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Srinagar, Feb 10: A local court here has summoned Jitendra Narayan Tyagi alias Waseem Rizvi for his alleged statement against  Islam and Holy Quran.

“Prima facie case for issuance of process for the offences punishable under sections 153A, 295A, 505 of Indian Penal Code is made out against the accused (Tyagi). As such, in the first instance let a summons be issued to the accused calling upon him to appear before this Court and answer the allegations leveled against him in the instant complaint,” Second Additional Munsiff, Judicial Magistrate 1st Class Srinagar, Shahber Ayaz, said in an order and put up the complaint for further proceedings on 25 March 2022.

Former UP Shia Waqf Board chairman, Tyagi last year converted to Hinduism. The complainant–Danish Hassan Dar, a resident of Srinagar, through his counsel Advocate Amir Masoodi in his plea submitted that Tyagi “outraged, attacked and tarnished his religious feelings” by his statement in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh made a statement on 6 December 2021 that “Islam was a group or organization and that the Holy Book of Muslims Quran is a false and frivolous literature which has no basis at all.”

“The use of these unconstitutional statements clearly depicts his essence of negativity towards the Muslim majority of the Republic of India,” the complainant said, adding, “The accused (Tyagi) has outraged, attacked and tarnished the religious feelings of complainant by virtue of his the above mentioned statements which cannot be overlooked and ignored before the Mechanism of law.” (GNS)

58869 dog bite cases reported in Valley from 2011 to 2021; Have started to setup multiple dog sterilization centres to control dog population: SMC Commissioner

Srinagar, Feb 10: The increasing number of dog bite cases in Kashmir are turning out to be major challenge for the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the Municipal Committees in various districts as kids continue to fall prey to stray dogs.

The increasing population of stray dogs in Kashmir, particularly in Srinagar city is proving to be a great threat to the population.

As per data, accessed by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Valley has reported 58,869 dog bite cases in the past decade – from 2011 to January 2021. “The data available with the Department of Community Medicines, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, 4149 persons have been bitten by stray dogs in last year,” the data reveals.

SMC Commissioner Athar Aamir Khan said: “SMC started a project to set up multiple dog sterilization centres to control the canine population. As part of a project to take up sterilisation at a large scale, SMC was going to add three more dog sterilization centres, in addition to the existing one at Shuhama. One will be added at Shuhama with SKAUST and another at Tengpora and the location for the third one is yet to be finalised.”

Khan said the only way to control the dog population is sterilization.

“We can’t move dogs from one place to another, which is against the court laws. We have a dog sterilization centre functional at Shuhama with a capacity of 10-15 surgeries per day. With the addition of three more centres, which are part of a new project, we will be able to carry out 240 sterilization surgeries per day,” he said.

“We are working on 100 percent door to door collection of waste in which our own vehicle will come and collect the waste instead of dumping it in collection points in dumpsters. This is one of the measure problems. In the coming days we are getting 100 new vehicles so that we can reach every place. We are planning to build GTS,s ( GARBAGE TRANSFER STATION ) in the city , in which three are already tendered out and finalising more six stations in the city so that at any point waste should not be stored outside of our houses or on roads. Further we have identified 29 underground pits with huge capacity in our first phase,” he said.

Around 15 people are falling victim to the stray dogs a day. On the other side the animal rights organizations compelled the authorities to stop the poisoning process to kill stray dogs. Since then the dog population has been on the rise in Kashmir—(KNO)

Saharanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government stands with ‘Har Majloom (every victim Muslim woman)”.

Addressing a public rally in Saharanpur, PM Modi said, “Our government stands with ‘Har Majloom (every victim Muslim woman)’. Those people (Opposition parties) are trying to trick Muslim sisters to push them back in their lives.”

He further said that the BJP government freed the Muslim sisters and daughters from the menace of triple talaq.

“Muslim sisters and daughters understand our clear intentions. We made them free of Triple Talaq, and gave them protection.

When the BJP received support from the Muslim women, these vote-‘thekedaar (contractors)’ got restless, seeing that their daughters were chanting ‘Modi-Modi’… They’re trying to trick Muslim sisters again,” he added.

Prime Minister took a dig at Opposition parties over dynasty politics, cautioning people from trusting their “tall claims”.

“A whole ‘parivaar-vaad’ party is making fake promises to the people of UP …Remember if someone promises big, they are usually empty, and irresponsible.

They promised electricity, but kept UP in dark and illuminated their residing district only, leaving Saharanpur and others to fend for themselves,” said PM Modi.

“Earlier governments had no vision because of ‘parivar-vaad’. They could not see or think beyond family.

They did not worry about you but only ran everything via mafias. We bring permanent solutions and want every citizen to live with self-respect,” he added.

He also referred to riots in Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur and labelled the Samajwadi Party as “dangawadi (rioters)”.

“Don’t think for a moment that these ‘dangawadis’ have reformed. They are just waiting for a chance. The rioters of Saharanpur were welcomed by these mafia-like people. Across western UP, they are backing rioters.

These people want to take revenge against the people of UP. Those who were cursing rioters earlier are now standing with the same rioters,” PM Modi said.

Voting for the first phase of state assembly elections on 58 seats is underway, and 623 candidates are in the fray.

Step to be taken to improve patient care; Experts say Pvt Practice takes heavy toll on patient care in Govt run hospitals; Medical education, research suffers due to private practice, says DAK head Dr Nisar Ul Hassan

Srinagar, Feb 09: Jammu and Kashmir government likely to ban private practice of doctors in the Medical Colleges of UT, Officials privy to the development revealed Wednesday.

The development comes close on the heels of recommendations of medical experts constituted on the directions of the High Court that had strongly advocated a blanket ban on private practice of doctors in J&K in the interest of patient care.

“We are well aware of the fact that private practice of senior and middle-rung doctors is taking a big hit to patient care across the UT. It is most likely that we will start with banning the private practice in medical colleges of the UT first. A meeting will be held to discuss the issue in a few days,” a senior officer in the Health department told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

Experts said that a large number of doctors despite getting handsome salaries still go for private practice and take the share of the unemployed doctors who neither have a place in Private nor in Government sector. “Those doctors are forced to leave for other states in search of jobs,” said an expert, wishing not to be named. “The teaching of MBBS students and the Postgraduate students by the faculty in the Medical Colleges of Jammu and Kashmir and the quality of patient care has deteriorated due to doctors’ main interest in private practice.”

Another expert pleading anonymity said that the patient care will improve only if the government announces a blanket ban on the private practice of doctors.

“Ban on the private practice by the doctors will encourage the establishment of Private clinics and corporate hospitals in rural areas of the union territory and shall play a great role in providing medical facilities to the patients in remote areas who otherwise have to run to cities for treatment,” he said.

He said that on an average, a doctor in GMC performs just two to three operations in a week and same doctor may do eight to ten operations in Private nursing homes in just a few hours. “There is mushrooming of private hospitals run by government doctors and more patients are treated at private hospitals nowadays,” the expert said. “By indulging in Private practice, the government doctors get overburdened and this definitely affects the quality of services provided to the patients as well as the mental and physical health of the doctors who don’t get enough time for themselves to relax.”

Doctors association President Dr Nisar Ul Hassan told KNO that private practice of doctors is definitely taking heavy toll on patient care, medical research and education.

“Most of our doctors spent their time in private hospitals and very less time is being given on medical education and research due to which we are unable to produce quality doctors,” he said. “Government doctor is government servant for all the 24 hours of the day and permitting private practice is bound to affect the discharge of official duties of government doctors.”

He said that it is ironic that full time government doctors are allowed to run private hospitals due to poor and underprivileged people are suffering who also deserve better care and can’t afford to go to private hospitals.

“There should be complete segregation of sectors like those who want to work in private sector, they should be allowed to go and new doctors should be recruited who will work only in medical colleges,” he said, adding that “doctors use government hospitals as recruiting grounds for their private practice and patients have to wait for months together to get their turn at government hospitals which delays treatment and they are forced to go to private clinics.”—(KNO)

Srinagar, February 09: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Members of Parliament Dr Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone staged a walkout in Lok Sabha to protest the Karnataka governments’ handling of the Hijab row.

Later expressing concern over the row, which has spilled over to other colleges in Karnataka, the MPs said the female students wearing hijab  being heckled by a mob in  Karnataka is disturbing and the hush in the government circles of the state over the matter is equally of great concern. 

They said the decision to wear Hijab should be left to women and girls. Expressing concern over the Karnataka government’s shoddy handling of the issue they said is reflective of the endemic patriarchy and communal mind set at play. These incidents should not be seen in seclusion but as a part of enforcing homogeneity at the expense of the country’s multifarious cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic diversity.

Drive against acid sale commences, acid attack survivor shows positive response to treatment: DC Sgr; SSP says chargesheet in acid attack case to be filed in next couple of days, police working to put an end to drug menace

Srinagar, Feb 08: The government on Wednesday said that the decision with regard to the reopening of schools will be taken by the State Executive Committee (SEC) soon and that it will ensure rehabilitation of the acid attack survivor, who is recovering as per the doctors at Chennai hospital.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, Muhammad Aijaz Asad while talking to the reporters said that the Covid cases have recorded significant decline fpr which the administration want to thank people for following the Covid Appropriate Behaviour and media as well for playing pivotal role.

“All the predictions with regard to the spurt in Covid cases were proven wrong by Srinagar residents as the daily cases have reached 100 cases now. We should further focus to bring the number of cases to zero,” he said, as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) Correspondent.

He added that there is a need to adhere to the CAB in letter and spirit as Srinagar at present has nearly 6000 active cases.

Asked about the reopening of schools, he said that the SEC will make a decision in this regard very soon. However, he added that vaccination for children is pivotal for the reopening of schools and the process must be completed at earliest. “Schools will be reopened when the vaccination process is completed,” he added.

About the recent acid attack in Srinagar, DC said that the drive to put an end to such incidents has already been started since yesterday while market checking squads have been constituted to continue these drives.

“The government on the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is bearing the expenses of the treatment of the victim. Besides, complete rehabilitation of victim will also be ensured,” he said.

He also added that the doctor’s report is indicating a positive response to the treatment and they pray for the speedy recovery of the victim.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar, Rakesh Balwal while talking to media persons said that the chargesheet in the acid attack case will be filed in next couple of days and the drives have been launched to ensure that such attacks don’t take place in the future.

About drug menace, SSP said that the police was working to put an end to the drug abuse and a special helpline has already been established. We will ensure that the directions with regard to the sale of acid by Supreme Court (SC) are implemented in spirit,” he added—(KNO)

‘Unlikely to see any big wave in future’

Srinagar, Feb 08: As Covid-19 cases are on decline in J&K, experts believe that this wave is going to end in the next two weeks and Covid is likely to become endemic.

Experts while talking with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that the infection in the community is declining day by day as earlier J&K was reporting cases in thousands but now it has again declined and cases are coming in hundreds.

Dr Nisar Ul Hassan, President of Doctors Association of Kashmir while talking with KNO said that given the Infectious nature of the Omicron, it is unlikely that any other variant more infectious than this variant is going to come and the Covid has settled here.

He said that in the next two weeks or by the end of this month, the wave will be over and Covid will enter the endemic zone from the pandemic.

He said that small waves can come in future too but that can trigger a seasonal flu without much disruption in routine life.

Other experts said that hospitalization in the third wave was very less as compared to the second wave and the third wave erupted in just a few days, reached a peak and started to decline in just one month.

They said most of the population is now vaccinated and the maximum population has already developed antibodies due to which it is unlikely that a person can get a severe disease even if they contract a virus.

“In next two weeks, third wave will be over and it is unlikely that Covid can trigger any other wave now because of immunity in maximum people and vaccination,” they said—(KNO)

15k to be installed in Feb 2022, Consumers to get power usage info on mobile app, Move will help reduce pressure on linemen: Says officials

Srinagar, Feb 08: Under the much-hyped smart metering project, the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) is all set to install almost 58,000 smart meters in the first phase across Srinagar.

The news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) has learnt that 15000 smart meters will be installed in Srinagar in the ongoing month (February).

Sources within the department said that over 11400 smart meters have already been installed in Srinagar, adding that 57,750 smart meters will be installed across Srinagar in the first phase.

They said that officials concerned have been directed by the department as well as the administration to speed up the pace of installation and ensure that the phase-I target is achieved at a shortest possible time.

The card erected in the smart meter will help in providing rating of the electricity load by the consumers, the officials said, adding that “the consumer will be able to identify when and how the electricity was used. It will make the consumer aware about the use of electricity and he will be able to get the details through the mobile application, which can be installed by the consumers.”

Besides, the officials said that the smart meters are set to reduce human efforts and give relief to linemen who otherwise have to climb poles to record power usage of consumers.

On complaints about resistance by the consumers, the officials said that police and administration has already been directed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir P K Pole to tackle resistance by any person in the process of installation of smart meters amicably. Strict action will be taken against those who will try to create hindrances or damages public property, the officials said—(KNO)