STATE VISIONVol No: 7 Issue No: 33 Postal Registration No. JK/ 506/ 16-18, RNI Registration no. JKENG/ 2013/ 53908

WHERE THESTORY COMESFIRST. STATE

VISION Daily English News Paper | Samba (J&K)

PAGE-8 Epaper:- www.statevision.in Rs: 2/ Thursday, February 07, 2019

In a nutshell

Air traffic atSrinagarInternational airportdisrupted

AGENCYSRINAGAR, FEB 6: Airtraffic at SrinagarInternational Airport wasdisrupted on Wednesdaydue to poor visibility fol-lowing cloudy sky andrain since this morning.

An official of Airportsaid that one flight fromDelhi has been suspendedwhile four others aredelayed.

He said due to poor vis-ibility no flight could takeoff or land at Srinagar air-port today.

The GoAir flight to NewDelhi which was sched-uled to depart at 0925 hrshas been cancelled.However, four otherflights are delayed.

The air traffic will CONTD ON P-2

Chairman BOPEEmeets Governor

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:Mohammad AshrafBukhari, Chairman,Jammu and KashmirBoard of ProfessionalEntrance Examinations(BOPEE), met GovernorSatya Pal Malik at the RajBhavan here today.

Bukhari briefedGovernor about the func-tioning of the Board, theschedule of conduct ofEntrance Tests andprocess of making selec-tion of candidates foradmission to variousundergraduate and post-graduate professionalcourses in the State.

CONTD ON P-2

Kashmir to be'central point'of dialoguewith India:Pak Infominister

AGENCYISLAMABAD, FEB 6:Pakistan InformationMinister Chaudhry FawadHussain called upon Indiato come to the dialoguetable to find-out a peacefulsolution to the 'Kashmirissue'.

Addressing a specialseminar on the 'KashmirSolidarity Day' at Aiwan-e-Sadr, here, on Tuesday,he said Kashmir is a'human issue' rather than a'territorial issue.'

He said India shouldconsider the struggles ofpeople in Kashmir.

The Minister saidPakistan has 'openly invit-ed' India to come to thenegotiating table for nor-malisation, but Kashmirwill be the 'central point'of any dialogue with NewDelhi.

He said we are foresee-ing a resolution ofKashmir issue as per aspi-rations of 'Kashmiris.'

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEB. 06: BharatKe Mann Ki Baat ModiKe Saath a “Video-Rath”was launched today atBJP headquarter, TrikutaNagar by BJP StatePresident RavinderRaina.

Arun Kumar GuptaState Vice-President &State Incharge for“Video-Rath” pro-gramme, State Vice-President Narayan Singh,former Dy. CM KavinderGupta, Incharge forJ a m m u - P o o n c hP a r l i a m e n t a r yConstituency & formerMinister Sat Sharma

(CA), former MoS ShaktiParihar Incharge forU d h a m p u r - D o d aP a r l i a m e n t a r yConstituency, StateGeneral Secretary (Org.)Ashok Kaul, StateGeneral SecretaryYudhvir Sethi, State Vice-President ParmodKapahi, former MinisterDorjay and other seniorleaders of party alsoaccompanied the StatePresident during launchof Video-Rath.

The journey of the lastfive years has been exhil-arating as well as encour-aging for the country andBJP. Building on the

unprecedented mandateof the people, BJP govern-ment has persistentlyworked towards deliver-ing on the high hopes andexpectations which werethe foundation on themandate. BJP have suc-cessfully managed toturnaround the slowingeconomy and putting iton the fastrack of growth.BJP laws have effectivelydiminished the culture ofcorruption prevalentacross the system andhave decisively eliminat-ed the constant fear of ter-ror and insecurity whichthe people of the countryfaced till five years ago.

BJP government havedeterminedly improvedthe quality of life for mil-lions of our citizensthrough initiatives imple-mented at a scale neverbefore seen, and havetirelessly worked to raisethe stature of India on theglobal stage and give it aplace of pride globally.

In the run up to the LokSabha elections of 2019,BJP intend to take thispartnership forwardthrough our “Bharat keMann ki Baat, Modi keSaath” campaign andintend to make this cam-paign the largest ever col-laborative effort of a

country to define thevision for the future of acountry. This is an cam-paign to engage the peo-ple in crafting the agendafor the next five years andto collate their expecta-tions and suggestions.This is a campaign toinvolve every citizen inmoulding the future ofIndia.

Through a month-longcampaign starting for 6thFeb., 2019, BJP intend todirectly source over 10crore suggestions fromthe people across thecountry. These sugges-tions will form the core ofour Sankalp Patra’ for the

2019 elections making itthe true reflection of thecampaign will include amulti-layered outreach toensure that anyone whowants to participate getsan opportunity to sharetheir views with us.

Public Outreach : Thepeople can send in their“Mann ki Baat” to BJPthrough various channelsin an easy and user-friendly manner.

Missed call Numbers:People can give a missedcall to the number 6357 1717 17 and record theirsuggestions.

Bharat ke Mann ki Baat,Modi ke Saath website:

People can visitw w w . b h a r a t k e -mannkibaat.com andsubmit their suggestionsin text or video format.

Bharat ke Mann ki Baat,Modi ke Saath Peti: Over7500 petis will be placedin public locations acrossthe country where peoplecan drop in their sugges-tions through a sugges-tion patra.

Bharat ke Mann ki Baat,Modi ke Saath Rath :Over 300 raths will travelacross the country will atablet where people canrecord their video sug-gestions and a peti

CONTD ON P-2

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:Governor Satya PalMalik participated in the25th Annual Day cele-bration of All LadakhStudent WelfareAssociation, Jammu(ALSWAJ), here today.

Haji Anayat Ali,Chairman LegislativeCouncil was the Guest ofHonour; Feroz AhmedKhan, CEC LAHDCKargil, and SonamWangchuk, RamonMagsaysay and RolexAward winner were theSpecial Guests on theoccasion.

Governor congratulat-ed the ALSWAJ on theoccasion of its 25thAnnual Day andobserved that he cherish-es participating in func-tions of Student Unionsand Associations as theyremind him of his yearsas a college student andhis experiences as a stu-dent leader.

Emphasising theimportance of StudentUnions, Governor notedthat these provide an aptplatform for students todevelop their personalityand confidence andquoted examples of vari-

ous student unionswhich produced greatleaders for the country.

Observing that onlythose countries reach thepinnacle of progresswhich give considerableattention to their educa-tion system, Governorstressed the need forbringing far reachingchanges in the prevalenteducation system in thecountry and improve thequality of research. Heappreciated the efforts ofSonam Wangchuk whois working towardsbringing reforms in theeducation system by

promoting experientiallearning via practicalapplication of knowl-edge.

Emphasising theempowerment thatcomes through educa-tion, Governor notedthat it is the only toolthat could lead a personto achieve his dreamsirrespective of his back-ground. He urged theyoung generation to par-ticipate in curricular andextracurricular activitiesfor their holistic develop-ment.

Governor assured CONTD ON P-2

Delegation ofDoctorsAssociationJammu meetsGovernor

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:A delegation of DoctorsAssociation Jammu, ledby its President Dr.Balvinder Singh, metGovernor Satya Pal Malikat the Raj Bhavan heretoday.

The delegation request-ed Governor that offenceagainst On duty doctorsor damage to hospitalinfrastructure may bemade a non-bail ableoffence, provision for cre-ation of hospital securityforce for safety and

CONTD ON P-2

AdvisorKumar tomeet peopleat Jammu onFeb 07

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 06:Advisor to Governor, KVijay Kumar will be hold-ing his weekly publichearing programme atJammu on February 07(Thursday).

The public delegations,deputations, organiza-tions and individualshave been asked to meetAdvisor Kumar onFebruary 07 to projecttheir issues and registertheir grievances atConvention Center,Jammu from 10 am to12:30 pm.

AGENCYSRINAGAR, FEB 6: Theworld famous ski resortof Gulmarg, Pahalgamand Sonamarg besidesother upper reachesreceived fresh snowfallwhile plains, includingsummer capital Srinagarexperienced snow-rainsince early Wednesdaymorning disrupting nor-mal life.

A Met departmentspokesman said thisafternoon that therecould be widespread tomoderate rain and snowduring the next 24 hoursin the Jammu andKashmir. During the

subsequent two days,there is a forecast forwidespread to scatteredrain and snow.

Gulmarg, a famed skiresort in north Kashmirdistrict of Baramulla,about 55 km from herereceived fresh snowfalltoday. The world classski slopes, alreadyunder several feet ofwhite power, receivedfive to six inches ofsnow. The upperheights, includingKhilanmarg, Sevenspring and Affarwat, thehighest ski point con-nected by Cable Car,received moderate to

heavy snowfall duringthe past 24 hours. It wasstill snowing, a hotelowner told UNI overPhone from Gulmarg.Large number oftourists, includinglocals, are arriving dailyto enjoy, he said andexpressed hope moreguests from differentparts of the country andabroad will visit the skiresort.

Fresh snowfall wasalso received at upperreaches in the northKashmir, where dozensof roads remainedclosed due to

CONTD ON P-2

Advisor Kumar visits SFC'stimber depot at Sunjwan

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 06: Advisor to Governor, K VijayKumar today visited State Forest Corporation's TimberStore and Sale Depot situated at Sunjwan to review itsfunctioning.

Commissioner Secretary Forests Manoj KumarDwivedi, PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh, DeputyCommissioner Jammu Ramesh Kumar, ManagingDirector JKSFC Vasu Yadav and other concerned offi-cers were present on the occasion.

The Advisor took round of the Timber and Sale depotwhere he was briefed by the MD JKSFC about the posi-tion of timber stock available at the depot. He was alsoinformed about the process of dumping and lifting oftimber for sale.

He was given presentation regarding the details of thetotal land under the control of Forest department in thearea including the depot and the various activities beingcarried out by SFC in the forest area.

While interacting with the concerned officers, heenquired from them about the types of timber

CONTD ON P-2

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBUARY 06:Advisor to Governor, KSkandan today reviewedthe functioning ofDepartment of Industriesand Commerce at a highlevel meeting here today.

The Advisor was given abriefing on current finan-cial status, organizationalsetup besides key respon-sibilities, objects and func-tions of various Industrialsectors/ departments likeIndustries and CommerceDepartment, HandicraftsDepartment, HandloomD e v e l o p m e n tDepartment, Geology andMining Department,Handloom Development

Corporation, Handicrafts(S&E) Corporation, JKSIDCO, JK SICOP, KVIB,JKEDI, JK Cement, JKMinerals, Indian Instituteof Carpet Technology andCarpet DevelopmentInstitute.

The meeting was attend-ed by Principal Secretary,Industries and CommerceDepartment, ShaleenKabra, Special SecretaryIndustries and Commerce,Director Industries andC o m m e r c eKashmir/Jammu besidesHoDs / ManagingDirectors of variousdepartments andCorporations.

Earlier, Principal

Secretary, Industries andCommerce gave a powerpoint presentation on theoverview of Industriesand Commerce and allieddepartments.

The Advisor wasapprised of various incen-tives available to entrepre-neurs and investors.

The Advisor stressed onpromoting and publiciz-ing the incentives avail-able so as to attractinvestors to the State.While reviewing the func-tioning of Handicraft andHandloom department,the Advisor called for pro-moting Artisans for recog-nition of their workbesides providing them a

market place to sell theirproduct.

While highlighting theachievements in theHandicraft and Handloomsector, Principal SecretaryI&C emphasized on theneed to evolve a synergybetween various depart-mental initiatives so as todevelop a conduciveecosystem for artisans toexcel in their trade.

On J&K Startup policy,the Advisor desired forinviting venture capitalistsand investors to guide theyoung entrepreneurs inthe state and utilize theexpertise of successfulentrepreneurs.

The Advisor, while

enquiring about the time-lines for the clearance ofsetting up of industrialenterprise in the state,instructed I&C depart-ment to earmark landavailable for setting upnew industrial units. Foreffective utilization ofland, the Advisor furtheradvised to have landbanks across the state andcategorize the land as perthe scale and nature ofindustries. Essentialrequirements of land likeconnectivity, water,power, approachabilityand other such aspectsalways came into play andthese requirements

CONTD ON P-2

WWF, DSE organize environmentconservation workshop

Director School Education Jammufor adopting holistic approachtowards environment issues

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEB. 06: World Wide Fund, India alongwith Department of School Education organizedtwo-day training-cum-workshop on the conserva-tion of environment through education here.

The programme witnessed the convergence ofgovernment officials, CEOs, Principals of DIETs,Principals of Higher Secondary schools, DistrictCoordinators, Curators and educationists.

Under the joint partnership between WWF-India and Herbal Garden Scheme, the programmelaunched its first compact user-friendly publica-tion on Common Herbs of Jammu and Kashmir.The publication has been designed to raise aware-ness among student and citizens about the vari-ous common herbs of the state.

Also, 'Ek Prithvi Leadership Manual' waslaunched on the occasion which is developed

CONTD ON P-2

AGENCYSRINAGAR, FEB 6: The300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway,the only all weather roadconnecting Kashmir valleywith the rest of the coun-try, was closed again onWednesday due to freshlandslides, triggered byrain and snowfall sinceearly this morning.

The Ladakh regionremained cut off fromKashmir since Decemberlast year as the Srinagar-Leh national highwayremained closed due toaccumulation of snowwhile historic 86-km-longhistoric Mughal road andAnantnag-Kishtwar roadsremained shut due to

accumulation of severalfeet of snow and slipperyroad conditions.

The Kashmir highwaywas closed yet again dueto fresh landslides andshooting stones , triggeredby rain between Rambanand Ramsu and snowfallon both sides of theJawahat tunnel, Banihal,Shaitan Nallah andQazigund, a traffic policeofficial told UNI thismorning.

Meanwhile, he said, itwas decided to allowLight Motor Vehicles(LMVs) and Heavy MotorVehicles (HMVs) fromSrinagar to Jammu for thesecond consecutive onWednesday. Almost all

Jammu bound vehicleswhich left different partsof the Kashmir valley havereached to their destina-tions till last night. Theauthorities had decidednot to allow any vehiclefrom Jammu today also,he added.

He said it was rainingand snowing on the high-way due to which roadhas become slippery forc-ing authorities to suspendtraffic movement thismorning.

All the Jammy boundLMVs and HMVs werestopped at Qazigund andother places on this side ofthe tunnel. Passengervehicles who left

CONTD ON P-2

Governor participates in 25thAnnual Day celebration of ALSWAJ

Gulmarg, upper heights receivefresh snowfall, rain-snowdisrupt normal life in Srinagar

Kashmir highway closed again,Leh and Mughal roads remain shut

Advisor Skandan reviews functioning of I&C, allied departments'Promote, publicize incentives to attract investors in JK'

BJP launches Video-Rath for J&K

Samba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 Daily State Vision

02

Governor participates...

the ALSWAJ that all the demands submitted by theUnion relating to construction and upgradation of Hostels,facilitating economical air fares to Ladakh, expeditingconstruction of Zojila Tunnel and Z Morh etc will be dulyaddressed.

Governor appreciated the quality cultural programmepresented on the occasion which included Balti folk song,Jabro dance, Aryan dance, Shina folk song etc.

Haji Anayat Ali, Chairman Legislative Council; FerozAhmed Khan, CEC LAHDC Kargil, Shakeel Zaki,President ALSWAJ, highlighted various issues relating toLadakh and expressed their gratitude for sanctioningCluster University for Ladakh.

Advisor Kumar...

available at the depot, approved rates on which the tim-ber is being sold and other related activities.

It was informed that different type of timber includingDeodar, Kail and Fir are available at the depot.

The Advisor also interacted with the labourer's workingat the depot who apprised him about their issues whichincludes increase in their wages and others.

K Vijay Kumar assured them that their genuine issueswould be taken care of.

Gulmarg, upper...

accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions forthe past about a week.

The areas near the Line of Control (LoC) also receivedfresh snowfall. However, security forces, braving chill andother difficulties remained guard to foil any militantsattempt to sneak into this side from Pakistan OccupiedKashmir (POK). Several inches to one feet of snowfall wasreceived since early this morning, reports said.

The plains, including Baramulla, Kupwara, Handwara,Bandipora and Sopore received mixed rain and snowresulting in drop in the maximum temperature, disruptingnormal life.

Fresh snowfall was received today, a report fromPahalgam, about 100 km from here said. However, moder-ate to heavy snowfall was received at holy Amarnath caveshrine and its periphery, Panjterni, Sheshnag, Mahaguns,Pisso top and Chandanwari, the last motorable halting sta-tion on traditional Pahalgam yatra track.

Upper reaches in south Kashmir districts of Kulgam,Shopian and Anantnag also received fresh snowfall. The

historic Mughal road, connecting Shopian in southKashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu remainedclosed since December last year due to accumulation ofsnow. Fresh snowfall was also received on the highwaytoday.

The upper heights in central Kashmir district of Badgamand Ganderbal also received fresh snowfall.

Life was thrown out of gear in summer capital, Srinagar,due to mixed rain and snow since this morning, resultingin considerable chill. People could be seen using umbrella,rain coats and gadgets to save themselves from gettingwet. Though educational institutions remained closed dueto winter vacation, students, including girls, could be seengoing to tuition and coaching classes as usual today.

Met spokesman said there could be moderate rain andsnow and the maximum and minimum temperature wouldbe around 2 degree and 0 degree respectively during thenext 24 hours in Srinagar.

Delegation of...

security of doctors and hospital property; caderisation ofMedical Officers into Medical Officer, senior MedicalOfficer and supervising/Head Medical officer; caderisa-tion of consultants into consultants, senior consultants andchief consultants; positioning of one chief consultant, twosenior consultants and one consultant in every district hos-pital; salary of doctors as per working hours; financial andother incentives to doctors working in far flung areas;installation of MRI machines and latest equipment forblood investigations at all district hospitals; expediting theprocess for identifying hard and difficult areas for selec-tion in PG courses and the need for formulating a cleartransfer policy.

Governor assured the Delegation appropriate considera-tion of its demands and urged them to work dedicatedlytowards improving health care system in the State.

Kashmir highway...

different parts of the valley, including Srinagar, havebeen stopped at Qazigund, he said adding some of themhave returned to their homes landslides and shootingstones continued.

He said the National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) have putinto service sophisticated machines to clear the snow andlandslides. However, the operation was being hampereddue to continued rain and snow.

There is a forecast for heavy to very heavy snow and rain

during the next 48 hours which could affect traffic move-ment on the highway again, official sources said. The roadhas become very unpredictable as nobody known whenlandslides and shooting stones would occur. But, they said,the NHAI and BRO are working immediately to clear theroad and put through the highway.

Frequent closure of the national highway result in steeprise in airfare besides shortage of essentials, particularlyvegetables and meat, in the Kashmir valley, totallydependent on imports from different states, particularlyDelhi, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Director School...

for the principals and students. The publication focusesupon the importance of embedding environment educationin the school ecosystem and the various components of theprogramme.

Both the publications were released by the DirectorSchool Education Jammu Anuradha Gupta along withDirector Environment Education WWF-India Dr. RadhikaSuri, Team Leader Western Himalayas Landscape WWF-India Dr. Pankaj Chandan, State Nodal Officer HerbalGarden Scheme Manzoor Javaid and Divisional NodalOfficer Shashikant Lakhanpal.

The launch was followed by Leadership and TeacherTraining conducted by Radhika Suri, Neha Raghav andChetna Singh Kaith from WWF-India. The objective of thetraining programme was to steer the administrators of theEducation Department, principals, teachers and trainers forimplementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EkPrithvi programme.

Speaking on the occasion, Director School EducationJammu emphasized the importance of adopting a holisticapproach towards environmental issues. She expressed thecomplete support of the School Education departmenttowards the initiative.

Advisor Skandan...

needs to be looked upon to set up more industrial units,he added.

On Industrial promotion, the Advisor directed the depart-ment to conduct road shows besides participating in indus-trial promotional activities in other states to yield fruitfulresults.

The Advisor also enquired about the available infrastruc-ture of Industrial Estate and stressed on rolling out themechanism on e-waste and conversion of electricitythrough waste energy.

He also had a detailed review of Cross LOC Trade anditems permissible through Trade Facilitation Centre,Salamabad and Chaka-da-Bagh.

BJP launches...

where they can drop in their suggestions through a sug-gestion patra.

Social Media : People can send in their suggestionsthrough Facebook, Twitter, Instagram by using the hastag# Bharat ke Mann ki Baat.

Former MLA Rajesh Gupta, Arvind Gupta, Balbir RamRattan, Suraj Singh, Tilak Raj Gupta, Dr. PardeepMahotra, Rashpaul Verma, Kulbhushan Mohtra, BaldevSingh Billawaria, Ayodhya Gupta, Brijeshwar Singh Ranaand others were amongst the prominent BJP leaders pres-ent on the occasion.

Air traffic...

be resumed once the weather improves, he added.This was the third time air traffic at Srinagar airport was

disrupted during the past fortnight.There is also a forecast for heavy to very heavy snowfall

during the next 48 hours in the Kashmir valley whichcould affect air traffic.

The Srinagar-Jammu national highway has also beenclosed this morning due to landslides, shooting stones andsnow.

People alleged that almost all airlines are increasing air-fare once the highway is closed. The Governor Satya PalMalik has taken the issue of increase in airfare with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi during his one day visit onSunday, alleging that Rs 24000 and Rs 28000 are beingcharged from Delhi to Srinagar by airlines. Advisor toGovernor Khurshed Ahmad Ganie also raised the airfareissue with the representatives of different airlines stationedin Srinagar.

Chairman BOPEE...

Governor emphasised maintenance of high standards ofprofessionalism in the conduct of examinations andemphasised optimum use of new technologies to bringabout more efficiency, transparency and speed in organis-ing Entrance Tests and in carrying out subsequent admis-sion processes.

From Page-1

AgencyW A S H I N G T O N :Flooded with phone callsfrom panic-stricken stu-dents, an eminent IndianAmerican attorney onTuesday alleged thatDepartment of HomelandSecurity knowinglyallowed the “fake univer-sity” to be set up and mis-led students sitting hun-dreds of miles away inanother country.

A day after the StateDepartment blamedIndian students for themass detention and possi-ble deportation from theUS for enrolling them-selves in a fake universityset up by the Departmentof Homeland Security,California-based immi-gration attorney Anu

Peshawaria said that theundercover operation hasdevastating consequencesfor hundred of Indianstudents.

“We are not saying thatour students are not atfault. They should havedone their due diligencebefore signing up. If theyare perpetrating crimeknowingly, they shouldbe punished but if theyare trapped or encour-aged to commit the crimethen we need to helpthem,” Peshawaria said.

As per last week’s fig-ures provided by the USImmigration andCustoms Enforcement, asmany as 130 of the 600students from the fakeUniversity of Farmingtonwere detained last week.

Of these 129 wereIndians.

Many of them sincethen have been releasedor put under restrictedmovement. Several ofthem have left the coun-try.

Peshawaria said thatsome students are wor-ried that they will havearrest on their record forever and have lost yearsof education to no avail.

“They could be possibleblackmail for the rest oftheir lives. What is sur-prising is that the univer-sity was registered withthe education board thatauthorizes the issuance ofI-20s to students, whichin turn is approved by theDepartment of HomelandSecurity,” she said.

“Department ofHomeland Securityknowingly allowed the‘fake university’ to be setup and misled studentssitting hundreds of milesaway in another coun-try,” she said noting thather office has been receiv-ing numerous calls frompanic-stricken friendsand families of a largenumber of Indian stu-dents which could resultin mass deportation.

Worse, these students,based on their approvedi-20s even got driverlicenses from the USDepartment of MotorVehicles (DMV). Thisonly added anotherstamp of authenticity tothe credentials of the uni-versity, she asserted.

Many students trav-elled to meet the Dean ofthe University, which hasnow been closed, many ofthem asked for classescurriculum, she said.

“Given that authoritiesknew this was a set-up,they should have stoppedthe students there andthen. If they wanted tocatch the perpetratorswhat right do, they haveto defraud innocentlives,” Peshawaria said.

“In fact, during thistime the government alsoenjoyed taxes that theseconsultants paid. Now,they cannot suddenlywake up and decide toput all these peoplebehind bars,” Peshawariaadded. Many studentshave huge loans to pay,

she said based on herinteraction with thesestudents. They were sav-ing up to send to theirfamilies in a small villagein India, she said addingthat they are devastated.

“It is all easy to say thatstudents knew what theywere doing, did we allknow all the laws whenwe moved to UnitedStates that they shouldget such harsh punish-ment,” she asked. “Weare all fighting to releasethe students immediately.The students are callingme that US govt is forcingthem to self deport butthey want back theirdegrees and lost time andcompensation for painand anguish,”Peshawaria asserted.

US govt misled Indian students by setting upfake university: Indian American attorney

AgencyDENPASAR(INDONESIA): AnIndonesian court onWednesday jailed aBritish woman for sixmonths for slapping animmigration officer in theface on the island of Baliafter an argument over afine for staying in thecountry after her visaexpired.Auj-e Taqaddas, 42, wasfound guilty in a court inBali’s capital, Denpasar,of violence against an offi-cer at Bali’s airport carry-ing out his legal duty,Judge Esthar Oktavi toldReuters.“The sentence is sixmonths in prison,” Oktavisaid by text message.The sentence was lighterthan the one-year jail term

sought by the prosecutorover the incident on July28 last year.“This is an unfair decision... I was forcibly broughtto the court, no lawyersprovided,” Taqaddas toldthe court, accusing theprosecutors of torturingher three times and trap-ping her in the country.The judge and prosecutorsaid Taqaddas had filedan appeal.Her sentencing had beenpostponed several timesbecause she was sick andalso when authorities saidshe had checked out of ahotel, and could not findher, when they tried tocollect her for the hearing.A smartphone video ofthe purported incident,which went viral at thetime, showed an agitated

Taqaddas shouting andswearing at the immigra-tion official, before slap-ping him across the faceafter grappling to snatchher passport back fromhim.The woman had over-stayed by about 160 daysand was asked to pay afine of 300,000 rupiah($21.60) for each day, orabout $3,500 in all.The resort island isIndonesia’s main tourismhub, attracting millions offoreign tourists a year toits beaches, temples andbars.A small number of visi-tors run into trouble withthe law every year, some-times for breaking theSoutheast Asian country’stough laws on drugs.

British woman jailed forslapping immigration officer Agency

WASHINGTON: USpresident Donald Trumpsaid in his annual State ofthe Union speech onTuesday that his country’saggressive trade negotia-tions with China wouldmean an end to Beijing’salleged “theft” ofAmerican jobs and wealth.

“We are now making itclear to China that afteryears of targeting ourindustries, and stealingour intellectual property,the theft of American jobsand wealth has come to anend,” Trump said.

The world’s two largesteconomies have 24 moredays in a three-monthtruce in their trade warbefore US duty rates aredue to rise sharply, whicheconomists say could be a

powerful negative shockto the global economy.

Top US and Chineseofficials last week pro-claimed progress andcomity after two days oftalks in Washington, butthey disclosed few details.

Washington and Beijinghave slapped punishingtariffs on more than $360billion in two-way trade,which has weighed on thetwo countries’ manufac-turing sectors and sent jit-ters through global mar-kets. The US trade deficithas swelled more than18% since Trump tookoffice, rising far faster thaneconomic growth, and hashit record heights withChina in particular.

The president alsorenewed his often-repeat-ed falsehood that China

was paying the US importduties on its exports.

“Our Treasury is receiv-ing billions of dollars amonth from a country thatnever gave us a dime,”Trump said.

“I have great respect forPresident Xi, and we arenow working on a newtrade deal with China. Butit must include real, struc-tural change to end unfairtrade practices, reduce ourchronic trade deficit, andprotect American jobs,” healso said.

Such duties, in fact, arepaid by US importers,with costs in many casespassed on to consumers.

Trump also lauded signsof US economic strength,including robust job cre-ation and falling unem-ployment.

China’s ‘theft’ of US jobs and wealthmust ‘come to an end’: Trump

Stay off politics, Pakistanarmy, ISI warned bySupreme Court

AgencyISLAMABAD: In a rare rebuke to Pakistan’s powerfulmilitary, the top court on Wednesday prohibited themfrom engaging in political activities and directed spyagencies like the ISI to operate within the law.

Delivering a landmark verdict on the 2017 Faizabadsit-in by the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)and other smaller groups, a two-member SupremeCourt bench also ordered the government to act againstthose propagating “hatred, extremism and terrorism”.

“We direct the federal and provincial governments tomonitor those advocating hate, extremism and terrorismand prosecute the perpetrators in accordance with thelaw,” the bench comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa andJustice Mushir Alam ruled.

The court directed all government agencies anddepartments, including those run by the army like spyagency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to operate withinthe limits defined by the law.

The bench ordered that members of the Armed Forceswere prohibited from engaging in any kind of politicalactivity, which includes supporting a party, faction orindividual.

“The government of Pakistan through the Ministry ofDefence and the respective Chiefs of the Army, theNavy and the Air Force are directed to initiate actionagainst the personnel under their command who arefound to have violated their oath,” the court said.

Several experts were of the view that Prime MinisterImran Khan was supported by the country’s powerfularmy in the last year’s general election.

Pakistan’s powerful military has ruled the countrythrough various coups for nearly half of the country’shistory since independence in 1947. The military playsan important role in the country’s decision making.

The apex court also outlawed religious edicts calledfatwas that aimed to harm others.

“A person issuing an edict or fatwa, which harmsanother or puts another in harm’s way, must be crimi-nally prosecuted under the Pakistan Penal Code, theAnti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and/or the Prevention ofElectronic Crimes Act, 2016,” the court ruled.

The court upheld that subject to reasonable restric-tions imposed by law, citizens have the right to formand to be members of political parties. They can alsoassemble for peaceful protest.

It said the right to assemble and protest is circum-scribed only to the extent that it infringes on the funda-mental rights of others, including their right to freemovement and to hold and enjoy property.

The court ordered that those protesters who obstructpeople’s right to use roads and damage or destroy prop-erty must be proceeded against in accordance with thelaw and held accountable. It initiated suo motu proceed-ings on November 21, 2017 after TLP blocked a mainhighway leading to Islamabad. During the 20-day longprotest in 2017, daily life in Islamabad was disruptedwhen protesters belonging to the TLP, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, the Tehreek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat and the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek occupiedthe Faizabad Interchange which connects Rawalpindiand Islamabad, the busiest roads in the twin cities.

Samba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 Jammu 03

Daily State Vision

Advisor Ganai condoleswith KNS Chief Editor

JAMMU, FEBRUARY 06: Advisor to the Governor,Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, has condoled withMuhammad Aslam Bhat, Editor-in-Chief, KashmirNews Service (KNS) over the demise of his father HajiMuhammad Subhan Bhat who passed away Tuesdayevening at Handwara in Kupwara district.

In a message, the Advisor has extended his heart-felt sympathies to Aslam and other members of thebereaved family over the irreparable loss.

Secretary Information,Director condole with Aslam

JAMMU, FEBRUARY 06: Secretary Information,Sarmad Hafeez has condoled the demise of fatherofMuhammad Aslam Bhat, Editor-in-Chief KashmirNews Service (KNS).

In his condolence message, Hafeez while extendingheartfelt condolences to the bereaved family hasprayed for peace to the departed soul.

Meanwhile, Director Information, Tariq AhmadZargar has also offered his condolences toMuhammad Aslam over the demise of his father andhas prayed for peace to the departed soul.

EVM, VVPAT awarenessprogramme held at KishtwarKISHTWAR, FEBRUARY 06: In order to spread theelectoral literacy among voters, a training-cum-aware-ness programme on EVM-VVPAT for media persons,civil society members and NGOs was organizedunder SVEEP at DC office Complex here today.

The programme was organized under the supervi-sion of DEO Angrez Singh Rana.

While interacting with the participants, DEO askedthem to get fully acquainted with the handling proce-dure and various aspects of the Electronic VotingMachine (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper AuditTrail (VVPAT) machine.

The Nodal Officer SVEEP, DPO Kishtwar informedthe participants about SVEEP Programme, toll-freehelpline number 1950 and www.nvsp.in website andappealed all the participants to popularize the sameamong the common masses. Among others presentwere, ADC, Pawan Kumar Parihar, ACD, Anil KumarChandail, Tehsildar, Shokat Matoo, BDO, ArunBadyal, ALMTs and other concerned.

DEA Udhampur organizes awareness campUDHAMPUR, FEBRUARY 06: In view of the forth-coming general elections, a sensitization programmewas conducted by District Election AuthorityUdhampur for media persons of the district here atDC Office Complex.

The programme was held under the supervision ofDistrict Election Officer, Ravinder Kumar.

During the training session, district level mastertrainers gave hands-on training to the media personsabout the working of Electronic Voting Machine(EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail(VVPAT) machine.

Officers and Officials of concerned Departments,besides representatives of media fraternity of districtUdhampur were present on the occasion.

DDC Budgam chairs meeting on BADPReleases Rs 53.94 lakh for development ofthree Model Villages in Khag under BADP

BUDGAM, FEBRUARY 6: District DevelopmentCommissioner Budgam, Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar todayallocated Rs. 53.95 lakh for the development of threevillages-Kokerbag, Sugan and Shonglipora as modelvillages of Block Khag in district Budgam.

The announcement was made by the DDC todaywhile chairing a meeting to review the developmentof model villages under Border Area DevelopmentProgramme (BADP) 2018-19 here today.

Among others, the meeting was attended by ACDBudgam, Waseem Raja, Ex. En PDD BudgamNasrullah Jan, AD Planning Gul Mohammad and offi-cers/officials from PHE, RDD and other departments.

On the occasion, the DDC reviewed the develop-ment scenario of the BADP model villages of the dis-trict and directed concerned to speed up the pace ofwork on all the ongoing projects without making anydelay in completion of these projects.

The DCC emphasized on the improvement in thepower sector with the installation of transformers, HT,LT lines, the supply of drinking water and laying ofpipelines, besides improvement in the works to betaken by RDD.

It was given out in the meeting that an amount ofRs. 3.23 crore has been spent out of Rs 5.75 croreapproved funds for the development of these villagesas model villages under different sectors.

JDIK condoles with KNS Chief EditorSRINAGAR, FEBRUARY 06: Joint DirectorInformation Kashmir, Muhammad Ashraf Hakaktoday expressed grief over the demise of MuhammadSubhan Bhat, father of KNS Editor-in-Chief,Muhammad Aslam Bhat. While extending condo-lences to the bereaved family, Hakak prayed for peaceto the soul of departed and strength to the grief-strick-en family.

JAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:Commissioner Survey andLand records, ShahbazAhmed Mirza, inaugurat-ed a workshop on writingand updation ofJamabandies at theRevenue Training Institutehere today.

The workshop heldunder Digital India LandRecords ModernizationProgramme (DILRMP)was also attended byRegional Director, Surveyand Land Records RifatKohli, Principal RevenueTraining Institute, JammuKusum Sharma, Naib

Tehsildars, Girdawars andPatwaris of all the Tehsilsof the district.

At the outset, theCommissioner informedthe participants about theimportance of digitizationof the revenue records inthe state. He said the DIL-RMP project envisagestransparency and clarity inthe title of the landholderswhich will ultimately min-imize the land disputes.The Regional Directoracquainted the partici-pants with various compo-nents of the project. Theresource persons threw

light on the legal aspectsand proceedings to be fol-lowed in writingJamabandies and clarifiedall doubts of the partici-pants.

A power point presenta-tion with regard to thescope and objectives of theDigital India Land RecordsM o d e r n i z a t i o nProgramme was alsogiven. CommissionerSurvey & Land Records,Jammu appreciated thePrincipal RevenueTraining Institute Jammufor organizing such aworkshop.

RAJOURI, FEBRUARY06: District DevelopmentCommissioner Rajouri,Mohammad Ajaz Asad,today chaired a meetingto review the status ofBusiness Reform ActionPlan and District MineralFoundation Trust forincreasing transparencyand efficiency in variousgovernment regulatoryfunctions and services forbusiness in the district.

The meeting wasattended by AdditionalDistrict DevelopmentCommissioner, AssistantC o m m i s s i o n e rDevelopment, CEO, RDADFO Social Forestry,DTO, GM DIC, SDM,

Kalakote and other dis-trict officers.

Business Reform ActionPlan (BRAP) ensures easeof doing business, trans-parency and hassle-freeconduct of businesswhich includes registra-tion of hotels, travel agen-cies, issuance or renewalof license to manufactur-ers of Pesticides/insecti-cides/fertilizers etc.

It also includesapproval of plan and per-mission to construct orextend or take into useany building as factory,registration and renewalof boilers and complianceinspections under variouslaws.

General Manager DICapprised the DDC aboutvarious issues related tobusiness establishmentlike non-availability ofonline portal, lack of landfor the establishment ofindustrial estates, lack ofelectricity connectionsetc.

Meanwhile, DDC alsoreviewed the status ofactivities undertaken forthe promotion of tourismin the district.

CEO RDA informed thechair that the master planfor tourism has beenfinalized and a meetinghas already been conduct-ed with the stakeholdersin this regard.

KATHUA, FEBRUARY06: An impressive RoadSafety awareness pro-gramme was organized atBus Stand Chadwal(Kathua) on 3rd day ofongoing 30th Road Safetyweek 2019.

The theme of theProgramme was"Overcrowding &Overloading" in passen-ger vehicles. The pro-gramme was organizedby Motor VehiclesDepartment Kathua incollaboration with Mini-Bus Union Kathua.

A large number ofDrivers, Conductors andgeneral public participat-ed in the programme andpledged to follow Roadsafety rules.

Regional TransportOfficer Dr. Raj KumarThapa was the Chief

Guest on the occasion,which was also attendedby ARTO Kathua, Er.Kuldeep Singh ,MotorVehicle Inspectors .

While speaking on theoccasion RTO Kathuaexhorted the Drivers &Conductors of Mini-Busesto follow Road Safetynorms with letter & spiritso that lives of commuterscan be saved. He also stat-ed that drivers & conduc-tors of passenger vehicleshave an important role toplay in the safety of pas-sengers as well as theeconomy of our country.He stressed upon thedrivers of Mini-Buses toavoid overcrowding oftheir vehicles so that thechances of any mishap areminimised. He also toldthem to adopt habit ofwearing proper uniform

and seat belt which willautomatically evolve asense of responsibilityamong them.

A free health Checkupcamp for Drivers & con-ductors was also organ-ized by a team of Doctorsof ISM(AYUSH) in whichfree medicines were alsodistributed among thedrivers & conductors.

A number of represen-tatives from Mini-BusUnion also spoke on theoccasion.

The programme wasattended byHarmohinder SinghPresident Mini-Bus UnionKathua, Suresh SharmaGen. Secretary Mini-BusUnion Kathua, SikanderSingh, Karan Singhbesides other representa-tives of Mini-Bus UnionChadwal (Kathua).

KA RGIL, FEBRUAR Y06: ExecutiveCouncil lor for HealthZakir Hussain alongwith the former MLAKargil Haji AsgarKarbalai andCouncil lor PashkumKacho MuhammadFeroz on Tuesdaycal led on theChairperson Jammuand Kashmir Board ofSchool Education(BOSE) Prof VeenaPandita and took upvarious issues concern-ing students in the dis-trict.

The delegation raiseda number of issuesincluding the affiliationof Government Higher

Secondary SchoolPashkum and Bhimbhatand Government HighSchool Tungri, Tangoleand Kaksar.

They also urged uponthe Chairperson toextend the date of fill-ing up of examinationforms of the candidatesappearing in the 10thclass bi-annual exami-nations.

The Chairperson wasfurther requested toexpedite the dispatch ofmarks cards of the can-didates belonging toKargil who have recent-ly passed their 10+2exams so that they donot face any inconven-ience in getting admis-

sion in higher classes.The Chairperson

assured the delegationthat the affiliation casesof the newly upgradedschools wil l be com-pleted in the comingdays. She informed thatthe date for the fillingup of examinationforms of the candidatesappearing in the 10thclass bi-annual exami-nations has beenextended up toFebruary 15, 2019.

The Chairperson alsosaid that marks cards ofthe candidates whohave recently passedtheir 10+2 exams wouldbe dispatched in 2 to 3days time.

Road Safety WeekPainting Competition

organised at BandiporaBANDIPORA, FEBRUARY 06: In order to drawattention towards road safety measures and togenerate awareness among the common massesabout the importance of traffic rules and regula-tions in connection with 30th Road Safety Week2019 celebration, a painting compet ition wasorganized by the Motor Vehicle Department(MVD), on the theme ""Road safety- Protection tolife " at Sheri Kashmir Sports Stadium Bandipora.

Assistant Regional Transport Officer BandiporaMoazam Ali was the chief guest on the occasion.More than 40 students of class 6th to 10th from dif-ferent government, as well as private educationalinstitutes of district Bandipora, participated in thepainting competition. While addressing the stu-dents, the chief guest appreciated students for par-ticipating in the painting competition to highlightthe importance of adhering to traffic rules and reg-ulations through their artwork and to inculcate thehabit of Road Safety rules through tender mindsand was pleased with fine arts displayed by theyoung mind.

JAMMU, FEB. 06: A meet-ing of senior leaders of PCCincluding members of PCCfrom all over Jammuprovince was held todayunder the chairmanship ofPCC President Shri G.A.Mir to take stock of thepreparations for the forth-coming elections to the LokSabha and Assembly in thestate and to chalk out partyprogrammes..

PCC Chief apprised theleaders of the upcomingprogrmmes of the party,especially the scheduledprograme of Booth LevelWorkers Convention ofJammu Province at Jammuon February 16th , to beaddressed by LOP in RajyaSabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.He called upon the leadersand activists to invite andensure all booth level work-ers to attend the conven-tion to educate the partyworkers about the variousachievements of the partyin the country and in the

state during UPA-I andUPA-II, in order to counterthe false propaganda of BJPon various fronts.

Said that Congress hasthe credit of bringing thenation to the present levelsof progress and prosperityon all fronts. The massivedevelopment includingmost of the infrastructurebuilding in the state in allthree regions is the achieve-ment of Congress during allthese years.

The party workers haveto be apprised of thenumerous achievements ofthe party and the failures ofBJP led Govt. especially theweakening of the variousinstitutions of democracy inthe country by the ModiGovt. in order to counterfalse claims of the BJP in thewake of upcoming elec-tions. He asked the partycadres to be fully preparedfor the future electoral exer-cises and further strengthenthe grass root units at booth

levels.Former Minister and Vice

President PCC Shri RamanBhalla apprised about theproposed venue of theProvincial WorkersConvention on Feb. 16th tobe held at a spacious siteopposite Sainik Colony onNational High way.

Prominent among thoseattended the meetinginclude S/Shri Rigzin Jora,Mula Ram, Madan LalSharma, Tara Chand,Raman Bhalla, Sham LalSharma, M.S. Niaz, R.S.Chib, S. Gurmukh Singh,Suman Bhagat, KantaBhan, Ravinder Sharma,Rajnish Sharma, Th.Balwan Singh, Th.Manmohan Singh, YogeshSawhney, Shah NawajChoudhary, NamrataSharma, Faqir Nath,Manjit Singh, VikramMalhotra, Hari Singh Chib,Krishan Chander Bhagat,Ch Abdul Gani, ArvinderSingh Micky, Indu Pawar,

Shiv Dev Singh, Ch. Mohd.Akram, NareshGupta,Ashok Dogra,Mohinder Singh Parihar,Sheikh Mujeeb, Sham LalBhagat, Ch. Garu Ram,Smt. Gurbachan KumariRana, Ashok Sharma, ShivKumar Sharma, RaqeeqAhmed Khan, RajeshSadotra, GurdarshanSingh, Hira Lal Pandita,Suresh Dogra, Sain AbdulRashid, Vinod Sharma,Y.B.Sharma, MaheshwarSingh, Praveen SarwarKhan, Amolak Singh,Kuldeep Raj Verma, ShashiSharma, Pawan Raina,Pranav Shagotra, VandanaSharma, Neeraj Gupta,Nadeem Sharief Niaz,Masood Choudhary,Thomas Khokhar, AshokSharma, Narinder Sharma,Sanjeev Sharma,BabbalGupta, Vinod Mishra,Arun Sharma,Tirath RamBhagat, Rajinder Sharma,Suresh Bargotra, and oth-ers.

UDHAMPUR, FEB. 06:Giving a damn to thecivil service regulationsand most cherisheddemocratic principles ofequity and neutrality incivil services, theDeputy CommissionerUdhampur RavinderKumar is openly pursu-ing BJP agenda in theDistrict and promotingits leadership at the costof other recognizedpolitical parties, saidHarsh Dev Singh JKNPPChairman and FormerMinister. With tacit aswell as overt officialsupport being given tothese BJP leaders and itsEx-MLAs, the said DC istrying to promote theirpolitical interests intheir respective con-stituencies in theDistrict under his con-trol, he regretted.

Urging upon theElection Commission totake cognizance ofbrazen politicization ofbureaucracy, Singh com-plained that the said DCnot only makes speechesin their favour but hasbeen found persuadingthe people and govtemployees to supportthe said Ex-MLAs in theensuing elections. Hehas further been givingthese BJP leaders alllogistic support besidesreleasing huge grants inthe name of said Ex-MLAs with directions tosubordinate officers toexecute only thoseworks which were rec-ommended by the saidEx-MLAs, rued Singh.

Drawing the attentionof CEC through a mem-orandum, Singh saidthat dozens of letters

have been written by thesaid DC to variousDistrict level officers inJanuary 2019 in whichhe has referred to Ex-MLA Ramnagar as"Hon'ble MLA" anddirected subordinateofficers to executeworks costing aroundRs. four crore on his rec-ommendations. Heexpressed his dismaythat while less then Rs. 2crores were releasedunder CDF in-favour ofMLA Ramnagar from2015 to 2018 in 3½ years,a huge grant of around 4crores has been releasedin his favour in a periodof 10 days after heceased to be MLA.

The operative part ofMemorandum readsthus:-

"Pertinent to mentionthat J&K Assembly was

dissolved on 21stNovember, 2018 and allMLAs ceased to bemembers of Assembly.But the said DC contin-ues to mention them as"Hon'ble MLAs" in theofficial communicationseven in January 2019and is directing theDistrict level officers toentertain them besidesexecuting works as pertheir directions.

Further pertinent tomention that the saidDC in his over ambitionto please his politicalmasters had made astatement in the mediathat he would ban theentry of Panthers Partyworkers & leaders in hisoffice. He has furtherbeen filing false andfrivolous FIRs againstthe NPP leaders includ-ing female members of

the party. The siblingsof Panthers Party lead-ers who are working ingovt deptts areharassed, and intimidat-ed by the said DC. Whilethe opposition leadersare humiliated, the erst-while rulers are flat-tered. The state ofaffairs is so pathetic thateven the rights of oppo-sition as free citizens arebeing suspended. Sec144 CrPc is oftenimposed by the said DCat the behest of his polit-ical masters in villageswhere Panthers Partyleaders plan to holdpublic meetings so as torestrain them from hold-ing interaction with themasses and their voters.

Not only the saidDeputy Commissioner,but some police officersincluding Dy. SP

Ramnagar and a PoliceSHO have been openlypromoting their politicalfavourites at the cost ofopposition parties byabusing their positionand Authority. The neg-lect of the higherauthorities to take cog-nizance of the brazenmisconduct of these offi-cers is ample proof ofthe fact that they areenjoying patronage ofpolitical big-wigs neces-sitating thereby theindulgence of the topElection Authorities ofthe country".

Harsh Dev Singh cau-tioned that the NPPwould be constrained tolaunch indefinite dharnaoutside the office ofElection Commission incase the delinquent offi-cers are not dealt with inaccordance with law.

PCC hold meeting of Sr. leaders

EC LAHDC, Kargil callson Chairperson JK BOSE

Raises issues of affiliation of schools, students' examination, admission

Road Safety awarenessprogramme held at Kathua

Udhampur administration promoting BJP in the District: Harsh

DDC Rajouri reviews implementation of BusinessReform Action Plan

Mirza inaugurates workshop on writing,updation of revenue records at Jammu

EDITORIAL & OPINION

Editor, Printer, Pubilsher and Owner Akhileshwar Sharma, Published From VPO Purmandal, District SambaPrinted at:- Devika Offset Printing Press, VPO Purmandal, Tehsil and District, Samba

Mobile No. 9469211589, 9906121102, E-Mail:- statevision10@gmail.com info@statevision.in Editor@statevision.in

Samba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 Daily State Vision

04

In its ostensibly even-handed intervention in thestand-off between the Central and West Bengalgovernments over the manner of investigation

of the Saradha Chit Fund case, the Supreme Courthas de-escalated political tensions, at least for now.The decision allowed both sides in the face-off toclaim “moral victory” — even if it was WestBengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who wasforced to climb down from the aggressive postureshe took in denying the Central Bureau ofInvestigation room to question Kolkata PoliceCommissioner Rajeev Kumar. However, whileordering him to cooperate with the CBI in “neu-tral” Shillong, the Court restrained the CBI fromtaking any coercive action against Mr. Kumar. ThePolice Commissioner and his Special InvestigationTeam investigating the chit fund case had beenserved a number of notices to appear before theCBI before it sent a team to his house in Kolkata.While Ms. Banerjee may have reason to believethat the timing of the CBI’s operation was political-ly motivated, her government’s response — man-handling and detaining the CBI officials — wasshocking and inexcusable. In the polarised politicalatmosphere, her belligerence expectedly securedthe backing of a large number of Opposition par-ties, and even had the Congress rally around herduring an impromptu sit-in protest. However, inattempting to obstruct the CBI action in a court-ordered investigation, Ms. Banerjee once againdemonstrated that she is prone to taking argumentsover administrative procedures to the streets. Adecade ago, she burnished her credentials as theOpposition leader who would dethrone the LeftFront combine in West Bengal with her agitationover the Singur land acquisition. But her attemptnow to bring the State, where she heads the gov-ernment, to a grinding halt speaks poorly of herpolitical maturity. Ms. Banerjee is free to readpolitical motives into the actions of a Centralagency — but she must conduct that fight political-ly and by heeding her responsibilities as a ChiefMinister. To hold a dharna in aid of an officer whois required for questioning does her no credit.There are bound to be questions whether this mat-ter should have been escalated to such an unpleas-ant level. The CBI says there was no properresponse to the earlier summonses it sent to thePolice Commissioner, and alleges that he couldhave destroyed evidence that was initially gatheredby the Special Investigation Team that he hadsupervised in the initial stage of the probe. But it isdoubtful whether descending on a senior officer’sresidence on a Sunday evening with a large team ofofficers was the right course of action for the CBI,as it was liable to be interpreted as a high-handedattempt to browbeat and embarrass the State gov-ernment. The only way the CBI can escape thisimpression is by showing that it was justified indemanding the questioning of Mr. Kumar andestablishing proof of its suspicions about his role incovering up the scam.

FromEditor’sDesk.....

Unedifying episode:On Kolkata stand-off

M RAJIVLOCHANFew today recall that Punjab had once dreamt ofbeing an industrial state. That was the dream ofPartap Singh Kairon: CM of Punjab for over eightyears. His assassination on February 6, 1965, killedthat dream. Successor CMs rolled back his schemesfor promoting industries and refused to provideassurances that industrialists needed to invest in aborder state.

Squabbles among politicians of those days were arootless phenomena. Lala Jagat Narain, the newspa-per magnate, put this on record several years afterKairon’s killing: ‘We only fought for power. It wasnever a conflict over ideas or principles,’ he said afew years before his death for an interview archivedat the Nehru Memorial Library.

Looking back, what one is struck by, is the unwa-vering vision that Kairon harboured of an industri-alised, progressive and prosperous Punjab, where allcommunities lived comfortably with one another.‘This is because of my education in economics at theUniversity of California at Berkeley,’ he would say.Translating those ideas into action meant creatingstrategies to improve food production and to indus-trialise.

For a Punjab that had been torn asunder byPartition, with an agricultural landscape charac-terised by the small peasant, tilling land of an indif-ferent quality, this was no small achievement.Wherever there was a difficult decision to be made,whether it was by way of implementing the LandCeiling Act, or by forcing the Consolidation of Landsince that was imperative for improving agriculturalproductivity or by imposing a betterment levy onirrigated lands to pay for the Bhakra Nangal project,Kairon never backed down.

Economic progress entails certain costs and harddecisions. Kairon showed a clear recognition of thecosts and a willingness to pay them. In a politicallandscape dominated by narrow and communal kindof demands, whether it was over the Hindi orPunjabi language, he towered over all others andresisted those demands. This was something evenhis enemies acknowledged. Dressed in a khadikurta-pyjama, Kairon would urge the use of the lat-est techniques in agriculture. He would pester hisofficers to help peasants enter the world of scientif-ic agriculture. Punjabi was his preferred language ofcommunication. So much so that when Nehru beganto send foreign guests to Punjab to see the econom-ic transformation, many doubted if Kairon would beable to deal with these sophisticated foreigners.

He kept a sharp eye on black marketeers and oftenconvinced them that it was safer and more profitableto have a legitimate business. That helped the

growth of the textile industry in Amritsar and metalworks at Jagadhari and Mandi Gobindgarh. A unit ofHMT, a public sector unit, was started in Punjab. Heeven reached out to the Geological Survey of Indiato survey the land of Punjab in the hope that somehidden mineral or oil deposits may be found thatwould boost economic growth.

It was not just economic progress he talked aboutbut also equity and education. He alone among allChief Ministers seemed to take forward Nehru’sideas of developing modern institutions under-pinned by a scientific temper. The PGIMER,Chandigarh, was one such; other states would makeefforts to set up such institutes 50 years later.Remarkably, while setting up the PGI, Kaironinvolved people best suited to lead it. It was of noconsequence that many of them like Dr SantokhSingh Anand and Dr PN Chuttani had been his crit-ics. Similarly, he did not hesitate to appointHardwari Lal as the Vice Chancellor of KurukshetraUniversity despite being a staunch critic. He alsopersuaded the Ludhiana agriculture college toupgrade to a top agriculture research university, thePAU. It was this largeness of heart and of vision thatdistinguishes him above all. Combined with hispropensity to take tough decisions, it made him oneof the most successful Chief Ministers of his times.The Tribune Editor Prem Bhatia would not hesitateto issue the headline ‘Most powerful Chief Ministerof India’ while describing Kairon’s achievements.

Kairon would make efforts to reach out to people.Neera Grover, who retired as the head of the depart-

ment of music, SNDT University, Mumbai, recallshow Kairon went about promoting Punjabi. Herfather, a professor, was sitting out in the sun inChandigarh, reading papers in his small garden,when someone walked in, tapped him on the shoul-der and congratulated him for reading Punjabi. Itwas the CM himself, walking through the sector,stopping by at homes and taking feedback from peo-ple on the use of Punjabi that the government hadrecently made compulsory.

A teetotaller and non-smoker, he would reach thehome of his Chief Secretary, EN Mangatrai, ICS, tohave a sarkari chat. ‘You can’t work without yoursmoke and whisky’ he would tell Mangatrai, ‘betterthat I come to your house for work rather than forceyou to come to mine and make you miss out on thedrink.’ When in 1962, the Union government urgedthe states to implement prohibition, Kairon organ-ised a number of events across the state to educatepeople on the benefits of shunning alcohol. TheChina war that started in the autumn of that yearstopped prohibition from being implemented inPunjab. Without people’s support, Kairon wouldsay, such a policy will not succeed. His enemiesrepeatedly accused him of corruption. In India ofthose times, the ideal of correct conduct was RamDasrathi, the legendary prince of Ayodhya, whodemanded his wife Sita enter the fire to prove herpurity. Kairon underwent such a test and came outunscathed. Had it not been for the assassin’s bullet,he would have reclaimed Punjab’s leadership, forthe people were already with him.

What Kairon meant for Punjab

DEVINDER SHARMAFINANCE Minister Piyush Goyal, in his interimBudget speech, announced a direct income supportof Rs 6,000 per year for small farmers owning lessthan 2 hectares. The sum is meagre by any stan-dards, but the move is a tectonic shift in economicthinking on the role of agriculture in development. Itentails a paradigm shift from the existing ‘price pol-icy’ to move towards ‘income policy’, unlocking theimmense growth potential in agriculture.

Although the Finance Minister has made a budg-etary provision of Rs 20,000 crore for the remainingperiod of the ongoing fiscal to enable the first instal-ment of Rs 2,000 to be credited into the bankaccounts of beneficiary farmers before the GeneralElection, the petty amount has evoked a sharp reac-tion from the distressed farming community. Andrightly so.

I don’t know how a direct income support of Rs500 per month per small farming household will beable to pull out 12 crore small and marginal famersfrom the terrible agrarian crisis. Nor do I understandhow this meagre support will help in reducing thespate of farm suicides. There is hardly a day whenfarm suicides are not being reported from one part ofthe country or another. Take the case of Punjab,where even after the loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh perfarmer was initiated in January 2018, 430 deathshave been reported in the year gone by, as perBhartiya Kisan Union data. The question that needsto be asked is how did the policy-makers conceivethe idea to provide a paltry direct support which willnot even make an iota of a difference.

Considering that the average income worked outby NABARD’s All India Rural Financial InclusionSurvey 2016-17 stands at just Rs 8,931 per month, itis certain that the direct income support of Rs 500per month will not be enough to achieve the objec-tive of doubling the farm income. Nor is this amountfit enough for any significant farm investments thefarmer would like to make. The Economic Survey-2016 had computed the average income of a farmerin 17 states at a pitiful Rs 20,000 a year. In otherwords, the average income of a farming family inroughly half the country stood at less than Rs 1,700per month. I shudder to think how several millionfarmers survive on that miserly income.

Borrowing the idea from Telangana, the govern-ment has already made an annual budgetary provi-

sion of Rs 75,000 crore for the PM-Kisan Scheme(beginning with the full-fledged Budget expectedafter the elections), but there is no reason why thedirect payment amount couldn’t have been doubled.At Rs 12,000 per small farmer, the budgetary alloca-tion would have doubled to Rs 1.5 lakh crore. To thequestion where will the money come from, the bestand easy instrument available for the FinanceMinister was to immediately scrap the annual fiscalstimulus package of Rs 1.86 lakh crore being doledout to the industry, in operation since the global eco-nomic meltdown in 2008-09. While there is no eco-nomic justification for the package, it continues tobe paid. A total of Rs 18.60 lakh crore has been paidto the industry since 2008-09, but no question hasever been raised about the fiscal imbalance accru-ing. I see no reason why this money couldn’t havebeen transferred to the farmers’ account.

Like in Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme, theCentre, too, has kept the direct income support lim-ited to land-owning farmers. The only differencebeing that while the Rythu Bandhu scheme is open-ended, which means even if a farmer has 10 acres,he will get proportionate support, the Centre isrestricting it to farmers owning less than 2 hectares.It, however, excludes tenant farmers, who form 40to 50 per cent of the farming population, from get-ting the same benefits. At the same time, direct cashpayments landing into the bank accounts of absenteelandlords remains a big problem.

Nevertheless, as someone who has been a strongadvocate of direct income support, it is gratifying to

see direct payments now becoming an economicnecessity. Agriculture has been and still remains avictim of the tyranny of markets. For more than fourdecades now, agricultural income had remained stat-ic, with many studies providing an empirical evi-dence of declining real farm income. Agriculture hasbeen deliberately kept impoverished to keep theeconomic reforms alive. Keeping the food inflationlow and by ensuring a cheaper raw material for theindustry, the entire economic burden has been quiet-ly passed on to the farmers.

An economic model, where agriculture is treatedwith disdain and has been very cleverly projected asan uneconomic activity, has to be reversed. To saythat the Rs 500 a month cash dole to small farmersmay be increased in the future as the government’sresources grow is a reflection of the same faulty eco-nomic thinking. As a result, most economicresources have been slowly and steadily shifted tothe industry. Since 2004-05, the industry has got Rs55 lakh crore of tax concessions. NITI Aayog esti-mates these concessions to be 5 per cent of the GDP.Knowing that income saved is income earned, this isno less than direct income support. In addition, theindustry has been provided with massive incentives,which in reality are subsidies. On the other hand, anOECD-ICRIER (Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development-Indian Council forResearch on International Economic Relations)study has worked out a total loss of Rs 45 lakh crorein the period between 2000 and 2017 on account oflow farm prices. If only the farmers were paid theirlegitimate dues, the face of agriculture would havebeen bright. Also, I fail to understand why govern-ments have refused to take steps for ease of doingfarming. Agriculture alone has the potential toreboot the economy and can sustain millions oflivelihoods, thereby reducing the pressure on jobcreation. Providing direct cash payment to small andvulnerable groups is the first step for augmentingfarm income. I am sure the direct cash amount willsee an incremental increase with the passage oftime. This has to be followed by the setting up of theFarmers’ Income Commission with the mandate toensure a minimum monthly income of Rs 18,000 perfarming family. This will open the doors to agricul-ture receiving more public sector investments, moreholistic reforms, and in the bargain, being turnedinto an economic activity.

Farmers need much more than cash dole

NATIONSamba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 05Daily State Vision

AgencyNEW DELHI: A court onWednesday asked theDelhi government to expe-dite the process of granti-ng requisite sanction toprosecute former JNUStudents Union PresidentKanhaiya Kumar and oth-ers in a 2016 sedition case,saying it can’t sit on thefile indefinitely.

Chief MetropolitanMagistrate DeepakSherawat said that pre-cious time of the court isbeing wasted as the deci-sion with respect to thegrant of sanction to prose-cute hangs fire and gavethe Delhi Police threeweeks to get the permis-sion needed to prosecuteKumar and other accused,including former

Jawaharlal NehruUniversity students UmarKhalid and AnirbanBhattacharya, in the case.

“Authorities can’t sit onthe file for indefinite peri-od,” the judge observed.

The court posted thematter for February 28after the Delhi Policesought more time to getthe sanctions, saying thedocuments were pendingwith Delhi governmentand were expected in amatter of days.

“The IO (investigatingofficer) has stated that sofar sanction has not beengranted...and the matter ispending with concerneddepartment. IO has filedthe present charge sheetfor offence under section124-A (sedition) IPC, with-

out first obtaining the req-uisite sanction...and nowadjournment is beingsought on the groundsthat process relating toobtaining of sanction isunderway.

“The precious time ofthe court is being wastedas the decision withrespect to the grant ofsanction hangs fire. Afterfiling of the charge sheet,no department can sit onthe file with regard tosanction. The departmentconcerned would do wellto speed up the matterregarding the sanction,”the court said.

It had during an earlierhearing questioned DelhiPolice for filing a chargesheet against Kumar andothers without procuring

the sanctions.“Why did you file (the

charge sheet) withoutapproval? You don’t havea legal department,” thecourt had said.

On January 14, the policefiled the charge sheet at acity court against Kumarand others, saying he wasleading a procession andsupported seditious slo-gans raised on the campusduring an event onFebruary 9, 2016.

Police also chargedKhalid and Bhattacharyafor allegedly shoutinganti-India slogans duringthe event to mark thehanging of Parliament-attack mastermind AfzalGuru.

Earlier, they had claimedbefore the court here that

Kumar had raised anti-India slogans in 2016 “toincite hatred and disaffec-tion towards the govern-ment”.

Police cited statementsof various witnesses in itscharge sheet to state thatKumar was walking alongwith the protesters wherea number of unidentifiedpersons were raising slo-gans during the event.

The evidence listed bythe agency include areport of JNU’s high-levelcommittee, statement ofvarsity’s registrarBhupinder Jutshi and themobile phone recordingsin which Kumar was seenarguing with him overcancellation of the pro-gramme.

‘Can’t sit on file’: Court raps Delhi govt fordelay in Kanhaiya Kumar sedition case

AgencyNEW DELHI: TheSupreme Court onWednesday sought aresponse from lawyerPrashant Bhushan on thecontempt pleas filed byattorney general KKVenugopal and the Centrefor his tweets alleging thatthe government had mis-led the court about theappointment of MNageshwar Rao as theinterim director of the CBI.

A bench of justice ArunMishra and justice NaveenSinha said it would dealwith the larger question ofwhether lawyers or any-one else can criticise thecourt in a sub-judice mat-ter which would influencepublic opinion.

The bench also said thatcriticising the court mayalso lead to interference inthe course of justice.

“This issue required tobe heard in length, noticeissued,” the bench said.

Bhushan had tweeted onFebruary 1 about thedeliberations of the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi-led selection committeetasked with appointing anew CBI director after theagency’s former chiefAlok Verma was removed.

The lawyer had quoted aletter by Congress leaderMallikarjun Kharge and

hinted that the govern-ment may have submittedfabricated minutes of thepanel’s meeting to theSupreme Court.

“I have just confirmedpersonally from theLeader of Opposition MrKharge that no discussionor decision in HPC meetwas taken re appt ofNageswara Rao as interimDirector CBI.The govtappears to have misled thecourt and perhaps submit-

ted fabricated minutes ofthe HPC meeting! (sic)”Bhushan had posted onTwitter.

The government’s toplaw official Venugopalhad submitted the min-utes of the committee’sJanuary 10 meeting to abench headed by justiceMishra in a sealed cover.

The Centre said that thetweet “willfully and delib-erately” made a false state-ment in a case being heardby the court.

“Such an act by a coun-sel of making false andirresponsible allegationson a public platform,rather than raising hisgrievances, if any, beforethis honourable court, isgrossly contumacious andwarrants punishment bythis court,” the Centresaid, according to LiveLaw.

Supreme Court issues notice to Prashant Bhushanover comments on CBI interim chief

AgencyGUWAHATI: The BJP-ledgovernment in Assamannounced on Wednesdayit will provide a kilo of ricefor Re 1 to lakhs of fami-lies living below povertyline and gold to bridesamong the number ofschemes in the state’sannual budget, which theopposition slammed as“election advertisement”in a poll year. Faced withcriticism for its stance onthe Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016,state government slashedthe price of rice from Rs3/kilo for these familiesand said brides from com-munities where it is cus-tomary to provide gold attime of wedding will getthe cost of one ‘tola’,around 10 gm of gold.

Assam has been witness-ing protests from variousgroups opposed to the bill,which seeks to provide cit-izenship to religiousminorities fromBangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan.

While chief ministers ofneighbouring states likeManipur, Meghalaya,Nagaland and Mizoramhave expressed reserva-tions to the legislation inits present form, Assam’sBJP government has beencriticised by these groupsfor failing to oppose it.

Delivering his budgetspeech for 2019-20, financeminister Himanta BiswaSarma stressed that theproposals were in conso-nance with the philosophyof greater well being of allcitizens of Assam.

“We will provide rice ata further subsidised rate ofRe 1 per kg instead of Rs 3per kg and this move willbenefit 53 lakh house-holds,” Sarma said in hisspeech.

As part of a new scheme,the government ear-marked Rs 300 crore toprovide cost of one ‘tola’of gold or nearly Rs 38,000to the brides. The benefitof the scheme can beavailed after formally reg-istering a marriage underSpecial Marriage (Assam)Rules, 1954 and will belimited to families whoseyearly income is less thanRs 5 lakh.

“While other parts ofour country may beplagued with the curse ofdowry, in our Assamesesociety, this is a voluntary

act of assurance from theparents…this constitutes apart of the ‘stree-dhana’(woman’s property),”Sarma said.

Free textbooks to thosewith a family income ofless than Rs 2 lakh peryear till graduation, Rs50,000 as a subsidy for alleducation loans and elec-tronic bikes for girls whoclear Class 12 with over60% marks are some of theannouncements made forstudents.

Sarma also announcedanother new schemewhere any woman, up tothe age of 45 years, wholoses her husband, will getRs 25,000 as immediatefamily assistance. Thescheme would cost nearlyRs 136 crore and expectedto benefit 2.4 lakh widows.

Rice at Re1/kg, gold for brides amongannouncements in Assam’s annual budget

AgencyNEW DELHI: Over 500Indian fishermen andmore than 1,050 Indianfishing boats are believedto be in Pakistan’s cus-tody, the government saidWednesday.

The government said ithas sought their earlyrelease and repatriationfrom the neighbouringcountry.

Minister of State forExternal Affairs V KSingh, in a written replyto a question in LokSabha, said the govern-ment’s persistent effortshave succeeded in secur-ing the release and repa-triation of 1,749 Indianprisoners, including 1,725fishermen, along with 57boats from Pakistan’s cus-tody since 2014.

This includes 179 Indian

prisoners and fishermenwho were repatriatedfrom Pakistan in 2018, hesaid.

According to the avail-able information, 503Indian fishermen arebelieved to be inPakistan’s custody, theminister said.

Pakistan, through a listshared on January 1, 2019,has acknowledged thecustody of 483 fishermenwho are Indian orbelieved-to-be-Indian intheir jails, Singh said.

The 483 fishermenincludes those who are inPakistan for over 20months.

The government hasasked Pakistan to provideconsular access and earlyrelease and repatriation ofthe remaining Indian pris-oners and fishermen

along with their boats inPakistan’s custody, hesaid.

More than 1,050 Indianfishing boats are believedto be in Pakistan’s cus-tody, Singh said.However, he saidPakistan has not acknowl-edged their custody so far.

Responding to a ques-tion on whether the gov-ernment has recentlyreceived any representa-tions regarding allegedattacks by Sri LankanNavy on Indian fishermenand capture of their prop-erties, Singh said the gov-ernment has received let-ters from the state govern-ments of Tamil Nadu andPuducherry and also fromfishermen associations onit.

During the past threeyears, there have been

occasions when the arrest-ed Indian fishermen havecomplained of assault bySri Lanka Navy, the min-ister said.

The fishermen issueshave been raised at thehighest level, including byPrime Minister NarendraModi with his Lankancounterpart RanilWickremesinghe duringthe latter’s visit to India inOctober 2018.

To another question,Singh also informed theLower House that 4,705Indian nationals are inprisons in Gulf countries,which also includesIndian origin labourersimprisoned due to acci-dents.

Replying to anotherquestion, Singh said thetotal number of Indianswho have completed their

jail terms but are stilllodged in prisons of for-eign countries is 434, outof which 396 Indians arein Pakistan. To a questionon complaints by NRIbrides, he said the min-istry has been receivingpetitions from Indianwomen deserted orharassed by their NRIspouses.

Between January, 2014,and December, 2018, theministry has addressed5,379 complaints of dis-tressed Indian womendeserted by their NRIspouses, he said. Onanother question, Singhsaid the number of emi-gration clearances grantedto ECR passport holdingIndian workers in the lastthree years was 5,20,938 in2016, 3,91,024 in 2017,3,40,157 in 2018.

Over 500 Indian fishermen believed tobe in Pakistan’s custody: Government

AgencyNEW DELHI: TheSupreme Court onWednesday reserved itsjudgment while hearingthe review petitions on itsorder allowing entry to allwomen in the SabarimalaTemple.

During the course of thehearing on Wednesday,the Kerala governmentsubmitted before theSupreme Court that exclu-sion of women is “notessential to Hindu reli-gion”. The state govern-ment made its submissionduring the hearing of thereview petitions againstthe Court’s Sabarimalaorder allowing womenentry into the hill shrine.

Subsequently, the entryof two women into theshrine had sparked offmassive protests in Keralaby traditionalists and had

triggered a politicalslugfest between theCPI(M) and the BJP.

The Kerala govern-ment’s counsel, JaideepGupta, said, “The essentialpractice of a religion andessential practice of a tem-ple cannot be confused.The Court found that thepractice was not an essen-tial practice of Hindus.Essential practice of anindividual temple will notamount to essential prac-tice of the religion for thepurpose of constitutionaltest.”

The Kerala govern-ment’s counsel said thatthe state was opposing thereview. “Nothing has beenplaced before the courtthat requires reconsidera-tion. The matter is notrequired to be reviewed atall,” the state’s counselsaid.

The Kerala governmentsubmitted that when thecourt had given its orderon Sabarimala, it hadreached a consensus onthree issues: One is thatSabarimala is not adenominational temple,second was that a person’sright to worship in a tem-ple is taken away togetherfor a major part of thatperson’s life, and the thirdaspect was that the ruleviolated the act governingtemples itself.

The TravancoreDevaswom Board onWednesday said that itsupported the entry ofwomen of all ages inSabarimala Temple.

“Text and scriptures donot speak of exclusion ofwomen or the practise,”senior advocate RakeshDwivedi representing theBoard said.

When Justice InduMalhotra, the lone womanjudge on the bench andwho was part of the benchthat issued the order onSabarimala Temple,reminded Dwivedi thatthe board had earlierargued against the entry ofwomen to the temple, hereplied, “The Board hasdecided to respect the

court’s verdict.”“Equality is the domi-

nant theme under the con-stitution and the practiceviolates equality. Spirit ofthe judgment is equaltreatment to a man andwoman,” Dwivedi said.

“Women can’t beexcluded on the basis ofbiological attributes,”Dwivedi said.

Senior advocate IndiraJaising who was appear-ing on behalf of the twowomen who entered thetemple said that it was notan exclusion but a socialboycott.

“Purification ceremonyvalidates the argumentthat practice is based onnotions of untouchabili-ty,” she said.

She said that theSabarimala Temple is apublic and not privatetemple.

“Lord Ayyappa does notdiscriminate between manand woman. There is nodifference in the eyes ofGod. If my conscience dic-tates me to worship theSabarimala deity, I like toknow who will stop me,”Jaising said.

Jaising says, “If the judg-ment was against womenthey would not have riot-

ed. Women do not go towar.” Earlier, opening hisargument senior advocateK Parasaran, appearing forthe Nair Service Society,said, “The exclusionarypractice in Sabarimala isbased on the character ofthe deity.”“Untouchability has noth-ing to do here. Entry (toSabarimala temple) issought to be prohibitedonly due to nature ofdeity. It is not an exclu-sionary practice,” saidadvocate V Giri appearingfor the priest.

Talking about the exclu-sion of women atSabarimala temple, theKerala government sub-mitted, “If it’s a denomi-national temple only thenthe question of essentialpractice will arise.”

“The Jagannath templeis unique in it’s practise

and yet this court has heldit’s not a denominationaltemple. Similarly, KashiVishwanath and Tirupatihave been said not to bedenominational,” it said.

“This is a public templeand because it is one, thereis a Kerala Act which dealswith it and says it shall beopen to all Hindus of allclasses of all categorieswithout exception. It is nota private law issue but oneof public law,” the Keralagovernment said.

Referring to the petitionsthat stated that the Court’sorder had destroyed socialpeace, the state govern-ment said, “Social peacehas been destroyed is aground cited by the peti-tioners. This cannot be aground for review. Weknow social peace willcome.”

‘Support entry of women’: Devaswom Temple board’s U-turn on Sabarimala in Supreme Court

AgencyNEW DELHI: Thebereaved family of lateSquadron Leader SamirAbrol, one of the two testpilots who died in aMirage-2000 crash inBengaluru last week, hassaid while the bureaucracyenjoy its “corrupt cheeseand wine”, the air warriorsare given “outdatedmachines” to fight.

An emotional poempenned by Abrol’s brotherSushant, posted onFacebook, states it is an“unforgiving” job to be atest pilot given the risks itposses. “While the bureau-cracy enjoyed its corruptcheese and wine. We giveour warriors outdatedmachines to fight, They

still deliver it with all theirprowess and might,”Sushant said in the postthat was widely shared.

Abrol and SquadronLeader Siddhartha Negi,both from Aircraft andSystems TestingEstablishment, died aftertheir fighter jet crashed.

They were conductingan acceptance sortie of the

Mirage-2000 trainer, whichhad been newly-upgradedby state-run aerospacecompany HindustanAeronautics Limited,when it crashed on Friday.Though the two pilotsmade a bid to eject, theywere caught in the flamesas the plane crashed with ahuge explosion.

Outdated jets for warriors, cheeseand wine for babus: Brother of IAFpilot killed in crash pens poem

AgencyCHENNAI: A Tamil film-maker, working as anassistant director inChennai’s Kollywood filmindustry, was arrested onWednesday on the chargeof murdering his wife lastmonth and dumping herbody parts in garbage binin the city.

With the arrest ofGopalakrishnan (51) fromhis Jafferkhanpet resi-dence, the Pallikaranaipolice have solved themystery behind the recov-ery of a woman’s limbs —a hand and two legs?— atthe Corporation dumpyard at suburbanPerungudi on January 19,a couple of days after thePongal festival.

Corporation’s sanitationworkers brought the

garbage in a truck fromKodambakkam area of thecity to Perungudi, whoalerted the police aboutthis.

The hand had a tattooand police were initiallyclueless. But a missingwoman complaint inThoothukdi threw somelight and the deceasedwas identified as Sandhya(39) from the southernport town ofThoothukudi.

It led to the arrest ofGopalakrishnan and dur-ing questioning, he admit-ted to having committedthe crime, police said.

Police saidGopalakrishnan had pro-duced a budget filmfinanced by Sandhya in2010. But it had floppedand a financial crunch

forced him to work as anassistant director with hisfriends and acquaintanc-es.

Meanwhile, frequentquarrels erupted betweenthem as both suspectedeach other’s fidelity andthey had filed for divorce.Though Sandhya had leftfor her maternal home inThoothukudi, they wereon talking terms as theyhave two kids, a son anddaughter.

The news comes a dayafter a doctor in MadhyaPradesh was reported tohave killed his driver, cuthis body into over twodozen pieces and putthem in a drum filled withacid to dissolve them, in atechnique similar to oneseen in TV?show BreakingBad.

Financially-hit Tamil filmmaker killswife, dumps body parts in garbage

SPORTS / BUSINESSSamba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 Daily State Vision 06

AgencyASTANA: India Fed Cupcoach Ankita Bhambrireckons a good serve willbe the key on indoorcourts when Ankita Rainaand Karman Kaur Thandifight it out with higher-ranked players in the FedCup here.

India will begin theircampaign at theAsia/Oceania Group Iagainst Thailand onThursday before clashingwith formidable hostsKazakhstan on Friday.

Getting past Thailand isnot expected to be toohard for India with Ankitaand fast-improvingKarman in good form.

Thailand’s best-rankedsingles player is PeangtarnPlipuech, who is placed at

297 while PunninKovapitukted is waylower at number 657.

“To be very honest, thegirls are improving everyyear. Karman is strongerand fitter while Ankita isalso strong and has moreexperience. They need toput it together,” Bhambritold PTI.

The matches will beplayed indoors due to thesub-zero temperature inthe city.

“It is important to servewell (indoor) and reachout to the ball faster. If youstart a point well, thechances of ending it wellalso get better,” Bhambrisaid.

Kazakhstan’s worldnumber 43 YuliaPutintseva and Zarina

Diyas, ranked 96, wouldbe the tough obstacles forIndia, if they are to topPool A.

The winners of Pool Aand B, which has fourteams, will clash to deter-mine which nation quali-fies for the World GroupII.

“It’s always tough toplay top-100 players.Ankita had played thematch of her life againstYulia last year. That expe-rience should help her,”opined Bhambri.

Pool B features China,who have world number40 Shuai Zhang and worldnumber 42 Saisai Zheng,along with Korea,Indonesia, and PacificOceania.

In all likelihood, China

will top Pool B and it willbe between India andKazakhstan in Pool A.

“The plan and determi-nation is the same. I havealways played my besttennis when playing forthe country and hope todo the same,” said 25-year-old Raina, who is at acareer-best rank of 165.

“I am not looking at therankings and focusing onmyself and the game Iwant to execute. Also, I amanalysing the opponents’game,” she added.

Talking about condi-tions and courts, Rainasaid, “I am able to adaptmuch better since I havebeen here three timesbefore.” Bhambri said rais-ing the game at the righttime would be important.

Serve would be key on indoor courtsin Fed cup: India coach Bhambri

AgencyNEW DELHI: It has beenquite a memorable seasonfor Chennai City FC tillnow. The Coimbatore-based club haveimpressed everyone withtheir brand of football andwith 30 points from 14matches, they are current-ly leading the pack in theI-League with ChurchillBrothers and RealKashmir FC hot on theirheels.

While the fate of the sea-son will be decided aftersix more rounds, ChennaiCity FC have alreadytaken a big step instrengthening theirfuture. The clubannounced a partnershipwith reigning Swiss cham-pions FC Basel in NewDelhi on Wednesday withthe latter acquiring 26%

stakes in Chennai City.The partnership focused

mainly on cooperation forsetting up among otherthings, a best-in-classResidential YouthAcademy in Coimbatore,Tamil Nadu and rollingout Soccer Schools acrossthe State in Phase-1. Whilethe amount of investmentwas not revealed by bothparties, it is the first timethat foreign investment interms of acquiring owner-ship in an Indian clubtook place in that manner.

Ahead of the announce-ment, there were rumoursthat with Indian footballlikely to have only oneleague from next season,the investment mightpave the way for ChennaiCity FC to bid for a placein the Indian SuperLeague (ISL). However,

club owner Rohit Rameshdenied any such possibili-ty.

“To be very honest,playing in the ISL is noton the cards at all. We arehappy where we are andwe are focused on theremaining six games inthe I-League season. Ourfocus is on improving ourinfrastructure and we arenot looking to join the ISLany time soon,” Rohit toldthe media in the pressconference.

With a major restructur-ing in Indian football onthe cards, there is a chancethat I-League can be rele-gated to being the secondtier competition but Rohitis not bothered by the pos-sibility. The Chennai CityFC owner said that heknows there will be somechallenges but they are

ready to face them.The other issue that

Chennai City FC has facedsince its inception is theinability to play theirhome games in Chennai.With ISL side ChennaiyinFC playing their games atthe Jawaharlal NehruStadium, the I-Leaguematches were held inCoimbatore. When askedabout a possible shift ofvenue in the future, theclub made it clear thatthey are happy with theircurrent situation and arenot looking for a change.

“At Coimbatore, thecosts cut down to halfwhen it comes to facilities.Also, since the city is inthe middle of TamilNadu, it’s convenient toreach out to fans of TamilNadu,” he explained.

ISL participation not on the cards forChennai City FC after tie-up with FC Basel

AgencyNEW DELHI: The specu-lation has been rife sur-rounding the appointmentof the next Indian footballteam head coach butaccording to the All IndiaFootball Federation(AIFF), a decision in thatregard will not be takenany time soon.

AIFF General SecretaryKushal Das, who was inattendance during theannouncement of a tie-upbetween I-League sideChennai City FC andSwiss club FC Basel, saidthat the football governingbody has begun theprocess of searching butstressed that the positionwill not filled until April-May at least.

When asked about theappointment process fol-lowing Stephen

Constantine’s resignationfrom the post, Das said,“We will advertise for thatposition shortly, but wehave no plans to appointanyone before April-May.” Constantinestepped down from theposition after India wereknocked out in the groupstages of this year’s AFCAsian Cup. India startedthe tournament brilliantlywith a 4-1 win overThailand but losses

against United ArabEmirates (UAE) andBahrain ended their hopesof reaching the secondround.

While talking exclusive-ly to Hindustan Times,midfielder Anirudh Thapaearlier revealed that theplayers were informed ofConstantine’s decision toleave his post just aftertheir last group stageencounter against Bahrain.Thapa also said that thecoach talked to all of themand said that results didn’tplay a role in his decision.

“We came to know of hisdecision after the game.He said that he is resign-ing and it was not becausewe lost. He told us thateven if we won, he wouldhave resigned after thetournament anyway,” themidfielder said.

AIFF has no plans to appoint Indianfootball team coach before April-May

AgencyLAUSANNE: FIFAPresident Gianni Infantinois set to serve a secondterm after world football’sgoverning body said onWednesday he would bethe only candidate forJune’s vote. The 48-year-old has been in charge ofFIFA since February 2016.

The 48-year-old has beenin charge of FIFA sinceFebruary 2016, after suc-ceeding the disgracedSepp Blatter following thecorruption scandal whichrocked the organisation.

The election will takeplace on June 5 in Parisahead of the women’sWorld Cup. FormerTottenham defenderRamon Vega hadannounced his intention tostand against Infantino,

but failed to garner therequired support of five ofFIFA’s 211 member federa-tions. Infantino has intro-duced plans to increase theWorld Cup from 32 teamsto 48 from 2026, with thepossibility to bring for-ward the expansion to the2022 edition in Qatar. Adecision is expected to betaken next March after astudy into the feasibility of

holding an extended tour-nament in the Gulf state.

Michel Platini’s formerright-hand man at UEFA isalso hoping for anenlarged, 24-team ClubWorld Cup from 2021.

UEFA presidentAleksander Ceferin ofSlovenia, who will be re-elected on Thursday alsoas the sole candidate, isopposed to the idea.

Gianni Infantino sole candidatefor FIFA presidency in June vote

Pep Guardiola advisesEverton to be patientwith Marco Silva

AgencyNEW DELHI: Everton must stick with under-fireMarco Silva if they believe in his ability as there are noguarantees that a new manager can come in andimprove results immediately, Manchester City bossPep Guardiola has said.

Everton invested heavily on new players in the closeseason but results have hardly matched expectations,with Silva’s side managing three wins in their last 12Premier League games to heap pressure on thePortuguese.

“My advice... if they believe in the project, if theybelieve in him, they have to move forward with him,”Guardiola told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s trip toGoodison Park.

“Nobody assures you a new manager is going to dobetter.”

Guardiola did not enjoy success at City until his sec-ond campaign when he won the league title and theLeague Cup last season and stressed the need for clubslike Everton to keep faith in their managers.

AgencyNEW DELHI: Promotersof Zee EntertainmentEnterprises Ltd (ZEEL),the flagship firm of trou-bled Essel group, are opento sell over 50 per cent oftheir holdings in the firmas a part of their assetmonetisation to repaydebt, and are in talks withmore than two investorsfor the same, a senior com-pany official said.

Zee EntertainmentEnterprises hadannounced in Novemberlast year that its promot-ers, led by SubhashChandra, planned to sellup to 50 per cent of theirequity stake in the compa-ny to a strategic partner.

"Our intent has notchanged...but if somebodyis making an offer (to buy)beyond the 50 per cent

stake we will look at it,"ZEEL MD and CEO PunitGoenka said in an ana-lysts' call.

He was responding to aquery on whether the pro-moters would be lookingto sell a higher stake con-sidering their holding haswent down to 39.08 percent following sale of24.38 million pledgedshares. As on December31, 2018, promoters held41.62 per cent stake inZEEL.

Goenka, however, said,as part of the talks withthe potential investors, thepromoters had earlierindicated willingness tosell around 20 per cent oftheir holding.

Responding to anotherquery on the number ofpotential buyers, Goenkasaid the figure of "at least

two or more players"which he had put out in anearlier call with analysts"still holds".

Earlier this week, Esselgroup had sealed a formalagreement with its lendersto keep its companiesafloat, under which it getstime till September todeleverage or pare itsdebt.

Rs 13,500 crore (rpt)crore is the loan againstshares of all the listedcompanies of the promot-ers Goenka said the groupis working on multiplestrategies; as and whenwhich fructifies first, all ofthat equity realisation willgo towards payment ofthis facility of Rs 13,500crore.

While he did not give anexact timeline for conclud-ing stake sale by the pro-

moters, Goenka said, thecompany has set aMarch–April deadline forthe sale.

Essel group's promoterentities sold shares worthover Rs 1,050 crore in sixlisted group firms in openmarket between January25 and February 1, 2019,for paying off lenders whowere not part of an agree-ment to prevent declara-tion of default on loansagainst pledged shares.

According to multipleregulatory filings by dif-ferent promoter groupentities of Essel group,shares of ZeeE n t e r t a i n m e n tEnterprises, Dish TV, ZeeMedia Corporation, SitiNetworks Ltd and ZeeLearn were sold in openmarket.

Essel promoters open to sellingover 50 pc of their stake in ZEEL

AgencyMUMBAI: The jump incredit growth will requirebanks to raise over Rs 20lakh crore in deposits byMarch 2020 and may alsopush up interest rates, areport said onWednesday.

The healthier privatesector lenders will accountfor up to 60 percent of theincremental depositmobilisation, domestic rat-ings agency Crisil said in areport. In the last fewyears, deposit growth hasdropped due to lowerinterest rates on fixeddeposits as compared toother financial avenues, itsaid, adding banks havebeen collecting an averageof Rs 7 lakh crore perannum in the last fewyears.

The additional depositrequirements will also"put upward pressure onthe interest rates bankoffer on deposits", theagency said.

Volatility in the equitymarkets, moderatingflows into other invest-ment avenues, and a hikein bank deposit rates inrecent months can bringhousehold financial sav-ings back into bankdeposits, it said. In the lastfew months, deposits rateshave gone up by an aver-age of 0.40-0.60 percent,which will increase thecost of funds for thelenders, its director RamaPatel said.

As seen in earlier cycles,banks will continue to relyon excess investments ingovernment securities

beyond the mandatorystatutory liquidity ratio tofuel the credit demand,but will also have toincrease the deposits, itsaid, adding the excessSLR books of banks willhalve to 4 percent.

The agency pegged thecredit growth in the sys-tem to rise 13-14 per centfor fiscal years 2018-19and 2019-20, as against the8 per cent observed inFY18. Consequently, thedeposit growth will alsohave to rise to 10 per centlevels from the 6 percentobserved in FY18, theagency said, adding thateven at the elevated levelit will be a lot lower thanthe historic high of 25 percent in FY07.

The agency's seniordirector Krishnan

Sitaraman said the creditto deposit ratio will jumpto 78 per cent by the end ofFY19 from the 73 per centlevels in March 2017, andhike it up further to adecade high of 80 per centby March 2020 Privatebanks with strong balancesheets and robust creditgrowth are expected tolead the race for depositsand will account for 55-60per cent of the incrementaldeposit mobilisation, theagency said, adding state-run banks outside PromptCorrective Action frame-work will garner 30-35 percent.

The share of privatebanks in the overalldeposits has gone up to 30per cent, an increase of 7percentage points in thelast five years, it said.

'Banks need Rs 20 trillion depositsfor credit growth, may up rates'

AgencyNEW DELHI: The meet-ing of the Reserve Bank ofIndia's (RBI) central board,which was slated to take acall on interim dividend,has been deferred toFebruary 18, said sources.

The board meeting,which will be the first afterthe Interim Budget 2019-20, will also be addressedby the finance minister.The customary post-Budget board meetingwas earlier scheduled forFebruary 9 but has nowbeen deferred, the sourcessaid. The RBI board isgoing to take up request ofthe government for pay-ment of interim dividendfor the current financialyear, they said. The boardwill take a view based onthe central bank's first sixmonths of audited earn-ings and finalise interim

dividend transfer. The RBIfollows July-June financialyear. So, the first half iscompleted in December.

Last financial year, theRBI had paid an interimdividend of Rs 10,000crore, while it has alreadytransferred Rs 40,000 crorein the current fiscal. Thereceipt from varioussources, including RBIdividend, helps govern-ment meet fiscal deficittarget. In the InterimBudget 2019-20, the gov-

ernment has projected afiscal deficit target of 3.4per cent for the financialyear 2019-20. The govern-ment also came out with aroad map to reduce the fis-cal deficit, the gapbetween total expenditureand revenue, to 3 per centof the gross domesticproduct by 2020-21, andeliminate primary deficit.Primary deficit refers tothe deficit left after sub-tracting interest paymentsfrom the fiscal deficit.

RBI board meeting deferred to February 18Agency

NEW DELHI: TRAI onWednesday asserted thatprice sensitive consumerswill see a drop in theirmonthly bills as marketforces come to play underthe new tariff regime forbroadcasting and cableservices, and strongly con-tested a Crisil report thatclaimed that costs may riseby 25 per cent.

Addressing a confer-ence, TRAI Chairman R SSharma said the assump-tions made in the saidreport had been "wrongand unrealistic" and hencethe conclusions, were notcorrect.

TRAI has received con-sumer complaints relatedto blackout (on one DTHplatform), long durationpacks and offerings for

multiple TV connections,and the regulator is look-ing into the grievancesand issuing suitable direc-tions to operators.

"Consumers must have achoice...and interferingwith their freedom is aviolation of regulatoryframework," Sharma said.

He said that price sensi-tive consumers can expectto see a reduction in theirmonthly TV viewing bills.

TRAI has also askedplatform operators torevert, in two days, withspecial schemes and plansfor households with multi-ple TV connections.

TRAI has emphasisedthat players have to allowindividual set top boxes(even within a samehousehold) to have sepa-rate choice of channels, if

the consumer wishes.As per regulations, play-

ers can choose to offer dis-counts or even waive offnetwork capacity fee onthe subsequent connec-tion. TRAI said it is main-taining a close watch onthe issue and will inter-vene, if required.

To a specific query, theTRAI chief said that hisown bill has come down"substantially" under thenew framework, but didnot elaborate.

A recent report by Crisilhad said the networkcapacity fee and channelprices announced bybroadcasters and distribu-tors as per TRAI's newguidelines could increasemonthly bill of most sub-scribers of TV channels.

"Our analysis of the

impact of the regulationsindicates a varied impacton monthly TV bills.Based on current pricing,the monthly TV bill can goup by 25 per cent from Rs230-240 to around Rs 300per month for viewerswho opt for the top 10channels, but will comedown for those who optup to top 5 channels,"Crisil senior directorSachin Gupta had said.

TRAI said that the reporthad been prepared withan "inadequate under-standing of TV distribu-tion market" and that themix of channels that wasreviewed in the report wasan unlikely selection.

TRAI argued that a sin-gle family is unlikely tosimultaneously opt forchannels that include mul-

tiple regional languageslike Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,Bangla, Malayalam andEnglish.

The regulator said thatdata sourced by TRAI sep-arately from two operatorsshowed that prices wereactually lower in locationslike Mumbai, and Delhicompared to the previousregime.

"In three months, weexpect prices of variouschannels to go down,"TRAI secretary S K Guptasaid.

TRAI also said it hastaken note of cases wheresome websites of opera-tors were down due toheavy traffic, and hasasked players to ensurethat their websites are upand running.

TRAI refutes Crisil report on rise in TVviewing bills under new tariff regime

Samba (J&K) | Thursday, February 07, 2019 Entertainment/Health Daily State Vision

07

Agency

Actor-politician ShatrughanSinha on Wednesday said heis lucky that he hasn’t been

outed in the #MeToo movementdespite everything that he has done.

Invoking the popular quote,“Behind every successful man, thereis a woman,” the actor said in post-MeToo era, behind the fall of a verysuccessful man is also a woman.

“Today is the time of #MeToo, andthere shouldn’t be any shame or hes-itation to say that behind a success-ful man’s fall is a woman. Behindthe troubles and infamy of success-ful men, there have been mostlywomen that I have seen in thismovement,” Shatrughan Sinha saidas many in the audience laughed.

Shatrughan was speaking at thelaunch of debutant author DhruvSomani’s A Touch of Evil.

As the actor called himself fortu-nate to have escaped the #MeToo

wave, Poonam looked on visiblyembarrassed.

He said, “I really call myself fortu-nate that in today’s times, despiteeverything that I have done, myname hasn’t come out in the#MeToo movement. Hence, I listento my wife and often take her as ashield with me so that even if there’snothing, I can show, ‘I am happilymarried, my life is good.'”

The actor added, “She is a goddessand my everything. Even if anyonewants to say anything about me,please don’t say.”

Later, during the Q and A, areporter asked Shatrughan Sinha ifhe was mocking the MeToo move-ment, which has been made possibleonly by the courage of women whohave been exploited by powerfulmen. The actor, defending himself,asked the scribe to take his commentwith “plain sense of humour,” andadded he lauds the courage ofwomen who have come forwardwith their stories.

He said, “Don’t take it otherwise.Please take it with plain sense ofhumour. I highly appreciate,applaud the women who, better latethan never, have come forward. Isalute their courage and guts.”

“But beyond that, I don’t want togo further at this hour because it’s abook launch event and we shouldnot cross our limits. But having saidthis, I understand what you are say-ing and I am highly supportive ofwhat you said,” the actor added.

Behind a successful man’s fallis a woman: Shatrughan Sinha Agency

The trailer of HarishKalyan and ShilpaManjunath starrer

Ispade Rajavum IdhayaRaniyum was unveiled onWednesday. The title andfirst look posters mayhave tricked you intobelieving it is a romanticcomedy. But, the 2-minutetrailer paints a very differ-ent picture. Here, HarishKalyan has played theangry version of Devdas,with shades of ArjunReddy. Going by the trail-er, Kalyan’s Ispade Rajahas serious anger issues,which he directs some-times at punching bags orat people that cross him.He is crazy about ShilpaManjunath’s Idhaya Rani,who is not submissive tohis antics. There is quite alot of dramatic tension at

work with a lot of crying,cussing, travelling onlonely roads and ofcourse, screaming in soli-tude.

Despite the familiarity,the visuals still manage toget our attention, thanksto the sense of sincerityand conviction they pos-sess. Especially, cine-

matographer Kavin Raj’swork brings out thethemes of passion, pain,violence and heartbreakimpressively through theframes soaked in hues ofred and yellow. ComposerSam C S’s beats seem toadd to the experience.

The literal translation ofthe title is ‘King of Spades,

Queen of Hearts’ and thefilm is directed by RanjitJeyakodi of PuriyathaPuthir fame.

Harish, who shot tofame after participating inthe first season of BiggBoss Tamil, was last seenin hit romantic comedyPyaar Prema Kaadhal(2018).

Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum trailer: HarishKalyan starrer is filled with love and passion

Agency

Vishal, onW e d n e s d a y ,released the teaser

of his upcoming filmAyogya. The teaser hasbeen cut to introduce theflawed character of theprotagonist, who wearshis depleted sense ofmorality as a badge ofhonour.

Director Venkat Mohanhas written and directedthe movie in Tamil, whichis the official remake ofTelugu hit Temper. Theoriginal film was writtenby Vakkantham Vamsiand Puri Jagannath hadhelmed it.

In 2015, Temper gave amuch-needed break to JrNTR, who was reelingunder consecutive boxoffice failure. The tale

about a morally bankruptcop, who suffers an attackof conscience and decidesto uphold the justice in hisown questionable way,clicked with the audience.It infused Tarak’s careerwith a lot of fresh energyand since inspired severalremakes.

The film was remade inHindi under the titleSimmba by director Rohit

Shetty. Ranveer Singhreprised the Tarak’s rolein the film, which becameone of the top-grossingfilms of Bollywood in2018.

Ayogya has RaashiKhanna as the female lead,R. Parthiban has playedthe main antagonist.Director-actor K. S.Ravikumar has played apivotal role.

Ayogya teaser: Vishal addsglamour to Temper remake

Agency

Uri: The SurgicalStrike directorAditya Dhar says

its popular dialogue‘How’s the josh?’, whichhas been invoked byPrime Minister NarendraModi and his ministers,comes from a childhoodmemory. The film is basedon the 2016 Indian Army’ssurgical strikes on terrorlaunch pads in Pakistan asa retaliation for the Uriattack that claimed thelives of 17 army personnel.The film features VickyKaushal in the lead role.

Recalling the storybehind the catch-phrase,Aditya told PTI, “I hadsome friends from defencebackground, so with them,

I used to go to a lot ofArmy clubs. There wasone in Delhi where weused to go for Christmasor New Year parties.There used to be a retiredBrigadier who would lineup all the kids in front ofhim and have a chocolatein his hand.”

“He would say ‘How’sthe josh?’ and we were torespond with ‘High Sir!’The kid who was the loud-est got the chocolate.Being a foodie, I used to bethe loudest and always gotthe chocolate,” Aditya toldPTI.

The phrase has acquireda life of its own, somethingthat the director had neveranticipated.

“I have heard very few

Army people use thephrase. It is not somethingwhich is used extensively.What I did was I used theline in the right way in thefilm and now it has takenoff to another level.”

When Aditya sat downto pen Uri: The SurgicalStrike, he knew he had toinclude the line.

“The line was there rightfrom the first draft. As awriter, we write accordingto our personal experi-ences, our memories. It isan amalgamation of every-thing. I had the line withme in my memory andthis was the perfect filmfor it to come out.”

The film, which releasedon January 11, hasemerged as a huge block-

buster, still running topacked houses and all setto enter the Rs 200-croreclub.

For the first-time film-maker, Aditya says theresponse has been “magi-cal, beautiful” and themagnitude of love comingthe film’s way was some-thing the team never antic-ipated.

The film’s journey-andit’s eventual success-isstuff of legends for Aditya.

The director was work-ing on Raat Baaki, whichwas supposed to featurePakistani actor FawadKhan and Katrina Kaif inthe lead but Khan had toexit the project afterPakistani artistes werebanned from working in

India in the aftermath ofthe Uri attacks.

“I learnt in this industrythat whatever the adversi-ty, you have to just pushyourself and change thesituation in your favour.When the surgical strikeshappened and Pakistaniartistes were banned,everyone was sad that ourfilm won’t get made. Iwanted to know whathappened during theattacks because thatsounded like a great story.That switch happenedvery fast. It is the only wayto survive in this industry,it is difficult, you have tobe mentally strong. Nomatter what, you’ve toalways keep the joshhigh,” he said.

Uri director Aditya Dhar explainsthe origin of ‘How’s the Josh?’

Agency

One-third ofHimalayan gla-ciers will melt by

the end of the century dueto climate change, threat-ening water sources for 1.9billion people, even if cur-rent efforts to reduce cli-mate change succeed, anassessment warns.

If global efforts to curbclimate change fail, theimpact could be far worse– a loss of two-thirds of theregion's glaciers by 2100,said the Hindu KushHimalaya Assessmentreleased Monday by theInternational Centre forIntegrated MountainDevelopment. "Globalwarming is on track totransform the frigid, gla-cier-covered mountainpeaks of the Hindu KushHimalayas cutting acrosseight countries to bare

rocks in a little less than acentury," said PhilippusWester from the Centre,who led the report.

The five-year studylooked at the effects of cli-mate change on a regionthat cuts across Asiathrough Afghanistan,Pakistan, India, Nepal,China, Bhutan,Bangladesh andMyanmar. The area, whichincludes the world's tallestmountain peaks, has gla-ciers that feed into river

systems including theIndus, Ganges, Yangtze,Irrawaddy and Mekong.

The assessment said thatthe impact of the meltingcould range from floodingfrom the increased run-offto increased air pollutionfrom black carbon anddust deposited on the gla-ciers. Saleemul Huq, direc-tor of the InternationalCenter for Climate Changeand Development, anenvironmental researchcentre in Dhaka, described

the findings of the reportas "very alarming," espe-cially for downstreamnations such asBangladesh.

"All the countries affect-ed need to prioritise tack-ling this upcoming prob-lem before it reaches crisisproportions," he said in anemail. Huq was one of thestudy's external reviewers.

The study said that evenif the most ambitious Parisclimate accord goal of lim-iting global warming to1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7degrees Fahrenheit) by theend of the century weremet, more than a third ofthe region's glaciers willbe lost. If the global rise intemperature were 2 C (3.6F), two-thirds ofHimalayan glaciers willmelt, it said.

The 2015 ParisAgreement was a land-

mark moment in interna-tional diplomacy, bringingtogether governmentswith vastly different viewsto tackle global warming.It set a headline target ofkeeping average globaltemperatures from risingby more than 2 C, or 1.5 Cif possible.

The International Centrefor Integrated MountainDevelopment said thestudy included work bymore than 350 researchersand policy experts from 22countries. It said it had 210authors and 125 externalreviewers. TheKathmandu-based centersaid it receives donationsfrom regional countries,non-regional countriessuch as Australia, Austria,Norway, Switzerland andthe United Kingdom, andother international pro-grammes such as USAID.

Himalayan glaciers in grave danger

Agency

The lips are a veryimportant feature ofour face and there is

no denying that beautifullips can make anyoneswoon over you.However, it is a well-known fact that our lipslose their collagen andhyaluronic acid with timeas we get older, whichmakes them thinner sub-sequently. It is veryimportant for us to takecare of our lips and makethem look luscious andvoluminous. But have youever wondered if you everwanted to change the wayyour lips looked? Popularactors like Shruti Hassan,Katrina Kaif and PriyankaChopra have also modi-fied their lips to look a cer-tain way.

What are designer lips?If you’ve not missed

your regular social net-

working binge session,you must have comeacross at least one of thoseposts which have modelswith very peculiar yetattractive lip shapes. To behonest, those posts/pho-tos are very intriguing andmake many of us wonderif this is something wecould try on ourselves.

Just like designer hand-bags, shoes, clothes andeverything fancy, designerlips are an actual thingand are trending amongpeople as well.

Lip fillers are injectionswhich add volume to yourlips and help augmentyour lips by giving themshape and definition. Thelip shape can be improvedto a great extent with thesehyaluronic acid fillers.

Some of the most trend-ing lip designs are:

The heart-shaped lips:Also very famously

known as the cupid’s bow.As the name itself sug-gests, the primary focus ison the cupid’s bow of yourface. A person with a well-defined cupid’s bow willhave heart-shaped lips.Which means the focuswould be on enhancingyour cupid’s bow alongwith adding volume toyour lower lip.

The ellipsis: These arethe thick and voluminouslips which are projectingforward. These are one ofthe most demanded lipdesigns due to the trend ofpouting. They are morelike puffy lips; aka theKylie Jenner lips.

Ribbon lips: The bestoption for people who arelooking for somethingvery subtle. Ribbon lipsadd a negligible amount ofcontouring to the lips andmake the appearance soft-er and smoother. A bit of

volume is increased on theupper lip for that soft fin-ish of a ribbon.

The bow: They are idealfor people who yearn forlong and medium volumi-nous lips. People whohave smaller lips tend togo for this one since itfocuses on enhancing thecupid’s bow by making ita bit longer and addingvolume to the lower lip.

The apple: They are alsocalled the Angelina Jolielips. Apple shaped lips donot focus much on makingthe cupid’s bow accentuat-ed rather it focuses on thevolume and shape of thelips. Beautiful roundedlips which are centrallylocated is what draws peo-ple towards this particularshape. Anyone who lovesa bit of experimentation orwants to change the waythey look can opt for thesecontours.

Look before you ‘lip’Agency

Millions of Hindupilgrims took theplunge into

sacred rivers at the world'slargest religious gatheringon Monday, led by ash-smeared holy men andaccompanied by religiouschanting. Hindus believethat bathing at the conflu-ence of the sacred riverscleanses them of sin andMonday's MauniAmavasya Snan, the "nomoon day", is consideredthe holiest of the gigantic48-day festival that runsuntil March 4. On the mostauspicious day of themonths-long Kumbh Melafestival, devotees rose atdawn in the northern cityof Allahabad to immersethemselves at the conflu-ence of three sacred rivers –the Ganges, the Yamunaand the mythical Saraswati.Thousands of Naga

Sadhus, a devout, fierceand famously nude sect offollowers of the Hindu godShiv, and other holy menclad in saffron robes, ledthe mass bathing in thechilly waters, some bran-dishing swords and tri-dents.

More than 30,000 policewere on duty to managethe huge crowds and pre-vent the deadly stampedes

that have marred such pre-vious gatherings.Organising authoritiesspent millions on an opera-tion to block drains andmake sure that waste waterpouring into the rivers doesnot threaten the pilgrims.

Special skimmer boatscollected waste from thesurface of the rivers andmore than 40,000 tempo-rary toilets have been

installed. Pilgrims havebeen streaming into a tem-porary tent city, three timesthe size of Manhattanisland, in buses, trains andcars to participate in thefestival's high point. Nearly12 million people attendedthe inaugural bathing ritualon January 15 and about120 million are expectedduring the whole festival.

Kumbh at its best

Agency

Alexa Chitra Strangewalks into thelobby holding the

hand of her mother TaraStrange. She is quite care-ful about each step.Smiling, they walk inside,we exchange pleasantriesand as we settle down fora talk, Tara, a native ofThir uva nantha pur am,throws a question inMalayalam, which leadsto a discussion about lan-guages. Alexa, an interna-tionally acclaimed 6ft talland slim beach volleyballplayer from California,who is in Kochi to takepart in the Pro VolleyballLeague happening at RajivGandhi Indoor Stadium,Kadavanthra, listens to itand says she wants tolearn it once.

Well, it is the story ofAlexa, who was born to

Greg, a Caucasian andTara, an Indian, and hertwo siblings. It will be dif-ficult to narrate Alexa’sstory without a mention ofTara, who gracefullywalked a tough road, andis Alexa’s inspiration. Tarafirst moved to the UnitedStates when she was 10years old. She did herstudies there and returnedto Kerala when she was16. After doing her pre-degree here, she moved toTennessee, where her par-ents first settled, and laterto California. Tara metGreg during college days.They got married, andwhen she was 23, she losther sight to retinitis pig-mentosa. Tara treaded thepath with the help ofGreg, who took heraround the globe to expe-rience the world. “It was ahard journey for both of

us. It wouldn’t have beenpossible without hishelp,” says Tara, whonever misses Alexa’smatches. She proudlysays, “I am so happy thatin a competitive place likethe US, she is holding herown.”

As she says this, Alexa,to whom her mom iseverything, smiles andteases Tara. She, then,begins to talk about herbeach volleyball journey.She describes herself as aperson with inborn sports-man spirit. “I have beeninto sports since themoment I could walk,”she chuckles. “Theyalways tell me this soccerstory, which is about afive-year-old me, whorefused to come out of thefield, and when taken out,ran along the lines chasingthe ball.

Smashing success

www.statevision.in - that’s all you need to know

Thursday, February 07, 2019

State VisionVISION OF JK

Page 8Samba (J&K)

Rigzin Samphealflags-off culturalcarnival for JammuMahotsav- 2019

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 06: Secretary Tourism &Floriculture Department, Rigzian Sampheal, todayflagged-off the Cultural Carnival as precursor to Mega"Jammu Mahotsav-2019" today from VivekanandChowk, Jammu.

The purpose of organizing this event two daysbefore commencing of Jammu Mahotsav was to sani-tize the public and make it widely publicized forinformation of general masses in and around Jammuand requesting them to participate in this Mega eventas part of the efforts being made by the Directorate ofTourism, Jammu to promote tourism in the region.

Being a Cultural Carnival, various teams of folksingers, dancers, and the students from GovernmentGirls Hr. Secondary School, Mubarak Mandi, YouthHostel Association of India and Gandhi Global Familyparticipated in the event.

This carnival passed through Raghunath Bazar-CityChowk-Super Bazar-Purani Mandi-Raj Tilak Road-Moti Bazar-Pacca Danga-Chowk Chabutra and culmi-nated at Mubarak Mandi Heritage Complex.

The students performed various cultural activities atMubarak Mandi Complex to make this event morecolorful and memorable. Various Travel TradeAssociations also participated in the event.

Om Prakash Bhagat, Director Tourism, Jammu,Shokat Mehmood, Joint Director Tourism, Jammu andother officers attended the event.

Secretary RDD chairsmeet on GOBARDHAN, SLRM

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6: Secretary, RuralDevelopment Department and Panchayati Raj, SheetalNanda chaired the meeting of 4th State TechnicalAdvisory Committee (STAC) for GOBARDHAN/SLRM under Swachh Bharat MissionGrameen (SBM-G), here today.

The meeting was organized by Directorate of RuralSanitation, Jammu and Kashmir and conducted byDirector Rural Sanitation, also the Mission Director(SBM-G), Indu Kanwal Chib.

GOBAR DHAN scheme shall be under taken inselected villages of the state and the shortlisted agen-cies have to ensure its effective planning and execu-tion for implementation, and provide technical expert-ise on the matters related to bio-composting of organ-ic waste and safe disposal of inorganic waste.

The nominated members from the STAC includingrepresentatives from the departments of Agriculture,Animal Husbandry, Sheep Husbandry, along withother concerned institutions like the State PollutionControl Board, Municipal Corporations, University ofJammu and Sher-e-Kashmir University forAgricultural Sciences & Technology (SKUAST)Jammu, and Zila Swachh Bharat Preraks (ZSBP's)besides other concerned were present in the meeting.

On the occasion, Secretary RDD said that GOBARDHAN scheme will create new rural livelihoodopportunities and enhance income for farmers by pro-moting clean energy and organic farming from cattledung, poultry droppings, crop residue, kitchen waste,etc.

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:The Jammu and Kashmirgovernment is all set toestablish a hi-tech trafficcontrol and surveillancesystem in the run up toexecute its road safetyplan aimed at arrestingthe rising fatalities on thestate roads.

The Road Action MasterPlan being executed joint-ly by Motor Vehicle andTraffic Departmentsenvisages creation of astate of art traffic controlsystem, strengthening ofenforcement agencies and

other technological inter-ventions for reinforce-ment at different levels.For the purpose, the StateGovernment has releasedRs 8 crore under RoadSafety Fund in tune withthe directions of theSupreme CourtCommittee on RoadSafety. The Apex Courtcommittee has called forestablishment of non-lapsable Road SafetyFund in the States.

Road Safety Fund hasprovision for allocation ofexpenditure for imple-mentation of road safety

related schemes, pro-grammes, projects, pur-chase and installation ofequipment and devisesconnected with road safe-ty, conduct of studies,projects and research onmatters relating to roadsafety, trauma-care pro-grammes or activities, etc.

This information wasgiven here at a meeting ofRoad Safety FundManagement Committeechaired by PrincipalSecretary Finance NavinChoudhary(Chairpersonof the Panel) and attendedby Principal Secretary

Transport Dr AsgarHassan Samoon,Transport CommissionerS P Vaid, IGP Traffic AlokKumar and other seniorofficers of the twindepartments.

The meeting took seriesof decisions with regardto utilization of Rs 8 CroreCorpus fund includingpurchase of 100 hi-endCombo Motor Bikes, lift-ing cranes and other vehi-cles to strengthen the sur-veillance on the roadsthrough the enforcementsquads.

The interceptive vehi-

cles to be used by MVDand Traffic departmentwill have varied acces-sories and equipmentsincluding Speed hunter -III plus-speed laser gun,breath alcohol analyzer e-challaning machines andalike.

Principal SecretaryTransport gave a detailedresume of road actionplan being executed bythe department with mainthrust on reducing rate ofroad mishaps, even as hesaid a considerableimprovement has beenrecorded in this regard in

past couple of months.IGP Traffic said that his

department is working ona technology baseIntelligent Traffic regula-tion System on the lines ofmodern cities.

Earlier, NavinChoudhary took adetailed review of thefund utilization andasked the concerned to gofor procurements. Heasked them to make pur-chases throughGovernment e-Marketplace (GeM) portalfor transparency and fair-ness.

Navin chairs Road Safety FundManagement Committee meeting

J&K all set to have hi- tech traffic control, efficient transportation system

SV NEWS SERVICEBUDGAM, FEBRUARY6: Under the patronage ofChief Justice J&K HighCourt Justice Geeta Mittal,a Witness AssistanceCentre was inaugurated atCourt Complex Budgam.

The centre was inaugu-rated by a witness, Azizaof Char-e-Sharief in pres-ence of Principal Districtand Sessions JudgeBudgam, (ChairmanDistrict Legal ServiceAuthority), Raja ShujaatAli, Chief JudicialMagistrate Budgam,Mohammad Amin Mir,Deputy CommissionerBudgam, Dr, Syed SehrishAsgar, SP Budgam AmodAshok Nagpure, Munsiff,Secretary DLSA Budgam,

Tabasum Qadir Parray,ADC Budgam KhurshidAhmad Shah, BarPresident Budgam,Advocate NoorMohammad and othersenior lawyers and DLSAofficials. On the occasion,Chairman District LegalService Authority (DLSA)Budgam Raja Shujaat Alisaid that the centre willserve its best purpose tofacilitate witnesses toappear in court cases andrecord their statements atease. He said that caretak-ers would remain there forwitnesses to guide them tothe court hearings torecord their statementswithout facing any incon-venience. The chairmansaid that the centre would

be equipped with allrequired facilities includ-ing an LCD on which reli-gious verses will beplayed in order to encour-age witnesses religiouslyand morally to submit/record their statement onfacts and credentials.

Terming witnesses aseyes and ears of the court,the chairman said that thefacility would also serveas waiting facility room tothe witnesses during courthearings of their relatedcases.

On the occasion,Chairman DLSA Budgamand Secretary DLSABudgam raised the issuesrelated to 50 kanals landacquisition for the districtcourt complex Budgam

near Townhall Budgamand court complexChadoora with the DCBudgam.

Bar members also raisedvarious demands includ-ing separate washroomfacility and canteen for thelawyers at the districtcourt.

The DC assured that shewould provide full sup-port to the DLSA Budgamand said that she wouldlook into the issue of landacquisition of court com-plexes at identified sites,besides building separatewashroom for staff andadvocates, litigant shed,canteen for lawyers, waterpurifier facility would beset up within the courtpremises.

Witness Assistance Centre inauguratedat District Court Complex Budgam

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 6:Commissioner Secretary,Power DevelopmentDepartment (PDD),Hirdesh Kumar, conveneda meeting to review rev-enue realization progressand the implementation ofongoing flagship powersector schemes in Jammuregion here today.

In the meeting, it wasgiven out that the amountrealized as power revenueby EMRE Wing, Jammuending 3rd Quarter of thisfinancial year has

increased considerablyover the realization in cor-responding period of lastyear.

Hirdesh directed theconcerned to ensure time-ly bill distribution to allthe consumers whileinstructing the billing cen-ters to remain functionaleven during late workinghours for quick resolutionof bill related issues inview of financial year clo-sure. He further asked theofficials to encourage thepublic to make use ofonline bill payment chan-

nels likebi llsahul iyat. jkpdd.netand the recently launchedandroid app for easy billpayments. However, hewas hopeful that with theaddition of new electricityconnections releasedunder Saubhagya scheme,the revenue realization isexpected to witness ahealthy jump.

The meeting wasinformed that 153223 newconnections have beenregistered in Jammuregion during last eightmonths of current fiscal

taking the total number to1028585 resulting in totalload addition of 75000 kW.It was also informed thatthe Departmental check-ing squads have conduct-ed 29336 inspectionsacross the region to checkillegal connections andpower pilferage, imposinga fine Rs. 2.1 crore againstthe violators tillNovember 2018.

Even as the Departmenthas succeeded to bringdown the AT&C losses incomparison to last year,Commissioner/ Secretary

expressed his concernover the high loss figuresand directed the con-cerned to further gear upenforcement drive to con-trol and eradicate themenace of power theft as itcan play a pivotal role inreducing the losses tomeet the commitment ofthe State under UDAY.

Taking stock of progressof works on various flag-ship schemes of PowerSector, the CommissionerSecretary asked the con-cerned to work withutmost dedication and

accelerate the pace ofwork on all ongoing proj-ects and complete themwithin the stipulated time.

D e v e l o p m e n tCommissioner (Power),Chief Engineers,Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers andrepresentatives from theconcerned ProjectImplementing Agencies(PIAs) such as PGCIL ,RECPDCL , RECTPCL ,Reliance Elektrik ,Transrail Lighting andCapital Electech , alsoattended the meeting.

GCW Jammu holdsState YouthParliament 2019

SV NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, FEBRUARY 06: Government College forWomen Parade Ground Jammu hosted the State YouthParliament 2019 for J&K wherein 50 participants from 19districts voiced their viewpoints on different topics.

Speaking on the occasion, MLC Romesh Arora, wel-comed all the participants and highlighted the impor-tance of such events initiated by the Prime MinisterNarender Modi which helps in unfolding the hidden tal-ent of young minds.

S P Bhatnagar, Regional Director NSS New Delhi inhis address highlighted the entire scheme of NationalYouth Parliament 2019 launched by the Ministry.

Out of 50 participants two candidates namely Srishti(District Jammu) and Vishal Pathania (District Kathua)were adjudged First and Second winners, who will par-ticipate in the National Youth Parliament to be held on23rd and 24th Feb, 2019 at New Delhi.

In his address Director Colleges Prof. Chatt highlight-ed the importance of the event in which all the bestspeakers of J&K state were given a chance to cometogether on a common platform and interact with eachother.

Commissioner Secy PDD for expeditious installation of pre-paid electricity meters'Eradicate menace of power theft'