Rainfall made city wet, snow lashes mountains

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 29: Season first rain finally arrived in the winter capital of the state yesterday night breaks the dry cold of winter.

According to the Chief Scientist, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences (SKUAST) Dr M K Khushu said that Jammu received a total of 3.2 mm rainfall yeaterday night whereas in Poonch there was 16 mm, in Udhampur 1 mm and Ramban 6 mm while from Kathua and Samba we received no rainfall.

Khushu further said that there might be possibilities of rainfall on today night and on Sunday.

Officials said that with the rainfall farmers also get some relief farmers, though the rainfall was not sufficient for the cultivation but it could help in certain extent.

They said that for the past few days, the weather remained extremely cold, which was causing a number of seasonal diseases. Majority of the people, especially working men and women, could be found complaining of headaches and exhaustion.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital, Dr Sanjeev Digra said that the after the first rainfall there is some relief to the people specially children but as the winter season is on it comes with various cold related diseases.

Dr Digra further said that we have received many cases of dry cough, colds and chest-related disorders for the past one-and-a-half month adding that number of patients suffering from such ailments had shot up and most of them included children”.

He maintained that immune system can be kept healthy by eating good, healthy food. A balanced meal can help a person keep fit. Taking plenty of rest and exposing the body to adequate sunlight can also improve immunity.

“Plenty of nutrition can help take care of both your health and your skin. Vitamins like vitamin C help boost immunity. Vitamin C can also help prevent common cold and seasonal flu” he added.

Govt. fails to remove encroachment from forest land in Jammu

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 28: Though number of colonies has been constructed in Jammu by grabbing the forest land, it seems Jammu Development Authority (JDA) and Forest Department has turned blind eye towards the violations.

This despite the fact that Omar Abdullah led government has been claiming that it is taking strict measure against the land grabbers in the state.

According to sources one of the prime location of the city Bhatandi, Sidra, Kot Bhalwal and Bajalta which is nowadays becoming a posh colony with the dwelling of ministers and bureaucrats of the state besides people from the summer capital of the state is mostly established on the forest land.

 Sources further said that most of the land is under forest department which was grabbed by the ‘Gujjar’ communities who were settled there from the past long time.

“These people sold the grabbed land in some low cost without proper documentation proof of the ownership to the people coming from outside the city” said a source.

Besides this there is a rapid increase of construction of new buildings in the said area without proper verification and permission.

Sources maintained that most of the buildings belong to the peoples with high level politicians approach, due to which the concerned authority have not taken any action against them.

Talking to TNI, District Forest Officer, Jammu, Sameer Bharti said that the department jointly with revenue department is taking this issue seriously to sought out is soon.

Bharti maintained that whereas at some places the forest land is close to the rehabilitated land the department has to take the measurement of this adding that recently the forest department had a meeting with revenue department in this connection.

“Chief Conservation of Forest, Jammu has also constituted a committee for the identification of forest land in the city” he added.

He disclosed that the department in collaboration with district administration will do a jointly verification of these areas of Bhatandi and Sunjwa to find out the exact figure of forest land.

For the encroached land Bharti said the state government has to decide whether the forest land will take from them or not, besides this the department is keeping a check for further encroachment on the forest land he said.

Whereas, Vice Chairman JDA, Sarita Chauhan said that the department haven’t received any such application from Bhatandi area for the permission of building construction.

Asking about why JDA has not taken any action against the illegal construction Chauhan prefer not to give any answer.

PDD, consumers fighting now in Bijli Adalats

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 26: With number of disputes arising between consumers and Power Development Department (PDD) after the installation of  e-meters, people are dragging the cases in the Bijli Adalats, constituted by the government.

Officials said that number of disputes particularly related to power bills and service has arisen in recent past, many of the complaints have been received by these special Adalats.

Talking to TNI Superintendent Engineer, Jammu Gurbachan Singh said the department has organises Adalat every two months and 4 such special courts has been conducted from last eight months wherein 25 cases has been entertained.

He said that the department has cleared 7 cases whereas the remaining cases were wave off for interest. “Most of the cases come from city area as much of the people are not aware about this” said Singh.

He further said that the department is planning conduct in rural areas as we haven’t got any response due to the unawareness of this facility.

Singh disclosed that before the due date of the adalat the department issued a notification in the local dailies regarding the venue and date of the conducting of adalat adding that the consumer have to file the application before the date as department have to clear all the requirements and formalities earlier to that.

“The consumers who have not been able to cleat their liabilities because of pending disputes, meter reading or the calculation of surcharge would file an application in these adalats, he maintained.

Official sources said till the people are not aware about the scheme there is no benefit to launch it.

Sources further said that the department should organized awareness camps or conducting these adalats in the rural and other far flung areas so that more people get benefited for this scheme.

Demand for electricity is increasing each passing year, while the revenue realisation is not showing much improvement, putting much of the burden on government to buy power from Northern Grid. It affects other sectors, as funds are diverted to meet the requirements.

A cursory look at the past figures reveals that the power import has drastically increased during recent years. It was around Rs 1500 crore for 2006-07, Rs 2000 crore for 2008-09, Rs 2,560 crore for 2009-10, and the purchases had shot up to Rs 2,767.04 for 2010-11. By the end of this fiscal it is expected to cross Rs 3300 crore mark.

GMC, SMGS becoming breeding grounds for disease in absence of sanitation policy

Tahir Mushtaq

  

JAMMU, Nov 22: Despite one of the biggest hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir, Government Medical College (GMC) has failed to formulate committee to look after the sanitation of hospital and associated institutions.

Two main hospitals of the city GMCH and Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) hospital daily cater to thousands of patients from across the state, but when it comes to the sanitation, there is lot to be desired. Even the issue of poor sanitation was raised in Legislative Assembly also last year by the members cutting across the party lines.

Sources said that the administration is doing only paper work to solve the problem but nothing on the ground has been done.

The hospitals in the city also suffer due to poor sanitation since the drainage system has not been upgraded for the last two decades.

“The drainage system is as old in most of the hospitals; nothing has been upgraded since past few years, despite increase in the influx of the patients. So many structures have come up in the hospital premises besides the huge rush of patients,” sources said.

Source disclosed that higher authorities has constitute a committee under the chairmanship of principal GMCH but now tendering for the sanction of the work has yet to take place.

The health institutes in Jammu suffers due to proper sanitation facilities besides this the drainage system has not been upgraded for the last two decades.

Moreover a team has also constituted to check the sanitation condition of the hospital, the report submitted by the team also shows the helplessness of the hospital administration as the reports says “The unhygienic conditions of the sanitation in the emergency has become the talk of the town which is spoiling the reputation of the hospital”.

“OPD and Emergency wings of both the hospitals are facing huge pressure but we are making every effort to streamline the functioning of the hospitals. New equipments are being procured for the same”, said a doctor.

Medical Superintendent SMGS Dr A K Sharma said that the hospital has not hire any private agency for the sanitation work as we have our own community health officer and sanitary inspector to look after all matter regarding this.

Whereas Principal GMCH, Dr Aniece Choudhary, could not be contacted even after repeating attempts.

Revenue deptt delays transfer of land for Gharana wetland

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 21: Delay by Revenue department to demarcate the Gharana wetland has slowed down the proposal of Wildlife Department to convert it into major tourist attraction and safeguard the habitat for the migratory birds.

Contrary to the 1500-kanal notified land, it is 115 kanals which have been demarcated in revenue records, despite wetland reserve already been updated as Conservation Reserve through a notification issued in 1986.

The wetland known as bird watcher paradise supports a population of 20000to 25000birds of different species during every winter with the most of the species being migratory, endangered or covered under different schedules of the Act. The bird which visit the reserve include Siberian hans, Keel, Grey Heron and Little Grebe from New Zealand, Australia and America.

Located close to Indo-Pak border in Jammu district Gharana Wetland facing treats of losing its existence as the concern department failed to take initiatives for the maintenance of the said wetland.

Wildlife expert and environmentalists has expressed their concern over the decline in the number of birds turning up at the wetland and officials blamed it partly on encroachment by locals. As the encroachment in the wetland has reduced the size of the wetland to less than half its official size.

Besides this due to poor maintenance of the wetland the water in the pond get full of mud in the water and water plants growing in it which reduced its size besides level of water get decreased.

Official source said that there is lack of coordination between the higher authorities and low rank employees of the department due to which the wetland has been suffered.

When contacted to Wildlife Warden Jammu, Tahir Shawl the department jointly with Revenue Department is doing efforts to save and protect the Gharana Wetland.

Shawl further said that there is total notified land under this wetland is 1600 kanals, but we have asked the revenue department to give the possession of the land and if any person of the locality having his own land in the area of wetland he will be compensated by the department.

He maintained that the department also engaged World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for the management plan of the said wetland and hopefully they will take 5 to 6 months more to complete their work.

Whereas Sub District Magistrate (SDM), RS Pura S P Rukwal also refused to comment on this issue.

Transport fare hike pending before state cabinet

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 19: After the one day call off by the transporters in the city the transport department has send the recommendation to the government for the approval of the revised passenger fail in the cabinet meeting.

This was disclosed by Transport Commissioner Mehraj Ahmed Kakroo while talking to TNI adding that a high power committee has been constituted to resolve the issue.

Kakroo further said that the committee had a detailed meeting with the representatives of transport union and keeping in view on their demands on revised price rate send the recommendation to the government which will be taken in the cabinet meeting for the final decision.
“Till the cabinet decision has been out we will unable to say how much in the passenger fair will be increase” added Kakroo.

General Secretary, Transport Union, Vijay Kumar Sharma said that many times we have meeting with the transport department on this issue but no final decision has been taken by the government till now resulting the today transporters strike.

Sharma said that on October 8 in Srinagar we had a meeting in which it was decided that before secretariat move to winter capital the passenger fare will be revised in the cabinet meeting, but till date nothing has been done so far.

He maintained that after that the state government had four cabinet meetings, even the standing committee on transport has also approved revised passenger rates and sent it forward for the approval in the cabinet.

“We submitted a representation to the state government and had asked them to put pressure on central government to roll back the diesel prices hike or increase the passenger fares but now the central government has increased the diesel rate by Rs 6 in September this year” he said.

He added that from the last one and half year there had been considerable increase in petroleum products like Mobile oil, grease, lubricants, compelled with taxes and passenger insurance premium from Rs 32,000 to Rs 48,000 per annum besides 20 percent increase in labour costs.

“If the government will not take any decision and revised the passenger fair within a period of one week the transport union will go for indefinite strike” Sharma said.

No headway in Jammu Airport expansion project

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Nov 16: The much-delayed project to upgrade Jammu Airport into international airport is still pending even after the completion of two years from the approval of the proposal by the government as Army has still not shifted to Sunjawah.

Though the issue of land at Sunjawah which was turned out to be a Game Reserve from the time of Maharaja was solved, but army is taking time to shift to new place, keeping in view the huge logistic efforts needed.

Sources disclosed that the expansion project will cover around 144 kanals of army land and the concern department has identified the same area at Sunjwan for the army.

Penitently, the total estimated cost to the project is Rs 61.30 crore, the first installment of Rs. 20 Crores have been released by Union government  some months back. When completed it will increase the length of the runway from present 6700 feet to

8000 feet allowing bigger aircrafts like Airbus to land at the airport, which is not possible at present as the runway length is small for the operation of the bigger aircrafts.

Talking to TNI Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Pardeep Gupta said that the department is still holding discussion with the army on the issue of land.

“Gupta further said that the land has been identified in Sunjwan but the department is resolving the issue with the army to transfer from Satwari to Sunjwan adding that only after that other work will be started for the expansion of the airport.

 “Out of total Rs 20 crores of first installment, Rs 2.10 crore have been released in favour of  wildlife department as part of  land compensation, Rs 2.60 crore in favour of Army authorities, Rs 7 crore to Public Works Department for diversion of road, 5 crores to irrigation department to shift D-9A channel, 1crore to Electricity Maintanance and Rural Electrification (EMRE) wing to shift 132 KV transmission line and  other utilities” sources said, adding that the shifting of these utilities was in initial stage.