Raining AWARDS
The state government announced awards on the eve of Republic day to recognize the meritorious contribution of 13 people of the state in different fields.
Awards for outstanding service under media category of Rs 51,000, a Medal and Citation to each awardee was granted to late Sham Koul (Posthumously), Bashir Ahmad Sofi, Bureau Chief, UNI, Srinagar and S. P. Sharma from Tribune Newspaper.
Award of bravery of Rs 51,000, a Medal and a Citation was given to Vivek Kumar son of Shamsher Chand R/o Akhnoor. The cash award of Rs 51,000, a Shawl worth Rs 10,000 and Citation in the field of literature was granted in favour of Ghulam Nabi Firaq.
Award for performing Arts of Rs 51,000 each besides a Medal and Citation has been granted in favour of N. D. Jamwal (Painter/Sculptor) and Ali Mohammad (Suma player). Cash award for excellence in Arts and Crafts of Rs 51,000, a Medal and a citation was granted in favour of Syed Amjid Ali son of late Syed Hussain R/o Zadibal Srinagar.
Rajendra Tiku, Balwant Thakur and Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz, the three eminent personalities from Jammu and Kashmir, have been conferred with 2013 Padamshree awards for their contribution in fields of art and culture.
Rajinder Tiku, has been awarded Padamshree for his distinguished contributions in contemporary sculpture, while Balwant Thakur, has been conferred the honour for his creative contributions to the field of Theater. Veteran Sufiana musician of the State, Ustad Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz has been conferred the national honour for his lifetime dedication and contribution to the Sufiana Music.
Pertinently, President of India has approved the conferment of108 Padma Awards. These comprise 4 Padma Vibhushan, 24 Padma Bhushan and 80 Padamshree Awards. 24 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons in the category of Foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and Posthumous awardees.
Meanwhile, the state government also announced Sher-e-Kashmir Police Medal for Gallantry and Sher-e-Kashmir Police Medal for Meritorious Service for the personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police who rendered meritorious services.
The President’s Police Medal for Gallantry would be posthumously awarded to late Constable late Daler Singh.
The Police Medal for Gallantry would be awarded to given to number of police officials that include a SP ranked Haseeb-ur-Rehman to Muhammad Ayaz, Constable.
The President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service would be awarded to Muhammad Sulaiman Salaria, Inspector General of Police, PHQ, Jammu and Kashmir and Jagdish Lal Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, CID SB, Jammu.
Tehzeeb MAHAL
Kashmir Art has lately assumed a new address in form of the multi-facility Tehzeeb Mahal, the foundation stone of which was laid by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah near Tourist Reception Centre recently.
This multi-facility Kashmir art centre would be the first of its kind in state to showcase art, culture and heritage. This planning for this centre has been going on since 1970s and the foundation stone of Tehzeeb Mahal was finally laid in the Emporium Gardens in 1982. However, the project did not move any further until recently when the chief minister approved its construction adjacent to the Tourist Reception Centre.
Tehzeeb Mahal is Rs 64.89 crore project of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL). Another Rs 23.47 crore will be spent on relocation of the State Road Transport Corporation at Nowgam and cost difference of the land to be paid to the Corporation as former owner of the present site.
The ground floor of the three-storey building will have auditorium with a seating capacity of 600, Folk Replica Centre, Art Gallery, Administration Space and Intimate Theatre Studio with seating capacity of 200, as per the officials. The first floor will house Auditorium Balcony, Exhibition Hall-1, Handicrafts Display Room, Library and Conference Hall while the second floor will have Exhibition Hall-2 and Heritage Museum. An Open Air Theatre and Sculpture Garden will be other facilities available at the Tehzeeb Mahal. The basement of the building measuring 46,123 sq ft will be used for parking and housing services.
Officials said that the building will have special architectural finishes in tune with local heritage architecture including maharaji bricks, daji dewari look, devri stone cladding, khatamband ceiling, pinjra and jaffri work, paper machie and sozni work on walls and log bridge and heritage fort wall.
The project (Tehzeeb Mahal) is to be completed in 39 months and is being executed by J&K Projects Construction Corporation Ltd (JKPCC).
A Southern EPIDEMIC
Around 300 people were tested positive for Hepatitis C virus in Takiya Magam village of Islamabad district. A senior gastroenterologist, Dr Mohammad Sultan Khuroo, after visiting the epidemic engulfed village said. The epidemic has come from the point source more than a decade ago, but the public health experts say the suspected source of the outbreak is the unhygienic and unprofessional chemists and diagnostics centers operating in the areas which led to high incidence of the virus. While locals suspected the drug mafia operating in the area as the real causes for this disease.
Public health experts informed that the investigation by Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) lab of the Directorate of Health Services confirmed that 30 percent of the 1081 samples tested positive for Hepatitis C virus in the village. They say the scenario is extremely alarming and an epidemic of very high magnitude.
So far there was no causality reported from the area but the health department says that they are working on the measures to detect the real causes of the outbreak. But at the same time they are presuming the clinics and diagnostic centres, which are operating in and around the area are working under unhygienic conditions, are responsible for the spread of the infection, Rehana Kounsar, State Surveillance Officer, said.
Dr SM Qadri, an Epidemiologist in the Health Department said an expert team from the Directorate of Health Services had taken 1081 blood samples from the area since January 11 after Chief Medical Officer (CMO) reported about the presence of Hepatitis C virus in some patients. Health Department was planning to send the samples to National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) for the Genotyping of the virus and they have asked the union health ministry for their help.
Radha Kumar
“Government of India cared a fig for our report and recommendations. The interlocutors did not disappoint (Kashmiri) people but the reality is that Government of India showed no seriousness to implement our recommendations.”
She said in an interview to a local news agency
Arundhati Roy
“To continue its occupation in Kashmir, India has made its forces immune from every law there.”
Roy said during a debate over the recent report released by Association of Parents of Disappeared Person (APDP) at Gandhi Peace Foundation Delhi organized by Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
Kiran Bedi
“If a man in uniform, be it a policeman or Army man, commits rape, he should face trial under civil law and not court martial.”
She told reporters in Srinagar
Under SCANNER
The new guidelines of Department of Telecommunication (DoT) have once again put the mobile users of valley under the radar of police department. Any customer applying for a second mobile connection in Jammu and Kashmir will be under police scrutiny from February 1, 2013 as the telecom operators have been asked to submit all application forms asking for second connection to police department and in case police fails to submit its reply within next 10 days, the Telecom operator can issue the second connection.
As per the new guidelines, “TSP (Telecom Service Providers) shall make a reference to local police for their clearance,” DoT said in its letter instructing them to follow a particular process before activating the other connection. This new rule will be applicable along with existing norms issued in August 2012 that directs Telecom Service Providers (TSP) not to issue any fresh connection to customers already having six mobile connections in a circle either from one or multiple service providers.
At the end of every month, TSP will have to separately report to Law Enforcement Agency, state police and state TERM cell, the DoT body which monitors compliance by TSPs, about second or multiple connections given by it to customers in the state. The customers will also have to provide reason for buying new connection and their business, office and e-mail will have to be indicated in the application form, it added.
With the new guidelines of DoT, the director general of police Ashok Prasad informed that the misuse of SIM cards by militants in Jammu and Kashmir has prompted the decision of police scrutiny for multiple connections. “Let us see the results of new procedure for one month. We will later see whether to continue it or not. Police already have the record of subscribers but from now onwards new mobile phone connections would be verified after the study of previous records,” he said.
This is not the first time that mobile subscribers in J&K have been put under radar. Earlier in November 2009, the Centre banned prepaid mobile phone connections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ministry of Home Affairs had decided that no fresh prepaid mobile connections should be issued and existing prepaid SIM cards should not be renewed. In January 2010, Centre withdrew the unpopular decision with the department of telecommunications coming out with a very strict verification guideline for existing as well as new subscribers.
Abandoned babies
In order to look into the menace of increasing cases of abandoned babies, authorities at the Valley’s two largest referral hospitals are going to install CCTV security systems for increasing surveillance.
Since the rise of abandoning incidents, CCTVs worth ten lakh rupees would be installed soon and the authorities are hoping that the step may help in curbing baby abandoning and stealing incidents to some extent. But at the larger level, the problem has to be dealt socially as CCTV systems are not a permanent solution, Medical Superintendent of the Children’s Hospital Dr Muneer Masoodi said.
The order came after more than 18 newly born babies, most of them girls, were abandoned at the Children’s Hospital and at the sole maternity hospital, Lala Ded Hospital, in the past twelve months. Three of the incidents have happened in a span of just three days.
A one or two days old newborn boy was found abandoned on the stairs of the shrine Makdoom Sahib (RA) on Tuesday. And later on the same day two more newborn babies, baby girls, were found abandoned at the Children’s Hospital and at Lala Ded Hospital.
“The baby was left abandoned at the neonatology ward by her parents, and till now nobody has come forward to claim the baby,” said Medical Superintendent LD Hospital Dr Mushtaq Rather.
“The baby was born prematurely at the hospital but her overall vitals seem to be fine. Right now she is being monitored and taken care of,” Dr Mushtaq added. But the baby, found on the stairs of the Shrine, was serious and has been put on a ventilator.
Deputy Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr M Salim Khan says the latest incidents are eighth of their kind in the past twelve months and fourth this month. Earlier on January 18, a baby girl was abandoned in almost similar circumstances outside the hospital’s bathroom. She was later adopted by a childless couple after police failed to trace out her biological parents.
