Category: Union Territory

Being Muslim in new 🇮🇳 is to live in fear & perpetually having to look over one’s shoulder. From wilfully spreading COVID to brutally killing an elephant,we are accused of being root cause of every problem that ails the nation. In this new apartheid system, muslims are villains

Being Muslim in new 🇮🇳 is to live in fear & perpetually having to look over one’s shoulder.From wilfully spreading COVID to brutally killing an elephant,we are accused of being root cause of every problem that ails the nation. In this new apartheid system, muslims are villains

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) June 5, 2020

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Friday said the new recruitment rules for Class-IV jobs notified by the J&K government yesterday are completely prejudicial in nature and should be rolled back and modified in accordance with the standard rules governing the recruitment processes across the country.

In a statement issued here, Bukhari castigated the administration for handling such a sensitive issue in a “causal and mundane manner” which is not only detrimental to the interests of lakhs of unemployed youth but are fraught with dangerous ramifications for the peace and progress of Jammu and Kashmir.

“In the new recruitment rules notified on June 4, 2020 the administration has incorporated SRO-202 clauses which are not only obsolete but brazenly, unconstitutional in nature. The five-year probation instead of two years with denial of increments is totally against the right to equality enjoyed by all other citizens across the country except for the residents of J&K,” Bukhari said, while urging for personal intervention of the union home minster into the matter.

He said that the SRO 202 was formulated by the previous elected government under the constitution of erstwhile state of J&K, which presently stands revoked. “Since the Indian constitution and law is directly applicable to Jammu and Kashmir how can SRO 202 be still valid in such a situation? The government of India cannot have double standards for residents of J&K while the citizens in all others states enjoy equal rights under the constitution of the country. This contradiction needs to be alleviated, sooner the better,” he remarked.

He also questioned the J&K government’s stand on the report submitted by the Law Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) M.K Hanjura who had recommended reduction in probation period from five to two years for employees recruited under SRO-202 since its notification in 2015.

“It is highly disgusting that the present dispensation has continued with anti-youth SRO-202. Justice (Retd.) Hanjura led Law Commission had recommended to set these rules in tune and in line with Office Memorandum of Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, and also to be in consonance with the evolved concept of justice and equality,” Bukhari observed, adding that the present government seems to have trashed those recommendations.

He demanded those employees who have completed two years of probation on the date of the promulgation of Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act 2019 should be regularized forthwith and the cases of those employees who will be completing two years of probation on any future date may be taken up for such consideration as per the recommendations of the Hanjura Law Commission.

Taking an exception to the other lacunas in the new recruitment rules, the JKAP president said the additional weightage clause for the district cadre posts is also against the principle of equality. “How can the candidates from remote and inaccessible areas of a district be equated with their counterparts who reside and get education and exposure in urban areas of the same district? This is totally an unjustified clause which should be removed forthwith,” he demanded.

Bukhari also censured the administration for insisting the candidates for production of Domicile Certificates at the end of recruitment process saying that the clause in fresh recruitment rules is not only frustrating but loaded with political connotations which put a question mark on the intentions of government for addressing the burning issue of unemployment in J&K.

“The fresh recruitment rules in its entirety are demoralizing for the qualified youth of J&K who in absence of other private sector opportunities look for government sector with high hopes. These rules should be immediately rolled back and modified in accordance with the right to equality and equal pay to equal work enshrined in the constitution of the country,” the JKAP president demanded.

Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday said Covid-19 infection increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.

“If you catch novel coronavirus, you are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

“Covid is known to damage the lungs, but there is emerging evidence over the effect of this viral infection on the heart and the brain,” he said.

Quoting a recent study published in New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Nisar said 44 percent patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 infection had heart attack.

“Earlier studies have also shown that 20 -30 percent of patients hospitalized due to Covid infection had cardiac complications,” he added.

Dr Nisar said we know preexisting heart disease is a risk factor for higher mortality in Covid patients, but recent evidence shows that the novel virus can cause heart injury even in people without underlying heart issues.

“Lung injury has taken the centre stage as the most dreaded complication of Covid, but heart damage has recently emerged as yet another grim outcome in the virus repertoire of complications,” he said.

“More people actually die of heart disease rather than pneumonia,” Dr Nisar said.

“Cardiac complications have been found to contribute 40 percent of deaths related to Covid-19,” he said.

Dr Nisar said researchers from the University of Cincinnati and three Italian institutions have found that 31 percent patients hospitalized with Covid-19 infection experienced stroke.

“Another study published in New England Journal of Medicine has reported five cases of large vessel stroke as a presenting feature of Covid infection in patients who were younger than 50 years of age,” he said.

Dr Nisar said Covid-19 infection causes acute and severe inflammation throughout the body that builds up fat deposits in the inner walls of blood vessels. These fat deposits dislodge and get stuck in the heart or brain, where they block the blood flow.

“Covid infection activates blood cells and clotting system leading to increased risk of blood clots,” he said.

“The new findings would help doctors to recognize red flags in patients with Covid-19 infection and provide earlier intervention and save lives,” said Dr Nisar.

PTI

China on Friday said that it is committed to properly resolve the relevant issue with India ahead of the key talks between senior Indian and Chinese military officials on Saturday to end the border standoff.Both the sides are expected to deliberate on specific proposals to end the month-long bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh during the first extensive talks between the Indian and Chinese military on Saturday, led by lieutenant generals from both the armies.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here that “at the moment the situation in the boundary region between China and India is overall stable and controllable”.

We have full-fledged border-related mechanisms and we maintain close communications though military and diplomatic channels, he said when asked about reports that Indian and Chinese military officials are due to hold talks on Saturday.We are committed to properly resolve the relevant issue, Geng said.The general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, Lt Gen Harinder Singh, is expected to represent India at the talks which is scheduled to be held at one of the border meeting points, the official sources in New Delhi said.

The Indian side is expected to present specific proposals at the talks to de-escalate tension in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley and Demchok — the three areas in eastern Ladakh where the two sides have been on a bitter standoff for the last one month, the sources said.It is not immediately known what will be the proposals that the Indian military will take to the negotiating table but it is understood that it will insist on return to status quo in all the areas.The two sides have already held at least 10 rounds of negotiations between local commanders as well as major general-rank officials of the two armies but the talks did not yield any positive result, they said.

It is learnt that two sides are also engaged in diplomatic talks to find a solution to the face-off which is turning out to be the most serious military standoff between the two armies after the Doklam episode of 2017.After the standoff began early last month, the Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.The Chinese Army is learnt to have deployed around 2,500 troops in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure and weaponry.India has also been bolstering its presence by sending additional troops and artillery guns, the sources said.

The trigger for the face-off was China’s stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in the Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

With inputs from Business Standard

Srinagar: Jammu Kashmir Government has decided to put Bureaucrat turned politician Shah Faesal under house detention after revoking his detention under Public Safety Act.

Police sources told news agency KNT that Dr Shah Faesal was placed under house arrest at Government Quarter in Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar city.

A police party has been deployed outside his government residence and he was informed about his detention.

Almost all the top political leaders, who were released after their detention post abrogation of Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir, have been facing house detention.

When Shah Faesal was escorted out of the makeshift detention centre two days back, the buzz was that other top functionaries of mainstream political parties would also be freed in a day or two. The optimism dissipated somewhat after it turned out that the move was only a change of address for the former IAS topper.

“We thought he is free now, but it was our delusion. He has been placed under house arrest,” said a relative of Shah Faesal to KNT.

By: Syed Nashir Ali Gillani

Srinagar: As cases of Covid-19 are increasing,so as deaths due to it with each passing day, the decision to lift lockdown from June 8 will not be wise and will prove disastrous.

Going by the reports,the state is lacking requisite infrastructure and resources to tackle the global pandemic that has claimed nearly 04 lakh lives.

The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir has only 180 ventilators for a population of 1.25 crore population.

In Kashmir alone,for a population of 70 lakh, there are just 93 ventilators in hospitals. Most of them are occupied by the patients suffering from various ailments.

The spontaneous spread of virus will result in crises,beyond imagination.

“Our health care system is in poor state. God forbid, if virus spreads in valley, the management of patients will be a difficult task. We are not in a position to deal with any eventuality,” a senior doctor at SKIMS had told to a leading newspaper of Kashmir valley.

The doctors continue to suffer because of lack of proper and adequate protection gears and safety equipments like N95 masks,PVC coated gowns, the doctor had added.

Hence,the government should revisit it’s decision in the larger interest of people.

If it goes with it’s decision, the consequences will be enormous and the responsibility will come on it.

Pertinent to mention, that the health care system of Spain, a developed country collapsed after spontaneous outbreak of virus.

The patients were treated in open, not only this, the old people offered their ventilators to young people, putting their own lives at risk.

Srinagar: A day after a 65-year-old woman from Srinagar died at SMHS hospital here, her swab sample has returned positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said on Friday.

A resident of Batamaloo, she became the ninth Srinagar resident and 36th in the J&K to succumb to the virus.

“She was brought to the hospital on Thursday morning. She had many underlying ailments including pneumonia and died later,” Dr Nazir Choudhary, Medical superintendent SMHS hospital, told GNS.

Her samples, he said, returned positive for Covid-19 late last night.

With the latest fatality, the death toll due to the virus in J&K has gone up to 36. So far Srinagar district with nine deaths due to the virus has the highest fatalities, followed by Baramulla seven, Anantnag five, Kulgam four, two each from Shopian, Budgam and Jammu while one death each has been reported from Bandipora, Kupwara Doda and Udhampur. (GNS)

PTI

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government has so far brought back over 1.09 lakh residents of the Union territory stranded in other parts of the country due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, an official said on Thursday.

The returnees came on special buses and trains amid strict observance of all necessary guidelines and standard operating procedures (SoPs).

As per official data received in this regard, the administrations of Jammu and Kashmir districts have received 43 special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with 33,532 stranded passengers while 75,826 people have been evacuated by the government through Lakhanpur.

Cumulatively, 1,09,358 J&K residents stranded outside the UT have been brought back by the government after strictly observing all necessary preventive measures regarding the virus, an official spokesperson said.

As per the detailed break-up of figures, 869 stranded passengers have entered through Lakhanpur from June 3 to the morning of June 4 while 827 passengers have reached Jammu aboard the 22nd Delhi COVID special train.

So far, 22 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 17,836 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,696 passengers have reached Udhampur in 21 special trains.

As per the official communiqu , the 75,826 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur till June 2 (morning) included 19,849 from Punjab, 22,198 from Himachal Pardesh, 25 from Andhra Pardesh, 7,061 from Delhi, 1,404 from Gujarat, 3,344 from Rajasthan, 4,374 from Haryana, 162 from Chhattisgarh, 3,677 from Uttarakhand (88 from Dehradun), 1,102 from Maharashtra, 4,773 from Uttar Pradesh, 64 from Odisha, 268 from Assam, 1,207 from Madhya Pradesh, 1,447 from Chandigarh, 698 from Telangana, 122 from Karnataka, 75 from Tamil Nadu (52 from Chennai), 327 from Bihar, 171 from West Bengal, 113 from Jharkhand, three from Goa along with 3,271 from the rest of the states and UTs. Three persons returned from Nepal as well.

Srinagar: An employee of Sub District Hospital is among nine people who have tested positive for Coronavirus in Sopore on Thursday.

An official told news agency KINS that nine people have tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday in Sopore.
“Among them one is employee at Sub District Hospital. He is a lab technician and was collecting the COVID-19 samples for testing,” the official said.

BMO Sopore Dr Asif Khanday also confirmed to news agency KINS that lab technician of sub district hospital has been tested positive.

At least 285 new positive cases of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), 63 from Jammu division and 222 from Kashmir division, have been reported Thursday thus taking the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 3142. Also, one COVID-19 death has been reported from Kashmir division on Thursday.(KINS)

Rajouri: One militant was killed in an ongoing encounter that raged in Mehari village of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Rajouri and Poonch range, Vivek Gupta told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that on the basis of a specific input, a Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) was launched by Army’s Rashtriya Rifles and police in Mehari area of Rajouri Kalakote.

“During the search operation, exchange of fire took place in which a militant has been killed,” DIG said, adding that the operation is going on and the entire area has been sealed.

He further informed that the identification of militant is being ascertained –(KNO)