B.Ed colleges defying JU norms, admissions still going on

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 21: Despite notification by the Jammu University (JU) administration to close the counseling-cum-admission process in Bachelor of Education (B Ed) course runs by JU, there are some private colleges owned by ministers and other highly profile officials in which the admission process is still going on.


Ignoring the advertisement of JU authority and taking the career of students on stake the private colleges has published a notice in local dailies in which they have notified that from December 22 to 30 on spot counseling and admission are open in private B Ed colleges, whereas all the right of admissions are reserved to JU administration only.


It is pertinent to mention here that there are about 75 colleges in Jammu division who are affiliated with Jammu University, but due to less input of students the private colleges owners are still entertained the candidates after the last date which is against by the JU norms.


As per the JU notification, it is mention that the admission taking by the candidates after closing date in any private college of Jammu is not acceptable by JU administration and considers as invalid.


It is also mention in the notification that JU has not authorized anybody to issue such an advertisement or to initiate a process of on spot counseling.


Talking to TNI, Forum of Recognized Colleges of Education (FORCE) president Harbans Singh said that we are going by the directions of Supreme Court viz-a-viz admission in self funded educational institutional.


He further said that Jammu University has no right to call admissions made by us illegal. “We are not going to stop and will continue till December 30” Singh added.


Singh maintained that if University will cause any problem we will knock the door of Judiciary.

Roof collapse at SMGS hospital, major tragedy averted

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Dec 17: A scrap of the nurses' ward’s roof collapsed in the Gynaecology and children's wing of a government hospital here on Saturday afternoon, raising question mark over the 60-year old building, housing one of the largest children hospital in Jammu region.


Police sources informed that there was no report of any death or injury, but general chaos prevailed in the hospital for many hours as patients and officials visited the spot where the roof collapsed.


Spokesperson from the Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital informed that the children's ward had been vacated a few days ago for repair work.


Top officials and rescue teams immediately rushed to the spot. The authorities were inquiring to ascertain the reason of the collapse.


SMGS was the first government hospital in Jammu and was inaugurated in May 1940.


Sources said that this incident cannot be put to backburner as thousands of children and patients daily visit the hospital.


“There is need for major repairs in the hospital but no action is being taken make major repairs in the building”, said a official.


Sources said that despite inauguration of new Open Patient Department (OPD) ward in 2008, it has still not been thrown open for the patients.


 “The new ward has been completed in all aspects. It is not working because it lacks needed staff to make it functional. The hospital is already very congested,” official sources said.


The only government-run specialized 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 non-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.

Excise dept proposes introduction of tamper proof holograms on liquor bottles

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Dec 16: Jammu and Kashmir government is struggling with unique type of counterfeit trade, the entry of spurious liquor in the market and the losses being incurred on this account.


Officials said that past some years have witnessed a steep rise in the cases of adulterated liquor being detected by the enforcement agencies and the loss to the exchequer due to this goes in crores of rupees.
To deal with the menace, the Excise and Taxation Department has decided to introduce tamper proof holograms on the bottles.


For the purpose the department has submitted a detailed proposal to the government to get the approval for the same. Sources said that the concept has been borrowed from Punjab and Himanchal Pradesh, where the authorities are facing the menace of illegal distilleries.


As per the new concept the temper proof multi-coloured holograms seals would be put on each bottle to enable easy detection of the counterfeit products.
Despite many religious and cultural taboos, liquor consumption is showing increased trend in Jammu and Kashmir. “It is proving difficult for the department to keep a check on liquor adulteration because of the increased consumption. The problem is more in the rural areas”, said an officer. 


Deputy Excise Commissioner Manmohan Singh said, “We have submitted the proposal to the government and the step would help to ensure that quality liquor is sold in the market so that there is no revenue loss to the state and consumers are also safe”.


Pertinent to mention here that since past two years government has not issued any new liquor licences, but despite this the consumption, particularly that of beer has shown increased trend, which is also a big revenue generator for the state.


As per the official figures, there are 226 liquor shops owned by private parties in the state. Of these, 135 are in Jammu city, 21 in Udhampur district and 40 in Kathua. Srinagar has 4, Baramulla one and Leh has two shops.


Finance Ministry data shows that 11, 444, 94 cases of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) were produced in 2008-09 in the state, while this number increased to 14, 23,954 cases in 2009-10.


As far as local liquor is concerned, 11, 23,112 cases were produced in 2008-09 and 13, 53, 505 cases in 2009-10. As many as 12, 44,969 cases of beer were produced in the state in 2008-09, while this number touched to 16, 10,558 cases in 2009-10.

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.