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Golden Yug
Daily English Newspaper
e-mail: goldenyug@rediffmail.com, goldenyug@gmail.com
Vol. 2 ISSUE NO. 182
RNI No. JKENG/2013/48845
Website: www.goldenyug.com
Jammu, Sunday 27, July 2014
PAGES 8
Lays foundation of Rs. 12.28 crore Auditorium at Amar Singh College
Infrastructure development, faculty
strengthening focused areas: Omar
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy 26:
Chief
Minister,
Omar
AbdullahSaturday said that
the Government is keen to
upgrade infrastructure and
strengthen the faculties in
higher educational institutions
in the State. He said while various faculty blocks have been
completed and commissioned
in degree colleges and universities in the State during the
last over five years, many
more are under various stages
of the execution. He said
attention is also being paid to
construct lecture halls and
auditoria in these institutions.
Laying foundation stone
of a modern Auditorium at
Amar Singh College, Srinagar
today, the Chief Minister said
that up to the mark infrastruc-
ture and well qualified faculties are imperative in imparting qality education to the students in a palatable and conducive atmosphere. The
Auditorium is likely to cost
Rs.12.28 crore and its completion is scheduled for August,
2015. The Auditorium will
TITLE CODE: JKENG-00999
have the capacity of 500 seats
besides an Academic section
in the ground floor and backstage facilities at level 2nd and
control room at level 3rd. The
ground floor area will be on
2608 Sft, 1st floor on an area
of 10709 Sft and 2nd floor on
an area of 6655 Sft.
The Minister for Higher
Education,
Mohammad
Akbar Lone, Legislator,
Nasir
Aslam
Wani,
Commissioner Secretary,
Higher Education, Sheikh
Mushtaq Ahmad were present on the occasion among
others.
PRICE RS. 2/-
Memorial led by Lieutenant
General D S Hooda, GOCin-C Northern Command of
the Indian Army. Gallantry
award winners of the Kargil
Conflict and next of kins of
martyrs, Veer Naris, senior
army officers and civil dignitaries also paid tributes to
the martyrs. This was followed by a pledge taken by
all present at the function to
rededicate them to the cause
of the Nation.
The somber mood at the
ceremony brought home
memories of the losses
borne so proudly by the
martyrs' families in the
bloody summer of 1999.
Many in the audience were
moved to tears when the
buglers played the poignant
tune of "The Last Post"
after the wreath laying.
The event was celebrated with full military decorum
and
solemnity.
Lieutenant General D S
Hooda while talking informally to the media thanked
them and the families of
martyrs for their presence at
Dras for the Event.
Jitendra inaugurates
Sham inaugurates WSS Panjgrain,
'Expo-2014' science exhibition attends Akhnoor Tehsil Cricket Cup-2014
gy news service
new DeLHi, JULy
26: "Expo-2014", a three
day Mega Science
Exhibition was inaugurated at Pragati Maidan
here today by Dr Jitendra
Singh, Union Minister of
State (Independent
Charge) for Science and
Technology and Earth
Sciences, MoS in Prime
Minister's Office (PMO),
Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions,
Space and Atomic
Energy.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra said
that science and technology is making rapid
strides in the country but
it requires a wider exposure so that its benefits
may reach all sections of
society. Dr Singh said,
the indigenously produced original products
need to be more widely
publicised and the exhibitions like this help in
achieving this objective.
While going around
the different stalls, Dr
Jitendra took personal
interest in discussing the
displays in each stall and
made suggestions for
their improvement and
optimum utilization.
He also went to the
Food and Technology
Section and singled out
several healthy low calorie original food products
from Indian sources. He
suggested that these
should be encouraged for
display in various health
and medical conferences.
While going through
the section consisting of
stalls of different States
to display the
Government achieve-
ments and schemes, Dr
Singh particularly appreciated the indigenously
cultivated and grown
Mango species from
Central India which has
been named as "Nawab
Mango" and original
fruits cultivated from the
western States.
Dr Jitendra hoped
that with the initiatives
like Expo - 2014, the
Science and Technology
innovations from India
will not only find sponsors for economic support but will also play a
role in enriching the
health and well being of
society.
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Minister for PHE, Irrigation
and Flood Control, Sham
Lal Sharma inaugurated
Water Supply Scheme
Panjgrain in Akhnoor tehsil
established with a cost of
Rs.74.75 lakh which will
have a discharge capacity of
3000 GPH. The facility will
provide adequate water supply to 1525 souls of the area.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that
Government was committed
to provide better facilities to
the people in every nook and
corner of the State. He said
the Government has been
working under a well-knit
development programme
with a special focus to
upgrade the basic services to
the people. He asked the
people to cooperate with the
Government so that it can
carry out the developmental
schemes ensuring their timebound completion.
Congratulating the people for the new facility, the
Minister said that with the
commissioning of this WSS,
the people will get uninterrupted supply of neat and
clean drinking water.
On the occasion, the
Minister directed the engineers to monitor the performance of all Water Supply
Schemes in the area to ensure
their efficacy. He asked the
employees to work with
extra zeal and dedication to
maintain the essential services to the people. He
emphasized the need for
improving the work culture,
especially at the grass root
level. He also urged the
Panchayat functionaries to
supervise the functioning of
the department, particularly
at the PHE station level to
ensure regularity of drinking
water supply, adding that this
is their mandate as well.
Meanwhile, the Minister
attended Akhnoor tehsil
Cricket Cup-2014 organized
by Singh Cricket Club
Akhnoor under the supervision of Sham Singh Langeh,
who is Chairman of Akhnoor
Tehsil Cricket Committee.
As many as, 12 teams
participated in the tournament, who were provided
cricket mats and balls by the
Minister. The Minister
appreciated the players for
their performance and
encouraged them to further
improve their cricket skills to
achieve fame at state and
national level as well. He
said that Omar led government is giving focused attention on improving sports
infrastructure in the state
with emphasis on boosting
players' morale through several incentives.
Ensure uninterrupted power, drinking water supply to people: Bhalla to officers
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Minister
for
Housing,
Horticulture, Culture, Youth
Services and Sports Raman
Bhalla has asked the PDD,
PHE, and ERA officers to reach
out to people and ensure regular
supply of safe drinking water
and uninterrupted power supply
in scorching heat, adding that
the concerned department
should gear up their men and
machinery to redress public
grievances.
This was stated by the
Minister while interacting with
the accompanying officers of
PDD, PHE and ERA after
reviewing the problems of the
inhabitants of Deeli in Sainik
Colony and Channi Himmat
particularly related to irregular
power and drinking water supply, here today.
Bhalla assured the people
of Deeli and Channi Himmat
areas that their development
related issues would be
redressed in a phased manner,
adding that focus of the
Government is to develop all
the periphery basties on modern
lines by providing all basic
amenities like safe drinking
water, power, better roads, byelanes, drains, besides educational and healthcare infrastructure.
The Minister said people
should monitor the quality of
development works launched
by the Government across the
state so that the pace and quali-
Puducherry Legislators' delegation calls on Gul
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy
26: A delegation of
Legislators
from
Puducherry led by Speaker,
Thiru V. Sabapathy, which
is currently on study tour of
State, met with Speaker,
J&K Legislative Assembly
Mubarak Gul today.
Both the Speakers
exchanged their views on
the development and legislative activities pertaining
to their respective states.
Gul extended greetings and
protocol to the visiting delegation and expressed his
heartiest gratitude for their
visit to the State.
He
apprised them about the culture, languages, arts and
other historical facts of the
Jammu & Kashmir.
The
speaker
and
Legislators of Puducherry
were happy to meet with
Gul and shared their experiences about the J&K State.
They also invited Gul to
visit Puducherry in near
future.
ty of works is ensured and benefits accrue to them.
Bhalla said fulfilling of
people's aspirations and developmental needs is top agenda of
the Government. He assured the
people that all their genuine
demands and development
needs would be fulfilled in a
phased manner. He stressed
upon the concerned engineers
and officers to redouble their
efforts and accelerate pace of all
ongoing works in their respective jurisdictions. He directed
them to ensure use of quality
material in execution of the
works, adding that the objective
of the Government is to build
sustainable basic infrastructure
across the State.
The Minister said that
Government has taken some
bold and historical steps to
revive overall developmental
profile of the State. He said sectors like PHE, health, R&B,
education, tourism, power
among other sectors have
received focused attention of
the Government, adding it was
only pro-people policy that the
masses at present were being
benefited by quality education,
healthcare facilities at their
doorsteps.
Bhalla asked the officers to
reach the people and solve their
problems without any hindrances. He warned the officers
against any laxity with regard to
the solving of problems of the
poor people' adding that any
complaint in this regard would
invite strict action against the
delinquent officers and officials.
Responding to the demand
of people of Deeli village for
modernisation of revered pond
near temple, the Minister directed the Jammu Municipal
Corporation (JMC) to prepare
estimates for construction of
pond embankments including
walkway and landscaping of the
area. He called upon the people
of the Deeli village not to put
waste in and around the pond
adding that such practice not
only disturb the beauty of the
area but also create unhygienic
environment.
3 booked for alleged abortion
of wrong woman in Jammu
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Three persons including
a doctor and two paramedicos have been
booked for giving wrong
treatment to a pregnant
lady and aborting her in
a private hospital in city
outskirts of this winter
capital.
"A lady namely Stuti
Sharma, wife of Rakesh
Sharma, resident of
tehsil Nowshera, district
Rajouri this morning had
gone to a private hospital in Narwal area for
medical check up,"
DySP Rafiq Manhas,
Sub Divisional Police
Officer (SDPO) Jammu
East said.
Mr Manhas said the
lady was eight months
pregnant and added,
"she was given the
wrong treatment in place
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Army Celebrates Kargil Vijay Diwas at Drass
Lieutenant General D S Hooda laying a
wreath at the Kargil War Memorial in Dras
gy news service
DrAs, JULy 26: The
15th 'KARGIL VIJAY
DIWAS' celebrations culminated in Drss on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the proceedings opened with a
solemn wreath laying ceremony at the Drass War
For
Advertisement in
of another patient and
was later aborted."
"There were two
cases of pregnancy and
the woman, who had to
be aborted was left
unchecked by the doctors instead the victim
was given the dose and
she was aborted," he
said.
He added that the
infant died in the womb.
"It was a case of negli-
gence. We have registered the case under FIR
number 66/2014 under
sections 304-A and 313
of RPC," Mr Manhas
said. He added that two
of the para-medicos
have been taken into the
custody, while a senior
doctor, identified as
Amarjeet Singh, is on
the run but manhunt is
launched to apprehend
him.
4,974 pilgrims pay
obeisance at the
Holy Cave today
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy
26: 4,974 devotees paid
obeisance before the Ice
Lingam today. With this, a
total of 3,36,903 pilgrims
have paid obeisance at the
Holy Cave since the commencement
of
Shri
Amarnathji Yatra.
150 to 200 Militants
active at launching pads
on LoC: Lt Gen Singh
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
In the backdrop of
increased ceasefire violations and infiltration
attempts from across the
border, General-OfficerCommanding
(GOC)
White Knight Corps Lt
Gen K H Singh today said
around 150 to 200 militants
are active across the border
on the Line of Control in
Jammu and Kashmir and
waiting at the launching
pads to infiltrate on this
side. "There is a set trend
that before the onset of
winters, militants try to
enter into our territory and
attempts especially were
being made in the months
of July, August, September
and October," Lt Gen
Singh this morning told
reporters at the sidelines of
15th Anniversary of Vijay
Diwas at Ashwamedh
Shaurya Stahal at Corps
Headquarters, Nagrota on
city outskirts. He said normally months of July,
August and September witness rise in infiltration bids
every year and it is quite
normal and this could be
because of forthcoming
assembly elections also.
Pakistani troops
violate ceasefire
in Jammu
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Pakistani troops opened
fire at India positions on
the Line of Control (LoC)
in Jammu late Friday, an
official said Saturday.
"Pakistani troops fired at
our positions on the LoC in
Pallanwalla area at 10.10
pm. late Friday," Defence
spokesman
Colonel
Manish Mehta told IANS
here. "They used small
arms to target our positions. Our troops responded with similar calibre
weapons." The exchange
continued for about five
minutes. "No casualty or
damage occurred on our
side," the spokesman
added. The Indian Army
and intelligence agencies
accuse Pakistani troops of
violating the bilateral
ceasefire in Jammu and
Kashmir to facilitate infiltration by groups of armed
guerrillas into the state.
Another batch of
devotees leave for
Amarnath
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Amid tight security, the
30th batch of pilgrims on
Saturday left for the
Amarnath cave shrine in
south Kashmir Himalayas
from here. As many as 628
pilgrims, including 391
men, 179 women and 11
children, left from the
Bhagwati Nagar base camp
in Jammu in a cavalcade of
18 vehicles at 4:05 AM,
police said. The convoy has
already crossed Kud on
Jammu-Srinagar National
Highway and would reach
their destinations at Baltal
and Pahalgam base camps
by this evening, they said.
With today's batch, a total
of 50,656 pilgrims have so
far left from the Jammu
base camp for the
Amarnath shrine.
2
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
At least 76 bodies pulled from
Gaza rubble in truce: Medics
gAzA ciTy, JULy 26: The bodies of at least 76
Palestinians were recovered from the rubble across the Gaza
Strip in the first few hours of a 12-hour humanitarian truce
Saturday, medics said. Emergency services spokesman
Ashraf al-Qudra said 76 bodies had been brought to hospitals
in north, central and southern Gaza, as well as Gaza City, but
that the toll was expected to rise further still.
Of those uncovered, 25 bodies from the northern areas of
Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya were taken to the Kamal Adwan
hospital, and another 25 to Gaza City's Shifa hospital from
the eastern areas of Shejaiya and Zaitun, Qudra said.
Thirteen bodies received from the central areas of Bureij,
Deir al-Balah and Nusseirat were taken to the Al-Aqsa hospital, and another 13 to the European hospital in southern
Gaza from the Khan Yunis and Rafah areas, he added.
Baghdad official taken
by gunmen: Iraqi police
BAgHDAD, JULy 26: Iraqi police officers say gunmen
traveling in 10 black SUVs have seized the head of the
Baghdad Provincial Council. The two officers say Riyadh alAdhdah, a Sunni medical doctor and member of the Iraqi
Islamic Party, was taken away yesterday in Baghdad's
Azamiyah district.
It was not immediately clear whether he was arrested by
security forces or abducted. The police officers spoke on
condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to
brief the media. In 2012, al-Adhdah was imprisoned for eight
months on terrorism charges. The provincial councils are the
highest of the four tiers of local government in Iraq established following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled former President Saddam Hussein.
Russia says new EU sanctions
risk ending security cooperation
Moscow, JULy 26: Russia's Foreign ministry said
Saturday that new European Union sanctions targeting
Russia's intelligence chiefs over its role in Ukraine risked
ending all joint cooperation on security.
The European Union "has practically speaking put at risk
international cooperation in the area of security," the Russian
foreign ministry said in an angry response.
Afghan vote audit suspended for several
days over disagreements: IEC
KABUL, JULy 26: Afghanistan's election commission
on Saturday suspended the auditing process of 8.1 million
votes cast in the presidential run-off poll on June 14, after the
two candidates failed to reach agreement on the procedure
for invalidating votes.
"The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has decided to suspend temporarily the vote audit until the fourth day
of Eid, and we hope it is enough time for the candidates to
sort out their differences," the IEC chairman Ahmad Yusuf
Nuristani told a press conference Saturday.
The Muslim Eid festival which is expected to begin on
Tuesday marks the end of fasting month of Ramadan.
Talks start in Paris to press
for long-term Gaza truce
pAris, JULy 26: A major meeting between US
Secretary of State John Kerry and other top diplomats kicked
off in Paris Saturday to press efforts for a long-term ceasefire
between Israel and Hamas. Kerry met with French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius and their counterparts from Britain,
Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the European Union as a
12-hour "humanitarian" truce in Gaza entered into force.
Indian-origin 'chicken king'
at centre of UK hygiene probe
LonDon, JULy 26: An Indian-origin businessman,
referred to as the UK's "Chicken King", is at the centre of a
major controversy over contamination of poultry. Ranjit
Boparan's '2 Sisters Group', the UK's largest poultry supplier, was singled out in an investigation by the 'Guardian'
newspaper focusing on the contamination of chicken with
campylobacter.
At last count, two-third of fresh chicken was found to be
contaminated at varying levels by campylobacter.
Campylobacter is a bacteria frequently found in raw meat,
particularly chicken, and can cause food poisoning.
Although the bacteria can be killed by cooking, around
280,000 people fall sick every year in the UK, and it has
killed around 100 people so far. Poultry contamination rates
are known to have increased in the past decade, the report
said.
The report, which zeroed in on two factories owned by
Boparan's group, has led the UK health ministry to launch its
own urgent inspections.
A spokesperson for health secretary Jeremy Hunt said:
"The FSA (Food Standards Agency) has agreed, at the
request of the secretary of state for health, to conduct a full
safety audit of the facility." "They will start in the next 24
hours and report back shortly. Undercover footage at a factory showed chicken that had fallen on to the factory floor
being picked up and thrown back into the production line,"
he said.
The 2 Sisters group, however, denied that the chicken
was ever put back into production from the floor and said it
always disposed of the waste properly. It also stressed that
the contamination was an industry-wide problem and the
group is working on the issue.
"Campylobacter is a very, very difficult organism to control and what's happening in the UK is matched everywhere
else in the world," said Chris Elliott, professor of food safety at Queen's University Belfast.
"The industry will have to tackle this at the processing
stage and it will need sizable investment in plant [machinery]," he said.
Poor hygiene in the final stages of meat processing,
when workers cut and pack chicken for retail sale or food
service, can spread the contamination of the bacteria.
Gaza death toll mounts to 940 amid fragile 12-hour truce
gAzA/JerUsALeM,
JULy 26: A 12-hour
"humanitarian
window"
began Saturday after Israel
and Hamas militants in
Gaza agreed to a UN
request for a pause in fighting, even as 76 more bodies
were recovered taking the
Palestinian death toll in the
19-day conflict to over 940
with 38 Israeli deaths.
The
bodies
were
retrieved in the first few
hours of the "humanitarian"
truce that came into effect at
0500 GMT as top world
diplomats in Paris worked
on a longer-term ceasefire.
Palestinian emergency services spokesman Ashraf alQudra said 76 bodies had
been brought to hospitals in
north, central and southern
Gaza, as well as Gaza City,
but that the toll was expected to rise even further.
Hamas spokesman Sami
Abu Zuhri said late last
night that there was "national consensus on a humanitarian truce....For 12 hours
on Saturday". The Israel
Defence Forces (IDF) later
confirmed the truce but
vowed to continue to
"locate and neutralise"
Hamas tunnels during the
truce that started at 8 AM
(0500 GMT) today.
"We will respond if terrorists choose to exploit this
time to attack IDF personnel or fire at Israeli civilians," the Israeli army said
in a statement. The
Palestinian Health Ministry
in Gaza said that so far 940
people, most of them civilians, have been killed.
Two Israeli soldiers
were also killed in fighting
taking the death toll on the
Israeli
side
to
38.
Meanwhile, international
efforts to negotiate a longer
seven-day ceasefire continued with foreign ministers
from the US, UK, Turkey
and Qatar meeting in Paris
today to try to negotiate a
longer-term truce.
US Secretary of State
John Kerry yesterday said
that he was still confident of
a longer ceasefire, despite
media reports that Israel had
rejected his proposal. The
of
the
announcement
humanitarian window came
shortly after Israeli Defence
Minister Moshe Ya'alon
warned that ground operations in Gaza could soon be
broadened "significantly".
"You need to be ready
for the possibility that very
soon we will instruct the
military to significantly
Experts to begin 'difficult'
probe into Air Algerie crash
BAMAKo, JULy 26: Investigators
were due on the site of the Air Algerie plane
disaster in Mali Saturday to try and determine why the jetliner came down with such
force that it completely disintegrated.
Officials who had already reached the
remote, barren area described a scene of total
devastation littered with twisted and charred
fragments of the plane that was carrying 118
on board, including entire families.
No one survived the impact and France
bore the brunt of the disaster with 54 nationals killed in Thursday's crash of the
McDonnell Douglas 83, which had taken off
from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and was
bound for Algiers.
"It is difficult to retrieve anything, even
victims' bodies, because we have only seen
body parts on the ground," said General
Gilbert Diendiere, chief of the military staff
of Burkina Faso's presidency.
He was a member of a delegation sent to
the crash site in the Gossi area, about 100
kilometres (60 miles) from Mali's northern
city of Gao, by President Blaise Compaore.
Travellers from Burkina Faso, Lebanon,
Algeria, Spain, Canada, Germany and
Luxembourg also died in the crash, increasingly being blamed on bad weather that
forced the pilots to change course.
The French army released initial images
of a scene of devastation, with fragments of
the jet littering a scorched earth in what is
clearly a desolate environment.
Such was the apparent violence of the
crash that debris was barely recognisable as
parts of an aircraft.
"Debris was scattered over an area of
500 metres which is due to the fact that the
plane hit the ground and then probably
rebounded," Diendiere said.Meanwhile, the
scale of the tragedy for some communities
was becoming clear, as it emerged that 10
members of one French family died in the
crash.
"It's brutal. It has wiped an entire family
from the earth," said Patrice Dunard, mayor
of Gex, where four of the Reynaud family
lived.
And the small town of Menet in central
France was left devastated when residents
discovered that a local family of four -- a
couple, their 10-year-old daughter Chloe and
their 14-year-old son Elno -- had died.
Denise Labbe of the local town hall said
Chloe had confided to her teacher that she
was scared of taking a plane, which she was
doing for the first time.
In Lebanon, one family in the southern
El-Kharayeb village died too -- the third time
that residents there had been involved in a
plane disaster.
In 2003, 14 residents in the village died
in the crash of a Boeing 727 going from
Cotonou in Benin to Beirut, while four were
killed in an Ethiopian Airlines accident in
January 2010.
French President Francois Hollande,
who was due to meet families of the victims
Saturday, gathered in the morning with
Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the foreign,
defence, interior and transport ministers to
take stock of the situation.
The MD-83 jet was operated by Spanish
charter firm Swiftair -- a company with a
good safety record -- on behalf of Air
Algerie. The Spanish pilots' union Sepla said
the plane's two Spanish pilots were "very
experienced". French Interior Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve said weather conditions
appeared to be the most likely cause of the
accident -- the worst air tragedy for French
nationals since the crash of the Air France
A330 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June
2009.The Air Algerie crash was the third
worldwide in the space of just eight days,
capping a disastrous week for the aviation
industry.
Malaysia offers Indonesian
illegals safe return
KUALA LUMpUr, JULy 26: Malaysia is offering illegal Indonesians safe return home without being prosecuted to
avoid them making secret journeys in rickety boats after several fatal accidents ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival, officials said
Saturday. At least four boats have sunk since last month as
Indonesians, drawn to the relatively affluent Southeast Asian
country for work, sought to go home for Eid al-Fitr, Islam's
biggest festival, which starts in Malaysia on Monday. The sinkings killed dozens and have left scores more missing. Those
wanting to return will be fined for being in Malaysia illegally,
but will escape harsher prosecution, such as jail terms and caning, said a home ministry official who declined to be named as
he is not authorised to make public statements. Home Minister
Zahid Hamidi was quoted by The Star on Saturday as saying
this was a "golden chance" for undocumented migrants. "The
legal way will be safer with less hassle, compared to risking
their lives while paying a hefty fine to syndicates" smuggling
the migrants via sea, he told the daily newspaper.
An aide confirmed the comments.
In addition to the fine of at least 300 ringgit ($95),
Indonesians have to pay 100 ringgit more for a one-way pass to
return home. The home ministry official did not say how much
the maximum fine could be. He added the programme was running from this month until the end of December, and could be
extended to other nationals later. Malaysia has repeatedly
offered amnesty to migrants in the past in order to reduce its
large population of illegal workers, estimated to number two
million. But activists have warned that many will not be able to
afford high fines, in addition to processing fees charged by private agents who are used by some migrants, to secure safe trips.
"My concern is that we do not have a very clear policy. It's not
really service-oriented but rather profit-driven," Alex Ong of
Migrant Care told AFP, adding his group had received complaints by several migrants of being arrested despite the offer of
a safe return.
broaden the ground operation in Gaza," he told soldiers. Hamas has insisted
that it would not agree to
any long-term truce that did
not lead to an end to Israel's
blockade of the Gaza Strip
and made provisions to
open crossings to allow free
movement of people and
goods.
Palestinian militants
also fired a barrage of rockets out of Gaza, triggering
sirens across much of southern and central Israel.
Israel's military said its Iron
Dome missile shield had
intercepted and destroyed
several rockets. Israel
launched its military offensive on July 8 with the
declared objective of stopping Hamas from firing
rockets into Israel. It has
since extended its operation
to destroy tunnels dug by
militants to infiltrate Israel.
According to the UN,
more than 118,000 people
are now sheltering in UN
schools and people are running
out
of
food.
Meanwhile, the violence
also spread to the West
Bank with seven Palestinian
protesters being killed in
clashes with Israeli police in
the last 48 hours.
Israeli troops shot dead
two Palestinian teenagers
early this morning in separate clashes in the north and
south of the West Bank.
Protests were held in
Ramallah,
Nablus,
Bethlehem and Jerusalem
neighbourhoods yesterday
in what was described by
Palestinian leaders as a
"Day of Rage" against
Israel. Three protesters were
killed by Israeli soldiers
yesterday near the southern
city of Hebron, while Israeli
settlers fired on a group of
Palestinians, killing one
person in Nablus. One more
protester was killed in sub-
sequent clashes there.
Earlier, UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon
called for an immediate
"humanitarian pause" lasting through the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. "On this,
the last Friday of Ramadan,
I call for an immediate,
unconditional humanitarian
pause in the fighting in
Gaza and Israel. This pause
would last through the Eid
al-Fitr holiday period," he
had said in a statement yesterday.
The UN chief's appeal
came after several meetings with US Secretary of
State John Kerry and
Egyptian and Qatari officials aimed at ending the
bloodshed. Kerry last
night said no deal has
been reached to call a halt
to the intense fighting in
Gaza but efforts were on.
"We don't yet have
that final framework, but
none of us are stopping,"
he said at a press conference in Cairo. Kerry is in
Paris today to hold further talks with the foreign
ministers of Qatar and
Turkey, which exert
influence over the militant Hamas rulers of
Gaza.
China announces live fire
drills in the East China Sea
BeiJing, JULy 26:
China Saturday announced
that it will conduct a series
of live fire training drills
next week in the contested
waters of the East China
Sea, where it is locked in a
bitter maritime dispute
with Japan. The five-day
exercise from July 29August 2 comes even as
air traffic at various
Chinese airports went haywire due to the ongoing
air-exercises, the Maritime
Safety
Administration
said.
It warned ships to stay
away from the region and
asked authorities to ensure
safety during the training,
which is scheduled to last
from midnight to 6 pm
each day, state-run Xinhua
news agency reported.
Chinese and Japanese
navies and military planes
aggressively patrol the disputed
islands
called
'Diaoyu' by China and
'Senkakus' by Japan. Both
sides are beefing up their
military strengths by holding regular drills.
Meanwhile, China's
aviation regulator issued
an orange alert today for
massive flight delays in
eastern and central China,
saying the traffic capacity
of some routes may drop
as much as 65 per cent.
The air-exercises were
going on for several days.
"The airspace in east
China will be quite busy
on Saturday," the Civil
Aviation Administration of
China (CAAC) said, noting at least 23 airports will
be affected, including
those
in
Shanghai,
Nanjing, Nanchang, Hefei,
Zhengzhou and Wenzhou.
In an earlier statement,
it said that "rainstorms,
routine military exercises
and other comprehensive
factors" were behind widespread flight delays and
cancellations. In Shanghai,
the air traffic's busy hours
will last best part of the
day Saturday reducing air
traffic capacity by 65 per
cent.
During the same period, the civil flight handling capacity in airspace
above the Zhengzhou area
will drop by 60 per cent,
according to CAAC.
During busy hours, flights
will be unable to land at
airports in the cities of
Linyi,
Xuzhou,
Lianyungang,
Huai'an,
Yancheng,
Changzhou,
Yangzhou and Nantong,
while flights departing for
airports in Nanchang,
Ganzhou,
Jiujiang,
Yichun,
Jinggangshan,
Jingdezhen, Wuyishan and
Wenzhou will not be
allowed to take off.
At least 14 flights
operated by six airline
companies in Shanghai
were cancelled as of noon
today. The CAAC also
banned applications for
business jet flights, additional flights and charters
at the affected airport.
Foreign experts inspect Taiwan plane crash site
TAipei, JULy 26:
International experts were
examining the site of the
fatal TransAsia Airways
crash in Taiwan on Saturday,
as new evidence surfaced
that the plane may have collided with nearby trees
before plunging to the
ground. Seven French and
one Canadian expert representing France's Bureau of
Enquiry and Analysis for
Civil Aviation Safety, the
French-Italian aircraft maker
ATR as well as aircraft
engine maker Pratt &
Whitney Canada arrived in
Taiwan late Friday to help
investigate the crash that
killed 48 people.
One expert stayed in
Taipei to help examine the
black boxes -- which record
cockpit voice and other inflight data -- while the rest
flew to Magong earlier
Saturday to examine the
wreckage that was moved to
an air force base and inspect
the crash site, officials said.
"ATR manufactured the
plane and they know it the
best, the structural engineer
and technical specialists will
provide us the information
needed for the investigation," said Thomas Wang,
director of Taiwan's Aviation
Safety Council.
TransAsia
Airways
Flight GE222 carrying 54
passengers and four crew
plunged into houses near the
airport in Magong in the
Penghu islands Wednesday,
leaving just 10 survivors,
some of them badly injured.
Two French medical students were among the dead.
The ATR 72-500 propeller
plane was attempting to land
for the second time after
aborting the first attempt
during thunder and heavy
rain as Typhoon Matmo
pounded Taiwan. It was on a
domestic flight.
Taiwanese television
footage on Saturday showed
fragments of the wreckage
being removed by local
workers from woods located
a few hundred metres (feet)
from the crash site. The foreign experts were also seen
inspecting the woods and the
crash site. Local media speculated the pilot might have
tried to pull the plane up
over the treetops after skimming them before the fatal
crash.
Wang confirmed that
pieces of wreckage were
found in the wooded area but
said it was too early to determine whether the plane had
impacted the trees, adding
the information contained in
the black boxes would give a
clearer picture when it was
released in the coming week.
Angry relatives have
blamed the authorities and
TransAsia for the worst air
disaster in a decade in
Taiwan, questioning why the
plane was cleared to fly in
stormy weather.
Some vented their anger
at Penghu county chief
Wang Chien-fa on Saturday,
as a man confronted Wang in
front of TV cameras for not
doing enough to assist the
relatives. The airline ran an
apology on the front pages
of five major newspapers
Friday, pledging to shoulder
the "utmost responsibility"
while making every effort to
deal with the aftermath and
provide the best compensation.
Taiwanese officials have
defended the decision to
allow the flight to go ahead,
saying the meteorology data
showed that aviation safety
requirements were met when
the plane was cleared to fly.
So far 46 victims were identified, including the two
French nationals, while
DNA samples of the others
were collected to help with
the identification.
3
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
DF&SS hold anti- Pak protest
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Criticizing the double standard of Pakistan for resorting to cease fire violation in
Poonch sector of Jammu
and Kashmir State during
the secretary level talks
between the India and
Pakistan, Dogra Front &
Shiv Sena (DF&SS) Jammu
and Kashmir today take out
a protest rally and burnt the
flag of Pakistan to express
their resentment against
nefarious
designs
of
Pakistan.
A large number of
activists of DF&SS under
the leadership of DF&SS
President Ashok Gupta took
out a procession in Jammu
city, raised anti- Pak slogans
and burnt Pakistani flag
against the heavy shelling
by the Pakistani rangers in
Poonch Sector.
Ashok Gupta while
addressing the gathering on
the occasion of 15th
Anniversary of the Kargil
Vijay Diwas said that
Pakistan cannot be trusted.
Gupta said that intentions of
the Pakistan remained
always corrupt. At the time
of Agra Summit on one side
they (Pakistani) were having talks on the table and on
the other they made an
intrusion in Kargil. And
now in the regime of the
newly formed NDA government, Secretary level talks
have been initiated and in
the same manner like the
old times they are violating
ceasefire in Poonch and
elsewhere in Jammu and
Kashmir. He said that
Pakistan only understands
the language of bullets and
they should be retaliated in
the same manner.
Reminding the maiden
speech of Prime Minister
Narender Modi during his
public rally of Jammu at the
time of elections Modi stated that "Bomb Aur
Dhamako Main Baatcheet
Nahi Ho Sakti" then how
the secretary level talks are
being held as Pakistan has
been violating the ceasefire
since past one month. Gupta
demanded breaking of all
ties with Pakistan till complete normalcy is restored in
the region.
A resolution should also
be passed in the parliament
against the Pakistan that
provide full powers to Army
to deal with the situation
and give befitting retaliation
to Pakistan in the language
which it understands, Gupta
demanded.
The party workers present at the time of protest
were Bodh Raj, Vijay,
Sukhdev, Mehra, Bantu,
Ashish, Birbal and others.
NSF criticizes establishment of cluster universities,
demands infrastructure to already established universities
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
National Secular Forum
(NSF) on Saturday criticized
Higher Education department for proposal regarding
establishment of two cluster
universities in Jammu and
Kashmir. Addressing media
persons, Forum President
Sukhdev Singh said that carrying out reforms in higher
education was a good initiative but the establishment of
cluster universities at that
juncture is condemnable.
"The already established
Universities
including
Jammu University, Central
University Jammu, Baba
Gulam Shah Bhadshah
University in Jammu region
should be first provided sufficient infrastructure before
announcements of establishment of more universities",
he said.
Criticizing further he
said that it was very heartbreaking that the infrastructure and campus of CUJ was
still a distant dream, while
the Jammu University also
san several facilities.
"Instead of providing
Compensate community kitchens Retain Inter State Bus Terminal
burnt in Baltal clashes: VHP
at General Bus Stand: JTAC
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26: The VHP Saturday
demanded an inquiry into the torching of community kitchens (langars) in Jammu and
Kashmir's Baltal besides compensation and
threatened to take the issue to the Supreme
Court.
Surinder Jain, national spokesperson of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), told reporters in
Jammu that his party demands an inquiry into
the burning of community kitchens in Baltal,
the base camp of the Amarnath Yatra, during
clashes and compensation by the state government. Jain threatened to take the issue to the
Supreme Court, asserting torching of the "langars" caused great inconvenience to pilgrims.
He also asked the state government not to
stop the Kashmiri Pandits' Kausarnag Yatra, going
on at present in south Kashmir. Clashes broke out
in Baltal July 18 following a scuffle between a
community kitchen cook and a pony owner. Ten
"langars" and over 300 tents were burnt before
security forces could bring the situation under
control.
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
A deputation of Jammu
Tourism Action
Committee (JTAC), led
by Inderjeet Khajuria
met with cabinet ministers Sham Lal Sharma
and Raman Bhalla, separately, and projected
their demands regarding General Bus Stand,
Jammu.
While apprising the
ministers, the deputation stressed on the
retaining of Inter State
Bus Terminal (ISBT) at
General Bus Stand.
They demanded immediate construction of
multi storied complex
with the facilities of
parking, shopping, roof
garden and ISBT at
General Bus Stand,
Jammu.
They also apprised
about the contradictory
report submitted by sitting Vice Chairman,
Jammu Development
Authority to the High
Court, Jammu regarding shifting of Inter
State Bus Terminal
from General Bus
Stand, despite, project
report framed by her
predecessors for retaining of ISBT at same
place.
The deputation also
requested to lay the
foundation stone of
multi storied complex
well before the
enforcement of Model
Code of Conduct in the
State.
BJP magic fading, NC to form
government on its own in JK: Gupta
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Saying that magic of
Narendra Modi is fast fading due to anti-people policies, National Conference
State Vice President Rattan
Lal Gupta on Saturday
observed that populism and
false sloganeering don't
work for long in a democratic polity.
"People want results on
the ground and not euphoria
being generated on emotive
slogans", Gupta said while
referring to the debacle BJP
faced in three assembly
constituencies
of
Uttrakhand in the bye-elections.
He described the post
parliamentary
elections
mood as an indicator of BJP
balloon getting burst due to
sky rocketing prices, inflation and other measures that
have disillusioned the common people. "Similar is the
situation in the State, especially in the Jammu region
where popular mood is in
favour
of
National
Conference due to its pragmatic strategey that enabled
peace and faster development during the past over
five and half years", he
maintained.
Gupta said that at the
strength of the record card
of Omar led government,
National Conference is
going to register massive
victory in the upcoming
elections and form
a stable and strong
government on its
own in the State.
The State Vice
President
said
mandate
to
N a t i o n a l
Conference
is
imperative for taking bold decisions
with regard to
development and
implementation of
various welfare
programmes. He
said Omar led
government has laid a
strong edifice of development which is needed to be
taken forward for deriving
optimum results at the grass
roots level.
Spelling out in detail
progress registered in different sectors of development, Gupta said such a
massive effort has never
ever been undertaken in all
the three regions of Jammu,
Kashmir and Ladakh.
Sagar asks officers to ensure
smooth Eid festivities
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy
26: The Minister for Rural
Development
and
Panchayats,
Ali
Mohammad Sagar has said
that the officers of different
departments should work
in a co-ordinated manner
and synergize their efforts
to ensure that the people do
not face any in convenience in view of the ensuing Eid festivities. The
Minister also took a high
level meeting of officers of
different departments to
discuss the arrangements
put in place for the smooth
celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr
in the valley. It was attended by senior officers of the
District
administration,
Police, PHE, PDD, SMC,
SRTC and Health.
Sagar
asked
the
Divisional Administration
to ensure that the people
get the basic amenities,
besides making available
essentials including rice,
sugar, atta, K-oil and LPG
cylinders in the valley. The
Minister directed the officers of PDD and PHE for
ensuring
uninterrupted
electricity and water supply, besides asked the
authorities of SMC to
maintain cleanliness in and
around the Mosques and
Shrines of the Valley
including the Dargah
Hazratbal, Chrar-i-Sharif,
Jamia Masjid, Mehboobul-Alam and Khan-kah-iMoula, Dastgeer Sahib. He
also directed for installa-
tion of street lights and the
repairs of non-functional
street lights in the Srinagar
city. Sagar asked the
Transport authorities for
smooth transport system.
He asked the traffic authorities to provide transport
facilities to the people till
late hours in the evening
and also formulate a comprehensive plan, so that the
regulation of the traffic is
done in a proper way in
order to curb the menace of
traffic jams.
The Minister also
stressed for intensifying
market checking to curb
black marketing, profiteering and hoarding to make
quality items available in
adequate quantity to the
consumers on Eid festival.
Referring to the revolutionary measures like Public
Servicers Guarantee and
Right to Information Acts,
Gupta said these are essentially aimed at making the
government accountable,
administration responsive
and people empowered to
ask questions. He said the
Chief Minister believes in
transparency, as a result of
which these historic measures have been initiated.
Such as the creation 659
new administrative units in
order to give more and more
facilities to the door steps of
the people.
Gupta also castigated
PDP for negative politics
and raising hype on certain
issues and said that this party
was in fact Xerox copy of
the BJP chartered with the
mission of furthering saffron
agenda in the Valley. He said
the two parties have caused
the State immense damage
during recent years by polarising the situation and sow-
ing seeds of dissent and division among the people. He
referred to 2008 agitation
and said that the row was the
machinations of these two
parties to cause dent to the
pluralistic ethos of the State
for electoral gains. He said
National Conference, however, did not allow to succeed their game plan and
foiled it with active support
of the peace loving people of
Jammu and Kashmir. He
cautioned the people against
sinister designs of these parties and hoped they will
maintain unity and brotherhood at all costs
Gupta appealed the rank
and file of National
Conference to gear up for
ensuing assembly elections
in order to achieve the goal
of absolute majority for stable government of its own
and advance the state for a
new era of peace, prosperity,
equitable development of
the three regions of the state
and brotherhood.
The ministers
agreed with the idea of
mooting of Monitoring
Committee for transparency and progress of
all the ongoing tourism
related projects in
Jammu and assured for
issuing directions to
Divisional
Commissioner, Jammu
for early constitution of
committee.
Others who were the
part of deputation
included Devender
Choudhary, President
Transporters'
Organizations, Rajesh
Bittu Coordinator, Jyoti
Mahajan, President Dry
Fruit Association,
Pawan Gupta, Baldev
Raj, Suni Suri and H.S
Manhas.
infrastructure the proposal
regarding opening of new
university would only compound problems of students
community", he said, adding
that if the government was
serious to establish new university, same should be
developed in some rural area,
as Jammu city already had
two universities. Singh further said that the proposed
cluster University would be
in GGM Science College,
which already has been grappling with space and infrastructure crunch.
"For Cluster University
in Jammu division, the state
government should choose
the Bhaderwah campus,
which will cater the needs of
Doda, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar,
Ramban areas", he said. He
appealed Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah to shift the
proposed University from
Jammu to some rural areas.
Among those who were present in the press conference
included Qayoom Malik
University Unit President,
Rishikesh Rana, Amit
Sanotra, Bhupinder Singh,
and Akhil.
PDSU demands removal of
Director Physical Education
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26: Vice President of People
Democratic Student Union (PDSU) of Jammu
University, Jyoti Choudhary said that Dhian Singh
Bhau, Physical Director of Jammu University should
be removed from his post as his tenure was only of
two years but he is on his post from last five year.
Asking that the career of several students is at stake,
he asked university authority to remove prof Bhau
from the post others ready to face strong agitation by
PDSU activists in coming days.
Others who were present in the press conference
were Vishal Choudhary, Sunil Mehta, Vishal Sharma,
Sachin Choudhary and Akshay Sharma.
PDP meet calls for coordinated
election campaign
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy
26: A meeting of prominent
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) workers was on
Saturday held at Pulwama.
The meeting was aimed at
developing a strategy for
the forthcoming assembly
elections in the state.
Among others, the meeting
was participated by Zaffar
Iqbal
Manhas,
Chief
Election Co-coordinator,
Kashmir;
Mohammad
Khalil Bandh, MLA; Dr
Haseeb A Drabu, candidate
for Rajpora constituency
and member manifesto
committee;
Mushtaq
Ahmad Shah, MLA Tral;
Bari Andrabi, district president Pulwama; Waheed-UrRehman Parra, party's youth
wing
president
and
Mohammad Lateef Bhat,
vice president district
Pulwama.
Speaking on the occasion Zaffar Iqbal Manhas
exhorted the party cadres to
work in unison and
strengthen the party at the
gross root levels and make
everyone aware about its
pro-people policies. Calling
for a decisive mandate for
the party, Manhas said the
PDP, with the help of people, could write a new chapter in history of Jammu &
Kashmir, which will enable
the party to change the governance, political discourse
in the state.
Dr Haseeb A Drabu
dwelled in detail upon the
necessity of changing the
governance and policy making pattern which is in
vogue in which the elected
representative does not have
the requisite say. He
stressed upon the need for
developing the governance
and a policy making pattern
in such a fashion in which
the elected representative
will have a larger say with
commensurate accountability. Speaking on the occasion Mohammad Khalil
Bhand, said the party
patron, Mufti Mohammed
Sayeed, is well aware of the
problems of the general
public. He said the people
have whole lot of expectations with the PDP and its
leadership. He assured the
participants that if given a
clear mandate, the party
will come up to the expectations of every section of the
society.
Bari Andrabi, while laying out agenda points for
the meeting, stressed upon
the workers to gear up for
the elections and ensure the
victory of the nominated
candidates of the party. He
also emphasized on the
desirability of designing a
coordinated election campaign for the district regarding which the finer details
were also discussed.
Wa h e e d - u r- R a h m a n
Parra, while speaking in the
meeting, said that the manifesto of PDP must cater to
the requirements and aspirations of the youth who form
the strength for any political
endeavor.
Female dental surgeons hunger strike and Dharna enters 26 days
Free Dental Check-up campaign
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Dental Surgeons Association
Jammu Kashmir (DSA-JK)
today on 26-07-2014 continued their Dharna for 26nd
consecutive day & female
hunger strike entering 14th
day, with Dr. Neha Pathania
sitting on fast.
Chairman of DSA-JK
Dr. Pawan Singh informed
that to highlight the irresponsible attitude of the State
Govt. towards the Dentistry,
a free Dental Check Up
given to the by-passers in
front of Govt. Dental
Hospital, Jammu, so as to
aware the common mass
regarding oral Health, and
pathetic and oppressed condition of unemployed Dental
Surgeons in J&K State. 74
patients were checked during the period of 3 hours
which shows that there is
how much need of oral
health care in the society and
the present NC-CONGRESS
govt. is least bothered about
oral health care in the state
and is making the general
mass of the state fool by its
false claims regarding
improvement in health sec-
tor.
Dr.
Singh
further
informed that if the demands
are not met we are going to
take
more
aggressive
protests in Jammu as well as
Kashmir after EID-UFITER and will give a call of
secretariat
gherao
at
Srinagar.
Dr. Singh also appealed
everyone to come forward
and join our protest for genuine cause on humanitarian
grounds. He also said that
our protest will continue till
our demands are met and is
going to take more serious
and harsh nature in the coming days and the Govt. will
be responsible for any
uneventful happenings. The
demands of the association
are: Complete absorption of
unemployed dental youth.
Recruitment of dental surgeons on every year basis.
Establish separate directorate for dental health in the
state.
4
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
Golden Yug
EDITORIAL
An unedifying
spectacle
The sight of Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare forcing
Arshad, a catering supervisor at the IRCTC canteen
in Delhi’s New Maharashtra Sadan, to eat a chapati
during his Ramzan fasting period last week, marks a
new low in the conduct of elected representatives.
Whatever post-incident gloss might be put on it, the
country saw clearly the high-handed approach of Mr.
Vichare and his colleagues from the Shiv Sena, who
thought they were highlighting the problems they
faced while staying at the Sadan. The Shiv Sena,
which specialises in using strong-arm tactics to
silence those who disagree with it, has long been a
prime culprit in taking resort to extreme and unacceptable behaviour. Whether it is in attacking newspaper editors or television channels critical of it, or
others who come in its way, the Sena has violated the
law of the land with impunity time and again. In this
case, Mr. Arshad’s complaint to his supervisors said
he was in uniform, displaying his name badge. Even
then, the aggressive MP, as clearly seen in television
footage, tried to force a chapati into his mouth in the
face of his protestations that he was fasting.
Interestingly, though the incident happened last
week, television channels ran the video footage of
the coarse behaviour of the Member of Parliament
only after the matter was reported in print on
Wednesday.
India has changed for the better in so many ways,
with greater public scrutiny of and accountability in
public life, but we know that the powerful still enjoy
impunity. Even if it would be too much to expect elected representatives to set an example for people by their
behaviour, the level of boorishness to which they
descended in Maharashtra Sadan is alarming.
Accommodation and food that were not to their liking
may be legitimate complaints. But forcing food into the
mouth of an employee is not the way to improve the situation. If Maharashtra government officials were not
being responsive enough, the Sena MPs could have
addressed their problems in other ways. In the past, too,
there have been instances of some MPs making a
ridiculous spectacle of themselves. The display of arrogance of power cuts across political lines, and one
Congress MP, who is now in the BJP, brandished a gun
at a toll plaza in Gujarat not so long ago. The distress
caused to a Muslim employee by the callous, even if not
deliberate, disregard of his religious sensibilities is
apparent. Good governance in India must be premised
on equal respect for all individuals. Any sense that
some religions are less equal than others can only be
exploited by extremist elements. The Narendra Modi
government would do well to distance itself from such
actions by MPs who are allied to it. A positive agenda
for governance can work only if every citizen feels that
the state and its representatives are sensitive to his or
her way of life.
No leader of the opposition
sUHAs pALsHiKAr
How to misunderstand
each other
By rAMAswAMi r iyer
As the new BJP government completes two months
in office, it is quite clear
that it does not intend to
shift the tone, tenor and substance of politics. Having
been elected on a wave of
expectations, the BJP has
started sending signals that,
at least in the field of political conduct, it does not have
a game plan to seize the initiative and think differently.
The first signal came in the
way it dealt with the issue
of appointing governors, as
this writer argued on these
pages (‘If there were no
governors’, IE, June 26).
The issue of the leader of
the
opposition
(LoP)
appears to be another signal.
As in the case of the governors, this is not about a few
individuals or one person
getting some perks. This is
about the way institutions
are handled. Democratic
politics is as much about
institutions as it is about
mobilisations and winning
elections. Having proven
its ability in the latter terrain, the BJP seems to be
following in the footsteps
of its predecessors in disregarding the responsibility to build and strengthen
institutions. To ridicule
the Congress for not being
eligible for the post of
LoP is easy and rooted in
transient politics. Dealing
with the issue in a more
mature and farsighted
manner can open up space
for the institutionalisation
of political practice.
According to the existing
provisions, the Congress
does not have the required
numbers. But the issue
now is whether an alliance
can be recognised as a
legislative party for the
purpose of designating an
LoP. Assuming that the
leader of the Congress in
the House is not entitled
to “salaries, perks and
cabinet rank” as per the
existing legislation, the
more complicated issue is
whether the various committees that require the
LoP to be a member (such
as the committee for the
appointment of the CVC)
can function without her.
The BJP is said to be
dodging the second issue
by contemplating an
amendment to the relevant
acts. A government that
amended the TRAI regulations to suit its conve-
nience could easily revise
the LoP act and agree to
make the leader of the single largest party or the
leader of the largest
alliance
the
LoP.
Therefore, the argument
that the designation of the
LoP requires a specific
strength in the House is
rather specious. The government appears to be taking refuge in technicalities in trying to deny the
Congress leader the position. In the end, it might,
with bad grace, agree to
make the leader of the
largest party/ alliance the
LoP, after having tested
the patience of the
Congress on this issue. It
might also want to show
the Congress in a poor
light by demonstrating
how the party is craving
that position. But in the
process, the BJP contributes to the demeaning
of the office and the larger idea that government
and opposition together
are responsible for running the affairs of
Parliament. In the meanwhile, the Congress has
also not done much to
deserve being called the
leader of the opposition.
Instead of strategising
how best to become the de
facto leader of the opposition, the Congress is seen
running from pillar to post
(reportedly even considering recourse to the judiciary) to get that recognition. The Congress may
take pride in the fact that
it has disrupted proceedings in the House somewhat effectively. But
whether it can force the
government to rethink any
matter is a crucial test.
Besides, whether a parliamentary victory was won
by voice power or the
power of argument will,
in the long run, determine
whether the Congress
wants to do justice to procedural decorum or just
make its presence felt. It
would do well to revisit
the remarks made by the
speakers of the 14th and
15th Lok Sabhas on the
issue of decorum and the
obligations of parliamentarians. This Lok Sabha is
quite different from the
Houses where the BJP
was a large opposition
party around which the
NDA was woven. The
Congress is not only
weak, but also isolated.
The so-called UPA has
become almost fictitious.
Other major parties in the
opposition, such as the
TMC, AIADMK and BJD,
are not only outside the
Congress-led coalition,
but also the main opponents of the Congress in
their respective states.
This has put the Congress
in a tricky position where
it has to coordinate with
its opponents. It will
require floor management, which the Congress
was weak in even when in
power. More than that, it
will require a flexibility
of approach and a readiness to build broad-based
coalitions. This is exactly
what the Congress lacks.
The 16th Lok Sabha has at
least four major players in
the opposition: the TMC,
AIADMK,
BJD
and
Congress. All of them are
currently in power in
some state or the other
and so have to manage
their state’s interests.
Therefore, structurally,
there is very narrow room
for a concerted opposition
to the NDA. Besides, barring the Congress, the
state-based parties have
limited interest in opposing the BJP — they would
be willing to do business
with it almost any time
and, as such, might not be
“in opposition” to the
government.
So
the
Congress will not only
have to take the initiative,
but also tread cautiously
to ensure broader and
more durable opposition
to the government. Such
an initiative can take
shape only if the Congress
chooses to oppose the
government on two broad
principles — democratic
propriety and procedure
on one hand, and states’
rights on the other. Both
these platforms can be
acceptable to the other
parties in the opposition
and help the Congress
gain sympathetic public
opinion. The experience
so far, not only in the last
two months but also during NDA rule from 1998
to 2004, is that the
Congress is clueless when
in opposition. Perhaps
long years in government
have robbed the party of
the skills of an opposition.
Even in the states where it
has been in opposition, its
performance has been dismal.
Therefore,
the
demand that its leader be
recognised as LoP is
rather pathetic — a party
should be recognised as
the opposition on the
strength of its policies, its
leadership and the confidence it inspires as an
alternative, not just on the
basis of legal provisions
and the generosity of the
ruling party. When either
the ruling party or the
opposition is unconcerned
with
institutionalising
political practices, it is
bad enough, when both
show the same symptoms,
it underscores the bankruptcy of the political
establishment.
India-Nepal relations are constantly being upset by
insensitivity and blundering on the part of India and hypersensitivity and proneness to misunderstanding on the part
of Nepal. India seems to have an infinite capacity for
putting its foot wrong in relation to Nepal, and Nepal seems
to have an equal capacity for misreading ineptness as diabolical machination. The relationship is a thoroughly dysfunctional one. Because of that background, I had at one
time cautioned against attempts to negotiate new treaties or
agreements, which would only serve to generate fresh misunderstandings, and observed: “Do not seek excessive
closeness; let not Nepal feel threatened; aim at friendliness,
correctness and a reasonable distance.” At that time, many
friends felt that, given the geography and history of the two
countries, a relationship of “correctness and distance” was
not an option.
What I had said then is being strikingly illustrated by a
current development. There is much anger and indignation
in Nepal over a draft agreement on cooperation in the
power sector proposed by India. It has been described as
“hegemonic”. It is alleged that India wants monopoly over
the power sector in Nepal. The former water resources minister, Laxman Ghimire, is reported to have termed the proposal “an insult to Nepal”. This contretemps, just before the
Indian external affairs minister’s visit that began on Friday,
was both unfortunate and entirely avoidable.
The draft agreement proposed by India is mostly
innocuous. It talks in general terms about cooperation on
investment in power generation and power purchase. It is
for Nepal to say whether it wants an agreement at all. India
cannot compel Nepal to enter into an agreement. If it is prepared to look at a draft agreement, it could propose any
amendments it wants, or propose an alternative draft altogether. Why then is there so much anger? It arises essentially from the Nepalese understanding or misunderstanding of
a couple of clauses in the draft. These are:
One, “The government of Nepal will facilitate the sale,
and government of India will facilitate the purchase, by
interested Indian entities, of surplus power, that is the
power over and above what is required for use in Nepal,
generated from power projects, including hydroelectric
projects developed in Nepal, on mutually agreed terms and
conditions.” Two, “In particular, the parties shall cooperate
in effective harnessing of Nepal’s hydro-power potential
through facilitation and speedy construction of hydroelectric power projects in Nepal either with 100 per cent Indian
investments or joint venture with Indian entities.”
These have evidently been interpreted to mean, first,
that Nepal must sell all its surplus power to Indian entities;
and second, that Nepal must necessarily accept 100 per cent
investment in hydro-power projects by India, and is not
allowed to invest in hydro-power projects entirely on its
own, or in JVs with non-Indian entities. I presume the government of India meant only to offer 100 per cent Indian
investment in hydro-power projects in Nepal and not to
force such Indian investment on Nepal. Indeed, how can it
do so? As for the purchase of power, I doubt India intended
to ask for exclusive rights to all surplus hydro-power in
Nepal. However, regardless of Indian intentions, the apprehensions in Nepal are understandable. The interpretations
they have placed on those two clauses are not totally
implausible. If the draft had been carefully re-read within
the Indian government, the possibility of a misunderstanding could have been anticipated and averted.
Now that anger has been generated in Nepal, what
can be done to assuage it? My suggestion is that the
draft agreement should be immediately withdrawn,
and Nepal assured that its interpretations are based on
a misunderstanding of Indian intentions. It could also
be left to the Nepal government to propose a draft, if
they so wish. In other words, instead of breathing
down Nepal’s neck, India might leave it to Nepal to
take the initiative, if they wish to. By these means the
fraught situation could still be saved, and the relationship salvaged.
A disappointment for scientific community
v. v. KrisHnA
After a decade-long policy paralysis in science, technology and higher education
research during UPA I and II,
the Indian science community was waiting with optimism. To its disappointment,
the budget did not commit
any substantial funding that
the field of Science and
Technology (S&T) deserves.
It also failed to give any signals to strengthen the
research and innovation base
of our ailing 700 universities
and 30,000-plus colleges.
Investing in R&D
Benchmarking OECD
and other front-ranking
economies, the Manmohan
Singh government from 2004
reiterated its commitment to
increase
the
Gross
Expenditure on Research and
Development (GERD) to 2
per cent of GDP. In the last
decade, Indian GERD/GDP
either stagnated at a little less
than 0.9 per cent or even relatively declined when adjusted to inflation. During the
same period, the Chinese figure witnessed a jump from 1
per cent to 1.9 per cent of
GDP. China’s economy is
three to four times larger than
the Indian economy. It is
investing at least five times
more money in Research and
Development (R&D) compared to us. Going back from
earlier commitments, the
Science, Technology and
Innovation Policy 2013
promised to increase the
magic figure to 2 per cent
only “if the private sector
raises its R&D investment.”
The budget statement has a
somewhat similar tone.
The quality of science
production and excellence in
science is falling rapidly due
to poor peer evaluation systems and merit-based incentives
Without a clear-cut commitment and a road map from
the government to increase
the public share of GERD to
2 per cent of GDP, the laudable goals of “positioning
India among the top five
global scientific powers by
2020” (STIP 2013); building
a new science and technology
base in nanotechnology,
material science, bio-medical
research and devices; a range
of
biotechnology-related
front-ranking research clusters in Faridabad and
Bengaluru; science component of ‘smart cities’; high
speed and bullet trains etc., as
desired in the budget, will
remain a distant dream.
Without allocating sufficient
funds for research, we may
even become dependent on
foreign countries for critical
technologies. The issue of
higher government commitment to GERD also assumes
significance as more than 55
per cent of GERD in the last
few decades is consumed by
the strategic sectors of
defence, atomic energy and
space. Hence what is broadly
left under the civilian R&D is
less than 45 per cent of
GERD. With a series of missions planned to Mars and the
moon, ‘big science’ international projects and emerging
geo-political scenario, the
dominance of strategic sectors in GERD is likely to continue in the coming decade.
The progress of science agencies and R&D is intimately
connected with human potential in higher education.
Research in higher education
Research in higher edu-
cation has been a victim of
policy paralysis in S&T in the
last few decades. Two crucial
features of research in higher
education are its share in
national GERD and research
intensity. In the last decade,
universities accounted for
over 52 per cent of total
cumulative national research
publications measured by
international databases such
SCI or SCOPUS. But they
were allocated just 5 per cent
of GERD. Second, just about
10-12 per cent of our universities and colleges can be
described as research intensive. The rest — nearly 88
per cent of our universities —
are only teaching institutions.
The bulk of our higher education sector is yet to attain
what is known as the
Humboldtian goal of teaching and research excellence.
These facts have been repeatedly pointed out to both HRD
and the Department of
Science and Technology. But
so far very little has been
done to create a level-playing
field between higher education and science agencies.
Universities in the OECD
region (25 countries) accounted for 20 per cent and Japanese
universities accounted for 17
per cent of GERD in the last
decade. Even Chinese universities increased their share of
GERD from around 5 per cent
in the 1990s to over 15 per cent
at present. The policy measures taken to increase
research intensity in universi-
ties and nurture them to attain
world-class standards in China
were part of its national innovation strategies. Project 211
in the mid-1990s allocated
U.S. $7.98 billion for 100 universities. Project 985 further
shortlisted 39 universities to
develop them into their version of ‘Chinese Ivy League’
from the late 1990s with a budget of 4.87 U.S.$ billion. We
have not only fallen behind our
global competitors, but have
failed to adequately address
the question of research intensity and gross enrolment ratios
in the higher education sector.
So far, national leadership has failed to forge close
collaborative links and channels of mobility between public science agencies, universities and user industries. For
instance, there is very little
collaboration between the
best of our software firms and
universities. The Nano mission funded 150 projects but
did not lead to any fruitful
joint collaboration between
institutions and industry. All
three operate in relative isolation with each other. Such
inter-institutional collaborations are important as they
not only arrest fossilisation of
research areas but also
enhance the mobility of
research
personnel.
Acquiring
sophisticated
equipment and instrumentation is a capital-intensive
affair.
Inter-institutional
mobility will optimise the
usage of scarce S&T
resources. In this context we
can learn from the French
experience.
In the last two decades,
80 per cent of CNRS (French
National Research Council)
laboratories were reorganised
to establish joint R&D units
with universities in their close
proximity. They follow a system of joint appointments to
enhance mobility between
different institutions and
establish joint incubation and
innovation centres to commercialise technologies. With
Public-Private Partnership
and FDI looming large in
S&T institutions, we need to
formulate a series of S&T
laws to govern and regulate
knowledge
production,
incentives and research innovation schemes. There is no
national intellectual property
law governing all public
research and educational
institutions at the moment.
Without this step, PPP in
research is going to be problematic. This assumes significance as the new policy
intends to open up research
and innovation schemes to the
private and corporate sector
firms in future. The other area
where our science leadership
has failed us is in science
organisation. The quality of
science production and excel-
lence in science is falling
rapidly due to poor peer evaluation systems and meritbased incentives. A large
number of S&T journals continue to lag far behind international benchmarks. They are
not the first or even second
priority. They are a fallback
preference if papers are rejected by foreign journals.
Science agencies do not
attract the best of talents. Young
faculty in universities feel quite
frustrated to discover after
entering that it takes 12 long
years to get their first promotion. There is large-scale internal brain drain taking place
from science and engineering
to commerce, management and
marketing areas. Over the
years, one can witness the loss
of research and academic
autonomy in science agencies
and academia. The scientific
elite who are leading these large
institutions no longer see themselves as representatives of the
scientific academic community. It seems, this elite draws its
legitimacy not from its membership in the academic-science
community but from its access
and proximity to political
power. It is indeed a dangerous
trend that the scientific elite is
getting embedded with political
powers sacrificing their
research and academic autonomy in the process. Only time
will only tell us where we are
heading.
5
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
PM launches 'MyGov' portal for citizens to contribute in governance
new DeLHi, JULy
26:
Prime
Minister
Narendra Modi Saturday
launched
a
website
mygov.nic.in that aims to
help citizens contribute in
governance by giving their
opinions and views on
important issues like Clean
Ganga or skill development.
The inauguration of the
people-centric platform also
marks the completion of 60
days of the new government. The Prime Minister
said in the past 60 days, the
experience of his government was that there were
many people who wanted to
contribute towards nationbuilding and devote their
time and energy, an official
statement said.
Modi said MyGov
(mygov.nic.in) is a technology-driven medium that
will provide citizens an
opportunity to contribute
towards good governance,
the statement added.
"The platform would
bridge gap gulf between
people and government.
Democracy cannot succeed
without people's participation in government and this
participation should not be
limited only during elections," the Prime Minister
said.
Besides
Modi,
Communications and IT
Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad, Cabinet Secretary
Ajit Seth, DEITY Secretary
R S Sharma were also present at the launch of the portal.
National Informatics
Centre (NIC) of the
Department of Electronics
and
Information
Technology (DeitY) will
implement and manage the
platform.
There are multiple
theme-based discussions on
MyGov where a wide range
of people can share their
thoughts and ideas with the
government, Sharma told
reporters after the launch.
"It is also an initiative to
build a digital knowledge
library. We will guide the
people on the topics of
national importance on
which the government
would like to know their
views and ideas," he added.
The platform presents
an opportunity for the citizens to both 'Discuss' and
'Do', Sharma said, adding,
any idea shared by a contributor will also be discussed on the discussion
forums, allowing constructive feedback and interaction. At present, there are
six groups on the platform - Clean Ganga, Girl Child
Education, Clean India,
Skilled India, Digital India
and Job Creation.
"Citizens can also volunteer for various tasks and
submit their entries. These
tasks would be reviewed by
other members and experts.
Once approved, these tasks
can be shared by those who
complete the task and by
other members on MyGov,"
Sharma said. Each group
consists of online and onground tasks that can be
taken up by the contributors. The objective of each
group is to bring about a
qualitative change in that
sphere through people's participation, he said.
"We will review the
working on MyGov in three
months and over time the
number of groups, tasks and
discussions will increase.
The platform will also be
used as a comprehensive
knowledge
repository,"
Sharma added. The portal
can even be extended to act
like public audit platform
for government projects like
citizens giving feedback on
status of completed infrastructure projects or availability of various social sector programmes, he said.
Checking of school buses continues Tell people about 'bold steps' taken
in Telangana for second day
in first 50 days, Modi to his MPs
In an attempt to enforce
HyDerABAD, JULy
26: Transport authorities in
Telangana continued checking
of school buses for the second
day Saturday in the wake of
Thursday's tragic accident in
Medak district which claimed
the lives of 14 students. The
Road Transport Authority
(RTA) officials seized 10
buses and registered cases
against several others for violation of norms. They also
served notices to managements of the concerned private
schools.
safety measures, the RTA
authorities launched a statewide drive to inspect the vehicles. On the first day, 148
buses were booked in all 10
districts. They also seized 20
buses for serious violation of
rules. Besides checking the fitness of vehicles, the officers
are also verifying the licenses
of drivers and if they are using
mobile phones while driving.
Action is also being taken for
rash and negligent driving,
overloading of vehicles,
UPSC aspirants intensify protests; no
discrimination, says Govt
new DeLHi, JULy 26: The government on Friday
sought to assure the civil services aspirants who have been
protesting against Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Following violent protests in Delhi on Thursday evening,
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and
Pensions Jitendra Singh Friday morning met Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to discuss the issue.
Following the talks, Singh sought to assure the students
and said that the government was taking the matter seriously.
The students won't be discriminated against on the basis of
language, Singh said. “There won't be any injustice, especially on the basis on language. However, students must also show
some patience,” the minister told reporters.
“The government has sympathy and also has the clarity
that there shouldn't be any injustice with the students,” he
added. According to Singh, the government was waiting for a
report on the matter and will take decision only for the good of
students. "I assure you that within one week we have sought
the report of the Committee... Today I have again told the
Committee to give the report within one week. As the report
comes, further action will follow," the minister told Rajya
Sabha. Also today, the students tried to march towards
Parliament to press for their demand of scrapping the CSAT,
but were stopped midway by the police and taken into preventive custody. The protesters were stopped outside Central
Secretariat Metro Station from where they were taken to
Parliament Street Police Station. The protests, however, continued in North Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar. Inside Parliament
too, the issue led to heated exchanges and protests leading to
adjournment of the Rajya Sabha. Congress leader Digvijay
Singh said that the Congress was ready to fight for UPSC aspirants both inside and outside Parliament.
absence of attendants to help
children board the buses and
lack of first aid box and other
safety measures. The RTA is
focusing on Hyderabad and
neighbouring Ranga Reddy
district as over 2,000 school
buses ply here. The department also plans to organise a
program to train the drivers on
the safety precautions especially at unmanned rail-road
crossings. Fourteen children
of a private school were killed
and 20 others injured
Thursday when a train
rammed into school bus at
unmanned rail-road crossing
at Masayipet village in Medak
district. The driver and cleaner of the bus were also killed in
the accident. An eyewitness
claimed to have seen driver
speaking on his mobile phone
while trying to speed past the
crossing. He was also said to
be a part-time driver hired by
the school as the regular driver
was on leave.
new DeLHi, JULy
26:
Prime
Minister
Narendra Modi had in his
poll campaign promised a
lot of bold steps that he will
be taking if voted to power
and made the PM of the
country. Now, he has reportedly asked the BJP's 280
Members of Parliament to
explain to the people the
“bold administrative steps”
taken by his government in
its first 50 days.
After Modi took office
as the PM two months back,
his government presented
the first Union Budget
which targetted growth.
With first session of the
16th Lok Sabha about to
end, the PM is holding
meeting with his MPs in
batches.
It is being reported that
Modi has told MPs that his
government is working
towards taking the benefits
of the bold policy decisions
taken by his government to
the last person and wants
his MPs to explain this the
people who elected them.
Also, for instance, the
Prime Minister’s Office
(PMO) has asked several
ministries, including the
highways ministry, to draw
up a list of projects that
would get started or commissioned, to mark 100 successful days in office for
Narendra Modi.
Taking his vision of a
developed India forward,
Modi had come up with a
17-point people-oriented
agenda which was sent to
the concerned ministries
asking them to submit
detailed action plans, with
sharp focus on delivery and
implementation, at the most
by July 20 so that agenda
can be placed well when the
NDA Government completes its first 100 days in
office in August-end.
Modi reminded his MPs
that the mandate given to
them after BJP's thumping
victory in the Lok Sabha
polls is a responsibility.
Congress not entitled to Leader of
Opposition post in LS: A-G
new DeLHi, JULy
26: In bad news for
Congress,
Attorney
General Mukul Rohatgi
has reportedly maintained
on Friday that the party
has no case for claiming
the Leader of Opposition
(LoP) post, saying there is
no precedence since the
days of the first Lok Sabha
when Jawaharlal Nehru
was the Prime Minister.
Rohatgi is also believed to
have conveyed this to Lok
Sabha Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan who had sought
his opinion in view of the
dilemma she is facing over
the issue, sources said.
The A-G has said
Congress is not eligible as
it does not have the
required 10 per cent (55
seats) in the 543-member
Lok Sabha, the sources
said. Congress has only 44
seats. To back his opinion,
the A-G has said there is
no precedence where a
party was given the LoP
position -- the status of a
Cabinet Minister -- without meeting the criteria of
10 per cent seats since the
days of first Lok Sabha
when G V Mavlankar was
the Speaker, they said.
Even during the time
of Rajiv Gandhi, Congress
with over 400 seats had
refused to grant LoP status
to TDP for the same reason, the AG has told the
Speaker. The A-G is also
learnt to have rejected the
contention that LoP status
could be given to the
leader of Congress-led
UPA coalition as there is
no such precedence. UPA
has 60 members in the
House.
Lok Sabha Secretariat
officials refused to make
any comment, saying a
decision in the matter was
yet to be taken.
Mahajan, who has
been facing the tough situation on taking a call on
the tricky issue, has said
that she would consult
legal and constitutional
experts besides experienced persons in firming
up a decision. Reacting to
the
development,
Congress, which has
recently upped the ante
over the issue, hoped that
the Speaker will "not be
misguided" by the opinion
of the AG.
"Attorney General represents the government's
opinion. He articulates the
government's viewpoint.
Government has nothing
to do with it (LoP issue). It
is the domain of the
Speaker. We will react
after the ruling of the
Speaker,"
Congress
General Secretary Shakeel
Ahmed. Congress and
Government have been
trading barbs over the LoP
issue with the main opposition even bringing the
Speaker in its line of fire
on the issue.
Asserting that the post
of Leader of Opposition is
its "right", the Congress
party has accused the gov-
ernment of playing "petty
politics" over the issue and
hoped Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan will not allow her
judgement
to
be
"coloured" by various
shades of politics.
Congress has been
peeved over the delay in
deciding on the issue and
suggested that the Speaker
might be consulting the
government. "This (delay)
means a decision will be
taken in consultation with
the government. This
means whatever the government will want will
happen," Amarinder Singh
said.
The government side
reacted angrily saying the
Congress' views reflected
its "desperation" while
Mahajan declined to wade
into the LoP controversy.
Singh, the Congress'
Deputy Leader in the
House, has said the party
has written to the Speaker
to formally demand the
LoP post.
Situation on LAC peaceful: Army
DrAss, JULy 26: Against
the backdrop of repeated incursions by China into Indian territory, a top Army commander
Saturday said the situation on the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) was
"absolutely peaceful and calm"
and such incidents happen due to
differences in perception.
"The situation on the China
border is absolutely peaceful and
calm. There are no problems.
There has been no incident of firing at the LAC. There are some
areas where there is a difference of
perception on the alignment of the
LAC. We think it is some area and
they think of some other," General
Officer Commanding in Chief, Lt
Gen D S Hooda, told reporters
here. He said there was no demarcation of the LAC on the land and
in such areas both Indian soldiers
as well as Chinese soldiers do
patrolling.
"But even in those areas,
whenever there are any face-offs,
everything is settled peacefully. I
cannot comment on the political or
the diplomatic level, but soldierto-soldier contact is handled very
peacefully," he said. He said there
was no real concern of the transgressions by the Peoples
Liberation Army (PLA) and the
rules and protocols were largely
followed by both the sides.
"Transgressions are always
there. Also, let me say that as the
infrastructure there is getting
developed and roads are coming
up...Even our presence is slightly
increased in various areas. So,
sometimes it is also because of
that that you are actually seeing
more of what is happening. There
is greater visibility also from our
side on what they are doing.
"There are rules and agreements and protocols that are
defined and largely these protocols are being followed by both
sides. Really, there is no cause of
real concern that they are doing
something which is out of the
ordinary," he said. On reports of
deployment of Chinese troops in
Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK),
the army commander said it does
not pose any immediate threat.
"There are some media reports
that there are Chinese troops in
PoK, but mostly they are related to
developmental activities. We are
not getting anything that is close
to the LoC or poses an immediate
threat. "Yesterday, there was one
ceasefire violation in PoonchMendhar and also one in Akhnoor
sector. We had a few ceasefire violations there and they are continuing. Although, let me state that
they are not (of) the same intensity as was last year. Last year, the
firing was much much heavier.
But yes, there is a problem," Lt
Gen Hooda said. He said ceasefire
along the borders with Pakistan
was a biggest Confidence
Building Measure (CBM) and it
would be better for the relations
between the two nations if it
holds. "See I cannot answer for
India Pakistan relations. These are
being handled at a particular
level. But definitely, on the border
the incidents which are happening...Even the Foreign Secretary
made that comment that the
biggest CBM was ceasefire along
the borders. And if the situation
on the LoC and borders is calm,
then it will definitely help and it
will be good for the development
of overall relations," he said. The
army commander said the force is
prepared for the contingencies
which may arise in the wake of
the US troop withdrawal from
Afghanistan.
No US trip for
CPI-M legislator
THirUvAnAnTHApUrAM, JULy 26: The CPIM has barred one of its legislators from travelling to the
US next month to attend the International Visitor's
Leadership Programme organised by the State Department
- as it is funded by the US government.
The programme is being held in a few locations in the
US Aug 4-24. "Rajesh was told by his party that it does not
augur well if he goes because the entire trip is being funded by the US government... So he decided not to go," said
two-time CPI-M supported independent MLA KT Jaleel
who along with party legislator TV Rajesh was selected by
the assembly speaker for the trip.
Even though none in the CPI-M told me not to go, I
felt, since I am indirectly associated with them, I will also
not go," added Jaleel.
The assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan had selected
nine legislators for the trip after getting a letter from the
State Department.
Apart from TV Rajesh, KT Jaleel, ES Bijimol (all from
the Left-led opposition) he selected PC Vishnunath, Shafi
Parambil, Anwar Saddat, IC Balakrishnan, N Shamsudeen
and Mons Joseph, all from the Congress-led ruling front.
However, CPI has allowed its MLA ES Bijimol to go on
the trip. With Rajesh and Jaleel backing out, KM Shaji and
VT Balram, both from the ruling front, got the opportunity to travel to the US.
RJD minister's murder
verdict: BJP MP to move SC
pATnA, JULy 26: Two days after the Patna High
Court acquitted eight people who had been convicted by a
trial court for the murder of former RJD minister Brij
Bihari Prasad, his wife and BJP MP Rama Devi said on
Saturday this would be challenged in the Supreme Court.
"I am pained by the acquittal of all the accused and I
have decided not to sit silent but to approach the apex
court for justice in connection with murder of my husband," Rama Devi told reporters here.
"I will soon file an appeal in the Supreme Court
against the acquittal of all the accused in the case," she
said. Rama Devi said she would appeal against the verdict
as the main witnesses in the case are still alive and they
would provide authentic details in the case.
A division bench of the court Thursday acquitted the
eight accused including former MP Surajbhan Singh, former legislators Munna Shukla, and Rajan Tiwari.
The eight accused were awarded life imprisonment by
the trial court in 2009. Brij Bihari Prasad, a criminalturned politician, was an accused in the engineering
admissions scam. He was shot dead in 1998 inside the
premises of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical
Sciences in Patna while he was on an evening walk. He
was a minister in the Rabri Devi government.
Inquiry launched into Indianorigin boy's killing in Scotland
LonDon, JULy 26: An independent inquiry has
been launched into the murder of a three-year-old boy who
was beaten to death by his Indian-origin mother at their
home in Scotland earlier this year. Rosdeep Kular aka
Rosdeep Adekoya, 34, who had been charged with the
murder of her son Mikaeel Kular, faces a lengthy jail term
after pleading guilty to culpable homicide at Edinburgh
High Court yesterday.
Fife council in Scotland has now confirmed it has
ordered a significant case review after it emerged that
Mikaeel had been in and out of foster care.
Serious questions have emerged about Scotland's
social work system after it was found that Mikaeel and his
twin sister, now four, were taken into foster care in Fife
several times because of their mother's neglect, emotional
ill-health and erratic lifestyle. Rosdeep had pleaded guilty
to reduced charges of culpable homicide and attempting to
defeat the ends of justice by covering up Mikaeel's death.
She admitted to beating up her son to death at their
Edinburgh flat after he was repeatedly sick after a trip to a
Nando's restaurant at the city's Fountain Park.
She then disposed off the body in a woodland in Fife
and then reported him missing to the police, triggering a
major search operation as members of the public helped
the police look for the little boy.
Mikaeel's body was found four days after his death,
wrapped in camouflage material and folded into a
strapped-up suitcase. The suitcase, disguised by branches,
had been left in woods behind a bungalow in Kirkcaldy,
Fife, belonging to Rosdeep's parents and sister.
Rosdeep, who was brought up in Kirkcaldy and had
been living there and in Edinburgh, had alarmed her parents by leaving her five children without proper supervision or dumping them on other family members while she
went drinking in Edinburgh, the 'Guardian' said.
In December 2013, social services stopped monitoring
the family. The court heard that Mikaeel, whose father was
one of his mother's childhood friends, was seen to be a
"healthy, happy little boy".
Fife council confirmed yesterday that its social workers would be interviewed by the independent inquiry,
expected to be chaired by a senior expert from another
local authority.
The review, due by December, will include police, the
NHS, courts and?child protection?officers in Fife and
Edinburgh and include evidence uncovered by the police
investigation into Mikaeel's death.
6
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
Dell, BlackBerry downplay
threat from Apple-IBM alliance
ToronTo: IBM Corp`s recent move to partner with
Apple Inc to sell iPhones and iPads loaded with corporate
applications has excited investors in both companies, but
two rivals say they are unperturbed for now.
Top executives at Dell and BlackBerry Ltd scoffed at
the threat posed by the alliance this week, arguing the tieup is unlikely to derail the efforts of their own companies
to re-invent themselves. "I do not think that we take the
Apple-IBM tie-up terribly seriously. I think it just made a
good press release," John Swainson, who heads Dell`s
global software business, said in an interview with Reuters
in Toronto on Thursday. PC maker Dell and smartphone
maker BlackBerry are in the midst of reshaping their companies around software and services, as the needs of their
big corporate clients morph. Swainson, who spent over
two decades in senior roles at IBM, said, "I have some
trouble understanding how IBM reps are going to really
help Apple very much in terms of introducing devices into
their accounts. I mean candidly, they weren`t very good at
doing it when it was IBM-logoed products, so I do not get
how introducing Apple-logoed stuff is going to be much
better." While conceding that Apple products hold more
allure, Swainson said they lack the depth of security features that many large business clients like banks covet.
IBM and Apple could not immediately be reached for
comment. BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen similarly downplayed the threat of the alliance in an interview
with the Financial Times on Thursday, likening the tie-up
to when "two elephants start dancing."
NO COMMENT ON POSSIBLE ALLIANCE
Dell and BlackBerry declined to discuss whether they
would consider teaming up, but some analysts, bankers
and others have argued in the past that a partnership
between the two underdogs potentially made sense.
Texas-based Dell has a huge sales team, vast network
of business clients and is focused on growing its security
and device management capabilities, long strong suits for
BlackBerry. The Canadian company is building on its heritage by adding capabilities to manage not just
BlackBerry, but iOS-, Android- and Windows-based
devices on its infrastructure. "Dell`s always been in a partnership-driven model. As Dell has evolved it has focused
on some pieces of the equation, but not all," said
Swainson, adding that the need to broaden partnerships is
growing, but declining comment on a potential tie-up with
BlackBerry. Chen told the Financial Times that
BlackBerry was in early discussions with some companies
about working together in parts of the enterprise market,
but did not name them. Whether a BlackBerry-Dell partnership will materialize is unclear for now.
Initial speculation about a tie-up between the two
began a year ago, when both players were exploring buyouts. At the time, one source told Reuters that BlackBerry
had held talks with private equity firm Silver Lake
Partners about collaboration in enterprise computing.
Silver Lake, along with Dell`s founder, Michael Dell,
were at the time in the midst of taking Dell private.
At the time, the source said if the buyout succeeded,
one option was a collaboration with BlackBerry in mobile
computing. Both Swainson and Chen were senior advisors
with Silver Lake before moving into their roles with Dell
and BlackBerry. BlackBerry, under the leadership of
Chen, has been busy forging alliances and earlier this
week announced it was going to allow third-parties to host
its device management services.
App clicks thief's selfie,
gets her arrested
new yorK: An app called Lookout has hunted
down a woman thief who stole a smartphone from a
woman's car in Florida. The app detects when someone is
trying to unlock a stolen device and snaps pictures of the
thief. The app also emailed the woman maps of the location where the phone was last used, media reports said.
Cathy Carter from Florida's Lakeland area went to see
her doctor and left the front window of her car open. She
forgot the phone on the seat which was stolen by the time
she came back. A few hour later, Carter received an email
with a picture of a woman and a map indicating where her
phone was last seen. She posted the thief's pictures on
social media and one of Carter's friends recognised the
thief who was later arrested.
Facebook says SEC's IPO probe ends,
extending WhatsApp closing date
Facebook Inc said the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission dropped its probe into the social networking
company over events surrounding its controversial initial
public offering. In its quarterly report filed on Thursday,
Facebook said the regulator in May "notified us that it had
terminated its inquiry and that no enforcement action had
been recommended by the SEC."
Facebook shares began trading on May 18, 2012, but
soon fell below their $38 per share offering price and had
lost more than half their value by the middle of August,
angering investors. The launch had been tarnished by technology problems that delayed trading and caused difficulty in processing trades. Investors also complained they
were not told just prior to the IPO that analysts at
Facebook`s investment banks were cutting their forecasts
after learning of the company`s internal projections for
advertising revenue.
The end of the SEC probe does not affect shareholder
litigation against Facebook, Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg and many banks over the Menlo Park,
California-based company`s IPO. This litigation remains
pending in Manhattan federal court.
Separately, Facebook said in the quarterly report it
may extend by one year the date by which it is expected
to close its $19 billion purchase of mobile messaging
startup WhatsApp. Facebook had agreed to pay a termination fee of $1 billion in cash and $1 billion in stock if
the purchase did not close by Aug. 19, 2014. It said it
expects to extend this date to Aug. 19, 2015 because it
will meet conditions allowing the extension. The transaction is still expected to close this year, it added.
Facebook shares were up 9 cents at $75.07 on Nasdaq
shortly before the close.
Why women are attracted to bad boys
reAgAn gAvin
rAsqUinHA
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for newlywed couples
It doesn't take much
looking to dog out examples
of cases where bad boys
found themselves hooked
up with girls who seemed
way above their league.
Pamela Lee Anderson
was once involved in a
physically abusive relationship with ex-Motley Crue
drummer Tommy Lee. The
singer with the nightingalelike voice, the late Whitney
Houston too had a rough
time with the ill-tempered
rapper Bobby Brown. Yes,
the boys are bad, yet the
public continues to remember and even love them. It
makes you wonder: what
really is it about bad boys
that the world loves? Is it
because their bad temper is
not borne out of malice but
is simply superficial? Is it
sympathy for the underdog?
Psychiatrist
Dr
Nirmala Rao explains:
"Individuals like these are
emotional. They are ruled
by their feelings. And no,
they are not manipulative
in the bad sense of the
term. In fact, when they're
in a normal mood, they're
really loveable and give
themselves totally to their
partner. One of the reasons that make them react
badly to a certain situation
is that they expect as
much as they give.
However, it's a problem
that needs to be attended,
because when this behaviour is triggered, their
judgment gets completely
clouded."
And what exactly is it
that 'triggers' this behaviour? "Being emotional,
any external stimulus
reaches the emotional part
of the brain, or the right
brain, first. Feelings overtake rationality and for a
few seconds they lose
control. It's called 'impulse control disorder'.
They act out immediately
on what they're feeling. It
lasts for a short time. But
it's important to remember
that it's a personality
problem and not a mental
problem." But is it one
incident like this which
makes a relationship go
awry? "No, it becomes a
habit over a period of
time. Sometimes the partner of the person unknow-
ingly or knowingly set off
the triggers that result in
the bad behaviour of their
partner. Nonetheless, in a
good mood, they are good
company, kind and shower lots of affection," continues Dr Rao.
Actor Mandira Bedi
agrees. "I suppose it's nice
to see somebody break the
rules and break the mould.
These guys aren't bad by
nature; they have good
qualities. Salman for
instance has done a lot of
good, a lot of social work.
I suppose bad boys have
certain loveable qualities
about them. Maybe it
compensates in a way. If
your good side is equally
good, it makes for an
interesting
package.
There's a certain thrill of
unpredictability
and
excitement. This makes
for good boyfriend mater-
ial, but not husband material," she says.
And the public continues to ignore the private
dirty laundry and love the
image.
"The public fulfill
their need for excitement
and stimulation thru these
popular 'heroes', who they
see as larger-than-life,
even if they're not. And
so, whatever they do is
taken with a pinch, nay, a
fistful of salt. Different
parameters for what is
right and wrong are
ascribed for celebrities.
There is a sympathetic 'so
what if he slips up once in
a while' attitude?" opines
Clinical
Psychologist
Varkha Chhulani.
Actor Kim Sharma,
who's been through an
emotional wringer of her
own, agrees that while on
a personal level, bad boys
wear down a relationship,
fans in general tend to
feel sympathetic towards
someone who's always
picked on, "I think people
love the image of the 'bad
boy' because of the
underdog
factor.
Everybody loves the
underdog and there's a
certain amount of sympathy that one feels for a
guy who's always picked
on. The good is often
overlooked. While the
public may love a 'bad
boy various reasons, on a
personal level, the 'bad
boy' thrill is very temporary. After a while, you
move on," she concludes.
So be it sympathy for
the underdog, the thrill of
reading about the travails
of having a larger-thanlife hero, or the fact that
bad boys live life in the
fast, albeit a lonely lane.
23 daily habits that will make you smarter
MAggie zHAng
Getting smarter isn't something that happens overnight.
Instead, you have to build your
intelligence every day through
intentional daily habits.
In a recent Quora thread,
"What would you do to be a little
smarter every single day?", readers shared their advice on good
habits you can establish.
Here are some simple actions
that could help you become a
smarter person.
1. Come up with 10 ideas
every day. Think about how to
reduce poverty, how to solve a
daily problem you have, interesting movie ideas, or anything. It
doesn't matter what subject your
ideas fall into, as long as you're
working your brain and your idea
muscles. Your list might even lead
to a new startup idea or writing
subject. — Claudia Azula
Altucher
2. Read the newspaper. It will
help you become more aware of
the important things happening
around the word. You'll learn to
form your own opinions and connect the dots between seemingly
unrelated things. You'll also have
a lot more to talk about at parties
or with friends. — Manas J Saloi
3. Play devil's advocate. Take
something you recently learned
and generate a unique opinion on
it that wouldn't immediately come
to mind. Try to support it with evidence, and be open to the idea that
new evidence will change your
opinion. Repeat this every day,
and you'll become much better at
thinking outside the box.
If you're feeling stuck, try
reading and critically evaluating
the editorial section of papers.
They will help you understand
how other people form arguments
and express their opinions. —
Peter DePaulo
4. Read a chapter in a fiction
or non-fiction book. Aim to read a
book a week. You can always find
pockets of time to read, whether
on your daily commute or while
you're waiting in line. Goodreads
is a great way to keep track of
everything you read and to also
find a community of other readers.
Fiction books are great for
understanding characters and getting absorbed into another perspective, while non-fiction books
are great for introducing you to
new topics, from politics to psychology. — Claudia Azula
Altucher
5. Instead of watching TV,
watch
educational
videos.
Sometimes, it's more fun to watch
things about a subject you love
than to read about it, and you can
learn a lot from other people's
experiences.
You can find fun, educational
videos on Khan Academy or
watch TED talks. You can also
find good ones on Youtube's channel SmarterEveryDay. In videos,
the information is often presented
in a digestible, memorable way,
so you can be assured they'll stick.
—Hendrik Sleeckx
6. Subscribe to feeds of interesting information. Follow interesting voices on Facebook and
Twitter, so you'll always learn
something new when you look at
your newsfeed or dashboard. For
example, if you want to keep up
with the latest news in science and
technology, subscribe to the "I
Fucking Love Science" page on
Facebook. You can also follow
email newsletters, such as Cal
Newport's Study Hacks and Today
I Found Out. — Saurabh Shah
7. Check in with your favorite
knowledge sources. Every day,
scroll through Quora, Stack
Overflow, specialty blogs, or any
other sources that satiate your
hunger for knowledge. This is an
extremely easy habit, because
other users are curating the content for you, so all you have to do
is follow the ones who write about
topics interesting to you. Try
using Pocket to save articles for
later reading, and then try to get
through them before going to
sleep at night. — Manas J Saloi
8. Share what you learn with
other people. If you find someone
to debate and analyze ideas with,
you can add to each other's
knowledge and gain new perspectives. Also, when you can explain
ideas to someone else, it means
you've definitely mastered the
concept. You can even share what
you learn without directly talking
to someone. Many people like to
start blogs so they can engage others in online dialogue. — Mike
Xie
9. Make two lists: a list of
work-related skills you want to
learn now and a list for things you
want to achieve in the future.
Google Docs is a convenient way
to keep track of your lists. For
both, decide what you want to
learn, compile sources that will
teach you these skills, and then
work on them each day.
For example, if you work in a
computer-science related field,
your first list might suggest you
learn something new in Python
one day or that you try using
MongoDB another day.
For your second list, you can
think about long-term goals, such
as whether you want to go into
marketing or architecture. Write
down the small steps you need to
take to reach that goal, whether it's
by reading the experts in those
fields or taking classes at a local
college. — Manas J Saloi
10. Make an "I Did" list. At the
end of each day, write down what
you completed. This will help you
feel better about all the things you
accomplished, especially if you're
feeling discouraged. It will also
help you reflect on how productive you were and how you can restructure your to-do lists for the
next day. — Claudia Azula
Altucher
11. Write down what you
learn. You can start a blog or use
an app like Inkpad to help you
keep track of everything you
learn. Not only will this be a great
way to keep a record of everything
you're doing, but it's also a good
source of motivation to keep you
accountable. You will want to
learn more if you know that at the
end of the day you'll have to write
about it. — Manas J Saloi
12. Stimulate your mind.
Going on a daily run is a great way
to get your brain flowing and to
keep your mental health in shape.
It's also a great way to think
through difficult decisions or
process new information. — Rick
Bruno
13. Take online courses.
Check out this list of the most
popular online courses for professionals. Make sure you don't overload yourself; commit to one to
two and truly focus on them. The
syllabi will also keep you on track,
so you know you will be doing
something every day, whether it's
listening to a lecture or working
on an assignment. — Manas J
Saloi
14. Talk to someone you find
interesting. Even if they're
strangers, don't be afraid to
approach them. Ask about their
interests and how they discovered
them. Oftentimes, you learn the
most from people you barely
know. — Manas J Saloi
15. Hang out with people who
are smarter than you. Spend as
much time as you can with smart
people. Every day, you should
strive to have a coffee date or walk
with someone who inspires you.
Always be humble and willing
to learn. Ask as many questions as
possible. If you are always around
people who are more knowledgeable than you, you'll have no
choice but to learn more. —Manas
J Saloi
16. Follow your questions. If
you see or hear about something
cool, don't just let the moment
pass. Follow up — pursue your
curiosity and find the answer to
your question. — Mike Xie
17. Use a word-of-the-day
app. You will increase your vocabulary, which can help you in competitive tests like the SAT or GRE,
or even just sound more eloquent
in daily interactions.
You can also try to learn new
vocabulary in a different language.
Every day, try to add five to 10
more words to the foreign language you are trying to pursue.
You can use LiveMocha, Basuu,
or DuoLingo. — Manas J Saloi
18. Do something scary.
"Getting out of our comfort zone
always makes us wiser." Every
day, push yourself a little further.
Try public speaking by joining a
ToastMasters class, lead a meeting
by volunteering a proposal at
work, or reach out to someone you
really admire by sending a quick
letter or email. — Claudia Azula
Altucher
19. Explore new areas. If you
can't travel every day, at least try
to find something new within your
hometown. You'll meet different
people, learn new facts, and
understand something new about
the world. It's a lot more productive than staying at home and
watching TV. — Manas J Saloi
20. Play "smart" games. Some
games, like chess and Scrabble,
expand your mind. Challenge
yourself when you play them. For
example, play Scrabble without a
dictionary. You can also solve puzzles via games like Sudoku, 2048,
and Doors. — Saurabh Shah
21. Set aside some time to do
nothing. Oftentimes, sitting in
silence can help you get inspiration and reflect on your day. —
Claudia Azula Altucher
22. Adopt a productive hobby.
If you have something you can
work on every day, from knitting
to fly fishing, you can actively
learn more just from doing. For
instance, you may try to play a
new piece of music every day,
read a physics textbook, write a
few more pages in your novel, or
learn a new computer skill. —
Mayank Rajput
23. Apply what you learn. If
you recently learned a new coding
skill or how to play an instrument,
make sure you are using that skill
in your life as often as possible.
Learning by doing is one of the
most effective ways to become
smarter. — Himanshu Pal
7
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
Abhinav Bindra bids CWG adieu with gold, teenager Malaika Goel gets silver
gLAsgow, JULy 26:
It was a memorable swansong
at the Commonwealth Games
for Abhinav Bindra as the ace
marksman bagged the 10m
Air Rifle gold medal in a gripping finale with young schoolgirl Malaika Goel turning out
to be surprise package winning silver in the 10m air pistol event. After a cracking
opening day where they
bagged seven medals, it was a
relatively quieter day for the
Indians as they added a gold,
silver and a bronze to their
tally.
Apart from the two
medals at the shooting range,
India won a bronze in the
weightlifting through 20-yearold Santoshi Matsa who finished third in the women`s 53
kg category. India are currently placed fourth in the medals
tally with three gold, four silver and three bronze medals
behind England, Australia and
Scotland.
The cynosure of the day
certainly was the 31-year-old
Bindra, who finally won an
individual gold at the quadrennoal extravaganza which had
eluded him on four previous
attempts. Bindra, who has
already won nine medals
including three gold in pairs
events, was calmness personified as he did not put a foot
wrong in the final round, having finishing third in the qual-
ifications at the Barry Buddon
Shooting Centre,Dundee.
Bindra, first Indian
Olympic individual gold
medallist, shot an aggregate of
205.3 to set a Games Record.
"This
is
my
last
Commonwealth Games. Five
CWG and nine medals, it is
enough for me," Bindra said
while speaking to Indian journalists.
"It was a well-earned
medal because I work hard
and I am happy to have
achieved the feat. I got the
desired result." Asked if Rio
2016 would be his last
Olympics, he said, "I will take
on thing at a time. I will decide
later."
He joked that after retirement he would take up journalism as career. "Journalism
is an easy job, I may become a
journalist after my shooting
career."
Bindra said he would now
focus
to
the
World
Championships to be held in a
few months time.
"I will relax a bit and then
prepare for the World Cup,"
he said.
The 16-year-old Malaika
gave India its first shooting
medal with a score of 197.1
while favourite Heena Sidhu
fell by the wayside at the
Barry Buddon Shooting
Centre at Dundee.
India`s good show in the
weightlifting arena continued
as young Andhra girl Santoshi
grabbed the bronze medal
with a total lift of 188 kg in
snatch and clean and jerk to
get the bronze as 16-year-old
Nigerian schoolgirl Chika
Amalaha won the gold with a
total lift of 196 kg. India`s
Swati Singh, who was placed
third at the end of the snatch
event finished fourth with 183
kg. It was second time that
Swati missed out on a podium
having finished fourth during
the last edition in the last edition.
Santoshi tried a lift of 109
kg on the third clean and jerk
attempt but failed. The successful attempt wouldn`t have
ensured anything more than
bronze though as both
Amalaha and Toua went on to
break the Games Record with
a lift of 111 kg each in the
clean and jerk section. Swati,
on her part, failed on two
attempts to lift 103 kg and 106
kg respectively as she had to
settle with a total score of 183
kg.
The Indian men`s hockey
team launched their campaign
on a sluggish note as they
toiled hard to register a 3-1
win over a lowly Wales in
their opening Pool A match at
the National Hockey Centre.
Ranked ninth in the
world, India had to dig deep to
overcome a resolute Wales
defence and pocket full points.
India scored two goals
through penalty corner conversions by V R Raghunath
(20th minute) and Rupinder
Pal Singh (42nd) before
comeback man Girvinder
Singh Chandi scored from a
field effort in the 47th minute.
Wales` lone goal was netted by Andrew Cornick in the
23rd minute from field play.
India will next play hosts
Scotland tomorrow, while
Wales will be up against world
champions and reigning
Games
Commonwealth
champions Australia.
Indian judokas failed to
replicate their opening day
performance with Sunibala
Huidrom missing out on a
bronze medal in the women`s
70 kg event losing to Sally
Conway of Scotland.
Sunibala faced a tough
test in the repechage contest
but she managed to prevail
over Monika Burgess of
Canada in a battle that lasted
for three minutes and 58 seconds to make the medal
round. However, it was cur-
tains for Garima Choudhary in
the women`s 63kg category
after she went down fighting
in her repechage round.
Garima, who was the only
Indian judoka to have qualified for the London Olympics
in 2012, lost to K J YeatsBrown of England in the
repechage. Yeats-Brown won
on the basis of two Wazaris.
Indian men had a disappointing outing as both Balvinder
Singh and V Vikender Singh
lost in the round of 32 in 73kg
and 81kg, respectively.
In swimming, Sandeep
Sejwal finished a poor sixth in
100m breaststroke semi-final
and finished a disappointing
12th among the 16 swimmers
who qualified. Sejwal`s timing of :103.24 secs deteriorated from his timing in the heats
which was 1:02.97 secs.
Indian paddlers continued
their rampaging form as the
men`s and women`s teams
blanked Guyana and Kenya 30 respectively in the group
stage of the table tennis team
competition. After thrashing
Vanuatu 3-0 on the opening
day, the Indian men`s team
continued their good showing
with Anthony Amalraj brushing aside Shamar Britton 11-4
11-3 11-3 to give his side an
early lead. Young Soumyajit
Ghosh then beat Christopher
Franklin 11-8 11-5 11-9 to
make it 2-0 in India`s favour.
Sanil Shankar Shetty and
Amalraj then paired up to get
the better of Paul David and
Franklin 11-8 11-6 11-5 to
complete the rout. Indian
squash star Joshna Chinappa
suffered a 1-3 defeat against
World No. 4 Joelle King of
New Zealand in the round of
16 to crash out of the women`s
singles competition.
However Dipika Pallikal
stormed into the quarterfinal
defeating Delia Arnold of
Malaysia in three straight
games 11-6 12-10 11-5. She
will meet Alison Waters of
England in the last eight clash.
Joshna, who won the
Winnipeg Winter Open trophy
-- her maiden WSA world title
in February this year -- lost 311 8-11 11-8 5-11 against her
third seeded opponent at the
Scotstoun Campus.
Indian cyclists` dismal
show continued at the Games
as they failed to qualify for the
finals of both Men`s 4000m
Individual
pursuit
and
Women`s 3000m Individual
pursuit events. In the men`s 62
kg weightlifting event,
Rustam Sarang of India finished seventh with a total lift
of 263 kg. Talented pugilist
Mandeep Jangra started his
Commonwealth Games campaign in style defeating
Mozambique`s
Augusto
Mathule in the 69 kg welterweight division bout here on
Friday. However Parveen
Kumar of India lost to Corey
Henderson of Scotland in the
Superheavyweight (+91 kg)
category to bow out.
Shiva Thapa (56 kg),
Sumeet Sangwan (81 kg) and
Amritpal Singh (91 kg) have
all got byes in their respective
categories and will now be
directly fighting in the pre
quarter-final bouts.
It was Jangra, who dominated the proceedings from the
start as his opponent didn`t
have any answer to some of
his deft hooks and uppercuts.
In fact, Jangra followed his
opponent effecting a knock
down. He got a perfect 10
from all three judges in the first
and third round while he got
29 in round two. He was
severe in the final round landing some straight punches
which totally caught his rival
unawares. Jangra will next
fight Jamaican boxer Kestina
Davis in the round of 16 bout.
In the +91 kg bout,
Parveen was no match for
Henderson, who was buoyed
by the local support as he landed some crushing punches
which the Indian boxer failed
to evade. All three judges gave
perfect 10 to Henderson in the
first two rounds while the
Scottish boxer managed 29
from round three. The Indian
could manage only 28, 27 and
27 from his three rounds.
Alastair Cook is still captain because Bravo brothers power Red Steel victory over Warriors
of ECB politics: Kevin Pietersen
LonDon, JULy 26:
Alastair Cook has managed
to hold on to England captaincy solely because of
"politics", says maverick
batsman Kevin Pietersen
and insists that the disaster
which the skipper is enduring in the series against
India is something that he
would not wish even for his
worst enemy. "At the
moment only politics are
keeping Cook in a job
because the England and
Wales
Cricket
Board
backed him so much that it
would be yet another PR
disaster if it sacked him
now," Pietersen wrote in
`The Daily Telegraph`.
"But the ECB needs his
runs back more than anything else so a big decision
has to be made. Forget the
bad headlines for once," he
said. Pietersen said he
empathises with Cook,
whose poor form with the
bat is being seen as a major
reason for England`s Test
decline. The English are
currently trailing India 0-1
after losing the second Test
at Lord`s in the five-match
series.
"Alastair Cook is enduring an experience I would
not wish on my worst
Navjeet Kaur Dhillon clinches bronze
at IAAF World Junior Championships
new DeLHi, JULy 26: Discus
thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon became only
the second Indian to grab a medal at the
IAAF World Junior Championships after
setting a new personal best to clinch a
bronze in Eugene, USA.
The 19-year-old covered an impressive
56.36m with her throw at the Hayward
Field last night in the World Junior
Championships. Her previous best was
53.97m which she recorded while winning
the Junior Federation Cup at Chennai
this May, a release stated.
Brazil`s Izabela da Silva set a world
junior leading mark of 58.03m for the
gold while American Valarie Allman
(56.75m) entertained the home crowd
with a silver medal.
It was the second ever bronze medal
for India in the world juniors after Seema
Antil`s 2002 effort in Kingston, Jamaica.
Incidentally Seema won a gold
medal in 2000 at Santiago de Chile, but
was disqualified thereafter due to doping
violations.
Navjeet`s first major success came in
Commonwealth Youth Games at
Douglas (Isle of Man) in 2011 when she
won a bronze medal with a throw of
45.27m.
Last year she had taken part in the
senior category in Asian Grand Prix and
was placed seventh in the Asian
Championships at Pune. In the Junior
Federation Cup this year, Navjeet set a new
national junior record in shot put (15.89m)
besides winning a "double" through a victory in discus throw with a noteworthy
53.97m.
She went on to win a bronze in shot put
(14.99m) as well as a silver in discus throw
(53.66m) in the Asian junior championships
at Taipei thereafter. Navjeet is also the
reigning Inter-University champion.
enemy. He will not be able
to sleep at night and when
he eventually drifts off and
wakes up in the morning
the last and first things
going through his mind will
be worries over his career
and his job," said Pietersen.
"But he should do what
is right for England and
resign the captaincy. He has
shown he does not have the
tactical brain to lead the
side,"
he
added.
Interestingly,
Pietersen
reportedly did not share a
very cordial equation with
Cook in the dressing room.
The swashbuckling batsman was sacked as an
England player earlier this
year due to his tense relationship with teammates
and other disciplinary
issues.
porT of spAin
(TriniDAD), JULy 26:
Darren Bravo smashed a six
off the final delivery of the
game to lift Trinidad and
Tobago Red Steel to a sensational four-wicket victory over
Guyana Amazon Warriors, in a
thrilling encounter of the
Caribbean Premier League
(CPL) here. Chasing 180 for
victory Thursday night, Red
Steel found themselves requiring nine runs from the final
over sent down by Guyanese
speedster Ronsford Beaton,
reports CMC.
He managed to restrict
Bravo and Jason Mohammed
to just three runs off the first
five deliveries, leaving Red
Steel with six to get from the
last ball. Bravo then delivered
in a big way, smashing a length
ball from Beaton over midwicket for a huge six, to
emphatically end the game.
It was the ideal end to a
high octane contest at Queen`s
Park Oval, which swung this
way and that. The left-handed
Bravo finished on 69 not out
while his older brother and
captain, Dwayne Bravo,
slammed an equally belligerent
67 to bolster Red Steel`s
innings that floundered at one
stage at 13 for three in the
fourth over. They lost Kevin
O`Brien for four in the first
over, bowled by left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie with the
score on five and were in strife
the following over when leftarm spinner Veerasammy
Permaul trapped Ross Taylor
Commonwealth Games: Aussies dominate
pool, Wales suffer doping shock
gLAsgow, JULy 26: Australia continued to dominate the Commonwealth
Games swimming competition with four
more golds on Friday while Wales were sent
reeling by a second doping shock. Australia`s
men`s 4x100m freestyle relay team retained
their title ahead of South Africa and England
to claim their seventh victory from a possible
14 events.
Leiston Pickett became the first swimmer to retain a 50m Commonwealth breaststroke title, while there was an Aussie onetwo in the men`s 200m freestyle as Thomas
Fraser-Holmes edged out Cameron McEvoy
with Calum Jarvis claiming Wales` first
medal of the meet in third.
There was also a world record for
Maddison Elliott in the women`s para-sport
100m freestyle S8 ahead of England`s
Stephanie Slater and another Australian
Lakeisha Patterson. There was more joy for
hosts Scotland as Dan Wallace won the
men`s 400m individual medley and
Canada`s Katerine Savard took the women`s
100m butterfly.
Benjamin Proud claimed England`s first
gold of the swim meet in the men`s 50m butterfly ahead of South African duo Roland
Schoeman and Chad le Clos. Chris WalkerHebborn ensured the men`s 100m backstroke Commonwealth title remained in
English hands with a Games record time of
53:12sec.
The biggest cheer of the evening was
definitely reserved for Wallace as he won
Scotland`s third swimming gold in two days
following the success of Hannah Miley and
Ross Murdoch on Thursday. Wallace admitted he had been inspired by the film
"Braveheart" as he edged out Fraser-Holmes
and Canada`s Sebastien Rousseau.
The 21-year-old could be seen bellowing
"freedom" after touching the wall to seal the
win, just as his namesake William Wallace
does in the film. "I just screamed `freedom`
at the top of my lungs because just being here
in front of a home crowd just brought out the
Braveheart inside of me," he said.
"I watched it just last week to get ready
for this. It`s such a Scottish thing. It warms
my heart." Joanna Rowsell won England`s
20th gold medal in Commonwealth Games
track cycling by shattering Australia`s and
New Zealand`s dominance of the women`s
3000m individual pursuit.
The 25-year-old finished nearly four
seconds ahead of Australia`s Annette
Edmondson with Amy Cure also of
Australia edging out Scotland`s Katie
Archibald for bronze. It was the first time
that a country other than Australia or New
Zealand had won this event. Sam Webster
claimed gold for New Zealand in the men`s
sprint final for his second gold of the
Games following his victory in the team
sprint on Thursday.
lbw without scoring, with
just one run added.
When opener Kennar
Lewis holed out to
Christopher Barnwell in the
deep for three in the fourth
over, Amazon Warriors
were fancying their chances
of running away with the
game. But the Bravo brothers arrived to transform the
contest, in a superb 131-run,
fourth wicket stand that put
Red Steel within reach of victory. Darren, stylish and elegant, struck five fours and five
sixes off 49 balls while
Dwayne, playing with gay
abandon, counted six fours and
three sixes off 47 deliveries.
They both hammered sixes off
off-spinner Steven Jacobs`s
second over which cost 20 runs
before Dwayne took matters
into his own hands, ripping
into Beaton with two sixes and
a four in the right-armer`s second over which leaked 21 runs.
He was also severe on Permaul
and seamer Jimmy Neesham
before skying a catch off the
latter, to be caught at Barnwell
at long-off in the 17thAover,
with 36 still required for victory. Nicholas Pooran did nothing to ruin his reputation with
two sixes in a nine-ball 16 that
kept the run rate up but when
he was taken at mid-wicket by
Lendl Simmons off Santokie in
the penultimate over, Red Steel
were still 13 runs adrift. Darren
Bravo, who paced his innings
superbly throughout, then
chose the right time to shine.
His performance overshadowed
captain
Denesh
Ramdin`s 84, which was the
highlight of Amazon Warriors`
179 for four off their 20 overs.
Sent in, Amazon Warriors
slipped to 27 for three in the
sixth over before Ramdin and
Neesham, who struck 33, rallied the innings with a 122-run
stand for the fourth wicket.
Jos Buttler aims to mimic Kevin
Pietersen's 'big hitting heroics'
on Test debut for England
LonDon, JULy 26:
Jos Buttler, who will make
his Test debut for England,
is aiming to follow in
Kevin Pietersen`s footsteps
and carry his big-hitting
style from ODIs and
Twenty20s into the fiveday game.
The English county
cricket club Lancashire`s
w i c k e t k e e p e r- b a t s m a n
wants to turn on the crowd in Pietersen style once he is
handed his Test cap on Sunday.
Like Pietersen before him, Buttler is attempting to
make the transition from ODI wonder to Test match thrillseeker, The Mirror reported. Buttler`s 121 against Sri
Lanka had already confirmed his mettle, yet he made his
Test debut only after an injury to Matt Prior and after playing for two and a half years in the ODI side. Pietersen, on
the other hand, was picked into the Test team just eight
months after his brilliant ODI exertions in Zimbabwe and
South Africa. Buttler said that he dose not want to lose his
ODI batting style completely, and added that there are people around the world who play in that aggressive manner
and do well. Buttler said that when Pietersen played for
England people were excited to watch him because he was
always looking to score runs, and added that David Warner
has done that role for Australia very successfully too. The
wicketkeeper-batsman added that it would be silly of him to
go into his shell completely and curb all his natural instincts
because that is what has got him to where he is.
8
JAMMU |
Golden YuG
SUNDAY | JULY 27 | 2014
Art integrated learning and child participation
training programme concludes
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26: A
six day art integrated learning programme for promoting experiential learning by
ensuring 100% participation
of every child concluded
today at SIE Jammu.
The programme was
first of its kind organized by
the team of experts from the
Department of Education in
Arts and Asthetics NCERT
New Delhi in collaboration
with SIE Jammu.
A total of 50 participants from different districts of Jammu division
attended this programme
with great zeal and enthusiasm.
Director
School
Jammu/
Education
Principal, SIE Jammu, H R
Pakhroo was the chief
guest on this occasion who
highlighted the importance
of art learning and its integration with teaching and
learning process. He
stressed on the need of
implementing the same
initially in the adopted
schools by the DIETs in all
the districts of Jammu
division at elementary
level. He directed the mas-
ter trainers trained by
NCERT and SIE during
the workshop to take the
lead of training teachers of
adopted schools and thereafter will continue the
hand holding with the concerned schools for enhancing achievement level.
The team of experts
from NCRET New Delhi
comprising Dr Pawan
Sudhir
HOD,
the
Department of Education
in Arts and Asthetics,
Santosh Kumar Rana
Assistant Professor ky
resource persons for the
Market checking conducted in Kishtwar,
Rs 12000 realized from defaulters
gy news service
KisHTwAr, JULy
26: In order to check the
quality of essential commodities in the market on
eve of the festival of Id-ulFitr, a team of officers headed by Tehsildar Kishtwar
Phulail Singh and comprising of EO Municipal
Kishtwar, SHO Kishtwar,
Food
Safety
Officer
Kishtwar and doctors from
veterinary and sheep husbandry Kishtwar conducted
an extensive market checking exercise. The quality of
mutton, chicken, fruits, vegetables and sweets was
checked. Violators were
fined and the rotten fruits,
vegetables and unhygienic
chicken and cooked food
were destroyed on spot.
An amount of Rs12,
000/was realized as fine.
Four shopkeepwere
ers
booked under
Food
Safety
and Standards
Act. One quintal of rotten
fruit and vegetables, twenty
kgs of sweets
and 40kg unhygienic chicken
was destroyed
by the officials
MC
of
Kishtwar.
Moreover
four domestic cylinders
were also seized from various commercial establishments. All the fruit sellers
and meat sellers were
instructed to keep the meat
and other eatables covered
to protect them against dust.
The Food Safety Officer
was directed to ensure the
safety standards as per rules
and take strict action against
defaulters under law.
training programme.
The team leader from
NCERT Dr Pawan Sudhir
stressed upon the need of
integrated cultural heritage
of Jammu with elementary
education for conserving
age old traditions and values in our young generations and bringing quality
primary education with the
participation of the community.
The NCERT team
members provided training
on art integrated education
by including various methods and techniques like
clay modeling, mask making, theatrical performances, music dance,
songs, puppetry, audiovisual clip etc.
Rajinder Kumar and
Archaana
Bakshi,
Research Officers SIE
Jammu
acted
as
Coordinator and Associate
Coordinator. Besides this
Anil Sharma, Dr Rabia
Naseem, Tapsya Sharma,
Suresh Gouria and Akash
Khajuria provided logistic
support for the successful
completion of the programme.
New entrants join Congress
Youth are future of our country: Abrol
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Senior Congress leader and
Secretary Jammu and
Kashmir Pradesh Congress
Committee (JKPCC) Hira
Lal Abrol today welcomed
the new entrants in the
Congress Party fold in a
function held at Raghunath
Pura in Jammu East
Assembly Constituency,
here.
Welcoming the newly
joined youth, Hira Lal Abrol
in the presence of General
Secretary State OBC Wing,
Suresh Kumar Dogra, Ward
No 15 President R.K Sodhi
and
District
General
Secretary Jammu V.K Sethi
said that youth are the
future of our country.
Congress Party has
always stood for the promotion of the cherished values
of peace, harmony and
mutual brotherhood in the
society and this agenda of
integrating and harmonizing
the society will be pursued
consistently, he said adding
that Congress has always
been secular in its policy
towards people. It doesn't
believe in dividing people
on religious lines and stresses only on developmental
issues which have greater
importance for people.
Abrol further said that
United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) during its ten years
rule, strictly focused to
build infrastructure in every
nook and corner of the
country and provide liberal
financial support to the J&K
State. Massive funding was
made available to the States
for road connectivity and
rural electrification under
CRF, PMGSY and RGGVY
schemes and their impact on
the ground has been quite
heartening. J&K State has
also been extended liberal
financial support for power
projects, roads, hospitals,
schools, colleges, etc under
Provide immediate relief to affected people: Sukhnandan
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
The government should
press into service all the
means and work round the
clock to mitigate the sufferings of the people who have
been hit by recent cloudburst and flash floods in
Marh assembly constituency
and adjoining constituencies. This was demanded by
BJP MLA from Marh
assembly
constituency
Sukhnandan Kumar while
addressing media persons at
party headquarters on
Saturday alongwith the BJP
State Press Secretary Balbir
Ram Rattan.
Sukhnandan
Kumar,
who is continuously in touch
with the people of his constituency for the last three
days and visiting every
affected village, said that
this natural calamity has
badly damaged the houses,
poultry farms, pig farm,
godowns and caused causalities to buffaloes, cows, pigs
and standing crops. Many
houses and shops have been
totally damaged and the
household items got perished. A goushalla building
in Datryal village too has
got damaged. There is an
atmosphere of grief and the
people need a sympathetic
help.
Sukhnandan Kumar said
that
villages
namely
Datryal, Halqa, Marh,
Chaffrechak,
Kuntwala,
Ghura Singu, Taruchak,
Rathwa and many more
have been very badly hit.
Although what has happened cannot be reversed
Azad, Soz hold Convention
of Congress party at Leh
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Gulam Nabi Azad and
Prof.
Safuddin
Soz
address a very impressive
Convention of Congress
Party at Leh Gulam Nabi
Azad Senior Congress
Leader and Former Chief
Minister of J&K and Prof.
Saifuddin
Soz
MP
(Former Union Minister)
& President J&K Pradesh
Congress
Committee
addressed a very impressive
convention
of
Congress Party Workers
from District Leh at
Community Hall Leh
(Ladakh) today.
Both the Leaders
urged the Workers not to
be complacent and work
hard
for total success of the
Congress
Party
Candidates in the ensuing
Elections to the J&K
Legislative
Assembly
2014. These
leaders
stressed the fact that from
Jawahar Lal Nehru to
Indira Gandhi to Rajive
Gandhi and the Present
leadership Smt. Sonia
Gandhi
and
Rahul
Gandhi, each one of them
had contributed greatly to
the overall development
of Ladakah Region. They
(Leaders) reminded the
people of Ladakh that it is
the Congress Party which
had achieved the present
day spectacular development for the people of
Ladakh, in every sphere
of life.
Both leaders (Azad
and Soz) further told the
gathering that they would
also do which needs to be
done for future development of Ladakh. They
told them that it is the
UPA Govt at the Centre
that had provided adequate funds for Z-Morh
Tunnel and Zojila Tunnel
and it is the Congress
party that commits itself
to get a Tunnel constructed at Khardungla to connect Nobra Valley with
Leh.
Those who also spoke
on the occasion include
M/S Rigzin Jora, P.
Namgial, T. Samphel,
Rigzin Gialson, Ms.
Dorjee President Mahila
Congress Leh, Mohd
Shafi General Secretary
PCC and Youth Congress
President.
About forty Block
Presidents, Sarpanchs,
Panchs
and
Mahila
Leaders spoke on the
occasion. All the leaders
of Ladakh assured Gulam
Nabi Azad and Prof.
Saifuddin
Soz
that
Congress Party in Ladakh
Region would certainly
come upto their expectations.
Moti Koul, President All India Kashmiri Samaj, a well known Kashmiri Pandit
Leader and a leading Engineering Consultant, joined BJP at New Delhi and was welcomed into party fold by BJP National General Secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union
MoS in PMO Dr. Jitendra Singh, MP & State President Jugal Kishore Sharma and MP
& Jammu Kashmir Prabhari Avinash Rai Khanna.
but the government should
utilize all the possible means
to reach every affected family with relief and compensation. He said that although
it may take few days to
assess the accurate losses
but some immediate relief
should be provided to affected families adding that just
rupees 1500 from Red Cross
has been provided to few
families, which is just a
cruel joke. He said that had
such incident been held in
Kashmir, there would have
been flood of relief material
and one compensation after
the other.
The MLA said that special teams should be constituted under some senior
officers of the revenue
department with directions
to remain camped in the
affected villages till normal
life does not start again. He
said that the villages where
school buildings have been
damaged, alternate arrangements should be made so
that the studies of school
going children do not suffer.
Sukhnandan Kumar also
appealed the government to
depute teams of health
department in the affected
villages to provide help and
ensure that epidemic like situation do not rise. PHE and
PDD should also work on
war footing to restore water
and electricity supplies in
affected areas. He assured
the people that being their
representative I am with
them and would make best
possible efforts to ensure
that relief is provided to
them and their cases of compensation are prepared and
processed in shortest time.
UPA Government.
He urged the new
entrants and party workers
to strengthen the vote base
of Congress Party by ensuring the victory of Congress
Party in all 87 Assembly
seats to take the J&K State
on the path of progress,
prosperity and harmony.
Abrol said that government has launched a massive development programme aimed at creating
basic facilities for the people. He said that road con-
nectivity, a basic need for
development, has been prioritized, adding all inaccessible and unconnected
pockets of the remote and
hilly areas would be connected through a road network.
He further said that
Congress Party would
ensure equitable development of all the three region
of the state viz Jammu,
Kashmir and Ladakh and
added that the welfare
schemes, launched by the
UPA government, would
definitely change the development scenario of the area.
Abrol said that only the
Congress Party can accommodate all shades of opinion and is truly democratic
in its structure. He added
that helping the needy and
downtrodden is the only
principal, the Congress is
based on. Those who joined
the parry showed their confidence and full faith under
the High Command of
party.
Prominent among those
who join the party were
Rakesh Kumar, Amarjit
Singh, Gourav Tak, Rajesh
Kumar, Lovesh Sharma,
Bunty Dpgra, Harminder
Singh, Goldi Mehra, Ajay
Kumar, Bunty Kumar, Sunil
Kumar, Deepak Mehra,
Surya Parkash, Shiva,
Rahul, Pawan Singh, Vimal,
Raghu Sharma, Abhishek
Sharma, Amit Bagotra and
Anil Tiwari.
PDP holds meet of executive members
to discuss strategy for poll campaign
gy news service
JAMMU, JULy 26:
Intensifying its poll campaign in for upcoming
assembly
elections,
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) today held a workers meeting of Jammu
East constituency here to
discuss the modalities of
the campaign.
The poll campaign
meeting was held under
the leadership of Bharat
Chowdary, party candidate from Jammu East
constituency. About 85
executive
members
Jammu
East
which
includes zone committee,
women wing, youth wing,
ward
presidents
and
senior
leadership
of
Jammu East participated
and discussed the strategy
for poll campaign.
In the meeting while
Leaders were asked to
intensify the party activities on ground level and to
establish
constructive
contact with general
masses. They were also
asked to hold public meetings on mohalla and ward
levels and to apprise public about the policies of
PDP as well as highlight
the problems faced by
public in their respective
areas.
Addressing the meeting, Bharat Chowdary
castigated the state government 'for being responsible for mis-governance
in the state. "People are
losing faith in the govern-
ment institutions and are
not even getting the basic
facilities", he said.
He promised that
when PDP will form government, party will drivers an exclusive plan to
old city as an independent
tourist sport, with special
beatification projects on
bank of Tawi river,
Renovation of Mubarak
Mandi complex, by promoting Shahi Masjid
Khidika Talab, Ragunath
Temple, Bibi Chand Kour
Gurdwara,
Church,
Multiplier parking slots,
Parks on world map of
tourism so that economy
of Jammu grow. During
meeting 'JET ' is also
announced as short name
of Jammu East Team.
Reducing maternal mortality
Expert Group meets to draft guidelines for maternal
health, essential ante-natal care interventions
gy news service
srinAgAr, JULy 26: A 3days Expert Group meeting for
drafting Technical & Operational
guidelines for various maternal
health interventions like Calcium
supplementation,
Gestational
Diabetes Mellitus, De-worming and
Hypothyroidism in pregnancy commenced today at Srinagar. The
Meeting is a joint initiative of
Union Ministry of Health & Family
Welfare (MoH&FW), National
Rural Health Mission, J&K,
UNICEF and Department of
Obstetrics & Gynecology, King
George's Medical University
(KGMU), Lucknow.
Mission Director, National
Rural Health Mission, J&K, Dr
Yashpal Sharma while welcoming
the participants in the meeting
thanked the Union Ministry of
Health & Family Welfare for providing guidelines on various health
interventions from time to time,
thereby enabling the administrators & field officers for better
implementation of this ambitious
human welfare programme. He
also thanked the organizers for
choosing the State as venue for the
meeting, adding that it will
immensely help the officers and
field agencies of the States' Health
department to get first hand information about the latest trends in
medical sciences.
Deputy
Commissioner,
Maternal Health, MoH&FW, Dr.
Himanshu Bhushan speaking on
the occasion said that the majority
of deaths due to pregnancy related
complications could be prevented
by providing basic maternal and
newborn care and high-quality
family planning services. He said,
in order to address these challenges, the MoH&FW in partnership with various development
partners & organizations is formulating guidelines for ending
Preventable Child and Maternal
Deaths. He impressed upon the
implementing agencies to follow
the guidelines in letter & spirit for
reducing maternal & new born
child deaths.
Dr
Sudha
Balakrishnan,
UNICEF & Dr Vinita Das Prof. &
HoD, Obstetrics & Gynecology,
KGMU assured complete support
for improved RMNCH+A outcomes as part of National Strategy.
The presentation on draft guidelines on various Maternal Health
interventions like Calcium supplementation, Gestational Diabetes
Mellitus,
De-worming
and
Hypothyroidism in pregnancy is
being made by national experts in
medical sciences & comments are
being sought from other experts
for incorporating the same for
finalization of the guidelines.
The meeting cum workshop is
being attended by national experts
in maternal & child health,
Consultants from Union Ministry
of Health & Family Welfare,
Programme Managers from State
Health Society, NRHM, J&K and
officers from UNICEF & Public
Health Foundation of India. Others
who were present on the occasion
included Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Dar,
Divisional Nodal Officer NRHM,
Kashmir & Dr Harjeet Rai,
Divisional Nodal Officer, NRHM,
Jammu.
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