Srinagar: Administration on Monday authorized district development commissioners to impose fine on those who don’t follow the COVID guidelines in Jammu and Kashmir.
Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education Department issued an order, a copy of which lies with news agency KINS reads, “In exercise of the powers conferred by section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (3 of 1897), the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir hereby authorizes all the Dept ty Commissioners of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to take following measures within their jurisdiction and impose such penalties as shown against each column to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
As per the order, persons not wearing a mask in public places can be fined Rs. 500, persons violating the home quarantine instructions Rs. 2,000, persons spitting at public places Rs. 500, persons violating social distancing norms by owner of shops commercial laces Rs. 2,000, for violating the social ‘ uses . Rs. 3000, distancing norms by vehicle Rs. 2000/- owners of auto rickshaws two wheelers Rs. 500/.
“Non-payment of penalty, as aforementioned, by the violator will attract proceedings under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (45 of 1860),” the order reads.(KINS)
SRINAGAR: The production of trout has increased at Asia’s largest fisheries farm in south Kashmir’s Kokernag area, which is in greater demand among locals.
Known for its natural beauty, Kashmir has the distinction of having Asia’s largest fisheries farm in Kokernag.
The farm is emerging best producer of Rainbow Trout fish across the world.
“We provide seed to over 500 farmers. This farm generated revenue of Rs 1.73 crore during 2018 which went up to Rs 1.83 crore last year. In addition seed was sold for Rs 40 lakh to farmers,” an official told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
The official said at least 500 farmers are provided quality and healthy seed. The Fisheries Department set up a trout farming project at Kokernag in south Kashmir with the European Economic Community’s assistance in 1984.
“The infrastructure has been upgraded over the years and Kokernag has turned out to be Asia’s largest fish farm project,” the official said. The project is managed by the local officials who are technically knowhow about trout seed production.
Syed Manzoor is the supervisor of the farm, who has well expertise in rearing fish.
Chief Project Officer (CPO) of the farm, Muzaffar Hussain Bazaz said the farm is known worldwide for its production.
“Rainbow trout is cold water fish and should have temperatures between 0 to 20 degree Celsius. It is rich in protein and boosts immunity. The revenue and production increase with each year,” he told KINS.
After achieving success in breeding trout, the Department over the years has ensured that the trout which was considered as a Royal food reaches the common people in Kashmir.
Trout is a highly nutritious food. An average-sized trout contains about 1.8 grams of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that are needed for the development of the brain and retina in infants.
Trout also contains 20 percent protein, vitamins A, B, B1, C2 and D and forms the basis of a healthy, low-fat and fibre-rich diet.
The introduction of trout in Kashmir for angling is credited to a Britain Frank Mitchell. In 1899, he reared the trout in the premises of his private carpet factory at Bagh-e-Dilawar Khan, located in Shahr-e-Khas. He established the first trout hatchery at Harwan in 1901 and trained the locals.(KINS)
‘India on fast track mode to develop Covid- 19 vaccine’
Srinagar: Stating that there is not much evidence that community transmission is happening at National level, AIIMS Delhi Director Randeep Guleria Monday said that India is on fast track mode to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), AIIMS Delhi Director Randeep Guleria informed that the Human trials for the indigenously developed COVAXIN have begun at the premier medical Institute.
“After the registration procedure and blood sample tests of the health volunteers, the vaccine will be administered to 100 healthy individuals in the first phase. In the second phase 750 people will be recruited between 12 to 65 years of age for the human trials.
He said, the medical institute has received an overwhelming response in terms of volunteer registration for the trials,” he said.
Terming development of an indigenous vaccine as a great achievement, he informed the media that India’s mass production capacity of drugs and vaccines will also help in meeting the demands during its production stage.
Replying to a question on Community Transmission, Dr. Guleria said, there is not much evidence that community transmission is happening at National level.
He however did not rule out the possibility of local level transmission in hotspots witnessing a huge spike in the number of cases.
Dr. Guleria asserted that certain areas in the country, including the National Capital appeared to have reached their peak and are now showing a significant decline in number of cases.
He emphasized on continued aggressive action towards containment of infection in hotspots. The AIIMS Director stressed on the need for enhanced door to door testing and isolation measures.
Dr. Guleria said that the measures adopted by the government for testing, tracing and treating COVID-19 patients have helped contain the fatality rates in the country as one of the lowest in the world.(KINS)
Per unit cost for consumer would be up to Rs 8 from the current Rs 2 to 3: Report
The Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineer Graduates’ Union (JKEEGA) in collaboration with a national-level engineers’ body has come up with a report analysing the cost of energy post-privatization of DISCOMS.
Jammu: Police on Monday claimed to have busted a militant funding module of Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) tasked to activate its cadres in the Jammu region, with the arrest of one person, officials said.
The police received information that LeT has activated a module of its members for carrying out militant activities in the Union Territory, particularly in the Jammu region, and in furtherance to this, a delivery of funds was to take place in Jammu, they said.
According to the officials, Special Operation Group (SOG) Jammu and the Army have busted the militant funding module.
The security forces apprehended Mubashir Bhat, a member of the module who was asked to collect a consignment of Hawala money from Jammu, the officials said.
During the search, the police seized a bag containing cash worth Rs 1.5 lakh, they said.
Initial questioning revealed that the money was sent by Haroon, a self-styled commander of LeT from Pakistan, to be delivered to terrorists through over ground workers in Doda, they added.
A case has been registered at Peer Mitha Police Station and further investigation into the matter is underway, the officials added.
Russia’s health minister revealed that the vaccine to prevent Covid-19, which the country is currently developing, will be available for public consumption by next month after it completes the last stage of clinical trials, Livemint reported.
Briefing media Mikhail Murashko stated as cited in a Sputnik News report: “The government’s decree implies this. It will be imperative that additional clinical research of an approved vaccine be conducted simultaneously.”
According to a Bloomberg report, Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the government-backed Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said that the Phase-III trials will begin on August 3 in Russia, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
Russia will mass-produce the vaccine, with around 30 million doses domestically in 2020, and 170 million for export. Five countries have already shown interest in helping Russia with the mass production, Dmitriev said.
Recently, Russia’s Sechenov University had announced that it had completed clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Russia’s Defense Ministry’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
The ministry said in a statement cited in the Sputnik report: “The Russian Defence Ministry tests the vaccine on volunteers in full compliance with the acting legislation and scientific methodological regulations, in order to prevent further risks, without any attempt to reduce the duration of the research.”
Russia is the fourth worst-affected country in the world by Covid-19. It has reported over 7.5 lakh Covid-19 cases.
Records of 1960 boundary talks show PLA troops at Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley went beyond Beijing’s own territorial claims.
China’s Shifting Lines: China’s current moves to enforce its Line of Actual Control (LAC) claims, which sparked the recent border incidents, mark a shift from what Beijing told India in 1960 about where its boundaries were, both in the Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake. (Coordinates from 1960 official report; LAC alignment is approximate.)
Chinese troops are currently present on the north bank of Pangong Lake in Ladakh in an area that is beyond what even China described as its official boundary during talks with India in 1960, official records show.
China’s tent that it set up on the bend of the Galwan river, which sparked the violent face-off culminating in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese personnel on June 15, was also beyond China’s territorial claims, according to the 1960 records.
The records contradict China’s current claims of where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) runs. They also raise questions on recent statements from top Indian officials that China is not present anywhere on Indian territory.
In 1960, India certainly viewed China’s presence in areas where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) transgressed in May as being beyond Beijing’s own territorial claims.
At the north bank of Pangong Tso, the PLA moved up to Finger 4 and prevented India from crossing Finger 4. The Fingers refer to mountain spurs on the bank, and run from 1 to 8, west to east.
China now claims up to Finger 4, while India says the LAC is at Finger 8. China previously built a road to Finger 4 in 1999 and has dominated up to Finger 4, but since May has, for the first time, completely cut off India’s access to its LAC at Finger 8, effectively shifting the line 8 km west.
Following the four rounds of Corps Commander-level talks, the PLA has moved back from Finger 4 to 5, while Indian troops also moved back further west to Finger 2, the base post in the area where the troops initiated their patrols, The Hindu reported earlier.
MEA report
During boundary negotiations in 1960, China spelled out its territorial claims in the area. The record is available in the “Report of the Officials of the Government of India and the People’s Republic of China on the Boundary Question”, published by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Following border talks in April 1960 in Delhi between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai that failed to break the impasse, it was decided that officials of the two governments would meet “to examine factual materials in the possession of the two governments to support their stands.”
Three rounds of talks were held. The first session took place from June 15 to July 25, 1960, in Beijing, with 18 meetings. The second session was held in Delhi from August 19 to October 5, when 19 meetings were held. Following the final session in Rangoon, when 10 meetings were held, the official report was signed on December 12, 1960. In the report, the Indian side asked: “What was the exact point where the alignment cuts the western half of Pangong Lake? And what was the exact point where it left the Pangong Lake?”
The Chinese side responded: “The coordinates of the point where it reached the Pangong Lake were Longitude 78 degrees 49 minutes East, Latitude 33 degrees 44 minutes North.” This roughly corresponds to an area near Finger 8, around 8 km east of where China now says the LAC is and where it transgressed in May.
Regarding the Galwan Valley, when India asked in 1960 for “heights of peaks and locations of passes” in the area, the Chinese side replied that the alignment “crossed the Galwan river at Longitude 78 degrees 13 minutes East, Latitude 34 degrees 46 minutes North.”
Even accounting for approximations because the coordinates were round numbers noted in “degrees” and “minutes” while the “seconds” were not specified, China has gone beyond its 1960 claims both in Pangong Tso and in the Galwan Valley.
In the Galwan Valley, the 1960 line ran east of the bend of the Galwan river, called the Y-nallah, which was the site of the June 15 clash. The clash took place following a dispute during the de-escalation process, triggered when the PLA put up a tent near the bend, and marked the worst violence on the border since 1967.
It was unclear whether Mr. Erdogan planned to be among some 500 worshippers set to attend Friday prayers. | Photo Credit: AFP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a surprise visit to Hagia Sofia on Sunday just days before the first Muslim prayers are due to be held at the Istanbul landmark since it was reconverted to a mosque last week.
In a lightning visit billed as an inspection, Mr. Erdogan took stock of the conversion work, the president’s office said, providing pictures showing scaffolding inside the building.
Diyanet, the country’s religious authority, said Christian icons would be curtained off and unlit “through appropriate means during prayer times”.
“Our goal is to avoid harming the frescoes, icons and the historic architecture of the edifice,” Mr. Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a television interview on Sunday.
It was unclear whether Mr. Erdogan planned to be among some 500 worshippers set to attend Friday prayers.
Turkey’s top court paved the way for the conversion in a decision to revoke the edifice’s museum status conferred nearly a century ago.
The sixth-century building had been open to all visitors, regardless of their faith, since its inauguration as a museum in 1935.
Earlier this week, Diyanet said the building would continue to be open to all visitors outside the hours given over to prayer.
The UNESCO World Heritage site was built as a cathedral during the Byzantine empire but converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
It was designated a museum in a key reform of the post-Ottoman authorities under the modern republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Mr. Erdogan said last year it had been a “very big mistake” to convert the Hagia Sophia into a museum.
The reconversion sparked anger among Christians and tensions between historic foes and uneasy NATO allies Turkey and Greece.
The Congress leader says the ruling party lied on COVID-19 by ‘restricting testing and misreporting deaths’, the GDP by using a ‘new calculation method’, and Chinese aggression by ‘frightening the media’
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday mounted a fresh attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and accused the ruling part of ‘institutionalising’ lies by manipulating the data on novel coronavirus-related deaths, the Gross Domestic Product, the stand-off with China and asserted that ‘India will have to pay the price’.
“The BJP has institutionalised lies — [on] COVID-19 by restricting testing and misreporting deaths; [on] GDP by using a new calculation method; and [on] Chinese aggression by frightening the media. The illusion will break soon and India will pay the price,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted and tagged a report of The Washington Post that claimed India’s COVID-19 death figures were either ‘misreported or missed’.
BJP has institutionalised lies.
1. Covid19 by restricting testing and misreporting deaths. 2. GDP by using a new calculation method. 3. Chinese aggression by frightening the media.
Mr. Gandhi’s latest offensive came barely a few hours after he had compared the government of India’s handling of the Chinese face-off to Neville Chamberlain, former British PM ill-famed for his appeasement of Nazi Germany.
And a day before, he had claimed that India would cross the two million-mark in COVID-19 cases by August 10 if the Union government did not take concrete measures to tackle the pandemic.
A similar incident was reported earlier in June when an Indian was killed while four others were injured after Nepal police allegedly fired indiscriminately on them at the border near Sitamarhi district in Bihar, officials said.
A man was injured after Nepal police shot at three Indian men near India-Nepal border in Bihar’s Kishanganj on Sunday, according to ANI.
The injured has been shifted to a hospital and a probe is underway, superintendent of police, Kishanganj, was quoted as saying.
More details are awaited.
A similar incident was reported earlier in June when an Indian was killed while four others were injured after Nepalese police allegedly fired indiscriminately on them at the border near Sitamarhi district in Bihar, officials said.
The June 12 firing had taken place after a clash between the Indians and personnel of Nepalese police at the Lalbandi-Janki Nagar border in Pipra Parsain panchayat under Sonebarsha police station of the district, sources said.
Locals said the men were working in an agricultural field when the altercation between the cops of both sides took place, following which four of them received bullet injuries while Vikesh Kumar Rai, 25, died on the spot.
Nepal shares a 1,850-kilometre open border with India and people travel across it for work and to visit family. It had closed its international borders on March 22 amid the coronavirus pandemic.