Demands ex-gratia relief to the deceased family

Srinagar, Jun 26 : Chairman PDF Hakeem Yaseen has expressed his sorrow over the death of Numberdar of Macho Beerwa, Shabir Ahmed Malik, who died due to electrocution.

In a statement issued , Hakeem Yaseen while conveying his sympathies with the bereaved family, has demanded a probe into the killing of Shabir Ahmed Malik. He said the concerned PDD field should be held responsible for the unfortunate incident.

He said due to non availability of the field staff on duty, the Numberdar was forced to fiddle with power transformer in a bid to restore power supply to his village, which became the cause of his instant death. He has called for a thorough investigation on the incident to fix the responsibility.

Hakeem Yaseen has demanded ex gratia relief to the bereaved family and government job in favour of the next kin of the deceased Numberdar. (KNS) 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that Kashmir problem would not have existed if Sardar Patel had been the first Prime Minister of India

“We believe that Kashmir problem wouldn’t have existed had Sardar Patel been the first PM of this country. Sardar Patel lived and died for the Congress but this party doesn’t remember him except when polls are held in Gujarat,” said PM Modi.

“I request the Congressmen to once visit the Sardar Patel statue constructed under NDA government,” he added.

Banihal, Jun 26: Continuing its efforts to eradicate the menace of drugs from the society, Ramban Police today achieved yet another success by arresting two peddlers in two separate actions and recovering Codeine Phosphate and Charas from their possession.

Following a tip off, a special Naka headed by Insp. Abid Hussain Bukhari SHO PS Banihal under the supervision of Sajjad Sarwar SDPO Banihal, Sanjay Parihar Addl SP Ramban and overall supervision of Anita Sharma, SSP Ramban was laid at T Chowk Banihal and checking and frisking was intensified. During the process one suspect coming from Railway station Banihal was stopped and on his checking police recovered 50 bottles of prescription drugs. He was identified as Mudasir Ahmed son of Bashir Ahmed Wani a resident of Sopore.

During preliminary investigation the accused disclosed that he had bought the consignment from Kashmir area and was meant for selling to the youth of Banihal/Jammu.

Meanwhile, Banihal Police in its jurisdiction arrested another person identified as Rahul Singh son of Sang Dayal a resident of Reya Bari Brahamana Jammu with 250 gms of Charas. Two separate cases have been registered against the accused Mudasir, Rahul Singh and further investigation has been taken up.

Pertinent to mentions here that Banihal Police during last one week has arrested 15 drug peddlers and recovered huge quantity of Charas, Poppy Straw and some quantity of heroine (chitta) from their possession. (KNS) 

“Implementation can irreparably damage education sector”

Srinagar, Jun 26 : As part of the countrywide holding of deliberations, discussions and raising of reservations on the new National Education Policy, a team of National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) of India and educationists visited Jammu and Kashmir.

The team discussed the situation with eminent educationists, academicians and stakeholders in the state prominent among them being Private Schools’ Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK). Both sides have raised their reservations on certain points in the NEP and agreed that if the policy is implemented in Toto in the country, it will lead to destruction of vibrant education sector, Jammu and Kashmir being no exception.

In today’s press conference, addressed by Dr Kulbubshan Sharma, President NISA, Thomas Antony, eminent educationist and G N Var, chairman PSAJK, some of the points raised are

NEP is a voluminous document aimed to confuse a common person. An ideal policy document should be around 20 – 30 pages so that it is easily understood by common people and experts alike, but the NEP 2016 is a huge 498 page document. It looks like a discussion rather than a concrete policy.

Give stakeholders more time to discuss and react on it. We demand that the political party should make it part of their election manifesto as the policy concerns entire India.

The document has many pages which have been copy pasted from a website in Gujarat. But education is unique to every place and one cannot brush everyone in same colour. Education has unique requirements everywhere. Instead of being personalised, the education sector is being centralised.

The policy says that the education sector will have Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog (RSA), which will be headed by Prime Minister. Then what is the role of MHRD or education department. It is equal to destroying entire educational governance infrastructure all over India. They should define the role of other institutions if everything will be controlled by PM headed RSA.

They have B.Ed integrated course after 12th. Then there is teacher eligibility test. If there is B.Ed then why is TET. It is major flaw in the policy. Does it mean that earlier courses like B.Ed is not upto the mark? It is like asking a doctor who has passed entrance and completed MBBS course, to again appear for another test to become doctor.

There is no sufficient addressing of the crucial issues such as gender, caste and the environment in the draft. Human rights and constitutional rights issues are grossly excluded and Sanskrit and Yoga are projected beyond all reasonable proportions right from school education. As per the draft, Hindu religious dogmas and Varnasramadharma should be injected into young minds in the guise of moral education in schools.

The policy stresses skill on 80 percent students and quality education for chosen few. It seems the main aim is to make 80 percent students as bonded employees of capitalist world while as 20 percent will have upper edge on them. The NEP destroys the concept of equality and it is anti-poor.

It advocates Vedic Gurukula system of education which is teacher centric with aim of infusing rigorous discipline among students. This system mars the creativity of children and it is also against the modern and democratic decentred approaches to pedagogy and contemporary educational practice.

The earlier education policy is not implemented. It has become a corruption oriented and students don’t get benefited. The problem is with implementation, had the earlier policy implemented strictly on ground, maybe we wouldn’t have had so many problems today. The policy had no major flaw, yet it was not implemented and the culprit is the government and governance.

NEP says it will continue Right to Education Act, which is already under dispute, as the government in many states has not paid the dues of students from economically weaker sections. So both students and institutions suffer. We propose why don’t government introduce Direct Beneficiary Transfer policy. Give students an education voucher which can be cashed at any school.

The new policy is made by bureaucrats. The TSR Subramaniam committee has five persons, four of them are bureaucrats and the lone non-bureaucrat person is a controversial figure with leanings towards certain ideology.

The committee that drafted the New Education Policy did not have a single school teacher in it. One is unable to understand the reasons and explanation for it if there can indeed be any. There are nearly 80 lakh teachers in India and they remain the most important unit of effecting changes proposed in the policy. Without their involvement and considerable say in the making of the New Education Policy, it remains to be seen as to how the teaching community responds to it. Not one school teacher can be found in the list of 217 eminent persons the committee consulted. (KNS) 

Assam Police has arrested a person from Kulgam in Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly posting an obscene comment on Facebook on the widow of a CRPF commando who was killed in a blast triggered by Maoists in Jharkhand last month, an official statement said Tuesday.

The slain CRPF commando, Sunil Kalita, hailed from Kamrup district of Assam.

The accused, Syed Abbass, was produced at Damhal Hanji Pora court in Kulgam district of Kashmir on June 22 and he was sent to eight days transit remand. He was being brought to Assam, the statemnet said.

He had made the alleged obscene comment on Kalita’s wife on the Facebook page of a TV news channel of Assam that posted a photograph of the woman saluting her slain husband on June 15.

Following this, one Ramen Barua lodged a complaint and a case was registered. A three-member police team went to Jammu and Kashmir and arrested the accused with the help of the police of that state, and intelligence agencies, the statement said.

Kalita was wounded in an IED blast by the Naxals in the jungles of Seraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand on May 28 and succumbed to his injuries at the AIIMS in New Delhi on the evening of June 13.

The blast took place during patrolling by the paramilitary personnel there.

The CRPF jawan was posted with the 209th battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the elite jungle-warfare battalion of the CRPF.

Fourteen other CoBRA and police personnel were injured in the incident that day.(PTI)

Srinagar, June 26 : Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has termed as baseless the statement of Inspector General of Police (Jammu) M K Sinha that the outfit is engaged in smuggling narcotics into J&K.

Hizb chief spokesperson Saleem Hashmi in a statement issued said: “Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is fighting for the cause of Islam and freedom of Kashmir. Our organization and drugs are poles apart.”

“Before accusing Hizb of being involved in such menace, IGP Jammu must take a look inside and keep a check on black-sheep in its own ranks who for petty material gains are playing with the lives of innocent children and youth,” Hashmi said.

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen considers those dealing with narcotics as worse and dangerous than those involved in flesh trade, the spokesperson said. (GNS)