Top News of J&KJAMMU, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

RNI No. JKENG/ 2010/39369 Regd. No. JK- 435e-paper: www.topnewsjk.in

NATIONAL | 5 | 6 | 11ENTERTAINMENT STATE

Vol.-11 Issue-352 Pages-12 Rs.-2/-

Daily Evening Newspaper

BRIEFLY

BJP Vandalised office, warned us over farmer protest: AAP’s

Raghav Chadha

ZEE5 announces latest original film ‘Silence...can you

hear it?’

DDC Polls are not referendum for any party:

TMF

291 new COVID-19 cases in J&K; three more deaths

Top News ReportJAMMU, Dec 24:

Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday reported 291 new COVID-19 cases taking the overall tally to 1,19,344.

Out of the total cases, 1,13,944 have recovered so far. A total of 1,860 patients have died leav-ing a total of 3,540 active cases as on date, the gov-ernment’s media bulletin reads.

Of the cases reported today, 147 were reported in Kashmir while Jammu division reported 144 infections.

Govt announces winter vacation in Kashmir, Jammu colleges

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 (Agencies): The J&K Higher Education Department on Thurs-day announced winter vacation for Government Degree Colleges (GDCs) in Kashmir and in winter zones of Jammu.

As per an order issued by Talat Parvez Rohella (Commissioner Secre-tary, Government HeD), all the GDCs in Kashmir and winter zones of Jammu would observe winter vacation from December 28 to Febru-ary 14, 2021.

Also, the degree col-leges falling in summer zones of Jammu would observe winter vacation from December 26 to January 4.

Three shops, residential house, SUV gutted in midnight blaze at Bhadarwah

BHADARWAH, Dec 24 (Agencies): Three shops, including a departmen-tal store, a residential flat and a SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) were gutted in a midnight blaze, while the inmates had a narrow escape in Mathola area of Jammu and Kashmir’s addition-al district Bhaderwah.

The shops and depart-mental store housed in a four-storey complex located on Bhadarwah – Mathola road, 5km from the town got damaged in the fire incident last night, said an official.

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NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Agencies): There is no democracy in India, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday while adding that it can be our imagination, but democra-cy does not exist in reality in the country.

To a question from a jour-nalist, the Congress leader said, “Democracy? Which country are you talking about? There is no democ-racy in India.”

“There is no democracy in India. It can be in your imagination, but not in reality,” he said on Delhi Police taking party lead-ers into custody during their march to Rashtrapati

Bhavan.“PM Modi is making

money for the crony capi-talists. Whoever will try to stand against him will be called terrorist – be it farmers, labourers and even Mohan Bhagwat,” he added.

The Congress leader added that the Government should convene a joint ses-

sion of Parliament and repeal these laws.

“I want to tell the Prime Minister that these farmers are not going back home until these farm laws are repealed. The government should convene a joint ses-sion of Parliament and take back these laws. Opposi-tion parties stand with farmers and labourers,” he added.

“China is still at the border. It has snatched away thousands of kilo-metres of the land of India. Why doesn’t Prime Minis-ter speak about it, why is he silent?” the Congress leader said.

There is no democracy in India, says Rahul Gandhi

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 (Agencies): There was slight improvement in cold conditions in Kashmir as the minimum temperature rose across the valley on Thursday, even as the MET Office forecast the possibility of light snow over two days from Saturday.The night temperature marked an improve-ment but continued to settle below the freezing point, MET officials said.The weather has remained dry and cold across Kashmir since the snowfall on December 12, with the night temperature staying several degrees below the freezing point, they said.

The officials said Srinagar — the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir — recorded a low of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius –up from the previous night’s minus 5 degrees Celsius.They said the mercury in Pahalgam tourist resort in south Kashmir went up from the previous night’s low of minus 6.6 degrees Celsius to settle at a low of minus 5.2 degrees Celsius.They said the famous ski-resort of Gul-marg, in north Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 5.6 degrees Celsius – slightly up from Wednesday’s minus 6 degrees

Light snow predicted in Kashmir valley over weekend

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 (Agencies): Jammu and Kashmir’s Awantipora Police busted Al-Bader terror module and arrested four associates of the banned outfit.

“Based upon the specific informa-tion about the presence of terrorists of proscribed outfit Al- Bader in vil-lage Dadsara and Larmoh Awanti-pora, Police Awantipora with the assistance of 42RR and 130 BN CRPF launched a search operation in village Dadsara and village Larmoh during the intervening night of 23-24 Decem-

ber 2020,” the police said in a release.“During the search operation, 4 per-

sons were found in highly suspicious circumstances and during on spot

questioning they admitted to having concealed the Arms and Ammunition under the heap of grass,” it said.

During the search, AK-56 rifle, AK-56 magazine, 28 AK-56 rounds and hand grenade have also been seized from their possession.

Four Al- Bader terror associates, who were arrested have been identi-fied as Yawar Aziz Dar, Sajad Ahmad Parray, Abid Majeed Sheikh and Showkat Ahmad Dar.

A case under relevant sections of law has been registered at Awanti

Police arrests 4 terror associates of Al-Bader, AK-56 rifle, ammunition seized

Top News ReportSRINAGAR, Dec 24:

Jammu and Kashmir Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday produced charge-sheet against the then Chief Engineer (CE) of Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) Mohammad Hanif Lone and others in dispro-portionate assets case.

A spokesman for the ACB said that bureau produced charge-sheet in case FIR Number 29/2018 Under Section 5(1)(e) r/w 5(2) J&K Prevention of Corrup-tion Act & 109 RPC against Lone for possession of assets disproportionate

to his known sources of income and against his wife and sister-in-law for abetment of offences in the Court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar.

During investigation, accused chief engineer was found in the posses-sion of immovable proper-ties, including one double storey house on one kanal of land at Wanbal Rawal-pora Srinagar, one double storey house on one kanal and three malras of land at Naz Colony Bandipora, one double storey house on one kanal 13 marla land at Khandyal Gurez, one flat in Tawi Apartments at Sidhra Jammu, one flat in Royal

Apartments at Talab Tillo Jammu, one flat in Gulposh Apartments at Bemina Sri-nagar, one three storey shopping structure at Ban-dipora Town and three kanals of land at Mujgund Srinagar.

The Spokesman said the accused Chief Engineer was also found to have accumulated huge mov-able assets including seven personal cars, bank balance of Rs 2.18 crore, cash of Rs 6,58,000, foreign currency, LIC policies, Metlife poli-cies and mutual funds.

He said investigation established that value of assets possessed by accused Chief Engineer

Lone is hugely dispro-portionate (129 per cent) to the income received by him from all sources, which constitutes an offence of criminal misconduct u/s 5(1)(e) r/w 5(2) J&K Pre-vention of Corruption Act Svt 2006 against him.

Invest igat ion also revealed that the wife and sister-in-law of accused have facilitated him in rais-ing the assets from money earned through corrupt practices by allowing to invest clandestinely in dif-ferent properties in their names, which tantamount to the offence of abetment u/s 109 RPC r/w J&K 5(2) J&K

ED Raids Former PDP MLA, Seizes Over Rs 28 Lakh Cash

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 (Agencies): The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches in

Srinagar and Delhi at premises linked to Anjum Fazili, a closed aide of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, in connection with a money laun-dering case.

During the searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the probe agency seized over Rs 21 lakh from the Srinagar residence of Anjum Fazili and Rs 6.62 lakh from her Delhi residence. The ED also recovered 12 fixed deposit receipts worth Rs 67.29 lakh from her Srinagar residence, reported India Today.

Anjum Fazili, a former PDP MLA is being investigated in a money laundering case

linked to alleged fraud at the J&K Bank.

Quoting sources India Today reported that the role of Anjum Fazili came under scanner during the probe in the case and after gath-ering primary evidence against her, searches were conducted.

The local forces also assisted the ED officials in conducting the searches in Srinagar and it went peacefully.

Meanwhile, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti labelled the raids as a “witch hunt” against her. Reacting to the raids, Mehbooba said, “This is a witch hunt that has been going on for some time.

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 24: National Conference president and the head of PAGD Dr Farooq Abdullah on Thursday trained his guns at the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha asking him to release all those detained recently if the government wants democracy to survive in J&K.

Dr Farooq also demanded immediate restoration of 4-G inter-net services stating that Prime Minister Naren-dera Modi talks about 5-G, but people of J&K are craving for high-speed internet services.

Talking to reporters after chairing a meet-ing of PAGD leaders at his Gupkar residence, Dr Farooq said that if LG-led administration and the Government of India wants democracy to survive in J&K, all those detained recent-ly should be released immediately.

“Plus, I urge the LG

administration and the Centre to ensure resto-ration of 4-G internet services as soon as pos-sible. Prime Minister is talking about 5-G, but we don’t even have 4-G services in J&K. Besides, I urge the LG-led administration to provide uninterrupt-ed power and supply to people of J&K as people have suffered for this since ages,” Dr Farooq said.

Asked whether PAGD would stay or break now that DDC polls are over, Dr Farooq said: “We are here to stay and nobody should have any doubt in it.” Awami National Con-ference vice president Muzaffar Shah echoed that, “PAGD will abso-

lutely stay from here as well.”

PAGD leader and Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone expressed gratitude to the voters who voted in the recently concluded DDC polls and also to those who didn’t vote for alliance candidates.

He, however, said that government was acting in a partisan manner and is con-fining people either to those or in police stations. “It should resist from this and not humiliate the great verdict of DDC polls,” Lone said. “History is witness that who tried to humiliate the peo-ples’ verdict ended up in a disaster. Under no circumstances, should democracy be tinkered with,” Lone said.

He said “preventive detentions” is a new trend. “What is the logic of this? We have had most peaceful DDC polls where there was not even a single violence related

If you want democracy to survive, release all those detained: Farooq to LG

SRINAGAR, Dec 24 (Agencies): A militant has been killed in an ongoing gunfight with government forces in Wanigam Payeen area

of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

The gunfight had broken out early this morning as per police.

Jammu and Kashmir

Police tweeted this afternoon that one militant had been killed in the gunfight it said is still going on.

Unidentified militant killed in ongoing Baramulla gunfight: Police

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ACB produce charge-sheet against former CE UEED, others

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2 Top News of J&K

Jammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020OBITUARIESTENTH DAY/KRIYA-RASAM PAGADI

With profound grief and sorrow, we mournfully regret to inform the demise of our beloved Ms Sheetal Malvi D/o Sh Chajju Ram & Late Smt Raj Malvi.Tenth Day will be performed on 23rd of December, 2020 at 11.00 am venued at Rani Park andThirteenth Day, Kriya will be per-formed on 26th of December at our residence 106/2 near Lawrence Public School Panjthirthi, Jammu at 12 Noon.Uthala/ Rasam Pagadi will be performed on 26th of December, 2020 at 4.00 pm at Swarn Kar Sabha Opp. Sat Narayan Temple, Panjtirthi.GRIEF STRICKENSmt Neelam Malvi -SisterBrothers & Sisters-in-lawSh & Smt Narindar and SanjogtaSh & Smt Rajesh and PoonamSh Siddharth Malvi -NephewSmt Ambika Malvi -Niece-in-lawKairav Malvi -Grand NephewSh & Smt Vinod and Nitika Mahajan -Niece & Nephew -in-lawGeetansh Mahajan -Grand NephewDanish Mahajan -Grand NephewGrief Stricken: Akshay Malvi, Diksha Malvi, Saksham Malvi and Mannat Malv

OBITUARY/TENTH DAY KRIYAWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad and untimely demise of our beloved Father Sh. Bansi Lal Bhat S/o Late Janki Nath Bhat R/o Gassirina, Kulgam presently at H.No. 172, Lane-4, Sec-1, Dream City, Muthi Jammu left for heavenly abode on 21-12-2020.Tenth Day Kriya will be performed at Muthi Ghat on 30-12-2020 at 9:30 AM.GRIEF STRICKENSh. Ball Ji Bhat & Vijay Bhat- Brother & BhabhiSh. Rakesh Bhat & Deepu Bhat- Son & Daughter-in-lawSmt. Archana & Rakesh Sapru - Daughter & Son-in-lawSh. Rattan Lal Bhat & Kishni Bhat - Brother & BhabiSh. Jai Krishan Bhat & Pricy Bhat - Brother & BhabiSmt. Sweety Bhat - BhabiAll nears & DearsIn view of COVID-19 condolences are welcome on phone please.

TENTH DAYWith profound grief and sorrow we inform the sad and untimely demise of our beloved Mr Nag Raj Koul, S/o Late Sh. Arjan Dev Majboor (Zainapora Shopian) on 03.12.2020 at Dwarka New Delhi. Mourning is being held at Flat No. 380 Rose-wood Apartment Sector 13, Pocket A phase II, New Delhi -74 and 1/8 Rama Krishna Vihar Jammu.TENTH DAY is being held at Rohini Sector 18, Nehar, Near Telephone exchange and Bus Depot.IN-GRIEFSmt Girja Koul- WifeNeel Nag Koul- SonBrother and BhabiSh. Desh Rattan Koul and Smt Shama jiSisters and Brother-in-LawSmt Shanta ji and Piray Lal Tickoo Smt Phoola ji Smt Kiran ji and Sh. Bal Jee Naru Nephews and Daugher-in-lawDr. Shaliner Koul and Dr Heenu ji Mr. Vishok Koul and Mrs. Bindu Ji

DHARAMSHANT/UTHALAWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the untimely and sad demise of our beloved BK. BUSHAN KUMAR DATTA S/o Late BK. Krishan Lal Datta R/o Surankote (Poonch) on 14-12-2020. Dharamshant/Uthala will be performed on 26-12-2020 (Saturday) at our resi-dence near J&K Bank Surankote.GRIEF STRICKENMrs Ram Payari Datta -MotherMrs Shama Datta -WifeDaughter-in-law & SonMrs Reena Datta & Mr Bharat BakshiDaughters & Sons-in-lawMrs Jyoti Sharma & Mr Ajay SharmaMrs Nishu Bali & Mr Ankur BaliBhabhis & BrothersMrs Sharda Datta & Mr Satish DattaMrs Saroj Datta & Mr Sudershan DattaMrs Alka Datta & Mr Pawan DattaSisters & Brothers-in-lawMrs Manju Chhibber & Mr R.K. ChhibberMrs Meenakshi Sharma & Mr Rajiv SharmaBrothers-in-lawMrs Sunanda Bali & Mr Ramesh BaliMrs Neeru Bali & Mr Subash BaliGrand Children:Vibuti & Vidhant Datta

TENTH DAY KRIYAWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our mother Smt. Kanta Ji W/o Late Sh. Amar Nath Bhat orig nally resident of Kandiwara Anantnag Kmr. at present Muthi Jammu opposite H.No. 748 Sec. 3rd Bai-sakhi Colony (Vinayak Nagr).Tenth Day Kriya will be performed at near Director School Edu. Muthi Ghat on 28-12- 2020 at 9.30 am.Grief StrickenSons & Daughter-in-LawsSh. Ashok Ji Bhat and UshaSh. P.K. Bhat and RenuSh. Manoranjan Bhat and Jyoti- Son & Daughter-in-LawSh. R.K. Bhat and Santosh- Daughter & Son-in-LawGrand Children: Pooja, Shubham, Aditi, Priyanka & VishalDue to pandemic please pay/ convey their condo-lences on

Ms Sheetal Malvi

REMEMBRANCEFive years have passed since you left us for your heavenly abode, but your sweet memories are fresh in our mind. We miss you Papa Ji with silent tears. You are always in our thoughts and every moment we feel your presence and blessings everywhere around us. Your gentle-ness, guidance and teaching are a source of strength for all of us. Papa Ji we miss U a lot. We pray to God to grant peace to your noble soul.DEEPLY MISSED AND REMEMBERED BY:Mrs. Ranjana Abrol and Mr. Kuldeep Kumar Abrol (Son & Daughter-in-law)Mrs. Jyoti Abrol and Mr. Ajay Abrol (Son & Daughter-in-law)Mrs. Rita Nanda and Mr. Virender Kumar Nanda (Daugh-ter & Son-in-law)Mrs. Shivani Abrol and Mr. Sahil Abrol (Grand Son & Grand Daughter-in-law)Mrs. Sonal Mahajan and Mr. Amit Mahajan (Grand Daughter & Grand Son-in-law)Miss Bhavya Abrol (Grand Daughter)Master Sahish & Ms. Samaira (Great Grand children)

SH. SHAMBOONATH ABROL

Tenth Day/ Kriya/ Rasham PagriWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved father Karamyogi Th. Faqir Singh S/o Late Sh Chain Singh R/o H.No 15, Old Gurah Bakshi Nagar Jammu who left for his heavenly abode on 14-12-2020.The Tenth Day will be performed on 23-12-2020 (Wednesday) at our resi-dence at H.No 15, Old Gurah Bakshi Nagar Jammu at 10.30 AM.The Kriya and Rasam Pagri will be performed on 26-12-2020 (Satur-day) at our residence H.No 15, Old Gurah Bakshi Nagar Jammu from 12.00 Noon onwards.GRIEF STRICKENSons and Daughters-in-lawSh Pardeep Singh & Smt Neena JamwalSh Gurdeep Singh & Smt Rama JamwalDaughter and Son-in-lawSmt Amita and Sh Balbir Singh ManhasSh Parshotam Singh Bhalwal -Son-in-lawGrand Sons and Grand Daughters-in-lawSh Navjot Singh & Smt Sonika JamwalSh Avinash Singh & Smt Monisha JamwalSh Danish Singh & Smt Gurmeen JamwalSh Rajat ManhasSh Akhlesi Bhalwal,Suryavanshi Jamwal -Grand SonsMiss Akshi Bhalwal -Grand DaughterGrand Sons-in-lawSmt Vidushi & Sh Sukhdev Singh SalariaSmt Juhi & Sh R.S Pathania

Karamyogi Th. Faqir Singh

Sh. Bansi Lal Bhat

Mr Nag Raj Koul

OBITUARY/TENTH DAY KRIYAWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved Sh. Dwarika Nath Koul (Bairaj) Son of Late Sh. Nand Lal Koul, originally from Ratnipora, Pulwama, at present Z-78-B, Lane No. 10, Kashmiri Colony, Najafgarh, New Delhi on 20th of December 2020.Tenth Day Kriya will be performed on 28th of December 2020.GRIEF STRICKEN:Daughters and Sons-in-LawSmt. Girja & Sh. Pradeep Bhat Smt. Anjali & Sh. Anil Koul Daughter-in-law and SonSmt. Seema & Sh. Rajender Koul Grand Children:Chetna, Vanshika, Aryan, Anchal, SanikaDue to current pandemic, we appreciate digital condolences and prayers

Sh. Dwarika Nath

Koul (Bairaj)

10TH DAY/KRIYA/UTHALAWith profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform the sad demise of Mrs Anu-radha Magotra W/o Er. Kuldeep Magotra (Retd Chief Engineer) R/o 16/5, Channi Himmat Jammu on Tuesday, 15th December 2020.10th Day will be performed on Thurs-day 24-12-2020 at 11.30 AM at Paanch Mandir, Channi Himmat.Kriya will be held on Friday, 25-12-2020 at 12.00 Noon at residence.Uthala will be held on Saturday 26-12-2020 at 4.30 PM at Paanch Mandir , Channi Himmat.GRIEF STRICKEN :(Father-in-law & Mother-in-law)Sh Prabh Dayal Magotra & Lt Smt Satya DeviAunt-in-law & Uncle-in-lawSmt Savitri Devi & Lt Sh Vidhya Sagar MagotraEr. Kuldeep Magotra (Husband)Devars & DevranisDr Rakesh Magotra & Dr Vandana Magotra(BMD Bishnah)Er. Rajesh Magotra & Mrs Vandana Magotra(XEN, BSNL)Er.Mayank Magotra (Son)Dr. Sonali Magotra & Er Sourab (Daughter & Son-in-law)Master Vian (Grand Son)

Anuradha Magotra

SHADMOS/MASWARSix months passed since our

beloved father Late Sh. Jagger

Nath Pandita (Prarthi) left for his

eternal journey leaving us shat-

tered and grief-stricken. Boitoth you

will always live in our hearts and we

are being guided by your teaching

and supreme thoughts.

The Shadmos/Maswar shall be

observed on 25th and 26th Dec at

our residence Lane-1 R.K. Vihar

Udhaywalla, Jammu. M.K. Pandita

GRIEF STRICKENPandita’s, Raina’s, Bhan’s, Patwar’s

Late Sh. Jagger Nath

Pandita (Prarthi)

BK. BUSHAN KUMAR DATTA

Smt. Kanta Ji

TENTH DAY-KRIYA Those who don’t go away, they are always beside us. Your prin-ciples will keep on guiding us. With profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform the sad and untimely demise of our beloved Dr. C.L Bakshi S/o Late Madav-joo-Bakshi on 14th Dec. originally resident of Nazuk Mohalla Anant-nag A/p Rz-999-Palam Village New Delhi. 10th, 11th and 12th days will be performed at Haridwar UP, on 23rd, 24th & 25th Dec. respectively.GRIEF STRICKENDaughter & Son-in-lawSweety & Maj General (Retd) R.K RainaDaughter-in-law & SonMamta & Umesh BakshiNitesh, Mehak, Bawna & Sakshi

Dr. C.L Bakshi

BHOG/ANTIM ARDASWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the untime-ly demise of our beloved Dr. Harbans Singh, Former Vice Chancellor of SKUASTJ&K on 20-12-2020. PROGRAM Aarambh Shri Akhand Path Sahib, at our residence on 25/12/20 (Friday) at 10am. Bhog Shri Akhand Path Sahib at our residence on 27/12/20 at 10am.Kirtan and Antim Ardas- at Gurudwara Talli Sahib on 27/12/20 from 11am to 12:30pm.GRIEF STRICKENSdn. Jagdish Kaur -WifeSons and Daughter-in-LawsDr. Rajiv Singh (Prof & Head Vet. Medicine SKAUST -J) &Dr. Daljit Kaur (VAS, DAHS)Dr. Sanjeev Singh (Head, Electrical Department, MBS college)& Sdn. Parminder Kaur (Electronics Lecturer)In-LawsMrs. & Dr. S.S Soodan (Ex-Director Principal ASCOMS)Mrs. & Dr. Inderjeet Singh (Prof & Head, PAU Ludhiana)Mrs. & Dr. H.S Soodan (Skin Specialist)Mrs. & Dr. J.S Soodan (Prof & Head TVCC SKAUST)Brothers & Sister-in-LawsSdn. Janak Kaur W/o Late S. Tirath Singh TaraSdn. Rajinder Kaur W/o Late S. Amrik SinghSisters and Brother-in-LawsSdn. Kartar Kaur W/o Late S. Waryam SinghSdn. Amrit Kaur W/o Late S. Gopal SinghSdn. Tejinder Kaur W/o S. Prem SinghSdn. Rajinder Kaur W/o Late S. Beant SinghGrandchildrenManvir Singh, Japneet Kaur, Mannat Kaur,Arnav Singh

DR. HARBANS SINGH

CONDOLENCEWe express heartfelt condolence on the sad and unfortunate demise of our beloved S. Ravinder Singh (Tunnu) Ex-Pardhan Gurdwara Sachkhand Sahib, Camp Gole Gujral Jammu. We pray Almighty Waheguru to give eternal peace to the departed soul to give courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss.From : Prithipal Singh (Raju)Sarpanch and all members of PanchayatGole Gujral Jammu.

S. RAVINDER SINGH

(TUNNU)

BHOG AND ANTIM ARDASWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved S. Makhan Singh S/o Late S. Dhyan Singh R/o Bhour Camp Ward No. 2, Jammu.Bhog and Antim Ardas will be performed on 25/12/2020 at 12.00 PM at Gurudwara Singh Sabha Bhour Camp Ward No. 1Grief Stricken :Sd. Gurbachan Kour - WifeHarsheet Singh (Manga) - SonDaughters and Son-in-lawsS. Hardeep Singh and Sd. Harpreet KourS. Sarabjeet Singh and Sd. Harjas Kour

S. Makhan Singh

OBITUARYWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved Prof. Pran Nath Handu, S/o Sh.R.C.Handu, originally from DrabiyarSrinagar on 20th Decem-ber 2020, Sunday, at Noida UP.The Tenth Day Kriya will be per-formed at Ganga Nehar, Murad Nagar, on 29th Dec (Tuesday), 2020.Grief Stricken:Mr. K.L. Handoo Ms. Bimla Handoo (W/o Advocate B.K. Handoo)Capt. P.L. Raina Ms. Kanta Jotshi Mr. B.L. Jotshi Ms. Sangeeta Dr. Shanker Ms.Indu Handu Mr. Suresh ji Mr.Rajesh Handu Ms. Archana Handu Mr.Prabhat Handu Ms. Aarti And Samast HANDOO Parivaar

Prof. Pran Nath Handu

10TH DAY/KRIYAWith profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved mother Smt. Chander Lata Dassi W/o Late Sh. Raj Nath Dassi of Anantnag and at present H. No. - 12, Sector-1, JDA Housing Colony Roop Nagar, Jammu left heavenly abode on 19-12-2020.The 10th Day Kriya will be performed at Muthi Camp near Director School Education office on 28.12.2020 at 10 AM.GRIEF STRICKEN:Daughters & Sons-in-lawNeerja Handoo (Dassi) & Sanjay HandooPurnima Ganju (Dassi) & Ashutosh GanjuDaya Bhan (Dassi) & Jatinder Bhanand Samast Parivaars ofDassi’s, Ganjoo’s, Handoo’s, Ganju’s & Bhan’s

Smt. Chander Lata Dassi

KRIYA / UTHALAWith profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform the sad demise of Smt. Suhag Rani Verma (Reasi Wale) W/o Sh. Sain Dass Verma (Retd Tehsildar) R/o 393, Poonch House, Kabir Colony, Talab Tillo on 13-12-2020 Sunday.Kriya will be held on Friday 12 Noon at our residence.Uthala will be performed on Saturday 26-12-2020 from 3.30 pm - 4.30 pm at our resi-dence.GRIEF STRICKENSain Dass Verma - HusbandDevars & DevranisJai Ram Verma & Neelam VermaYash Pal Verma & Veena VermaDaughters & Sons-in-lawNeelam & Satish KumarSudesh Kumari & Virender KumarDaughters-in-law & SonsSunita Verma & Deepak Verma (JE, PDA)Jyoti Verma & Rakesh Verma (AE, PWD)Niece-in-law & NephewJyoti Verma & Arvind VermaBrothers & Sister-in-lawOm Parkash Sohuntra & Lt. Smt. Shanti DeviGrand Daughter & Grand Son-in-lawShweta Verma & Karun DograGrand Children: Mridula, Vishal & Pranav Verma9419189873, 9419188015Due to COVID-19, condolence message on Whatsapp will be accepted.

Smt. Suhag Rani Verma

3STATE / ADVTTop News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Top News ReportJAMMU, Dec 24: Cor-

porator Ward 07 Jammu Municipal Corporation, Ritu Choudhary along with Padari v Udai Singh the eve of Christmas dis-tributed gifts among the Safaikaramcharis of Ward No. 7.

Ritu gifted sanitizers, masks and sweets to SKCs of ward no. 07 and also encouraged them to enjoy the festival to the full-est and with high festive spirits.

Ritu said that Christmas is one of the most impor-tant as well as popular festivals celebrated throughout the year.

Christmas is the kind of festival that is so popular that it is celebrated in more than 160 countries throughout the world, by

adults and children alike. Ritu appealed to the

people present there to celebrate the festival with enthusiasm and zeal and but also advised them not to forget about coro-navirus and to follow the norms provided by WHO to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

SO Hardeep Singh, Sanitary Inspector Sameer Bali, Superviser Philps Sotar, CNI Chruch Resi-dency Road Padari and other prominent members were also present.

Corporator Ritu distributes gifts among Safaikaramcharis

Top News ReportJAMMU, Dec 24: Bhartiya Janta

Party general secretary and in-charge Kashmir affairs Vibodh Gupta said that victory of BJP in the DDC elections is the victory of the developmental policies of BJP and vibrant vision of PM Narendra Modi adding that it is the victory of the ballot over bul-lets, development over destruction and peace over the politics of hate. BJP performance was remarkable in Jammu, Vibodh asserted that lotus, had bloomed in the Valley as well.

He told BJP has won 74 seats against the NC’s 67, PDP’s 27 and the Congress’ 26 and claimed that vote share has been unpreced-ently in favour of BJP. He noted

that Lotus attracted 4,87,364 votes which are even more than the votes polled to National Confer-ence, PDP and Congress together which is 2,82,51, 55,789 and 1,39,382 respectively. The message is loud and clear that the people have rejected the Gupkar Gang.

Gupta said that this victory is the mandate given by the people of Jammu and Kashmir against the negative politics of Gupkar Gang and the historic blunders and injustices done by the previ-ous National Conference, PDP and Congress governments with the people of J&K. The people have voted for democracy backing the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and Prime Minister’s vision of Naya Kashmir.

Speaking on BJP’s maiden victo-

ries in Kashmir Vibodh Gupta said that the entire country burst into celebrations and danced on patri-otic and nationalist tone after lotus bloomed in Dal Lake. He strongly asserted that BJP has established a strong base in the valley with over two and a half lakh membership and a commendable vote share in the DDC elections.

Be it massive Shikara, Tiranga & Tanga Rally or maiden three vic-tories in Kashmir the karyakartas of BJP have achieved various mile-stones vowing to take democracy to the grassroots level. There is a long way to go.

We have already started working on strengthening the party organi-zation based on the DDC election result in the valley, Vibodh said.

J&K rejects Gupkar Gang: Vibodh

Top News ReportINDERWAL, Dec 24:

Stating that people have rejected the anti J&K Poli-cies adopted by the BJP ruled Centre Govt, the J&K Pradesh congress Commit-tee (JKPCC) Vice President G.M Saroori on Thursday thanked people for voting and supporting Congress Party in just concluded DDC Elections across the State.

Addressing huge gather-ing of people at Bunjwah area in Inderwal constitu-ency today, JKPCC Vice President G. M Saroori said that Congress won’t be cowed down by political vendetta and intimidation unleashed by BJP and its cronies against it (Con-gress) from the day one in order to achieve their target, in which they have failed miserably.

The outcome of DDC elections is indicative that people have rejected the anti J&K Policies adopted

by the BJP ruled Centre Govt, which should work as eye opener for BJP and its cronies, who have been tasked to restrict the move-ment of Congress Party, Saroori said.

“I am grateful to people who voted for Congress Party across the State espe-cially the voters of Bun-jwah Inderwal, which has further strengthened the Congress Party’s resolve to fight against the political vendetta against it (Con-gress) especially politics of deceit and exploitation

against the people of J&K, who have undergone tre-mendous hardships due to the policies of BJP,” G. M Saroori said.

Adding that Congress Party will continue to work for the people, won’t compromise on its stated position of working as a unifying force, besides safeguarding the interests of the people, JKPCC Vice President reiterated that Party will continue to fight against the anti J&K Poli-cies adopted by BJP since it assumed power at centre.

‘People rejected anti J&K policies adopted by BJP ruled Centre’

Top News ReportJAMMU, Dec 24:

Pracheen Bhairav Mandir Trust Mahant Rumil Sharma along with Chair-man Kotli Colony Wel-fare Trust Chandan Datta met Ramesh Kumar CEO Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine board and highly acknowl-edge his ethical manage-ment and service to Shrine board.

Mahant Rumil Sharma said the facilities pro-vided by Shrine to pil-grims of Maa Vaishno Devi are noticeable at the ground and slowly Yatra is reviving increasing as per the guidelines. Shrine

is making all necessary arrangement for yatris .

Datta praised about the working and effective management of Ramesh Kumar CEO as we have seen many reforms under his supervision. He is putting hard efforts so that devotees may get good facilities at Bhawan and even on the passage enroute to Bhawan.

A good hygienic food is available at different coun-ters of Canteen at very reasonable rate at bhawan which is highly apprecia-ble. During this extreme cold a cup of tea at Rs7 is available at Bhawan Can-teen and all other items

at very reasonable rates for Yatris. This shows the concern of Shrine to provide relief to devo-tees during Yatra. Shrine has well streamlined the things even for palki and mule vendors the price has been fixed for the easiness of Yatris. Shrine board is well managing and giving good hygienic facilities to pilgrims while maintaining all guidelines of COVID19 . Those Yatris who are using Chopper service may be well checked and have to go through proper screen-ing to control spread of corona and even a proper kit is being provided for the safety of Yatris.

Pracheen Bhairav Mandir Trust hails CEO SMVDSB

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Lt Gen MV Suchin-dra Kumar, GOC, White Knight Corps, visited Yol Cantt and interacted with Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, GOC, Rising Star Corps.

The General Officers discussed the cur-rent situation, operational preparedness and the need of coordinated efforts of both the formations to defeat nefarious designs of the adversaries.

Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar also inter-acted with other senior officers of the Rising Star Corps, who briefed him on various operational aspects of the forma-tion. He appreciated the efforts and pre-paredness of the Rising Star Corps.

Top News ReportPOONCH, Dec 24: The

youth plays a great role in nation building. It has the power to help a country develop and move on rd of progress. It is also respon-sible for bringing social reforms within a country. Youth empowerment can curb the rate of poverty to a large extent.

When a young mind is equipped with zeal and creativity it can achieve the

desired results. Army organised the

Youth Festival (Essay Writ-ing Competition) at Govt Degree College, Mandi at District Poonch.

Students exhibited their powers in Essay Writing Competition.

Although, due to COVID-19, event was organised at a lesser scale than normal

but it’s popularity amongst the college students was still the same.

Almost every student had written an essay on the National Flag exhibit-ing the common feeling of nationalism.

A total of 40 girls, 04 boys and 03 teachers, budding and talented students par-ticipated in the event.

Essay writing event symbolized the patrio-tism of the students. The students also highlighted

the immortal soldiers who made supreme sacrifice for the Nation.

The students were felici-tated for their stupendous efforts. Organising such events will go a long way in developing goodwill amongst local populace and lay the foundation of a patriotic & integrated next generation of India.

Top News ReportKHOUR, Dec 24: Depart-

ment of Horticulture Khour conducted one day within district training programme of farmers under ATMA at jourian under the chairmanship of Director Horticulture Jammu Ram Savak where-in 60 farmers participated and most of them were women farmers.

During the programme different propagation techniques and methods of propagation of fruit plants were demonstrated to the farmers and the farmers were also made aware about different training and pruning methods of fruit plant propagation.

Director Horticulture

made the farmers aware about different depart-mental schemes so that the farmering can be ben-efitted by availing these schemes.

He also impressed upon women farmers to form small self help groups to create small processing units and to become self reliant.

Corporator Kiran Bala also impressed upon women farmers to come forward in forming self help groups to take maxi-mum benefit of horticul-tural schemes.

Present on the occasion were district level SMS Sanjeev Kumar, Sandeep Gupta DHO Vijay Kumar and HDO Khour.

Director Horticulture chairs farmers training programme

Army organizes essay writing competition

GOC White Knight Coprs visits Yol Cantt

4 OP-ED Top News of J&K

Jammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Secularism means that no religion has to be assigned a status of being the state religion. The state

remains aloof from religion. All religions are to enjoy equal status. Negatively secularism means absence of a state religion and positively it means equality of all religions, grant of right to freedom of religion to all the people and no dis-crimination on the basis of religion or any other narrow factor. Indian Constitution adopts secularism in its all dimensions. The Preamble declares India to be a sovereign secular, socialist, democratic republic. There is no state religion in India. All religions are equally respected. The people have the right to religious freedom. India has adopted Secularism for assuring the people believing in vari-ous religions that they enjoy complete freedom of religion; all religions enjoy an equal respect; there is no state religion; and that there is practiced no discrimina-tion on the basis of caste, colour, creed, religion, sex or place of birth. The Con-stitution of India not only declares secu-larism as a cardinal feature of Indian state but also includes several features for ensuring the acceptance and adop-tion of secularism as the governing prin-ciple of our social and political life as a nation. Presence of religious and cultur-al pluralism in India made the choice of secularism a natural necessity for pursu-ing the objective of national integration. The presence of communal riots in the environment, in which India became a sovereign independent state, compelled the makers of the Constitution of India to give a key place to secularism in the Indian political system. No Discrimina-tion on the basis of caste, colour, creed, religion, sex and place of birth is the rule. It stands enshrined in the list fundamen-tal rights of the people. Right to Equality of Opportunity has been granted as a fundamental right and merit system of recruitment in public service has been being followed. Special protection has been given to women, children and other weaker and down-trodden sections of society. Single electorate, universal adult franclise and equal political rights are available to all the citizens. Cultural and educational right stand granted and guaranteed to the minorities. The evil of untouchability has been constitution-ally eliminated. Untouchability is a crime punishable under law. All these features highlight that the Constitution of India accepts and prescribes secularism as the way of social and political life and regards it as a vital means for securing national integration. In a multi-religious society like ours, secularism alone can De and should be practiced as the way of life. By adopting secularism, the makers of modern India gave a good and much needed inactive and strength to the pro-cess of securing national integration. It is our nationality to adopt and practise secularism in our words, actions and deeds. Religious and cultural pluralities should be accepted as the natural fea-ture of Indian social life, and religious toleration and respect for all religions must characteristic our living. Secular-ism has been helping India to maintain and promote National Integration.

EDITORIAL

NATIONAL INTEGRATION & SECULARISM

PAKISTAN’S DARKEST DAYMAROOF RAZA

Half a century ago, Pakistan’s darkest day was the sur-

render of 93,000 Pakistanis in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. Nearly 81,000 prison-ers of war (POWs) were from the Pakistani armed forces (with some Bengali soldiers who had chosen to remain with the Pakistan Army) apart from 12,000-odd civilians, including collaborators. And though everyone associates the fall of Dacca (as Dhaka was then known) to then Army chief General Sam (SHFJ) Manekshaw, who had no doubt a larger than life presence in South Block, a closer reading of one of the few accounts of how it all happened — since official records in Calcutta were shredded at Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora’s orders — shows that credit must instead go to (then) Maj Gen JFR Jacob along with Maj Gen Inder Gill, who was then the Director of Military Operations (there was no DGMO then), and Lt Gen Sagat Singh, who was commanding IV Corps in Tezpur. Maj Gen JFR Jacob was the Chief of Staff of India’s Eastern Army Command and was thus involved in planning and meticulous implementation of the operations in East Pakistan, which is detailed in his autobiography, An Odyssey in War and Peace.

Millions of refugees flood-ed across eastern India in 1971 into the States sur-rounding East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after Pakistan’s ruthless military clampdown there, which was ordered by Pakistan’s dictator Yahya Khan fol-lowing a pent-up demand for their rights after election results gave Bengali leader Sheikh Mujib a clear vic-tory. It led to all their Chief Ministers insisting that India must do something to avert this humanitarian crisis. Indira Gandhi sum-moned the then Army chief Gen Sam Manekshaw for a meeting with her ‘kitchen Cabinet’. She wanted the

General to go to war and liberate enough territory in East Pakistan, so that the refugees could be sent back. However, Gen Manekshaw had apparently cautioned against haste since many factors were involved. They were then into the summer of 1971 and the harvested grain needed to be moved across the coun-try. The trains and road transport could either ferry the grain or the troops to battle. And then monsoons would follow, which could hamper the movement of military units, especially in the riverine terrain of Ban-gladesh.

Indira, heeding the mili-tary’s advice, decided to let the armed forces do what they are best at, to fight a war and win it. Gen Manek-shaw apparently promised her that given the time, he could help her “make his-tory and even geography”, as I recall him saying at the first Infantry lecture at Vigyan Bhawan in October 1994. Even as the armed forces began to prepare for what truly became a his-toric victory, Indira took up the job of winning the world’s support for India’s humanitarian initiative. By August 1971, New Delhi had signed the Indo-Soviet treaty of Peace, Friend-

ship and Cooperation with Moscow. Not only was it a significant departure from the Nehruvian obses-sion with non-alignment, it was Russia’s support at the many sessions in the United Nations that stalled resolutions at the initiative of Washington to help Pak-istan when Indian troops rolled down the plains of East Pakistan. But Jacob dismisses this story that Gen Manekshaw had often told — and which I too have heard the late Field Marshal narrate in 1994 — about how he stood up to Indira’s demands to go to war in March 1971. The war officially started on Decem-ber 3 though military oper-ations along the borders of East Pakistan had started in the last week of November.

Apparently, India — fear-ing a UN ceasefire — was in a hurry to establish a free Bangladeshi Government in the port towns of Khulna and Chittagong. But as the operations unfolded and gathered momentum, Jacob went ahead with a plan to capture Dacca. This was done by doing what Pakistan’s Generals hadn’t expected India to do. As the Pakistani army had fortified its garrison towns, some fierce battles were fought around them while there

was a simultaneous drive to get to Dacca. A simple tacti-cal lesson that is taught to every officer in the Army is never to re-enforce a failure and, therefore, the areas of resistance were bypassed. The Pakistani military dic-tator, the often drunk Gen-eral Yahya Khan, was how-ever confident that three factors wouldn’t allow any worthwhile success to the Indian armed forces in East Pakistan. First, his well-armed military machine in West Pakistan would be enough to threaten India’s strategic States of Punjab and J&K. Two, a Chinese military buildup along the Himalayas would tie down enough of the Indian Army. These two factors would be enough to deter India from any serious military adven-turism

in East Pakistan. And finally, he was banking on the US to intervene mili-tarily if India’s operations became difficult for Paki-stan to contain.

But more forces were needed than Manekshaw was willing to release to implement an effective blitzkrieg towards Dacca. As Gen Manekshaw believed that the Chinese could spoil the party, he refused to release addi-tional troops from the Sino-

Indian border until much later. However, as there were no intelligence inter-cepts to back Manekshaw’s claim, Jacob managed to get troops from the Hima-layan formations moved — without Manekshaw’s knowledge — but with help from Maj Gen Gill. Appar-ently when Manekshaw did learn of this, he gave Gill a dressing down but by then things were moving so fast that the focus shifted to Dacca as the time was limited, with the US push-ing the UN for a ceasefire. If that had happened, all the military gains would have been literally back to square one. The Indian Army, ably assisted by the Indian Air Force, raced to Dacca. The IAF literally bombed the daylights out of the Pakistani Air Force. Soon the skies were clear of any Pakistani fighters: They lay wrecked on their airfields. And then a heli-borne operation — the first of its kind since Indepen-dence — put troops across the vast Meghna river and many other rivers that had until then given Dacca a natural defence. This was followed by the first ever airborne drop of Indian paratroopers. By Decem-ber 15, the Indian troops had surrounded Dacca.

During this lull in the battle, Maj Gen Jacob received a call from Gen Manekshaw, who said: “Jake, go and get a surren-der.” He then proceeded to Dacca to meet Lt Gen AAK Niazi, MC, the over-all military commander in East Pakistan. Jacob salut-ed him, and asked him if he was willing to offer an unconditional surrender. A pompous Gen Niazi, enjoy-ing an afternoon of beer and lunch — with all the silver laid out in their offi-cers’ mess — dismissed the proposition with a wave of his hand, saying: “Who said I am surrendering? You have come to discuss only a ceasefire and withdrawal as proposed by me.” He was apparently still hope-ful that a ceasefire ordered by the UN could save him

and his army a humiliation. But Gen Jacob was adamant and told him that he had 30 minutes and then he’d ask him thrice. If Niazi still didn’t respond, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of Pak-istani families (as the Ben-gali rebels were waiting to lynch them all). Moreover, he’d ask for the resump-tion of bombings on Dacca. Then Jacob — unarmed and thus a little worried — went for a stroll and to smoke his pipe, giving Niazi time to ponder over the options.

Gen Jacob met Gen Niazi after 30 minutes and asked him thrice if he accepted the surrender document (even though the document’s draft was still unapproved by New Delhi!). But since Niazi refused to respond, Maj Gen Jacob picked up the document and held it up to say: “I take it as accepted.” Tears rolled down Gen Niazi’s cheek and he hung his head in shame. Other Pakistanis glared at him in disbelief. Gen Jacob got up and asked Niazi to move for the sur-render, which was done at the Dacca Race Course on a hastily arranged table and two chairs — as the crowds were shouting anti-Pak-istan slogans — a tearful Niazi removed his badges of rank and handed his pistol to Gen Aurora before being whisked away by India’s senior officers. He needed to be kept alive to tell the world that he wasn’t mutilated to surrender, but did so — for the world to see — at the Dacca parade ground. This was achieved when there were 26,400 Pakistani soldiers in Dacca and only 3,000 Indian sol-diers nearby. Niazi later admitted that Jacob had “blackmailed me into sur-rendering”.

NO POWER IN THESE REFORMSUTTAM GUPTA

The Government is expected to announce a Rs

3,00,000 crore electricity distribution reform pro-gramme to reduce losses and improve the efficiency of power distribution com-panies or discoms. Chris-tened ‘Reforms-Linked, Result-Based Scheme for Distribution’, the move is aimed at helping discoms trim their electricity losses to 12-15 per cent from the present level and gradu-ally narrow the deficit between the cost of elec-tricity and the price at which it is supplied, to ‘zero’ by March 2025. This is quite similar to the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) launched in 2015, wherein the targets were missed by a huge margin. The Centre’s planned elec-tricity distribution reform programme will also meet the same fate as the real intent is not reform but to give money to the beleaguered discoms so that they can clear dues to power generators and other suppliers.

Meanwhile, amid the cacophony of farmers’ pro-test over the enactment of the three farm laws by the Narendra Modi Govern-ment, a demand that went unnoticed relates to doing away with an amendment to the Electricity Act (2003) that requires farmers to pay tariff for electricity supply at the un-subsi-dised rate even as the State concerned provides Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of subsidy to their bank account. Reportedly, the Centre has accepted this demand.

What it means is that the Centre will continue with the existing dispensation of supplying power at subsidised rates to farm-ers (in some States it is even free of charge). If it is done for farmers then logi-cally, other beneficiaries of subsidised power, such as poor households should continue under the sub-sisting arrangement, too. You can’t have two differ-ent methods of delivering subsidy to different albeit vulnerable sections of soci-ety.

Do we then take it that the Government has junked its plan on DBT? A cursory glance at a spate of announcements coming from the top may help us in unraveling the truth in regard to the DBT or for that matter, fate of other reforms in this crucial sector. Under the spe-cial economic and com-prehensive package for the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ announced in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had provided for a special loan of Rs 90,000 crore from the Rural Electrification Cor-poration (REC) and the Power Finance Corpora-tion (PFC) to discoms. This was done to enable them to clear their dues to independent power producers (IPPs) and gen-erators in the public sector, such as the National Ther-mal Power Corporation (NTPC). But, this was con-ditional upon the discoms implementing reforms such as DBT of power subsidy, “open access” i.e. allowing consumer to draw power from a sup-plier of his/her choice and so on.

Sitharaman had linked the hike in the borrow-ing limit of States to the extent of 0.25 per cent of the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) (out of an overall increase of two per cent allowed to them) to power sector reforms. Of this, 0.05 per cent is predi-cated on the State reducing aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses (a sophisticated nomen-clature for theft) of its discoms, another 0.05 per cent to their reducing the gap between the average cost of supply and average revenue realisation (ACS-ARR gap) from the sale of electricity and the remain-ing 0.15 per cent to DBT.

Each State was required to formulate a scheme to roll out DBT to farmers in lieu of free electricity from 2021-22. The scheme has to be implemented in at least one of its districts by December 31. Based on the progress on the above three parameters, the Power Ministry was required to recommend (to the Expenditure Depart-ment under the Finance Ministry) the release of 0.25 per cent by January 31, 2021. Even prior to this, power sector reforms have been on top of the Central Government’s agenda. In November 2015, it launched the UDAY. The prime objective of the scheme which ran for nearly four years was to cut the losses of discoms by reducing AT&C losses and the ACS-ARR gap. These losses were a result of the increase in the cost of power purchase on one hand and supply to farm-ers at heavily subsidised rates on the other. They

were required to reduce AT&C losses from 20.7 per cent during 2015-16 to 15 per cent by 2018-19. Further, they were asked to reduce the ACS-ARR gap from Rs 0.59 per unit during 2015-16 to ‘zero’ by 2018-19.

Simultaneously, the Government gave them a financial restructuring package (FRP). Put simply, this was nothing but con-doning their debt of about Rs 4,00,000 crore (while 75 per cent of this was taken over by the States, for the balance, discoms were allowed to issue bonds at a preferential interest rate). The stated rationale behind giving FRP was to enable them start on a clean slate. In return, dis-coms were expected to set their house in order by achieving the milestones as specified above. But, they did not deliver.

During 2019-20, AT&C losses of discoms were 18.9 per cent against the target of 15 per cent for 2018-19. As regards the ACS-ARR gap during 2019-20, it stood at Rs 0.42 per unit against target of ‘zero’. This would mean that after initial reduction from Rs 52,000 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 17,000 crore during 2017-18, the discoms’ loss increased to over Rs 30,000 crore during 2019-20. In turn, this has led to a piling up of their dues to IPP/PSUs in excess of Rs 1,30,000 crore.

Faced with the same pre-dicament as in 2015, the Government is working on a Rs 3,00,000 crore elec-tricity distribution reform programme, which may be announced in the ensu-ing Union Budget. It was

approved by the Public Investment Board (PIB) early this month.

The reforms are also aimed at improving the reliability and quality of power supply. It may also have a compulsory pre-paid and smart metering component to be imple-mented across the power supply chain, including in about 250 million house-holds.

The Government is expected to contribute around Rs 60,000 crore to the scheme’s corpus and the rest may be raised from multilateral funding agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB). The Centre’s contribution will be met through the previous commitment of the ongoing schemes viz. the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) and the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY). The funds will be released subject to their meeting reform-related milestones.

The proposed electricity distribution reform pro-gramme is more or less similar to UDAY but for the change of name and insertion of some catchy phrases such as Reforms-Linked, Result-Based and so on. One sees the typical syndrome of “old wine in a new bottle.” Just as the real purpose of the UDAY scheme was to extinguish the liabilities of discoms, the proposed electricity distribution reform pro-gramme, too, seeks to give them the money on a platter. This will help them clear their dues to power generators and keep some cushion to take care of

future losses. The talk of trimming

AT&C losses or lowering the ACS-ARR gap to zero is laughable when seen in the backdrop of similar target having been missed in the past. Under UDAY, discoms were required to reduce AT&C loss to 15 per cent in 2018-19; now the reformers want this figure to be reached in March 2025. Similarly, the zero gap for ACS-ARR was targeted for 2018-19; under the new scheme, this gets shifted to 2025.

That the Government is not serious about the reforms agenda in the power sector, it has fur-ther vindicated by prom-ising farmers that DBT of power subsidy won’t be implemented. DBT is a transformative reform. Under it, subsidy is given directly to the beneficiaries even as tariff is cost-based or market-determined. The discoms will set tariff in a manner as to fully recover their cost of pur-chase, wheeling and dis-tribution thereby avoid-ing loss. They won’t also be saddled with pending subsidy dues from the State as then, the latter will be dealing directly with beneficiaries for subsidy transfer.

Under the DBT dispensa-tion, discoms also need not charge more from indus-tries and businesses which they have to do under the present regime to offset the loss suffered on subsi-dised sale to farmers and poor households. This in turn, will help the latter reduce their cost of opera-tions and stay competitive.

5NATIONALTop News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Rahul Gandhi meets president over farm laws, Priyanka Gandhi

detained during protest

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Agencies) : Sharpening its attack on the Govern-ment over the new three farm laws, the Congress on Thursday staged a strong protest outside the Con-gress headquarters here after they were prevented from marching towards Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Congress leaders Priyan-ka Gandhi Vadra and party MPs and leaders staged a sit-in protest outside their office and were detained by the Delhi Police for violat-ing prohibitory orders.

The Congress had planned a protest march from the party office at Akbar Road to Rashtrapati Bhawan, where Congress leaders were to meet Presi-dent Ram Nath Kovind and

hand over a memorandum signed by 2 crore farmers.

However, the Delhi Police imposed section 144 CrPC around the Rashtrapati Bhawan, including the Congress office, following which the protesting Con-gress leaders were detained and taken to Mandir Marg police station.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Leader of oppo-sition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chow-dhury later met President Ram Nath Kovind and demanded withdrawal of the three farm laws.

“We told the president that the laws are anti-farmer and that farmers and labourers will suffer

due to them. The Govern-ment said these laws are in favour of the farmers, but the country is seeing that farmers are against these laws,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“The farmers would not return till these laws are taken back. The Govern-ment should convene a joint session of Parliament and repeal these laws,” he told reporters after meeting the president.

He said all the opposition parties are standing with the farmers. He alleged that the way the laws were passed without any discus-sion, consultations, they need to be withdrawn.

“‘We three people went to the president, but took the voice of farmers to the president, by taking 2 crore

signatures of farmers,” he said, adding that “the farm-ers are in pain and are also dying, the prime minister will have to listen to them.”

If the prime minister does not take these laws back, the country will suffer, he claimed.

“Anyone trying to take power from Modi will be dubbed as anti-national,” he alleged.

Gandhi further alleged that only three-four people are running the system and said the party is fighting this.

“It is an assault on the idea of India. The Govern-ment is stopping our MPs from moving out of our office…There is no democ-racy in India, it is only in imagination, not in real-ity,” he charged.

Earlier Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the Government is committing a sin by name-calling the protesting farmers.

“It is a sin to brand farm-ers as anti-nationals. If Government is terming farmers protest as sedition, it is a sin. The Government is committing a sin by call-ing names to farmers,” she said. “The Government is arrogant, is doing only own politics and has no respect for farmers or the jawans, who are the sons of farm-ers,” she charged.

She also alleged that anyone speaking against this Government is name-called and dubbed as anti-nationals.

Gadkari lays foundation stone of Rs 8,341-crore road projects in Rajasthan

BJP Vandalised office, warned us over farmer protest: AAP’s Raghav Chadha

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Agencies) : Union Minis-ter Nitin Gadkari on Thurs-day inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of Rs 8,341-crore highway proj-ects in Rajasthan.

Addressing a virtual event on the occasion, the road transport, highways and MSMEs minister also said highway works worth Rs 1 lakh crore are either ongoing or at the DPR (detailed project report) stage.

“Road Transport, High-ways and MSMEs Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation

stone of 18 highway proj-ects in Rajasthan today (Thursday).

“These projects carry a road length of nearly 1,127 kilometres, involving a construction value of Rs 8,341 crore,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a state-ment.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot presided over the virtual function. Union ministers Gajen-dra Singh Shekhawat, VK Singh, Arjun Ram Meghw-al and Kailash Choudhary and former Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore as

well as several ministers of the state also attended the event. These projects will ease the transporta-tion of commercial goods within and across the state, will improve connectiv-ity to the borders, enhance employment opportunities, and improve tourism and infra development, among others, the statement said.

Addressing the event, Gadkari said work is ongo-ing or is at the DPR stage for projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore. “The ministry intends to complete 2,700 km length of NHs (national highways) at a cost of Rs

35,000 crore by the year 2021-22, whereas another 2,500 km costing Rs 30,000 crore will be completed by the year 2023-24,” he said.

DPR is being prepared for other projects of 2,811 km worth Rs 50,000 crore.

Gadkari assured the state government of his full support in developing NH network in Rajasthan. He called upon the chief minis-ter to forward two propos-als from each MP and one proposal from each MLA in the state in this respect to him, and said he will per-sonally examine for quick approval.

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Agencies): Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman Raghav Chaddha’s office at the agency headquar-ters was vandalised today, allegedly by BJP workers, over the party’s support to the protesting farmers. “They (the BJP workers) said warn Kejriwal that he should stop taking the side of the farmers,” Mr Chadha told reporters this evening. Soon after, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted a defiant message saying his party and government are “fully with the farmers till last breath”.

“We are not afraid of such cowardly attacks. I appeal to all the workers not to be provoked by such attacks of the BJP and fully sup-port the farmers,” the Chief Minister said in a Hindi tweet.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party -- locked in a battle with the BJP over funds for the city’s civic bodies -- earlier said the attack was a follow-up of the one at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s home and

the house arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The BJP workers were holding a demonstration since morning outside the Jal Board office under the leadership of Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, AAP said in a Hindi statement.

“Around 12.30 in the afternoon, BJP work-ers broke the doors and attacked the headquarters of Jal Board and raised slogans against the honor-able Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP workers have also damaged the

office of Vice President Raghav Chadha,” the state-ment added.

Mr Chadha tweeted a video of the damaged area, showing broken doors and flowerpots and glass strewn on the floor.

Earlier this month, AAP claimed that leaders and workers of the BJP had mobbed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s home, vandalising property and breaking CCTV cameras.

Days before that, the party had released CCTV footage of the situation out-

side the home of Mr Sisodia following an attack by the BJP workers, allegedly in full view of the police.

The BJP had claimed it was in retaliation to a breach of privacy of their women workers. People from the Chief Minister’s office were placing CCTV cameras where the women protesters were sleeping, the party said.

Over the last weeks, the BJP has been holding pro-tests outside the homes and offices of AAP lead-ers, demanding payment of pending municipal funds. The party, which runs the municipal bodies, claims the Delhi government owes around 13,000 crore.

AAP has alleged that a 2,500 crore-fraud by the opposition party in the civic bodies.

After today’s attack, Mr Sisodia said “Hooliganism is the second name of BJP”. “The BJP people are now openly going into homes and offices and indulging in hooliganism,” his tweet in Hindi read.

Tagore’s vision essence of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative: PM

SANTINEKATAN, Dec 24 (Agencies) : Prime Nin-ister Narendra Modi on Thursday extolled the piv-otal role played by Visva- Bharati in India’s freedom movement and further-ing the cause of universal brotherhood.

Addressing the cente-nary celebrations of the university founded by Nobel laureate Rabindra-nath Tagore, Modi said the literary legend’s vision was also the essence of the “Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative launched by his government for the making of a self-reliant India.

“Visva-Bharati is a ven-erable source of constant energy to the country,” he said.

He said Tagore and the institution he founded not only strengthened the spirit of nationalism but also promoted inclusive-ness that strengthened “vishva bandhutva” (uni-versital brotherhood).

Praising the institution for its remarkable achieve-ments in varied fields like art and literature, and sci-ence and innovation, the prime minister urged its students to reach out to the artisans in the region to explore ways to find national and international markets for their produce.

“That will make them self-reliant. Atmanirbhar Bharat is the initiative for India’s prosperity which will aid in global prosper-ity,” he said.

Recalling India’s free-dom struggle, Modi said,” Bhakti Movement united us, the Movement for Learning gave us intellec-tual strength and the Move-ment of Karma exempli-fied by the likes of Shivaji, Maharana Pratap and Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi gave us the courage to fight for our rights.”

Visva-Bharati, he said, is the embodiment of phi-

losophy, vision and hard work of Guru Rabindra-nath Tagore.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said Visva-Bharati’s hundred year journey is very spe-cial and a matter of pride for every Indian. He said the University is a true embodiment of Gurudev’s contemplation, vision and hard work for Mother Bharati. He expressed hap-piness that Visva-Bharati, Shriniketan and Santinik-etan are continually striv-ing to achieve the goals that Gurudev had set.

The Prime Minister remarked that our coun-try is spreading the mes-sage emanating from Visva-Bharati to the whole world. He added, India today is leading the world in environmental protec-tion through the Interna-tional Solar Alliance. He said India is the only major country on the right path to achieve the environmental goals of Paris Accord.

The Prime Minister urged to recall the circumstances which led to the establish-ment of this University. He said the goals of the inde-pendence movement were in line with the goals of this University. But it is also a fact that the foundation of these movements were

laid long ago. The Prime Minister said India’s inde-pendence movement got energy from many move-ments that were going on since centuries. The Bhakti movement strengthened the spiritual and cultural unity of India. He said during the Bhakti era, saints from every region of India, tried to keep the country’s consciousness awake. He added Bhakti movement was the door that filled the struggling India with collective con-sciousness and confidence for centuries.

The Prime Minister said it is because of Shri Ramak-rishna Paramahamsa, India got Swami Vivekananda. In Swami Vivekananda devotion, knowledge and action, all three were absorbed in themselves. Shri Modi said that Swami Vivekananda began to see divinity in every person while expanding the scope of devotion and also gave expression to Karma, stressing on the creation of individual and institution. Stalwart saints of bhakti movement from all parts of India laid a strong foun-dation.

The Prime Minister said along with the period of hundreds of years of Bhakti movement, Karma

movement also took place in the country. The Prime Minister gave many exam-ples of Chatrapati Shivaji, Maharan Pratap, Jhansi ki Rani, Rani Chinnemma, Bhagwan Birsa Munda and many more. The people of India were fighting slavery and imperialism. He said the karma-rigorous prac-tice of tenacity and sacrifice of ordinary citizens against injustice and exploitation was at its peak and this became a major inspiration of our freedom struggle in future.

The Prime Minister said that trinity of Bhakti. Karm and gyan fed and nurtured the consciousness of the freedom movement. He said the need of the hour was to create an ideological revolution to win the war of independence on the establishment of knowl-edge and at the same time prepare a new generation for the creation of a bright future for India. He said that many prestigious educational institutions, universities have played a very big role in this. These educational institutions gave new energy, gave new direction, gave new height to the ideological move-ment going on for India’s independence.

The Prime Minister said we are united with the Bhakti movement, the Gyan movement gave intellectual strength and Karma movement gave us the courage to fight for our rights. He said the freedom movement, which lasted for a period of hundreds of years, has become a unique example of sacri-fice, penance and devotion. Impressed by these move-ments, thousands of people came forward to sacrifice in the freedom struggle.

Farmers protesting at Delhi borders remain resolute in seeking repeal of new agri lawsNEW DELHI, Dec 24

(Agencies) : Braving harsh cold, thousands of agitat-ing farmers at the Delhi borders on Thursday remained steadfast in their demands to repeal the Centre’s three new agri laws.

Dense fog reduced vis-ibility to just 100 metres in parts of Delhi on Thursday, affecting traffic movement, the India Meteorological Department said, adding the minimum temperature at the Safdarjung Obser-vatory, which provides representative data for the city, settled at 4.5 degrees Celsius.

Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazi-pur and Tikri as thousands of farmers have been stag-ing their protests at the borders for nearly a month now. This has also led to traffic congestion forcing police to divert vehicular movement.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the Delhi Traf-fic Police alerted commut-ers about the routes that remained closed owing to farmers’ agitation and sug-gested them to take alterna-tive roads.

“The Chilla, Ghazipur borders are closed for traf-fic coming from Noida & Ghaziabad to Delhi because of farmer protests. People are advised to take alternate route for coming to Delhi via Anad Vihar, DND, Apsara,bhopra& Loni borders,” it said in a tweet.

In another tweet, police said Singhu, Auchandi,

Piau Maniyari, Saboli and Mangesh borders are closed.

“Pl take alternate routes via Lampur, Safiabad, Palla & Singhu school toll tax borders. Traffic has been diverted from Mukarba & GTK road. Pl avoid Outer Ring Rd, GTK road & NH 44,” the traffic police men-tioned.

On Wednesday, the pro-testing farmers hardened their position and asked the government not to repeat the proposal of “meaning-less” amendments that they have already rejected but come up with a “con-crete” offer in writing for the resumption of talks.

Reading out a reply to the government’s talks offer during a press conference, farmer leaders said they are ready for dialogue with an open mind if they get a concrete proposal, but made it clear they will

not accept anything less than a complete repeal of the three agriculture laws and legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

The sixth round of talks on December 9 was can-celled following a dead-lock with the farmer unions refusing to budge from their demand for repealing the three laws.

“We’re living in a democ-racy and they are elected MPs. They have the right to meet the President and they should be allowed. What is the problem with that? Government is not ready to listen to voices of lakhs of farmers camping at borders,” she said after Congress leaders were stopped from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“It is a sin to use the kind of names they (BJP leaders and supporters) used for farmers. If the government

is calling them anti-nation-als, then the government is a sinner,” the Congress leader added.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the cen-tral government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

The government has repeatedly asserted that the MSP and mandi systems will stay and has accused the Opposition of mislead-ing the farmers.

6 ENTERTAINMENT Top News of J&K

Jammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Take each day as it comes: Zoa Morani on acting career,

recovering from COVID-19

ZEE5 announces latest original film ‘Silence...can you hear it?’

In April, actress Zoa Morani, daughter of film producer Karim

Morani tested positive for COVID-19. After donat-ing blood for plasma ther-apy trials, she described her experience as “super cool.” In her last film, Taish, a Bejoy Nambiar directed thriller drama which released this year on ZEE5, Morani received much acclaim for her role as ‘Mahi’. She shares screen space with Bolly-wood star Sonakshi Sinha in the upcoming Reema Kagti web series, Fallen. In an interview with THE WEEK, she talks about her films, health and what the future holds for her. Excerpts:On her role in TaishI play a bride who is getting married into a big and rich family in London. I am get-ting married to the younger

of the two brothers and during the course of all the festivities leading up to the wedding a lot of things are suddenly revealed ...secrets related to the past of the bride and groom and the series of events that take place because of that...On the sets I was initially a bit nervous about being in the company of talented stars but everyone made me feel very comfortable and happy. We’d be playing games in between shots and spending time with each other on the sets and all this is despite the fact that we met each other for the first time on the sets of Taish.On being diagnosed with Covid-19It taught me to be much more grateful than I was before, especially with being constantly on the chase and complaining

about everything. I think I became a lot closer to my family because we were together. They extended their full support when I was diagnosed with Covid. And I realised that you don’t really need too much in life to be happy and con-tent and when you see the struggles others are going through in life you feel so bad about being a cribber yourself.As a Covid patient Even today I seriously have no idea where I got the infection from. I was very, very scared. I did not have severe symptoms; they were very mild, but still the very thought of the virus sitting inside my body made me shiver. I had breathlessness and fever which lasted for 30 days. I would cough a lot and had severe fatigue which also

lasted for many days. I iso-lated myself from everyone for two months because the symptoms started when I was at home. Then I was in hospital for seven days and then came back home and isolated myself again. At the time when I caught the infection, the virus was very new to everyone and that kind of added to the anxiety around it. My body took a big hit and so I rested a lot. Now, in hind-sight it feels great to have sailed through it. I feel very lucky to have survived in the face of the virus which has taken the lives of so many around the world. On upcoming projectsI am working on a web show, Fallen for Amazon Prime directed by Reema Kagti. I will start shooting in January for it and am so looking forward to getting back to work now after being at home for far too long. On self-assessment of her acting career so farI think when I started off, I was a little too overconfi-dent and then of course the universe taught me to sit back and pull up my socks. I think it started off really rough but the experiences resulting from my films not doing well, really helped me grow as a person. The journey matters more and as time passes, I feel I’m rising a few notches higher with each successive proj-ect. Yet, right now I have absolutely no idea of where I’m going even though in the past, I was very sure of myself. Because what I planned did not really happen, it is better to not think anymore and take each day as it comes.

ZEE5 is the leading OTT platform when it comes to produc-

ing original content across genres. Over the last year alone, ZEE5 has produced some of the most engaging web series and films that have created a special place for themselves among the audience.Adding to their promis-ing line up of upcom-ing releases, ZEE5 has now announced another super-entertainer named ‘Silence...can you hear it?’, a murder mystery. Pro-duced by ZEE Studios and directed by Aban Bharu-cha Deohans, the film stars Manoj Bajpayee, Prachi Desai and Arjun Mathur in pivotal roles. It traces the story of the mysterious dis-appearance of a woman. As she prepares to leave her house, a tragedy befalls fol-lowing which the woman disappears only to have her

corpse turn up a day later, discovered by trekkers.Zee Studios Originals, Vice President Creative and Head, Ashima Avasthi commented, `Silence...can you hear it? is one more brilliantly crafted story from the Zee Studios stable. With a gripping plot this film lead by acting stalwart Manoj Bajpayee, Emmy nominated Arjun Mathur and the talented Prachi Desai will keep the audiences sitting at the edge of their seat for sure. The movie has reimagined a classic whodunnit for the modern yet rooted Indian audience. It highlights the studio’s promise of deliver-ing sophisticated yet broad base content for a varied audience.`Talking about the announcement of the film, Manoj Bajpayee shares, “Aban Bharucha Deohans is a friend (director) and

had narrated the script long back. It’s a whodun-nit genre and I have never been part of this genre. It was my wish to see her as a director starting with this film. I gave her the dates as soon as I saw a 30 days window. She has been so thorough and so well pre-pared throughout the shoot that it’s been a joyful expe-rience working under her”.Prachi Desai who is making her debut on OTT shares, `I’m extremely happy to be making my debut on OTT with ZEE5 and that too with such a unique project like ‘Silence...can you hear it?’ OTT is booming with noteworthy content and I have been waiting for the right script to foray into this side of the Universe. I can’t wait for everyone to witness the unusual role I am playing, a first in this genre for me. I am so happy to be working with

such a stellar cast, it’s a humbling experience too. The energy on the set is already incredible and we are all super kicked for this one to be released on ZEE5 in March.`Actor Arjun Mathur shares, `I enjoy exploring characters with all kinds of shades. Those shades are the first thing I look for in my characters and scripts, be it for a film or a series. That is exactly what happened with ‘Silence...can you hear it?’. Besides, seeing the track record of the kind of content that ZEE5 has been producing, I am confident this will be a winner too. We are back on the sets at the end of a very trying year. I’m truly excit-ed to be here alongside this extremely talented ensem-ble and looking forward to the premiere on ZEE5.”Aban Bharucha Deohans making her digital direc-torial debut expresses, `I’m extremely delighted to be making my debut on OTT with ZEE5 with my film ‘Silence...can you hear it?’ and that too with such an amazing star cast. When Manoj Bajpai gave me the dates for the movie I was over the moon! He is brilliant- as always - and such a pleasure to work with. Prachi Desai, Arjun Mathur, Sahil Vaid, Vaquar, Shishir Sharma are wonderful, talented artists and I feel very lucky to have them on board and I am truly excited about pre-miering the film on ZEE5.”The film also stars Sahil Vaid, Vaquar, Barkha Singh, Shirish Sharma, Sohaila Kapoor, Amit Thakkar and Garima Yagnik.‘Silence...can you hear it?’ is a ZEE5 original murder mystery that will release in March 2021.Know what Rohman Shawl and Erica has to say

on their first romantic video launch! Ho Ho Ho! Actors share their Christmas wishes and memories!Your 2020 year-end

playlist will hit all the right romantic

feels as Saregama launches its first non -film single - Maula, sung in the inimitable voice of Papon. The music video stars the popular television actor Erica Fernandes and marks the debut of heart-throb Rohman Shawl in the world of music. The music and lyrics have been done by Goldie Sohel

The video tells the story of love and loss, involving a married couple played by Erica and actor Salman Shaikh, and Rohman Shawl, who plays someone from Eri-ca’s past. The lyrics are full of pathos, and the music builds the mood adequately.

Commenting on his debut, Rohman said `This is my first music video and what a beautiful one to debut with. I am a massive fan of Papon’s music, and the storyline of the song is one that encapsulates vari-

ous stages of love beauti-fully. Maula is a special gift for music lovers to end the year with.`

Erica said, `The song spoke to me on various

levels, it has a certain sense of pathos , and depicts love and loss beautifully. Papon’s voice takes the song to do a different league altogether.`

So, all the music lovers out there be ready to be blown away by a mix of emotions as you catch the video today only on Sare-gama’s YouTube page.

It’s the season to be jolly as Christmas is here! These actors tell us what they

want from Santa this year!Abhinandan Jindal: A strong lead in a TV show is what I want for Christmas this year. I am confident that if I get one chance, I will pull it off so well that I will be one of the topmost actors of the television industry, if not the best. I am not so fond of celebrating things on a large scale, and the same holds true for Christmas celebrations as well. I am very reserved and so is my family. We are happy in ourselves and don’t really meet too many guests at fes-tivals.Vijayendra Kumeria: I stud-ied in a convent school (St. Xavier’s), so Christmas was celebrated at school before the Christmas holidays began. It was fun to receive gifts and have parties. Every-body used to take part in the celebrations. I still remem-ber there used to be a class-room decoration competition between all classes and we used to have so much fun...This year, I want secret Santa to gift all of us a great Covid-19 vaccine.Pranitaa Pandit: My fondest memory of Christmas has always been decorating our little Christmas tree. When I was child, I actually believed that Santa Clause is going to come and get us gifts, so I always used to look forward to waking up in the morn-ing and just running to the Christmas tree to get the gift under it. That is something I can never forget. I think even today, the child in me, wishes I could do the same.Rohit Choudhary: During my childhood, there were no Christmas celebrations as we never had the money to cel-ebrate this festival. But yes, when we became parents, we

became Santas for our kids and kept gifts beside their beds. When they grew up, they got to know that papa is the only Santa. I want one thing only which is that the whole world should be Cov-id-free so that our industry can grow.Delnaaz Irani: There are lot of childhood memories that I have of Christmas. One memory I clearly remember is that I was very fond of dolls and one of my mom’s friends was settled in Germany and she would keep coming and going. I had seen one doll in their house which was their daughter’s doll and I liked it so much that I kept telling everyone that this year Santa Clause is going to gift me that doll. I don’t know how my parents organised a simi-lar doll for me and that doll was so pretty and gorgeous. I can’t forget that memory. I don’t know how my parents must have got that. There are a lot of good memories like

having good food, plum cake, we would enjoy so much on Christmas eve. I was in con-vent school so I had a lot of fun with my friends. This year, I just want to pray that all things should get better and 2021 should be a rock-ing year for everybody. We have lost a lot of people in the past year, so I pray everybody should be happy and fine.Aanushka Ramesh: My fond-est Christmas memory from childhood is our family get-togethers and gorging on all the Christmas treats. We stayed in a neighbourhood where there were lots of Catholics and they would all send us sweets, plum cakes etc and, on Christmas Day, we would all get together and have a blast! Also, we never kept a Christmas tree but I loved going to my friend’s houses and helping them decorate their trees. I was always fascinated by Christ-mas trees! I’d definitely like my secret Santa to make the

world as normal as soon as possible and make everyone’s wishes, including mine, come true!Vijay Pushkar: During my childhood, the society where we stayed had a 70% of catho-lic, so we used to wait for a December and Christmas to come as we knew we would be going to receive gifts from Santa and used to count days from 1st December. It was a 10-day celebration in a soci-ety and every day, one new Santa used to come from a church for evening prayer to different families with so many gifts and goodies. We would be so happy to see Santa, dancing and singing songs and with his bags of goodies. We used to go and hug him first and then he would distribute the gifts. These precious little move-ments have stayed with me as memories. From my secret Santa this year, I want a good television show.

Mouni Roy takes the city temperature several notches higher with her latest enticing looks!Mouni Roy has

to be called an avid social

media user who likes to keep her fans updated about her professional and personal front. The actress is popular for her active presence on the internet and the tantalizing ava-tars that she often shares. Mouni recently grabbed all the eyeballs with her allur-ing look that she posted on Instagram.

Sharing a series of snaps from her vacation, Mouni looked sizzling in every

hot outfit she was donning. The stunner has a svelte figure and the recent looks are a proof! While sharing the pictures, Mouni wrote, "La dolce vita.

Meanwhile, talking about Mouni’s professional front, the actress was last seen in Zee5’s thriller film ‘London Confidential’ which got mixed reviews from the audience. She will next be seen in Ayan Mukerji’s action-fantasy film ‘Brah-mastra’ starring Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor in the lead roles.

7Top News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020 INTERNATIONAL

Mini antibodies against COVID-19 isolated from llama may

prevent infectionWASHINGTON, Dec 24

(Agencies): Scientists have isolated a set of promising, tiny antibodies or nano-bodies against the novel coronavirus from a llama, some of which may help prevent the infection.

Preliminary results, pub-lished in the journal Scien-tific Reports, suggest that the nanobody appears to work equally well in either liquid or aerosol form, sug-gesting it could remain effective after inhalation.

The researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US said at least one of these nanobodies, called NIH-CoVnb-112, could prevent infections and detect virus particles by grabbing hold of the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

“We hope that these anti-COVID-19 nanobodies may be highly effective and versatile in combating the coronavirus pandemic,” said David L. Brody, who is also a professor at Uni-formed Services University for the Health Sciences.

A nanobody is a special type of antibody naturally produced by the immune systems of camelids, a

group of animals that includes camels, llamas, and alpacas.

On average, these pro-teins are about a tenth the weight of most human antibodies, the researchers said.

This is because nanobod-ies isolated in the lab are essentially free-floating versions of the tips of the arms of heavy chain pro-teins, which form the back-bone of a typical Y-shaped human IgG antibody, they said.

These tips play a critical role in the immune sys-tem’s defences by recog-nising proteins on viruses, bacteria, and other invad-ers, also known as anti-gens.

Because nanobodies are more stable, less expensive to produce, and easier to engineer than typical anti-bodies, a growing body of researchers have been using them for medical research.

Since the pandemic broke, several research-ers have produced llama nanobodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may be effective at preventing infections.

In the latest study, the

researchers used a slight-ly different strategy than others to find nanobodies that may work especially well.

“The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein acts like a key. It does this by opening the door to infections when it binds to a protein called the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) recep-tor, found on the surface of some cells,” said Thomas J Esparza, the lead author of the study.

“We developed a method that would isolate nano-bodies that block infections by covering the teeth of the spike protein that bind to and unlock the ACE2 receptor,” Esparza said.

The researchers immun-ised a llama called Cormac five times over 28 days with a purified version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

After testing hundreds of nanobodies, they found that Cormac produced 13 nanobodies that might be strong candidates.

Initial experiments sug-gested that one candidate, called NIH-CoVnb-112, could work very well, the researchers said.

Test tube studies showed

that this nanobody bound to the ACE2 receptor 2 to 10 times stronger than nanobodies produced by other labs, they said.

Other experiments sug-gested that the NIH nano-body stuck directly to the ACE2 receptor binding portion of the spike pro-tein.

The team then showed that the NIH-CoVnB-112 nanobody could be effec-tive at preventing corona-virus infections.

To mimic the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the research-ers genetically mutated a harmless “pseudovirus” so that it could use the spike protein to infect cells that have human ACE2 recep-tors.

The researchers saw that relatively low levels of the NIH-CoVnb-112 nanobod-ies prevented the pseudo-virus from infecting these cells in petri dishes.

They showed that the nanobody was equally effective in preventing the infections in petri dishes when it was sprayed through the kind of nebu-liser, or inhaler, often used to help treat patients with asthma.

Seven-year-old boy who adores Elon Musk is sensation on Ugandan aviation scene

UGANDA, Dec 24 (Agencies) : A 7-year-old Ugandan boy has become a sensation in his country with his precocious display of aircraft knowledge and budding flying skills.

Graham Shema has been interviewed on local televi-sion and his name is pre-fixed in newspapers and on social media with “Cap-tain”. Germany’s ambas-sador and the country’s transport minister have invited him for meetings.

A lover of math and sci-ence, the student has flown as a trainee three times on a Cessna 172.

He says he wants to be a pilot and an astronaut and someday travel to Mars. “My role model is Elon Musk,” said the boy, a pilot’s white shirt and black slacks hugging his small frame.

“I like Elon Musk because I want to learn with him about space, to go with him in space and also to get a handshake.” Musk found-ed SpaceX and the private rocket company recently launched two Americans into orbit and hopes to one day send humans to Mars.

One recent morning at Uganda’s Entebbe Inter-national Airport, his instructor asked him to explain how the engines

worked on a Bombardier CRJ9000 plane parked on the tarmac.

His voice struggling to rise above the roar of a plane’s running engines, Shema rattled off the answer: “The inlet tubes suck in the air and inject it into the compressor, the compressor squeezes it with the fans, after squeez-ing it with the fans, it becomes hot,” Shema said, playfully gesturing and proceeding to detail how an engine creates thrust.

Shema’s curiosity for the flight was piqued by a freak incident.

When he was 3 years old, a police helicopter flew so low to the ground that it blew off the roof of his grandmother’s house on the outskirts of the Ugan-dan capital Kampala while he was playing outside.

“It triggered something in his mind,” said his mother, travel agent Shamim Mwa-naisha, 29. Her son began peppering her with end-less questions about how planes work, she said.

Last year, she contacted a local aviation academy and Shema began lessons at home on aircraft parts and aviation vocabulary.

After five months of coursework, Mwanaisha paid for practical flying lessons for her son.

“I felt like a bird flying up,” Shema said of his first flight. He had never flown on a plane before.

He flew three times as co-pilot between January and March before the pandemic stopped his practice.

He has since been focus-ing on aviation theory and immersing himself in videos about aviation and space exploration on his virtual reality viewer.

UN at 75 faces worst crisis since WW-II, India reaches out to virus-hit planet

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 24 (Agencies): Con-fronted with its worst crisis since World War II, the UN -- which marked 75 years of its existence in 2020 -- mounted a compre-hensive global response to combat the pandemic that saw India, ‘the pharmacy of the world’, leading from the front as it extended a helping hand to over 150 nations to fight the invis-ible enemy.

As nations across the world began closing their borders and shutting down businesses in early 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the pandemic was the “fifth horsemen” that added to the fury of the other four horsemen - high-est global geo-strategic ten-sions in years, existential climate crisis, deep and growing global mistrust and the dark side of the digital world.

He described the COVID-19 pandemic as “the great-est crisis of our age” that plunged the world into an acute health and eco-nomic crisis, “the severity of which has not been seen in nearly a century”.

“We face simultaneously an epochal health crisis, the biggest economic calam-ity and job losses since the Great Depression, and dangerous new threats to human rights. COVID-19 has laid bare the world’s

fragilities,” Guterres said, adding that the pandemic wiped away the progress of decades.

The UN mounted a com-prehensive global response to combat the pandemic.

In this unprecedented moment of crisis, India led from the front with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving a strong assurance to the global community in his address to the first ever virtual high-level session of the General Assembly in September that as the largest vaccine produc-ing country of the world, India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all human-ity in fighting this crisis.

“To tackle the health fall out during COVID, India has reached out to the world in real time and assisted more than 150 countries. We continue to do so in myriad ways,” India’s Permanent Repre-sentative to the UN, T S Tirumurti, told PTI.

India, recognised as a world leader in vaccines, produces 60% of vaccines globally. With a reputa-tion as the “pharmacy of the world”, the country is gearing up to tackle the pandemic on a war footing with a pipeline of several COVID-19 vaccines under different stages of develop-ment.

Vaccine candidates COVAXIN and ZyCoV-D are under phase 3 and

phase 2 trials, while vaccine manufacturer Serum Insti-tute of India is conducting final testing of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca COVISHIELD vaccine.

In the early months of the pandemic, India sup-plied anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, iden-tified as a possible treat-ment for COVID-19, to several countries, includ-ing the US.

India also pledged USD 15 million to GAVI and operationalised the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund with an initial con-tribution of USD 10 million.

India, however, ques-tioned where the UN’s “effective response” was as the world battled the pandemic.

Modi has asserted that reform in the responses, processes and in the very character of the UN is the “need of the hour” as he questioned for how long will India, the world’s larg-est democracy and home to 1.3 billion people, be kept out of the decision-making structures of the UN.

With the world head-ing into 2021 straddling the devastating impacts of COVID-19, Guterres warned that a vaccine alone cannot undo damage that will stretch across years, even decades to come.

He said the threats of rising poverty and the big-gest global recession in eight decades are intergen-

erational impacts not due to COVID-19 alone. “They are the result of long-term fragilities, inequalities and injustices that have been exposed by the pandemic. It is time to reset.”

He also appreciated India’s assistance to other nations during the pan-demic.

India gave a clarion call to the global community to join hands to show leadership, solidarity and collaboration to deal with the pandemic. “We can respond best by col-laboration, not confusion; preparation, not panic and coming together, not growing apart,” Ministry of External Affairs Secre-tary (West) Vikas Swarup told the General Assembly.

The pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan almost a year ago, has so far killed 1.6 million people globally and infected over 76 mil-lion.

India stressed that the pandemic laid bare the gaps that exist in global cooperation and gover-nance structures of multi-lateral organisations and underlined the urgent need for reformed multilateral-ism.

Reformed multilateral-ism, effective response to global terrorism and comprehensive approach to peace and security are among India’s priorities as it prepares to sit in the most powerful UN organ -- the Security Council -- as a non-permanent member for a two-year term begin-ning January 1, 2021.

“India’s presence in the Security Council is needed at this juncture when there are deep fissures between P-5 themselves and also between other countries. The UN is losing coherence and we hope to bring this back by focusing on issues of priority to all member states,” Tirumurti said. The priorities include counter-terrorism and reformed multilateralism.

India, the endorsed candi-date from the Asia-Pacific states, overwhelmingly won its UNSC election in June, garnering 184 votes out of the 192 ballots cast.

Last-minute UK-EU post-Brexit trade deal in the works

LONDON, Dec 24 (Agencies): Crunch talks overnight led UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson summon his Cabinet for a late Wednesday night con-ference call to indicate that a post-Brexit trade agree-ment may be ready for sign off soon.

The prime minister is expected to announce the contours of the agreement at a Downing Street brief-ing during the course of Thursday.

Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have been in close contact over the past few days as the December 31 transition period cut-off loomed over the negotiations, which have missed repeated deadlines as they failed to agree on key areas of fish-ing rights in each other’s waters and competition rules that would apply to

the UK as a non-member of the 27-member eco-nomic bloc. According to reports emerging from Brussels, both sides have come to a base agreement which would ensure most of the current tariff-free, quota-free arrangement but unlikely to mean entirely frictionless trade as businesses had hoped.

“Brexit work would con-tinue throughout the night. Grabbing some sleep is rec-ommended to all Brexit-watchers at this point,” Eric Mamer, the chief spokes-person for Von der Leyen, said on Twitter on Wednes-day night.

“It will hopefully be an early start tomorrow [Thursday] morning,” he said, raising hopes that the talks were finally taking a positive direction.

The UK Parliament needs to ratify a deal if one is agreed and as it has

already risen for Christmas break, the likelihood is that MPs will be recalled to the House of Commons next week for urgent business. Johnson’s comfortable majority in the Commons means the deal is likely to be signed off in time.

On the EU side, the Euro-pean Parliament would then ratify the agreement, which is expected in the New Year and with all the member-countries briefed on it, they are unlikely to exercise their veto powers.

It has now been four and half years since Britain voted to exit the EU in a referendum in June 2016. It officially left at the end of January this year and entered into an 11-month transition period, or a phase of status quo, to hammer out a new free trade agreement.

However, the last few months and weeks have

proved particularly tense on the path to such an agreement, with the UK concerned about the EU’s insistence to close align-ment to its rules even after Brexit and the EU accusing the UK of expecting unfair advantages.

The main sticking points remain fishing rights and the so-called “level playing field” – measures to pre-vent what is seen as unfair competition through the lowering of standards or the use of state subsidies.

While the Johnson-led government insisted that it would make the most of a no-deal Brexit too, there were widespread con-cerns that leaving without a deal and consequently having to trade on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms from January 1, 2021, would cause major hurdles for business and push up prices for consumers.

Trump’s legacy He changed the presidency but will it last

WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (Agen-cies): The most improbable of presi-dents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominat-ing the national discourse like no one before.

Trump, governing by whim and tweet, deepened the nation’s racial and cultural divides and undermined faith in its institutions. His legacy: a tumultuous four years that were marked by his impeachment, failures during the worst pandemic in a cen-tury and his refusal to accept defeat.

He smashed conceptions about how presidents behave and communicate, offering unvarnished thoughts and policy declarations alike, pulling back the curtain for the American people while enthralling supporters and unnerving foes — and sometimes allies — both at home and abroad.

While the nation would be hard-pressed to elect another figure as disruptive as Trump, it remains to be seen how much of his imprint on the office itself, occupied by only 44 other men, will be indelible. Already it shadows the work of his succes-sor, President-elect Joe Biden, who framed his candidacy as a repudia-tion of Trump, offering himself as an antidote to the chaos and dissent of the past four years while vowing to

restore dignity to the Oval Office.“For all four years, this is someone

who at every opportunity tried to stretch presidential power beyond the limits of the law. He altered the presidency in many ways, but many of them can be changed back almost overnight by a president who wants to make the point that there is a change,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Trump’s most enduring legacy may be his use of the trappings of the presidency to erode Americans’ views of the institutions of their own government. From his first moments in office, Trump waged an assault on the federal bureaucracy, casting a suspicious eye on career officials he deemed the “Deep State” and shaking Americans’ confidence in civil servants and the levers of gov-ernment. Believing that the investiga-tion into Russian election interference was a crusade to undermine him, Trump went after the intelligence agencies and Justice Department and later unleashed broadsides against the man running the probe, special counsel Robert Mueller.

His other targets were legion: the Supreme Court for insufficient loy-alty; the post office for its handling of mail-in ballots; even the integrity of the vote itself with his baseless claims of election fraud.

“In the past, presidents who lost were always willing to turn the office over to the next person...What we’re seeing right now is really an assault on the institutions of democracy,” said Richard Waterman, who stud-ies the presidency at the University of Kentucky. Jeopardising the peace-ful transfer of power was hardly Trump’s first assault on the traditions of the presidency. He didn’t release his tax returns or divest himself from his businesses. He doled out govern-ment resources on a partisan basis and undermined his own scientists.

He named a secretary of defence, Jim Mattis, who needed a congres-sional waiver to serve because the retired general had not been out of uniform for the seven years required by law. In that one example, Biden has followed Trump’s lead, nominat-ing for Pentagon chief retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, who also will need a waiver. Trump’s disruption extended to the global stage as well, where he cast doubt on once-inviolable allianc-es like NATO and bilateral partner-ships with a host of allies. His “Amer-ica First” foreign policy emanated more from preconceived notions of past slights than current facts on the ground. He unilaterally pulled troops from Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.

8 STATE Top News of J&K

Jammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 24: District Legal Servicers Authority (DLSA), Sri-nagar today organized a daylong programme on National Consumer Rights Day at ADR Centre District Court Complex Moomina-bad Srinagar.

The programme was attended by scores of senior and junior lawyers, Para Legal volunteers and others.

Chairman District Legal Services Authority (Pr. Distt. & Sessions Judge) Srinagar, Mr Abdul Rashid Malik and Adnan Sayeed, Secretary District Legal Services Authority, (Sub Judge) Srinagar, spoke on the occasion and high-lighted the importance of National Consumer Rights Day. Malik Fahad Advo-cate, Rafiq Ahmad Dar Advocate and Suhaila Ali Advocate (Panel Lawyer DLSA Srinagar) also spoke about the Consumer Pro-tection Act and different forum for redressal of grievances of consumers.

Meanwhile a similar function was held in the Directorate of FCS&CA

Kashmir, attended, among others, by the officers of the department besides Consumer Bodies, repre-sentatives of various orga-nizations including trade bodies, Civil Society and Media fraternity.

The speakers on this occasion highlighted the consumer rights and the provisions of the Consum-er protection Act and the powers flowing through essential commodities Act which guarantee the pro-tection of Consumer rights. It was impressed upon the participants to know the rights of a consumer and also the laws which are in place to take stringent mea-sures against persons who in any way come between the rights and the Consum-ers.

It was given out that the Department inspected 66523 establishments, out of which an amount of Rs 4304970 was recovered from 14341 erring traders and for the first time 483 FIRs against traders, on the charges of floated provi-sions of Consumer Protec-tion Act, were lodged in the concerned Police sta-tions since April this year.

Top News Report

ANANTNAG, Dec 24: The Director Rural Devel-opment Department, Kash-mir Qazi Sarwar today reviewed the implementa-tion of centrally sponsored schemes and status of RDD works at a meeting held at Dak- Bungalow Khanabal. The meeting was attend-ed by Dy. Director RDD, ACD, DPO, Dy. Director Planning, all BDOs, Xen REW Anantnag, AEEs & JEEs of the department.

The ACD Anantnag Mr. Nisar Ahmad Malik through a powerpoint presentation informed the meeting about the progress and achievements made in the district under MGNRE-GA, PMAY for 2020 – 2021 & execution of works taken up in the district under MGNREGA.

While informing about

the achievements made under MGNREGA, the ACD told the meeting that under MGNREGA, 2846 works stand physically completed while 495 works have been completed finan-cially also.

Out of the 5917 works including 3316 of current year and 2601 as spell over works and 25 lac main days have been generated with a financial implication of Rs. 136.95 crore.

Regarding PMAY (G) the ACD informed the meet-ing that against a target of 2315, 2045 houses were completed physically and financially, 2204 houses were completed (up to 2nd instalment level).

While as 3rd instalment has been completed to 2057 beneficiaries. An amount of Rs.1157.50 lacs has been disbursed among the PMAY beneficiaries.

National Consumer Rights Day held at Srinagar

Progress of MGNREGA, PMAY reviewed at Ang

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Prin-cipal Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Department, Dheeraj Gupta today chaired a meeting to review the progress on set-ting up of Modern Slaugh-ter Houses in Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was attended by the Com-missioner Jammu Munici-pal Corporation, Avny Lavasa; Commissioner Pollution Control Board, BM Sharma; Director ULB Jammu, Asgar Hussain; Special Secretary H&UDD, Showkat Mir; Additional Secretary, H&UDD, Dr. RS Sharma, Commissioner

Srinagar Municipal Cor-poration, Gazanffar Ali; Director ULB, Kashmir, Riaz Ahmad besides the representatives of Animal & Sheep Husbandry, Police and other departments.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary empha-sized that the Detailed Proj-ect Reports (DPRs) for the Slaughter Houses should invariably conform to the guidelines of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

The Principal Secretary desired that all mandatory requirements should be part of Modern Slaughter Houses while the meeting decided that in view of large requirement of funds

other options of funding would be explored for such projects, including PPP Mode.

The progress in the modern slaughter houses being constructed by Jammu Municipal Corpo-ration as well as Srinagar Municipal Corporation was also reviewed.

The concerned Commis-sioners were directed to strictly ensure timely com-pletion of the project.

The Principal Secre-tary was informed that an expert Committee has been constituted to exam-ine the Model DPRs for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 24: The Department of Libraries and Research is planning to establish a network of theme-based Reading Zones-cum-Public Librar-ies in J&K in convergence with various Departments to broaden the citizens’ access to knowledge and information.

This was announced by Secretary, Culture, Tour-ism and Youth Services & Sports, Sarmad Hafeez during his visit to the SPS Library complex here today.

He said the Libraries Department has already started the process for establishing two Smart Libraries in Srinagar in collaboration with Srinagar Smart City Ltd. “Some more theme-based libraries are being planned in Srinagar and Jammu in convergence with Tourism Department, Information Department, Airports Authority of India Ltd, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Department of Archives, Archelogy & Museums and Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society,” he said and added that these theme-based libraries will include special read-ing material for students, researchers, women, chil-dren, tourists, travellers, senior citizens and heritage enthusiasts.

Sarmad visited various sections of the library and interacted with a large

number of students who were present in the Read-ing Room there. He hailed the Libraries Department for providing Wi-Fi con-nectivity to the whole SPS Library Complex.

Responding to vari-ous demands of the stu-dents including increase in timing and space con-straints, the Secretary Culture announced that another Reading Room at the 1st Floor of the SPS Library would be made fully functional and opened for students. He said the operational hours for the Reading Room would be from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm from 1st January 2021. He said the Department would also explore the possibility of keeping the library open during holidays to facilitate the readers. He also called for making the cafeteria in the Library Complex immediately functional.

Sarmad said the Depart-ment would be also invit-ing Career Counsellors and Subject Experts who will impart key tips to students on how to crack various competitive examinations including civil services, NEET/JEE/CAT/CLAT etc. He called for sustained and extensive technologi-cal interventions in librar-ies including automation, e-cataloguing and e-circu-lation to make them more user-friendly.

The Secretary Culture hailed the sustained efforts of Director Libraries &

Research, Mr Mohammad Rafiq towards reposition-ing and reinventing the libraries in J&K through various innovative and technological interventions. “It is heartening to note that the Libraries Depart-ment has of late introduced some pioneering measures to give a refreshing look to the libraries in the UT and make them lively literary places,” he said and added that the credit for these ini-tiatives goes to the Director Libraries, Mr Mohammad Rafi.

Responding to the demands of the Libraries Department employees, Secretary Culture said a comprehensive reorgani-zation proposal would be formulated to create career progression avenues for the officers/officials of the Libraries Department.

Sarmad said that J&K has the distinction of having oldest libraries in the region including SRS Library Jammu established in 1879 and SPS Library Srinagar established in 1898. He said these two central libraries have a collection of around 1 lakh titles including some rare books and manu-scripts. Senior officials of the Libraries Department Kashmir accompanied the DDC during his visit to the SPS Library and briefed him about various ongoing activities including auto-mation and digitization of rare books and manu-scripts.

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 24: A meeting with the pesticide dealers of JK held here today to review quality and supply of pesticides.

Project Coordinator Mushroom impressed upon the officers to put every effort in place to safeguard farmers interest at all levels of administra-

tion. He also stressed upon

the enforcement officers to monitor the availability and quality of inputs in Kashmir Division.

Participating represen-tatives of various Insecti-cide/Pesticide manufac-turing companies raised some issues being faced by them in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

They assured the meet-ing that they will provide all support to the depart-ment in regulating the pes-ticide trade in the UT and also assured that they will supply quality pesticides to the farming community.

Project Coordinator and other officers assured them that their genuine demands will be put forth for redressal.

Dheeraj Gupta reviews process on setting up of Modern Slaughter Houses in J&K

JK to have a network of theme-based librariesSecy Culture visits SPS library, hails innovative steps being taken

to reinvent libraries through technological interventions

Advisor Bhatnagar reviews performance of Jal Shakti Deptt

Top News Report

JAMMU, DECEMBER 24: Advisor to Lieuten-ant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today chaired a meeting to review the vari-ous activities of Jal Shakti Department as well as the progress of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Jammu and Kashmir at Civil Secretariat here.

Secretary Jal Shakti, M Raju; Chief Engineer PHE, Kashmir, Chief Engineer, I&FC, Kashmir, Executive Engineers of all districts and other concerned offi-cials attended the meeting through video conferenc-ing while as Chief Engi-neer, PHE Jammu, Chief Engineer, I&FC Jammu and other officers of the concerned departments participated in the meeting in person.

During the meeting, Advi-sor Bhatnagar took detailed review of the department focusing on completion of different schemes under PMDP, Centrally Spon-sored Schemes, physical targets achieved, utilisa-tion of money as well as the implementation of JJM in J&K. The Advisor also reviewed the arrangements made by the Jal Shakti department for maintain-ing continuous supply of water during the ongoing winters.

Advisor Bhatnagar called upon the officials to increase their visibility on ground and take proac-tive initiatives like having a 24/7 complaint redressal system to address the problems of general public during these critical times.

He emphasized upon the officers to focus on deliv-

ery, outcome and effective grievances redressal mech-anism so that people do not face any kind of inconve-nience.

The Advisor directed the officers to formulate the Village Action Plans (VAP) as per the aspirations of the people in consultation with the representatives of PRIs so that the required infra-structure is built as per the needs of people.

The Advisor empha-sized upon the officers to provide uninterrupted water supply to the people besides making all pos-sible arrangements to pro-vide extra drinking water supply to the consumers during the critical times of COVID-19.

Advisor Bhatnagar impressed upon the officials to reduce time taken for restoration of supply, close monitoring of complaints received on Helpline numbers, keep-ing reserve stock of critical components, making work-shops functional, improv-ing quality of water sup-plies and addressing issues of sedimentation. He also delved upon the officers to ensure that tankers are effectively used to fill gaps of increasing drinking water supply demand.

Highlighting the need of extra water supply during winter season, the Advisor directed the department to put in place a mechanism by which adequate supply of potable water is pro-vided to the consumers in the areas, which have increased demand during the winters.

Earlier, Secretary Jal Shakti through a presenta-tion gave a detailed prog-

ress report to the Advisor, where in complete infor-mation regarding the short term as well as long term measures planned by the department were highlight-ed besides other achieve-ments of the department like increase in distribu-tion system and employing standard safety measures were also underlined.

Regarding the progress on implementation of JJM, the Advisor was informed that under JJM, district Ganderbal and District Sri-nagar have achieved 100% saturation in the implemen-tation of scheme while as in rest of the districts more than 80% progress has been achieved with regular works going on smoothly.

The Advisor was also informed that a minimum of10 days training pro-gramme for upgrading the skills of the employ-ees in areas like masonry, plumbing, electricity, fit-ting etc will also be started in the month of January in pahsed manner covering almost 6400 personnel of the department.

Speaking regarding the JJM, Advisor Bhatnagar maintained that this is a prestigious project announced by the Prime Minister with an aim of giving functional house-hold tap connections to all households. The Advisor exhorted upon the officials that there should be no scope for laxity in imple-mentation of JJM as it is a very prestigious project and the government is committed to provide assured basic services to the people living in rural areas and JJM is a step for-ward towards that.

Also reviews progress on implementation of JJM

Top News Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 24: Jammu and Kashmir High Court Judge, Chairman Juvenile Jus-tice Committee (JJC) High Court of J&K and Member National Legal Services Authority of India, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey today stressed for revival of value based system in our society to prevent our children from get-ting into the substance abuse.

He said this during one day awareness pro-gramme on Drug de-addiction, legal literacy through schools and Women and Child rights organised as per the plan of action formulat-ed by the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) of India and under the directions and guidance of Justice Magrey by Directorate of School Education Kashmir at Girls Higher Sec-ondary School Kothibagh here.

Justice Magrey was the Chief Guest on the occasion while Secretary Juvenile Justice Com-mittee and Principal District and Sessions Judge Abdul Rashid Malik, Director School Education Kashmir, M Younis Malik, S.P City (East) Sheema Nabi Qasba, Associate Professor Psychiatry, SKIMS Medical College Bemina Dr Majid, Panel lawyer Advocate Bisma Khan were present on the occasion.

The Chairman JJC said that despite Kashmir

being a place of saints and sufis why our chil-dren have engaged into drug abuse and one of the main reasons for it is turning back to the values that we would have inherited from our elders.

Stressing for revival of value based systems in our society, he said revival of values among ourselves is the sole remedy that can prevent our societal setup from further degradation which include drug addiction among youth, exploitation of women and children besides other social evils.

Divulging into the details, Justice Magrey said that our mission is that our children which are our future should be saved from drug abuse and for this we have organised awareness programme starting from educa-tion department itself with the reason that after parents, children receive education from schools and teachers play an important role in molding their future. He called the teachers important pillars of the system and told them that their strength, dedication, commitment, loyalty, discipline will shape their future and complimented them that they are already in the process but more is required.

Stressing for making positive use of tech-nology, Justice Magrey said that our students should make productive use of social media

to the extent for making one a great scientist, famous doctor, educationist, bureaucrats and academicians who have earned name and fame in the world besides taking support from teachers, talented people around them rather than feeling shy.

He said the constitution has given rights to children, it has guaranteed rights of women equally to men and it has given strength to the system to save children from drug abuse. There are laws but implementation is wanted and legal literacy is an important aspect of it.

Justice Magrey said that Legal literacy is important for our children as they don’t know their rights, rights of women, fundamental rights of the citizens, and the only objective of keeping these legal literacy clubs in educa-tional institutions is that our experts will teach them there and these children will decimate the same among others.

To curb this menace, Chairman JJC said that law enforcing agencies can get together and prevent our children from getting into drug abuse as they did in other cases.

Meanwhile, the inaugural address was presented by Director School Education, M Younis Malik. He termed the model societies as a turning point for shaping the future of our students.

Secretary Juvenile Justice Committee and Principal District and Sessions Judge Abdul Rashid Malik, S.P City (East) Sheema Nabi Qasba, Associate Professor Psychiatry, SKIMS Medical College Bemina Dr Majid, Panel lawyer Advocate Bisma Khan also presented their valuable comments during the proceed-ings of the programme.

On the occasion the students of the GHSS Kothibagh presented a Skit on drug addiction.

Principal GHSS Kothibagh, Prof Nusrat Bukhari presented vote of thanks to the guest for their august presence.

Among others, Dy. CEOs, Principals, Head-Masters, Headmistresses, students participat-ed in the programme.

Justice Magrey for revival of value based system in societyOne day awareness programme organised at GHSS Kothibagh

Quality, timely supply of pesticides reviewed at Sgr

9Top News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020 STATE / CONTD....

ACB produce charge-sheet against former CE UEED, others

Prevention of Corruption Act Svt 2006 against them.

Spokesman said all the three accused were produced in Anti-Corruption Court Srinagar and charge-sheet was filed against them, after Government accorded sanction for prosecu-tion.

He said next date of hearing has been fixed on March I, 2021.

There is no democracy in India, says Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making the country weak and outside forces are seeing it as an opportunity, he said.

“I want to tell media, understand this, I know you have salaries to protect, but see what is happening,” he added.

Earlier today, Congress leaders were taken into police custody after they were denied permission to hold a march against the farm

laws.

Light snow predicted in Kashmir valley over

weekendCelsius.Gulmarg was the coldest recorded place in the valley.Qazigund – the gateway town to the valley – recorded the minimum of minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, while Kupwara, in the north, reg-istered a low of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius and Kokernag, in the south, minus 3 degrees Celsius, the officials said.Kashmir is currently under the grip of” Chillai-Kalan” — the 40-day harshest winter period when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum.”Chillai-Kalan”, which began on December 21, is considered the harshest winter period in Kashmir as a cold wave grips the region and the temperature drops considerably leading to the freezing of water bodies including the famous Dal Lake here as well as the water supply lines in several parts of the valley.The chances of snowfall are most frequent and

maximum during this period and most areas, especially in the higher reaches, receive heavy snowfall, the officials said.While” Chillai-Kalan” will end on January 31, the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir with a 20-day-long” Chillai-Khurd” (small cold) and a 10-day-long ”Chillai-Bach-ha” (baby cold).The MET Office has said the weather is likely to remain mainly dry till December 25, but there is a possibility of light in the valley for two days from Saturday.There is no forecast of any major snowfall activity till the end of this month, it added.

Police arrests 4 terror associates of Al-Bader, AK-56 rifle, ammunition

seizedpora Police Station.

The investigation is underway, more arrests and recovery is expected in the case, the police said.

If you want democracy to

survive, release all those detained: Farooq to LG

incident. In last three decades, we have seen so much violence. We condemn these preven-tive detention and with all power we have, we demand release of all those detained immedi-ately,” Lone said.

ED Raids Former PDP MLA, Seizes Over Rs 28

Lakh CashThey have been doing this with anyone and everyone who is close to me”.

Three shops, residential house, SUV gutted in

midnight blaze at Bhadarwah

He said the fire, which started at 1:30 am on Thursday, completely destroyed the com-plex belonging to Sepoy Mukesh Kumar son of Prithvi Raj Manhas. One Scorpio car

bearing registration number JK02 CL-1265 of Sanjay Anand of Jammu parked near the complex was also damaged in the fire.

Locals and fire tenders immediately started the operation to douse the flames, which was spreading very rapidly as the complex was mostly made of dry cedar and pine wood.

“Whatever the stock accumulation was done in recent days for winters has turned into ashes and nothing could be saved,” said the store owner Omkar Singh, adding that he had recently procured the goods worth 20 lakhs after taking a loan from the bank.

The complex owner’s wife said they had lost everything to the devastating fire. “We have spent all the savings of our life to build a home, but in a couple of hours everything turned into ashes. The only thing I can manage to save from the devastating fire are my two kids, who were sleeping at the time of the incident,” said Darshana Devi, wife of Mukesh Kumar.

Meanwhile, ADC Bhadarwah Rakesh Kumar said it appears that there is no foul play and the fire started due to short-circuit. A team has been already deputed to assess the situation and the family will be compen-sated, he said.

FROM PAGE 1

Top News Report

SAMBA, Dec 24: Sarv Dharam Sev Samiti Samba under the Chairmanship of Amard-eep Singh celebrated Christmas with the Christian Community (Safaikarmacharis) of Municipal Committee Samba like pre-vious years. The chairman along with the members of the samiti distributed gifts to the Safaikarmacharis with the Cake cutting ceremony by Pawan Kohli President of the Municipal Committee, Samba.

The chairman of the Samiti told the gath-ering that these people helped us with their life on risk in the COVID-19 Era and still they are providing services to the commu-

nity. He also remembered the saying of the Jesus Christ that all religions are the same.

The president of the Safaikaramchari Union along with members was over-whelmed by the response of the Samiti and was very cheerful on the occasion.

On this occasion Ward Members Ravi Khajuria, Vinod Singh Binny, Sanjeev Padha, Tara Chand, Chairman Sarv Dharam Seva Samiti Samba Amardeep Singh along with members of the samiti including Rajnish Pargal, Sanjay Gupta, Vikesh Amba, Vivek Goswami, Sunil Thappa, Anil Mangotia, Munsh Abrol Rinku and all employees, Safaikaramcha-riS of Municipality Council Samba.

Top News Report

AKHNOOR, Dec 24: A condolence meeting was held here today at Akhnoor to condole the sad demise of veteran Congress leader & former Member Parlia-ment Madan Lal Sharma.

Akhnoor Block President Bansi Lal Gupta, Gur-bachan Singh Maira Man-drian Block President, Ex Sarpanch Kuldeep Sharma, Ex Sarpanch Krishan Lal Sharma, Ex Sarpanch Madan Lal Sharma and other senior leaders of the party attended the meeting.

In a statement issued to Press, Madan Lal Sharma was not keeping well for the past some time and breathed his last, yester-day.

Sharma had a long inning in politics and served the state and the party in dif-ferent capacities during his career.

Floral tributes were paid to the veteran leader in the meeting and the senior leaders remembered his contributions in differ-ent capacities to the party and the people during his public life spread over to around five decades. He was a humble personal-ity and always remained associated with the people at the grass root levels espe-cially poor and the down-trodden

Paying rich tributes Ex Sarpanch Kuldeep Sharma expressed deep shock over the said demise of Madan Lal Sharma and described

him as a great leader of the party who was liked by one and all because of his humbleness and qualities of leadership. He said that his death has created a void in the party which is diffi-cult to be filled.

Referring to his long career in public life, Mir said that he saw many ups and downs in his public life but remained a determined soldier of the people and the party.

Later, two minutes silence was observed to pray for eternal peace to the depart-ed soul.

A number of senior lead-ers were present on the occasion and shared their sorrow and grief over the sad demise of Shri Madan Lal Sharma and remem-bered his services to the people and the party. Prominent amongst them included Sham Lal, Retd ZEO Krishan Lal, Rattan Lal Sharma, Retd. ZEPO Baldev Raj, Captain Tulsi Dass, Sanjeev Kumar, Jag-dish Raj, Pawan Bharti, Veenu Verma, Mohan Lal and Hazara Singh

Sarv Dharam Sev Samiti Samba celebrated Christmas

Akhnoor Congress Committee pays tributes to Madan Lal Sharma

Chadar, flag offer on Pir Baba Gospak

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Nation-al Conference President Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Vice President Omar Abdullah and senior leaders have expressed deep grief and shock over the death of Aziz Mohd Sheikh Block President Palmar Dis-trict Kishtwar and con-veyed condolences to the bereaved family.

Dr. Farooq Abdul-lah and Omar Abdullah expressed solidarity with

the bereaved family.Besides Provincial Presi-

dent Jammu Province Devender Singh Rana, the prominent among those who conveyed condolenc-es to the bereaved family and prayed for peace to the departed soul include: Sajjed Ahmed Kichloo, Qazi Jalal Ud Din, Brij Mohan Sharma, Tanveer Kichloo, Pyare Lal Sharma, Mushtaq Haq, Shabir Ahmed Kamal, Tanveer Bazada, Sajjad Sheikh and Imtiaz Zargar.

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JAMMU, Dec 24: JKB Financial Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of J&K Bank today held its 12th Annual General Meet-ing at Srinagar. The Meet-ing was chaired by Chair-man & Managing Director of J&K Bank, R K Chhibber and attended by its Share-holders and Directors on Board.

The Shareholders of the Company reviewed and approved the financial results of the Company for FY 2019-20.

Besides the shareholders approved the re-appoint-ment of Sunil Gupta as Director on the Board. The appointment of Rakesh Koul and. Nisar Ahmad Zargar as Directors and Mohammad Muzzafar Wani as Managing Director of the Company was also approved.

The shareholders also passed a resolution for the

appointment of Nishi Baru as Director on the Board of the Company.

The resolution for the amendment in Memoran-dum of Association of the Company to undertake business in commodity trading and other business lines was also passed by the shareholders.

During the meeting the business strategy of the Company for expanding its footprints not only in UT’s of J & K and Ladakh but also rest of the country was also discussed.

The Chairman advised the Company to aggres-sively market its products and services and also take initiatives for increasing awareness about financial planning and goal orient-ed investments among the masses.

The Chief Financial Offi-cer, Pankaj Gour and Com-pany Secretary of the Com-pany, Zaffar Hamed were also present in the meeting.

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JAMMU, Dec 24: Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), Mains is being held in 13 Languages including Urdu Language for the next ses-sion (2021).

As per the exam conduct-ing authority, National Test-ing agency the JEE mains 2021 would be held in 13 languages including Hindi, English Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi Odia,

Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu & Urdu as per the New Education Policy of India.

The NAT has also released the examination schedule according to which the Ses-sion-I exam would be held from February 23 to Feb 26, 2021, the Session-II from March 15 to March 18, 2021, Session-III from April 27 to April 30, 2021 and Session-IV from May 24 to May 28, 2021.

Farooq, Omar express grief over demise of Aziz Mohd Sheikh

Chairman J&K Bank chairs 12th AGM of JKB Financial Services Limited

JEE Mains- 2021 to be held in 13 languages including Urdu

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SAMBA, Dec 24: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Samba under the administrative control of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and technology of Jammu concluded 5 days training programme on Beekeeping at KVK, Samba.

The programme was organized under the aegis of Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Dr. J.P. Sharma and under the guidance of Dr. S.K Gupta, Director Extension.

The programme was attended by 21 youth of different villages of Dis-trict Samba. The event was organized to improve the skill of farmers regard-ing the Beekeeping and to aware them about honey production, pollination

and role of honey bees for enhancing productiv-ity by pollination in cross pollinated crops. Initially the programme was initi-ated by Dr. Vinod Gupta, Sr. Scientist & Head with the introduction of impor-tance and scope of diver-sification in agriculture. In his address, he stated that farmers can double their income by doing beekeep-ing very easily. His discus-sion was mainly focussed on increasing the farmer’s income manifold through establishing marketing linkages and branding of agriculture and veterinary products. He emphasised on apiculture with the technical support of KVK Samba. Dr. Saurav Gupta, Scientist, Entomology motivated the farmers and

youth of district Samba for doing beekeeping for dou-bling their income and raise their socio-economic status. In his address, he gave brief introduction of Beekeep-ing, Management of honey bee colonies, hive products, benefits of Beekeeping and also gave live demonstra-tion of honey bee colonies to the participants.

The programme was ended with vote of thanks by Dr. Abhay Sinha, laid stress on improved farm Mechanization from filed preparation to harvest-ing and post harvesting of vegetables to increase the income of the farmers. Dr. Suraj Amrutkar, Dr. Amit Mahajan, along with other staff members were also present during the pro-gramme.

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VIJAYPUR, Dec 24: On the 11th day of Sarkar Gons Pak Pir Baba in village Gagor of Vijaypur, the cer-emony of offering a Chadar and flag on the tomb was performed.

On this occasion, in the presence of Ashok Sai, the servant of the Dargah, performed the ceremony of offering the flag and the sheet.

During this period, Deepak Pangotra, Chair-man of Municipal Commit-tee Vijaypur was present.

Ashok Sai, the servant of the dargah, said that every month the program is organized on the eleventh

day of Pir at the Dargah of Sarkar Gausan Pak.

He told that people come to this dargah including Jammu and Punjab, Him-achal Pradesh, Gauss Pak government earnestly ask for vows, and their wishes come true. During this period, Sufi singers gave

Qawwali. During this time a large

number of compatriots had arrived. A grand Bhandara was organized on the occa-sion in which the incoming Sangat took the anchor. During this time a large number of sevadars were also present.

Top News Report

POONCH, Dec 24: After registering a thumping win from Mandi District Devel-opment Council constitu-ency, National Conference took out a victory rally in the area terming it as a win of common masses.

Rally was led by Provin-cial President of Youth NC, Ajaz Jan whose mother Ateeqa Begum won as NC candidate from Mandi DDC constituency defeat-ing a former MLC.

The rally ended at Mandi tehsil headquarter where people from all walks of

life had assemble.“This is not only a win

of NC candidate but win of common masses who voted for restoration of special status of Jammu and Kashmir besides other basic issues,” said Ajaz Jan while addressing the gath-ering.

Vocational Training Programme on Beekeeping held

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Bhartiya Lok Sangeet Kala Sansthan (BLSKS) in close coordination with J&K State Aids Control Society, Department of Health and Medi-cal Education, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir presented “Aids Aware-ness” cultural folk performances at Border Villages Muralia and Kotli Arjan Singh, Block R.S. Pura, Jammu.

The programme was inaugu-rated by the Chief Guests Shakti Kumar, Numbardar, Maralia, R.S

Pura and Sham Sher Singh, Presi-dent Singh Sabha, Kotli Arjan Singh, R.S Pura was Guest of Honour. The special guests were Rajnish Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Pankaj Verma, Sahil Raj, Harba-jan Singh, Sukhdev Singh were

present on the occasion. The singers, musician and

actors who performed were Usha Handoo , M.C Kotwal, Rajni Gupta, Sant Das, Kamla Devi, Raju Bajgal, Gouri Lal, Sudesh Manhas and Sanjeev Sodhi.

Govt announces winter vacations for Colleges

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Jammu and Kash-mir’s Higher Education Department on Thursday announced winter vacations for the Government Degree Colleges falling in winter and summer zones.

As per an order issued here today, Government Degree Colleges in Kash-mir Valley and winter zones of Jammu Division would close on December 28, 2020 and open on February 14, 2021, while those falling on Summer Zone of Jammu Division would close on December 26, 2020, and open on Janu-ary 4, 2021.

NC holds victory rally in Poonch Mandi

BLSKS presents cultural folk performances

10 STATE Top News of J&K

Jammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) today said that the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee (PSC) headed by Dr. K Keshava Rao has recommended that the Government of India should come out with Franchise Protection Act for Auto Dealers.

This recommendation was part of sug-gestions made by the Standing Committee in its Report Number 303 titled “Down-turn in Automobile Sector-Its Impact and Measures for Revival”.

Commenting on this, FADA President, Vinkesh Gulati said, “I am grateful to the Standing Committee and specially the Chairman, Dr. K Keshava Rao, for strongly recommending Franchisee Pro-tection Act for Auto Dealers. India does not have a Franchisee Law at present due to which the OEM - Dealer agreements are highly skewed towards manufacturers. This leads to a tussle in managing deal-ership operations in various ways, very short terms agreements and non-existence of a clearly defined exit policy. Many developed Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Albania, Russia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Italy, Sweden, and Belgium now have such rules to pro-tect the franchisee’s which started with

USA introducing the same in 1980s.There are various examples where Auto Manu-facturers suddenly announced their exit from India leaving Auto Dealers high and dry with their investments going down the drain. Few examples of such exits since 2017 are General Motors India, Man Trucks (a VW Group Company), UM Lohia and Harley Davidson India. Fran-chise laws will actually level the playing field between large automakers and local dealers. Currently, almost all auto dealer-ships are privately owned proprietorship or family owned businesses. Meanwhile, large automobile manufacturers are some of the biggest corporations in India and overseas. Because of the disparity in size and power between individual dealers and manufacturers, the Government need to accept the Standing Committee Recom-mendation and bring in Franchise Protec-tion Act to level the playing field between Auto OEMs and Auto Dealers. Therefore, a fair competition Franchisee Act will not be just a win-win for both the Auto OEMs and Auto Dealers, it will also be benefi-cial to customers in long run. It will also provide continuing and necessary reliable services to the consuming public and also provide stable employment to the people the dealership employs and skills in the community without displacing them from their home locations.”

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited (FGII) has teamed up with ‘Room to Read’ an NGO that helps underprivileged children to improve liter-acy and inculcate the habit of reading. Through this partnership, the company plans to setup libraries and donate books to under privileged children from the society.

As a part of its responsi-bility towards community development, FGII will

use its uniquely designed annual report to raise funds for the NGO backed schools. One can contrib-ute to this cause by order-ing this book on Amazon.in and Flipkart.com.

The amount contributed by an individual shall be directly contributed to the NGO partner. In addi-tion, Future Generali India Insurance vows to match the amount ‘Rupee for a Rupee’ thus doubling the impact of the initiative.

Anup Rau, MD & CEO, Future Generali India Insurance said, “FGII is

known for its innovative products and empathetic approach. We wanted to thank our people who have stepped up during these difficult times and delivered excellent results on various fronts. Their dedication and hard work deserve a superhero status, and this report is in a way, a gesture of our gratitude. It is also special and close to our hearts for the cause that it embraces. We are hopeful that in a small way, we would be able to add value to the lives of these children.”

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: India’s largest payment gateway, Paytm PG on Wednes-day announced that it is empowering mobile phone and DTH top-up retailers to make cash-less payments for bulk recharge buys from tele-com and satellite televi-sion service distributors.

This service also pro-motes the government’s digitisation plans and reduces the flow of cash within the system.

Retailers for mobile phone and DTH recharges usually make most of their payments to distributors of bulk top-ups in cash. However, with the ongo-ing pandemic companies are hoping to reduce dependency on cash and make the process digital.

The company has already tied up with Vodafone Idea Limited to be the exclusive partner of the telecom major for

retailer payments. Paytm PG now powers Vi’s inter-nal merchant app that enables its lakhs of offline mobile phone recharge retailers to make bulk payments for top-ups to the company’s distribu-tors.

Retailers can transact digitally with their respec-tive distributors for pur-chasing stock. All they need to do is log in with their credentials into Vi’s merchant app, enter the value of the bulk top-up amount, and pay via the options provided by Paytm to make payments to the distributor.

It saves distributors time in collecting cash, reconciliation, and bank deposit. It also helps the company bring in trans-parency into the whole process as everything is digitised and recorded online.

Paytm said that it is targeting over 50,000 dis-tributors of leading tele-

com and DTH service pro-viders to start accepting payments digitally from retailers by the year-end. The company is eyeing close to Rs 500 crore per month in business volume from these transactions by next year.

Abhay Sharma, Senior Vice President - Paytm, “Our Paytm PG empowers retailers all over the coun-try to promote less cash transactions and digitise their operations. We aim to reduce the dependency of cash and time taken by distributors in collecting, reconciling, and deposit-ing it in banks. We believe that organisations across the country are now reducing the flow of cur-rency within the firms and banking more on digital payments for more seam-less and transparent oper-ations. We hope to partner with more telecom and DTH operators across the country and power their payments with our PG.”

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: While unveiling a campaign to seek the right to health for the citizens, renowned Ayurveda proponent and Ayurveda preacher, Acharya Manish said that the right to health will merely be a myth without Ayurveda.

Acharya Manish, who has been propagating Ayurveda since 1997 and is also the founder of the Ayurveda wellness label ‘Shuddhi Ayurveda’, formally announced the ‘Right To Health’ drive-by holding a special unveil-ing of the campaign at Chandigarh.

The campaign’s tagline has been innovatively coined as ‘Ayurveda Ko Hai Ab Ghar Ghar Pahun-chana! Ayurveda doctors Dr. Geetika Chaudhary and Dr. Suyash Pratap Singh were also present.

Acharya Manish believes

that Ayurveda - a herb-based Indian medicinal system is a prerequisite to attain the objective of ‘right to health’ for every Indian.

Manish said, “’Charak Sanhita’ says that the motive of Ayurveda is to keep a healthy body disease free and remove disease from roots in a diseased body. Ayurve-da also means complete knowledge of life. So this is not just a medicinal pro-tocol but a way to lead life. Acharya Manish further said, “‘The ‘right to health’ is failing to be effective because of lack of aware-ness about Ayurveda’s potency to contribute to ‘holistic health’. It is only Ayurveda that improves one’s health to counter attacks by pathogens & this has been proven well by immunity boost-ing Ayurveda medicines being used during this the COVID pandemic. So

it will not be wrong to say that ‘right to health’ is merely a myth without ayurveda.”

Acharya Manish added, “We chose to time the start of campaign during the COVID era as Ayurveda has come into prominence during this unprecedent-ed pandemic due to its efficacy against COVID. The campaign is a trib-ute to India’s herb based medicinal science. Under The ‘Right To Health’ ini-tiative which will run for 6 months, we will gener-ate awareness about the importance of Ayurveda & allied healing methods through media, focused events, and by initiat-ing ‘advocacy measures’ with the central & differ-ent state governments. A social media campaign is also on the anvil. The ultimate aim will be to provide citizens’ ‘right to health’ through Ayurve-da.”

It is to be noted that Acharya Manish & his legal team through the campaign also want to bring into focus Article 21 of the constitution which guarantees protection of life and personal liberty to every citizen. The SC has also held that the rights enshrined in Article 21, are derived from the directive principles of state policy and therefore includes the ‘protection of health’. Also, World Health Organ-isation (WHO) defines health as ‘A state of com-plete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely an absence of dis-ease or infirmity.’ So for making this health defi-nition of WHO a reality, protocols which not only treat medical conditions but also counter their occurrence, and work on physical and mental well-ness are needed.

However, there are major concerns. While

on one hand the consti-tution guarantees ‘right to health’ which can be achieved via Ayurveda, but on the other Ayurveda is being subjugated vis-a-vis allopathy. Allopathy is still the first line of treat-ment and not Ayurveda and Ayurveda practitio-ners are discriminated against. Acharya Manish further said, “Allopathy has everything to do with a diseased body and very less to do with counter-ing ‘getting infected’. On the other hand, Ayurveda works on detoxification of the body so that a dis-ease does not occur, it has allied aspects like yoga, panchkarma etc which also provide comprehen-sive health.”

A c h a r y a M a n i s h summed up, “We are also planning major judicial activism measures to pro-vide Ayurveda its right-ful place by filing a PIL in apex court .”

Top News Report

KALAKOTE, Dec24: Government Degree Col-lege (GDC), Kalakote organized a National level online Essay and Article writing competition on the topic “Economic impact of Covid-19 on Indian Econ-omy” under the guidance and supervision of col-lege Principal, Prof. (Dr) Romesh Kumar Gupta.

A large numbers of stu-dents and scholars of vari-ous Institutions participated with great zeal and enthu-siasm. The main objective of the competition was to know about the awareness among the masses as well as positive and negative effects of Covid-19 on the Economy of India.

The students and scholars from different Institution expressed their ideas in the form of essays and articles on the impact of Covid-19 on the economy of India.

About 139 students from various College and Uni-versities from the different states participated in the event. The first position was secured by Deepan-jaliSrivastava of Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, Raibareli while second position was secured by Dr.Ameet Singh from High school Chattra, Doda and Sushmita Sharma

from GDC Akhnoor and third position was claimed by three students namely ArtiBhagata NSS volun-teer from Jammu, Sanjay Kumar from GDC Thathri and BhumikaKapoor from GDC Kalakote. All the par-ticipants were awarded by E-certificates.

Prof. Romesh Kumar Gupta appreciated the Nobel efforts made by all the participants and expressed his own views by saying that all of us faced a lot of problems during this Pandemic but this does not mean that we should give up.

In spiteof that we should make optimum use of opportunities and Econom-ics activities so that every individual of the economy can give maximum contri-bution for the Development of the Nation.

Prof. Romesh further added that various expert groups in the Govern-ment are working on spe-cific fiscal incentives and policy reforms to accelerate growth.

The event was organized by Dr. PinkeyRakwal (Co-ordinator of the event) Head, Deptt. of Economics with the help of organiz-ing committee Prof. San-jogitaKumari, and Prof. MarveSofiHeads, Deptt. Of Hindi and Sociology.

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Indian Journalist Association (IJA), at Ranjani of Ghan-sawangi Tehsil of Jalna district, Maharashtra. The blood donation camp orga-nized under the joint aegis of Dr. M. Badruddin Hos-pital and Fawaz Medical received good response. 52 donors donated blood in this camp.

The camp was inaugu-rated by medical officer Dr. Vishal Thakur. On

this occasion, Dr. M. Irfan, Sayyid Fahim Ali, Indian Journalist Association Jalna District President Aslam Qureshi, District Vice President Sheikh Shakeel, Journalist Sanjay Mandwe, Nazir Qureshi, Sheikh Abdul Rahim Sir, Maulana Mustaqeem, Amol Potre, Krishna Wagh etc. were present. Dr Sufiyan, Sheikh Moula Ahmad, Karamat Khan, Azhar Qadri, Vivek More, Sheikh Jamir, Jamil Patel, Idris Patel, Imran Patel, etc. of the Noor Hos-

pital, Badnapur, performed the bloodshed at the camp.

On this occasion, Kisan Jadhav of Ranjaniwadi, who donated blood every three months, was wel-comed. Syed Ajgar Ali, Irshad Bagwan, Rahim Qureshi, Shoaib Qazi, Rais Iqbal, Sheikh Taufeeq, Sayyed Rizwan, Sheikh Sameer, Sheikh Nadeem, Farhan Qureshi, Moin Tamboli, Bharat Jadhav, Laxman Shingane etc. worked hard for the suc-cess of the camp.

Top News Report

GANDERBAL, Dec 24: Ganderbal police have recovered body of a missing person identified as Manga Khari, son of Abdullah Khari (50), a resident of Chattergul Bala in Kangan, who was missing since December 21, 2020. According to officials the body of

the deceased was recovered nearby village at Chattergul Bala in Kangan today morn-ing. Earlier, a missing report was registered in police station Kangan. The body of the deceased was handed over to his family after a post mortem examination today. However a case has been registered in Police Station Kangan, investigation is going.

Top News Report

RAMBAN, Dec 24: Army conducted a drawing com-petition for the students of Chandrog Madrassa, Metra in Ramban district.

A total of 22 students actively participated in the event.

The theme for drawing was based on the new developments taking place in the country in various fields of science, sports and space.

The event aimed at direct-ing young vibrant minds

towards constructive thought process and pride

in their countries develop-ments.

“Right to health merely a myth without Ayurveda”, says Acharya Manish

PSC recommends Franchise Protection Act for auto dealers

Paytm Payments Gateway empowers telecom and DTH retailers

GDC Kalakote organizes online

essay competition

FGII adopts an innovative approach to drive literacy amongst

underprivileged children

Missing body found nearby village at Chattergul

IJA donates 52 units of blood

Army organises drawing competition

Top News Report

KHOUR, Dec 24: ICDS project Khour organized a one-day awareness pro-gramme on “Nutrition of Children and Nursing Women and Covid guide-lines” at Shivom palace Khour. The awareness programme was organized under the chairmanship of Kanika Gupta, CDPO Khour.

SDM Khour Anil Thakur was the main guest at the event and Dr Shallu Sharma was the resource person.

The camp was organized mainly to aware people especially supervisors, Anganwari workers and helpers about the require-ment of proper nutrition for child and nursing women as well as new guidelines

related to COVID 19. There were different

activities organized at the camp such as painting competition, fancy dress competition with theme women empowerment. In addition to this, there was a display of low cost nutri-tion items.

Kanika Gupta educated the workers and benefi-ciaries about benefits of Aadhaar Card in addition to various schemes of ICDS such as Ladli Beti, PMKVY and SMAS. She encour-aged workers to reach out to common masses and tell them to make their Aad-

haar cards at the nearest centre. She also directed workers to ensure proper delivery of Government schemes to the genuine beneficiaries.

Anil Thakur talked about cooperation of Panchayati Raj and ICDS department in deliverance of govern-

ment schemes to large sec-tions of population. He advised the women folk to take special care of their health as they are involved in multiple works ranging from their domestic activi-ties like kitchen, taking care of their children/ looking after the livestock and then also to work in fields. As such, unknow-ingly they become prone to various deficiency dis-eases. He advised them to include milk, green leafy vegetables, raw vegetables and sprouted food grains in their food and also to take special care of their children, besides doing regular yoga to keep their bodies fit.

Others present are Super-visors, Staff of CDPO office, Anganwari Workers and Beneficiaries etc.

ICDS Khour organises awareness prog on Nutrition

11STATE Top News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Business Network International (BNI) Jammu, a business platform for business owners and pro-fessionals, to generate business through referrals launched its 4th chapter “BNI ACE” on Thursday, 24th December 2020.

Anubhav Aggarwal, Launch Director – BNI ACE chapter said, “There was a time when, because of the pandemic, the world became a crazy place to live in. People around us were quarantined and confined to homes.

The worst thing we could have done, is to stop connecting with people. When everyone was busy struggling maintain-ing their financial capital, there arose a need to build a social capital.

The idea of Launching BNI ACE trig-gered me to help business owners from Jammu region to connect to the world and build their social capital.”

Today, BNI ACE chapter is launched with 28 members from various business categories and the event had more than 50 business leaders from Jammu region and across the world including Mac Srinivasan, from Singapore - Global Mar-kets President – BNI, Sunil K - District Director BNI India, Anjali Chowdhary - Executive Director BNI Delhi South, Anil Chhajerh,- Executive Director BNI Udaipur, Atul Joglekar - Executive Direc-tor BNI Pune, Ayush Bansal - Executive Director BNI Vapi Valsad, Sanjana Shah - Executive Director, BNI Hyderabad.

BNI ACE, has paved a new way of doing business for these newly added referral partners in the online world. ACE is an exciting mix of zealous entre-

preneurs who are eager to take their businesses to the next level by using the BNI Online platform to diminish the boundaries between regions & countries.

Commenting on this occasion Raghav Gupta, Regional Director, BNI Jammu said, “We are absolutely delighted with the launch of our 4th chapter BNI ACE. With this launch we stand to cross the 140+ membership mark for the Jammu region. With the vision of 700+ members and 12 chapters by 2025, Jammu region will continue to help business owners grow globally.

Dimpi Gupta, Regional Director, BNI Jammu added that BNI helps its mem-bers generate quality business through effective referral system, contacts and connections, networking education and training. The idea behind BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive and professional business networking and referral pro-gram that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.

Vivek Bhardwaj, Support Director – BNI ACE chapter informed that, the Forbes Magazine had named BNI in the list of Top 3 Essential Local Small Busi-ness Associations you should belong to in the current ever evolving business space.

BNI chapters across Jammu welcome local business professionals to visit their weekly networking meeting.

The chapter is lead by the founding Leadership Team, Sunil Singh Sambyal – President, Rajan Gupta – Vice President, Shobit Mahajan – Secretary Treasurer.

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Team Mask Force chairman vijay Sharma in a press release to media this morning said DDC polls must not be construed as Referendum to any political party in JKUT. Denying the media reports that political par-ties are claiming the same as victory of their stands taken before the.

The fact is that people of Erstwhile J&K state has long ago been demanding for three Tier system in the past that is implementation of 73rd & 74 amendments in Jammu and Kashmir which could materialize with the taking over of reign of power by Lt. Gov Manoj Sinha who by virtue of his political acumen and capabilities of Good gover-nance ensured the imple-mentation of same & noth-ing beyond that.

Minister of state in

PMO Dr. Jitendra Singh claimed the same as Vic-tory of people & Victory of Democracy He has been wise enough not to claim the same as victory of the leaders his party who have played with the sen-timents of Jammuites and didn’t fulfill their aspira-tions even after the Abro-gation of Article 370&35-A.

Rather the burdens of Toll Plazas, Imposition of various kinds of Taxes what to talk of Develop-ment of any sort. It was only when political leader-ship realized that if central leadership didn’t jump into Election spree the resultant outcome of party achieve-ments cannot come true without their assurances and commitments.

TMF chairman who is also co-convenor of United Democratic Alliance warned the local /central leadership that people of Jammu have again given last opportunity not to local leadership but central leadership as well to work without any anonymity of political affiliation but for Jammuites who have given another opportuni-ty to BJP to be truthful in their approach and action and not merely Rhetorical added Sharma.

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has issued a notification making FASTag mandatory to be available by 1st of January 2021 in old vehicles also i.e. M and N category of motor vehicles (four wheelers) sold before 1st December, 2017 through amendments in CMVR, 1989.

The Ministry has noti-fied GSR 690 (E) dated 6th November, 2020 in this regard.

As per Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, since 1st December 2017, the FASTag had been made mandatory for all registra-tion of new four wheeled Vehicles and is being sup-plied by the Vehicle Manu-facturer or their dealers. It had further been mandated that the renewal of fitness certificate will be done only after the fitment of FASTag for the Transport Vehicles. Further that for National Permit Vehicles the fitment of FASTag has been mandated since 1st Oct 2019.

It has been further man-dated that a valid FASTag is mandatory while getting a new 3rd Party Insurance through an amendment in FORM 51 (certificate of Insurance), wherein the details of FASTag ID shall be captured. This shall be applicable w.e.f. 1 April 2021.

It may be stated that this notification would be a major step for ensuring that the payment of fees be 100% at Toll Plazas through the Electronic Means only and that the vehicles pass seamlessly through the Fee Plazas. There would be no waiting time at the Plazas and would save fuel.

The steps for ensuring the availability of FASTag at multiple channels are being made through phys-ical locations and also through online mechanism so that the citizens are able to have them affixed at their vehicles within the next two months at their convenience.

Thus, all the vehicle owners are now manda-torily required to install the Fastag on their Vehi-

cles. Issuing E-challan of non Fastag vehicles is also being explored by MoRT&H. This has been done because MoRT&H, Govt. of India has decided to strictly implement 100% electronic collection at Toll Plazas through FASTag w.e.f. 01.01.2021. In order to promote the payment through digital mode and to provide a seamless pas-sage to the fee plazas, it has been decided that all the lanes shall be declared as ‘FASTag lane of fee plaza’ and user of the vehicle not fitted with FASTag enter-ing into FASTag lane of the fee plazas shall pay double the applicable toll.

The rule will be strictly implemented at all NHAI Toll Plazas in J&K viz Lakhanpur Toll Plaza in Kathua District, Than-dikhui Toll Plaza in Samba, Bann Toll Plaza in Jammu, Chenani Nashri Toll Plaza & Kachkoot Toll Plaza in Kashmir. Increase in use of FASTag will lead to non-stop movement across the Toll plazas in near future. NHAI is making every possible effort for hassle-

free movement of VVIP, Defence Personnel, Ambu-lance and other exempted vehicles and avoiding the traffic Jams.

Shri Ajay Kumar Rajak, Project Director, NHAI Jammu further informed that FASTag have been made available at the toll plazas, branches of banks e.g. HDFC, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Paytm etc. NHAI FASTag is avail-able at the toll plazas and online at the My FASTag App’which can be recharged/linked with bank account by using the same app. These FASTag can also be bought from online shopping sites e.g. Amazon, Paytm, etc. The recharge or top up once made in the account linked to the FASTags can be used whenever the vehicle cross-es any of the toll plazas in the country. Non FASTag vehicles will have longer waiting time and will not be allowed to cross the toll plaza. They will have to pay double the Toll on entering the Toll Plaza and has to install the FASTag. The vehicle fitted with

FASTag will move swiftly through the toll plaza at the existing rates and even dis-counts like return journey monthly pass, local district discount to commercial vehicle are only available on using Fastags. NHAI is distributing pamphlets at toll plazas, making use of public announcement sys-tems, continuously inter-acting with media and giving advertisement in local and National News-papers to create aware-ness and promote the use of FASTag so as to achieve the goal of 100% electronic toll collection.

Project Director once again informed that the rule will be strictly imple-mented in the UT and no vehicle will be allowed to cross the Toll Plaza without FASTag and also double Toll shall be imposed with-out FASTag from Ist Janu-ary, 2021 and has request-ed all the stake holders to install/activate the FAST-ags on their vehicles before 1st January, 2021 for seam-less movement across the toll plazas on the National Highways in India.

FASTag mandatory for crossing of NH toll plaza: NHAI

4th Chapter of BNI Jammu Launched

DDC Polls are not referendum for any party: TMF

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council (DDC) election result as a 'historic win' for the BJP party since the saffron party has emerged the single largest party with registering a win on 75 DDC constituencies.

This was stated by Nitish Mahajan, BJP Executive Member while address-ing a party workers meet-ing here at Gandhi Nagar. He also congratulated the party DDC candidates who have won the DDC mem-bership. “I wholeheartedly congratulate all the party DDC members for register-ing this historic win and hope that you will work for nation building and for the welfare of masses,” Maha-jan said.

BJP in the recently held DDC elections got major-ity with 75 seats and was followed by J&K National Conference with 67 seats while PDP won 27 and Indian National Congress (INC) Won 26 seats, Maha-jan said.

“The victory of Bharati-ya Janata Party speaks volumes of the changing

narrative and political atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir. And the victory in successful conduct of DDC election is the victo-ry of democracy,” Mahajan said.

He appreciated the Cen-tral and UT governments for the peaceful and suc-cessful conduct of DDC election as being the major polls post Article 370 and 35 (A) and he also congrat-ulated party UT President Ravinder Raina and party leadership for their self-less efforts and campaining process which resulted in grand success for the party.

Mahajan said that the people of J&K UT have

proved and given their clear message that they want "peace and prosper-ity" in the UT and want to build a bright future for themselves and for the gen-erations to come. He said that in these DDC elections, the saffron party has made history by emerging victo-ries in wining DDC seats in Kashmir Valley for the first time.

“BJP has strengthened roots in Kashmir Valley, so have the people of Kash-mir realized that BJP only can fulfill the aspirations of people as they have been failed by the successive dynasty regimes,” Maha-jan said.

BJP registers historic win in DDC elections; strengthens

roots in Kashmir: Nitish

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: With BJP emerging as the single largest party in DDC elec-tions, the confidence of every activist has risen and they thanked the public for their extraordinary support towards the Saffron party.

Following the same con-text, Former State Presi-dent BJP Sat Sharma who was the Election Incharge of party in Kathua District where party has gained absolute majority was felicitated by Talab Tillo Mandal of the party led by its President Keshav Chopra.

The team also felicitated District President Munish Khajuria and District Gen-

eral Secretaries Rajesh Gupta and Karan Sharma who were also assigned to other seats in Jammu prov-ince by the party where BJP candidates emerged as winner.

Sat Sharma thanked the BJP leaders and said that it all has happened due to the pro-public policies of the Central Government under the leadership of PM Nar-endra Modi who is very much concerned about the welfare of masses in J&K.

He said with BJP emerg-ing as the single largest party in these elections shows that people across UT are happy with the abrogation of 370 and the era of peace and develop-ment will prevail under

the leadership of our hard working PM.

Munish Khajuria said that people are very happy with the works done by BJP for the welfare of the public and the results are a befit-ting reply to those who still advocate the restoration of Art 370.

Keshav Chopra said that Modi Government schemes have reached upto grass root level and has covered every segment of society.

Satyabhushan Dubey, Vinod Singh Wazir, Deepak Kumar, Rajesh Saini, Varinder Dogra, Rakesh Sharma, Anil Angral, Dr Surjit Singh, Bablu Chand and Balwant Kumar were also present.

Thanks to J&K for believing in PM’s pro public policies: Sat

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Amidst chanting of Vedic Mantras and other Hindu religious rituals, New Year Panchang in the shape of Calendar published by Jammu Yatri Bhawan Trust was released here on Thursday by Pawan Kumar Shastri, President of Trust.

Gurdas Sharma, General Secretary of the Trust, while speaking on the occasion,said that due to COVID-19 pandemic, Trust by observing all the precautionary measures devised by the Government has performed Puja-Archana in a simple function in Thakur Dwara. Pawan Kumar Shastri said that this was the 22nd edition of the Panchang Calendar which was started by the Jammu Yatri Bhawan Trust in the year 2000. He further said that this Panchang Calendar-2021 issued by the Jammu Yatri Bhawan Trust have the complete information

about the various Hindu festivals dates with brief about the special appearance days of the Lord, besides various Hindu rituals fast, Utsav, Panchak falling from January 2021 to December 2021.

The Jammu Yatri Bhawan Trust as

usual is committed to send the copy of the Panchang to its respective members, if any of the member who does not receive the copy of the Pan-chang the same can be made available to him from our office which he may collect personally.

JYBT release Panchang (Calendar) for-2021

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: CDPO Gandhi Nagar, Pallavi Sharma on Thursday organized an awareness camp at CDPO Office premises Gandhi Nagar by ICDS (Integrated Child Develop-ment Scheme) project, Gandhi Nagar.

During the programme, an overall awareness on schemes like Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Ladli Beti Yojana, Aadhaar Enrollment and Scheme for Adolescent Girls was provided to Anganwadi Workers and Helpers. In this awareness pro-gramme, District Programme Officer (DPO) (ICDS) Jammu, Madam Nata-sha was the chief guest.

During the programme, Pallavi elaborated the importance of differ-ent schemes under ICDS at ground level. She focussed on the achieve-ment of targets to be fulfilled under all schemes. She also encouraged the whole project field functionaries and motivated them to work keenly in field and stressed upon mainte-nance of data at AWC level and also inspired them to work hard.

Pallvi Sharma (CDPO Gandhi Nagar) also provided awareness on different schemes and told AWWs and AWHs about important ways through which maximum number of beneficiaries can be enrolled and targets can be acheived.

Different speakers also gave detailed account on all the schemes.

During the programme, AWWs

were felicitated by the project for their achievements and hardwork. Further, school drop-outs (adolescent girls) were also provided awareness and encouraged with kits that would help in their skill development.

In addition, AWWs also displayed their play-way/pre-school education material that they created through waste mateials.

CDPO G’Nagar organizes awareness camp

Top News of J&K Jammu, Monday, August 24, 2020 Top News of J&K Jammu, Monday, August 24, 2020

12 STATE Top News of J&KJammu, Thursday, December 24, 2020

Edited, Printed, Published and Owned by: Rajiv Mahajan, Office : 17- New Rehari Jammu, Published from 17- New Rehari Jammu, and Printed from Jansampark Printing Press situated at Bye Pass Sidhara Jammu on behalf of Rajiv Mahajan. Senior Editor : M. K Bangroo, Executive Editor : Anita Gupta, Special Correspondent : Sanjeev Sharma,

Photo Journalist: Aman Sharma (9906198186), Head Office Jammu. Mobile No : (9906300707, 9086072548), Fax No: 0191-2561688. e-mail: topnewsjk@gmail.com, editortopnewsjk@gmail.com

(All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Jammu City).

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Gandhi Global Family, Indian System of Medicines,J&K, Green India Foundation and Akhil Bhartiya Safai Maz-door Sangh on Thursday organised 202nd Covid-19 Medical cum Awareness Camp in the campus of University of Jammu where AYUSH Immunity Boost-ing medicines were pro-vided to the scholars and teaching and non teaching staff through the expert team of doctors, following the guidelines issued by the local administration.

Prof.Jasbir Singh,Dean Student Welfare inaugurat-ed the camp in the presence of Chief Medical Officer,Dr.Bharat Bhushan,University

of Jammu,Jaswinder Singh Kuku,Robert R o b i n G i l l , Y o u n i s Mattoo,Saroon,Sahul Naar and staff members of Uni-versity of Jammu.

Over 1110 people were attended by Dr. Shifali Sharma, MO and Dr. Sukh-preet Kour, MO and phar-macist Nishad Khajuria.

Earlier, awareness on

Covid-19 was also con-ducted by the team of ISM Doctors.

GGF J&K President Pad-mashri Dr S P Varma expressed his gratitude to

Dr. Mohan Singh, Director ISM J&K and Dr. Suresh Sharma - ADMO, Jammu for deputing a competent team of doctors and providing free AYUSH medicines for boosting the immunity of staff of University Jammu.

He was also grateful to Vice Chancellor, Prof. Manoj Kumar Dhar, Regis-trar, University of Jammu, Prof. Arvind Jasrotia and Prof.Jasbir Singh, Dean Stu-dent Welfare, Dr. Bharat Bhushan, Chief Medical Officer,University of Jammu and his staff for supporting us in organising a successful mega camp.

Overall the Covid19 202nd Medical Camp organised by GGF J&K is dedicated to living legend Prof.G.MBhat, Department Geology.

ISM, GGF organise medical camp at JU

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: In con-tinuation to the UT Govern-ment’s initiative of reach-ing out to the people with prompt disposal of their grievances, the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today held 3rd round of the series - “LG’s Mulaqa-at-Live Public Grievance Hearing”, wherein he took the first hand appraisal of people’s issues and griev-ances through virtual mode.

Through LG's Mulaqa-at”- Live Public Grievance Hearing, an institutional-ized mechanism has been laid for making the griev-ance redressal mechanism

prompt, robust, respon-sive and more efficient, observed the Lt Governor.

At the same time, the performance efficiency of online Grievance Redressal System is also being moni-tored so that requisite measures can be taken to achieve the desired results on ground, he added.

On being informed that overall disposal of griev-ances has increased from 52% in 1st and 66% in 2nd to 79% in 3rd round of LG’s Mulaqaat, the Lt Governor expressed satisfaction over the improvement in the performance and increase in the rate of grievance dis-posal. He underscored the

importance of constantly making improvements in the grievance redressal mechanism in order to pro-vide the people with effec-tive citizen centric gover-nance.

While taking a detailed assessment of the perfor-mance of online Grievance Redressal System-JKI-GRAMS, the Lt Governor took feedback from the people on the grievance redressal mechanism being put in place by the Admin-istration. He also reviewed the implementation of directions passed during the earlier held interactions.

The Lt Governor observed that Administration at all

levels must put in dedi-cated efforts on grievance redressal to meet the expec-tations of public.

The objective of the initia-tive -“LG’s Mulaqaat-Live Public Grievance Hear-ing”, is to hold one-to-one interaction with the indi-viduals from across the UT every month selected randomly, and take stock of their issues and concerns for prompt redressal. It also provides an important feedback on the working of Administration thus open-ing the window for making improvements in the work-ing of the Government, the Lt Governor maintained.

In today’s two-hour long

programme, randomly selected applicants from across the UT projected several issues pertaining to the augmentation of water supply; replacement of electricity poles; removal of encroachment on play-ground; pending payments on account of various works and schemes, on which the Lt Governor issued on spot directions for their imme-diate resolution and set timelines for the redressal of other grievances raised during the interaction.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lt Governor; BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commis-sioner, Finance Depart-ment; Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Depart-ment; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; All Administra-tive Secretaries; Divisional Commissioners; IGPs; DCs; SSPs; HoDs and other senior officers of the various gov-ernment departments and agencies remained present throughout the interaction and briefed the Lt Governor on measures taken for the redressal of the grievances received and their present status.

Lt Governor holds interaction with public through virtual mode; several

grievances of the applicants redressed

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Advi-sor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, on Thursday inspected prog-ress of ongoing works on Centre for Invention, Inno-vation, Incubation and Training (CIIIT) being set up at Government Poly-technic College Jammu in collaboration with Tata Technologies.

During the visit, Advisor Bhatnagar took detailed round of the centre and inspected the ongoing works in classroom-cum-labs besides other infra-structure. He also inspect-ed the server room of the centre which will hold the data repository as well as other technical require-ments for the centre.

Speaking on the occasion, Advisor Bhatnagar stressed upon the officials to com-plete the ongoing works at the centre as early as possible so that advanced courses are made available to the student community.

Advisor also impressed upon the officials to create mass awareness among students across the colleg-es of Jammu and Kashmir through camps in coordina-tion with Higher Education Department. He also asked them to hold webinars and online counselling sessions to make public as well as students aware about the quality and prospects of the courses offered through CIIIT.

Advisor Bhatnagar fur-ther asked the officials to

utilise the services of print, electronic and social media to create awareness among the student community so that they are able to make choices well before taking up any of these courses offered.

During the visit, repre-sentative of Tata Technolo-gies informed the Advisor that the centre will have high end modern labs with advanced softwares of CAD engineering, robot-ics, mechanotrics and other courses which will boost the employability chances for students here.

Pertinently, CIIIT is a joint initiative of Govern-ment of Jammu & Kashmir and TATA Technologies through which 9 compe-tency centres will be estab-lished at Government Poly-technic Colleges of Jammu to strengthen the industry-academia partnerships and training of students as per current and future require-ments of the industries.

The CIIIT will also give boost to innovation, incu-bation and skill develop-

ment in entire Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, these centres will offer indus-trial training to students, industry professionals and unemployed youth who want to upgrade their skills to latest technologies used in today's industrial envi-ronment.

Later, Advisor Bhatnagar inspected the ongoing works at 100 bedded Boys Hostel at Polytechnic Col-lege Jammu being executed by the PWD Jammu.

Advisor directed the offi-cials to complete the project within the assigned date of completion with all req-uisite facilities of modern standards so that it can be utilised for the student community at the earliest.

Director, Skill Devel-opment, Sajad Hussain Ganai; Principal, Govern-ment Polytechnic College, Jammu, Arun Bangotra, HODs, officers from PWD, PDD, Jal Shakti Depart-ments, representatives of Tata Technologies and other staff members were also present on the occa-

Advisor Bhatnagar inspects ongoing

works at CIIIT, Jammu

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Com-missioner Secretary, General Administration Department, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi on Thursday reviewed various services forming part of the Busi-ness Reform Action Plan (BRAP), 2018 under Ease of Doing Business.

The Government, as a part of the Public Service Guar-antee Act, has been stream-

lining the service delivery mechanism across the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and efforts are being made to reach out to the beneficiaries and citizens for more efficient provisioning of services in a time bound manner.

As part of the Business Reform Action Plan, 11 departments have been asked to offer 73 services on the online mode only. These include the depart-

ments of Finance, Health and Medical Education, Home, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture Production and Farmers’ Welfare, Power Develop-ment Department, Indus-tries and Commerce, Forest, Ecology and Environment, Labour and Employment, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Tourism.

While reviewing the ser-vices offered online, Manoj

Kumar Dwivedi appreciat-ed efforts of the confirming departments and advised them to periodically update the portals so as to provide user friendly services. Flag-ging concerns about the non-functionality of por-tals of some departments, Dwivedi directed these departments to expedite the process of making the portals live, so that the citi-zens are able to access such services through online mode in the shortest pos-sible time.

It is notable to mention that the bulk of such ser-vices pertain to day to day requirement of the citizens and business concerns and the efforts made in this regard shall be provid-ing succour to the public in accessing the services online with minimal requirement of physical visits to the public offices.

The meeting was attend-ed by officials of concerned departments.

Dwivedi reviews Online Services offered under Ease of Doing Business, PSGA

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: A pro-gramme was organized in Bhour Kullian of Ward 73in which all the 23 Anganwadi workers par-ticipated.

ProfYoudhvir Singh, Corporator along with Kulbir Singh Slathia and

Charanjit Singh,Retd SDM attended the pro-gramme and handed over nutrition items like Oil,Haldi,biscuits, Milts and salt etc. to workers.

Councillor Youdhvir Singh inspected the quality of items and found it upto mark.Supervisor Rakhi anchored the programme.

Nutrition distributed amongst Anganwadi workers in Ward 73

Dy Mayor felicitates SKCs, distributes

Domicile Certificates

Top News Report

JAMMU, Dec 24: Advo-cate Purnima Sharma, Deputy Mayor Jammu Municipal Corporation on the eve of Christmas dis-tributes gifts among the Safaikaramcharis (SKC) of Ward No 1 and also distrib-uted domicile certificates at Mohalla Tange Wali Galli.

On the eve of Christmas, Purnima gifted sanitizers, masks and sweets to SKCs. A total of 32 SKCs deployed in ward no. 01 were gifted by the Deputy Mayor and were also advised to enjoy the festival to the fullest but also to follow the norms provided by WHO to pre-vent the spread of COVID-19.

Also Domicile Certificates were distributed at Tange Walli Galli to the people of Kanak Mandi, Jullaka Mohalla, Mubarak Mandi, Kacchi Chowni and Tange

Walli Galli. Purnima said that general

public shall not have any inconvenience in getting Domicile Certificates and to ensure this, She and her team of BJP Karyakartas had organized camps in the past at different places in the Ward in which forms were filled for Domicile Certifi-cates and now this Domicile distribution camp has been organised to handover the Domicile Certificates with-out causing any problem to the general public.

Gopal Sanotra Add. Office Secretary Mandal, Vijay President Booth No. 02 ward 01, ShubhLata Sharma General Secretary Jammu District Mahila Morcha , Sunita Wazir, Vice Presi-dent Jammu District Mahila Morcha, Kuldeep Mehta, Sh. Rajesh Sharma, Gopal Magotra and other promi-nent members of Ward No. 01 were also present.