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Excelsiordaily

REGD.NO.JK-71/15-17RNI No. 28547/1992

Vol No. 51 No. 291 JAMMU, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015 16 Pages `̀ 4.00

MHA alarm on Nepal’s SIMsNABHIDANG (UTTARAKHAND), Oct 20:

Local residents and even security personnel are using NepaleseSIM cards in border areas as no State-owned or private telecomcompany from India is providing services there, prompting theHome Ministry to raise an alarm today.

Use of Nepal telecom services in upper reaches of Dharchulatehsil in Pithoragarh district along with those living at Gwaldamarea in Chamoli district are very common in absence of services ofany Indian private telecom company.

Residents of Gunji and Nabbhi villages of Dharchula tehsilalong with those living in Gwaldom area have been usingNepalese SIM cards for the past several years not only to commu-nicate but also to access the Internet.

Nishikant KhajuriaJAMMU, Oct 20: As the

Government continues to turna Nelson’s eye towards imple-mentation of suggestions andmeasures of its own commit-tees for avoiding road mishapsin the State, yet another tragicaccident claimed lives of 14passengers, including fivewomen and a minor, while 18others were critically injuredwhen an overloaded minibusrolled down in a deep gorgenear Ramnagar in Udhampurdistrict, this morning.

The accident took placearound 8.20 a.m and the ill fatedminibus was on way fromGhordi to Ramnagar when itrolled down at Gurland, nearDalsar. The 24 seater 6-tyremini-bus, bearing registrationnumber JK14C-8068, was car-rying 32 persons, includingdriver and cleaner.

Thirteen persons died on thespot while another one suc-cumbed to his injuries at DistrictHospital Udhampur. Among theinjured, five were referred toGMC Hospital Jammu and threeothers to Military HospitalUdhampur in view of their criti-

cal condition. Eight victims areundergoing treatment at DistrictHospital Udhampur and two at

Sub-District HospitalRamnagar.

On the direction ofGovernment, the District

Administration has providedrelief of Rs one lakh each to theNext of Kin of dead persons and

Rs ten thousand each to theinjured of the accident.

According to the survivingvictims, driver of the minibus

was allegedly speaking on hismobile phone when he lostcontrol over the vehicle, which

was also overspeeding to keepa following passenger busaway. As the narrow road

Speaking on phone, driver loses control

14 killed, 18 injured as minibusrolls down near Ramnagar

INSIDE WEATHER* Electricity Act abused ...Page 8* Primitive habitationOfficers vital interface betweenelected representatives, people: Mufti ...Page 3Mehandi procession taken out on7th Muharam ...Page 3Cong leaders protest againstanti-quota policy of Govt ...Page 5Kerosene oil quota to bereleased to DCs: Zulfkar ...Page 7Virender Sehwag retires fromInternational cricket ...Page 14

JAMMU : Mostly cloudy sky.TEMPERATURE

Max: 31.5 Degree C Min: 16.6 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 79.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 70.0 per centSunset on Wednesday: 05.54 p.m.Sunrise on Thursday: 06.41 a.m.

KASHMIR:Partially cloudy Sky.TEMPERATURE

Max: 18.2 Degree C Min: 7.7 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 79.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 67.0 per cent

LEH: TEMPERATUREMax: 17.7 Degree C Min: 3.5 Degree C

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Durga Navmi Greetings To All Our Readers.

(Contd on page 6 Col 3)

India, Russia to bolster tiesMOSCOW, Oct 20:

Strengthening of "special and privileged strategic partnership"between India and Russia formed the central theme of ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's wide-ranging talks with herRussian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here today.

The talks took place in the backdrop of warming up of tiesbetween Pakistan and Russia which signed a defence agreementthis year. Ending its self-imposed embargo on arms sales to India'sarchrival, Moscow has agreed to sell four MI-35 attack helicoptersto Pakistan.

Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin made light ofthe helicopter deal with Pakistan, telling PTI here: "What is the bigdeal about our giving four helicopters to Pakistan? We are giving

(Contd on page 6 Col 7)

29 guests arrive from PoKExcelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Oct 20: Twenty-nine residents of Pakistan occu-pied Kashmir (PoK) arrived here while nine Kashmiris crossedover to other side of the Line of Control (LoC) to meet their rela-tives, separated in 1947 due to partition.

As many as 20 returnees also crossed sides at the Kaman post,the last Indian military post on this side of the LoC in Uri sector,official sources told here today.

They said 29 PoK residents, including 11 women and two chil-dren, arrived at Kaman post after crossing the Aman Setu, peacebridge on foot.

Four Kashmiris, two of them women, who had gone to PoK inprevious bus also returned to their homes after completing staywith their relatives, separated in 1947. They said nine residents of

17 teachers for 55 studentsExcelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Oct 20: Government High School in Kanisporaarea of North Kashmir's Baramulla district has 17 teachers for only55 students while none of the teachers is appointed to teach Urdu,the official language of the State.

Government High School at Kanispora is having the roll of 55students and 17 teachers despite the claims of the EducationDepartment about rationalization in the schools. Out of 17 teach-ers, none of them has been appointed to teach Urdu.

The school principal, Mrs Shareefa, attributed the low roll to

Govt okays collegium recommendation NEW DELHI, Oct 20:

The Government is learnt to have cleared the recommendationof the collegium, which returned after a gap of six months follow-ing a Supreme Court verdict, to grant extension to 21 additionaljudges of various High Courts whose two-year term is ending thismonth.

This is the first set of recommendations the collegium madeafter staging a comeback last week.

The Law Ministry had on Sunday sent files of 21 additionaljudges to the collegium whose terms are coming to an end byOctober 30 for its immediate consideration.

Accepting the recommendation of the collegium, the extension(Contd on page 6 Col 7)

2 killed in Bani road mishapExcelsior Correspondent

BANI (KATHUA), Oct 20: Two persons were killed after theload carrier bearing number JK08B 7376 in which they were trav-eling fell down into 500 feet deep gorge at Saproo near here latelast night.

The dead have been identified as the driver of the load carrierSunil Kumar 24, S/o Yash Paul of Bani and his accompliceDheeraj, 20, S/o Mashu Ram of Chaloke Bani.

Police said that the driver during the dead of night while nego-tiating a sharp curve at Saparoo near Bani lost control on the steer-ing and as the road was slushy due to heavy rain fall, the vehiclefell down into 500 feet deep gorge resulting into on spot death ofthe duo.

(Contd on page 6 Col 1)

Govt may clear bill for more bonusNEW DELHI, Oct 20:

The Cabinet is likely to approve tomorrow an amendment billthat seeks to raise the bonus limit to Rs 7,500 and wage ceiling toRs 21,000 per month for getting the reward, among others.

The Cabinet will consider a bill to amend the Payment ofBonus Act, 1965, sources said.

According to the proposal, the wage ceiling for getting bonuswill be increased from existing Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 21,000per month, thus making more workers eligible for the reward.

It also proposes to increase the maximum amount of bonusunder the legislation to Rs 7,500 from existing Rs 3,500.

(Contd on page 6 Col 5)

Mohinder VermaJAMMU, Oct 20:

Incredible it may sound but itis a fact that three years is toosmall a time for some bureau-crats of Jammu and Kashmirfor transfer of land from onedepartment to another thattoo for a project, which is to beentirely funded by the UnionGovernment. This clearlyindicates that bureaucratichurdles coupled with slack-ness on the part of concernedauthorities are creating road-blocks in timely execution ofmajor projects in this State.

One such example isRegional Branch of IndianInstitute of MassCommunication (IIMC) at

Jammu, which was approved bythe Union Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting inearly 2011. Following this deci-sion, the then Joint Secretary ofthe Ministry held a meeting withthe then Principal Secretary tothe Chief Minister and othersenior officers of the StateGovernment on January 31,2011.

In this meeting, the UnionJoint Secretary stressed the needfor identifying and transferringat least 15 acres of suitable landfree of cost to the Ministry forsetting up a permanent campus.Accordingly, a MonitoringCommittee was constituted videGovernment Order No. 283-GAD dated March 4, 2011 tooversee the issues relating to the

setting up of the RegionalCentre of the Indian Institute ofMass Communication, officialsources told EXCELSIOR.

Thereafter, three locationswere identified for the estab-lishment of the permanentcampus and the Central teamcomprising the then DirectorGeneral, Indian Institute ofMass Communication andJoint Secretary, UnionMinistry of Information andBroadcasting visited thesesites on July13 and 14, 2011.Finally, 123 kanals and 18marlas land in village Keranin the outskirts of Jammu citywas finalized to process it fortransfer to the HigherEducation Department forestablishment of the Regional

Branch of IIMC, sourcesinformed.

Of 123 kanals and 18 marlasof land, 51 kanals of State Landand 37 kanals and 18 marlas ofForest Land were transferred tothe Higher EducationDepartment in the middle of2012 and Jammu DevelopmentAuthority was asked to transferremaining 35 kanals of land forthe project. The then Vice-Chairman of the JammuDevelopment Authority vide hiscommunication dated August 28,2012 agreed to place the land atthe disposal of State Governmentunder the provisions of Section18(4)(1) of the J&K LandDevelopment Act, 1970 on someterms and conditions.

Gopal SharmaJAMMU, Oct 20: While

the Department of ConsumerAffairs and PublicDistribution (CAPD) has yetto finalise the contract ratewith the millers from outsidethe State, the consumers inJ&K are without levy sugarfor the last about two monthsas the CAPD department hasfailed to provide them quotaeven during the Navratra fes-tival.

Official sources told theExcelsior that the purchasecommittee of the CAPD depart-ment has failed to finalise therate of the levy sugar in last one

and half month and the negotia-tion process was going on withthe millers from outside theState from whom the CAPDwould lift sugar quota. Whilethe sugar was easily available inthe open market at the rate of Rs28 per kilogram, the millerwhose tender was found to belowest has quoted the rate ofaround Rs 39.50 per kg.

Since the rate of the sugarsupply to the J&K by all theseven national competitors hasbeen quoted above Rs 39.50 perkilogram, the State level pur-chase committee headed byCommissioner/ SecretaryCAPD had a few rounds of talksto bring it down as the deal

would cause extra burden on theState to the tune of over Rs 80 toRs 90 crores annually. Even dur-ing the last year, the rate was notso higher. This delay in the pro-cess has affected the supply oflevy sugar quota to the con-sumers in J&K.

Reports from Kathua,Samba and Udhampur besidesmany parts of Jammu districtsaid that no sugar supply wasmade by the CAPD authoritiesduring September and nowOctober is also almost over andhardly one week is left, thesugar supply has not been madetill today. Even the district levelofficials of the department areclaiming that there is no hope of

supply in next one week as con-tract has not been finalized bythe committee so far. The storesare dry and even in Jammustores, there was no sugar quotaavailable.

There is strong resentmentamong the people as thedepartment could not providelevy sugar to them duringNavratra festival, Eid andMoharram and now Dussehrais coming this week. They saidthat dealers claimed that eventhe concerned TSOs are notaccepting advance paymentsfor the sugar quota and there-fore, there is no hope of get-ting it soon. The public has

Secy denies shortage

Consumers without levy sugarquota for 2 months in J&K

* Govt to bear burden of Rs 80 cr for subsidy

Ajay RainaJAMMU, Oct 20: The

graph of narcotic and motorvehicle thefts, molestation andkidnapping cases have risen inthe first nine months of thisyear as compared to the paral-lel period of last year.

Around 71 cases of NDPSAct have been registered against37 registered till September 31,2014, which shows that thesmuggling of psychotropic sub-stances has increased more thantwice in the Jammu district inthe nine months period of 2015.

However, the convictionratio in cases pertaining toNarcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act is barely very less,primarily due to lack of evi-

dence and failure of follow-upprocedure by investigatingagencies.

Apart from these two majorreasons, the other factors lead-ing to less rate of conviction arehostile witnesses, poor follow-up of recording statements orevidence and improper condi-tions of search procedure. Inmajority of the cases, theaccused are acquitted on techni-cal grounds because the con-cerned officials do not follow aproper procedure during investi-gation.

The cases of motor vehiclethefts have also increased to223, which were 183 till theequivalent period of last year.Other theft cases have seen adownfall, as 100 cases havebeen registered against 110 reg-

istered last year till Septemberending.

The upward trend hasbeen witnessed in molestationcases, which were 63 last yearand in this year upto ninemonths they rose to 89. Thekidnapping/ abduction caseshave also witnessed a steeprise as the cases registered tillSeptember 30 this year are171, which is around threetimes high as compared to thelast year as 67 cases were reg-istered in 2014 till Septemberending. 27 cases of eve-teasinghave been registered in thisyear till September ending,which were 45 during the cor-responding period of last year.

Not only the cases of psy-chotropic substances haveincreased, there is swell in the

liquor smuggling cases also as81 cases have been registered inthe nine months period of thisyear as compared to 41 cases,which were registered in thesame period of 2014.

According to the data avail-able with the EXCELSIOR, atotal of 3,427 cases of differentnature have been registered dur-ing the first nine months periodof this year, which were 3,400during the corresponding periodof previous year.

41 rape cases have been reg-istered till September 30 thisyear, which were 53 tillSeptember 2014 and when itcomes to murders, which is con-sidered the yardstick of crime ina city, police have registered 16cases under Section 302 RPC in

Sanjeev PargalJAMMU, Oct 20: Army

today said it was well pre-pared and focused towardspreventing any untoward inci-dent and will not allow themilitant attacks to succeedjust as it had thwarted all suchattacks in the past and neu-tralized the militants success-fully.

"We are prepared to dealwith any kind of situation. Wehave put necessary mechanismin place to ensure that the mili-tants don't succeed in theirdesigns. We have not allowedthe militants to succeed in theirdesigns anywhere, be itDinanagar in Gurdaspur or anyother place,'' General OfficerCommanding (GOC) of Jammubased Tiger Division, MajorGeneral Sanjeev Narain toldreporters on the sidelines of asport function here this morn-ing.

Earlier, GOC 9 Corps(Rising Star Corps), Lt GenRajiv Tiwari, based at YolCantonment in HimachalPradesh, which looks after threesensitive border districts ofJammu region includingJammu, Samba and Kathua, wasscheduled to inaugurate 'JagrukHindustani cricket tournament'organised by the Army but hecouldn't reach here yesterdaymorning due to adverse weather

conditions. Western CommandGOC-in-C Lt Gen KJ Singhaccompanied by Lt Gen Tiwariwill now visit Jammu onOctober 26.

"We are aware of the pre-vailing situation and how thesituation has been and all Iwould say is that we are wellprepared and focused towardspreventing any untoward inci-dent," Major General Narainsaid.

Lauding role of the alertIndians, whom he called as'Jagruk Hindustani' linking theword with 'Jagruk Hindustanicricket tournament', the GOCsaid the alert Indians havealways played a great role infoiling the terror attacks. It maybe mentioned here that twocivilians had captured Pakistanimilitant Mohammad Navedalive after an encounter atNarsu, Samroli in Udhampurdistrict on Jammu-SrinagarNational Highway on August 5.Both were rewarded with regu-lar jobs in police.

"In all the terrorist attacks,the citizen or 'JagrukHindustani' had a role to play,whether it was in Dinanagar inPunjab where the milkmanpointed out the explosive thathad been placed on the railwayline or what happened inUdhampur," he said.

In Dinanagar terror attack,which took place before Narsuterror strike, a milkman haddetected five ImprovisedExplosive Devices (IEDs) plant-ed by the militants at the railwaytracks. He had informed securi-ty forces and police, who haddefused the IEDs, thus, avertingmajor catastrophe.

Major General Narain saidArmy is the premier securityforce of the nation whichneeds to connect with peopleas it also has a reach in theborder areas.

‘Alert people have foiled several terror attacks’

Army well prepared to meetwith any situation: GOC

Fayaz BukhariSRINAGAR, Oct 20: Over

a dozen persons including apolice officer were injured inclashes that broke out inKashmir valley for third con-secutive day today against thekilling of truck conductorZahid Ahmad Bhat.

Amid restrictions, the shut-down and protests continued inSouth Kashmir's Anantnag andKulgam districts in which over adozen persons including police-men were injured.

Shops and business estab-lishments were shut in the partsof Anantnag district includingMain Town, Batengoo,Bijbehara. Police had imposedrestrictions in Anantnag town toprevent protests. The shutdownwas also observed in parts ofKulgam district amid protestsand clashes.

Violence broke out inAnantnag town after CRPF menallegedly thrashed a load carrierdriver, Gulzar Ahmad ofWailoo, in Lal Chowk area ofthe town. This led to protests inthe town.

Youth took to streets at LalChowk and clashed withpolice and CRPF at Lazibal,Gulshanabad, Dangerpora,Kadipora, Reshi Bazar, LalChowk and Mattan Chowk.Police fired dozens of teargas

shelling to disperse theprotesters at these places.Police also fired pepper gas toquell the protests. Five per-sons were injured in the clash-es in the town.

Clashes also erupted atBijbehera town of Anantnag dis-trict. However, police and CRPFchased the protesters by firingtear smoke shells at them. Talha,5, daughter of Sheeraz Ahmadof Mirgund Anantnag, wasinjured after she was hit by astone on her head in PazalporaBijbehara. She was hospitalizedand is undergoing treatment.

Police today re-arrestedMirwaiz South Kashmir andchairman of Ummat-e-Islami,Qazi Yasir.

Protests and clashes eruptedat Kulgam town, Wanpoh,Qoimoh and Qazigund areas ofSouth Kashmir's Kulgam dis-trict. Protesters pelted stones atthe police and they fire tearsmoke shells to disperse them.Four persons were injured inthese clashes.

Students of KashmirUniversity at Hazratbal campushere staged protests againstkilling of Zahid.

Protests and clashes alsobroke out in Lal Chowk area ofSrinagar this afternoon follow-ing detention and alleged

Protests, clashes in Anantnag,Lal Chowk; 12 injured

Bureaucratic hurdles galore in timely execution of major projects

3 yrs too small a time for transferof land from one deptt to another!

(Contd on page 6 Col 3)

(Contd on page 6 Col 1)

(Contd on page 6 Col 3)

(Contd on page 6 Col 3)

3427 cases registered in Jammu till Sept

Narcotics smuggling, motor vehicle theft cases on rise

(Contd on page 6 Col 1)

(Contd on page 6 Col 7)

(Contd on page 6 Col 7)

(Contd on page 6 Col 5)

Police and locals trying to rescue victims of accident near Ramnagar on Tuesday. Another picon page 6.