Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal reviewing Darbar Move arrangements in a meeting at Srinagar on Friday.
SRINAGAR, Apr 6: To review the arrangements being put in place for annual Darbar Move from Jammu, a high level meeting of Divisional and District Officers was convened by the Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal here today.
The meeting was attended by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon, IGP Kashmir, S.M. Sahai and officers of Tourism, Information, Transport, Engineers of various disciplines.
The Chief Secretary was informed that Estates Department has arranged 1285 residential quarters out of which 780 are being provided to Darbar Move employees while 166 rooms are being allotted to senior officers by JKTDC at TRC, Kanposh and Heemal Hotels besides 43 huts in Cheshmashahi are also being acquired for the residential purposes for senior officers of the State. He was also informed that 115 hotels have been identified with the capacity of 3287 room.
The Chief Secretary directed the concerned officers to speed up the all the under construction projects so that they are completed within the stipulated time for the convenience of move employees. He also directed officers to ensure uninterrupted and water supply, sanitation in quarters of move employees, roads and parks. He asked the CAPD authorities to make LPG cylinders available for Darbar Move employees from Jammu to Srinagar with elaborate security arrangements.
Later, Madhav Lal conducted detailed tour of Civil Secretariat and took stock of renovation works being carried out. He also inspected the newly constructed additional block in the Civil Secretariat premises. He also inspected the newly setup 6 offices and 3 meeting halls in the Civil Secretariat.
Governor, N N Vohra chairing University Council meeting of SKUAST-Jammu on Friday.
JAMMU, Apr 6 : Governor N. N. Vohra today emphasized the need for greater coordination among the Universities of the State and extension agencies of the Government besides creating a corpus of scientists to share expertise and research findings and for convergence of initiatives to effectively meet the effects of climate change and take required measures for enhancing agri-productivity on sustainable basis.
The Governor was chairing the 7th University Council meeting of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Jammu, at Raj Bhavan, here today.
The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the University, suggested that the larger objectives of the State would be far better served if the Vice Chancellors of all the Universities and major institutions of higher learning in J&K could establish effective coordination and carry through collaborative approaches in identified areas.
Reviewing the status of establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras, the Governor called for making the Kendras as nodal points for transfer of agri-technology from the labs to land and dissemination of improved agricultural practices for the speedy growth of agriculture and each of its allied sectors.
He stressed the importance of ensuring the establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras within envisaged time-lines, adding that if sustained coordinated efforts can be organized, there can be no difficulty in achieving a significantly high growth rate in agriculture production in the next 2-3 years. He also asked the University to propagate the model of integrated farming so that the small land holding farmers could achieve surpluses.
Referring to the vocational training courses being run by the Universities, the Governor stressed that the intake of youth for undergoing such short-term courses should be increased to enlarge their employability as also equipping them with necessary skills to set up their own ventures in the sectors like dairy, fish and poultry farming, food processing, vegetable and mushroom cultivation, apiculture, sericulture, etc.
To ensure against any further delay, the Governor urged the Agriculture Minister to early convene a meeting of all concerned authorities and arrive at an agreed approach to set up a multi-disciplinary Empowered Task Force for Water Management. The Governor advised that a similar Task Force approach could be adopted for the collection and analysis of all data relating to Agriculture and its allied sectors for evolving region, area and crop specific strategies for boosting production. He stressed the usefulness of drawing up a comprehensive Action Plan for transfer of requisite agricultural practices to enhance productivity and production of various crops in the rainfed areas of the State.
Minister for Horticulture and Floriculture Sham Lal Sharma put forth several suggestions for the growth of these sectors while as Minister for Agriculture, emphasized the need for greater coordination among the Farm Universities and the extension agencies of the Government for the growth of agriculture and its allied sectors in the State.
Aga Syed Ruhulla Mehdi, Minister for Animal and Sheep Husbandry, emphasized the need for running courses in Dairy Technology by the Farm Universities of the State.
Dr. B. Mishra, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST, Jammu, presented a detailed report on the status of teaching, research and extension activities undertaken by the University.
The meeting took stock of various research projects and other initiatives taken after the last meeting of the SKUAST, besides discussing other agenda items which included a review of the follow-up action in respect of various decisions taken in the last meeting.
The Council approved the two-tier Career Advancement Scheme for Non-Teaching employees of the University besides taking decisions on various other agenda items.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Tej Partap, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST, Kashmir; Dr. A. R. Trag, Vice Chancellor, Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipore; M. I. Khandey, Principal Secretary, Finance; Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary to the Governor; Shaleen Kabra, Commissioner/Secretary, Agriculture Production; and Dr. B. B. Gupta, Registrar, SKUAST, Jammu.
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 6: Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today said that the Ministry is contemplating to introduce structural improvements for strengthening the performance and reach of different media units in the State.
Chairing a meeting of all the media units under Ministry here today, Mr Varma stressed the need of close coordination and synchronization to improve performance of the media units for effective results at grass root level. He said all the media units need to bring transparency and encourage work culture to flourish, for improving the information dissemination mechanism.
He said this would help in reaching out to the common masses with the information about the policies, programmes, achievements and initiatives of the Central Government, in a better way.
The Secretary also called for strengthening Inter Media Publicity Coordination Committee (IMPCC) with the instruction to hold IMPCC meetings on monthly basis for better coordination.
Mr Varma informed the meeting that the Ministry is constituting Recruitment Board & framing Rules within six months, for strengthening the Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India (PBBCI). He assured the meeting that the issue of office accommodation for the media units other than Prasar Bharti will be looked into seriously and instructed the officers concerned to work out some temporary feasible arrangements.
The meeting was attended by L.R. Vishwanathan, Director S&DD, New delhi besides heads and representatives of local offices of AIR, DDK, PIB, DFP, S&DD, AIR/DDK (News) and Engineering wings.
Earlier, the Secretary chaired a similar meeting at Jammu. He also visited proposed site for High Power Transmitter of AIR & Doordarshan at Nathatop/Patnitop.
Mr Varma is on a four day official visit to J&K to review the issues pertaining to the working of all the media units under Ministry in the State.
The Secretary is scheduled to attend a Seminar on ‘TDSAT’ at SKICC on Saturday.
Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu Apr 6: Expressing deep concern at the lack of progress on taking forward the cross LoC trade and travel process, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today cautioned leadership of India and Pakistan against the serious pitfalls that could result from it.
“Credibility of the entire peace process is at stake and unless the two Governments come over the hawkish elements in each country to implement major decisions taken by them the painstakingly built effort could breed renewed cynicism in the state with serious implications” Mr Sayeed said while addressing a gathering of people from Hiranagar, who joined PDP under the leadership of prominent Dalit leader Suraj Prakash here today.
PDP patron told the gathering, on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the launch of historic Karvan-e-Amn between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, that the bus service between the two halves of the state was started after 58 years by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi from Srinagar on 7th April 2005 to facilitate the coming together of divided families, with a vision to extend it into regular travel and travel facility to break the decades long siege around the state.
Mufti said it was sad that the Governments of India and Pakistan had failed to implement the decisions taken by their Foreign Ministers more than a year back to carry forward the original vision of bringing the two sides closer through trade, travel, joint ventures and cultural exchanges. He said there was no reason as to why the two Governments should take so long to implement the decision to open more routes in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions, increase bus frequency, remove hassles in providing permits and more importantly extend the facility to all categories for tourism and pilgrimage purposes.
Referring to the situation that had prevailed in the state when the present peace process was launched by Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mufti said it had proved to be the most sustainable effort in the unhappy relationship between India and Pakistan only because it was primarily driven by the desire for peaceful resolution of the people of state.
“Vajpayee picked up the vibes from Srinagar correctly and embarked on a bold process amid clouds of war and the initial support it received from the UPA leadership broke the hardened mindsets of the security establishments which had held the state hostage for decades”, he said and called for employing similar statesmanship by the leadership to take it out of the groove it apparently has gone into. He said the tardy implementation of decisions could cause serious disillusionment among the people of the state who had started feeling its benefits even though in very small measure yet.
He said the trade across LoC is not just about exchanging ‘potatoes for pulses’ but it has an important historic, cultural and economic perspective. “PDP wants opening up of all traditional routes through Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh and Kargil regions and lifting curbs on travel and trade to create an Economic Free Zone (EFC) across the state that with its tremendous natural resources could become one of the most affluent regions of the country”, he maintained. He said major hurdles had been crossed in this process by conceding important principles like travel on permits instead of passport and visa and trade without custom duties and it needed only fine tuning now in terms of the decisions taken by foreign ministers last year.
FEROZEPUR, Apr 6:
The Border Security Force (BSF) today recovered 8 kg heroin, worth Rs 40 crore in the international market, in Ferozepur sector of the Indo-Pakistan border today.
Officiating BSF DIG Madal Lal said following a tip-off, the 143 Battalion of BSF conducted a search in Basti Ram Lal Border Outpost and found eight packets of heroin of 1 kg each near pillar number 178/3.
He said the contraband was thrown by Pakistani smugglers from across the border to be picked up by their contacts in India. However, the BSF jawans thwarted their attempts by intercepting the consignment. (UNI)
NEW DELHI, Apr 6:
Bullion traders and jewellers today called off their 21-day nationwide strike after meeting UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who assured them that their demand for rollback of excise duty on unbranded jewellery would be considered.
“We have notified all our members to call off the agitation with immediate effect,” Dinesh Jain, Director of Governing Board, All-India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, told.
Most of the jewellery shops would open from tomorrow, today being holiday on account of Good Friday.
Traders are estimated to have lost Rs 20,000 crore due to the strike which began on March 17 after presentation of the Budget on the previous day.
Jewellers, however, threatened that strike would resume again if the proposal to levy excise duty of one per cent is not withdrawn in the Finance Bill, which is expected to come up before Parliament early next month.
“The strike has been suspended till May 11, as the Finance Minister has assured us on a decision on rollback on excise duty and customs duty by first week of May,” Jain said.
Delhi-based All India Sarafa Association general secretary Surendra Jain also said that their members have also agreed to suspend the strike.
Some of traders who met Mukherjee, said the Finance Minister has assured them that their grievances with regard to levy of 1 per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery would be addressed.
Before traders met Gandhi, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said the party has asked the Government to consider jewellers’ demand sympathetically.
Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S K Goel said that Mukherjee has assured traders that he would address their concerns at the time of consideration of the Finance Bill 2012 in Parliament and “associations have agreed to withdraw the strike”.
“We will decide on calling off strike… Industry lost nearly Rs 20,000 crore due to this strike and the Government lost nearly Rs 1,200 crore (in revenue),” All-India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation chairman Bachhraj Bamalwa said after meeting with the Finance Minister.
Meanwhile, Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Chairman Rajiv Jain welcomed the assurance given by the Finance Minister and appealed to all jewellers in the country to resume their day to day business operations as early as possible
“The Finance Minister also assured that the import duty imbalance for jewellery imported under Free Trade Agreement from Thailand and other issues faced by the gems and jewellery exporters due to recent announcements in the budget will be looked into,” the GJEPC said in a statement.
On March 16, a day before jewellers began their strike, gold prices in the national capital were ruling at Rs 28,140 per ten grams. In Mumbai, gold rates stood Rs 27,760 per ten grams.
India, the world’s largest gold consumer, imported 967 tonnes of precious metal in 2011. Gold is the second biggest commodity imported after crude oil. (PTI)
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 6: At least 20 people including 6 policemen were injured in clashes that broke out in Baramulla town this afternoon after protesters pelted stones on police station Baramulla.
The protests broke out after the chairman of the hardline faction of Huriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, addressed a gathering in the Main Chowk of the town.
Some of the people from the gathering attacked the police station Baramulla with stones resulting in the ding dog battles between police and the stone pelting protesters.
Around 6 police men were injured in the stone pelting while police resorted to baton charging and tear-smoke shelling at the protesters. At least 14 protesters were injured as police chased them in the township.
The ding dong battles between police and stone throwing protesters created panic in the township. The shopkeepers closed their shops and ran for safety and traffic went off the roads due to the trouble in the town.
The protests and clashes spread to other areas of the town like Tehsil point, Tanga Adda, Khawaja Bagh Adda, Cement Bridge, Bata Gali and Kiraya Park.
Reports said that security forces barged into several houses in the township and beat up people and broke window panes of the residential houses in retaliation.
However, a police spokesman said that some miscreants turned violent and resorted to stone pelting on police station Baramulla after Geelani addressed a gathering at Main Chowk, Baramulla.
“Today after SAS Geelani addressed a gathering at Main Chowk Baramulla a constituent of the gathering indulged in stone pelting on Police Station, Baramulla. However, police exercised maximum restraint and the stone pelters dispersed from the place,” said the police spokesman.
He said that such incidents of violence after the address of Geelani took place at many places during last year.
Meanwhile, in his speech, Geelani said that Pakistan government should not back out from its support to the Kashmiris during the ‘ongoing movement’. He said the only solution to Kashmir lies in implementation of United Nations resolutions adding that any other solution or formula is unacceptable to the people of Kashmir.
Geelani asked people to observe complete strike on Saturday (April 7) against the two year sentence awarded to former chairman of Kashmir American Council (KAC), Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai.
NEW DELHI, Apr 6:
A young engineer was strangled allegedly by his three friends in west Delhi for getting hold of the money the victim’s father got in a land deal, police said today.
Johny Gupta (23), who works as a site engineer with a private company, was murdered on April three night hours after his close friend Anoop (25) allegedly took him to a godown in Kamruddin Nagar in west Delhi’s Nihal Vihar, they said.
Anup, a marketing executive, and his friends Anil (26), a tempo driver, and Avinash (36), the godown owner, were arrested, R S Krishnaiah, Joint Commissioner of Police, said.
According to police, the murder took place at around 9 pm on April three and the family received a ransom call of Rs one crore later. Police claimed they received the information about the victim being missing around 11:30 pm that night
“The deceased’s father had received some money on a land deal. Anoop, the mastermind, and his friends wanted to get hold of that money and they executed the murder,” Krishnaiah claimed.
Giving the sequence of events, he said, Gupta, who holds a diploma in civil engineering was last seen at Keshavpuram on April three 6:30 pm with one of his friend Ashok.
Checking of Gupta’s call records showed that after that he had received a call from Anoop and that the ransom call was made from the deceased’s phone.
Anoop was questioned the next day but he “initially tried to mislead” investigators but later broke down and confessed to the crime, Krishnaiah said.
“Anoop had asked Gupta to come near Punjabi Bagh fly over on the fateful day. Gupta was made to park his motorcycle at Peeragarhi metro station from where both went to the godown owned by Avinash on Anoop’s motorcycle,” he said. (PTI)
By Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 6: Putting the Irrigation and Flood Control and Education Departments in the dock over blocking of nearly Rs 11 crore, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has detected that these departments were only concerned over registering expenditure of huge amounts on the projects instead of obtaining necessary clearances, which were pre-requisite as per the laid down guidelines.
The report said that in order to create irrigation potential of 3,500 acres for hitherto uncultivable land and to overcome drought like situation, the Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Jammu, in July 2007, awarded contract for three water storage schemes (construction of RCC check dams) on Yakh nullah, river Basanter and river Devak under hundred per cent Government of India sponsored scheme—Border Area Development Programme to M/s UAN Raju Construction Ltd, Vishakhapatnam, for completion in eight months.
As per the directions of the Government of India issued in November 2006, the design and drawings of all the check dams were to be approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC) before their implementation.
However, during scrutiny of the records of the Chief Engineer it came to fore that despite spending Rs 8.67 crore, the schemes had not been completed as on March 2011.
“Despite the fact that contractor had either not taken up the works at all or the pace of work, wherever taken up, had been tardy, the Department had all along (2005 to 2011) booked expenditure on procurement of material on all three works”, the report said.
“The department had, in addition, paid interest free mobilization advance to the contractor, which apart from being prohibited resulted in extension of undue benefit to the contractor”, the report said, adding out of the payment of mobilization advance of Rs 83.91 lakh, Rs 5.39 lakh only had been recovered from the executed portion of the works and the balance Rs 78.52 lakh continued to be retained by the contractor for the last four years.
The department was either evasive or didn’t reply at all to the audit queries regarding allotment of works without ensuring vetting of designs by the Central Water Commission, booking of huge amounts on material against the works, which had either been taken up partially or not taken up at all, payment of mobilization advance and subsequent failure to ensure start/ re-start of works by the contractor, the report said, adding “no cogent reasons for delay in completion, despite huge spending, were furnished”.
The Department failed to adhere to the instructions of the Government of India in getting the designs of the projects vetted from the CWC before execution and subsequently failed to ensure execution of works, it said, adding “this resulted in blocking of Rs 8.67 crore and defeated the intended purpose”.
“The matter was referred to the Government/ department in August 2011. However, in response the Chief Engineer while confirming the status of the project as pointed out by audit, didn’t furnish any reasons for delays in completion of the project”, the CAG observed.
About the Education Department, the report said that in July 2003 the Government of India approved up-gradation of the State Institute of Education, Jammu to the level of Institute of Educational Management and Training (SIEMAT) subject to the furnishing of a proposal by the State Government and also taking over of the project once its central funding was over. A provision of Rs three crore was kept for the project in the Xth Plan under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The scrutiny of the records of the State Project Director, Ujalla Society, J&K (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) in February 2011 revealed that the State Government proposal forwarded to the Government of India in July 2005 was returned for modification in the light of certain observations made by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA).
“In anticipation of clearance of the project by the State Government, the Society received Rs 2.10 crore from the Government of India for implementation of the project out of which the Society released Rs 60 lakh in favour of SIE, Jammu, which was lying un-utilized as of February 2011”, the report said, adding “the balance Rs 1.50 crore had been diverted by the Society without approval of the grant sanctioning authority for other spillover works not covered under the programme”.
The CAG said that Society had not maintained project-wise details of the funds received by it and the funds for all the projects were amalgamated and consolidated Utilization Certificates were submitted annually to the grant sanctioning authority without giving project-wise details of receipts/ expenditure figures.
Though in February 2011, the Project Director stated that the project had not been cleared by the State Government and every effort was being made to finalize it yet the CAG found the reply as non tenable. “The Society should not have released or utilized the funds for activities not covered under the programme without clearance of the project by the State Government”, the report said.
The CAG also observed that lack of monitoring of the approved projects by the Government, non-existent internal controls in the Society coupled with inaction of the Government in finalizing the project resulted in blocking of Rs 60 lakh for the period ranging between 36 and 46 months and diversion of Rs 1.50 crore.
