GPS in vehicle: still a failed project, as Govt. fails to start it

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 23: Despite tall claims by the government to streamline the traffic system in Jammu and Kashmir, on ground, many of the projects initiated by the government have failed.

One such project was designed by the State Transport Department to install the Global Positioning System (GPS) in all the private and government vehicles of the state, but even after one year, it is yet to start. According to the sources the project was initiated keeping the view the increased in the vehicle theft cases in the state.

“The government had constituted a committee to examine the mechanism of the project and efforts were being made to give the concrete shape to the project” said an official.

Officials further said that the total cost of installation of GPS is Rs 6000 and in addition to this Rs 1000 will be recurring expenses on yearly basis.

They maintained that t is useful for tracking down the vehicle if it gets stolen. The system can also notify the owner of the vehicle by phone or e-mail when its alarm get activated and indicate its location.

Talking to TNI, Transport Commissioner, Mehraj Ahmed Kakroo said that we are on the work to complete all the formalities and paper work.

Kakroo further said that the department will hopefully start the installation work of GPS by the end of this year.

SSA a failed scheme in J&K

Funds blocked due to non-utilization by the CEOs

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 19: Thousand of students have been deprived from the basic facilities due to the negligence of Chief Education Officers (CEO)s as funds sanctioned by government for streamlined the education structure have been blocked due to non utilization in a specific time period.

According to the sources, the negligence on the part of some some CEOs in implementing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the funds remained unutilized in their accounts.

Sources further civic amenities in the schools especially in Jammu have not been provided despite the fact that Chief Minister had already sanctioned Rs 20 lakh as special grant.

Committee constituted by the government has said that lack of coordination between the respective CEOs and higher officials in the education department was main reason for the delay in implementation of the plan.

“This was also the main reason for upholding the funds and head under which these funds had been kept along with the funds received from the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India (GOI) from the very inception of the scheme till date and district-wise allocations made”, says the committee.

A report prepared by the Committee says that there are many such cases of gross violation in upgradation of schools in various districts.

The committee inquired about the total number of Computer Aided Leaning (CAL) Centers in the state, reason for the non-functioning and the appointment of teachers for running the these centres.

Sources disclosed that the department apprised the committee that the total number of CAL centres in the state was 484, and there was no need to appoint new teachers for the purpose because the teachers already appointed in the schools with basic knowledge of computers can run these centres.

Regarding the implementation of RMSA in the state, the government committee says that under the scheme one Headmaster, five Masters, One Daftri and one Lab Assistant was to be provided in every school, but now they have put up a condition that there should be specific subject teachers. Thereafter, the committee directed the Director, School Education to implement the said scheme within some particular time period.

Moreover the Director RMSA explained the committee that during 2009-10 and 2010-11 the department upgraded 96 and 182 Middle Schools to High Schools respectively.

When no agency was ready to take construction to those schools buildings at low sealing rates, the GOI decided to execute construction of these buildings through the Roads and Buildings Department.

Squeezing the exchequer

Not only Ministers, bureaucrats too spent lakhs for renovation of homes

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Madhav Lal spent 1.96 lakh, Khurshid Ganai, Rs 4.18 lakh, Pawan Kotwal Rs 1.82 lakh

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 15: It is not only the Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir, who are squeezing the public exchequer and spending money for renovation of their homes, but many of the senior bureaucrats are using taxpayers money for renovating their homes.

as per the official figures, between 2010 to 2012 lakhs of rupees have been spent on the  renovation of  government quarters of  IAS offices which include Madhav Lal and SS Kapur  Rs 1.96 lakh, whereas senior IAS officer  Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, who is now retired,has spent  Rs 4.18 lakh.

The cost on the repairing work B R Sharma's bungalow has cost the state Rs 4.47 lakh while government has spent Rs 4.62 lakh on Gazanffar Hussain bungalow for renovation.

On the residential complex of senior IAS officer, Suresh Kumar’s Rs 3.69 lakh has been spent between 2010-12.

Moreover the residence of Asgar Samoon the total expenditure was made by the government during the period was Rs 3.87 lakh and on the residential complex of M K Bhandari Rs 2.10 lakh have been spent. While the government has spent on the renovation of Shant Mannu residence was Rs 0.92 lakh, whereas on the Nasima Lankar bungalow the cost were made Rs 1.53 lakh.

Records further say that the official bungalow Pawan Kotwal the renovation charges was Rs 1.82 lakh and Tanveer Jehan residential complex renovation costs Rs 1.16 lakh.

Furthermore on the renovation of Farooq Ahmed house the expenditure was Rs 0.035 lakh and that of G A Peer was Rs 0.45 lakh. Whereas the repairing charges on the residential complex of Syed Fazal Ullah was Rs 2.01 lakh and on the renovation of the bungalow of Mohd Hamid Wani was Rs 4.30 lakh.

As per the records in winter capital of the state Jammu the total expenditure from the year 2009 till March 2012 on the renovation and maintaining of the bungalow of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were Rs 60.16 lakh, where the on the residence Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand were Rs 20  lakh. The repairing charges of the house of Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim rather for the same period were Rs 6.65 lakh.

Moreover Former Minister for Education Peerzada Muhammad Syed has expended Rs 13.85 lakh during this period and on the residence of Minister for Higher Education Nasir Aslam Wani the government has spend Rs 20.45 lakh in four years.

12th class result

Girls outshine boys again this year

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 07: Girls once again outshone boys in the Higher Secondary Examination Part II (12th class), result of which was announced by the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) on Monday.

Overall pass percentage was 49 per cent i.e 17541 candidates out of the 36068 appeared in the examination across the Jammu region. In which the pass percentage of boys is 46 i.e 9071 out of 19696 whereas the girls is 52 percent i.e 8470 out of 16372 appeared in the annual examination.

In faculty of Science, Kiran Anand, of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Mubarak Mandi with 97 percent (485 marks) and Rishabh Kaul of R S Jagriti Niketan Higher Secondary School, Kathua with 97 percent (485 marks) got first position. Vaibhav Bhat of S P Higher Secondary School clinched second position with 96 percent (484 marks) while Gagandeep Singh, of Shiksha Niketan Higher Secondary School, Parul Khajuria of ST. Xavier Convent Higher Secondary School Barnai and Rupali Saini of Shiksha Niketan Higher Secondary School with 96.6 percent (483 marks) holds third position.

Likewise in Arts, Mimansha Choudhary of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Mubarak Mandi got first position with 97.4 percent (487 marks) while second position was clinched by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Public Higher Secondary School, Kunjwani student Karan Gupta with 96.4 percent (482 marks). Third position was bagged by Garima Jasrotia of Shamsher Singh Memorial Higher Secondary School with 94.4 percent (472 marks).

In Commerce stream, Rashpal Singh of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Public Higher Secondary School got 93.8 percent (469 marks) and begged first position whereas the student of Shiksha Niketan Higher Secondary School Hitesh Mahajan with 92.6 percent (463 marks) got second position and Najma Choudhary of the same school and Shradha Koul of Shastri Memorial Higher Secondary School with 92.2 percent (461 marks) secured third position in the board examination of high secondary part second.

Moreover in Home Science, Pallavi Anand of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Mubarak Mandi with 95.6 percent (478 marks) got first position and the second position hold by Jyoti Devi of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Shastri Nagar with 81.2 percent (406 marks) while Sonali Jain of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Mubarak Mandi with 77.8 percent (389 marks) is in third position.

While talking to TNI Joint Secretary, Secrecy JKBOSE, Dr Javed Iqbal Khatib said that from the last year this year result the 10 percent increased.

Dr Khatib further said that the board has took some initiatives including single paper system and three series paper in examination for the first time to streamlined the structure of the examination moreover conducting of papers and evaluation system are also improved.

“I congratulate all the students for the outstanding performance in the said examination and thanked the teacher and parents for giving their full cooperation to make it successful year after year” added Dr Khatib.

He maintained that the education institutes should enhanced the infrastructure and staff requirements of the schools to increase the result every year.

“JKBOSE has declared the result by working on war footing basis despite of prevailing situations due to heavy snowfall and bad weather and road connectivity problems in the most of the winter zone areas of this region” he said.

Joint Secretary informed that board is committed and is making every effort to declare the results within shortest possible time to enable the students to fill up their forms for next classes, technical courses besides various programmes within the time schedule and without any inconvenience.

Shortage of Doctors in J&K

Govt. sends 16 highly qualified Doc to Saudi, under Overseas employment plan

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 05: While Jammu and Kashmir is facing acute shortage of doctors to run its health institutions, government has helped in emigration of 16 highly qualified medical professionals to Saudi Arabia through J&K State Overseas Employment Corporation Limited.

Official data says that the corporation which was established to explore employment opportunities for local youth in foreign countries has mostly helped highly trained and qualified professionals to immigrate to other countries.

Officials said that corporation has emerged as a major avenue for the professionals to leave state for better opportunities out J&K.

Member of Legislative Assembly, Hakim Muhammad Yasin, who had also raised the issue in Legislative Assembly said that government has just provided data of doctors, what about other professionals. “Rather than helping skilled and non-skilled people to avail the benefit, it is emerging as open window for highly professional people to leave the state”, said Yasin.

It is pertinent to mention here that Corporation was established after coalition government announced a policy document titled, Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare programme for Youth (SKEWPY) in 2009.

Nearly 6 lakh educated youth have been registered with the District Employment and Counseling centers of state ending December-2011. Officials said that Overseas Corporation was incorporated as a public limited company with an authorized capital of Rs 5 lakh crore under the Companies Act by the Registrar of Companies.

The Corporation started functioning and data base of the candidates seeking overseas placement is being generated through District Employment and Counseling Centres. Corporation has recently begun contacting foreign embassies for empanelling itself as recruitment agency for their respective governments.

It is pertinent to mention here that under SKEWPY number of scheme were launched by the state government. One such scheme is VSA, under which unemployed youth are provided Rs 600 to Rs 1200 per month. So far 33862 youth have been covered under the scheme with government distributing Rs. 18.27 crore till December 2011.

The state government has launched another special scheme called Seed capital Fund Scheme (SCFC) under SKEWPY. As per data, during 2011, 812 projects involving 859 entrepreneurs with total project cost of Rs 82.65 crore including seed capital subsidy of Rs 26.70 crore and loan working capital of Rs 53.73 crore have been sanctioned.

J&K Self Employment Scheme (JKSES) under this scheme margin money, interest subsidy and bank loan is being provided to the young entrepreneurs, 2704 beneficiaries were covered last year with government assistance of Rs 24.35 crore. During current year the covering upo ending January 2012 was 2781 entrepreneurs involving expenditure of Rs 25.18 crore.

Minister for Labour and Employment Abdul Gani Malik said that government is making every effort to provide employment opportunities to youth.

“Our concern is to provide opportunities to every professional. We cannot negate anyone”, said Malik.

J&K’s austerity measure

Omar spends Rs 60 lakh, Tara 20 lakh on house renovation in last three years

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, May 04: There are many essential projects which are pending from years due to unavailability of funds from the state government but on the other hands the government is spending crores of rupees on the renovations and repairing of the private bungalows of the ministers.

According to sources every year the state government expending lakhs on the maintaining the official and private residential complexes in both winter and summer capital of the state.

As per the records in winter capital of the state Jammu the total expenditure from the year 2009 till March 2012 on the renovation and maintaining of the bungalow of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were Rs 60.16 lakh, where the on the residence Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand were Rs 20  lakh. The repairing charges of the house of Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim rather for the same period were Rs 6.65 lakh.

Moreover Former Minister for Education Peerzada Muhammad Syed has expended Rs 13.85 lakh during this period and on the residence of Minister for Higher Education Nasir Aslam Wani the government has spend Rs 20.45 lakh in four years.

Talking about the expenditure on the allotted government bungalows to the minister in Srinagar the total expenditure from the year 2009 till March 2012 for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah residence were Rs 398.89 lakh, where the on the residence Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand were Rs 18.69 lakh. The cost of repairing of the government house of Speaker of Legislative Assembly was Rs 38.25 lakh.

 Likewise the charges of the house of Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim rather for the same period were Rs 86.82 lakh. Moreover Former Minister for Education Peerzada Mohd Syed has expended Rs 24.43  lakh during this period and on the residence of Minister for medical Education R S Chib the government has spend Rs 30.74 lakh in four years.

On the residence of Minister for Revenue Raman Bhalla the department has spend Rs 21.79 lakh and on Minister for Industries and Commence S S Salathia Rs 44.23 lakh has expended on the renovation of the house.

However, on the repairing work of the bungalow of Minister for Health Sham Lal Sharma Rs 33.4 lakh.