Vol: 5 | No.: 7 | JULY 15, 2012 Special Issue Lab newspaper of Media Education Research Centre for private circulation only

& PlacesThis special issue of MERC Times is a collection of news stories done by MERC students of 3rd & 4th sem, having print as their specialization, during the final series of workshops conducted by PANOS South Asiain collaboration with Media Education Research Centre, University of Kashmir, as part of a project titled People & Places, enabling media to address urban poverty & diversity in the State.

(Editor)

MERCTIMES 2

TOWSEEF AHMAD

Encroachment of roads and footpaths by vendors is hampering vehicular and pedestrian movement alike at the already congested Lal Chowk.

The pavements along the Residency Road leading to the main city square have little room left for pedestrians with vendors on both sides taking much of the space. People keep getting down from the footpath to avoid bumping into street vendors or other pedes-trians. Some even prefer to walk along the main road amid traffic.

“There is very less space on the footpaths and we are forced to walk on the road increas-ing the risk of accidents,” said Mansoor Ah-mad, a businessman from Nawa Kadal area of old city, as he points to the congested foot-path.

“They (vendors) should be removed from the pavements and given an alternative place somewhere else.”

The vendors, meanwhile, cite livelihood issue as the main reason for not vacating the footpath, even as they say they are ready to shift to some other place if provided by the government.

“Although we are registered sapling ven-

dors, we have no place to go except this foot-path,” said Muhammad Rafiq, a sapling ven-dor.

“If we are given some other place to sell our goods by the authorities, we will go there without any hesitation,” he said.

For Bashir Ahmad, who has been sell-ing track suits on the footpath outside Biscoe School for many years, it is the only place to earn their livelihood.

“This is the only place where we can put our merchandise. Though we are often forced to evict the footpath, but once the authorities are out of sight we rearrange our goods,” said Bashir.

Asked if their stalls hamper movement of pedestrians, he said, “To some extent it does, but we are helpless.”

As the president of the local vendors’ union, Bashir said they approached con-cerned authorities many a times seeking a separate space for erecting their stalls, but to no avail.

“If we are given some other place nearby where we can sell our goods, we will have no hesitation in going there.”

Responding to the demands of the ven-dors, Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmad said

Crammed for room a committee has been framed to devise a policy for the relocation of roadside and footpath vendors from the city centre.

“The policy is likely to be finalised in three months time. The committee will look into the demands of the vendors for allocating a separate space so that they do not encroach on roads.”

Besides the footpaths, some of the ven-dors run their stalls on roadside affecting the traffic movement in the area.

Muhammad Sarfuddin of Bijnoor, Ut-tar Pradesh has been selling Gol Gappas, popular snack food, for the last four years at Lal Chowk.

Whether officials ask them to keep off the road, he said, “We are forced to move occasionally, usually during morning rush hour. No official says anything to us for the rest of the day.”

While the roadside vendors stay put, the area witnesses frequent traffic jams.

“Encroachment by street vendors is one of the main reasons for frequent traffic jams,” said SP Traffic (City), Maqsood-ul-Zaman.

“I have raised the issue with SMC, but they have not responded yet,” he said.

Responding to the remarks of S P Traf-fic, the SMC Commissioner said, “They (traffic police) may be facing problems at some places which we will sort out soon.”

Shrinking SpaceJULY 15th

This is the only place where

we can put our merchandise.

Though we are often forced to evict the footpath, but once the authorities are

out of sight we rearrange our

goods

MERCTIMES3

FIRDOOSE UL ISLAM

It was an attempt to “give a face” to the historic Lalchowk – the city cen-tre. A year and rupees two crores later, it has given an identity to Lal-

chowk but not the one that was aimed. Today, Lalchowk is known for its traffic mess and frequent jams.

The reason for this mess is a park constructed by the J-K’s Tourism de-partment to give an “identity” to Lalcho-wk and to beautify it. The 60-feet wide concrete park has choked the city centre and causes frequent traffic jams on the already over-burdened road.

“This road needed widening but they have instead constructed a park here,” says Rakesh Kumar, owner of a bookshop adjacent to the park. “We fail to understand the logic behind this construction. It has resulted in chaos in traffic”.

The tourism department has not taken the people and shopkeepers into confidence before constructing this park. “They (authorities) do whatever they like,” Kumar says. “They devise plans without thinking of its conse-quences for the common people”.

The park not only results in traffic mess, it has also failed to attract the people. At a time when the governments prefer greener areas in the cities, the planners have constructed a concrete park with tiled floors and iron fenc-ing. “People don’t like to sit here,” says Gowhar Ahmad, owner of LA Vision electronics shop at Lalchowk. “The park doesn’t serve any purpose but only adds problems for the common people”.

Mohammad Iqbal of Geeco Statio-nery agrees with Ahmad. “Nobody will like to sit in dust, smoke and in middle

of the road,” he says. The concrete park at Lal Chowk was

a car parking. In 2009, the J-K govern-ment dismantled the parking area and included in into the road. However, few months later, the government came up with a new plan to set-up a park here.

People aside, the Tourisms depart-ment in valley has not even consulted with Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). “The park has been constructed by the Tourism department,” says Sheikh Mushtaq, SMC Commissioner. “I can’t say anything about it”.

However, the officials of the Tourism department maintain that the park is a step in the right direction. “It (park) is a part of our big project. Lalchowk has a historical importance and we have to renovate it as in other parts of the world,” says Deputy Director, Tourism Abid Maqbool. “People will pass com-ments about this park; they will criticize it but in future they will themselves appreciate it”.

People, however, don’t agree. “One day, the government will have to re-move it – if not today, tomorrow definite-ly,” says 40-year-old Muzamil Ahmad, a government employee.

Lal Chowk ‘face-lift’ park draws flak

Shrinking SpaceJULY 15th

The concrete park at Lal Chowk was a car parking. In 2009, the government dismantled the parking

area and included it in the road. However, few months later, the

authorities came up with a new plan to set up

a park here.

MERCTIMES 4JULY 15th

ROUF BHAT

Despite ban on smoking at public places, smoking continues openly and unchecked, thereby rendering the prevailing law ineffective.

People in Srinagar can be seen smoking openly without any fear of imposition of fine by the authorities. Most of the people have no knowledge about law and the fines prescribed for its violation. Less publicity about law, banning smoking in public places, has almost rendered the law defunct.

Only 331 persons have been fined for smoking publicly in Srinagar district from 2011 to May 2012, reveal the figures provided by Divisional administration Kashmir.

“We have realized a fine of 38,400 rupees from 331 people for smoking at public places in Srinagar from May 2011 to May 2012,” said Food Inspector, Shabir Ahmad Lone.

By the introduction of “Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules 2008”, smok-ing was prohibited in Kashmir under Ciga-rettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA). Public places, according to the act, include places like bus stands, hospitals, parks, educational institutions and restau-rants. Any violation of this Act is punishable with fine up to rupees 200.

Roads apart, people smoke even inside the school and collge premises. “I always smoke openly in campus and even in city center Lal Chowk, I was never fined by anybody,” said Tahir Yousuf, a student of Sri Pratap Singh College. “Moreover, I never saw any adver-tisement in newspapers about the ban on smoking at public places. And I don’t have any knowledge about this law.”

Tawseef Ahmad, who owns a restaurant in Lal Chowk said that they have never re-ceived any order copy from administration. “Customers smoke openly in my restaurant. Had I received any such order from adminis-tration, I would have banned smoking in my restaurant,” he said.

Admitting that government has insuf-ficient finances for running continuous awareness campaigns on smoking, Lone said, “Government is doing its bit to raise aware-ness about this law, but that is not sufficient. Media as corporations also owe responsibil-ity towards society and it is unfortunate that they feel smoking is a small issue.”

Lone admits that the government has failed in iys duty but he also blames the media in Kashmir. “There are lapses on part of gov-ernment to make this law effective. Govern-ment is not only taking less interest towards the campaigns about the hazards of smoking in public places but also about the enforce-ment of law itself,” he said. “The newspapers here are also to blame. They don’t carry so-cial messages till they are paid”.

Amir Ali, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Divisional administration Kashmir said that it is the responsibility of government to en-force law but at the same time it is the respon-sibility of people to make sure that this law is not violated. “There is a dire need of publi-cizing this law again. General masses should raise voice against menace of smoking in pub-lic places,” Ali said. “Most of the government officers have no knowledge about the powers given to them by the government to impose ‘on-spot fine’ on the violators”.

SMOKING: GOVERNMENT FAILS TO IMPLEMENT ITS OWN LAWS

UMER FAROOQ

Even as the J-K government has banned the use of polythene carry bags, its use is going unabated in the Srinagar City. Polythene bags con-

tinue to be used in open market by shopkeep-ers, vendors, and general public with Koker Bazar and Maharaja Bazar being the major outlets of polythene bags in the City.

“Authorities were necessitated to impose the ban on use of polythene carry bags keeping in view the damage that it was doing to soil, water bodies, drainage and landscape of Kashmir. However, the polythene bags are still running in the market is a fact,” says Manzoor Ahmad Tarray, Solid Waste Management Of-ficer, Srinagar Municipal Cooperation (SMC).

The use of polythene carry bags is banned in Srinagar under the J&K Non-Biodegradable Material (Management Handling and Disposal) Act, 2007. Further, in pursuance of SRO 122, this Act delegates pow-ers to different state authorities to punish the offenders with Srinagar Municipal Corpora-tion (SMC) being the enforcing authority to

impose its ban in the City. Vendors say that the people have no bet-

ter alternative to polythene due to several reasons. “Customers run away to other shop-keepers if they feel that we have no polythene bags,” says a local vendor Shafiq Ahmad. “Further, the non-woollen and jute bags are

much costly than polythene. A polythene bag costs 20-30 paise while jute bag costs some-where between RS.2-3”.

However, environmentalists say that a complete ban is more important for the ecolo-gy of the region. “There is need to enforce ban

in totality,” says environmentalist Dr. Ashok Pandit, who teaches environmental sciences at Kashmir University. “Polythene bag is a sign of destruction. We have to understand it is non-biodegradable. It takes lot of time to decompose, impedes water bodies, hampers decomposition and makes soil infertile, and

has already disturbed the water bodies and landscape of Srinagar City.”

Government though says they are trying to implement the ban. “We have recovered huge quantities of poly-thene bags at Kani kadal, Lal-Chok and several other places,” SMC’s Joint Commissioner Fayaz Ahmad Bala says. “Since the time ban is enforced we have recovered approximately 600-700 metric ton of polythene bags but people are not responding positively to the ban”.

Tarry, however, says that ban could be complete only when people cooper-ate. “Unless people and other agencies

cooperate, enforcement on the ban is not pos-sible,” he says. “This ban is quite inadequate. We have limited powers. We cannot check the entry of polythene bags from Jammu or other areas. Our jurisdiction is limited to Sri-nagar city only”.

DESPITE BAN, POLYTHENE USE CONTINUES Issues

MERCTIMES5JULY 15th

Learning

MERC NEWS DESK

The five-day training workshop on Ur-ban Affairs Reporting conducted by PANOS South Asia at Media Educa-tion Research Centre (MERC) of Uni-

versity of Kashmir concluded in the month of June, 2012.

The workshop, part of two-year project titled People & Places, was a follow up of the training programme conducted at MERC by PANOS South Asia during March 25-30, 2012. Pertinently, the project aimed at promoting ur-ban affairs reporting in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking during the concluding function, Head, MERC, Prof. S Mufeed Ahmad empha-sised on the need of supplementing classroom teaching with rigorous field work. He said that such workshops provide an opportunity for media students to try their hand at practi-cal work.

Head MERC exhorted the students to make use of the experiences andvaluable tips shared by the resource persons.

“The workshops can also help students to overcome their inhibitions and report confi-dently about the issues of public interest,” he said.

Prof Mufeed said MERC has been holding several workshops and special guest lectures in the past few months to hone the skills of students. He added that more suchworkshops will be held in future.

During the course of the five-day work-shop, third-semester students of MERC pro-duced media output in the form of news sto-ries for differentmediums like print, radio and television.

The stories were based on urban issues like traffic management, environment, sani-

tation and health. The output was later evalu-ated by lead trainer Dr Aloke Thakore, co-founder JM Foundation.

The valedictory session was attended by the faculty members and students of MERC. Others present on the occasion include Zafar Iqbal (NDTV), Afsana Rashid (Journalist), Huma-yun Qaiser (Radio), Basharat Masood (Indian Express). Akmal Hanan and Tariq Abdullah (EMMRC).

Coordinator of the workshop, Haroon Rashid said the workshop aims at promoting urban affairs reporting in Jammu and Kash-mir.The workshop was a follow up of the

training programme conducted at MERC by PANOS between March 25 and 30.

Meanwhile, a guest lecture was delivered by NDTV correspondent, Zafar Iqbal attend-ed by the students of first semester of MERC. Zafar shared his experiences of reporting various events and issues in the recent past.

On the occasion, Head MERC underlined the importance of having a keen sense of ob-servation and sound news gathering skills. He impressed on the students to follow the happenings around them and develop better understanding of the issues so that they are in a better position to do good reporting.

South Asia workshop at MERC

Such programmes help to hone

skills of media students.They also help

students to overcome their

inhibitions and report confidently about the

issues of public interest:

Prof. S Mufeed

H.O.D MERC

ANOS

MERCTIMES 6JULY 15th

Revival

ASHRAF UL HASSAN

Paediatric ward of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) is facing acute

shortage of doctors. In Ward-7 meant for pediatric surgery, the doctor-patient ratio of 1:36.

In fact, there is only one doctor posted in the ward. And whenever there is an emergency case, he has rush to the emer-gency unit, leaving all the ad-mitted patients on god’s mercy. “Many times I went to call doctor and they replied that he is in Op-eration Theater for emergency. Then many times nursing staff handled the matter which was supposed to be handled by doc-tor,” said Taja Begum, whose 15 year-old daughter is admitted in ward-7 of the Institute.

A staff member in pediatric ward on conditions of anonym-ity said that over the past week rush of patients visiting G B Pant hospital has got diverted to the

hospital, which has added to its workload.

About 385 infants lost their lives so far this year in GB Pant hospital, valley’s lone pediatric hospital allegedly due to negli-gence of doctors and lack of fa-cilities in the hospital. And thus the parents prefer to bring their children to SKIMS.

“Four patients would get ad-mitted here regularly on daily

basis, but after GB pant incident it has increased up to 10- 15 pa-tients per day,” said the staff member.

Doctors too allege that there is overload of work in hospital. “There is alck of workforce that hampers proper attention to the patients,” said a doctor, who wished not to be identified. “I have to work for 15 hours con-tinuously and sometimes it gets

extended up to 20 hours. Many a times, I get frustrated. No human being has a capacity to work for these long hours”.

Besides Patients from other wards are shifted here for post-operative treatment, which leads to the chaos in the ward. “I had to take my father to the ward 2(which is in second storey of the building) of the hospital for the post operative check up. We were supposed to get treated in the ward 2, but they shifted us here, because there was no space in that ward,” said Abdul Rashid, an attendant, who was accompa-nying his father in ward 7 of the hospital on seventh floor.

Meanwhile authorities refut-ed the claims that there is short-age of doctors in the hospital. “We have sufficient doctors in the hos-pital. We don’t have any shortage here,” said Dr. Ghulam Hassan Yatoo, Assistant Medical Super-intendent in SKIMS. “If there is any case here, we will look into the matter immediately”.

G B PANT RIPPLES IN SKIMS

SOUZEINA MUSHTAQ

Technology may have progressed, with new eye catching inventions on the go but books continue to hold the interest of people in Kash-

mir. The love for books has seen a surge among masses, particularly youngsters, who throng book shops for different kinds of books.

Unlike earlier, when people had lost appetite for reading due to the turbulent phase of conflict in the state, it is a positive step to see people clinging to books again. Even the city centre, Lal Chowk, is coming up with new book stores which are seen as a healthy trend by the book lovers.

“In Kashmir, when shops, ranging from cosmetics to footware, are mushrooming, opening of a book store is a healthy sign,” says Qurat ul Ain, a noted writer. “We may get bored with things after some time but the magic of book remains forever.”

As per local book shop owners, book sales have increased in the past few years. “People ask for all kinds of books, rang-

ing from politics to socio-economy. It is the youngsters who ask for novels, mostly

fiction,” says the female operator at the Gulshan Book Shop.

Imtiyaz Wani, Manager Password Bookshop says that their weekly sales of books go “as high as” Rs 70,000. “After the books like The Collaborator and Curfewed Night by Kashmiri writer’s, Mirza Waheed and Basharat Peer, respectively, came to fore, people have started reading more about Kashmir,” he says.

Deepankar Kaul, a 12th standard stu-dent says he inherited the love for books from his father. “He made me to love books. We even have a small library at home,” says Deepankar, whose favorite author is Chetan Bhagat. His friend, Rudra Kaul, who is a Post Graduate student in SMHS, opines, “You always get something from reading.”

But students sometimes find it costly to buy books, which mostly do not fit in their budget. “There is no second hand book market, unlike in Delhi,” says Sana Amin, a student. “Also there should be books fairs and literary festivals held in the state to create an ambiance of book reading”.

BACK TO BOOKSIn a positive sign, valley sees an increase in

the number of book lovers

MERCTIMES7JULY 15th

Srinagar Stink

QAYOOM MADNI

At Hanuman Mandir, near Amira kadal, a large pipe of two feet di-ameter carrying waste material merges into Jhelum.

• An iron pipe at Abi GuzarBundthatmakesitselfvisibleonthebank of river goes deep inside theriver.AlonealongthebothsidesofBundaboutsixpipescarryingsew-age directly pour into the river. • Ahugechunkofwastemate-

rial enters into the river from the backside of Lad Ded hospital. Be-sides heaps of household solid waste material lies scattered alongside its banks.

With no proper waste management and drainage system in place, the waste from both the residential and commer-cial areas in Srinagar city finds its way directly into the river Jhelum - the val-ley’s life line.

“The sewerage goes untreated into the Jhelum which is polluting it,” says Javid Ah-mad Lone, a resident of Maisuma. “Earlier we used to drink water from this river. But now we fear to put our hands into it. The

Though the J-K government has spent crores of rupees on the beautification of riv-

er Jehlum, the environmentalists have ex-pressed concern over the government’s “mis-placed beautification” of the river. “Tons of waste material goes to Jhelum via Babdemb,” says environmentalist Zareef Ahmad Zareef, who is also the chairman of Valley Citizens

Council (VCC).While as the banks of Jhelum look beau-

tiful with its stone-walled embankments and properly maintained gardens, the inside sto-ry is quite different.

Zareef says VCC had forwarded a pro-posal for beautification of river Jhelum to the then Mufti Syed led government. “The gov-

ernment sanctioned rupees 22 crores. How-ever, the money was spent to build bridges and decorate river banks,” he said. “No care was taken to put a proper mechanism in place to prevent waste material from entering into the river”.

Zareef said the beautification of Jhelum will remain a dream till the waste material is not properly treated before it finds its way into Jhelum.

Chief engineer Irrigation and flood Control Kashmir, Muzaffar Lanker said the government has taken the initiative to beautify Jhelum. “We have removed 456 illegal sheds from across the river banks in Srinagar city which were il-legally constructed and were a great source of pollution to river water,” says Lanker.

Asked why the waste material is allowed to enter into the river, he shift-ed the responsibility on the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). “The

drainage system is within the jurisdiction of the SMC and we can’t force them to do the things,” he says.

Lanker also blames the courts for the mess in and around the river Jehlum. “When-ever, we interfere, they (houseboat owners) approach the court and court helps them,” Lanker says.

SRINAGAR DRAINS OPEN IN JHELUM

ASHIQ SOFI

Srinagar city that has a population of 1.4 million has 540 garbage collection centres. But the Srinagar

Municipal Corporation (SMC) has placed only 120 dumper bins to collect more than 300 tons of solid waste every day.

“In Srinagar, we have 540 garbage collection centers out of which only 120 centers have prop-er dumper bins,” said the Chief Sanitation Officer of SMC, Manzo-or Sabir Tarray. “The remaining garbage collection places are in open and accessible to stray cattle and canines”.

Tarray admits that the gov-ernment has failed in scientific waste disposal. “Jammu and Kashmir Government has not taken scientific approach with regard to waste management,” he

said. “From the last four years, we are striving to improvise in scientific management of garbage and at some places we have installed blue and green color bins so that people be-come aware of bio-degradable and non bio- de-gradable materi-als”.

A garbage collection cen-tre at Hazratbal gives insight into the poor solid waste management. The waste is dumped in open and usually the passers-by have to cover their noses to avoid the stink.

Civil society members believe that the govern-ment has to em-ploy scientific methods to get rid of the prob-lem. “Garbage collection still has to improve in the city as tra-ditional methods of dumping and collection are still employed,” said Mohammad Saleem Khan, a resident of Sri-nagar and former Joint Secretary of

State Board of School Education. “Technology has to play its role. Only then we can think of a clean and green Srinagar city”.

The dumper bins are not the

only problem. Very few dustbins have been installed in different parts of the Srinagar city. The SMC officials blame the shortage of funds for the problem. “There is need of thousands of litter bins to be installed in various parts of city but on contrary we have been able to install 800 bins only,” said Tarray. “Due to limited resources and high costs of these bins we are unable to purchase them at this point of time. Each bin costs us around Rs 7000”.

Tarray, however, blames the people as well for the mess. “Peo-ple are also responsible for such state of affairs because they are reluctant to pay municipal taxes,” he said. “Still this is our priority. We are working on replacing the open garbage collection centres with dumper bins. We are already in process of getting improvised vehicles for waste management”.

SRINAGAR: A GARBAGE DUMPFor 540 garbage collection centres, SMC has placed only 120 dumper bins

MERCTIMES 8JULY 15th

QAYOOM MADNI

The green cover of Srinagar is fad-ing. As the roads widen commer-

cial complexes come-up and agricultural land is converted into buildings, more and more trees are cut. Experts warn of seri-ous consequences if the trend continues.

“Srinagar city has less plants and this is a serious issue which has long term implications,” said Akhter Hussain, curator Plant Taxonomy at Kashmir

University. “This may in-crease temperature, noise pollution and increase carbon dioxide in the en-

vironment thus leading to unstable environment”.

A tree is hardly visible in downtown and the Bat-

ZUBAIR MUHAMMAD

In a city where shortage of drinking water frequently takes people out on streets, people use it for irrigating gar-dens and lawns, washing clothes, ve-

hicles and for bathing.The government has made it clear that

this menace could be tackled only once peo-ple provide full cooperation to them.

M o h a m m a d Yousuf Shah, a resident of Rajbagh said they use drink-ing water for not only drinking but also for gardening and bathing. “We use drinking water for not only drink-ing purposes but for also washing our clothes, bath-ing and for irrigat-ing our parks and lawns and many other things,” he said. “Every day, we use almost only 10-15 liters of water for drinking and the rest of the water used in our home is spent on other things like bath-ing and washing clothes.

Shah, however, says that they don’t have any alternatives. “We agree that the water which we receive from the PHE de-partment is only for drinking purposes but we are left with no other alternative other than using this water for other purposes,”

he said.But it is not only about alternatives.

Some people find it tough to dig wells and tube wells and take the government orders for granted. Ghulam Hassan Khanday, a resident of Dalgate said that taking out water every day from tube well is a tiring job. “Pumping water from tube wells is a cumbersome as well as costly process. It also requires a lot of labor. It is a very ardu-

ous task to get water every day from tube wells,” he said.

Rafeeka parveen, a homemaker from Jawahar Nagar says that the absence of streams in the city forces them to spend the drinking water for non-drinking pur-poses. “The unavail-ability of streams in the city is one of the prime reasons of us-ing drinking water for purposes other than drinking,” she

said. “It is also our habit of spending this drinking water on other things. We have been doing this for a long time now”.

The government says it is unfortunate that the people misuse drinking water but says that it is helpless. “Although we have our men in the field checking this phenome-non but people themselves have to take care of this thing,” says Chief Engineer PHE Kashmir Ghulam Rasool Zargar.

maloo area of the city while as fewer trees can be seen in a small stretches between Dalgate to Sheri-Kashmir Park and in VIP area of Gupkar.

And even as the green cover is already low, Scientists warn of another problem. “Though government planted trees but they were not the native ones,” says Hussain. “Unfortunately government is planting willow and poplar trees which are exotic and non-native. They plant female poplar trees which pro-duces cotton that carries fungus and bacteria and after inhaling can lead to illness and respiratory

problems”. Scientists say that the govern-

ment should take expert advice and plant only native species. “Deodar is our native plant and is ever green. In summers it looks soothing to eyes and in winters majestic and will be a major attraction for tourists,” Hus-sain said. “If we will plant deodars in Srinagar city in ten years we will call Srinagar ‘city of deodars’”.

The lack of plantation in Sri-nagar also surprises the tourists who have a different impression of the city when they arrive here. “Kashmir government should plant more and more trees in this city to make it look more attractive and beautiful,” said Steven Kente, a tourist from Denmark.

When contacted Divisional Com-missioner Kashmir, Asgar Samoon admitted that there is less green cov-er in city as compared to Delhi and other cities. He said that the govern-ment mulls to plant more trees in the city. “Only recently, we have cre-ated a group to make people aware about the environment in Srinagar city and three lakh deodarswill be planted in the city once the appro-priate places are found,” he said.

Samoon also blamed the con-cerned departments for it. “Here landscape division is only after tulip garden and the environment and for-est department were planting trees only in jungles and not in city,” he said. “However this time, I took no-tice of it and have directed them to plant trees in city also.”

The Divisional Commissioner also accused people of overlooking environmental concerns. “People only demand macadam in Srinagar city and no one is asking for plant-ing of trees,” he said. “We have fewer trees in old town and batmaloo area owing to paucity of land and this is a dangerous trend.”

DRINKING WATER MISUSED

CITY’S GREEN COVER FADINGExperts warn of serious consequences if the issue is not addresed

City Concern

MERCTIMES9JULY 15th

ASHIQ SOFI

Government of Jammu and Kash-mir has created four departments – Srinagar Development Author-ity (SDA), Lakes and Water ways

Development Authority (LAWDA), Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Town Planning for better city planning, but still the Srinagar city is in a mess.

In contravention of the rules, scores of un-planned and unorganized colonies have come-up and are coming up in Srinagar city and the authorities are not moved. “There is no legal provision to curb the activities of these land brokers, unless and until some legal provi-sion is made we cannot deal with them. We have created Developmental Act for construc-tion and section 8 of COBA (control of build-ing activities) which makes people bound to take constructions permissions .Nothing can be done for these unplanned colonies unless a law is made, which makes competent author-ity to deal effectively with such cases”, said

Farzana Naqashbandi Joint Commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation.

The colonies, which were once gardens or agricultural lands have now taken shape of concrete “monsters” leaving no space for public parks or playgrounds. “Government’s incapacity to deliver in regard of colonies has led these land mafias in Srinagar outskirts for construction of unplanned colonies”, ac-knowledged chief Enforcement Officer Aijaz Ahmad.

According to him, there is no law which makes people to get non objection certifi-cate from fire services for the construction of residential structures. Only commercial buildings have to get permission from UTEC (urban transport environmental committee)

COLONIES OR SLUMSUnplanned and unorganized colonies are coming up everywhere in Srinagar city

which is headed by divisional commission-er.

Saleem Beg, who runs INTACH – an orga-nization for conservation and preservation

of heritage – however, has different views. “It is wrong to say that there are not enough rules to curb the mess of haphazard colonies. These are not new colonies but unfortunately these are new slums. They have violated all the acts of land”, said Beg. “These colonies are an impending disaster because of high earth quake zone in which Srinagar falls and they come with the tacit approval of state agen-cies. We can’t only blame land bro-kers, if government gives permission for residential structure they have to monitor it too, which unfortunately is not done”.

Beg has a question. “If we go according to the permissions which are given by Sri-nagar municipality then how come the prob-lem of haphazard colonies occurs? People who at helm of affairs know the gravity of problem, but they can’t rectify it. By these colonies there is violation of human rights as children of these colonies can’t reach their school on time, there is no space for community activity”, he said .

Beg said that though the ideal states can’t be created but law formation and its application will help smooth functioning of state affairs. “Lack of planning and urban governance has added to this problem,” he said. “It is job of some institutions to make people aware of their civic rights”.

ZUBAIR MOHAMMAD

As dusk falls, the public transport goes off the roads and hundreds of passengers are strand-

ed on the city streets. The govern-ment says it can’t do much about it.

Every day in the evening, hundreds of passengers from dif-ferent corners of the city could be seen stranded in the Lal chowk area of Srinagar waiting for bus or a minibus.

“We are required to work till late in the evening. And in the evening, we suffer a lot due to non-availability of buses,” said a salesman Mohammad Ashraf. “Sometimes we walk on foot to reach to our homes and some-times ask for a lift from private car owners”.

It is not only the salesmen who suffer but students, who study in various coaching cen-ters of the city, are also affected

by this. “When we leave from our homes to our Centre, we get the service of buses but at the time of leaving, the buses are not avail-able,” said a girl Bushra Afzal of Hyderpora in Srinagar.

The shortage of public trans-port in the evening means busi-ness for the auto rickshaws which charge exorbitant rates.“I am working as a shopkeeper in Lal chowk but every day on my return to home, I have to hire an

auto, “said Nisar Ahmad, a resi-dent of Hazratbal. “The buses are not available in the evening”.

The people blame the con-cerned department saying they should look in to this issue for the benefit of common people. “It is quite irresponsible on the part of concerned department that they don’t pay any attention towards this issue,” said Mohammad you-suf, a salesman of Saidakadal. “Buses are not seen after 6:30 pm

and they are not taking any steps. They should take action against such drivers”.

However, the bus drivers have their own perspectives. Ali Mohammad Dar, a bus driver says they can’t run in losses. “There are not many passengers to pick up in the evening,” he said. “During day time, there is a rush of commuters but in the eve-ning we are unable to pick up too many passengers”.

The government, on the other hand, says it can’t do much in this regard. Regional Transport Officer Kashmir Muhammad An-ees said the problem would per-sist till the government doesn’t press into action the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) vehicles.“The problem is actu-ally lack of public transport,” he said.“The only thing which can rectify is if government devises a new policy to introduce the SRTC vehicles anew it can be a break-through”.

CITY SANS PUBLIC TRANSPORT AFTER DUSK

City Concern

MERCTIMES 10

IMRAN MUZAFFAR

Srinagar: Established to provide safe drinking water to people, many fil-tration plants in capital city run with just few bags of spoiled alum, out-of-

date bleach and a daily wage employee. For employees, who look after the plants, filtra-tion process is just to add alum and bleach to water.

In periphery filtration plants of Srinagar – Harwan and Ishbar – which supply water to the lager population of city, employee who is in charge of the filtration process does not ei-ther know how much alum to be added to the stored water which is then finally provided to people for drinking purpose.

The in-charge assistant lineman at the Harwan filtration plant says there is no stan-dard for measuring the chemicals. “The only thing we do here is to add the alum and bleach on hourly basis,” Muhammad Ashraf tells Pa-nos South Asia. “When a high official once visited here he had said to use 10-40 kilograms of alum per day. Now, to be enough honest, I think we would be doing that, though we don’t measure it. It would probably be the same.”

Even the alum and bleach powder, two principal chemicals to be used for treatment according to the employees, are placed on the dirt floor in a storeroom. The information tags on bleach and alum bags reveal that the chemicals are outdated. “Date of expiry: Sep-tember 2011,” the tag reads.

Residents of Harwan say they are not pro-vided safe drinking water by the filtration. “Water is being supplied to the households but it does not have any guarantee of being

drinkable. I wonder who would know this mechanism and who are asked to undertake the process,” says a local, Muhammad Shafi.

The apprehension of contaminated water being supplied to people is also corroborated by the latest census report of Government of India and an independent study undertaken by Integrated Disease Surveillance Unit (IDSU) Srinagar says people are vulnerable to water-borne diseases in Kashmir because of the increase of Coliform bacteria in tap wa-ter.

While the census report is an annual sur-vey of Central Government, the findings by IDSU were carried out between December 2011 and January 2012, stating that open wa-ter tanks as one of the causes of the vulner-ability. “Not only rivers and lakes, the water tanks of filtration plants are also prone to be attacked by Coliform bacteria. The water which is pumped to filtration plants carries a lot of faecal matter as it comes from high altitude areas and if that is not filtered well can be the cause of disease break-out,” says an entomologist, Dr Sajad Ahmad.

The situation at other small scale filtra-tion plants is no different. At Ishbar (Shali-mar), the ‘filtration plant’ is a mere water supply scheme and this is corroborated by its employees as well. “Whatever gets accumu-lated here we just directly pass. This is just a water supply scheme and it doesn’t filter wa-ter,” says an employee, Mehraj-ud-din.

Residents of Ishbar apprehend they are being provided contaminated water. “We are told that it is a filtration plant but the matter of the fact is that it is just a tank where from impure water is pumped to households,” says

a resident, Fayaz Ahmad Mir. Chief Engineer, PHE Kashmir, Ghulam

Hassan Zargar, however, disagrees to what people say. “Filtration process in plants is carried out technically and they supply pure water to people,” he says. “I do not think stud-ies carried out are completely right. We are supplying filtered water to every town. And the mechanism followed in filtration plants is completely professional”.

The information

tags on bleach and alum bags

reveal that the chemicals are outdated.

“Date of expiry: September

2011,” the tag reads.

HazardJULY 15th

MERCTIMES11

SOUZEINA MUSHTAQ

The only tertiary care hospital in valley, Sheri Kashmir Insti-tute of Medical Science

(SKIMS), is ill equipped in prop-er handling of the harmful waste generated from the hospital, put-ting both human lives and the environment at risk.

Though the hospital authori-ties claim to have facilities for proper disposal, a part of the waste is dumped in the adjacent area of the hospital and in the Anchar Lake.

Deputy Medical Superinten-dent, SKIMS, Ghulam Hassan Yatoo says that the staff is over burdened. “Bio medical waste management is a challenge for every hospital .We are taking proper care to manage the gener-ated waste but our staff is over burdened,” he said. “Around 1400-1500 kilograms of waste is generated in a day, including the refuse from its maternity hospi-tal.” Yatoo seek the cooperation of attendants and others tackling the situation.

The waste generated from the hospital is segregated at the initial stage of its production. The authorities have installed three colored dustbins in each ward for on -source segregation of the waste generated in the hos-pital.

Black dustbin is for domes-tic waste, which is taken care by the Srinagar Municipal Cor-poration. Yellow and Red dust-bins are for incineration, with destroyed syringes, urine bags, blades, etc in yellow bin and cot-ton gauze, dressing pads, organ waste, etc in red bin . For the treatment of the liquid refuse, a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) is the first of its kind facility avail-

able in the hospital.The hospital has two incin-

erator plants for the disposal of bio medical waste, out of which, one is kept as “stand by”. First incinerator was installed in 80’s and new one, three years back, in 2009.

People entrusted with the job of handling infectious bio medi-cal waste, complain of many health issues and payment of no risk allowance. The staff, work-ing in the incinerator chamber, complains of death risk and health issues like coughing, skin infection, etc.

“The temperature here is too high to bear. Also we have to outsource the bio medical waste with our hands. Often we get pricked by left out needles which causes skin infections,” says Gh-ulam Hassan Khan, a worker. “We do not even get risk allow-ance.”

As the worker narrated his story, one could see black smoke

emanating from the chimney of incinerator. “Sometimes, plastic goes into the incinerator, which is where combustion does not take properly, and black smoke comes out. But mostly the gas which comes out is like vapor, which is harmless,” said Senior Supervisor of SKIMS, Yoginder Singh, who was quick to add that “it is not the case always.”

According to the Rule 5 of Bio Medical Waste (management and handling), it is mandatory for every occupier to set up req-uisite bio medical waste treat-ment facility or ensure requisite treatment of waste at a common waste treatment facility or any other treatment facility.

In 2006, State High Courts directed all the Medical Super-intendents of all government hospitals to scientifically dis-pose off their bio medical waste and warned them of dire conse-quences if not taken seriously. However a research commis-

sioned in 2009, under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to know the overall condition of health care system in the valley, found the waste management in hospitals inadequate.

People residing in Behlochi-pora area adjacent to the hospi-tal allege that the waste gener-ated in the hospital is dumped in the Anchar Lake. “Sometimes SKIMS authorities dispose off plastic bottles, syringes and sur-gical items in the lake, most of which should have been sent to an incinerator. It has caused se-vere damage to the lake and has affected the Nadru cultivation as well,” says a resident, Ghulam Rasool. “Anchar has become a living hell for us. The bad smell is affecting our health”.

However, the officials negat-ed the claims of the residents.

“The water that goes into the lake is properly treated,” said Deputy Medical Superintendent, Ghulam Hassan Yatoo.

HOSPITAL WASTE FINDS ITS WAYINTO THE LAKE

HazardJULY 15th

MERCTIMES 12

BASEERA RAFIQUEE

Srinagar city’s garbage dumping ground at Achan-Saidapora in Ei-dgah has become a bone of conten-tion between local inhabitants and

authorities. The locals allege that waste is not properly treated while the government denies the allegations.

Residents say that over the past few years, the frequency of oncological and chest related diseases have increased in the area due to polluted air, water and soil in Achan - which is the biggest and only garbage dumping ground about eight ki-lometer north of main city. Established 30 years ago, the area is spread over an area of 30 hectares.

“We have shifted to Delhi because of my mother’s illness. She is suffering from cancer, which was caused by the infec-tion around the dumping ground”, said Showkat Ahmad, a migrant from Achan. “We had to leave this place and now our properties are losing values. The govern-ment is not taking any action in this re-

gard”. He added that many such diseases in

the area have been reported due to the pol-lution around the dumping yard. “It has become a social stigma for us,” he said. “Marriage of our boys is a tough job here due to this social stigma”.

Ahmad further stated that the waste is dumped without proper treatment and at times they dump dogs during night hours.

“We protested and were assured that they would stop dumping the garbage in the yard but no action has been taken till date,” he said. “When we approached them again, they said the agreement that was made between government and locals, few years ago is fake.”

The government denies the allegations made by the people. “We conduct regular checkup of the people in catchment area to see the impact of this yard” says Rushikesh Sharma, Operation in charge at the dump-ing ground. Sharma is an engineer with Remkiy Environs’ Engineer (REE) that has been given contract for disposal of waste at the dumping yard since 2009 by

Srinagar Municipal Cooperation (SMC) and Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA). “They often protest in front of the yard thus affecting our work. Right now we have only utilized one unit but the pro-posed plan is to use all the units. Our con-tract ends when the whole land is covered up. Cranes put soil on the waste and the water (leachate) in waste is segregated”.

Sharma said that they don’t use any chemicals to treat the wastes because all the waste is biodegradable. “It’s just cov-ered with soil (land fill),” he said. He said that plantation is done on the periphery of the dumping site for beautification of the ground.

Interestingly, city produces more than 380 metric tons of waste every day which is carried through small and big vehicles to the dumping yard, says SMC website.

“All the municipal waste in brought in trucks and here covered with soil (landfill). At present municipality are having more than 1713 small and big vehicles to trans-port the waste from city to the yard”, the website read.

ACHEN: DUMPING YARD IN CITY’S BACKYARD

Over the past few years, the frequency

of oncological and chest related

diseases have increased in the

area due to polluted air, water and soil

in Achan - which is the biggest

and only garbage dumping ground

about eight kilometer north of main city.

Established 30 years ago, the area is

spread over an area of 30 hectares.

Waste LandJULY 15th

MERCTIMES13Lurking DangerJULY 15th

SHEIKH SALEEM

It was a bright summer morning. As 13-year-old Rafiq Ahmad Khatana stepped outside his house, a bear jumped on him. Khatana was saved

by the villagers but not before he lost five fingers of his right hand. Khatana lives at Mazargund up in the Zabarwan moun-tains.

As the land in Srinagar is shrinking with rapid urbanization, the people are moving up towards the mountains mak-ing houses in the forest belt of Srinagar. And this has resulted in a steep increase in man-animal conflict resulting in death of more than 100 people and several wild animals.

“The conversion of prime habitats of wild animals into croplands, orchards and human settlements is a major factor for increasing human-wild animal conflict,” says Wildlife Warden Raashid Naqash. “The expanding human population, deci-mation of forest cover and encroachment

of forest land has given rise to this con-flict”.

As the population in Srinagar is in-creasing, people are moving out of the city towards the forests up in the mountains. A large number of residential colonies have come up at Dara Harwan, Mazargund, Gu-jar Fakir, Shuhama and around the Dachi-gam national park. Few decades ago, these residential colonies were the natural habi-tats of wild animals especially bear and leopard in Srinagar.

“It is not surprising, if the leopards or bears are found in Shuhama, Dara or Lal Bazaar because it is their (wild animals’) habitat,” says Dr Altaf Hussein Malik, a professor at Sheri Kashmir Institute of Ag-ricultural Sciences Kashmir. “It is wrong to say that wild animals are moving to-wards human populations. The fact is that we are intruding into their habitats”.

Ghulam Mohi-u-din Bhat was living at Nawabazar in the old city two decades ago. As the family split, Bhat moved to Shuhama village in the foothills of Sindh

Forest range. “We had less space in Nawa-bazar (Old Srinagar city) so I came here in early 90’s to live,” says Bhat. “It is difficult to move out here in the evenings as the bears freely roam around”.

Though the construction of buildings in the forest land is illegal, the conflict in Kashmir gave an opportunity to people construct houses in and around the forest areas. “In 90’s due to uncertain circum-stances, people took advantage of it and encroached the forest area as there was no government on ground,” says Shakeela Begum, a resident of Dara village.

The census records of past two decades reveal that the population in Srinagar has in-creased by 30 and 24 per cent respectively. The 2011 census shows that density of Srinagar is 703 persons per square kilometer as compared to 559 in 2001. “This resulted in migration of people towards outskirts of the city. They have thus intruded into the wildlife habitat,” says Dr Hussein. “If rapid urbanization is allowed to continue unchecked, many Kashmir’s pre-cious wild life species will vanish”.

Urbanization spurs man-animal conflict “The conversion

of prime habitats of wild animals into croplands,

orchards and human settlements is a major factor for increasing human-

wild animal conflict

It is not surprising, if the leopards or

bears are found in Shuhama, Dara or

Lal Bazaar because it is their (wild

animals’) habitat

MERCTIMES 14

MIR USMAN

Leaving behind their home and hearth in the interiors of Dal Lake, the Bala household shifted to Rakh-e-Arth despite widespread concerns over

the marshy nature of land in this suburban neighbourhood, only to be let down by the government.

Bashir Ahmad Bala, along with seven other farming families, moved to Rakh-e-Arth (Kashmiri for game-preserve) near Bemina 10 months back. The vast stretch of land, spanning over 7,526 Kanals, has been earmarked for rehabilitation of people living in the interiors of Dal under Rs 402-crore proj-ect for conservation of the world famous lake, overseen by Lakes and Waterways Develop-ment Authority (LAWDA).

Residing in temporary wooden shacks, the families allege official indifference to-wards their needs.

“We are not happy with the authorities. We were promised good accommodation, school and healthcare facilities but there are no such things present here,” said Bashir.

“With no school nearby the future of our children is at stake.”

The families spent the last winter in the shacks finding it hard to cope with the cold.

“We are living in temporary shelters and have to bear the brunt of the weather,” said Irshad Ahmad, who resides next to Bashir.

They also complain about lack of trans-port facility, having to travel about one kilo-metre to board public transport.

When asked about the complaints, Vice Chairman LAWDA, Irfan Yasin said, “The developmental work in the area is taking place in a phased manner. All these facilities will be provided to them.”

The residents also complain of water seep-ing into their homes during rains. This, they said, also hindered their plans of construct-ing a proper house.

Rakh-e-Arth is a low lying area and though much of the project cost has been spent on fill-ing of the land with hundreds of truckloads of soil, the threat of flooding persists.

“Most people of our community didn’t come here because of this problem,” said Ir-shad.

According to LAWDA VC, the irrigation department is working to solve the problem.

The Rakh settlers say the government overlooked their livelihood needs.

“We were dependent on agriculture,

which is impossible to carry out in this area,” said Ali Muhammad.

“How would we run our families now?” he asks, even as he suggests that government could have employed their boys in places like the power-transmission plant coming up in the colony.

The settlers accuse the authorities of lur-ing them into a trap by promising five lakh rupees to the families who shift to Rakh-e-Arth even as it was yet to be ready for hous-ing the colony.

“We were promised five lakh rupees but a year has passed since then. We haven’t got anything yet,” said Bashir.

Responding to the allegations, VC LAW-DA said, “We have never mentioned any such thing, there is no such thing on record.”

“The families were provided due compen-sation,” he added.

The government has so far spent Rs 22.50 Cr on the development of the plots out of Rs 402 crores earmarked for the project.

Out of the 500 demarcated plots, 79 have been allotted.

With the present settlers unhappy about the arrangement, it remains to be seen if the government can manage to convince rest of the Dal families to move here.

From fertile Dal to marshy Rakh-e-Arth

JULY 15thRehab Woes

Rakh-e-Arth is a low lying area

and though much of the

project cost has been spent on

filling of the land with hundreds

of truckloads of soil, the threat

of flooding persists.

MERCTIMES15JULY 15thNovel Paradox

ASHRAF UL HASSAN

Lack of awareness and publicity renders recently established bus bays in the city dysfunctional. Drivers as well as masses say

they don’t know about these bays and their utilization.

To streamline the traffic, authorities had set up bus bays in the city this year. Though officials claim that six bus bays have been made functional in city for proper management of traffic but there are some bus bays that generally remain occupied by fruit vendors.

The bus bay at one of the busiest com-mercial hub in the city, Jehangir Chowk on way towards Indira Gandhi airport road, is still to be functional due to road widening process. The bus bay near the rear end of High court is however, fully function-al.

The bus bay at Er. Yousuf Avenue near Kashmir Haat is oc-cupied by auto rickshaw drivers, who claim that authorities have made the bay on their stand. “This is our stand and they have made this for the bus stop. Where shall we go?,” said Ashiq Ahmad, an auto driver. “Give us some suitable place around and we will leave this place.”

A bus bays at Ram Bagh has been occupied by fruit vendors. Just opposite to this bay, other one is not used at all while in Batamaloo it is occupied by ice-cream and fruit vendors.

Occupation by vendors is not the only reason for not using the bays, Unawareness among the masses is another factor that leads to chaos in man-aging the traffic. “I don’t know what this bay is for. I thought it is for parking. Look they have parked the vehicles in that,” said Manzoor Ahmad, a driver while

pointing towards the vehicles parked in the bay.

While accepting the responsibility of the failure of the bus bays, a traffic police

officer said they did not make drivers properly aware about the usage of the bus bays. “Many drivers don’t know what these bays are for. They stop their buses anywhere on the road and then they pass through these bays,” said the police offi-

cer. “They should be made aware by the department. Putting one or two poster does not help”.

People also question the placement of bus bays. “These bus bays are useless in many senses. They have made a bus bay here and the passenger shed is some distance away. They want us to board the bus here, but want us to wait for the bus 20 meters ahead,” said a student, Nazir Ahmad while pointing towards the Passenger shed at Jehangir chowk.

The Superintendent of Po-lice (traffic), Haseeb-ur- Rehm-an, assured that bus bays will be made completely functional in the coming days. “After we are finished with completion of these bus bays, we will en-sure that buses stop at those places only,” he said. “Some-times, there are violations and we tackle them according to the law”.

He appealed the public to board the buses only at those places where bus bays are constructed. “It has been often seen that people board the bus-es, wherever they want. If people will co-operate, then it will be easy to implement the usage of these bays”.

WHAT IS A BUS BAY? PLEASE

People and drivers say

they don’t know anything about the bus bays and their

utilization

“These bus bays are useless in many senses. They have made a bus bay here and the passenger shed is some distance away. They want us to board the bus here, but want us to wait for the bus 20 meters ahead”

MERCTIMES 16

Patron: Vice-chancellor Prof. Talat AhmadChief Editor:Prof S Mufeed, Editor: Muslim Jan, Sub-Editor : Syeda Afshana, Suhail Ahmad

Graphic Designer: Aga Shahi Students Editorial team: Imran, Qayoom, Zubair, Ashiq, Souzeina, Baseera, Rouf, Umer, Parvez, Ahsan (3rd & 4th sem)

e-mail: editor.merc@gmail.comThe opinions expressed in the write ups are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy of MERC Times or the department of Media Education Research Centre

JULY 15th

For the past two years, Panos South Asia organised a series of workshops for the journalism students in Kashmir and bud-ding journalists of Jammu region to pro-

mote the reporting of urban issues in the local media.

The series of workshops ‘People and Places’ organised in collaboration with Media Education Research Centre was aimed at strengthening skills of the journalism students to cover issues on urban poverty and diversity. The project is finan-cially supported by the Ford Foundation.

During the course of the workshop, media students underwent extensive training in areas pertaining to urban reporting and new media. The trainings were be led by experienced media professionals including Dr Aloke Thakore, me-dia analyst and co-founder of Journalism Mentor Foundation, Tinku Ray, BBC English’s south East Asia editor and Sanjeev Srivastava, ex India Af-fairs editor, BBC Hindi Service.

“The workshop is part of the larger project, im-plemented by Panos South Asia, aimed at raising the profile of city based reporting in Jammu and Srinagar,” said Project Director, Panos South Asia, Dr Harpreet Kaur. “The project specifically aims at influencing mainstream media to initiate urbaniza-tion dialogue particularly inJammu and Srinagar cities. The project also focuses on training young media professionals so that they are better sensi-tised to and equipped to cover social issues”.

During the series of workshop, the journalism students explored and developed understanding of social affairs journalism with special focus on urban poverty and diversity. The course covered areas such as journalism ethics, responsible re-porting of issues relating to social affairs, principles and techniques of reporting social affairs, dealing with official and non-official sources of informa-tion, editorial dilemmas, writing skills, interviewing techniques and investigative social reporting.

The course enabled the trainee journalists

with skills required to use new media to address issues as urbanization and diversity, keeping eth-ics of journalism intact

At the end of the workshops, the journalism students were taken out in the field to give them on the job training. The students, according to their interests, were divided into three groups – Radio, Television and Print. During the field train-ing, the students, accompanied by their mentors – the journalists working for various local and national media organisations – implemented the news gathering and research techniques they had learned during the workshop and produced print and television.

In Jammu, budding journalist working in vari-ous different media organisation participated in the training workshops. The journalists were taken from Jammu city and its far flung areas like Kisht-war, Rajouri, Doda and Poonch. During the series of workshops the skills of these journalists were honed.

Project in Action