02 Greater KashmirSRINAGAR | April 06, 2015, Monday

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40% cut in ration quota punctures ‘Acchey Din’ claims

ARVIND SHARMA

Jammu, Apr 5: At times when there are talks of providing food security to the people, even the pre-scribed ration scale of 35 kg is not being provided to the people of Jammu and Kashmir owing to a sub-stantial cut down in the prescribed quota by over 40% in some areas of the state, while it is even more in other areas with over 55% cut down in the scale.

“There is hardly any area in the state where the pre-scribed ration scale of 35 kg is provided to the people”, officials of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distri-bution (CA&PD) informed Greater Kashmir.

They said , “Barring Jammu and Srinagar cities, the situation is worse in the rural areas of the state where a mere 15 kg to 20 kg of ration is provided to the people of APL category as against the scale of 35 kg”.

They added, “The sce-nario is all set to worsen

in the coming days if Gov-ernment of India decides to provide ration as per the new census”.

However, as per fig-ures, there are many areas which are not even getting 15 kg of ration from the past several months.

As per figures, RS Pura in Jammu is being provided 1400 quintals of ration as against the requirement of 9450 quin-tals for around 27,000 APL families. Almost similar is the story in other areas like Rajouri Poonch, Bari Brahmana, Chenab Valley, Udhampur, Dansal and other adjoining areas.”

Director, CA&PD, Kash-mir, Abdul Rashid said that apart from Srinagar City where 30 kg ration is pro-vided, the situation is worse in rural areas of the valley as the scale is far less.

“We are gathering data and will soon start re-verification process in the valley and hope that the sce-nario will improve to a cer-tain extent after a month”,

Rashid said, while adding, “We will even file FIRs against the people who have undeservingly obtained ration cards”.

He said, “Many cases have already been detected in the valley where afflu-ent people have obtained not one, but 2-2 BPL cards”. FIRs will be registered against them, he added.

Director , CA&PD, Jammu, GS Chib also admit-ted that it is impossible for the government to provide the mentioned scale. “The Government of India pro-vides ration as per the pro-jected population of 2000, which is far-2 less to meet the present requirements of the state”, Chib said.

However, the Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD), Ch Zulfiqar was unaware about the pathetic scenario main-tained that full prescribed quota is being provided to the people.“We will inquire the matter, and will initiate inquiry against anybody found involved”, he added.

'Chinese army makes fresh intrusion bids in Ladakh'

SHABIR IBN YUSUF/PTI

Srinagar, Apr 5: China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered Ladakh region twice in last week of March this year, sources said.

Officials said they have asked the Indian soldiers to carry out regular patrols to higher points and to thwart any fresh attempt of PLA.

Top Army officials said here that the PLA recently made two “incursions” by sending its soldiers into the Indian Territory in north-ern part of Ladakh. The area is being manned by the Army and Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

The PLA, Army officials said, made bids to re-estab-lish their points where they had established camps in 2013. “They had reached to Burtse and Depsang and were heading towards old patrol point,” the official said adding that attempts of PLA were foiled.

“Our troops displayed banners and after hours of face-off PLA returned,” he said adding that in 2013 there was four week long face-off between the two armies.

The top Army officer said

that soon after the incident, more reinforcement was sent to the area. “Troops are on alert and carrying regular patrolling in these areas where Chinese Army has made bids in past,” he said adding movement Chi-nese Army is being moni-tored closely.

Sources in Army said China has been eyeing this area (Old Patrol Point ) as it gives advantage to India to overlook the Karakoram highway link-ing territory controlled by China with Pakistan-Administered-Kashmir.

Besides, India has an Advanced Ground Landing (AGL) facility in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) which was activated in August 2013 and Indian Air Force had managed to land a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at the air strip located at 16614 feet above sea level.

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Apr 5: Expressing deep concern over the massive destruc-tion caused to fruit indus-try due to heavy hail-storm and windstorm in various parts of the state, the President J&K Pradesh Congress Com-mittee, Mr. Gh Ahmad Mir has sought adequate

compensation in favour of the affected farmers and fruit growers. He has assured that the Pradesh Congress Committee would fight for the cause of the affected farming community.

In a statement Mir said the unprecedented hailstorm has played havoc to the fruit produc-tion affecting badly the

livelihood of thousands of farmers who need to be compensated adequately for their sustenance. He said this natural calam-ity has destroyed almost the entire fruit industry, which is the main stay of State’s economy.

He enjoined upon the concerned officers of the agriculture, horticulture and revenue authorities

to act fast to assess the quantum of colossal loses so that volume of compen-sation and relief cold be worked out at the earliest.

He has also asked the horticulture experts to guide the farming com-munity in this need of the hour. ‘All of us have to rise to the occasion and come to the rescue of the affected fruit growers and

farmers,” Mir asserted. Lambasting the PDP-BJP coalition Govern-ment for its "utter failure to infuse sense of security among the people" Mir said the entire populace in the state is living under constant fear due to massive landslides and house collapse causing death and destruction to life and property .

Reinstate Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan forthwith: Hurriyat (G) Srinagar, Apr 5: Terming the continuous suspension of the president of Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan as unkind act, Hurriyat Conference (G) on Sunday condemned this action in strong words. While demand-ing immediate revocation of his suspension orders, a Hurriyat (G) spokesman said that the National Conference government prosecuted him for raising his voice against the illegal trade of spuri-ous drugs and the issue was made knotty by giving it a political color. “When an honest person raises his voice in a corrupt system, he is not only forcibly silenced but he is also punished for the act and the entire system stands against him. Same is the case with Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan and he was crucified for identifying the frauds and scams,” he said.

While demanding the immediate reinstating of Dr Hassan, the Hurriyat (G) spokesman said, “It was the moral responsibility of the other doctors to raise their voice against government’s decision and support their colleague. But they preferred to remain silent and left their colleague on the mercy of the corrupt system.”

G A Mir flays Govt for 'failing' to handle crisis

SKIMS has no money to treat cancer patients

ZEHRU NISSA

Srinagar, Apr 5: Govern-ment of India has report-edly stopped allocation of funds to SK-Institute of Medical Sciences to treat cancer patients.

Sources told Greater Kashmir that the institute used to get funds from Union Health Ministry during the former Con-gress led UPA government at New Delhi.

“The funds were not coming under any special category or head but the assistance was released two to three times in a year,” said a source.

He said after the new government led by BJP took over the reins of the coun-try the funding as stopped.

“We would get funds in range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs five lakh which would help us to meet the needs to provide free treatment to patients suffering from cancer and other diseases,” said the source.

However the stoppage of the funds to the Regional Cancer Institute – which comprises of three differ-ent departments, has led to crisis like situation.

While commenting on the situation an official said the institute was already struggling with inadequate funding from state govern-ment to focus on research and expansion programs and meet the treatment and diagnostic costs for patients. “This new situa-tion has hit the cancer treat-ment at the institute,” the official said.

Hundreds of patients suffering from cancer get treatment in form of che-

motherapy and radiother-apy annually at the RCC every year.

Sources said in 2012 the SKIMS had moved a pro-posal to Government of India for setting up of 200 bed cancer institute at the SKIMS for providing quali-ty treatment to the patients.

The proposal was scaled down to 120-beds by the Union Government but no money has been provided out of proposed Rs 120 crore for setting up the Center under National Program for Prevention and Control of Cancer Diabetes, Car-diovascular Disease, and Stroke (NPCDCS).

“Lack of modern machin-ery is a big hurdle in pro-viding quality treatment and ensure early detection of the deadly disease,” said the source.

He said linear accelera-tor -an equipment cardi-nal in radiation therapy, PET-CT Scan -basic equip-ment for detection of malig-nancies, mammography facility used for detection of breast cancer and cyclo-tron particle accelerator (proton therapy equipment for cancer treatment ere not present in the entire state. “As a result, patients have to go outside the state for mere diagnosis of cancer. For a mammograph too, which is nothing more than a low-voltage X-ray, patients are forced to approach a private labora-tory,” the official said.

Besides, there is no sepa-rate CT-Scan or MRI facil-ity in the RCC, forcing the patients to wait for days and queue up outside general radio-diagnosis centers at the institute.

Troops are on alert and carrying regular

patrolling in these areas where Chinese Army has

made bids in past.

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