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Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: As a part of the pioneering initiative to create sustainable assets in rural develop- ment sector, Minister for Rural Development Panchayati Raj Abdul Haq Khan and Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today inaugurated as many as 50 assets of public utility including Common Facilitation Centre (CFC), culverts and roads in Rajouri district. The Ministers inaugurated CFC at remote village Peeri which was constructed at the cost of Rs 49 lakh under 13th FC. The con- struction of CFC is a part of the project - 'CFC in every constituen- cy' - launched by the Minister in 2015. The Ministers were accompa- nied by DC Rajouri Dr Shahid Iqbal Chowdhary, SSP Rajouri Jugal Manhas, ACD Rajouri Noor Alam, Assistant Director FCS&PD Mohammad Javid, District Social Welfare Officer Shabir Ahmad and AEE PHE Nisar Ahmad. The Ministers inaugurated about 50 assets created by the Rural Development Department in the district which included foot bridges, culverts, roads construct- ed during 2016-17 and 2017-18. The assets include 30 durable assets of Darhal constituency con- structed at the cost of Rs 6 crore. Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Haq said the development of the rural areas will ensure the development of the State as major- ity of the people in the State reside in villages. He said the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is very keen to see development in the rural areas and she takes regular reviews of the developmental activities in the rural areas. He said under MGNREGA, the department has taken a mission to connect rural areas by focusing on the construction of roads and bridges. He said it has been a grand success and during past two years a web of roads and culverts have been laid in the rural areas of the State. He said constructing roads is the first step towards the development and rural develop- ment has been successful in achieving the goal of increasing connectivity by connecting vil- lages The Minister made it clear that he won't allow misuse of funds in rural development sector on politi- cal considerations, a practice which was rampant in past. Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali lauded the role played by the Rural Development Department in the development of villages in the State. He said the department has used funds judiciously to create durable assets under MGNREGA which would not have been possi- ble in past. He said under the new concept of convergence of funds, sustain- able assets are being created under MGNREGA in the rural areas instead of resorting to futile works on political considerations. The Minister said several ini- tiatives are in pipeline on develop- mental front to ensure all round transformation of the developmen- tal landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the productive use of funds in rural development sector will be instrumental in changing socio-economic profile of the people living in the rural areas, besides creating much need- ed employment opportunities. Asking people to come for- ward and to get actively involved in day to day governance by pro- viding feedback about implemen- tation of various schemes, the Minister said that it is prime responsibility of the Government to provide all basic facilities at doorstep of common people. Excelsior Correspondent UDHAMPUR, Dec 29: MLA Pawan Gupta today held a Public Darbar for Lander and Dandota Panchyats of Udhampur Assembly Constituency and took stock of the public grievances. The authorities of all the departments including PHE, Power Development, Agriculture, Horticulture, Rural Development and R&B were present. People highlighted the scarcity of drinking water and demanded three hand pumps anywhere in the Panchayat. They also appealed the MLA to replace wooden electricity poles with iron poles to avoid any unwanted incident. The other demands of the Panchayat were installation of 63 KVA transformer in Karcha village, required electric poles, Health sub centers, tractor road, bridge on Panthal Nalla and repair of ambulance. The people from Lander Panchyat highlighted several issues including deputation of sufficient teaching staff in Government school, regular supply of drinking water, quality of developmental works, regular supply of electricity and necessary measures in connection with low voltage. Gupta assured the people that appropriate measures will be taken in connection with their problems and grievances. He also sanctioned three hand pumps and announced for the construction of a communi- ty hall from his CDF and FC funds. Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla has alleged that despite being in power at the Centre and in the State, BJP has miserably failed on governance front and let down Jammu in all aspects. While interacting with the peo- ple from Greater Kailash area of Gandhinagar constituency, Bhalla said this Government has nothing to showcase as its achievement. He said treachery and deceit of the BJP is haunting Jammu people who reposed their unflinching faith and support to it with the hope that Jammu may perhaps get a better deal as during the days of its wilderness in the opposition, the BJP leaders were crying hoarse over discrimination and neglect. PCC leader said that sense of alienation and deprivation being felt in Jammu Province also needs to be understood and addressed. Bhalla said that despite putting 25 Assembly seats into the kitty of BJP, Jammu suffers. He attributed this sense of deprivation to the exploitative and opportunistic pol- itics of the BJP and its local lead- ers. He recalled the role of BJP in opposition and said that instead of seeking better way of life for them, they were misused as vote bank. "And once sitting on the driver's seat in Government, the very exis- tence of these people has been undermined", he added. "The people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh should be empowered as a matter of right and not as charity", he said while recalling the inclusive character of the State which can legitimately take pride on its inclusiveness and glorious pluralistic ethos. He said Jammu, being abode of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, has always shown the spirit of assimi- lation and accommodation and is a shining example of pluralistic char- acter. Bhalla referred to discrimina- tion meted out to Jammu candi- dates in various categories of posts filled by the Public Service Commission, saying that the BJP has failed to explain this to merito- rious youth. The damage done to Jammu psyche is immense and BJP leadership will have to come clear on the compelling reasons for ignoring the interests of this region. Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: Two-day international convention on ‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti- Connecting GeNext' began here today with an objective to pro- claim the civilizational and strate- gic import of the Shaiva philoso- phy and its vision. Padamshree, Prof Navjeevan Rastogi, the doyen of Kashmir Shaiva world-view, formally inau- gurated the Convention, which is a project of PRAKASH and is being organized by Samooh Theatre. On this occasion, the presti- gious `Sharda Samman' was bestowed upon Prof Navjeevan Rastogi, Prof. Mohan Krishan Teng (a political thinker and a Constitutional expert on Jammu & Kashmir), Dr Shashishekhar Toshkhani (Poet, linguist, anthro- pologist, and Indologist) and Rajinder Tickoo (an international- ly acclaimed sculptor and Padmashree awardee). Santoor Maestro, Pt Bhajan Sopori enthralled the audience through an adept and masterly ren- dition of Raga Lalleshwari, which is the creation of Sopori, himself. He was assisted in this presenta- tion by the great Sufiana musi- cians from Kashmir, G N Bulbul and Gulzar Ghanai, along with a score of accompanists on Rabab, Sarangi, Nott and other instru- ments. In his keynote address, Prof Navjeevan Rastogi spoke of the greatest contributions of Kashmir to the growth and evolution of Indian civilization in the fields of philosophy, literature, linguistics, grammar, poetry, prosody, aesthet- ics, music, logic, history, Budhism, Shaivism, Vaishan- avism and an entire streak of Bhakti. He stressed that with dias- pora and exile of the Hindus from Kashmir, the place Kashmir is on a decline, both intellectually and experientially. At the same time the great tradition of the Pandits of Kashmir itself is facing a threat of extinction, he added and applaud- ed the efforts of the organizers to connect the young generation to this tradition. Dr Agnishekhar, a prominent poet, social activist and Convener of Panun Kashmir exhorted the youth and the teenagers to under- stand the intrinsic strengths of the Shaiva Sidhant and how it perme- ates the entire Himalayan ecology. During the Convention, Abdul Ahed Dar, the caretaker of the Abhinav Cave at Beerwah and Anisha Safaya of India International, were also felicitated. Those who spoke on the sub- ject on the first day, included Prof Varun Tripathi, HOD (Philosophy) SMVDU and Prof M L Pandit, a world known authority on Shaivism. Dr Sudhir Mahajan presented very well choreoographed presen- tations on original Sanskrit texts from Bhairava Stotra of Acharya Abhinavgupta. Kuldeep Saproo and Akash Dogra's Bellet perform- ances on Shaiva Stotras were very well received and applauded by the audience. Iqbal Kaul enthralled the audience with his Kashmiri Stutis and Vandanas ren- dered in traditional Shaivite tradi- tion. Shailendra Aima is coordinator of the programme while Dr Dileep Kumar Kaul anchored the pro- ceedings. Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: National Panthers Party (NPP) today held strong protest demonstration against the BJP for its complete sell out and marginalizing edu- cated Jammu youth as projected in JKSSB recruitment notice for the posts of teachers while, Congress, Team Jammu and some other organizations have strongly reacted to this notice in which 86 % teachers' jobs have been offered to Kashmir valley and just 14 % peanut share kept for Jammu youth. A large number of NPP lead- ers and workers led by party chairman and former Education Minister, Harsh Dev Singh assembled at Exhibition Ground near Press Club Jammu and held strong protest demonstration against BJP leadership for its total surrender and sell out. They also burnt the effigy of Jammu BJP leadership and alleged that they have miserably failed to protect the rights of educated unemployed youth from Jammu region. Harsh Dev regretted that the wounds of discriminatory selec- tions by the SSB were not even healed when the BJP-PDP Govt issued the extremely biased noti- fications for the posts of teachers which sparked outrage among the young fraternity in view of the peanut share of such posts allocated to the Jammu region. He figured out that the JKSSB notified 2154 District cadre posts of teacher in the department of School Education in 3 advertise- ments vide Adv. No. 06 of 2017 on Thursday viz-a-viz Gen. Teacher: 1296 posts, Science/ Math Teacher: 644 posts and Urdu Teacher: 214 posts respec- tively. Shocked over the statisti- cal distribution of the posts in each division, he dismayed that while Kashmir Division was allotted 1864 posts with 86% of lion share, Jammu Division was only conferred 290 posts with just 14% of paltry share. He further pointed out that Ladakh region in Kashmir Division was the worst sufferer of the obnoxious discrimination with 0% share in the total alloca- tion of posts. Considering dis- trict wise allocation of posts, Singh rued that all the 10 dis- tricts of Kashmir region were allocated with their respective quota of posts in all the three advertisements but 6 districts of Kathua, Jammu, Poonch, Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar in Jammu province and 2 districts of Leh and Kargil in Ladakh province were out rightly left out. PCC has expressed great concern over the repeated attempts by the Coalition Government to create wedge between regions by its discrimi- natory actions especially in the matter of recruitments to the var- ious jobs and questioned the criminal silence of BJP in the Government. Reacting strongly over the recent advertisement notification for the posts of teachers wherein, only nominal share has been kept for Jammu region and nil for Ladakh region, PCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma termed these actions as highly provocative and discriminatory. Time and again such incidents of regional imbalance and discrimi- natory actions have caused great anger amongst the general public especially the youth of the region. These provocative actions are deliberate attempts by the authorities which has cre- ated great anger and wedge between three region of the State. The Government is squarely responsible for such acts and BJP leaders are the mute spectators who claim to be repre- sentatives of Jammu region, have no answer to offer. The party would forcefully raise these issues both inside and out- side the legislature, he added. Meanwhile, National Secular Forum (NSF) while reacting strongly to the bias attitude of the Coalition Govt, strongly con- demned the attitude of the SSRB. The Forum alleged that BJP has joined hands with the PDP to victimise the educated Jammu youth. Dr Vikas Sharma, head of the Forum while talking to reporters here strongly con- demned the attitude of the BJP and State Government and warned the Government to roll back and reconsider its decision otherwise it should get ready to face massive agitation from Jammu. Dr Vikas said that 86 % jobs for Kashmir and 14 % for Jammu and zero per cent for Ladakh is sheer mockery with the youth of Jammu and Ladakh. This is the high time for the peo- ple of Jammu and Ladakh to rise to the occasion and launch a decisive struggle for the exis- tence. Dr Vikas asked the Government to revisit its policy regarding employment and prove its credibility to govern the State with justice and fair treat- ment. Expressing anguish over vir- tual surrender of power hungry BJP leadership before PDP, `Team Jammu' today vowed to launch a decisive war against 'Jai Chands' in the year 2018 to Jammu to save future of youth and coming generations. Team Jammu observed that during the last three years discrimination with Jammu region has crossed all limits with elected representa- tives of this province have pros- trated in front of Valley centric PDP just to fulfill their own petty personal gains. "Our patience is running out now. Betrayal by BJP leadership is forcing youth of Jammu to take extreme steps", cautioned chair- man of Team Jammu, Zorawar Singh Jamwal, while pointed out latest notification of posts of teachers issued by JKSSB. He said as per the notification by JKSSB, 2154 posts of teachers have been advertised under dis- trict cadre out of which 1800 posts have been given to all 10 districts of Kashmir whereas, six districts of Jammu, including the winter capital Jammu, have been kept out of it. Even Ladakh region has also been deprived of these posts. He described this as worst kind of discrimination with Jammu region and warned to launch massive agitation involv- ing youth from this region. Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR, Dec 29: Former Union Minister and vet- eran Congress leader Prof Saif- ud-Din Soz has said that Muslim Personal Law Board (MPLB) must prove its representative character and adopt democratic and transparent methods for its functioning. In a press statement here Prof Soz said, “I am one of those per- sons who tried to show utmost respect to All India Muslim Personal Law Board all these years, although I had serious reservations on the functioning of the Board. The Board had been functioning arbitrarily and totally undemocratically all these years, leaving the victim Muslim women to fend for themselves in courts, miserably and helplessly,” Soz added. “Now that the Parliament has declared ‘Triple Divorce in one- go’ as criminal offence, the Board must do a serious thinking on its future. The Board must set its house in order by proving its representative character and adopting democratic and trans- parent methods in future,” Prof Soz maintained. “It is so tragic that the Board failed to take notice that Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Cyprus Tunisia, Algeria, Malaysia, Iran, Jordan, Indonesia, UAE, Qatar, Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq etc had since declared triple divorce in one-go as un-Islamic. It is unfortunate that knowledgeable persons like Dr Tahir Mehmood, Salman Khursheed, Dr Zaffarul Islam Khan, Moosa Raza and Zeenat Showkat Ali have never been made members of the Board. I have a feeling that the Board could have adopted this reformative measure, along with other needed reforms, at least, two decades earlier,” Soz added. Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: Minister for Health & Medical Education, Bali Bhagat today paid an exten- sive visit to SMGS Hospital and took stock of the facilities avail- able for the patients. Principal GMC, Dr. Sunanda Raina, senior faculty Members, Dr. Sunil Kotwal, Dr. Shashi Gupta and Dr. Rakha Harish, Medical Superintendent, Dr. Raj Kumar Sangra, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr. Minakshi Kotwal and engineers of GMC accompanied the Minister. The Minister took round of various units, labor room, recov- ery wards and children's wards and interacted with the patients, attendants, doctors and para- medics and inquired about the facilities available there. He directed for improving the sanitation facilities in the wards and premises besides initiating effective measures to regulate the rush of patients in a systematic way, especially in the labour room. While reviewing the function- ing of the hospital vis-à-vis avail- ability of doctors, para-medical staff, medicines, diagnostic equipment and flow of rush, espe- cially in the Gynae Department, the Minister called for making optimum use of available space to facilitate the rush of Gynae patients. "Being premier and oldest institution in Jammu division, it caters the huge rush of patients from various parts of the State, including Kashmir Valley during the winter months, thus special strategy needs to be devised to tackle the situation," he said. In view of the huge rush of patients, the Minister directed the engineers to prepare a DPR for further expansion of accommoda- tion to add at least 250 more beds for Gynae patients by making optimum use of available space in the hospital premises. He direct- ed for consulting the JKPCC authorities with original drawing of new block to ascertain the pos- sibility for raising the requisite structure. He said expansion of the hos- pital is the dire need and every possibility will be explored to add more accommodation on the available space/land. He said the 200-bedded Gynae hospital at Gandhi Nagar which is at the final stage and after its commis- sioning, the rush at SMGS will reduce upto some extent. The Minister was informed that presently there is a capacity of 224 beds for the Gynae patients, but as many as 284 beds have been installed by utilizing the optimum adjoining space in view of the constant rush of patients. Similarly, in labor room there is a capacity of only 48 beds, but patient rush is always beyond capacity, and the authori- ties have to face lot of difficulties in managing the Gynae patients. At an average, as many as 100 admissions of Gynae patients are being done daily and they prolong their stay according to the treat- ment. Minister was informed that similarly, there is a provision of 415 beds in the children wards, including four ICU/NIKU wards, but in summer months there is huge rush of patients and become difficult to manage the affairs and need more accommodation for this department as well. It was further brought into the notice of the Minister that the ENT Department is also faced with the same difficulty of space which handles great rush of patients. Dr. Sunil Kotwal pro- jected the demand for separate ward for the Cancer patients. Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, Dec 29: 2017 was a watershed year for Northeast, as it was not only a wit- ness to some of the landmark developmental initiatives, but will also go down in the history as a year when the Modi Government took some such decisions which had been pending for decades together. Briefing the media after releasing the North Eastern Council (NEC) wall - Calendar and table - Calendar for the year 2018, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said,the 90 year old "Indian Forest Act of 1927", which was a legacy of the British Raj, was amended through a decision of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a result of which "Bamboo", which was defined as a "Tree" under the Indian Forest Act of 1927, was shifted to the category of "Grass" in the non-forest areas, thereby doing away with the requirement of obtaining a permit for felling of bamboo for economic use. This, he said, is going to be a game- changer for generations to come, by opening new avenues of job generation and entrepreneurship by allowing bamboo cultivation and bamboo use by non-farmers on non-forest land. Another his- toric decision, which is the first of its kind in independent India, was relating to 100% funding by Central Government for projects in Northeast which were earlier being undertaken on the basis of Centre-State sharing in the ratio of 90:10, he added. It was again in 2017, Dr Jitendra Singh said, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi under- took an exclusive trip to Mizoram, a State seldom visited by dignitaries from outside and where a Prime Minister has not visited for the last over 20 years. During this visit, Prime Minister dedicated to the nation a 60 Mega-watt Hydro-Power Project, thus making Mizoram a power-surplus State of India. In 2017 itself, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled, North-Eastern region set an example for the rest of India by being the first to intro- duce "Venture Capital Fund" from the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) for young Start-ups and entrepreneurs who choose to try their fortune in the region. The first lot of the cheques for young Start-ups with Venture Fund from Ministry of DoNER was handed over by Prime Minister himself. Among the other "firsts" introduced in Northeast during this year, Dr Jitendra Singh men- tioned India's first-ever experi- ment to have a helicopter-based "Air Dispensary" to carry out OPD health services in remote and inaccessible parts of the region. Similarly, the work on India's first-ever train to Bangladesh also began with the rail track being laid from Agartala and being funded up to Akhaura by the Ministry of DoNER. For the convenience of Northeast students studying in other parts of the country, con- struction of an exclusive hostel in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus at New Delhi began on July 24, 2017, while a piece of land measuring 5341.75 sq. meters (1.32 acre) was obtained from Delhi Development Authority at the prime location of Dwarka, New Delhi for the purpose of con- structing a Northeast International Cultural and Information Centre. While mentioning several other first-ever initiatives in the region, Dr Jitendra Singh made a special mention of the setting up of Japan-India Coordination Forum and holding of its first meeting on August 3, 2017, wherein it was decided that Japan will be providing adequate funding and other support for projects involving major roads, food processing, organic farm- ing, tourism, etc. in the region. In addition, the first-ever Northeast "Hill Area Development Programme" (HADP) was announced on December 3, 2017 with allocation of Rs. 90 crore, to begin with, on a pilot basis. DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2017 (PAGE 5) 7 houses damaged in fire Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR Dec 29: At least seven residential houses were damaged in two separate fire incidents in Srinagar today. The first fire incident occurred in Bul Bul Lanker area of Nawakadal at 06:00 am. The mysterious fire incident severe- ly damaged four houses. In another incident, three residential houses were dam- aged in Tarabal area of Nawakadal of district Srinagar. The fire broke out at 08:40 am in the two-storey house and soon engulfed nearby houses damaging them completely. The fire was doused by the collective efforts of fire and emergency services, locals and the police but only after the property worth lakhs was turned into ashes, sources said. 2 XEns promoted as SEs, posted Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: Two Incharge Executive Engineers (Mech) have been promoted as Incharge Superintending Engi- neers in the PW(R&B) depart- ment. Those promoted as Incharge SEs are, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Afaq Showkat Mir. After promo- tion, Javed Zargar has been post- ed as Incharge SE PHE Circle (Mech) South Kashmir while Afaq Showkat Mir as Incharge SE Mechanical, Irrigation and Flood Control Circle, Srinagar. * Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com Cong, NSF , others sharply react to JKSSB notice NPP protests against Govt for discrimination in teachers’ jobs Intl convention on ‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti-Connecting GeNext’ begins Haq, Zulfkar inaugurate 50 public utility assets in Rajouri 2017 was watershed year for Northeast: Dr Jitendra MLA Udhampur, Pawan Gupta, during a Public Darbar at Lander Panchayat of his constituency. Unemployed agriculture youth during protest at SKUAST-Jammu. Unemployed agriculture youth hold protest Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: All J&K unemployed agriculture youth today held a protest at SKUAST Jammu against SRO-442 which has closed all doors for direct recruitment. The youth demanded to revoke the SRO-442 as soon as possible as this SRO mentions that the posts of Junior Agriculture Extension Officers will be filled 100 per cent on promotional basis which other- wise was on 60:40 per cent basis (60 percent by direct recruitment and 40 percent by promotion) thereby, leaving the unemployed professionals high and dry. They requested the Government to amend SRO 442 to its original form (60:40 ratio) for JAEO posts and maintain the 50:50 ratio for AEO's which was rule prior to 2004 and also urged to refer all the posts lying vacant in the APD to the PSC and SSRB for fast track recruitment. The youth later met Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura and handed over a memorandum to him. Ex-Kargil war porters demand Govt jobs Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 29: Ex-Kargil war porters today appealed the Centre as well as State Govern- ments to provide them permanent Government jobs, as was prom- ised. “We were recruited in Pathankot, Udhampur, Akhnoor and Poonch area of Punjab and J&K besides in Kandrori at Himachal Pradesh as Army Civilian Porters after passing med- ical test and other formalities by the concerned authorities groups APO during Kargil War (Operation Vijay) in the year 1999-2002,” unemployed porters said. They said, “We served in most difficult terrain in Kargil area along with regular army troops but got disengaged and ordered to return to their respective native places after the war was over. The authorities verbally gave assurance and hand- ed a certificate to every individual assuring preference in recruitment in Government job keeping in view of our service to the nation in the hour of need but they remained neglected by the respective Governments.” The ex-porters said that the Government has framed rehabil- itation and employment policy for the surrendered militants who are involved in criminal and anti- national activities, policies for martyred porters in Operation Vijay and Kargil war 1999-2002, but unfortunately, they are still waiting to get absorbed in the different departments as assured by the then commanding author- ities. Pawan holds Public Darbar MPLB must adopt democratic method: Soz Jammu simmering with anger due to bad governance: Bhalla Bali pays extensive visit to SMGS Hospital, takes appraisal of facilities Pt Bhajan Sopori presenting Raga Lalleshwari during inaugural of international convention on ‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti’ at Jammu on Friday. Minister for FCS&CA, Ch. Zulfkar Ali and Minister for Rural Development Abdul Haq Khan addressing a gathering at Rajouri on Friday. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, flanked by senior officers of Ministry of Northeast (DoNER) and North Eastern Council, releasing the Northeast wall-Calendar and table - Calendar for the year 2018, at New Delhi on Friday.

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Page 1: Intl convention on ‘KashmirShaiva Drishti-Connecting

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: As a part ofthe pioneering initiative to createsustainable assets in rural develop-ment sector, Minister for RuralDevelopment Panchayati RajAbdul Haq Khan and Minister forFood, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs ChowdharyZulfkar Ali today inaugurated asmany as 50 assets of public utilityincluding Common FacilitationCentre (CFC), culverts and roadsin Rajouri district.

The Ministers inauguratedCFC at remote village Peeri whichwas constructed at the cost of Rs49 lakh under 13th FC. The con-struction of CFC is a part of theproject - 'CFC in every constituen-cy' - launched by the Minister in2015.

The Ministers were accompa-nied by DC Rajouri Dr ShahidIqbal Chowdhary, SSP RajouriJugal Manhas, ACD Rajouri NoorAlam, Assistant DirectorFCS&PD Mohammad Javid,District Social Welfare OfficerShabir Ahmad and AEE PHENisar Ahmad.

The Ministers inauguratedabout 50 assets created by theRural Development Department inthe district which included footbridges, culverts, roads construct-ed during 2016-17 and 2017-18.The assets include 30 durableassets of Darhal constituency con-

structed at the cost of Rs 6 crore.Speaking on the occasion,

Abdul Haq said the developmentof the rural areas will ensure thedevelopment of the State as major-ity of the people in the State residein villages. He said the ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti is verykeen to see development in therural areas and she takes regularreviews of the developmentalactivities in the rural areas.

He said under MGNREGA,the department has taken a missionto connect rural areas by focusingon the construction of roads andbridges. He said it has been agrand success and during past twoyears a web of roads and culvertshave been laid in the rural areas ofthe State. He said constructingroads is the first step towards thedevelopment and rural develop-ment has been successful inachieving the goal of increasingconnectivity by connecting vil-lages

The Minister made it clear thathe won't allow misuse of funds inrural development sector on politi-cal considerations, a practicewhich was rampant in past.

Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali laudedthe role played by the Rural

Development Department in thedevelopment of villages in theState. He said the department hasused funds judiciously to createdurable assets under MGNREGAwhich would not have been possi-ble in past.

He said under the new conceptof convergence of funds, sustain-able assets are being created underMGNREGA in the rural areasinstead of resorting to futile workson political considerations.

The Minister said several ini-tiatives are in pipeline on develop-mental front to ensure all roundtransformation of the developmen-tal landscape of Jammu andKashmir. He said the productiveuse of funds in rural developmentsector will be instrumental inchanging socio-economic profileof the people living in the ruralareas, besides creating much need-ed employment opportunities.

Asking people to come for-ward and to get actively involvedin day to day governance by pro-viding feedback about implemen-tation of various schemes, theMinister said that it is primeresponsibility of the Governmentto provide all basic facilities atdoorstep of common people.

Excelsior Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Dec 29: MLA Pawan Gupta today held a PublicDarbar for Lander and Dandota Panchyats of Udhampur AssemblyConstituency and took stock of the public grievances.

The authorities of all the departments including PHE, PowerDevelopment, Agriculture, Horticulture, Rural Development andR&B were present.

People highlighted the scarcity of drinking water and demandedthree hand pumps anywhere in the Panchayat. They also appealed theMLA to replace wooden electricity poles with iron poles to avoid any

unwanted incident.The other demandsof the Panchayatwere installation of63 KVA transformerin Karcha village,required electricpoles, Health subcenters, tractor road,bridge on PanthalNalla and repair ofambulance.

The people fromLander Panchyathighlighted several

issues including deputation of sufficient teaching staff inGovernment school, regular supply of drinking water, quality ofdevelopmental works, regular supply of electricity and necessarymeasures in connection with low voltage.

Gupta assured the people that appropriate measures will be takenin connection with their problems and grievances. He also sanctionedthree hand pumps and announced for the construction of a communi-ty hall from his CDF and FC funds.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: FormerMinister and senior Congressleader Raman Bhalla has allegedthat despite being in power at theCentre and in the State, BJP hasmiserably failed on governancefront and let down Jammu in allaspects.

While interacting with the peo-ple from Greater Kailash area ofGandhinagar constituency, Bhallasaid this Government has nothingto showcase as its achievement.He said treachery and deceit of theBJP is haunting Jammu peoplewho reposed their unflinchingfaith and support to it with thehope that Jammu may perhaps geta better deal as during the days ofits wilderness in the opposition,the BJP leaders were crying hoarseover discrimination and neglect.

PCC leader said that sense ofalienation and deprivation beingfelt in Jammu Province also needsto be understood and addressed.Bhalla said that despite putting 25Assembly seats into the kitty ofBJP, Jammu suffers. He attributedthis sense of deprivation to theexploitative and opportunistic pol-itics of the BJP and its local lead-

ers. He recalled the role of BJP inopposition and said that instead ofseeking better way of life for them,they were misused as vote bank."And once sitting on the driver'sseat in Government, the very exis-tence of these people has beenundermined", he added.

"The people of Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh should beempowered as a matter of right andnot as charity", he said whilerecalling the inclusive character ofthe State which can legitimatelytake pride on its inclusiveness andglorious pluralistic ethos. He saidJammu, being abode of Hindus,Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, hasalways shown the spirit of assimi-lation and accommodation and is ashining example of pluralistic char-acter.

Bhalla referred to discrimina-tion meted out to Jammu candi-dates in various categories of postsfilled by the Public ServiceCommission, saying that the BJPhas failed to explain this to merito-rious youth. The damage done toJammu psyche is immense andBJP leadership will have to comeclear on the compelling reasonsfor ignoring the interests of thisregion.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: Two-dayinternational convention on‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti-Connecting GeNext' began heretoday with an objective to pro-claim the civilizational and strate-gic import of the Shaiva philoso-phy and its vision.

Padamshree, Prof NavjeevanRastogi, the doyen of KashmirShaiva world-view, formally inau-gurated the Convention, which is aproject of PRAKASH and is beingorganized by Samooh Theatre.

On this occasion, the presti-

gious `Sharda Samman' wasbestowed upon Prof NavjeevanRastogi, Prof. Mohan KrishanTeng (a political thinker and aConstitutional expert on Jammu &Kashmir), Dr ShashishekharToshkhani (Poet, linguist, anthro-pologist, and Indologist) andRajinder Tickoo (an international-ly acclaimed sculptor and

Padmashree awardee). Santoor Maestro, Pt Bhajan

Sopori enthralled the audiencethrough an adept and masterly ren-dition of Raga Lalleshwari, whichis the creation of Sopori, himself.He was assisted in this presenta-tion by the great Sufiana musi-cians from Kashmir, G N Bulbuland Gulzar Ghanai, along with ascore of accompanists on Rabab,Sarangi, Nott and other instru-ments.

In his keynote address, ProfNavjeevan Rastogi spoke of thegreatest contributions of Kashmirto the growth and evolution ofIndian civilization in the fields ofphilosophy, literature, linguistics,grammar, poetry, prosody, aesthet-ics, music, logic, history,Budhism, Shaivism, Vaishan-avism and an entire streak ofBhakti. He stressed that with dias-pora and exile of the Hindus fromKashmir, the place Kashmir is on adecline, both intellectually andexperientially. At the same time

the great tradition of the Pandits ofKashmir itself is facing a threat ofextinction, he added and applaud-ed the efforts of the organizers toconnect the young generation tothis tradition.

Dr Agnishekhar, a prominentpoet, social activist and Convenerof Panun Kashmir exhorted theyouth and the teenagers to under-stand the intrinsic strengths of theShaiva Sidhant and how it perme-ates the entire Himalayan ecology.

During the Convention, AbdulAhed Dar, the caretaker of theAbhinav Cave at Beerwah andAnisha Safaya of IndiaInternational, were also felicitated.

Those who spoke on the sub-ject on the first day, included ProfVarun Tripathi, HOD (Philosophy)SMVDU and Prof M L Pandit, aworld known authority onShaivism.

Dr Sudhir Mahajan presentedvery well choreoographed presen-tations on original Sanskrit textsfrom Bhairava Stotra of AcharyaAbhinavgupta. Kuldeep Saprooand Akash Dogra's Bellet perform-ances on Shaiva Stotras were verywell received and applauded bythe audience. Iqbal Kaulenthralled the audience with hisKashmiri Stutis and Vandanas ren-dered in traditional Shaivite tradi-tion.

Shailendra Aima is coordinatorof the programme while Dr DileepKumar Kaul anchored the pro-ceedings.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: NationalPanthers Party (NPP) today heldstrong protest demonstrationagainst the BJP for its completesell out and marginalizing edu-cated Jammu youth as projectedin JKSSB recruitment notice forthe posts of teachers while,Congress, Team Jammu andsome other organizations havestrongly reacted to this notice inwhich 86 % teachers' jobs havebeen offered to Kashmir valleyand just 14 % peanut share keptfor Jammu youth.

A large number of NPP lead-ers and workers led by partychairman and former EducationMinister, Harsh Dev Singhassembled at Exhibition Groundnear Press Club Jammu and heldstrong protest demonstrationagainst BJP leadership for itstotal surrender and sell out.They also burnt the effigy ofJammu BJP leadership andalleged that they have miserablyfailed to protect the rights ofeducated unemployed youthfrom Jammu region.

Harsh Dev regretted that thewounds of discriminatory selec-tions by the SSB were not evenhealed when the BJP-PDP Govtissued the extremely biased noti-fications for the posts of teacherswhich sparked outrage amongthe young fraternity in view ofthe peanut share of such postsallocated to the Jammu region.He figured out that the JKSSBnotified 2154 District cadre postsof teacher in the department ofSchool Education in 3 advertise-ments vide Adv. No. 06 of 2017on Thursday viz-a-viz Gen.Teacher: 1296 posts, Science/Math Teacher: 644 posts andUrdu Teacher: 214 posts respec-tively. Shocked over the statisti-cal distribution of the posts ineach division, he dismayed thatwhile Kashmir Division wasallotted 1864 posts with 86% oflion share, Jammu Division wasonly conferred 290 posts withjust 14% of paltry share.

He further pointed out thatLadakh region in KashmirDivision was the worst suffererof the obnoxious discriminationwith 0% share in the total alloca-tion of posts. Considering dis-trict wise allocation of posts,Singh rued that all the 10 dis-tricts of Kashmir region wereallocated with their respectivequota of posts in all the threeadvertisements but 6 districts ofKathua, Jammu, Poonch, Doda,Ramban, Kishtwar in Jammuprovince and 2 districts of Lehand Kargil in Ladakh provincewere out rightly left out.

PCC has expressed greatconcern over the repeatedattempts by the CoalitionGovernment to create wedgebetween regions by its discrimi-

natory actions especially in thematter of recruitments to the var-ious jobs and questioned thecriminal silence of BJP in theGovernment.

Reacting strongly over therecent advertisement notificationfor the posts of teachers wherein,only nominal share has been keptfor Jammu region and nil forLadakh region, PCC chiefspokesperson Ravinder Sharmatermed these actions as highlyprovocative and discriminatory.Time and again such incidents ofregional imbalance and discrimi-natory actions have caused greatanger amongst the general publicespecially the youth of theregion. These provocativeactions are deliberate attemptsby the authorities which has cre-ated great anger and wedgebetween three region of theState. The Government issquarely responsible for suchacts and BJP leaders are the mutespectators who claim to be repre-sentatives of Jammu region,have no answer to offer. Theparty would forcefully raisethese issues both inside and out-side the legislature, he added.

Meanwhile, National SecularForum (NSF) while reactingstrongly to the bias attitude ofthe Coalition Govt, strongly con-demned the attitude of theSSRB. The Forum alleged thatBJP has joined hands with thePDP to victimise the educatedJammu youth. Dr Vikas Sharma,head of the Forum while talkingto reporters here strongly con-demned the attitude of the BJPand State Government andwarned the Government to rollback and reconsider its decisionotherwise it should get ready toface massive agitation fromJammu.

Dr Vikas said that 86 % jobsfor Kashmir and 14 % forJammu and zero per cent forLadakh is sheer mockery withthe youth of Jammu and Ladakh.This is the high time for the peo-ple of Jammu and Ladakh to riseto the occasion and launch adecisive struggle for the exis-tence. Dr Vikas asked theGovernment to revisit its policyregarding employment andprove its credibility to govern theState with justice and fair treat-ment.

Expressing anguish over vir-tual surrender of power hungryBJP leadership before PDP,`Team Jammu' today vowed tolaunch a decisive war against 'JaiChands' in the year 2018 toJammu to save future of youthand coming generations. TeamJammu observed that during thelast three years discriminationwith Jammu region has crossedall limits with elected representa-tives of this province have pros-trated in front of Valley centricPDP just to fulfill their own petty

personal gains."Our patience is running out

now. Betrayal by BJP leadershipis forcing youth of Jammu to takeextreme steps", cautioned chair-man of Team Jammu, ZorawarSingh Jamwal, while pointed outlatest notification of posts ofteachers issued by JKSSB.

He said as per the notificationby JKSSB, 2154 posts of teachershave been advertised under dis-trict cadre out of which 1800posts have been given to all 10districts of Kashmir whereas, sixdistricts of Jammu, including thewinter capital Jammu, have beenkept out of it. Even Ladakh regionhas also been deprived of theseposts. He described this as worstkind of discrimination withJammu region and warned tolaunch massive agitation involv-ing youth from this region.

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Dec 29:Former Union Minister and vet-eran Congress leader Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz has said that MuslimPersonal Law Board (MPLB)must prove its representativecharacter and adopt democraticand transparent methods for itsfunctioning.

In a press statement here ProfSoz said, “I am one of those per-sons who tried to show utmostrespect to All India MuslimPersonal Law Board all theseyears, although I had seriousreservations on the functioning ofthe Board. The Board had beenfunctioning arbitrarily and totallyundemocratically all these years,leaving the victim Muslimwomen to fend for themselves incourts, miserably and helplessly,”Soz added.

“Now that the Parliament hasdeclared ‘Triple Divorce in one-go’ as criminal offence, theBoard must do a serious thinkingon its future. The Board must setits house in order by proving its

representative character andadopting democratic and trans-parent methods in future,” ProfSoz maintained.

“It is so tragic that the Boardfailed to take notice that Islamiccountries such as Pakistan,Bangladesh, Turkey, CyprusTunisia, Algeria, Malaysia, Iran,Jordan, Indonesia, UAE, Qatar,Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq etchad since declared triple divorcein one-go as un-Islamic. It isunfortunate that knowledgeablepersons like Dr Tahir Mehmood,Salman Khursheed, Dr ZaffarulIslam Khan, Moosa Raza andZeenat Showkat Ali have neverbeen made members of theBoard. I have a feeling that theBoard could have adopted thisreformative measure, along withother needed reforms, at least,two decades earlier,” Soz added.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: Ministerfor Health & Medical Education,Bali Bhagat today paid an exten-sive visit to SMGS Hospital andtook stock of the facilities avail-able for the patients.

Principal GMC, Dr. SunandaRaina, senior faculty Members,Dr. Sunil Kotwal, Dr. ShashiGupta and Dr. Rakha Harish,Medical Superintendent, Dr. RajKumar Sangra, Deputy MedicalSuperintendent, Dr. MinakshiKotwal and engineers of GMCaccompanied the Minister.

The Minister took round ofvarious units, labor room, recov-ery wards and children's wardsand interacted with the patients,attendants, doctors and para-medics and inquired about thefacilities available there.

He directed for improving thesanitation facilities in the wardsand premises besides initiatingeffective measures to regulate therush of patients in a systematicway, especially in the labour room.

While reviewing the function-ing of the hospital vis-à-vis avail-ability of doctors, para-medicalstaff, medicines, diagnosticequipment and flow of rush, espe-cially in the Gynae Department,the Minister called for makingoptimum use of available space tofacilitate the rush of Gynaepatients.

"Being premier and oldestinstitution in Jammu division, itcaters the huge rush of patientsfrom various parts of the State,including Kashmir Valley duringthe winter months, thus specialstrategy needs to be devised totackle the situation," he said.

In view of the huge rush ofpatients, the Minister directed theengineers to prepare a DPR forfurther expansion of accommoda-tion to add at least 250 more beds

for Gynae patients by makingoptimum use of available space inthe hospital premises. He direct-ed for consulting the JKPCCauthorities with original drawingof new block to ascertain the pos-sibility for raising the requisitestructure.

He said expansion of the hos-pital is the dire need and everypossibility will be explored to addmore accommodation on theavailable space/land. He said the200-bedded Gynae hospital atGandhi Nagar which is at thefinal stage and after its commis-sioning, the rush at SMGS willreduce upto some extent.

The Minister was informedthat presently there is a capacityof 224 beds for the Gynaepatients, but as many as 284 bedshave been installed by utilizingthe optimum adjoining space inview of the constant rush ofpatients. Similarly, in labor roomthere is a capacity of only 48beds, but patient rush is alwaysbeyond capacity, and the authori-ties have to face lot of difficultiesin managing the Gynae patients.At an average, as many as 100admissions of Gynae patients arebeing done daily and they prolongtheir stay according to the treat-ment.

Minister was informed thatsimilarly, there is a provision of415 beds in the children wards,including four ICU/NIKU wards,but in summer months there ishuge rush of patients and becomedifficult to manage the affairs andneed more accommodation forthis department as well.

It was further brought into thenotice of the Minister that theENT Department is also facedwith the same difficulty of spacewhich handles great rush ofpatients. Dr. Sunil Kotwal pro-jected the demand for separateward for the Cancer patients.

Excelsior Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: 2017was a watershed year forNortheast, as it was not only a wit-ness to some of the landmarkdevelopmental initiatives, but willalso go down in the history as ayear when the Modi Governmenttook some such decisions whichhad been pending for decadestogether.

Briefing the media afterreleasing the North EasternCouncil (NEC) wall - Calendarand table - Calendar for the year2018, Union Minister of State(Independent Charge) of theMinistry of Development ofNorth Eastern Region (DoNER),MoS PMO, Personnel, PublicGrievances & Pensions, AtomicEnergy and Space, Dr JitendraSingh said,the 90 year old "IndianForest Act of 1927", which was alegacy of the British Raj, wasamended through a decision of theUnion Cabinet chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, as aresult of which "Bamboo", whichwas defined as a "Tree" under theIndian Forest Act of 1927, wasshifted to the category of "Grass"in the non-forest areas, therebydoing away with the requirementof obtaining a permit for felling ofbamboo for economic use. This,he said, is going to be a game-changer for generations to come,by opening new avenues of jobgeneration and entrepreneurshipby allowing bamboo cultivationand bamboo use by non-farmers

on non-forest land. Another his-toric decision, which is the first ofits kind in independent India, wasrelating to 100% funding byCentral Government for projectsin Northeast which were earlierbeing undertaken on the basis ofCentre-State sharing in the ratio of90:10, he added.

It was again in 2017, DrJitendra Singh said, that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi under-took an exclusive trip toMizoram, a State seldom visitedby dignitaries from outside andwhere a Prime Minister has notvisited for the last over 20 years.During this visit, Prime Ministerdedicated to the nation a 60Mega-watt Hydro-PowerProject, thus making Mizoram apower-surplus State of India.

In 2017 itself, Dr JitendraSingh recalled, North-Easternregion set an example for the restof India by being the first to intro-duce "Venture Capital Fund"from the Ministry ofDevelopment of North-EasternRegion (DoNER) for youngStart-ups and entrepreneurs whochoose to try their fortune in theregion. The first lot of the chequesfor young Start-ups with VentureFund from Ministry of DoNERwas handed over by PrimeMinister himself.

Among the other "firsts"introduced in Northeast duringthis year, Dr Jitendra Singh men-tioned India's first-ever experi-ment to have a helicopter-based"Air Dispensary" to carry out

OPD health services in remoteand inaccessible parts of theregion. Similarly, the work onIndia's first-ever train toBangladesh also began with therail track being laid from Agartalaand being funded up to Akhauraby the Ministry of DoNER.

For the convenience ofNortheast students studying inother parts of the country, con-struction of an exclusive hostelin Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) campus at New Delhibegan on July 24, 2017, while apiece of land measuring 5341.75sq. meters (1.32 acre) wasobtained from DelhiDevelopment Authority at theprime location of Dwarka, NewDelhi for the purpose of con-structing a NortheastInternational Cultural andInformation Centre.

While mentioning severalother first-ever initiatives in theregion, Dr Jitendra Singh made aspecial mention of the setting upof Japan-India CoordinationForum and holding of its firstmeeting on August 3, 2017,wherein it was decided thatJapan will be providing adequatefunding and other support forprojects involving major roads,food processing, organic farm-ing, tourism, etc. in the region. Inaddition, the first-ever Northeast"Hill Area DevelopmentProgramme" (HADP) wasannounced on December 3, 2017with allocation of Rs. 90 crore,to begin with, on a pilot basis.

DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2017 (PAGE 5)

7 houses damaged in fire Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR Dec 29: Atleast seven residential houseswere damaged in two separatefire incidents in Srinagar today.

The first fire incidentoccurred in Bul Bul Lanker areaof Nawakadal at 06:00 am. Themysterious fire incident severe-ly damaged four houses.

In another incident, threeresidential houses were dam-aged in Tarabal area ofNawakadal of district Srinagar.The fire broke out at 08:40 amin the two-storey house andsoon engulfed nearby housesdamaging them completely.

The fire was doused by thecollective efforts of fire andemergency services, locals andthe police but only after theproperty worth lakhs was turnedinto ashes, sources said.

2 XEns promoted as SEs, posted

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: TwoIncharge Executive Engineers(Mech) have been promoted asIncharge Superintending Engi-neers in the PW(R&B) depart-ment.

Those promoted as InchargeSEs are, Javed Ahmed Zargar andAfaq Showkat Mir. After promo-tion, Javed Zargar has been post-ed as Incharge SE PHE Circle(Mech) South Kashmir whileAfaq Showkat Mir as Incharge SEMechanical, Irrigation and FloodControl Circle, Srinagar.

* Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com

Cong, NSF, others sharply react to JKSSB noticeNPP protests against Govt for

discrimination in teachers’ jobs Intl convention on ‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti-Connecting GeNext’ begins

Haq, Zulfkar inaugurate 50 publicutility assets in Rajouri

2017 was watershed year for Northeast: Dr Jitendra

MLA Udhampur, Pawan Gupta, during aPublic Darbar at Lander Panchayat of hisconstituency.

Unemployed agriculture youth during protest at SKUAST-Jammu.

Unemployed agriculture youth hold protestExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: All J&Kunemployed agriculture youthtoday held a protest at SKUASTJammu against SRO-442 whichhas closed all doors for directrecruitment.

The youth demanded torevoke the SRO-442 as soon aspossible as this SRO mentionsthat the posts of JuniorAgriculture Extension Officerswill be filled 100 per cent onpromotional basis which other-wise was on 60:40 per centbasis (60 percent by direct

recruitment and 40 percent bypromotion) thereby, leaving theunemployed professionals highand dry.

They requested theGovernment to amend SRO 442to its original form (60:40 ratio)for JAEO posts and maintain the50:50 ratio for AEO's which wasrule prior to 2004 and also urgedto refer all the posts lying vacantin the APD to the PSC andSSRB for fast track recruitment.

The youth later met Ministerfor Agriculture Ghulam NabiLone Hanjura and handed overa memorandum to him.

Ex-Kargil war porters demand Govt jobs Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 29: Ex-Kargilwar porters today appealed theCentre as well as State Govern-ments to provide them permanentGovernment jobs, as was prom-ised.

“We were recruited inPathankot, Udhampur, Akhnoorand Poonch area of Punjab andJ&K besides in Kandrori atHimachal Pradesh as ArmyCivilian Porters after passing med-ical test and other formalities bythe concerned authorities groupsAPO during Kargil War (OperationVijay) in the year 1999-2002,”unemployed porters said.

They said, “We served in mostdifficult terrain in Kargil area alongwith regular army troops but gotdisengaged and ordered to return to

their respective native places afterthe war was over. The authoritiesverbally gave assurance and hand-ed a certificate to every individualassuring preference in recruitmentin Government job keeping inview of our service to the nation inthe hour of need but they remainedneglected by the respectiveGovernments.”

The ex-porters said that theGovernment has framed rehabil-itation and employment policyfor the surrendered militants whoare involved in criminal and anti-national activities, policies formartyred porters in OperationVijay and Kargil war 1999-2002,but unfortunately, they are stillwaiting to get absorbed in thedifferent departments as assuredby the then commanding author-ities.

Pawan holds Public Darbar

MPLB must adopt democratic method: Soz

Jammu simmering with angerdue to bad governance: Bhalla

Bali pays extensive visit to SMGSHospital, takes appraisal of facilities

Pt Bhajan Sopori presenting Raga Lalleshwari during inaugural of international conventionon ‘Kashmir Shaiva Drishti’ at Jammu on Friday.

Minister for FCS&CA, Ch. Zulfkar Ali and Minister for Rural Development Abdul Haq Khanaddressing a gathering at Rajouri on Friday.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, flanked by senior officers of Ministry of Northeast (DoNER)and North Eastern Council, releasing the Northeast wall-Calendar and table - Calendar for theyear 2018, at New Delhi on Friday.