Rodent CARE
Next time you are in Valley’s lone tertiary care hospital and electricity plays hide and seek, don’t blame PDD! It might be the rodents fiddling with the electric wires and other emergency care system in the hospital.
After tenders were passed by the state hospital to hunt for a pied-piper, time is now for Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) which has been battling with invasion of rats’. The hospital administration has already sought tenders worth Rs 8. 80 lakhs per annum for controlling rodents and cats besides other pest control management in the hospital.
Dr Ajaz Mustafa, superintendent of SKIMS, says that earlier it was a contract with a person who used to catch majority of the rodents. Since, the contract stands expired fresh tenders were invited.
The rodents are posing threat to the lives of the kids and serious patients who become easy prey for them. And it has been reported that there is always a lurking threat of epidemic given their access to stores and kitchens of the hospital.
“Even if there are only 10 rodents, it is a problem. It is a huge complex. You have hostels, kitchens, staff canteen and other things. We want eradication of these rodents. Naturally nobody would like to have rodents in kitchens,” said Dr Mustafa.
SKIMS is the biggest super specialty hospital in Jammu and Kashmir with 700-bed capacity where around five lakh patients are treated annually in its outpatient department.
Around 1,500 patients visit the OPD for consultations every day. Around 150 patients are admitted every day in the hospital. And nearly 150 patients are discharged from the hospital after treatment every day.
Forging MARRIAGE
In Kashmir you can literally buy a Nikahnama – with or without girls consent!
In a recent revelation, Jammu & Kashmir crime branch produced a charge-sheet before Tangmarg court against a Maulvi Syed Shams Rehman and five others for allegedly forging a nikahnama of a minor girl with a 33-year-old man in Bandipora village in 2010.
The Maulvi originally from UP, is a close aide of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. He was a close associated of Umar’s father late Maulvi Mohammad Farooq. Maulvi Shams, who is married to a local woman, is the man behind press notes released by Umar’s Awami Action Committee.
According to police the “Maulvi has prepared the nikahnama at the Nigeen residence of the Mirwaiz where he has his office. After forging the thumb impressions of the 15-year-old girl, he sold the forged document to 33-year-old Samiullah Ganai of Bandipora in Lal Chowk, Srinagar, for Rs 5,000.”
Mirwaiz reportedly has enquired the incident and found out that Maulvi Shams had prepared the documents outside his residence and admitted he had made the nikahnama in presence of both the girl and the man.
According to the police, a woman lawyer and her agent from Rainawari in Srinagar, in league with a court clerk got a woman in burqa to impersonate as the Bandipora teenager and got her statement recorded in the munsif court in Tangmarg.
In a fix the parents of the girl have decided to move to the high court even though the case is pending in the Tangmarg court.
In the meantime, the IGP of Kashmir Zone said the human trafficking, child labour and marriages of under-aged girls, has become a social problem.
He appealed to the common masses that in order to arrest the trend of human trafficking, every section of the society should come forward. IGP was speaking during a state level workshop, which was inaugurated by him on Juvenile justice system for police officers of anti-human trafficking units on handling child trafficking.
Frisking FIASCO
The checking by female folks in any state establishment has always raised questions especially when they belong to CRPF cadre. Be it Central Jail of Srinagar, State Secretariat or any other institution, females going to such places have always alleged of frisking in somewhat different way, sometimes close to molestation!
Recently a female visitor was allegedly ‘undressed’ by the women cops of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed at the central jail gate. This has triggered a strike by the detainees in Jail who are demanding woman cops of CRPF to be replaced by JK Police for checking of the female visitors.
The jail authorities have started investigations into the matter and apparently it is the second such incident in the Central Jail Srinagar, when a lady visitor was allegedly undressed by the woman CRPF cops at the gate.
It has been reported that woman CRPF cops do not use metal detectors during frisking and it takes more than 20 minutes to carryout frisking of woman who come to meet the detainees.
But the Inspector General of CRPF, P K Singh says that the woman personnel are deployed there and they are doing their job. Nothing of such sort has happened there.
Meanwhile, the Director General (DG) Prisons, K Rajendra said that he has directed his people to look into the allegation. But he has said the visitors have to be checked thoroughly before they meet any detainee as they have recovered cell phones and other things from the premises of jail.
Challenging SITUATION
The targeted attacks on government forces in the year 2013 compelled Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to say the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is still a ‘challenge’ for the Indian government.
During this year around 50 personnel lost their lives in different attacks.
Shinde was speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day Conference of Directors General of Police (DGPs), where he alleged that these attacks indicate a nefarious game plan ‘hatched across the border’ to demoralize forces and demonstrate to the people of J&K that the ‘capabilities of militants remain undiminished.’
And the attempts of ceasefire violations along the border, particularly in Poonch district of Jammu region are an addition to that.
Shinde believes that his forces responded in right measure and succeeded in neutralizing several militant commanders and ‘eliminating’ 35 militants on the LoC this year.
He wished to maintain a “fine balance” between firm handling of militants and adequate restraint in public order situations so that civilian casualties get limited. He too is of the opinion that separatist elements should be denied so that it cannot foment further disturbances.
Shaming SCAMS
First it was the famous CET racket involving crores of rupees and now, another scam surfaced when crime branch raided Awnatipora Godowns and found 10,000 Quintals of rice missing. In another fraud, a ZEO disbursed Rs 8 Lakhs for a school building already in place.
As per the reports of a local wire service the state authorities approve Rs 18 Lakh for the construction of the primary school at Astan Butto Lolab. The school was required to have the facility of three rooms at least, so that the local children in the area could be admitted for the primary education.
Two months earlier the Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) in Lolab, Abdul Khaliq Kumar passed the work order for the construction of the primary school in favor of the local sarpanch Ghulam Mohammad Shah and has disbursed the payment to him through cheques. One cheque was issued to him on 29-10-2013 of Rs.5 lakh and another of Rs. 3 lakh on 12-11-2013.
The locals of the area allege that the local sarpanch has converted his property into the primary school. The locals further accuse that the earlier three ZEOs have been transferred only because that they did not pass work order in Sarpanch’s favor.
The locals have brought the case in the notice of the Deputy commissioner Kupwara and asked for the early action in this matter.
In the meantime, the Chief Education Officer Kupwara recently inspected the building where he reportedly has seized the official records at the office of the ZEO. Two principles of Higher Secondary Sogam and Takipora have been appointed as the investigation officers who have been directed to submit the investigation report within the period of 7 days.
