceedings against Modi and others, he has to hear the plea of Zakia, who had filed a complaint against the chief minister and others.

Jafri had told the apex court that a proper probe should be carried out by the SIT, headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan, into her allegations of inaction and various acts of omission and commission by Modi and others during the riots.

The apex court in 2009 had earlier handed over the task of probing the case to SIT which submitted its report in 2011.