Traffic police, RTO directed to rein in on traffic violators

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 15: With hundreds of unregistered registered busses and other vehicles illegally plying on the city roads, in total disregard to the norms, administration has directed the traffic police and Regional Transport Office (RTO) to launch drive against these vehicles.


These include some of the busses plying on the inter-state and inter-district routes with fake registrations allegedly in connivance with some political workers of ruling parties.  


Sources said that in February this year Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal had convened a meeting of civil and police officials to devise a strategy to deal with these vehicles, after the RTO had brought to notice of the administration, about the illegal vehicles.   


“Number of passenger busses are running without valid papers, but it was being overlooked by the enforcement agencies because of involvement of some police and civil officials. But now it has become a major menace for the administration”, said a source.  


At the moment there are close to five lakh vehicles on the roads in the Jammu alone, plus the floating vehicles carrying tourists and pilgrims bound for Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.


Officials maintain that though it is a huge task to deal with the menace of fake registered vehicles, because of lack of manpower, but steps are being taken to address the issue on war footing. 


On the other hand, a committee has been constituted to be headed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner and comprising of Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Jammu, Municipal Commissioner and SSP Traffic to restart the pre-paid auto rickshaw stand at Railway station and general bus stand.


“There are many projects which were launched with much funfare but there was no follow up action, making them die a slow death. But now administration is on revival mode. How successful they will be, only time will tell”, said a official.


Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal said that directions have been passed to various agencies to strictly deal with the violators and enforce the guidelines set by the government.


After Tokyo, Jammu is considered to be the city having the highest density of vehicular traffic. But paradoxically, there are not more than 90 traffic police personnel manning the important intersections in and around the city.


Traffic management is also giving blues to the department concerned in the absence of traffic signals, as the entire work is being executed manually with such a small team of police personnel.

GMC without fire fighting system

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 14: Despite being one of the biggest hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir, Government Medical College Hospital (GMC&H) is awaiting a major disaster as it has a defunct Central Fire Control System to deal with any major fire incident.


Sources said that the multi-crore system installed in the hospital, two decades has become obsolete and the authorities at the helm of affairs are sitting over the proposal to upgrade it risking the lives of thousands of people visiting the hospital daily.


Sources said that the fire control system was installed at the time of construction of the building about 20 years back. However in absence of  proper maintenance and look after it became defunct over the years and  now the vital public asset with hundreds of crores of health  infrastructure eludes any fire fighting system.


“The main reason behind the collapse of the system was the lack of trained persons who are able to keep the system shipshape and also hold drills at regular intervals” said an official on the condition of anonymity. He said that at all if the system was restored there was no expert here who can check whether it was in order and would trigger automatically in case of any eventuality.


A senior doctor said that the network of water sprinkling pipes have gathered rust and these were leaking at various places due to which the entire system has become useless and defunct.


They said that the engineering wing of the hospital had formulated a proposal two years back wherein the cost of the repair for the system was estimated at Rs 30 lakh. But owing to the indifference of the authorities no progress was made in this regard till date.


Another case in hospital which shows the negligent attitude is the non- working of dialysis machines for the past more than two weeks as the two machines available for carrying the dialysis are out of order. This is not that something has happened for the first time, it occurs every now and then.


Some sources also revealed that the malfunctioning of the machines was the outcome of the lethargic approach of the GMC management. It was also learnt that defunct machines had added an extra pressure to the Dialysis Unit of the ASCOMS Hospital.

State of Health Sector

4 OTs at GMC not functioning due to dearth of manpower


Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Dec 11: While crores have been spent on up gradation of infrastructure in the hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir in past eight years, but lack of trained manpower has rendered these newly created facilities useless.


One such example is the unutilized four Operation Theatres (OT) in the new emergency block of the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu which have remained non functional even after eight months of inauguration.


Sources said that provision for these OTs were made to enable doctors to attend the emergency cases in minimum possible time, particularly road accident victims and to ease pressure on the existing operation facilities but these have so far not been used due to shortage of manpower.


Sources said that these new operation theatres are even without the required equipments, putting a question mark on the huge investments made on the building of the new emergency block in the premier hospital of Jammu region.


“Last year in April Cabinet gave approval to 2000 posts of doctors and para-medical staff, but so far no step has been taken to speed up the process of recruitment. It’s not case with GMC only but in most of the hospitals across the state the newly created infrastructure is gathering dust”, said an official.


Officials said that GMC administration has been repeatedly raising the issue with the concerned minister and stressing the need to make these OTs functional to deal with the emergency cases and ease huge pressure on the existing facilities. But the government is asking the hospital management to wait for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to complete the recruitment process.


When contacted principal GMC, Dr Rajinder Singh expressed his helplessness and said that they are looking towards the PSC. “We cannot do anything till we have specialist doctors. We are creating infrastructure and when we get manpower, these OTs will be made functional”, Singh said.


A senior official in the health department said that main reason for the delay in recruiting doctors is the financial implications involved for which the state government was looking towards the union health ministry for help.

449 gazetted officers facing corruption charges in J&K

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 10: While the appointment of Chairman State Accountability Commission (SAC) has been put into cold storage, nearly 449 senior officers are facing trial in courts in different corruption cases in Jammu and Kashmir.


Sources said that nearly 210 cases involved 449 gazetted officers are pending before the Courts of Special Judge Anti-Corruption in Jammu and Srinagar.


Cases are also pending against 30 IAS officers, 20 IPS officers, 10 IFS officers, 3 former Vice-Chancellors of Universities, former Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, 4 former Chief Engineers and former Director General of Police (DGP), official sources said.


Around 245 complaints against former and present ministers, MLAs of Jammu and Kashmir are pending before the Commission. The complaints pertain to the corruption, misuse of power, misappropriation, bunglings and illegal appointments.


The Gazetted officers including former directors social welfare and agriculture Kashmir, former chief engineers irrigation & flood control and roads and buildings, Kashmir division, executive engineers, block medical officers (BMOs) and block development officers (BDOs) are among prominent Gazetted officers who still are being tried against corruption charges.


The J&K was ranked as the 'number: 2 corrupt State in India' during the Congress-PDP coalition regime in Jammu and Kashmir.


“It must be a wakeup call for the State Government which is boasting of being committed to eliminate corruption from the state”, said a official.


Pertinent to mention here that in its report submitted to government, the SFC has termed certain public offices as “citadels of corruption and festering sores,” asking government to take “special care” of them by installing close circuit cameras in such places.


According to the Transparency International India (TII), J&K is the second most corrupt state in India, which itself is the most corrupt country in the world with corrupt elements having stashed nearly 400 lakh crores of Indian rupees in the foreign banks, mostly in Switzerland.


However, insiders contest on the condition of anonymity the conclusion of the TII and say J&K is not the second most corrupt state but the most corrupt state in the country. Their view is that there are several persons in and outside the establishment who became multi-millionaire overnight.

Ailing health-sector; only 1 ventilator functional at SMGS hospital

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 07: The only government-run specialised Gynaecology and Paediatrics hospital in the region - Shri Maharaja Ghulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital - has only one ventilator functional. 


Sources revealed that the hospital has only one ventilator as of now and all patients who are required to be put on artificial respiratory support system are shifted to already over-burdened Government Medical College hospital (GMC) Jammu. 


They said that about one year back administration had procured an additional ventilator for the new Paediatrics block, but it is also lying nonp-functional as there are no required doctors and para-medical staff. 
Absence of ventilators, the most important requirement of Pediatrics is causing much worry to the patients and their wards. The hospital draws an influx of nearly 1,200 patients in its OPD, besides 50-60 patients are admitted on daily basis in both wards. 


“Hospital is faced with shortage of manpower, equipment and infrastructure but we cannot do anything in this regard as decision has to be taken by the government to fill the vacancies to run equipments. We have to wait for the decisions of the administration” said a senior Doctor. 


Patients said that in the absence of life-saving equipments people are left with no choice but to shift their patients to private nursing homes, while it is the poor who suffer the most due to the government’s indecision in this regard. 


In case of emergency, patients are shifted to GMC. We are waiting for the recruitment process initiated by the Public Service Commission (PSC).


These equipments need atleast three nurses, a doctor for continuous monitoring and other staff 550-bed hospital was overburdened with the burgeoning number of patients. The hospital accommodates more than 700 indoor patients on regular basis - a number beyond its existing capacity. Officials said that it is not only the lack of ventilators but the shortage of the doctors and para-medical staff was also casting shadow on the other departments like ENT and related branches of medical science.

Ban on Doctors practice and Need: Ailing people looks for middle path

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 2: As the Hon'ble High Court has banned the private practice of the doctors in Jammu and Kashmir, the people desirous of taking private treatment from the Government doctors are facing hardships. The quality of service doctors provide to the patients during private practice is quite better than that being provided by them during the service hours at Government hospitals. Owing to this, the people are forced to catch up the doctors in their houses. 


It is an open fact that government run health institutions have failed to deliver the goods to the ailing people.Coupled with the manpower shortage and lack of facilities, for most of the people, private clinics was the last destination for them to seek medical advise. Now, that door has been closed and the people are forced to stand in queues. 


The situation is more dismal in rural areas where the health centres running under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) do not have availability of equipments and other required infrastructure, besides, the staff appointed is also not adequate. Wishing anonymity a doctor posted in a Primary Health Centre (PHC) said that the government has provided us short infrastructure and staff is also less; we have to manage all patients within this condition. Showing helplessness she said many times we have sent demands for medicine and staff but nothing has been done so far. 


“This is just a showcase, but actually the condition of hospitals in the state is very grave. ”, said a senior doctor. Visiting any of the hospitals in the state, it can been seen that wards are overcrowded and when the doctors refuse admission to patients, they have no choice but to get admitted in private hospitals. 


“On an average 500 patients attend the different Out Patient Departments (OPDs). As per official records, the hospital also receives 80-100 indoor patients on daily basis”, said a source. 


Talking about the SMGS hospital, a senior government official said that government had a proposal to convert the hospital into the exclusive mother and child care hospital, by shifting both the dermatology and ENT departments from here to the Government Medical College (GMC), but they have no resources to implement it. 


The hospital is specialized in pediatrics and gynecology besides skin diseases. If sources were believed in this 550 bedded hospital there are about 800 to 1000 patients are admitted in the hospital on an average. And two patients were forced to accommodate in one bed. “At various instances the patients’ complaints that they are not getting proper treatment as required, but we are unable to give satisfactory treatment with proper concentration though the infrastructure is also not suitable” said a PG doctor. 


Though State government is claiming bringing unprecedented reforms in the health sector, dismal health scenario in the government sector has not changed much. On an average 3,097 persons depended upon one health institution in the state as against 2,662 in 2000-01. 


A paramedic also expressed that their strength was not sufficient which puts additional burden on the existing paramedics. She questioned, “The government is not been able to provide adequate staff and equipment in GMCH then why Super Specialty Hospital is being build. Instead of constructing buildings the focus must be on strengthening the existing health care system.”

Total smoking ban still distant dream

Vendors selling tobacco products outside the outside hospitals and educational institutions


Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 1: The irony continues when people can be seen buying cigarettes from small outlets; carry them inside unchecked and smoke in prohibited areas, which include hospitals. Despite ban on smoking in public places, the violation is rampant in the city with many of the tea stalls and Dhabas near educational institutions providing space for smoking and students in groups could be seen blowing the cigarettes.


The ban imposed restricts sale of tobacco and products to the people below 18 years of age. It also prohibits sale within 100 yards of education institutions and urges shops to property displays warning against the hazards of smoking, but they are the main violators.


Surprisingly the special teams constituted by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to check the violators and impose fines, seem to have little affect on the people.


“Outside most of the hospitals and educational institutions people can easily get tobacco products and space to smoke. For what purpose the ban has been imposed”, said Sheenu, a college student.


With tobacco particles in the air, the passive smoking becomes inevitable but common man has little say in stopping people who spoke openly.


The nationwide ban on smoking in public places was imposed in October 2008 under the provision of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition and 
Advertisements and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution)-Act 2003. Later in 2007, the state government asked local bodies to strictly monitor the ban and take action against defaulters.


“I have seen shops with big warning selling Chutkis to the children, it’s strange that authorities expect that they will follow the directions”, said Kiran Bhat, a higher secondary school teacher.


However when contacted Health Officer JMC Dr. Anwar Choudhary said, “We have been routinely taking action against the violators and slap on the spot fines. But cooperation of people is also needed”.


He said keeping in view the public interest; they had also decided to start an awareness campaign across the city to bar people from violating the ban. “Instead of forcing us to take steps that will make them shell out the money, people should cooperate with the officials”, Choudhary said. At present, the fine ranges from Rs 200 to Rs 500 but in some cases it can be higher.