Top News of J&KJAMMU, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2022

RNI No. JKENG/ 2010/39369 Regd. No. JK- 435e-paper: www.topnewsjk.in

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BRIEFLY

Salman Khan pays musical tribute to Lata

Mangeshkar

PM Narendra Modi pays homage to Pulwama

attack victims

Hashmi felicitates people on birth Anniversary of

Imam Ali

COVID CASES: J&K / India / World

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14:

Jammu and Kashmir on Monday recorded 245 fresh Covid cases, taking the number of infected persons to 451016 how-ever no fatality reported due to the virus in the last 24 hours, officials said.

Of the new cases, 160 were from the Jammu division and 85 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, Officials said.

Doda district recorded the highest number of cases at 65, followed by 38 in Jammu district.

There are 4903 active cases in the union terri-tory while the number of recoveries so far has been 441368, officials said.

Moreover, 808 Covid-19 patients recovered during the time, 339 from Jammu Division and 469 from Kashmir, they said.

As many as 34,113 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported across the country in the 24-hour period, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday.

A total of 75.18 crore tests have been conduct-ed so far in India, with 10,67,908 tests held in the last 24 hours, as per ministry data.

Country’s active case-load currently stands at 4,78,882, which accounts for 1.12 per cent of total cases.

The daily positivity rate in India has been recorded at 3.19 per cent and the weekly positiv-ity rate at 3.99 per cent, as per the bulletin.

412,307,437 corona-virus cases have been reported and over 5,834,791 people have died of Covid-19 and recovered 332,994,149 worldwide. Discover the toll in countries and the evolution around the world as of Monday.

DAK seeks to shorten booster shot interval

Top News ReportSRINAGAR, Feb 14:

Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday has sought to shorten the booster shot interval to 6 months.

Currently, the gap between the second dose and the booster shot in India is 9 months.

“Shortening the inter-val would prevent the emergence of new vari-ants of Covid-19,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

Dr Hassan said while two doses of Covid-19

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J&K reports 245 new covid cases, no

death

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: The

Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta on Monday chaired a meeting to take stock of arrangements for reopening of educa-tional institutions and resuming offline teach-ing in Jammu and Kash-mir.

Additional Chief Sec-retary, Health & Medi-cal Education, Principal

Resident Commissioner, New Delhi, administra-tive secretaries of the departments of Skill Development, Higher Education, School Edu-cation, Disaster Manage-ment, Relief, Rehabilita-tion & Reconstruction, Vice Chancellors of all universities, Inspector General of Police, Kash-mir, Deputy Commis-sioners, and concerned HoDs participated in the meeting.

It was informed that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been regularly review-ing the COVID situation in the Union territory and has now decided to resume offline teaching by reopening all educa-tional institutions.

The Chief Secretary stated that the COVID positivity rate in the UT has been contained to 0.7% and impressed upon the Heads of all

educational institutions to remain vigilant to any signs of infection espe-cially among unvacci-nated students below the age of 17 years, besides ensuring adher-ence to COVID appro-priate behavior, SoPs and protocols; proper social distancing; and hand hygiene provi-sions, and compliance to UGC guidelines in the matter.

Dr. Mehta asked the Vice-Chancellors of universities, Principals of colleges, and Heads of all schools to submit COVID prevention and mitigation plans taking into account capacity of class rooms with 6 feet norm, staggered teach-ing plan, COVID proto-cols, vaccination, screen-ing, and emergency SoP; within two days.

SRINAGAR, Feb 14 (Agencies): The CRPF on Monday paid floral tributes to 40 of its personnel killed in the dastardly Pulwama terror attack on this day three years ago.

Additional Director General (ADG), CRPF, D S Chaudhary,

led the officers and jawans of the paramilitary force in paying their tributes at the martyr’s memorial here about 25 kms from Srinagar.

Chaudhary and other CRPF personnel laid floral wreaths at the memorial and saluted sacri-

fices of the 40 personnel who lost their lives when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehi-cle into a CRPF bus which was part of a convoy travelling from Jammu to Srinagar.

Every year we come together here on this day to remember the 40 brave jawans who lost their lives in Pulwama (attack). We remember their sacrifice and pay tributes to them from the bottom of our hearts, Chaudhary told reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony.

The CRPF officer said the endeavour of the force is to main-tain peace in the valley and not let the sacrifices of their personnel go in vain.

Remembering his colleagues, a CRPF jawan said the attack and the killing of 40 personnel has not broken the morale of the force.

If the enemy thinks it can break our

CRPF pays homage to slain personnel on Pulwama attack anniversary

Erratic weather likely in Jammu and Kashmir for next 48 hours

JAMMU, Feb 14 (Agen-cies): Weather remained fair and generally sunny in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday as the MeT department forecast erratic weather during the next 48 hours.

A MeT department statement said: “Weath-er likely to remain errat-ic (generally cloudy and sunshine at times) during February 15 to 21 with possibility of brief spell of light rain/snow (over higher reaches) at scattered places of Jammu and Kashmir during

JAMMU, Feb 14 (Agencies): Jammu and Kashmir Government on Monday ordered the promotion of six IAS officers to various scales of Indian Administra-tive Service.

According to an order issued by the General Administration Depart-ment (GAD) of Jammu and Kashmir govern-ment two officers—Sheetal Nanda and Saugat Biswas—have been promoted to the Super Time Scale of IAS (Level 14 of Pay matrix) with effect from 1 Janu-ary 2022.

The officers shall undergo Mid Career Phase-IV training as an when deputed by Government of India and have to pass the departmental examina-

tion within one year, as applicable, the order reads further.

Consequently, Sheetal Nanda shall be designat-ed as Commissioner/ Secretary to the Govern-ment, it reads.

Three off icers— Sushma Chauhan, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and Sarmad Hafeez—have been promoted to the Selection Grade of IAS (Level 13 of Pay matrix) with effect from 1 January 2022.

Consequently, these officers shall be desig-nated as Secretary to the Government.

Also, Faz Lul Haseeb (IAS) has been promot-ed to the Senior Time Scale of IAS (Level 11 of Pay matrix) with effect from 1 January 2022.

J&K Govt orders promotion of 6 Officers to Various Scales of IAS

2022 to be year of educational transformation in J&K: CSAll educational institutions resume offline classes with full compliance to CAB,

regular screening, and model teaching and learning environment

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14:

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Gover-nor Manoj Sinha on Monday paid tributes to the CRPF personnel who were martyred in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and resolved to eliminate the menace of terrorism in the union territory.

On February 14, 2019, Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Moham-med attacked a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force in Pulwa-ma, killing 40 personnel of the paramilitary force.

“The nation will for-ever be grateful to our brave soldiers of @crp-findia and their fami-lies,” Sinha said in a tweet.

He said the Jammu and Kashmir adminis-tration is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism.

Days after the Pulwa-ma attack, the Indian Air Force carried out a retal-iatory air strike inside Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26, 2019, tar-geting a terrorist train-ing camp of the JeM.

J&K LG pays tributes to CRPF jawans martyred in Pulwama terror attack

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Agencies) : Lieutenant Governor Ladakh, R.K. Mathur today called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pen-sions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and sought Snow Sculpture StartUp technol-ogy which, he said, could be pro-vided by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of the Science & Technology Ministry headed by him.

The Minister assured the LG that Snow Sculpture will be introduced in Ladakh in a big way, which would not only create StartUp and job opportunities for the locals but could also emerge as a huge attrac-tion for winter tourists.

Pertinent to mention that, of late, the outdoor snow art and snow related vocational avenues have gained currency in the cold climate

and snow clad regions in other countries of the world.

Recently, the UT government had facilitated the first-ever Ladakh Ice and Snow-Sculpture Workshop 2022 on February 11. It was organised by Kangsing Snow and Ice Sculpture Association in association with Ladakh Police at Sangtakchan near Tsogsti on the way to Chilling. LG, RK Mathur

while attending the concluding ceremony, had remarked, “I see no logic in leaving Ladakh in win-ters. This is the time to earn here.”

Dr Jitendra Singh thanked the Ladakh Administration for taking a decision to start the commercial plantation of “Leh Berry” from April-May this year. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

JAMMU, Feb 14 (Agencies): At least 35 dental doctors were detained Monday after they staged a protest here in support of their demand for jobs by creating new posts of dental surgeons in hos-pitals across Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

The protesters, both men and women, assem-

bled under the banner of Dental Surgeons Association J&K at Dogra chowk and tried to block the vital Tawi bridge near the statue of Maharaja Hari Singh when police moved in and detained them, the police officials said.

General Secretary of the association, Robin Tikoo said their employ-

ment woes have not been addressed since 2008 when the gov-ernment last officially advertised posts for dental surgeons in the health department.

He said thousands of dental doctors are unemployed across the Union Territory and more than 500 of them have already crossed the age limit without facing the J&K Public Service Commission examina-tion even once.

“We reject the finan-cial assistance scheme announced by the Lt Governor administra-tion for the dental doc-tors to set up their own clinics. We do not need the financial assistance offered by the govern-ment but a proper job. For financial assistance,

LG Ladakh meets Dr Jitendra, seeks Snow Sculpture StartUp technology

J&K Police detain 35 dental surgeons protesting for jobs in Jammu

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2 Top News of J&K

Jammu, Monday, February 14, 2022OBITUARIES

Top News ReportSUCHETGARH, Feb

14: DDC Member Suchet-garh, Taranjit Singh Tony criticized the BJP govern-ment at the Centre for depriving the people of Jammu and Kashmir of the basic amenities as the party (BJP) leadership has miserably failed to deliv-er on its promises made with the people during the previous elections.

He was speaking after starting blacktopping of road at Village Motey in border village Suchetgarh in presence of Sarpanch Omkar. Besides, the DDC member also started another black-topping works at villages Ghara-na and Gharani in pres-ence of Sarpanch Gurdyal Singh Soni.

Tony accused the BJP Government of having plunged Suchetgarh into a dark era of 12 years. He castigated the local BJP leaders for utter failure to address the burning issues of the people of the area.

Reiterating his commit-ment to work relentlessly for resolving the prob-lems and issues of the people in his constituen-cy, Tony assured to serve the people with much more vigour and enthu-

siasm in future too. Tony asserted that he will reju-venate the entire border belt by ensuring state-of-art facilities to the people of his constituency.

The DDC member informed that Rs 18 crore has been sanction for development of roads for Suchetgarh constituency under BADP. He assured that the people of border villages that all the roads falling under the constitu-ency would be upgraded in the next three months.

While giving instruc-tions for the aforesaid works initiated today, the DDC Member stressed on ensuring quality of the work and use of stan-dard material with no delinquency whatsoever. He said that he is very particular about timely completion of projects as any inordinate delay mars the very purpose of the development work besides escalating the cost.

Tony also listened to the demands of the people of the area and assured that he will take up the same with the concerned quar-ters for early fulfillment.

Later, the DDC member also initiated develop-ment work of lane tiling work upto Shamshan

Ghat at Village Kotli Rayian in Suhetgarh con-stituency with an esti-mated cost of Rs 12 lakh.

Others who were pres-ent include Sarpanch Manjit Kour, former Sar-panch Rashpal Singh, Sarpanch Shashi Bhagat, Sarpanch Tilak Raj Bhagat, Sarpanch Sham Lal Bhagat, Naib Sar-panch Roshan Bhagat and Darshan Choudhary.

Top News ReportR S PURA, Feb 14: Continu-

ing membership drive with the slogan “Aayo Chalein Congress Ke Sath, Badlein Pradesh Ke Halaat” in RS Pura on Monday organized by JKPCC SC Department Chairman, Karan Bhagat JKPCC Chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir alongwith JKPCC Work-ing President Raman Bhalla attacked the BJP-led central government for allegedly fail-ing to protect people’s jobs and lands in the union terri-tory.

Lambasting the government, Mir claimed that without an elected government, Jammu and its people were being neglected and overlooked.

Prominent among those present on the occasion include NSUI National Presi-dent Neeraj Kudan, General Secretary Manmohan Singh, Vice Chairman Gurdarshan Singh, OBC Chairmen Suresh Dogra, Ex Youth President Pranav Shagotra, Transport Department Chairmen Gajan Singh, PCC Secretary San-jeev Panda, Sr. Vice president Distt Rural Sarpanch Ravinder Singh, former MP TS Bajwa,

Vice President Distt, Mohan Ch, Rural Block President Sham Mehra, Block President Kuldeep Bhagat, Sunil Dutt, Pawan Bhagat, Diwan Chand, Sahil Shavotra, Madam Susma, Sarpanch Bachan Singh beside others.

Mir claimed “Today democ-racy in the union territory is facing onslaught from no other than the ruling party itself. Ideally, political and ideologi-cal differences should have been put aside while dealing with the sensitive region.”.

He expressed utter disap-pointment over BJP’s lip ser-vice regarding burning issues of J&K and termed their gov-ernance as futile exercise to reach out to the common man and address public issues.

He said BJP Govt is turn-ing a blind eye towards the apprehensions and concerns of people of J&K, especially Jammu region.

Taking a dig at Union Govt, Mir claimed that Jammu region is reeling under short-age of various basic require-

ments but Govt is unmoved. He said Govt lacks approach which is based on consistency, clarity, conviction and creating only mess making people to suffer unnecessarily without any fault of theirs.

Mir said that majority of people during interaction maintained that no new devel-opments but only facelifts of previous works were done in the area.

“BJP was in power at the Centre and in the erstwhile J&K State too, it was easy for

the party to forward issues of common masses through their Government in J&K to the Union Ministry concerned, for mitigating the sufferings of people but they took them casually,” Mir said.

Bhalla pointed out that there was total chaos and confusion among people as BJP leader-ship has failed to remove peo-ples’ apprehensions.

“On the one hand, there is complete uncertainty in J&K, while on the other hand people are confronting with failure of the administration to solve day today problems”, he said, adding that various parts of J&K are facing scarcity of basic amenities and dilapi-dated condition of lanes.

“Even after considerable time since Panchayat elections, the development activities in rural areas have come to a stand-still due to non-availability of funds. Panchayats are virtual-ly defunct and rural populace is crying for development,” Bhalla said.

Bhalla further said that Con-gress party workers must create awareness among the general public about the fail-ures of the government and the drawbacks of not having the status of being a state.

BJP Govt lacks vision & road map to address issues of J&K people: Mir/ Bhalla

3LOCAL Top News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Reacting

to the telephonic conversation between BJP leaders doing rounds on the social media, Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP and former Minister said that JKNPP’s allegations of BJP govt influencing the Delimita-tion Commission in preparing the draft report have been vin-dicated. In the audio-recording which has gone viral, the State President is unambiguously making a statement and assur-ing a BJP leader that he has included a favourable belt of Ramban constituency in the lat-ter’s constituency and that there is no reason to worry.

“I have annexed the Assar belt in your constituency. All those voters are yours”, Ravinder Raina is heard assuring the BJP leader Shakti Parihar.

It is dumbfounding to note that the BJP State President is claiming to have himself made the modifications in the draft Delimitation report rather than getting it done through the Delimitation Commission. What a mockery.

The statement amply demon-strates that the report is being finalized in the office of BJP as had been stated by the NPP leadership earlier as well. The draft report submitted by the Commission to the Associate members is therefore moti-vated, biased, defective and anomalous.

The suggestions given by the opposition parties and civil society during their interaction with the Commission have been

blatantly ignored and the said report seemed to have been prepared keeping the political expediency of the Saffron party in consideration, said Harsh. He was addressing a press confer-ence in Jammu today.

Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Dev Singh accused the Delimitation Commission of having ignored the ground situ-ation and prepared the draft as per the dictations of the ruling party. “The constituencies have been created casually in a hap-hazard manner by defying the prescribed parameters govern-ing the process of Delimitation. The Assembly seats have been created and redrawn in con-formity with the dictates of the BJP govt thereby overlooking the convenience of the general masses.

The result was massive dis-enchantment and resentment brewing amongst the public particularly in the rural and remote areas.

“People’s aspirations have been thrown to the winds. 47

seats have been allocated for Kashmir against 43 for Jammu region. Not only that, several areas of Jammu region which had remained reserved for 27 years, since the last delimita-tion exercise of 1995, were again included in reserved constituen-cies thereby defeating the very objective behind rotation of seats at the time of every fresh delimitation. Moreover, several weird constituencies have been carved with gross irregularities in their territorial structure lack-ing justification, rationale and meaning”, stated Singh.

He rued that the viral con-servation between BJP’s State President and its Ex-Minister on social media had said it all. It has let the cat out of the bag, lampooned Harsh.

Pointing towards the rising public unrest, Singh said the fundamental basis of terrain, topography, facilities of com-munication and public conve-nience which ought to have been accorded primordial con-sideration were conventionally

ignored. “The imbalance in Parliament

was allowed to continue with a portion of Jammu region having been annexed with Anantnag Parliament seat of Kashmir. The inclusion of Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region in Anantnag constitu-ency has been the most obnox-ious and intriguing aspect of the delimitation exercise. It was a draconian attempt to break J&K on communal lines in confor-mity with the recommendations made in the nasty Dixon plan. While the BJP govt had assured parity in Parliamentary seats for Jammu and Kashmir regions, it ended up in a sabotage with secular Jammu region having been vertically divided on com-munal lines to sub serve the religion-political agenda of the secessionist forces”, said Singh.

He called upon the Delimita-tion Commission to withhold its sanctity and review its draft report to remove all the defects and anomalies which were anti-people, arbitrary and based on communal lines. “Restoration of democracy in J&K with robust public representation is the need of the hour. Any attempt to quell aspirations and wishes of the masses will have volca-nic repercussions”, Harsh cau-tioned.

Masood Andrabi (Vice Pres-ident-JKNPP), Maqbool Malik (General Secretary-JKNPP), Par-shotam Parihar (State Secretary-JKNPP) and Surinder Chouhan (District President Jammu Rural of JKNPP) were also present in the press conference.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: On

the eve of Guru Gyagi Jayanti, a Shobha Yatra was taken out peaceful-ly which was attended by a large number of devotees. The proces-sion, which started from Guru Gyagi temple Shahzadpur Kothi passed through

various villages of the Marh block including Smailpur, Maira Man-dlik, Akalpur, Sarora, Pouni Chack, Sari Rak-walan, Bhadrore, Dei Chack, Gho-Manhassan, Rathoa, Choana Chack, Phillore, Karloop, Klasse Chack, Makhyalan and Hire Chack Hymns in praise of Guru Gyagi

were sung by Bhajan Mandli all through the journey.

JMC Corporator Rach-pal Bhardwaj, DDC Member Balbir Lal, Municipal Councillor Krishan Lal, a number of Panchayat members and others attended a function held at Chatha Gujjran.

Top News ReportVIJAYPUR, Feb 14:

Apni Party Provincial President Jammu Manjit Singh on Monday paid rich tributes to the mar-tyrs of Pulwama attack here at Vijaypur in Samba District.

The programme was organized by the para-military personnel’s association at Vijaypur in which the sacrifices of the martyrs were remembered by the people and Manjit Singh was invited to the pro-gramme to pay homage to the brave hearts.

In his address, Manjit Singh remembered the contribution of the defence forces within and on the border to keep the country safe from the enemy and their continuous threat

to the peace.Expressing his sym-

pathy with the family members of the mar-tyred soldiers, he said that the sons who laid their lives for the defence of the country will be remembered till the existence of the world.

“We will never forget their sacrifices and we will teach our young

generation about the value of our defence forces and the soldiers who fight for the peace and prosperity of the country while putting their lives at the risk,” he added.

On this occasion, members of civil soci-ety and other people had also gathered to pay their respect to the martyrs.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: A score

of AamAadmi Party activ-ists assembled this morning at Maharaja Hari Singh statue opposite press club to protest in favor of unemployed dental surgeons raising slogans against the Government for not redress-ing their demands. Later police court arrested AAP leaders and dental surgeons and took them to police lines.

Before arrest speaking to the media persons AamAadmi Party Vice-President Rajesh Gupta said, “That the admin-

istration is totally collapsed everywhere in Jammu and Kashmir, you can see demon-strations everywhere around the city and people have lost faith in BJP government.

He said, “Government is humiliating the dental surgeons from last 13 years and continue to humiliate till date”.

AAP staged a peaceful protest demanding complete absorp-tion of unemployed dental youth, recruitment of dental surgeons on year basis and establishment of Directorate for Dental Health in the UT, Gupta,

said.AAP leader said that their

employment woes have not been addressed since 2008 when Government last officially advertised posts for inducement of dental surgeons in Health Department. “Since then thou-sands of dental surgeons are hopeless and jobless. The reason for this unemployment clearly follows a mismatch between supply and demand in health sector,” Gupta added.

Rajesh Gupta said, “the unem-ployed dental surgeons gave representation to the authori-ties time to time but nothing has been done till date for their welfare.

“Two years back with the help of Governor Satyapal Malik and his Advisor Vijay Kumar, they were finally able to puttheir demands rightly and officers were told to work on creating new posts for dental surgeons in the State but that file is gather-ing dust in Finance department for last three years,” he added.

AAP threatened to stage a mass agitation in favour of all unemployed youths If their demands are not fulfilled.

The prominent AAP leaders those were present in protest and arrested by police were Ravi Shastri, Parmveer Singh, Harpreet Singh,Rajinder Singh ChibDysp (Retd.) and Anita Nagotra Media Secretary.

It is very unfortunate that still administration is busy in their luxurious AC offices and does not show any kind of attention towards genuine demands of unemployed dental surgeon who are suffering on roads. After the abolition of 370 and 35A we are not getting permis-sion of peaceful rally which is our right. This deaf administra-tion brings the doctors {so called cream of society) on roads,” the statement reads.

“We request Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, to provide oppor-tunity by listening to the request and give us an appointment, it will take hardly 10 minutes,” they said.

Shoba Yatra taken out on eve of Guru Gyagi Jayanti

Manjit Singh pays homage to martyrs of Pulwama attack

‘Delimitation report being prepared and modified in BJP office’

BJP leaders’ viral telephonic conversation has spilled beans: Harsh

AAP holds protest in favor of unemployed dental surgeons

BJP failed to deliver on its promises made with border people during elections: Tony

Starts development works in border villages of Suchetgarh

4 OP-ED Top News of J&K

Jammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

By: Kishwar Desai

How many of us have left our laptops and iPads in taxis or at

airports or at random places and then hoped madly that they would miraculously be returned?It is highly unlikely of

course, but it did happen to us. While taking a taxi one day, Meghnad found he had come home without his pre-cious iPad which has many books and ideas loaded onto it, none of which were saved anywhere.So there was sorrow and

consternation all around. But surprisingly, he was optimis-tic. This is because of the leg-endary honesty of the “Black Cab” driver in London. If the black cab driver had found it, said Meghnad confidently, he will definitely return it. However, when nothing hap-pened for a few days — we had no choice than to head for an Apple store to buy a new iPad. As luck would have it, before we reached the store a message came from the driver — he had managed to track Meghnad down and sent his number with a note that he had left the iPad at Charing Cross police station and we should rush there to pick it up, otherwise it would go into the lost and found department somewhere else entirely.Thrilled beyond belief, we

headed for the station, and

found the system of collection of lost property very orderly and neat. The officer on duty immediately found the iPad, neatly sealed in a plastic bag, and handed it over to Megh-nad.There is also a fixed system

of rewards which the officer told us about — and we gave a small “reward” to the taxi driver who will receive it in the proper fashion. (You are not permitted to give large rewards through this system.) Because people leave things so frequently in London black cabs, the methodology is very smoothly implemented.Having the books and ideas

stored in the iPad back again, obviously means the world to any author. And so Meghnad wanted to express his grati-tude to the cab driver in some other way as well. He has, therefore, invited the driver and his wife to the House of Lords for lunch! All is well that ends well!Meanwhile, delivering the

keynote address on the global summit for “Re-imagining Museums in India “ for the ministry of culture (Govern-ment of India) has had its ben-efits for me. The most impor-tant being that I felt I must go out now, post Covid, and see how museums are managing. While there are some wonder-ful exhibitions ongoing such as on Beatrix Potter and her works, I could not but help being drawn to the Van Gogh

virtual museum or exhibition which has been winning acco-lades everywhere. Set in over 20,000 square feet — it has 360 views of the artist’s paintings — with virtual reality giving you a fabulous immersive experience. You feel the sky is raining sunflowers — and all the paintings miraculous-ly seem alive. It is a fascinat-ing exhibition and more so because it gives us an entirely different perspective of the artist’s works. Re-imagined museums should also have re-imagined exhibits. There is no point having digital dis-plays if they do not add to the viewer experience……And the strangest thing

happened to the police com-missioner of the legendary Metropolitan Police Force. Having started this column with a positive story of how the police service can work, let me end it with a negative note. The head of the police force Dame Cressida Dick repre-sented many things: she was a woman and she was gay. There was a lot of hope when she was appointed commis-sioner in 2017. It was thought that many aspects of the doughty Scotland Yard, once the pinnacle of profession-alism, would improve. But unfortunately she resigned because she was accused of, strangely, not being able to rid of sexism, racism and homophobia within the police force — and especially at the

Charing Cross police station about whom I have written such glowing words above.The mayor of London, Sadiq

Khan had left her with little option than to quit, when he put her on notice to change things around within weeks, which of course is impossible in such a large force.The home secretary, Priti

Patel, was none too pleased at the sudden departure of the top cop, but she had no choice.And for many of us, it was a

peculiar drama — because on the one side you had a mayor of Pakistani origin and and, on the other, a home secretary of Indian origin ultimately sacking a white British head of police. It is astonishing how the balance of power has shifted!But it was also a sad moment,

because if a woman cannot get rid of misogyny within a police force who can ulti-mately do so?However, Dame Cressida

has stayed on till she can conclude the ongoing “Par-tygate” investigation!And yes, Boris Johnson,

the Prime Minister, is still at Number 10 Downing Street, but has been handed a list of questions to answer by the Metropolitan police. And of course, if the Ukraine-Russia war breaks out — many say the PM may have got away again!

By: Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

By virtue of being a voter in Uttar Pradesh, a handbill was delivered along with

the day’s newspapers. It was, from the BJP’s nominee, a sitting MLA who won with one of the largest vote mar-gins in 2017. No rival has undertaken this exercise yet, indicating either that they have given up the fight, or pre-sumed that our middle-class locality is unlikely to vote for them. Despite being the incumbent, the “marketing” flier with the BJP candidate’s gloat-filled and photo-shopped picture pri-oritised serving a reminder to voters of the “before 2017” era and not the “after 2017” section. It mirrored the inces-sant “before 2014” refrain of the BJP’s un-harmonic orchestra conducted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with teleprompters in front. The difference being that while the party’s national campaign stresses on the previous seven decades or so as being a period of zero or insignificant achievement, this BJP aspirant’s handout depicts the years before 2017 as when law-lessness was rampant and hooligans stealthily pounced on sisters-daugh-ters, traders and anyone seeking their legal entitlements. The 15-point list of blemishes of the pre-BJP period, (essentially under the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party) is aimed at reminding people of the “horror shows” previously, while the post-March 2017 phase is depicted as an era of golden contrasts. Women and girls are “not scared now, but offend-ers are the ones looking for avenues to slink away”. While the idol of Ram Lalla was beneath a tent previously, a grand temple for the deity is coming up now. Previously, our district had a Haj House to enable the Haj-bound to stay while completing last-minute pro-

cedures before emplaning for Saudi Arabia. To be one up on them and to match such “appeasement”, the BJP government has constructed a lavish Kailash Mansarover Bhavan, despite the fact that the pilgrimage is unlikely this year too after the Covid-19 pan-demic led to the yatra’s cancellation from 2020 onwards.

In the leaflet, of the listed “achieve-ments”, most are in the sphere of religious (cultural) counter-balancing actions: floral showers on Kanwar Yatras in place of bans, Deepotsav in Ayodhya and the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj as against the Saifai Mahot-sav, official Navratri celebrations and not Iftar parties and finally bhajans over loudspeakers every morning and evening in place of the ban previ-ously. The next largest cluster of the failures-successes juxtapositions are in the realm of crime, criminals and criminality, where the dog-whistle links them to Muslims and their asso-ciates — official protection for goondas replaced with a tenure when they were on the run and instead of cases against the criminals being withdrawn by the government, and their properties are being “bulldozed”.

The development spiel finds little mention in the pamphlet, but even the three “feats” listed are conten-tious. Like, for instance, the claim that potholed roads have been replaced by expressways, flyovers and elevated corridors. As a resident of UP, I can testify that the quality of roads, by and large, remain the same. Likewise, many flyovers and the 10 km-plus elevated corridor in the district were started during the “dark” days.

The BJP candidate did not seek votes on the basis of improving people’s livelihood and for efficient tackling of the health and economic crises trig-gered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The poll plank of the BJP candidate in our constituency has a continuing narrative in the party’s manifesto and epitomises the party’s thrust in trying to retain the state, that is considered by most as central to the Prime Minis-ter’s campaign for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024. From the time the party’s three major flag-bearers — Narendra Modi, Union home minis-ter, Amit Shah and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath — blew the bugle in autumn last year, the emphasis was on reminding voters of the alleged crim-inals-Muslims-Yadavs-police nexus. Earlier too, several law-and-order measures, for instance the formation of “anti-Romeo squads” and calls for “thok do” (shoot) had a clear majori-tarian orientation.

When the BJP made its political advent in Uttar Pradesh, in the 1980s and 1990s, the articulate leadership then coined the idea of reverse polari-sation in seats where Muslims were present in large numbers. By claiming they were consolidating against the BJP, unabashedly presented as being committed to furthering Hindu inter-ests, its leaders beseeched the com-munity to line up behind the party en masse to demonstrate the might of “awakened” Hindus. Going one step forward, by juxtaposing the Haj House with Kailash Mansarovar Bhavan and Iftar parties with official Navratri cel-ebrations, the BJP has graduated to reverse-appeasement.

From when the trishul or trident became the symbol of demonstrat-ing Hindu assertiveness in the course of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, the BJP’s political campaign has been multi-pronged. However, the central prong has been always to poke at pre-existing religious prejudice of Hindus against Muslims, convert this into fear and eventually electorally harness this

sentiment to the BJP’s favour. It is the consistent strategy of fostering hatred that has resulted in the dangerous situ-ation of proverbially spawning a thou-sand Nathuram Godse-like characters.

Despite showcasing the state police force’s purported “efficiency”, the attack on AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is a pointer to a grave threat to India’s internal security. The state-ments of the accused point to the emerging gun-culture with a majori-tarian thrust in the country and the absence of widespread condemna-tion from the BJP leadership will only encourage more Sachin Sharmas and Shubhams to express their rage and fury at provocative statements by lead-ers like Mr Owaisi, not with words or action but by emptying a few rounds of bullets.

The absence of remorse from any senior BJP leaders, even before the hate speeches at the so-called Dharam Sansad faded from public memory, is a marker to the thin ice that we are all walking on.

That hate begets hate is a truism but the BJP leadership has consistently looked the other way. With the stakes high in UP for being part of the first round of polls after the ferocity of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of governance during last year’s second wave and the incapacity of the Central and state governments to put the per-sonal economies of devastated citizens back on track, the rest of the campaign will be indicative of the inter-commu-nity relationship in future. Going by the pamphlet that came along with the day’s news, the portents are not encouraging, but one hopes good sense prevails on the BJP leadership and they douse the raging flame they have stoked in millions of hearts.

A student once asked his master, “Give me a wise practice…a kind of spiritual discipline that I

can follow every day.” The master sug-gested he sweep the floor, wash the dishes, and dust the house. The student wondered loudly how such an unusu-al advice could be a wise practice.The master replied, “When you

sweep the floor, your body might be sweeping, but your mind is usu-ally miles away. In the same way, when you wash the dishes or dust the house, your mind is miles away from your actions. Learning to inte-grate your mind, heart, and actions is a wise practice. So, try perform-ing the tasks with complete focus.”Have you observed this in your daily

life as well? You will notice that you are physically at office and doing some work, but your mind is wandering everywhere. When you work or do any-thing from such a space, your action is not backed by your mind or heart, and you end up feeling incomplete.When we experience incomplete-

ness at work or home, we usually think the reason is the situation in hand. But this is not so. Lack of inte-gration of mind and heart is usually the reason we feel like that. We get stressed at work, not because of the work itself, but because we are not being completely present[AS1] to what we do. When we learn to be fully present, then there is fullness in one’s action. It is this fullness that gives us joy, for joy is fullness. This is not learned by reading books but by deep observation. This learning is a beautiful gift we can give ourselves.Rather than expect answers from

others in life, we should observe and learn. The answers we get from others are borrowed answers which will not help us. The answers we get from others are only information, and infor-mation is not transformation. When we observe and see for ourselves, we get insights that lead to transformation.When we observe ourselves, we

realize we are a bundle of reactions to the past or are always dreaming of the future. We are a bundle of upsets and hurts. This chaotic inner state, results in emptiness which we then try to escape from. Our life is thus a story of escaping from our inner emptiness. We escape through pleasure, through entertain-ment, through drinks, sex, etc. Plea-sure has a place in life, but pleasure cannot remove our inner incompletion.Our mind is always seeking some-

thing. It is a victim of the past and feels incomplete because of the past. This incompleteness gives rise to unhap-piness. Such a mind then dreams of a future it hopes will bring happiness. The mind always oscillates from the past to the future and misses the pres-ent. But actually, life is in the pres-ent. Until the mind realizes that the present is life, present is joy, present is happiness, it will always wander.We have to learn to change old habits

that do not help us anymore. We have to learn to observe our emptiness and our incompleteness, to end it. We have to trade our old unwise past for a wise ‘present. ‘When we learn to do that, our life becomes a journey of joy and bliss.

EDITORIAL

Will BJP’s ‘before’ & ‘after’ 2017 line deliver UP 2022?

Cabbie returns Meghnad ‘ideas’; sexism finally claims Cressida

GIFT TO ONESELF

5LOCALTop News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: A

composite cultural meet for language promotion was held at Press Club Jammu under the direc-tion of National Sahiye Awardee Krishan Lal Sharma.

Dr. Dogra Harish Kaila President & Yashpal Yash Secretary of Nami Dogri Sanstha (NDS) attended the interactive meeting on behalf of the organisation.

The meeting started with extending greet-ings to Jammu star, writer/singer/ compos-er/ actor Surinder Safal whose 3 hit videos viz., Jai Jai Kar, Koum Singha De, Tere Naal Akh Lad

Gayi being telecasted on PTC Punjabi Mh1 and PTC Chak De .

During interaction various points with regard to art, culture & Languages came up wherein good sugges-tions were accepted for further promotion of art and culture Languages.

Sharma stressed upon promotion of Dogri lan-guage and suggested to bring up qualitative tracks in future. He said Nami Dogri Sanstha can play decisive role for the same.

Dr. Kaila shared his experience of his music line and said that NDS tirelessly giving online literary services during COVID pandemic.

Some technical points regarding quality of writing were suggest-ed by composer Yashpal Yash.

Safal discussed his future plans before team. He said that Safal Music Productions is going to play it’s valu-able role in the society for promotion of local culture and language.

Rampaul Dogra also suggested to work in close coordination between all literary and cultural organizations in J&K UT.

It was unanimous-ly resolved to work together and to produce a quality work, accept-able in the society.

Top News ReportDODA, Feb 14: 07 Bn SSB

organised vocational training on mobile repairing with effect from February 7 to 14, 2022 for youths belonging to far flung areas of Doda.

The training was organised by 07 Bn SSB under Civic Action Programme in affiliation with National Institute of Electron-ics and Telecommunications, Jammu and Kashmir.

In the vocational training, total 25 youths participated where they learnt about the basics of mobile repairing. The training was organised with the objec-

tive of developing skills among local youths & to make them self dependent.

On the closing ceremony of the vocational training was organ-ised at B Coy, SSB Khilani which was presided by Shiv Dayal, Commandant, 07 Bn SSB.

During the ceremony Shiv Dayal, Commandant, 07 Bn acquaint participants about the Motto of the Sashastra Seema Bal i.e Seva, Suraksha and Band-hutwa and the initiatives being taken by SSB in J&K. He told all participants that Civic Action programmes are envisaged as initiative to act as a bridge between Security forces and

local people. These programmes are

instrumental in meeting spe-cific requirement of the people belonging the far flung areas.

He thoroughly interacted with the trainees of the vocational course. He conveyed his best wishes to trainees and moti-vated them to continue their studies to achieve high in life. Besides, he advised youths to keep on horning their skills in order to stay self reliant in future. Trainees also expressed their thanks to 07 Bn SSB for regularly organising Civic action programmes in the Doda region through which general

population is being benefitted in Doda. Local Dignitaries present on the occasion also applauded various efforts taken by SSB like Bharat Darshan Tours, Medi-cines distributions, Skill devel-opment Courses, Distribution of articles to schools etc for the welfare of local population. Fur-ther Course Completion Cer-tificates were distributed to the Trainees by Commandant and Closing ceremony of the voca-tional course was concluded with a vote of thanks by Jag-dish Bhat, Assistant Comman-dant, B Coy, Khillani and Vipan Sharma, DC was also present on the closing ceremony.

Top News ReportKUPWARA, Feb 14:

A Medical camp was organized by Indian Army and Civ Admin-istration in Tarathpora as a unique gesture to alleviate hardships of local populace from remote areas of North Kashmir’s Ramhall and Tarathpora Block of kupwara district.

Vilgam Army Camp of

Indian Army and Civil administration came together with shared resources to conduct a medical camp for local people.

The camp was orga-nized at Tarathpora Panchayat Ghar where-in 03 Medical Officers and 01 Dental Officer from Army, 01 Gynae-cologist, 01 Orthopedic Specialist, 01 Pediatri-cian and 01 Medical

Specialist from Civil Health Department worked tirelessly on 14 Feb 2022 to provide medical support to 362 patients including 103 males, 197 females and 62 children.

Besides routine medi-cal checkup, special emphasis was laid on screening people in vul-nerable age groups for life style diseases.

Besides medical con-sultations from the spe-cialist and check-ups, medicines were also provided to the people free of cost. Specialist advise and awareness drive on COVID, AIDS, Family planning, Dental care and immunisation was also imparted.

Community leaders expressed their satisfac-tion and happiness over an initiative taken by Indian Army and Civil Administration.

Top News ReportKUPWARA, Feb

14: The Indian army organized talent hunt competition (painting, singing and dancing) for children at Warsun in Kupwara District of North Kashmir.

The event was organ-ised jointly by 160 TA and 17 JAKRIF on Monday.

54 children includ-ing 34 boys & 20 girls between ages 9-14 years from five schools of Warsun participated in the event.

The objective of the talent hunt was to pro-vide a platform for the young students and encourage them to

showcase their talents in painting, singing and dancing.

Ab Rashid Baigh, Gh Mohd Line, Mohd Ashraf Malik and Shabir Ahmad Pir judged the performances along with Abdul Ahad Lone ZEO Kralpora who graced the occasion as Chief Guest along with officials from 160 TA and 17 JAK RIF.

This was a first-of-a-kind event for the chil-dren from these remote regions.

The participants thanked the organizers and Indian Army for their continued support and for promoting the young talented youth of Kupwara.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Apni

Party Provincial Presi-dent President Women Wing Jammu Namrta Sharma has accused Jammu Municipal Cor-poration adopting a selective approach with regard to development in the wards falling in Gandhi Nagar assembly constituency.

Addressing a public meeting at Bahu Fort area in which many people joined Apni Party; Namrta said that the development has taken back stage due to poor performance of officials in JMC as they have adopted a selec-tive approach which is highly condemnable.

“The BJP is control-ling the working of JMC and the officials are not ready to listen to the public grievances from the wards which has made Corporators help-less,” alleged Namrta.

During her interac-tion with the people in the meeting, Namrta said that “The basic amenities are lacking with absence of proper drainage system, clean

drinking water, round the clock electricity and other required things. The BJP has adopted a biased approach. To end this approach and the feeling of hopeless-ness, the Govt should hold assembly polls in J&K as early as possible besides restoring the Statehood.”

Namrta said that the downgrading of the state has adverse impact on the ground level.

“No one listens to the people and the officials are not answerable to anyone. An elected Govt is responsible to the people and there-fore, the assembly elec-tions are a must,” added Namrta.

Namrta said that the JMC which is acting on the directions of BJP should not discrimi-nate against the people and work towards the upgradation of the basic amenities.

Namrta also ques-tioned the Smart City project which has yet to take off as the process is at snail pace.

Meanwhile, JKNPP youth leader Rahul Dalot alongwith his

supporters joined Apni Party in presence of Namrta Sharma and other leaders of the Party.

Prominent among those who were present on the occasion include Provincial Secretary, Shanker Singh Chib, State Secretary Youth Wing, Partap Singh Jamwal, Senior Vice President Women Wing Jammu Paveet Kour and Vice President Jyoti Vaid, Provincial Sec-retary Meenu Sharma, Provincial Secretary Ritu Pandita, Senior Vice President Minori-ties Janmeet Singh, senior youth leader, Bhanu Partap Singh Goria and others.

On this occasion, Shanker Singh Chib was also concerned about the worsening condition of basic amenities in his address.

Besides, Youth Wing State Secretary, Partap Singh Jamwal referred to the youth issues and assured that Apni Party will leave no stone unturned to address the concerns of the youth in Jammu.

Top News ReportSRINAGAR, Feb

14: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar’s ‘Semico-lon Coding Club’ on Monday organized a coding completion titled ‘CODEVITA’ aiming to promote out of the box thinking, analytical thinking among stu-dents.

The event was held in a virtual mode in which more than 150 par-ticipants participated. The competition was divided into two rounds including the aptitude round and the coding round. Participants who qualified for the first round proceeded to the next and final round.

During the event, the participants were given twenty minutes for the aptitude round which consisted of 15 ques-tions and one hour fif-teen minutes to solve

three coding problems. In his message, Direc-

tor NIT Srinagar, Prof (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal said the event was aimed to enhance the knowledge of the participants and promote out-of-the-box thinking, analytical thinking among stu-dents.

Registrar NIT, Prof Kaiser Bukhari appreci-ated the organizers for organizing an event on a relevant theme and stated that such topics are the need of the hour for the all-round devel-opment of the students.

Three winners were declared at the end of the competition; the first position was bagged by Vikram Kangotra, from Computer Sci-ence B.Tech Ist year, the second position by Rahul Kumar, from Electronics and Com-munication B. Tech III year and similarly third position was bagged

by Navneet Khar from Information Technol-ogy.

Later the winners were awarded certificates. The event was man-aged by Sanna Showkat, Ishika Gupta, Rishabh Kumar Gaud, and Kri-tika Sharma, 3rd-year B.Tech undergraduates from NIT Srinagar.

On the occasion, Sanna Showkat said the ques-tions of the event were designed to challenge the students and pro-mote analytical think-ing among participants. The event was conduct-ed with an aim to pro-mote students to take up coding and make them ready for coding competitions for future placements, she said.

While a formal vote of thanks was presented by Ishika Gupta. She thanked all participants for making the event a grand success.

Top News ReportRAMGARH, Feb 14:

The focus of the BJP led Government at the Centre is development of Jammu and Kashmir and whatever is being carried out in the Union Territory is simply to realize this one point agenda.

This was stated by DDC Member Ramgarh, Sarabjit Singh Johal while dedicating the newly constructed lane and drain work to the people of Village Kralia of Chak Slaria of Ramghar Block in Vijay-pur.

The DDC member said that whatever the BJP government is doing in J&K is for its one point agenda of unprecedented devel-opment and to provide vistas of opportunities to the people to pros-per and strive for good fortune unlike the lead-ers of Kashmir-based regional political outfits who always focused on

their own development and have raised proper-ties across J&K. He said that every step taken by the BJP government is solely meant for the betterment of the people of J&K as the party believes in Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.

Sarabjit Singh Johal also welcomed the ini-tiatives taken by UT administration and Central dispensation for drastically changing the development profile of the UT of J&K through various unprecedented measures. He asserted that Bharatiya Janata Party believes in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas and Sabka Vishwas’ as a result of which the party has been progressing by leaps and bounds with each passing day.

The DDC member said that it is the per-formance of the party and its government on ground especially in terms of development that speaks for itself. He said that while the gov-

ernment stands com-mitted to overall devel-opment of every area especially in Jammu and Kashmir it is necessary that people also ensure proactive participa-tion by monitoring the works especially the quality of material used in the developmental works.

Johal said that Jammu and Kashmir is on the path of unprecedented development under the visionary leader-ship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and appealed to the people of Ramgarh Block to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi by extend-ing full support to the Party in the forthcom-ing Assembly elections in the Union Territory.

Among those who were present include Naib Sarpanch Sunil Choudhary, Yuva Mandal President, Gur-meet Bhangara, Pamma Choudhary and Harb-hajan Singh.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Febru-

ary 14: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today felicitated young Chess Champion Ms Arushi Kotwal at Raj Bhavan.

The Lt Governor congratu-lated Ms Kotwal for bringing laurels to Jammu and Kashmir by winning several national and international awards in Chess.

Ms Arushi Kotwal who aspires to be a Grand Master was recently conferred with Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for her achievements in Chess Championships.

While interacting with Ms Kotwal, the Lt Governor gave his best wishes for her

upcoming Chess competitions and assured her all possible assistance from the Sports

department of the UT admin-istration.

Ms Arushi was accompanied

by her father and her sister. She hails from Bhaderwah area of District Doda.

Later, Mohd. Rafiq Balote, BDC Chairperson, Uri also called on the Lt Governor and projected various issues per-taining to the development of tourists sites in Uri area.

While interacting with the BDC Chairperson, the Lt Gov-ernor said that the UT Govern-ment is giving dedicated focus on exploring full potential of J&K’s tourism by developing various tourist circuits and identifying new, unexplored tourist spots.

The Lt Governor assured that the issues projected during the interaction would be taken up for consideration.

Lt Governor felicitates young Chess Champion Arushi Kotwal

JMC adopts selective approach in developmental activities: Namrta Sharma

JKNPP youth leader among many join Apni Party

‘Development’ one point agenda of BJP in J&K: Johal

Army organizes talent hunt for children at Warsun

Composite cultural interactive meet organised

07 Bn SSB Bn organizes vocational training on mobile repairing for Youth

Medical camp organised at Tarathpora, Vilgam

‘Semicolon Coding Club’ organizes ‘CODEVITA’ at NIT Srinagar

Top News ReportAKHNOOR, Feb 14:

In ongoing Five T-20 Matches Series at Gov-ernment Higher Sec-ondary School Akhnoor Ground, today’s match was played between J&K Divyang Blue Team and J&K Divyang Red Team. The Toss was won by J&K Divyang Blue team and decided to bat first.

J&K Divyang Blue team scored 86 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Ved Prakash and Ashwani Kumar were the main scorers who remained not out at 27 and 12 runs respectively.

For J&K Divyang Red team, Ajeet Raj and Arun shared two wickets each and Deepak Chahal got one wicket.

In reply, J&K Divyang

Red team scored 87 runs for the loss of six wick-ets in 15.4 overs. Rahul Sharma and Tarsem Dogra scored 14 runs each while Vikas Sharma made 13.

For J&K Divyang Blue team, Tarsem Lal got four wickets and Ashwani got one wicket.

Tarsem Lal was judged man of the match for his performance.

Now J&K Divyang Red Team is leading series by 2-1. Nikhil Jamwal and Vijay Kumar were offi-cial umpires whereas Dev Bhagel was scorer.

The 5 matches T-20Series is being orga-nized by Divyang Cricket Control Board of India under the supervision of Sham Singh Langeh (Chairman J&K Divyang Cricket Association).

J&K Divyang Red beats Blue Team by 4 wkts to lead series by 2-1

6 ENTERTAINMENT Top News of J&K

Jammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

Shehnaaz Gill to join this Bigg Boss 13 contestant in Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Lock Upp’

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut is all set to host Ekta Kapoor’s fearless reality show ‘Lock Upp’. And Ever since the show has been announced, names of potential contestants have been doing the rounds.

As per the latest, Bigg Boss 13 finalist Sheh-naaz Gill is also likely to appear on the show. Shehnaaz, called the Punjab ki Katrina Kaif, became a household name with Bigg Boss 13.

Shehnaaz won many hearts on the reality show and was among the top 3 finalists. She recently appeared on Bigg Boss 15 finale and garnered praise from everyone including host Salman Khan who also danced with her.

Looks like she is ready to recreate her magic on a reality show but this time for the OTT space with ‘Lock Upp’.

We’ve heard Kangana say it in the trailer of ‘Lock Upp’ that she will put together 16 con-troversial celebrities in a lock up for months. Going by the latest reports on Bollywood Life, to make the show spicier and controver-sial, the makers are planning to add a few politicians in the show. Among them could be Shehnaaz Gill’s Bigg Boss 13 co-contestant Tehseen Poonawalla.

Being considered for ‘Lock Upp’, Poonawalla is a political and elec-tion analyst who never minces his words and he’s quite active on social media too.

A source close to the development told the portal, “They want political analysts as we know that such person-alities have the gift of the gab and can be fiery too. We can trust Ekta Kapoor to think out of the box.”

Earlier, a source told Bollywood Life that Shehnaaz was approached for a spot in the show and she had signed the dotted lines. “Shehnaaz Gill has been approached to be part of Kangana Ranaut’s Lock Upp and she even agreed to do it, Shehnaaz is right now going through the rough phase in life and he wants to stay away from the media glare and the world for a while and

this is the best opportu-nity for her. Also, Sheh-naaz has won millions of hearts and she will be one of the strongest contestants in the house and will definitely get some special power to be in the Lock Upp,” the source claimed.

As per the sources, well-known person-alities of entertainment industry and other fields will be seen on the show.

Few names includes Divyanka Tripathi, Manav Gohil, Hina Khan, Shweta Tiwari, Surbhi Jyoti, Urfi Javed, Aditya Singh Rajput, Mallika Sherawat, Anushka Sen, Avneet Kaur, Chetan Bhagat, Harsh Beniwal, Sheh-naaz Gill, Vir Das and others.

‘Lock Upp’ will be streaming from Febru-ary 27 on ALTBalaji and MX Player.

Salman Khan pays musical tribute to Lata Mangeshkar

The whole nation mourned as India’s Night i nga le Lata Mangeshkar took her last breath on Febru-ary 6.

Many celebrities paid a tribute to the legend-ary singer.

Now, on Saturday night, Salman Khan took to his social media account and shared a video of himself sing-

ing Lag Ja Gale, as he paid an emotional trib-ute to Lata.

In the video, one can see Salman humming the song as he casually stands in front of a por-trait of himself along with his dog.

Sharing the video, the actor wrote, “Never has been, never will be anyone like you Lata ji.”

On the professional

front, Salman is busy shooting for Tiger 3 with Katrina Kaif.

The film will also have a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan while Emraan Hashmi will be seen playing the role of the villain.

Also, Salman will be seen in Kabhie Eid Kabhie Diwali with Pooja Hegde.

Isha Koppikar will be taking time off her busy

schedule to engage in self-love this Valen-

tine’s Day. The actress believes it is a need that one tends to ignore easily. Isha says, “Self-love is a priority and this Valentine’s Day, I am going to do that. I have so many things and people to care for. If I am do not care for myself, I would not be able to help those I am accountable for.

One needs to love one-self first. We always care for others, but neglect our own well-being. There is no one else that we should be dependent on for that. I would try and do some detox, and just allow my energies to rejuvenate and reflect a bit.

Just being with oneself and spending time for-giving oneself can be a form of self-love. Let’s care for the community, but, first, we should be perfectly fine.”

Self-love is a priority, says actor Isha Koppikar

Actor Shruti Haasan has said the arrival of streaming platforms in the country have made South-Indian films more accessible to the Hindi-speaking audience, which was earlier served mostly dubbed versions of the popular content from the region. She said the pan-India market was mostly reserved for stars like Rajinikanth and her father, Kamal Haasan, with every-thing else never given an appropriate posi-tioning. According to Shruti Haasan, the geo-graphical and language barrier was first broken in a big way with S S Rajamouli’s two-part blockbuster Baahubali, which was followed by digital platforms that offered the audience a chance to watch films in

the original language.“Earlier, they would

take all the Telugu and Tamil films, dub them and put them on a par-ticular channel. People would watch it and say, ‘We love this South Indian actor’. For some reason, there was some apprehension to just put it in a box and market it. It was almost like these films were being sold on the discount shelf.

“People like my dad and Rajini sir, with their films like Dasa-vathaaram or Robot, were kept in a sepa-rate box, that ‘Oh they are legends’. But I saw a clear shift happen-ing with Baahubali and then with OTT.

When st reaming services came in and people were allowed to choose for themselves with subtitles, they pre-

ferred to watch those movies in the original language,” the actor said.

She said the renewed interest of the audi-ence in films from South India was purely because they “dictat-ed” it. The 36-year-old actor recalled how she was once shooting in Madhya Pradesh when a fan complimented her after watching her dubbed Telugu film. “So the Hindi audience has always been inter-ested in Telugu, Tamil or Kannada films. They have always enjoyed it. This is not some grand round table of the elite filmmakers who sat together and said ‘Let’s do this’. This is the audi-ences’ demand. Now, it’s like you can go to the store and select what you want,” she added.

Streaming platforms have made South-Indian films more accessible to Hindi-speaking

audience, says Shruti Haasan

Arjun Kapoor and Malaika Arora have been dating each other for a long time and the couple has been going strong with their rela-tionship. It has been a while since Arjun and Malaika had made their relationship public and ever since then they had thrown caution to the wind.

In fact, they are often seen painting the town red by their mushy romance. And while Arjun Kapoor admits being head over heels in love with Malaika, recently the Gunday star opened up on how the actress’ presence in his life has changed him as a person.

Talking about it during his conversation with the Hindustan Times, Arjun said, “Malaika has changed me as a person by allowing me to believe in myself even more. I’ve always been someone who believes in my own self, but she helped me do that even through my weakest moments. She’s always been there, making me realise that I’m worth it. She’s made me feel

that phases will pass, and these are important times when you’re going through a tricky situ-ation in your personal and professional life. If I’ve to describe my rela-tionship with Malaika — we’re friends, we can talk about everything, we confide in each other about a lot of things that have allowed us to make decisions — big and small ones. And I think friendship is the key for any relationship to last”.

Spilling beans about their plans for Valen-tine’s Day, Arjun stated that they believe in this day and make sure to celebrate it in a special way. “We always make sure we take our time for each other and make the most of this day. In our relationship, we’ve always tried to cher-ish every small, big moment and Valentine’s Day is always special for us because we try to do something unique and catch each other by sur-prise. I love surprising her and I think today also, there’ll be a sur-prise or two planned,” he added.

Arjun Kapoor on how Malaika Arora’s presence changed him as a person: She

made me realise that I’m worth it

Kajal Aggarwal got married to Gautam Kitchlu, an entrepre-neur, in 2020. Ever since then, the couple has been posting ador-able photos that speak volumes about their strong relationship. On Valentine’s Day, Kajal has posted another

romantic photo with husband Gautam and also revealed that they are together since 2012.

Sharing their latest photo from the Dubai trip, Kajal captioned, “Bugging this cutie since 2012! Happy V day, everyday.” All these years, Kajal suc-

cessfully managed to keep her relationship away from the media glare. It was only during the pandemic they decided to take their relationship to the next level after knowing each other for a decade almost.

Meanwhile, On Janu-ary 2, Gautam Kitchlu shared a stunning photo of his wife Kajal Aggarwal and con-firmed her pregnancy. The couple is all set to welcome their first child in a couple of months.

On the work front, Kajal will be seen in Chiranjeevi starrer Acharya. Directed by Siva Koratala, the film also stars Ram Charan and Pooja Hegde and will hit big screens on April 1.

Besides Acharya, she also has Dulquer Salmaan, Aditi Rao Hydari co-starrer Hey Sinamika. The much-awaited Tamil film was scheduled to release on February 25 but has now been postponed to March 3.

On Valentine’s Day 2022, Kajal Aggarwal shares a secret of her love story with Gautam Kitchlu

7Top News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022 NATIONAL

SRIHARIKOTA, Feb 14 (Agencies): Marking the first launch mission of the year 2022, Indian Space Research Organ-isation’s earth observa-tion satellite EOS-04 and two small satel-lites were successfully placed into the intended orbit by the PSLV-C52 rocket on Monday, a feat described by the ISRO as a “marvellous accomplishment”.

The space agency’s workhorse launch vehicle, PSLV, placed the three satellites into the intended orbit, after blasting off at 5.59 am from here amid dark, early morning skies.

After a flight of about 19 minutes, the vehicle injected the satellites into its intended orbit, drawing instant cheers and applause from the scientists who were closely monitoring the year’s maiden mission. ISRO, in a tweet, said EOS-04 was placed into an intended sun syn-chronous polar orbit of 529 km altitude at 6.17 am.

After first injecting EOS-04, the two small satellites INSPIREsat-1

and INS-2TD were also put into their orbits respectively.

“The mission of PSLV-C52/EOS-04 has been successfully accom-plished. The primary satellite EOS-04 has been put into a very precise orbit by PSLV-C52, and along with that, co-passenger sat-ellites INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD also have been placed into right orbit,” ISRO Chairman S Som-anath said after the suc-cessful launch.

Incidentally, today’s launch also happens to be the first mission after Somanath took over as the Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission, recently.

Thanking everyone for making the mission possible, he said, “This spacecraft is going to be one of the biggest assets for us to serve the coun-try.”

Mission Director SR Biju said “what we have accomplished today is really marvellous”.

Earlier, the 25.30-hour countdown for today’s launch had commenced at 04.29 am on Sunday.

EOS-04, weighing 1,710 kg and with a mis-sion life of 10 years, is a Radar Imaging Satel-lite designed to provide high quality images under all weather con-ditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry and planta-tions, soil moisture and hydrology and flood mapping.

INSPIREsat-1 is from Indian Institute of Space Science and Tech-nology (IIST) in associa-tion with Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at University of Colorado Boulder, while INS-2TD is a technology demonstra-tor satellite from ISRO. This is a precursor to the India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B).

Two scientific pay-loads on INSPIREsat-1, with a mass of 8.1 kg and mission life of one year, are aimed at improving the under-standing of ionosphere dynamics and the sun’s coronal heating pro-cesses.

INS-2TD, with a mass of 17.5 kg, has a mission life of six months.

Having a thermal imaging camera as its payload, the satellite benefits the assessment of land surface tem-perature, water surface temperature of wetland or lakes, delineation of vegetation (crops and forest) and thermal inertia (day and night).

Monday’s was the 54th flight of PSLV and 23rd mission using PSLV-XL configuration with six PSOM-XLs (strap-on motors).

PSLV-C52 successfully launches earth observation

and 2 small satellitesNEW DELHI, Feb 14

(Agencies): Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi on Monday paid homage to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who lost their lives in a terrorist attack on their convoy in Pulwama in 2019, and said their bravery and supreme sacrifice motivate every Indian to work towards a strong and prosperous country.

In the attack by Paki-stan-sponsored terror-ists in the south Kash-mir district, 40 CRPF personnel made the

supreme sacrifice.In a retaliatory strike,

the Indian Air Force had carried out an airstrike in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26, 2019, tar-geting terrorist camps.

Modi tweeted, “I pay homage to all those martyred in Pulwama on this day in 2019 and recall their outstanding service to our nation. Their bravery and supreme sacrifice moti-vates every Indian to work towards a strong and prosperous coun-try.”

PM Narendra Modi pays homage to Pulwama attack victimsIn the attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in the south Kashmir district, 40 CRPF

personnel made the supreme sacrifice

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Agencies): The Centre is all set to ban 54 Chi-nese mobile applications which are posing threat to national security, the sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Monday.

According to sources, the Ministry of Elec-tronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has identified these applica-tions which belong to major Chinese tech com-panies like Tencent, Ali-baba and NetEase and the applications include such as Sweet Selfie HD, Beauty Camera - Selfie Camera, Equalizer & Bass Booster, Tencent

Xriver, ect.The sources also said

that many of these applications are refur-bished versions of apps already banned by India in 2020.

The latest move could be a fallout of the cur-rent standoff between India and China locked in a protracted border dispute.

This is the first lot of apps to be banned by the government this year after a total of 270 apps were banned since 2020.

The MeitY had banned 59 Chinese apps in June 2020 referring to them as being ‘prejudicial’

to India’s sovereignty, integrity and national security. The list includ-ed the popular smart-phone app TikTok, Helo, WeChat, Kwai, Clash of Kings, Alibaba’s UC Browser and UC News, Likee, Bigo Live, Shein, Club Factory, and Cam Scanner besides others.

Recently, the Informa-tion and Broadcasting Ministry on Febru-ary 10 informed the Rajya Sabha that it had blocked 60 Pakistan backed YouTube Chan-nels which were circu-lating fake news against the Government.

Replying to ques-tion on actions taken

against fake news and propaganda by the com-munication agencies, the Minister of State for Information and Broad-casting Dr L. Murugan informed the Upper House that the gov-ernment has blocked 60 YouTube channels

including their all social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram of those channels which were involved in circulat-ing fake news against the Indian government and were backed by Pakistan.

Govt to ban 54 Chinese apps posing threat to national security

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Agencies): The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Madras High Court’s order for a CBI probe into Lavanya sui-cide case.

The top court said the CBI probe would go on.

It asked the Tamil Nadu government not to make it a prestige issue and hand over all papers to the CBI.

The agency also needs

to probe the allegations of forced conversion.

The top court issued a notice on the Tamil

Nadu DGP’s petition challenging the High Court order for a CBI probe.

Supreme Court refuses to stay Madras High Court order for CBI probe into Lavanya suicide case

KOLKATA, Feb 14 (Agencies): The Tri-namool Cong ress Monday made a clean sweep in the civic polls to four municipal corporations in West Bengal—Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Chandernago-re and Asansol—as per data available on the State Election Commis-sion’s website.

The TMC retained Bidhannagar by win-ning 39 out of 41 seats, but opposition BJP and the CPI(M) failed to open their account. The Congress managed to bag one seat, and an Independent candidate secured victory in one ward.

In Chandernagore, the TMC bagged 31 of the 32

seats, while the CPI(M) won in one ward.

However, the icing on the cake for the ruling party was snatching the Siliguri Municipal Cor-poration (SMC) from the CPI(M)-led Left Front, where the TMC pock-

eted 37 out of 47 seats.The BJP got the oppo-

sition status by clinch-ing five seats, whereas the Left was relegated to the third position as it managed to win only four seats, and the Congress one, accord-

ing to the SEC data. The TMC’s vote share in Siliguri was 78.72 per cent, while the BJP and CPI(M) managed 10.64 per cent and 8.5 per cent of the votes polled, respectively.

An elated West Bengal

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that party leader Gautam Deb, who won by a margin of 3,000 votes, would be the next mayor of SMC. In Asan-sol, the TMC emerged victorious in 66 of the 106 seats and was lead-ing in five wards, while the BJP won in five seats, and the CPI(M) and Congress in two each. Banerjee thanked people for her party’s “thumping win” in the civic polls, calling it a victory of the masses.

Elections to the four municipal corpora-tions, where a total of 953 candidates were in fray, were held on Feb-ruary 12.

TMC makes a clean sweep in civic body polls in West Bengal

SITAPUR (UP), Feb 14 (Agencies): At least four people were killed when a jeep and a car collided head-on in Mehmoodabad area of Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district on Monday.

“The deceased have been identified as Surjit Yadav, 24, Ajit Kumar Singh, 35, Kamla, 13, and Seema Singh, 35,” said Superintendent of Police (SP) in Sitapur, R.P. Singh, who reached the spot to supervise the probe.

According to the police, Surjit, resi-dent of Bhethra Madhav village, was

driving his jeep towards Mehmood-abad when it collided with the car going towards Sidhauli on Mehmood-abad-Sidhauli road.

The incident occurred near the Dhan-nipurwa village.

The passers-by informed the police. The SP said that both the vehicles were stuck in each other and it took a lot of effort to pull out the bodies from the mangled pieces.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.

4 killed after Jeep-car collision in Mehmoodabad area of Uttar

Pradesh’s Sitapur district

PALGHAR, Feb 14 (Agencies): A 48-year-old woman died after the family members of her daughter’s friend allegedly beat her up over a petty dispute here in Maharashtra, police said on Monday.

The woman’s 20-year-old daughter had posted a message on her WhatsApp status, which her friend thought was directed towards her and took offence to it, Boisar police station’s senior inspector Suresh Kadam said without divulging contents of the post.

On February 10, the other girl’s mother and siblings went to victim Lilavati Devi Prasad’s house in Shivaji Nagar and allegedly thrashed her and other members of her family, he said.

Prasad suffered serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital where she died the next day while undergo-ing treatment, the official said.

Her daughter told reporters on Sunday that her WhatsApp post was a general one and not directed towards her friend.

Based on her complaint, the police arrested the other girl’s mother and two more family members and registered a case against them under Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the official said.

The accused were produced before a local magistrate who remanded them in police custody till February 15, the police said.

Woman killed over 20-year-old daughter’s

WhatsApp status in Maharashtra

MUMBAI, Feb 14 (Agencies): Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said his party should not be threatened with the use of central agencies, and claimed some BJP leaders will be behind bars in the next few days.

Refusing to name the leaders he was referring to, Raut told reporters that he will disclose the same on Tuesday during a press conference at the Shiv Sena’s headquarters in Mumbai, where key party leaders will be present.

He also claimed that former state minister Anil Deshmukh, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case in November

last year, will be out of the jail soon.The BJP has in the past levelled alle-

gations of corruption against leaders of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) govern-ment in Maharashtra.

Raut said answers will be given to all the “false” allegations made against the Shiv Sena and the Thackeray family, and “dadagiri’ (bullying conduct) of the central agencies.

“Don’t threaten us with the use of central agencies. We are not going to get scared. Do whatever you want, I can’t be scared off,” he said.

“They keep saying this or that leader will go jail, next to the lockup of Anil Deshmukh. I think three-and-half people from the BJP will be in Anil Deshmukh’s lockup in the next few days and Deshmukh will be out,” Raut claimed.

“They” have lost sleep over it, the par-liamentarian said, adding that every-one knows what he is talking about.

Raut last week claimed he was approached by “certain people” to assist in toppling the MVA govern-ment.

Some BJP leaders will be behind bars in next few days,

claims Sena’s Sanjay Raut

8 INTERNATIONAL Top News of J&K

Jammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

US says Russia may create pretext to attack UkraineWA S H I N G T O N/

KYIV, Feb 14 (Agen-cies): Russia could invade Ukraine at any time and might create a surprise pretext for an attack, the United States said on Sunday, as it reaffirmed a pledge to defend “every inch” of NATO territory.

Russia has more than 1,00,000 troops massed near Ukraine, which is not part of the Atlantic military alliance, and Washington - while keeping open the dip-lomatic channels that have so far failed to ease the crisis - has repeat-edly said an invasion is imminent.

Moscow denies any such plans and has accused the West of “hysteria”.

German Chancel-lor Olaf Scholz, on the eve of a trip that takes him to Kyiv on Monday and Moscow for talks with President Vladi-mir Putin on Tuesday, called for Russia to de-escalate and warned of sanctions if Moscow did invade.

A German official said Berlin did not expect “concrete results “but diplomacy was impor-tant.

In Washington, Presi-dent Joe Biden’s Nation-al Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said an inva-sion could begin “any day now”.

“We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window,” Sul-livan told.

US officials said they could not confirm reports that US intelli-gence indicated Russia planned to invade on Wednesday.

Sullivan said Wash-ington would continue sharing what it learned with the world in order

to deny Moscow the chance to stage a sur-prise “false flag” opera-tion that could be a pre-text for an attack.

It would also “defend every inch of NATO ter-ritory ... and Russia we think fully understands that message,” Sullivan added in a separate CBS interview.

Biden spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday and they agreed on the impor-tance of continuing to pursue diplomacy and deterrence in response to Russia’s military build-up, the White House said after the call.

Zelenskiy’s office said he invited Biden to visit Ukraine soon. The White House declined to comment.

Agreeing with the US assessment that an invasion could happen “at any moment,” a British government spokesperson said Brit-ain was working on a package of military support and economic aid for Ukraine to be announced in coming days. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a trip to Europe later this week to build sup-port to end the standoff

with Russia.Biden told Putin in a

phone call on Saturday that the West would respond decisively to any invasion and such an attack would harm and isolate Moscow.

Ukrainian Defence M i n i s te r Olek s i i Reznikov said on Twit-ter that Kyiv had so far received almost 1,500 tonnes of ammunition from allies delivered on 17 flights, including about 180 tonnes from the United States.

Canada’s defense min-istry said it has tempo-rarily withdrawn its Ukraine-based mili-tary personnel to an undisclosed location in Europe. Canada, which is home to the world’s third-largest Ukrai-nian population after Ukraine and Russia, has kept a 200-strong train-ing mission in western Ukraine since 2015.

RUSSIAN SECURITY DEMANDS

The Kremlin said Putin told Biden during their call on Saturday that Washington had failed to take Russia’s main concerns into account, and that it had received no “substan-tial answer” on key elements of its security demands.

Putin wants guaran-tees from the United States and NATO that include blocking Ukraine’s entry into NATO, refraining from missile deployments near Russia’s bor-ders and scaling back NATO’s military infra-structure in Europe to 1997 levels.

Washington regards many of the proposals as non-starters but has pushed the Kremlin to discuss them jointly with Washington and its European allies.

“The diplomatic path remains open. The way for Moscow to show that it wants to pursue that path is simple,” US Sec-retary of State Anthony Blinken said after he held talks on Saturday with Asian allies.

Washington and its European allies and others have been scal-ing back or evacuat-ing embassy staff and urging citizens to depart immediately or avoid travel to Ukraine.

US staff at the Organ-isation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began leaving by car from the rebel-held city of Donetsk in east Ukraine on Sunday, a witness said.

The OSCE conducts

operations in Ukraine including a civilian monitoring mission in Russian-backed, self-proclaimed sepa-ratist republics in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where a war that began in 2014 has killed more than 14,000 people.

Ukraine said on Sunday it wanted talks with Russia and mem-bers of the OSCE within 48 hours to discuss Rus-sia’s military build-up. Ukrainian Foreign Min-ister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow had not responded after Kyiv on Friday invoked a part of the Vienna Docu-ment, a set of security agreements, to demand Moscow explain its mil-itary activities.

Dutch carrier KLM said it would stop flying to Ukraine and Germany’s Lufthansa said it was considering suspending flights.

An adviser to Zelens-kiy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that regardless of what airlines chose to do Kyiv would not close its airspace as that would resemble “a kind of partial blockade”.

A French presidency official said on Saturday, after President Emman-uel Macron spoke with Putin, that there were no indications from what the Russian leader said that Moscow was preparing an offensive, though Paris remained “extremely vigilant”.

British defence min-ister Ben Wallace cau-tioned against putting too much hope in talks, telling The Sunday Times of London that there was “a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West”, refer-ring to a 1938 pact that failed to halt German expansionism under Adolf Hitler.

Russia calls US warnings of invasion ‘hysteria’; US vows to defend ‘every inch’ of NATO territory

WINDSOR (ONTAR-IO), Feb 14 (Agencies): The busiest US-Can-ada border crossing reopened late Sunday after protests against COVID-19 restrictions closed it for almost a week, the owner announced.

The bridge’s owner, Detroit International Bridge Co., said in a

statement that “the Ambassador Bridge is now fully open allow-ing the free flow of commerce between the Canada and US econo-mies once again.”

Police in Windsor, Ontario, said earlier that more than two dozen people were peacefully arrested, seven vehicles were towed and five

were seized near the bridge that links the city — and numerous Canadian automotive plants — with Detroit.

Only a few protest-ers had remained after police on Saturday persuaded demonstra-tors to move the pickup trucks and cars they had used to block a crossing that sees 25% of all trade between the two countries.

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday acknowl-edged the seemingly peaceful resolution to the demonstra-tion, which it said had “widespread damaging impacts” on the “lives and livelihoods of people” on both sides of the border.

Key US-Canada bridge reopens after police clear protesters

SEOUL, Feb 14 (Agencies): South Korea will begin giving out fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February and supply millions of additional home test kits to ease shortages amid a surge in Omicron infections, authorities confirmed on Monday.

The surge has pushed daily cases to records, but widespread vaccination, with first booster shots received by more than 57 percent of the population of 52 million, has helped limit deaths and serious infections.

High-risk groups will be the first to get the fourth dose, in effect a second booster shot, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol told a COVID-19 response meeting.

“We’re planning to provide fourth shots to those who live in nursing homes and care facilities and others with declined immunisation, in light of a recent increase of infections among people aged 60 or older,” he said, according to a transcript.

At least 44.22 million people, or 86.2 percent of the population, are consid-ered fully vaccinated. Sunday’s 54,619 new cases took the tally of infections to 1,405,246, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The death toll rose by 21 to 7,102.As the Omicron variant of corona-

virus became dominant last month, the government began to restrict free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to those in high risk groups.

Others must first take rapid antigen tests using kits sold at stores, or offered free by public health centres.

On Sunday, authorities imposed a three-week rationing period on test kits for home use, by limiting online sales as well as pharmacy purchases to five to a person at a single location.

However, the total number available to buy will not be curbed, authorities said, as they believe stocks to be ade-quate in the absence of major hoarding.

Kwon said about 30 million addition-al self-test kits will be supplied nation-wide this month to dispel concerns about shortages. The government has said it plans to provide 190 million self-test kits for March, more than twice the supply in February.

South Korea to start giving fourth doses of Covid vaccine by month-end

HONG KONG, Feb 14 (Agen-cies): Hong Kong is being over-whelmed by the “onslaught” of COVID-19 infections, its leader said on Monday, although deaths in the Chinese-con-trolled global financial hub remain far less than similar-sized cities since the pandemic erupted two years ago.

Daily infections have multi-plied 13 times over the past two weeks, from about 100 cases at the start of February to over 1,300 on Feb. 13, with authori-ties scrambling to control the deepening outbreak.

As the caseload soared, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam issued a statement on Monday saying her administration would coordinate with Chinese officials to tackle the “aggravat-ing situation”. China has said it would help the city with test-ing, treatment and quarantine,

and secure resources from rapid antigen kits and protec-tive gear to fresh vegetables.

The city is due to report at least 1,530 COVID-19 cases on Monday, broadcaster TVB said, citing an unidentified source. It would be a new record for daily cases. “The onslaught of the fifth wave of the epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong and overwhelmed the city’s capacity of handling,” she said, adding patients were having to wait longer to access isolation facilities.

“The situation is highly unde-sirable and the government feels worried and sorry about it,” she said.

With the healthcare system already overstretched, medical experts warn the city could see 28,000 daily infections by the end of March, with the unvac-cinated elderly a particular

worry.Hospital beds for COVID-

19 patients are already at 90% occupancy, data from the city’s Hospital Authority showed, while isolation facilities are near full capacity.

Hong Kong is prioritising elderly, children and those in serious conditions in hospitals, said Larry Lee, chief manager at the city’s Hospital Authority.

For all the alarm over the latest wave of the pandemic, Hong Kong’s total caseload since the pandemic first erupt-ed was around 24,000 infec-tions, including more than 200 deaths, less than many other similar major cities.

Lam said authorities would “spare no effort” to implement the “dynamic zero” coronavi-rus infection strategy in Hong Kong, which, like mainland China, seeks to curb outbreaks

as soon as they occur, in con-trast with many other places that are trying to live with COVID.

Inside the city, residents are banned from public gatherings of more than two people while most venues including schools, churches and gyms are all shut. Dining in restaurants is banned from 6.p.m local time and most people are working from home.

Strict flight restrictions have turned Hong Kong into one of the world’s most isolated major cities with its borders effective-ly sealed for around two years.

The city’s Legislative Council is due to discuss the injection of HK$27 billion ($3.46 billion) into an anti-epidemic fund to support businesses and indi-viduals affected by the city’s stringent social distancing measures, the government said in a statement.

5th Covid wave has ‘overwhelmed’ city’s capacity: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Agencies): An American Airlines flight headed to Washington on Sunday was diverted to Kansas City after crew members and passengers subdued an unruly pas-senger, the airline said.

Flight 1775 from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. landed in Kansas City International Airport at about 2:30 p.m. local time where it was met by law enforcement, American Airlines said in a statement. “An unruly passen-

ger displaying erratic behavior ... was ultimately subdued by our crew and with the help of other passengers,” the airline said without providing further details of the incident.

US airlines have reported a record number of disruptive and sometimes violent incidents in 2021. The US Justice Department on Tuesday said it is “fully committed” to holding disruptive air-line passengers who violate federal law accountable.

Unruly passenger incident forces American Airlines flight

to divert to Kansas City

KATHMANDU, Feb 14 (Agencies): Cholen-dra Shumsher Rana became the second Chief Justice of Nepal to face “impeachment” procedure in Parlia-ment in seven years over allegations of cor-ruption. Based on ear-lier precedence, CJ Rana has been “suspended” pending final disposal of the case, and Dipak Karki, the senior most judge in the Supreme

Court has taken over as the acting CJ.

The sudden develop-ment followed a swift and secret operation where signatures of 98 Members of Parliament belonging to Nepali Congress, Unif ied Socialists and Maoist Centre were collected and submitted in the Parliament secretariat in the morning.

The country’s main opposition party, Nepal

Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marx-ist Leninist, has called for a party meeting on Monday where it is likely to decide the list of judges it wants “impeached”.

Nepal’s judiciary, which has largely been under the control or influence of political parties, especially in the past 15 years, has been a victim of political onslaught and extreme

action by parliament at times.

There are speculation that the sudden deci-sion of the three parties, which were so far divid-ed on whether or not to endorse the 500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation Nepal com-pact, have come togeth-er in its favour, and exit of CJ Rana was a price the junior coalition part-ners — Unified social-ists and Maoist centre—

asked for.Unlike the practices

in other democracies, where the presiding officer of parliament forms a committee to go into charges labelled, in Nepal, a mere notice of impeachment by not less than 25 per cent of the total strength of the House leads to auto-matic suspension of the person holding the con-stitutional position.

Rana, however, had

not anticipated the sudden signature drive against him as politi-cal parties had refused to accept the demand of the Nepal Bar Asso-ciation to initiative pro-ceedings so far. “We thought the strike was affecting the image of the Supreme Court and the best course to take would be moving an impeachment motion,” Law Minister Dilendra Badu said.

Chief Justice of Nepal faces impeachment motionNepal’s judiciary, which has largely been under the control or influence of political parties, especially in the past 15 years, has

been a victim of political onslaught and extreme action by parliament at times.

9Top News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022 LOCAL / CONTD....

CRPF pays homage to slain personnel on Pul-

wama attack anniversarymorale, it is wrong. People of my country

need not to worry. We are always ready to protect them, Constable Arup Debnath said.

Another CRPF jawan SNS Munda said while they miss their colleagues, they will not forget their sacrifices.

This (tribute) is a message that we have not forgotten them, that we remember those who sacrificed their lives for all of us, he said.

LG Ladakh meets Dr Jiten-dra, seeks Snow Sculp-

ture StartUp technologyunder the aegis of Union Ministry of

Science & Technology is promoting “Leh Berry” which is an exclusive food prod-uct of the cold desert and also a means of wide-ranging entrepreneurship as well as self-livelihood.

Dr Jitendra Singh referred to Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ladakh in May 2018, wherein the PM had strongly advised for widespread cultivation of sea buckthorn, which is also the source of “Leh Berry”. He said, CSIR will also develop harvesting machinery to be used by local farmers and self-help groups, as currently only 10% of berry is being extracted from the wild sea buckthorn plant.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that local entre-preneurs will be provided gainful employ-ment through farming, processing and marketing of about 100 odd products from sea buckthorn plant like jams, juices, herbal tea, vitamin C supplements, healthy drinks, cream, oils, and soaps in a com-pletely organic manner.

Mathur also informed that commercial cultivation of three medicinal plants will begin this spring season at the height of above 15,000 feet. This also includes “San-jeevni Booty”, locally known as “Sola” which has a very high life saving and therapeutic properties.

Dr Jitendra Singh conveyed to LG, Ladakh that Department of Atomic Energy will set up facilities in the UT for Gamma Irradiation Technology for preservation/shelf life extension of fruits and vegetables. He was happy to note that for the first time huge quantities of Apricot was exported to Dubai.

Dr Jitendra Singh complimented CSIR for organizing 4 training workshops, two each at Leh and Kargil for treatment of diseases of famous Pashmina Goats. Char-thang in Ladakh has over 4 lakh animals mainly pashmina goats, a very rich source of livelihood.

Dr Jitendra Singh told Mathur that a high level team of senior scientists from CSIR will visit Ladakh this summer to evalu-ate the Zinc Fortification project for Pash-mina Goats, Sheep and Yak as Ladakh is mainly an Animal-based economy. He said, CSIR is also contemplating to start a Geo-Thermal Energy Project for warming and cooling systems in a Zero-net energy programme by linking it with Solar Power.

Dr.Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave high priority to the young Union Territory of Ladakh which has enabled the sanction of new Univer-sity, Professional Colleges and other insti-tutions. He said, the opening of Zojila Pass is a huge relief for the local population.

Lieutenant Governor thanked the Min-ister for having responded to the Union Territory government’s request for train-ing of officers and staff by DARPG, which already conducted two extensive training sessions. He also requested for posting of more number of AGMUT Cadre officers in Ladakh in view of the new centrally spon-sored projects and schemes having been

initiated.Lieutenant Governor also conveyed to

the Minister his acknowledgement of the constant support that the Union Territory government is receiving from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for every small or big issue.

2022 to be year of educational transforma-

tion in J&K: CSFurther, to enhance effetiveness of

COVID mitigation and management, the Chief Secretary advised the educational institutions to base their COVID manage-ment plans on the model UGC guidelines.

The education institutions were further asked to regularly screen their students and ensure that symptomatic students are tested timely and isolated to prevent the spread of infection. Meanwhile, the Health and Medical Education Department was also asked to address the health-related needs of all schools, colleges, and universi-ties in a time-bound manner, through the concerned divisional and district admin-istrations.

Considering the educational institu-tions in Jammu & Kashmir are reopening for offline classes after a hiatus of almost two years, Dr. Mehta impressed upon the concerned to ensure proper maintenance, upkeep, and cleanliness in the institutions along with functional electricity and water supplies as well as proper sanitation facili-ties therein.

The Chief Secretary impressed upon the institutions to build on the experience of online classes and adopt an ideal blend of IT-based offline teaching curriculum to boost students’ learning outcomes and successfully train them for national-level examinations. “The academic year 2022-23 shall be the year of educational trans-formation for Jammu and Kashmir”, Dr. Mehta maintained. He emphasised that

each head of the Institution shall be per-sonally responsible for covid management and healthy teaching environment. There should be no tolerance for unhealthy activ-ities in places of learning.

Additionally, the Higher Education Department and School Education Depart-ment were asked to fully implement the National Education Policy across Jammu and Kashmir during 2022, thereby making the Union territory, the first among in the country to do so.

Erratic weather likely in Jammu and Kashmir for

next 48 hoursFebruary 15 (night), 16, 18 and 19.“There is no forecast of any major rain/

snow for next 10 days.”Srinagar had 1.4, Pahalgam minus 3.4 and

Gulmarg minus 4 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature.

In the Ladakh region, Drass town had minus 18.0, Leh minus 11.2 and Kargil minus 15.2 as the minimum temperature.

Jammu city had 9.3, Katra 8.4, Batote 2.9, Banihal 1.2 and Bhaderwah 1.8 as the minimum.

J&K Police detain 35 dental surgeons protest-

ing for jobs in Jammuwe can go to a bank,” he said.He said the government has announced a

loan of Rs 8 lakh with a condition that the clinic should have two dental surgeons and one technician.

“Many of us are still repaying the educa-tion loan and it is not possible for us to set up a private clinic with another bank loan,” the doctor said.

Tickoo claimed the association has given several representations to the authorities time and again but nothing has been done

till date for their welfare.He said the association appeals to the Lt

Governor to take note of their plight and address their issues without any further delay.

DAK seeks to shorten booster shot interval

vaccine protects you from severe disease, but immunity wanes over time.

“Various studies have confirmed that Covid-19 vaccine becomes less effective over time,” he said.

The DAK President said analysis from a UK study found that the protection provided by the two doses of Pfizer and Oxford (Covishield) vaccine wanes within six months.

“The study revealed that protection after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine decreased from 88% at one month to 74% at five to six months and protection for Oxford decreased from 77% at one month to 67% at four to five months,” he said.

Booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine are being given within 6 months of the second dose in many countries.

General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said booster shots should be extended to all adults to broaden individual’s immune response against the emerging variants of Covid-19.

“At the moment booster doses are being given to healthcare workers, frontline workers and people aged 60 with comor-bidities,” he said.

“Dubbed as precautionary dose in India, booster shot is the third or the additional dose of Covid-19 vaccine given to ensure the protection is maintained against the new variants,” said Dr Riyaz Ahmad Dagga Spokesperson DAK

“CDC and FDA have approved booster shots for all adults to be given within six months after the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine,” he said.

FROM PAGE 1

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14:

Surinder Kumar BDC Chairman Marh on Monday paid tributes to the martyred Central Reserve Police Force jawans, who lost their lives in Pulwama terror attack, on third anniver-sary of ‘Pulwama Mar-tyrs Day’ at Marh.

The tribute paying cer-emony was organized at the office of BDC Chair-man Marh in which a number of Sarpanchs, Panchs along with the general public partici-pated to pay tributes to the martyrs.

On this day in 2019, the entire nation had sunk in grief, when about 40 valiant Indian soldiers were martyred in an attack by a cow-ardly suicide bomber, sponsored by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad, at Pulwama in south Kash-mir.

Today, the nation is observing third anniver-sary of the terror attack and remembering the supreme sacrifice of the 40 brave men of CRPF, who attained martyr-dom in Pulwama.

Surinder Kumar BDC Chairman Marh while speaking on the occasion said that I pay homage to the martyrs of Pul-wama attack. India will forever be grateful to our bravehearts and their families who made supreme sacrifice for the sovereignty and integ-rity of our motherland. He said that India will

never forget their sacri-fice. Entire nation stands united against terrorism and we are committed to continue our fight against this menace.

Those present in the tribute paying cere-mony are: - Sarapanch Mulkh Raj, Sarpanch Deepak Sharma, Sar-panch Prem Singh, Sar-panch Narinder Singh, Sarpanch Ashok Saini, Ex Sarpanch Dhanater Singh, Naib Sarpanch Ashok Singh, Naib Sar-panch Raj Dev Singh, Rajinder Sharma, Ravi Kant Sharma and Babbu Sharma.

Top News ReportSAMBA, Feb 14:

Acknowledging the struggle of Panthers Party for upholding the rights of formers and persistently raising its voice against raging inflation besides soar-ing prices of fuel, cook-ing gas and electric-ity bills, over 50 people joined JKNPP in pres-ence of Yashpal Kundal President Painther Party during a public meeting at Trindian, Ramgarh.

Addressing the public, Kundal lambasted the BJP for its hypocrisy over the raging infla-tion with the steep rise in fuel, LPG prices and now electricity bills.

He reminded that while the BJP was in opposition, its front line leaders wasted no time to lodge a series of pro-test demonstrations at every nook and corner of the country against the price rise but now when the Saffron party having been in power, the fuel prices had peaked all time high

and broken all records with none of its Min-isters uttering a word over the soaring prices.

Kundal maintained that NPP shall agitate on every nook and corner of Jammu Pradesh to oppose and expose the BJP for its duplicity, deceit and betrayals.

While expressing her gratitude to the Party leaders, Kundal assert-ed that soaring price of fuel has led to steep rise in transportation fares which in turn had also turned other essential commodities dearer.

“The astounding rates of vegetables and other essential com-modities have shat-tered the budget of a common household”, he revealed.

Anguished over the sky-rocketing prices of groceries, he pointed out that prices of almost all the essentials includ-ing mustard oil, pulses and cereals had risen by an appalling rate, she regretted. Electricity bills of people is being increased in Ramgarh area. The people of the area depend on agricul-ture. The crop which was damaged due to rain has not been com-pensated till date.

Kundal asked the GoI to immediately come up with the measures to control inflation of petrol and agri-products to provide relief to the common man against the spiraling prices of fuel, gas, staple vegeta-bles and essential com-modities.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Hin-

duist BJP senior leader Raju Chandel, while paying tribute to the martyrs by visiting the martyr memorial, on Monday said that on this day in Pulwama, the terrorists of Pakistan martyred our 45 jawans.

“We have not forgot-ten the day that army soldiers were martyred and today we want to salute those martyrs and say that in future Pakistan cannot do such a thing again because immediately after Pul-

wama-like action, Paki-stan’s home entering into its terrorist bases Campo, Indian forces destroyed and killed more than 200 of its ter-rorists.” He said.

Chandel said, “Today I openly warn Pakistan that if it does not vacate PoK at the earliest, then PoK along with its other areas will be snatched from it.”

Rafiq Ali Sheikh, senior leader of BJP Kolkata Pradesh Yuva Morcha along with Chandel, senior BJP leader of Jammu and Kashmir Bandipora.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: State

General Secretary of BJP SC Morcha, Mohin-der Kumar said that the messages of unity and harmony in the society have been given by all the saints of the coun-try including Sant Shi-romani Ravidas.

State Secretary and in-charge Shakti Kumar, programme in-charge and Sarpanch Vandana Kumari, co-incharge Dev Raj Bhagat, Bishan Lal President District Akhnoor SC Morcha and others paid tribute by paying floral tributes to Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidass.

State Secretary Shakti Kumar said that the entire life of Sant Ravi-das was always spent in public welfare and today in politics also our basic basis should be welfare of every sec-tion of the society.

Sarpanch Vandana Kumari said that the way Sant Ravidas worshiped God while improving his creativity and personality while living life in Fakiri, he is an example for everyone even today. Saints have always been inspiring Indian society. The path shown by Sant Ravidas to stop caste discrimina-tion and untouchability continues to inspire us even today.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Vice

President of BJP District Anantnag and counce-lor Mattan Rakesh Koul has strongly expressed resentment and con-demnation over the false concerns shown by NC leaders in their speeches yesterday in a function at Jagti town-ship and were trying to sheild their party’ s role in their forceful exodus of seven lakh Kashmir pandits in 1990 by shed-ding crocodile Tears.

In a statement issued todays, BJP leader Rakesh koul lambasted NC leaders for trying to mislead Kashmiri Pan-dits who were thrown out of Valley in 1990 in their speeches just to make them political tools for their political gains.

He also asked these leaders to explain

what they have done for Kashmiri Pandits during their tenure and have they ever bothered to take out any mass protest or shown any resentment for the injus-tice done with them for last more than thirty two years in exile ?.

He said that he has firm hope that under the leadership of Nar-endra Modi, the genu-ine demands and their rehabilitation back in valley with honour and dignity will made soon

He appealed Kash-miri Pandit community to remain cautious and not to fally prey again in their laps for their political mileage.

He said it was NC who has done nothing for this helpless communi-ty rather added to their miseries and remained mum in their forceful mass exodus.

Top News Report

JAMMU, Feb 14: On 3rd anniversary of Pulwama terror attack , Braham Jyot Satti ( President BJP OBC Morcha JK-UT) and his team Pay Homage to Martyrs of Pulwama terror attack in various districts across Jammu and Kashmir.

However, 40 Indian soldiers attained Mar-tyrdom in a cowardly attack by Pak sponsored terrorism on 14 Febru-ary 2019 .

They observe two min-utes of silence and paid floral tribute to son of soils.

Speaking on this Braham Jyot said that our forces are our pride and three years ago on this day of 14 Febru-ary more than our 40 soldiers attained Mar-tyrdom in an cowardly attack by Pak sponsored terrorists.

He said OBC Morcha is full of patriots and 14 February is a black day for India and OBC Morcha always stands for the dignity

and respect of India and never tolerate act against our mother land India .

He said our forces are well able to give befit-ting reply to anti nation-al elements and India avenged the sacrifice of bravehearts by bombing several terror camps on Pakistani soil. The terror attack ignited a series of events, including India’s surgical strikes on a terrorist training camp in Balakot.

He said unfortunate-ly some of our young people are running out of track and celebrating valentine, he appealed to all youth to sup-port our forces because youth is future of our Nation.

He said BJP OBC Morcha stands with every segment of soci-ety and if anyone needs any kind of help can contact us we will pro-vide appropriate help to him.

BDC Chairman Surinder pays tribute to Pulwama bravehearts

Sant Ravidas Jayanti celebrated in BJP office

Chandel pays tributes to Pulwama Martyrs

Promotors of forceful exodus of KPs now shedding

crocodile tears: Koul

Soaring prices of fuel, gas, electricity bills wrecked common household’s budget: Kundal

BJP OBC Morcha pays homage to Pulwama Martyrs

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: In respect of the posts

withdrawn by virtue of recent decision of Administrative Council, J&K Government has ordered one-time age relaxation for candidates who had earlier applied for these posts and were eligible in terms of age but have in the meantime crossed the

upper age limit.The Government also states that subject

to the fulfillment of other conditions of eligibility, a candidate shall be deemed to be eligible in terms of upper age limit, if he/she applies for the said post(s) in pursuance to fresh advertisement, as and when issued by JKPSC/SSB.

Govt. announces ‘One-Time Age Relaxation’ for candidates who had earlier applied for withdrawn posts

10 LOCAL Top News of J&K

Jammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

Top News Report

AKHNOOR, Feb 14: Former Minister and BJP Vice President Sham Lal Sharma inau-gurated ‘New Sharma Cake House’ at Bhalwal Brahmana of Akhnoor. The recently opened outlet will offer an array of new delectable

bakery and confection-ery delights that would combine exotic modern flavors for the contem-porary palate.

While speaking on the occasion Sham Lal Sharma congratulated the owners of the cake house.

He said this set up in the area will definitely

provide a fresh and wide variety of cakes, pastries and bakery.

He said that youth should focus on such startups where they can provide employment to more others.

He said the Modi Gov-ernment has empha-sized on startups and have started numerous schemes to provide easy subsidised financial help to make them self dependent. He said we should become more job creators than job seek-ers.

Others present during the occasion are Bushan Bral, DDC Member Bh a lwa l , Di mple Sharma Sarpanch, Surinder Takayia, Gullu Ram, Ravi Verma etc.

Sham Lal inaugurates ‘New Sharma Cake house’

in Bhalwal BrahmanaTop News Report

BHADARWAH, Feb 14: Fourth Battalion Rashtriya Rifles based at Bhadarwah continuing with its Civic Action Series under the aegis of 16 CORPS Nagrota organised ‘Media Interaction’ program under “Operation Sadhbhawana” here today.

Media fraternity from across erstwhile district Doda besides participants from civil society attended the programme.

The programme paved an opportunity for scribes to have an access to various public wel-fare programs being executed by the army in especially far off areas of Bhadarwah and else-where with a motto to further bridge the gap between public and security forces and to fur-ther cement their relationships.

In the programme, media was made aware about dif-ferent activities pertaining to projects under different heads like cutting and tailoring, Jams and pickle making, center for beauty parlouring, computer training institute, center for extraction and processing of essential oils etc. undertaken by the army with a view to facili-tate the needy and deserving people in the society.

In one of the facilitation activ-ity, the deaf and dumb persons from Dhadkahi area of Bhal-lessa were provided assistance in the form of hearing aids (audio gadgets) besides carry-ing the health check up of these impaired persons by the doctor specialists drawn from Army during the camp.

It is noteworthy that 4 RR headquartered at Bhadarwah had adopted Dhadkai village of Gandoh Tehsil of district Doda only recently. It is further nota-ble that the said Dhadkai vil-lage of Bhallessa area lies in the north eastern part of Gandoh at a very toughsome and tortu-ous geographical topography in the midst of the ridges of upper Himalayan mountain ranges inhabited only by the popula-tion of Scheduled Tribe Com-munity (Gujjars) in which 65 persons are deaf and dumb by birth and this defect is observed to have got transmitted to their offsprings as well.

Interestingly, a normal parent gives birth to a child with the said disability while it is less likely that a parent with the defect bears child with the same problem. Being secluded

cluster of small hamlets, this area lacks basic civic ameni-ties above all of which include healthcare facilities.

It is equally pertinent that Dhadkai village had then shot in to fame way back 1998 when an example of unique phenom-enon of congenital inheritance of Deaf and Dumb traits were discovered in the persons pres-ent among the overall popula-tion and subsequently the same was reported for the first time after which media and research scholars from all over the coun-try frequented this village with different purposes to ascertain the actual cause of the defor-mity crept in the population, commonly considered by many people as some kind of curse having struck the village.

Consequently, through repeated testing and contin-ued research, it was brought to the fore that the reality in the appearance of such characters from generation to generation is none other than the nature itself having bestowed this pop-ulation with genetic make up of such kind as is responsible for giving rise to the deaf and dumb progenies in its unique manifestations.

In the second activity, stu-dents who had recently cracked entrance exam for Army Good-will Public School (AGPS) Pahalgam Kashmir after get-ting coaching from tuition cen-ters specifically established by the Indian army at Bhadarwah were felicitated during a func-tion in Army Battalion head-quarter Sarna.

“Our parents do not afford to get ourselves enrolled in reputed coaching Centers of the country obviously such coaching centers are out of our reach as far their huge fee struc-ture is concerned”, said Arjun Kumar one of the successful candidate, adding, “we were imparted free tuition by expert

teachers arranged by army and it is because of their able guid-ance that made us to compete with resourceful students of the state and finally we succeeded in making to the desired goal”.

“They also boosted our morale to the extent(pre-recruitment training/coaching) to be able to sit in upcoming competitive entrance examinations in other army schools and prestigious institutions of the country,” he further said.

Meanwhile, continuing with its mission of roping in and honing the skills of unem-ployed youth of Bhadarwah so as to enable them to start their own business units under self employment guarantee schemes through ambitious “Skill Development program” launched by the Govt of India and in keeping with it, a train-ing program was organised at Village Drudu of tehsil Bhadar-wah in the Institute of “Hima-layan Essential Oils Producer Company Ltd” in which more than 30 youth including female entrepreneurs were imparted with a specific training by experts hired by Army in the cultivation techniques, extrac-tion and process of synthesis under much publicised “Lav-ender Farming Project”, which of late has undergone a revolu-tionary transformation in the serene and compatible environ-ment of Bhadarwah through, “National Bank For Agricul-ture And Rural Development, Regional Office, Jammu” so much so the Lavender farming is assuming center stage signifi-cance preferred over the con-ventional crops by the locals. It is commonly being termed as ‘purple revolution’.

Earlier, an interactive session was also conducted by the army in the Jams and Pickles manu-facturing Unit at old bus stand area of Bhadarwah town where more than fifty ladies mostly

from downtrodden and eco-nomically weaker sections of the society have been engaged to prepare various kinds of Jams and pickles .

Beside computer training center, cutting and tailoring center, beautification center etc for which as a good will ges-ture, Indian army’s 4RR unit is providing the required finan-cial assistance besides easing marketing for the products eventually which is from where they are securing their liveli-hood respectably on their own finding an easy source of their self employment.

Speaking to the media on this occasion, beneficiaries stated that ever since start of the busi-ness unit by the army, they have been earning respectable liveli-hood with out depending upon male members who too have become jobless due to Corona pandemic, they observed.

“We are thankful to the army for their having come to our help at a time when it was quite difficult for us to find employ-ment,” they said adding that owing to the lack of required resources as also for the reason that we belong to financially weaker sections of the society, they further stated.

Likewise, to bring out the talent in the local youth in cultural activities, a musical band(Cultural troupe) was formed comprising dozens of youth who were appropri-ately trained both in vocal and instrumental music styles.

In order to give furtherance to boost their morale, members of the music group denoted as”Bhadarwah Band” were felicitated on this occasion who also enthralled the audiences by their indomitable colourful cultural presentations.

Continuing the program, glowing tributes were offered on the Balidan Smark at tourist resort Khalleni to the Martyr Naib Subedar Chunni Lal by placing floral wreaths on his statue.

The supreme sacrifice given by Martyr in the line of his duty was remembered on this occa-sion along with the family of the late Naib Subedar.

Those who were present in the day long program included DDC member Bhadarwah(South) Thakur Yudheer Singh, Tehsil-dar Bhadarwah Shoket Hayaat Mattu and prominent citizens of Bhadarwah.

Civic Action Series continues under Operation Sadhbhawana: Army

Top News Report

DODA, Feb 14: Cel-ebrating on the lines Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav, DDC Chair-man Dhananter Singh Kotwal inaugurated Forest Trek Route span-ning 14 km from village Maneshi to Makkhan Baggi via historical Lal Dramman at village Maneshi.

The Chief Guest DDC Chairman Doda was accompanied by CF Chenab Dr. Jitrndra Singh, DFO Doda.

Forest department on the directions of Lt. Governor has inaugu-rated Forest Trek routes across the Union Ter-ritory of Jammu and Kashmir. Appreciating the efforts of the depart-ment, DDC Chairman said trekking is emerg-ing as potential adven-ture for the youths and everyone who is fond of

the trails. He also appreciated

the department for fixing the signages, boards to make trek more exciting, however he asked the depart-ment to establish Bio-toilets for keeping sur-rounding clean along the trail.

He further added that youths should be given awareness of the trek-

king to avail its benefits. The inaugural func-

tion was attended by other dignitaries including BDC chair-man, ACD Doda, PRIs and local people. It was an appreciable effort by the team of the Forest Department to orga-nize such a novel event in area under the super-vision of Range Officer Siraj.

DDC Chairman inaugurates Trek Route in village Gadi

Top News Report

JAMMU, Feb 14: Rich Harvest School in col-laboration with INO, Ministry of Ayush (Govt. of India) and Maharishi Prashar Yog & Naturopathy Clinic organized a FREE Naturopathy and Yoga Camp on 14th February

for students, parents and local community members.

Renowned Natu-roparh Dr Rekha along with her team per-formed herbal, mag-netic, potli massage, hydro, mud therapies and acupressure as per the needs of patients.

During the Yoga

session, Dr. Rekha explained the benefits of different Asans and urged the attendees to make Yoga part of their daily routine to keep many ailments at bay. She distributed fresh Giloy, Tulsi leaves, Ashwagandha, lemon grass and ginger to the attendees.

The locals showed enthusiasm and will-ingness for the entire programme. The Prin-cipal Anita Bhatia advised the students and parents to imbibe and spare time for their physical and mental well being.

Free Naturpathy and Yoga Camp held at Rich Harvest School

Top News Report

JAMMU, Feb 14: Drug Abuse is on the rise and to tackle this situation, awareness among dif-ferent strata of society is of great importance. For the purpose of generat-ing awareness, Jammu & Kashmir State Level Coordinating Agency (JKSLCA) organized a one-day awareness pro-gram for Anganwadi functionaries in col-laboration with Social Welfare Department at Kot Bhalwal.

By strictly following the COVID-19 protocol,

around 50 functionaries participated in the pro-gramme.

Pooja Kumari and Shikha from NGO were the resource persons for the programme.

Resource person Shikha started the pro-gram with inaugural speech. She welcomed the participants and introduced herself and organization to all the participants and shared motive of the programme which is to generate awareness as Jammu region is becom-ing hub of drug use and demand with Kathua,

Samba and Jammu districts in highlight. She added that Jammu & Kashmir is a border UT and is vulnerable to problems like drug abuse.

Then Pooja Kumari

explained that sub-stance abuse has a dan-gerous consequence for the person abusing drugs, their family and society at large.

Then, she educated participants about drug

abuse, causes of drug abuse, different types of substances used.She further explained dif-ferent factors leading to substance abuse, harm-ful effects of substance abuse, preventive mea-sures and treatment. Programme concluded with the vote of thanks by Shikha.

At the end of the pro-gramme pamphlets were distributed among participants and certain questions were raised by participants and satisfactory answers were given to them by resource persons.

JKSLCA organizes awareness programme for Anganwadi functionaries

Top News Report

KATRA, Feb 14: The five-day long Vedic Shanti Path at Vaish-no Devi Shrine began from today with chanting of Vedic hymns organised by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board under Covid guidelines.

The Vedic Shanti Path, which is being performed at the Holy Cave Shrine, is to pray for the peace, prosperity, health, safety and well being of mankind, will conclude on February 18, 2022.

This Shanti path is headed by Dr. Vishwamurti Shastri Padam Shri Recipient, 2022.

The Shanti prayer is prayer for peace which is derived from Vedas done for the peace as per the prescribed Vedic rituals.

21 Priests are performing this Puja for Sadgati and Moksha and grant happiness of both this Loka (Earth) and Parloka (Heavenly abodes). The Shrine Board is creating positive vibra-tions by praying for peace and prosperity of the world.

Vedic Shanti Path commences at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine

Top News Report

UDHAMPUR, Feb 14: Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) Udhampur, Min-istry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt. of India is going to organise Dis-trict Youth Parliament on February 19 from 10:30 AM onwards.

The event will be organised in virtual mode in which young participants in the age group of 15 to 29 years will compete to qualify for the State Level Con-test.

It is pertinent to men-tion that the three best

speakers at the National Level will be awarded Rs. 2 lakh, Rs. 1.5 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh respec-tively along with the certificates of merit.

The topics of Dis-trict Youth Parliament would be Incred-ible India, Ayushman Bharat, Beti Bachao Beti Padao, Skill India, Digi-tal India and Swachha Bharat Swasthya Bharat.

The candidates may speak on any of the topics in Hindi, English or official language of the U.T.

The interested can-didates belonging to

districts Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Leh & Kargil may apply on the speci-fied format on or before February 17, 2022.

They may apply through the NSS Pro-gramme Officers of the nearest colleges or through the nearest dis-trict NYK office within the stipulated time.

The State Youth Parlia-ment will be held vir-tually on 25th Feb, the topics of which will be intimated separately to the winners of the Dis-trict Youth Parliament.

NYK Udhampur to host District Level Youth Parliament on Feb 19

11LOCAL Top News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

Hashmi felicitates people on birth Anniversary of Imam Ali

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Feb 14: On the 13th Rajab of Islamic calendar the birth anniversary of Hazrat Imam Ali (a.s), a revered figure in the Islamic world will be

observed in the entire Muslim world.

The Socio-Political Activist Syed Karar Hashmi Congratula-tions entire Muslim World on birth anni-versary of Hazrat Ali and expecting Muslims

around the world to renew their commit-ment to the principles that Imam Ali (a.s) exemplified, particu-larly the ethics of care, compassion, generosity, unity, tolerance, for-giveness, brotherhood, and service to others.

Hazrat Ali (a.s) was the fourth caliph (suc-cessor of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w ) and first Imam of Shia Mus-lims was born inside the holy Kabba on 13th Holy month of Rajab.

Hashmi in a message said that Imam Ali (a.s) was the first person to provided every help to Hazart Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w) in all stages of preaching and propagating Islam.

Top News Report

HANDWARA, Feb 14: A 32-Year-Old female blood donor from gundchabotra North kashmir district kup-wara has donated blood 27times .Bilqees Ara, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker from Gundch-abotra, Kralgund, here has voluntarily donated her blood 27 times since 2012 to save human lives.

Barely a few months after her appointment in the health depart-ment in 2012, Bilqees donated blood for the first time to save a preg-nant woman from her locality. “I had accom-panied her to the Dis-trict Hospital Hand-wara.

During her delivery

when the need of blood arose there was no male from her family avail-able, and I rose to the occasion and donated blood for her,” said Bilqees.

“Although, first I was hesitant, but given her condition, I could not restrain myself. And, since that day I have by the grace of Allah saved many lives with my blood, Bilqees said.

She donated blood at

District Hospital Hand-wara over 15 times so far.

Besides, she has donat-ed blood at Sub District Hospital Kupwara and LD Srinagar at several times.

“I am a registered blood donor, whenever a need arise the offi-cials at Blood Bank DH Handwara call me and I make myself available to donate blood,” she said.

Bilqees donated blood 29 times in nine years

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Feb 14: Policy and planning decisions have powerful implications for indi-vidual behaviours and public health. The prevention of today’s major health problems requires understanding and intervention to affect the root causes of ill health and the poli-cies that shape and affect the root causes.

In Jammu and Kashmir, to address these problems effec-tively, the administration has taken several measures pro-actively to provide best health care services to its people.

One of the major decision in that direction was the introduc-tion of ‘’J&K Health Care Invest-ment Policy (HCIP)’’ aimed at promoting private parties and entrepreneurs to set up health-care infrastructure in the state. This Healthcare Investment Policy aims to realize the UT’s obligation of providing quality and effective healthcare to its citizens and to take healthcare service to the door steps of the masses so as to ensure avail-ability of the complete gamut of healthcare services in the primary, secondary and ter-

tiary care sectors to the people of the UT.

Healthcare sector in Jammu and Kashmir has shown sig-nificant progress in terms of improvement in infrastruc-ture, manpower and health system, which is now reflected in improved healthcare indica-tors of the UT that have become comparatively better than those in many other states and even better than the national aver-age, as per NFHS indicators. Despite the COVID situation, the health and medical sector took a lead in Jammu and Kash-mir to attract global investment into health care.

In J&K, where the private sector is still in infancy and almost 80% of the healthcare facilities are being provided by the public sector, the over-crowding of the government health institutions has led to compromise in the quality of care. In government institu-tions, out of pocket expendi-ture is quite substantial as the patients have to purchase the medicines and other essential items from the market. This entails a huge burden on poor households. This policy will cover all these aspects and pro-

vide major relief to the locals here.

The Healthcare investment policy is expected to improve accessibility of quality health-care services to the people, pro-mote establishment of hospital, medical and allied educational infrastructure and establish the state as a destination of choice for private healthcare service providers, besides pro-moting medical tourism. J&K Government is taking several reformative measures for the advancement and upgradation of health infrastructure, besides providing affordable healthcare services to all.

In J&K, special attention is being paid to three areas – Pre-vention, Better Treatment and Care. Seven new medical col-leges, two AIIMS, nearly 1000 healthcare and wellness cen-tres, five new nursing colleges, B.Sc. paramedical course as well as more than 100% increase in medical seats are contribut-ing towards the development and advancement of the health-care sector in the UT. The focus of the government is not only creation of the best of the best private hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar but also smaller ones

in districts and health resorts to boost health and wellness tour-ism as J&K is natural destina-tion of the world.

The salient features of the health care investment policy include 30 per cent subsidy on capital investment to be pro-vided for setting up of multi-speciality and super-speciality hospitals, medical, nursing and paramedical colleges. Other salient features of the policy include interest subsidy at a rate of 5 per cent per annum on term loan subject to a ceil-ing of Rs 15 lakh per year for a period of five years from the date of operationalisation of the project and subsidised power tariff rates as applicable to the industries sector.

Overall, this policy is one of the remarkable initiatives of J&K government and aims to realize the UT’s obligation of providing quality and effec-tive healthcare to its citizens and to take healthcare service to the doorsteps of the masses to ensure availability of the complete gamut of healthcare services in the primary, second-ary and tertiary care sectors to the people of the UT.

J&KHCIP: A door for providing quality Health care to people of J&K

J&KHCIP will attract global investments in Health sector of J&K, promote Medical Tourism

Top News Report

SAMBA, FEBRUARY 14: Lieutenant Gover-nor Manoj Sinha today inaugurated 22 Power transmission & distri-bution projects costing Rs. 216 Cr at Samba.

The Lt Governor said that the J&K’s power infrastructure, which remained dilapidated for the last several decades, is being trans-formed at a fast pace.

Today’s development represents a giant stride in capacity augmenta-tion and improvement in power supply to consumers of Jammu, Samba, Hiranagar, Kathua, Udhampur and adjoining areas. The new power projects will meet the power supply demand of the citizens as well as the industrial sector, he added.

Terming the occa-sion as historic for the people of Samba, the Lt Governor said that the Samba district has also received a dedicated grid station after a long wait of 15 years.

We are firm in our resolve for practical, pragmatic and viable solution to strengthen power infrastructure in every district of J&K UT, the Lt Governor said

To address the cur-rent power deficit and to meet the needs of our expanding economy, the government is upgrad-ing transmission & dis-tribution infrastructure that will also enable us to generate productive employment opportuni-ties for youth, added the Lt Governor.

The Lt Governor

expressed gratitude to the Hon’ble Prime Min-ister and Hon’ble Union Power Minister for their continuous support in strengthening the power sector in J&K. The upcoming Rs 12,922 cr power sector project for the UT will increase the total availability of electricity in the system, especially for the house-hold, industries and agriculture sector.

The Lt Governor said that Jammu & Kashmir, under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, is moving towards fulfill-ing the dream of a better life for every citizen.

We are working on an unprecedented scale in building new infra-structure and improv-ing the facilities avail-able to the citizens, he added.

“Government will not rest till J&K truly becomes one of the country’s best devel-oped regions, which the entire nation can be proud of”, said the Lt Governor.

The Lt Governor con-gratulated the officials of Power Develop-

ment Department, the people of Samba and the adjoining areas on the commissioning of new power projects.

PDD is making efforts to reduce T&D losses and bring them within reasonable l imits. The department has achieved praiseworthy results. However, due to power theft, honest con-sumers who pay their electricity bills regu-larly are bearing the brunt of the cost of theft by other unscrupulous elements. We need to sensitize people to pay their bills on time and help the government to make power sector financially viable, the Lt Governor observed.

The Lt Governor also made a special men-tion of Sh. Jagmohan Sharma, Chairman JPDCL for highlighting the core issues of power sector in the UT.

Sh. Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member Par-liament, while speak-ing on the occasion, highlighted how the new projects will ben-efit the people of Samba, Kathua, and adjoining areas.

Under the guidance of Hon’ble Prime Min-ister Shri Narendra Modi, J&K has entered into the era of equitable development and the change is clearly vis-ible on ground with the rapid implementation of several development projects, he added.

Sh. Keshav Sharma, DDC Chairperson Samba expressed grati-tude towards the Lt Governor led UT Gov-ernment for strength-ening the power infra-structure in the area. He also highlighted various public issues, especially the devel-opment of the border areas.

Sh. Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor and Principal Secretary, Power Devel-opment Department delivered the welcome address and highlight-ed the ongoing efforts of PDD across the UT.

The JKPTCL projects worth Rs 153.42 cr inau-gurated today includes 160MVA, 220/66 kV Samba Grid Station including 220KV D/C Jatwal- Samba Trans-mission Line; 160MVA,

220/66 kV Kathua-II (Ghatti) Grid Sta-tion including 220KV D/C LILO of Thein-Hiranagar Transmis-sion Line; LILO-I of 220 KV D/C Hiranagar-Bishnah Transmission Line from 400/220 KV Grid Substation Jatwal and 1x50MVA, 132/33KV Grid Sta-tion Battal-Manwal including 132KV D/C H i r a n a g a r - B a t t a l -Manwal Transmission Line, under PMDP and PMRP.

Moreover, 18 power distribution projects (11 in Samba and 7 in Kathua) costing Rs 63 cr under various centrally sponsored schemes including 66/11 KV 33/11 KV Substations and installation of addi-tional power transform-ers were also e-inaugu-rated on the occasion.

The projects will improve the Power Supply and reduce the transmission losses, it was informed.

Sh. Shiv Anant Tayal, Managing Director, JPDCL presented the Vote of Thanks.

Dr Raghav Langer, Divisional Commis-sioner Jammu; Sh. Vivek Gupta, DIG JKS Range; Ms. Anuradha Gupta, Deputy Commissioner Samba; Sh Abhishek Mahajan, SSP Samba; Dr RP Singh, Chair-man JKPCL; Sh. Balwan Singh, Vice Chairman, DDC Samba; BDC Chairpersons; PRI and ULB representatives; former legislators; offi-cials of PDD and people in large attended the inaugural ceremony.

Lt Governor inaugurates 22 Power transmission & distribution projects costing Rs.216 Cr

Samba district received a dedicated grid station after a long wait of 15 years

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Feb 14: The Shiv Sena Jammu and Kashmir unit has demanded complete restoration of statehood with special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing media persons at the Press Enclave here today, the J&K Unit President Manish Sahni said that special status should be accorded to protect the cultural, social and eco-nomic security of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that the spe-cial status should ensure reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the local youth of J&K.

Sahni said that the promises made to the people of J&K on August 5, 2019 have remained unfulfilled till date and the waiting period for the restora-tion of democracy and statehood is getting longer.

The claim of develop-ment and employment is also proving to be a mere Jumla, he said.

With each passing day the trust reposed by the people in the govern-ment is getting eroded as people are unable to

find any progress in terms of employment, development, restora-tion of peace, better education and health facilities, etc he assert-ed.

He accused the BJP of misleading the public on all the significant issues. Sahni said that the people of the state were battling terrorism and nefarious activities of Pakistan for the last thirty years.

The abrogation of Article 370 and the havoc of the Corona pandemic have made the economic condition of the people of the state miserable in the last three years. Unemploy-ment and recession are at peak in Jammu and Kashmir. He appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant direct financial help and special relief pack-age to J&K besides early restoration of democrat-ic process and restora-tion of statehood status with special status to J&K.

On this occasion president Mehila Wing Meenakshi Chibber, Gen secretary Vikas Bakshi, president Kamghar wing Raj Singh, Media Asviser Deepak Sharma , Presi-

dent Mehila Suraksha Prakost Preeti Joshi , Mangu Ram and Sumeet Abrol were present.

Meanwhile Sahni also appealed to the PM and LG to rename Srinagar airport after Professor Balraj Madhok, son of the soil, who protested the Srinagar airport by his exemplary efforts. Sahni recalled that at the time of J&K’s acces-sion to India, Madhok guarded the Srinagar airport along with about 200 volunteers to secure the Srinagar air-port from tribal attacks, due to which Indian Army aircraft could land safely at Srinagar airport to save Kashmir from being annexed by Pakistan.

Manish Sahni has expressed st rong resentment against the non availability of Press Club in Kashmir which is the first and fore-most facility required to establish a healthy fourth pillar of democ-racy. During his special interaction with report-ers at Press Enclave in Srinagar today, Manish Sahni strongly con-demned the authorities for closure of Kashmir Press of Srinagar.

He said that this is the most unwanted devel-opment as it amounts to gagging the voice of Valley journalists reflecting the arrogance of those in Governance of this sensitive Union Territory deserves to be condemned by one and all irrespective of their caste, creed, religious or regional affiliations.

Shiv Sena demands restoration of statehood with special status to J&K

Top News Report

JAMMU Feb 14: Department of Posts (DoP), J&K Postal Circle in collaboration with GMC Jammu and Ramadhun Chari-table Trust organized a blood donation here today.

The camp was inaugurated by Chief Postmaster General (CPMG), J&K, Circle, D V Mahesh.

While speaking on the occa-sion, DV Mahesh said that donating blood not only keeps a donor fit but also saves lives during the times of medical

exigencies. “It gives a feeling of satisfaction when you donate

blood and Blood donated by an individual can save upto three

lives besides stimulating blood cell production”, Mahesh said. He added that donating blood reduces harmful iron stores, lowers the risk of suffering heart attack and keeps liver healthy.

The CPMG expressed grati-tude to GMC authorities and Ramadun Charitable Trust for making the camp a success.

Apart from officers and offi-cials of DoP, around 40 volun-teers of the department donated blood during the camp and took pledge to make it a routine exer-cise as their support towards society as a concerned citizen.

Department of Posts organises Blood Donation Camp

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: A

Bhandara was orga-nized in the premises of Amreshwar Temple at Chatha here today in which devotees partici-pated with great enthu-siasm and religious fer-vour.

The festivity started with performing of Hawan, Puja and sing-ing Bhajans.

Devotees took ‘parsad’ in the Bhandara and sought blessings of Lord Shiva.

On the occasion, the Amreshwar Temple Committee honoured JMC Corporator Rach-

pal Bhardwaj, DDC Member Balbir Lal Tugga, Municipal Councillor Krishan Lal Kaith, Sarpanch Harjeet Singh, R.L.Kaith, Dilay Ram Kaith and Rachpal Kaith for various social causes.

Addressing the gather-ing, the speakers urged the people to ornament their children with edu-cation, which they said is necessary for their overall empowerment.

Mahant Birendra Kaith

highlighted various wel-fare activities organized by the Amreshwar Temple Committee for the students, sportsmen and others from time to time. He also exhorted the well off people to come forward and be a part of this initiative taken by the Committee.

Among those who par-ticipated in the Bhan-dara included Mahant Amar Nath, Havildar Des Raj Kaith, Hans Raj Loria, Tilak Raj Bassa, Bawa Ram Kaith, Karam Chand Lakhotra, Baldev Raj Sargotra, Gurmel Nandan, Tirath Ram Lakhotra, Sewa Ram Motan, Garu Ram Kaith, Amarjeet Sar-gotra, Joginder Mistri, Tara Chand Motan, Panch Joginder Sar-gotra, Panch Sat Pal, Panch Sham Lal Kaith, Ved Parkash Sargotra, Ravinder Motan, Dev Raj Tugga and Suraj Prakash Sargotra.

Top News of J&K Jammu, Monday, August 24, 2020 Top News of J&K Jammu, Monday, August 24, 2020

12 LOCAL / ADVT Top News of J&KJammu, Monday, February 14, 2022

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Top News ReportBHADARWAH, Feb 14: A del-

egation of Youth Action Com-mittee, Bhadarwah (NGO) under the leadership of its Chairman Naseer Mehboob met Lt Gover-nor Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha in Raj Bhawan.

The delegation presented a memorandum listing demands for resolution of various prob-lems being faced by the public of the Additional district, Bha-darwah.

According to a press release, the delegations apprised the Lt Governor about the step moth-erly treatment meted out to the residents of Additional district Bhadarwah by the concerned authorities in not mitigating their sufferings in different forms, release said adding that Bhadarwah hospital being one of the oldest hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir is without doctor specialists and the all time required medical facilities like Ultrasound and CT Scan sections are without concerned special-ists due to which common public suffers badly and having no other option, they have to shift patients either to Jammu or Sri-nagar for advanced treatments.

The release also said that out of a vacancy of 37 doctors in SDH

Bhadarwah, only five posts are filled as of now which do not cater to the needs of the rush of varied nature patients with dif-ferent complicacies coming to the hospital on daily basis.

“Although a University campus of Jammu University has been opened in Bhadarwah way back 16 years, but surprisingly just three post graduate subjects are taught in it while the like campuses at Doda and Kishtwar of the erstwhile district Doda which had been opened much later than Bhadarwah campus have more than seven post grad-uate faculties which is openly a sheer disparity with Bhadarwah that is known as mini Kerala of Jammu and Kashmir, in so far as

Education sector is concerned” said release quoting draft of demands of the memorandum. The release further disclosed that requisite infrastructure in Uni-versity campus Bhadarwah has not been strengthened for the last ten years and the incomplete buildings for various depart-ments are rotting which are seen in shambles.

Expressing dismay over the way department of Power Development(PDD) is treat-ing inhabitants of Bhadarwah, release said that Lt Governor was apprised about the deadlock of 33 KV transmission line that continues for years by virtue of which people are forced to face unimaginable hardships in wake

of unscheduled and uncontrolled black outs and outages caused during the ongoing harsh winter conditions. It was demanded that a high level inquiry should be conducted for 33 KV scandal which is responsible for bring-ing untold miseries of people in Additional district Bhadarwah.

The memorandum further incorporated demands like intro-duction of postgraduate courses and research oriented courses for awarding Ph.D in different sub-jects in Govt Post Graduate Col-lege Bhadarwah, establishment of Drug De-addiction Center at Bhadarwah in wake of rising drug related incidents, Opening of Bhadarwah Gandoh road via Baach Dhar and handing over of other roads to Multinational construction companies instead of GREF for better maintenance and upgradation.

However, Lt Governor while assuring the delegation of early action in response to the points depicting problems so highlight-ed in the memorandum said that the concerned departments deal-ing with the projected demands shall be directed to mitigate the sufferings of the public of Bha-darwah on priority and without further delay.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Apni

Party State General Sec-retary Vikram Malhotra on Monday expressed serious concern over the deplorable condition of ward number 71 in Sidhra with regard to its development following negligent attitude of the concerned Corporator.

Addressing a public meeting organized in ward number 71, Sidhra, Vikram Malhotra said that the developmental activities have stopped with the adverse condi-tion of lanes, drains and other activities.

This meeting was organized by Provincial President, Apni Trade Union, Raj Kumar and he was accompanied by State General Secre-tary, Youth Wing Abhay Bakaya, Vice President Jammu Provincial Apni Trade Union, Sheikh Abdul Latief, District President Trade Union,

Jammu, Anirudh Vasist, Vice President Apni Trade Union Jammu, Puran Chand Rahi, Vijay Mangotra, Sanjay Kumar and others.

“The Corporator was elected by the people with enthusiasm and has not visited many areas or reviewed any development in Sidhra. After the elections, the people have claimed that they have never seen their Corpora-tor, which is the main reason that their devel-opment has not taken place,” he said.

He said that “When the Corporator is inac-tive and has no concern about the public issues, Jammu Municipal Corporation has also ignored Sidhra with regard to developmen-tal activities,” he said.

He said that the people have expressed their serious concern over the discriminatory

approach by not con-sidering what is being demanded by the locals.

“The condition of roads is in worse condi-tion,” he added.

On hearing the griev-ances being projected by the locals in Sidhra, he assured that their prob-lems will be highlighted before the concerned authorities for the redressal of the issues.

Prominent among those who joined Apni Party include Puran Chand Rahi, Sheikh Latief, Bashir Haji, Mohd Kasam (Sarpanch), Mohd Hussain, Shokat Ali, Ashok Kumar, Latief Ahmed, Haji Abdul Gani, Ghulam Rasool, Haji Khatana, Showkat, Kamlesh, Shakti Devi, Raja Bibi, Sanjog Raj, Som Dutt, Raj Kumar, Moti Ram Maheen, Toshi Devi, Kalish Nath, Akam Jaan and Noor Hussain.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: India’s ace

player and chief coach Sunny Nanda to guide the Indian national speedball team to Indo-Nepal International Speed-ball Championship at Pokhra Nepal/

J&K Speedball team consists of Sunny Nanda and 9 other players namely Ayush Dogra, Chetanya, Umair Latif Mir, Yogant Singh, Nirvaan Gupta , Jaskaran Singh, Dhruv Choud-hary, Amer Kushal and Sanam Abbas.

The championship will be organised by Nepal Youth Sports Federation on Febru-

ary 17 to 21, 2022. A send off function was organ-

ised by J&K Sports Speedbll Association for the selected

players. Adv. Purnima sharma (Dy Mayor JMC) was the chief guest, Ajay Gupta (JMC Chair-man, Social Justice) was the special guest and Tarun Uppal (President Jammu Speedball Association) and Kanwarjeet Singh (Member J&K Sports Speedball Association) were the Guests of Honour.

Tarun Uppal said this will be the proud moment for all of us that 9 players from J&K will represent India at international level. He also appreciated the efforts of Sunny Nanda (chief coach of India) and also con-gratulated the parents of select-ed players for this achievement.

Youth Action Committee delegation meets Lt GovernorDemands resolution of problems of Bhadarwah residents

Bhandara organised in Amreshwar Temple at Chatha

JMC, Corporator adopts discriminatory approach in Sidhra: Vikram Malhotra

J&K to lead Indian speedball team at Nepal

Top News ReportJAMMU: Paryavaran

and Wasteland Develop-ment Co-operative Soci-ety, Nagrota, on Monday conducted triennial elec-tion of its Board of Direc-tors (BoDs) for managing the affairs of organiza-tion.

The election was con-ducted under the Chair-

manship of Returning Officer Manoj Kumar Koul deputed by Corpo-rative Department, J&K Government.

Paryavaran and Waste-land Co-operative Society is a registered organiza-tion which is committed to protect environment and to convert waste-land into forest cover in

Jammu & Kashmir from the last 30 years.

M L Abrol, Gandharb Singh Thakur, Ramesh-war Dutt, Joginder Singh, Sakshi Magotra, Zaffar lqbal and Paras Sawhney were elected as Directors of the society.

While interacting with media persons, all the elected directors have shown concern for the deforestation, climate crises and other chal-lenges targeting forest and biodiversity.

They have ensured that all the members of the organization will work in accordance with the aims & objectives of the organization. Chairman, Managing Director and Secretary of the organi-zation shall be elected tomorrow by the Board of Directors.

Top News ReportJAMMU, Feb 14: Sham

Lal Langar, Convener Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Trade and Indus-tries Cell, J&K, said that musical fountain inau-gurated by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha at Bagh-e-Bahu will definitely increase footfall of tour-ists as well as locals as this is now a major attrac-tion of the historical site.

In a statement issued to media here today Sham Lal Langar said that taking such initiatives is the need of the hour as these initiatives and projects will go a long way in giving further

push to tourism in the City of Temples. While lauding the endeavours of the Lt Governor in complete transformation of J&K, he has sought his attention towards Bhour Camp Garden which has become the victims of official apathy. He appealed to him to direct the concerned authori-ties for initiating much needed measures for the proper development of Bhour Camp Garden so that it also becomes a major attraction for the tourists as well as the locals.

The BJP leader asserted that Jammu region has a vast tourism potential but

due to lack of interest of successive regimes of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, majority of potential destinations continue to be wanting in terms of proper develop-ment. He appealed to the LG Manoj Sinha to take adequate measures in this regard by preparing a well-defined strategy for developing the potential sites in a stipulated time frame. He said that this would definitely result in increasing tourist footfall in these areas thus giving a strong economic boost to the economy of Jammu region by transforming Jammu into an indepen-dent tourist destination.

Sham Langar seeks LG’s attention for proper development of tourism potential sites

Welcomes inauguration of ‘Musical Fountain’

BoDs of Paryavaran and Wasteland Development Co-operative Society Nagrota elected