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  • Light rail transit systems for Srinagar, Jammu to be completed in four to five years: Govt

    Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday said the work on building elevated light rail transit systems for Srinagar and Jammu cities would start soon and that the project will be completed in four-five years.

    Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary to the Government, Housing and Urban Development Department said in phase one of the elevated light rail transit system two corridors will be laid from HMT junction to Indra Nagar and Osmanabad to Hazuribagh.

    “In phase two, two corridors will be laid from Indra Nagar to Pampore Bus Stand and Hazuribagh to airport,” said Gupta.

    He said Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) will complete the detailed project reports (DPRs) in next 15-20 days. “After the DPRs, we need to have certain approvals from the state govt and the GoI. The work would be completed in four-five years,” he said.

    Gupta said the total cost of light rail system which they are planning to introduce in two cities (Srinagar and Jammu) is around Rs 8500 crores.

    He said that in phase one two corridors from Bantalab to Greater Kailash and Udheywala to Exhibition Ground will be developed in Jammu. In the second phase, corridors will be built from Greater kailash to Bari Brahamana Railway Station and Exhibition Ground to Satwari Chowk to Airport.

  • Centre working on 3-pronged strategy to improve J&K situation

    With Parliament approving a six-month extension of President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union government has initiated a three-pronged strategy to improve political and economic environment in the state, say officials.

    The Centre’s priority areas in the state are: wining people’s trust in the administrative system, isolating militant and separatist outfits, and strengthening the panchayat system, they said.

    Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the state on June 26-27. Top officials, who attended the meetings Shah held during his visit, said they are expecting radical changes at all levels in the state in coming days.

    “The Home Minister has given clear instructions to encourage transparency in administration and to deal sternly with cases of corruption,” an official told PTI, requesting anonymity.

    Top security and civil administration officials said expeditious efforts are being put in to make the administration accountable, keeping in view the priorities of the new government at the Centre.

    Unnecessary departments are being shelved and senior officials are being asked to establish direct contact with common masses.

    Senior officials believe that the success of first-of-its-kind “Back to Village” programme reflects people’s trust in the administration.

    Top officials from the Army, Central Reserve Police Force, Jammu Kashmir Police and Border Security Force said that with the help of confidence-building measures, they have managed to eliminate the fear from people’s mind to a large extent.

    “For the first time in the past few years, we are witnessing a reverse trend in recruitment of locals by militant organisations,” said a top security official.

    As many as 26 youths, who were missing from their villages and were believed to have joined militant organisations, were traced and handed over to their respective families, officials said.

    They said that such campaign by the army and other security agencies in South Kashmir, which is the worst hit region in the state, has had a positive impact on the locals.

    It has happened for the first time that there was no militancy related incident or a bandh call by separatist organisations during a visit by a Union home minister in the state, they said.

    Officials believe that President’s Rule has facilitated better coordination among different security agencies.

    The Governor’s Rule was imposed in the state in June last year when the then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had to resign after the BJP pulled the plug on the BJP-PDP coalition government. 

    As per the constitution of the state, Jammu and Kashmir cannot be under the Governor’s Rule for more than six months. Hence, President’s Rule was imposed in December 2018, which was extended for six months last week after Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha gave its approval.

    Sources said that besides directing officials to improving the security and administrative arrangement in the state, the Centre has also asked them attach priority to development works at the panchayat level.

    Elections in around 4,300 panchayats in the state were held in November last year.

    A top official in the administration said that they are expecting that Rs 4,000 crore will be allocated to panchayats in the Union budget and that it will give a boost to development works at the grassroots level.

    Top officials in the state say that after formation of a new government in New Delhi, the attitude of people associated with political parties and those in the administration has changed.

    This has rekindled the hope of a change in work culture at all levels of administration and strengthened the possibilities of cooperation from the common people, they said.

  • Rahul steps down formally

    More than a month after declaring his intention, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday formally resigned as Congress president, saying he is responsible for the loss in the Lok Sabha election and accountability is critical for the party’s future growth.

    In a four-page open letter, Gandhi urged the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to entrust a group of people with the task of finding a new president as it would not be proper for him to do so.

    The 49-year-old — who has been adamant on his decision to quit as party president since 25 May, two days after the results in which his party won 52 seats — also stressed on the need for the Congress to “radically transform itself”.

    Heralding what could be a new era in his party, Gandhi said it had been a honour to serve the Congress, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of “this beautiful nation”.

    In a letter that was emotive in places and combative in others, he said he owed the country and his organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love.

    “As President of the Congress Party, I am responsible for the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress President,” he said.

    “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party,” he said in the letter shared on his Twitter account.

    Gandhi, the most visible face of his party’s election campaign, noted that he personally fought Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and the institutions they have captured with all his being.

    “I fought because I love India… At times I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,” he said. 

    The Indian nation must unite to reclaim and resuscitate its institutions, Gandhi said. And the instrument of this resuscitation, he added, will be the Congress.

    The MP from Wayanad, who lost his Amethi seat, also claimed he did not fight a political party in the 2019 election but the entire machinery of the Indian state.

    Taking moral responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi resigned as Congress president on 25 May but the CWC rejected his resignation and authorised him to initiate changes in the party to revamp and restructure it at all levels.

    “Immediately after resigning, I suggested to my colleagues in the Congress Working Committee that the way forward would be to entrust a group of people with the task of beginning the search for a new President. I have empowered them to do so and committed my full support to this process and a smooth transition,” he said.

    Earlier in the day, Gandhi told reporters the CWC should immediately meet to decide on his successor.

    Thanking the thousands of people who have written to him, Gandhi said in his letter that he would continue to fight for the ideals of the Congress with all his strength and will be available to the party whenever his services are required.

    “It is a habit in India that the powerful cling to power, no one sacrifices power. But we will not defeat our opponents without sacrificing the desire for power and fighting a deeper ideological battle. I was born a Congressman, this party has always been with me and is my lifeblood and forever that way it shall remain,” Gandhi said.

    He noted that a free and fair election requires the neutrality of a country’s institutions and an election cannot be fair without arbiters a free press, an independent judiciary, and a transparent election commission that is objective and neutral.

    “Nor can an election be free if one party has a complete monopoly on financial resources,” he noted.

    Congress leaders at various levels have been appealing to Gandhi to take back his resignation but he has been unrelenting. Some party workers are sitting on a ‘dharna’ outside the Congress headquarters, asking him to continue as president. There have also been several resignations of middle-rung leaders. And two days ago, the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states met Gandhi in an effort to make him change his mind.

  • Minibus meets accident after dropping off students at Sopore shrine, driver critically injured

    An official said a minibus (bearing registration number JK01J-9633) rolled down a deep gorge while making way for another vehicle to pass near the shrine.


    EJAZ-UL-HAQ BHAT
    Sopore

    A minibus driver was critically injured after his vehicle met with an accident at the famous shrine of Baba Shakoor-ud-Din in Watlab area of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Thursday.

    An official said a minibus (bearing registration number JK01J-9633) rolled down a deep gorge while making way for another vehicle to pass near the shrine.

    He said that the driver was critically injured in the incident and was shifted to a nearby health facility for treatment where from he was referred to a hospital in Srinagar for specialised treatment.

    The official said that the minibus was with a Budgam school for picnic to Baba Shakoor-ud-din shrine and it rolled down after school children had de-boarded the vehicle.

  • Pakistan court books Hafiz Saeed, 12 other JuD leaders for ‘terror financing’

    Top 13 leaders of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), including its chief Hafiz Saeed and Naib Emir Abdul Rehman Makki, have been booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 in Pakistan.

    The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc, Dawn reported.

    These non-profit organisations were banned in April as the CTD during detailed investigations found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets/properties from the collected funds in Pakistan.

    Besides the top two JuD leaders, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Yahya Aziz, Mohammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Mohammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar were also booked in the cases.

    “Formal investigations on a large scale have been launched against the top leadership of the JuD for terror financing after the registration of FIRs against them during the last two days,” said a spokesperson for the CTD, Punjab.

    According to the official, substantial and irreversible punitive/ legal action has been taken against them by the state, making these organisations “fully dysfunctional”.

  • 800 militants killed in J&K between 2014-18: Govt Of India

    New Delhi: Government forces have killed 800 militants since 2014, of which 249 were in 2018, the Government of India (GoI) told the Parliament on Wednesday.
    In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State in the Defence Ministry Shripad Naik said 104 militants were killed in 2014, 97 in 2015, 140 in 2016 and 210 in 2017.
    The security forces are combating the militants’ activities, both along the Line of Control by eliminating the infiltration bids and in hinterland by carrying out counter-militancy operations and responding to militancy -initiated incidents, Naik said.
    The minister said sustained operations conducted by the security forces “have resulted in (the) elimination of (a) large number of terrorists”.
    Replying to a separate question, Naik said firm and decisive response was given by the Army to the ceasefire violations on the India-Pakistan border.
    In March, April and May, he said 267, 234, 221 cases of ceasefire violations were reported, respectively.
    In a response to another question on whether the United States had approved the sale of armed drones to India, Naik said: “This is a continuous process undertaken through procurement from various indigenous as well as foreign sources. Highest priority is accorded to optimally equip the armed forces and keep them in a state of readiness.”
    Based on threat assessment and security imperatives, the minister said, the government constantly review the national security scenario and take steps to induct appropriate defence equipment to meet the security challenges and operational requirements.
    —PTI

  • IIT Hyderabad Student Who Committed Suicide After Failing to Land a Job Leaves Behind Heart-Breaking Letter for Friends: ‘Don’t Forget to Live’

    In a shocking incident, a masters student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad committed suicide as he failed to secure a job. He killed himself after leaving behind a note for his friends. He wrote an eight-page long suicide letter pouring out his heart. He wrote about his views on life, the low phase of his life, his failure to find a job. According to the extracts of the letter which was acquired by The Times of India, he tells his friends ‘don’t forget to live, ek hi zindagi hain’ (there is only one life). 24-year-old Mark Andrews Charles from Varanasi completed his Masters in Designing from IIT a few days ago.

    The letter says, “I did have dreams, just like everyone. But now, it’s pretty empty. All this positivity, the constant smiling, telling people that I am ok, even though I am not’ he explains about depression and low feeling on not being able to secure a job. Police have filed a case under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in the incident.

    He apologised to all his friends and mentioned that last two months were the best time of his life. He advised them to not waste their lives in the IT industry. He wrote, “IT me kaam karte karte apni life matt bhil jana. Live a little everyday.”

    As per the police report, “In wee hours of Tuesday, Charles hanged himself to death in his room inside the campus hostel. His friends informed us about the incident. We have recovered a suicide note from his room in which he apologised to his parents and friends for taking the extreme step. The body has been shifted to the local government hospital for post mortem.”

    In the recent past, Hyderabad has been witnessing an increase in the number of suicides by students. There were also cases of students committing suicide after failing to pass JEE Main and in return not being able to secure a seat in IITs. A few months ago, a total of 50 students from various cities committed suicide as they failed to clear Intermediate Examinations. After the results of various exams were declared in the past two months, various cities have been witnessing an increase in the suicide rate.

  • Bandipora rape: HC seeks Twitter report on removal of posts

    Kahua rape-murder case: HC issues notice to JK govt over dismissal of accused cop

    The High Court on Wednesday sought report from Twitter that the company has removed all the posts on its website unveiling identity of a minor girl who was allegedly raped in Sumbal area of Bandipora on May 8.

    A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Dar sought to know about the removal of the posts after advocate Moksha Kazmi on behalf of Twitter International informed it that the Company has already removed all the posts identified by the amicus curiae, Farah Bashir.

    The Court today impleaded Twitter International Company as a party after it was informed that the correct address of the Company is; 1-Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, Dublin, D2, Dublin Country Ireland instead of the name reflected in the order dated 30 May 2019.

    While Neel Mason appearing with Farhat Zia on behalf of Youtube informed the court that the correct name of the Company was M/s Youtube LLC, advocate Syed Faisal Qadiri filed an affidavit on behalf of Facebook.Inc.

    Meanwhile counsels appearing for Youtube LLC and Twitter International Company sought to file their responses.

    The court directed that URLs of posts identified from the reports submitted by the amicus curiae be removed from the websites.

    While the court decided to consider the responses filed by Kashmir Glory, Daily Ilhaaq, Kashmir Observer on 30 August, it ordered Daily Afaaq and Kashmir Vision to submit the response within one week.

    The court further said that no compliance was filed with regard to Section 44 of the POCSO Act of 2018 which casts a duty upon the Government to give wide publicity through media- television, radio and print media- at regular intervals to make the general public, children as well as their parents and guardians aware of the provisions of the Act.

    Senior Additional Advocate General B A Dar however sought time to place on record the information to be furnished by the Department of Information.

    The court also took on record action plan with regard to linkage between police stations and the officers of the Legal Services Authority.

    The Court directed the State Legal Services authority and the J&K Police to take all the immediate required steps to operationalize the action plan and report to it about the same.

    In his status report Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, said that the charge sheet in the case related to FIR No. 81/2019 has been filed in the Court of Sessions Judge Bandipora on 25 May 2019.

    In his affidavit Medical Superintendent SKIMS said that there was no leakage of medical records relating to the examination of the victim in the case and that the same was handed over to the investigating officer.

  • Seven Jammu and Kashmir police officers posted in Anti-Corruption Bureau

    The Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday transferred seven police officers and posted them in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

    According to an order issued by the General Administration Department, Zoheb Tanveer SDPO Khanyar; Rameez Rashid Bhat SDPO Hazratbal; Hamid Ali Banday Dy.SP CID SB Kulgam; Sheikh Mudasir Ahmad Farooqi Dy.SP PC Bandipora; Masood Ahmad Beigh Dy.SP SHRC; Mohammad Rafi Parray lncharge Dy.SP; and S. Dedar Singh, lncharge Dy.SP have been posted with the ACB.

    The order further said that Kartar Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau is repatriated to the Home Department for further posting.

  • Complaint against Mehbooba over “seditious” statement forwarded to Jammu SSP

    A complaint against former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti over her “seditious” statement earlier this year has been forwarded by the Jammu district magistrate to a senior police officer for examination and necessary action as warranted by the law, a social activist said Wednesday.

    “The complaint seeking action against the PDP president for her seditious statement on the national flag, which represents the national honour, and her threat of 1947-like violence erupting in the state if Article 35A is repealed, was forwarded to the senior superintendent of police (SSP), Jammu,” Sukesh C Khajuria said.

    Khajuria had filed an RTI application on March 30, seeking information about the action taken on his complaint against Mufti. He received a reply on June 25 in which the district magistrate informed him that his complaint had been forwarded to the SSP, Jammu, for examination and appropriate action.

    “I am directed to forward a copy of the representation received from Khajuria for initiation of action under section 196 CrPC and request for filling a complaint against former chief minister for commission of offence under section 124-A RPC and other relevant provisions of laws of the state,” Additional District Magistrate, Jammu, Rishpal Singh said in a letter to SSP Jammu, forwarding Khajuria’s complaint

    “In this context, you are requested to examine the complaint and take appropriate action warranted under law in the matter,” he added.

    On February 27, the activist had lodged a complaint with the district magistrate against PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, alleging that “the seditious statement made by her Mufti on February 25 is an incitement to violence or public disorder and falls within ambit of section 124-A Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) which also falls under chapter VI of the RPC and thus section 196 of CrPC is attracted.