Srinagar, April 22 : Police have booked two more persons under Public Safety Act (PSA) in Awantipora area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district and shifted them to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu.

Official sources told GNS that Mohammad Yousuf Chopan son of Mohammad Ramzan Chopan and Suhail Salam Sheikh son of Abdul Salam Sheikh, both residents of Midoora Awantipora were shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu today after execution of the PSA.

Official sources told GNS that the duo was arrested by police nearly a month ago.

While Yousuf was booked under PSA vide order number DMA/PSA/26/2019, Suhail was booked under DMA/PSA/27/2019.

A police officer while confirmed it said that the duo were involved in anti-national activities and as such were booked under the PSA.

Family members of both the persons, however, refuted the police claim that the youth was involved in any unlawful activities. (GNS)

Nadeem Nadu

Srinagar, April 22 : Former Deputy Commissioner Kupwara was on Monday convicted under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act and for criminal breach of trust by a government employee under RPC in case registered against him in 2004.  

The Special Judge Anti-Corruption Court Srinagar, R N Wattal sentenced the former deputy commissioner Shah Lateef to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.2 lakh under Section 5(1)(C) P.C. Act.

“In default thereof, he will further undergo 6 months of imprisonment.”

Under section 409 RPC, the court also sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and Rs.2 lakhs of fine. “In default of payment thereof he will further undergo 6 months imprisonment u/s 409 RPC,” the court added, according to GNS.

Gulam Jeelani CPO and Riaz Ahmad Senior PO, pleaded the case on behalf of the Anti Corruption Bureau.

The FIR (No. 18/2004) was filed in 2004 against accused for embezzlement of an amount of Rs.178702.  (GNS)

Rehan Showkat

Srinagar, April 22 : Polling will be held on Tuesday in Anantnag, one of the four districts forming south Kashmir Parliamentary seat and eighteen candidates including a non-state subject lawyer is in the fray.

Among others, the main contest remains among PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference.

A 57-year-old lawyer Shams Khwaja, hailing from Gautam Budh Nagar of Uttar Pradesh is in contest from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat which would go to polls district-wise in three phases on April 23, 29 and May 6 due to security concerns. Khwaja’s nomination as an Independent candidate was contested by rival candidates before the District Electoral Officer on the ground that his name was not in electoral rolls of the constituency. However, he managed to convince his opponents and officials that in parliamentary elections any Indian citizen can contest from anywhere, including J&K.

The other candidates in the fray are Sofi Yousuf of Bhartiya Janta Party, Nisar Ahmad Wani of Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party, Ch. Zaffar Ali of Jammu Kashmir People’s Conference, Sanjay Kumar Dhar of Manav Adhikar Party, Surinder Singh of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) and Imtiyaz Ahmad Rather, Ridwana Sanam, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, Zubair Masoodi, Ali Mohammad Wani, Gh Mohammad Wani, Kayser Ahmed Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Khan and Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh, all independents.

The District is spread over 6 Assembly segments comprising Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara and Pahalgam. The polling timing has been reduced by two hours from 7 AM to 4 PM and security remains to be a great concern for south Kashmir districts given by-polls could not be held after Mehbooba Mufti resigned following her father’s death in 2016. Anantnag District has 529256 electors including 269603 males, 257540 females, 2102 service electors (2091 male and 11 female) and 11 transgender voters.

For smooth polling, the ECI has setup 714 polling stations in the district.

Kokernag Assembly segment has the highest number of 93874 voters (48742 males, 44948 females and 180 service voters) while as Dooru has the lowest 79029 electors, including 40764 males, 37889 females and 374 service voters. Assembly segment of Bijbehara has 93516 voters (47067 males, 46222 females and 227 service voters), Shangus 89405 voters (45360 males, 43010 females and 1031 service voters), Pahalgam 86735 (44115 males, 42498 females and 121 service voters) and Anantnag 86699 (43555 males, 42973 females and 169 service voters). Bijbehara assembly segment has the highest number of 46225 female voters whereas Shangus has a total of 1031 service electors which are highest in the district. (GNS)

Junaid Shafeeq

The Fire Services Week was observed  from April 14 to April 20 in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district in order to educate the people about the fire hazards and the methods to overcome fire. 

During this week number of awareness programmes were organised at various Schools of District Baramulla under the supervision of Dy Director Fire Service Sopore.

School children and general public were taught advantages of preventive measures and disadvantages of fire incidents and practical guide lines were given how to avoid fire incidents.

The importance of the theme of the year “Fire Prevention is better than fire fighting ” was also highlighted.

Dy Director fire services Sopore Abdul Khaliq Wani also advised the General Public for adopting of the guide lines of Preventive measures to minimize the risk of Fire incidents.

He also advised the people to cooperate with the department while fighting any fire incident.Though the department is facing shortage of man power even though every fire incident is fought out by the personnel with dedication.

JAMMU, APRIL 22: Government on Monday disproved a order circulated on social media regarding enhancement of remuneration in favour of lectures and teachers and said that no such order has been issued.

Higher Education Department said that the order circulated on social media regarding enhancement of remuneration in favour of candidates working on academic arrangement basis as lecturers and teachers is fake and no such order has been issued by the department.

The department has taken up the issue with the Crime Department for an investigation so that culprits are put behind the bars.

Jammu, Apr 22 : Recognizing the academic achievements of police wards, Director General of Police, J&K Dilbag Singh sanctioned special reward of Rupees Sixty thousand in favour of wards of serving Police personnel out of Central Police Welfare Fund who have qualified different Competitive Examination.

Rupees ten thousand each have been granted vide PHQ order No. 1641in favour of Six police wards who have qualified different Competitive Examination during the year 2018-19.

Those who have been awarded special reward include Sugandhi Shubdeep and Aasif Gulzar (BSc Agriculture) for qualifying competitive examination of SKUAST Kashmir (BVSc &AH), Rahil Dutta for qualifying ICAR New Delhi (Environment Science), Varun Sharma for qualifying CSIR (Assistant Professor) and Maninder Singh Bali for qualifying NEET 2019 MD (GM).

To boost the morale of aspiring wards of martyrs, serving and retired police personnel, Police headquarters under different heads is annually sanctioning meritorious scholarship and rewards for police wards qualifying different examinations so as to promote competitiveness among them. 

SRINAGAR, APR 22 : Scores of traders today held a protest march in Srinagar.

Scores of traders in cross-LoC trade on the Uri-Muzaffarabad route took part in the march, demanding revocation of the suspension order.

“Our demand from the very first day of the trade has been that a fool-proof mechanism be put in place. We have made huge investments and are suffering losses of crores of rupees. We appeal to the Ministry of Home Affairs to review the suspension order,” Hilal Ahmad, Cross-LoC Traders Association chairman, told reporters.

Ahmad said the government should have held discussions with the traders before taking such a decision.

“Our livelihood depends on this trade. Thousands of people are associated with it. They earn their livelihood and feed their families. This ban has rendered them unemployed,” he said.

The Centre last week suspended cross-LoC trade routes were being misused by Pakistan-based elements.

“The government of India has received reports that cross-LoC trade routes in Jammu and Kashmir are being misused by Pakistan-based elements. This misuse involves illegal inflows of weapons, narcotics and currency,” an order issued by the Department of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, said. 

Srinagar, Apr 22,: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Monday asserted that people of south Kashmir are in pain due to the unbridled miseries unleashed on them by PDP-BJP combine, saying that people are looking towards NC to liberate them from the unending psychological and mental trauma.

Addressing a public meet at town hall Devsar, Party’s candidate for south Kashmir’s parliamentary constituency retired Justice Hasnain Masoodi said, “It is hard to imagine a place in the world where a vast majority of people are subjected to collective conflict as we see here in south Kashmir.  Ever since PDP clubbed up with BJP, there has been a disproportionate increase in the suffering of the people of Kashmir particularly the people of south Kashmir.

The disenchantment among the people here has risen exponentially due to the imprudent policies of the former PDP-BJP led government. We all know how PDP sought votes from the people of south Kashmir on the pretext of keeping BJP out, however after results were out it chose to embrace the same BJP. It is needless to say how many killings, blinding and other worst kind of human rights violations took place afterwards. The monster that was let loose by the PDP is still devouring our youth, and elderly. There is no eye that isn’t craving for a ray of peace. The skyline of south Kashmir post-PDP-BJP association presents a charred look. We see properties in ashes; we see dreams snatched of our youngsters. Never has Kashmir witnessed such tyranny as was unleashed by PDP. We don’t come across any instance in the history wherein a party chose to betray and berate the mandate of people, as was done by PDP,” he said.

Masoodi said that never in history have people felt as insecure as they are feeling after PDP aligned with BJP. “The woes of people know no limits; the unremitting impact of the conflict has robbed people’s peace of mind. The insecure environment is telling upon the mental health of children. Never have we seen highly educated youth joining the ranks of militants as was seen in the rein of former BJP- PDP led government. The catchwords of PDP ‘Goli say Nahi Boli say’ turned out to be a damp squib.

On the contrary, hundreds of our innocent youth were devoured upon, maimed in during the hay days of PDP-BJP camaraderie. The much-touted promises made by PDP on decreasing the footprint of security forces, facilitation of dialogue with Pakistan were forgotten by PDP. On the contrary, people saw the increase in the footprint of security forces, night crackdowns, CASO’s, frisking, rampant arrests, a conflagration of properties and much more. We didn’t see Mehbooba utter a word of sympathy or empathy for the bruised people who had voted her to power. We only saw her mocking the death and misery with ‘coffee and toffee’ comments.”