Excelsiordaily

REGD.NO.JK-71/15-17RNI No. 28547/65Vol No. 52 No. 345 JAMMU, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016 16 Pages `̀ 4.00

INSIDE WEATHERJammu air pollution ...Page 8Mehbooba for adequateavailability of quality medicines in hospitals ....Page 3Shiv Khori Shrine Board asked to live telecast Aarti ...Page 3Clubbing of schools a continuous process: DSEJ ...Page 5Special SLBC adopts loanrestructuring package ...Page 5Kohli gets career-best ranking, Ashwin consolidatestop spot ...Page 14

JAMMU : Mainly clear sky.

TEMPERATUREMax: 21.2 Degree C Min: 7.4 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 94.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 75.0 per centSunset on Wednesday: 05.28 p.m.Sunrise on Thursday: 07.26 a.m.

SRINAGAR:Mainly clear sky.

TEMPERATUREMax: 12.3 Degree C Min: -0.5 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 91.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 65.0 per cent

LEH: TEMPERATUREMax: 8.8 Degree C Min: -10.6 Degree C

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Sanjeev PargalJAMMU, Dec 13: After

more than two decades, theState Government is headingtowards constitution ofDelimitation Commission inJammu and Kashmir forwhich a high level official com-mittee was working outmodalities on composition ofthe Panel and whether itwould be authorized toincrease number of Assemblyseats (for which aConstitutional amendment isrequired) or it would rotatereserved Assembly seats andadjust areas of other con-stituencies to strike balance ofelectorates.

Official sources told theExcelsior that the Cabinet SubCommittee on implementationof Agenda of Alliance of PDP-BJP Government had referredthe issue of working out modali-ties for setting up ofDelimitation Commission to ahigh-level bureaucratic panel,which has worked on varioustheories on composition andmandate (of the Commission).

A final decision was nowexpected to be taken very short-

ly.Though increase in total

number of Assembly con-stituencies has been barred inthe State like other parts of thecountry since 2002 when J&KLegislature adopted aConstitutional amendment(approved by the Parliament) tofreeze number of Lok Sabhaand Assembly seats till 2026,Jammu and Kashmir has thepowers to revoke the lawthrough another Constitutionalamendment with 2/3rd majorityand go for increase in totalseats.

However, the State can alsoset up the DelimitationCommission to re-adjustboundaries of Assembly con-stituencies and rotation ofseven seats reserved forScheduled Castes in total 87Assembly seats in the State.Though a reserved seat had tobe rotated after every two elec-tions, in J&K, the reservedseats have not been rotatedduring the past four Assemblyelections.

Noting that setting up of theDelimitation Commission is onagenda of the PDP-BJP coalitionGovernment, sources said that

composition of the Commissionis being worked out but mostlikely it would comprise non-political persons like top retiredbureaucrats representing allthree regions of the Statesincluding Jammu, Kashmir andLadakh.

"The PDP-BJP coalitionGovernment with the support ofIndependents has two-thirdmajority in both Houses of theLegislature and they can easilypass a Constitutional amend-ment bill to set up DelimitationCommission,'' sources pointedout but said the Governmentwould evolve a consensus onmandate and composition of theCommission before going to theLegislature.

It was in early nineties whenlast Delimitation Commissionwas set up in Jammu andKashmir. It had increased num-ber of Assembly seats of theState from 76 to 87 (Jammufrom 32 to 37, Kashmir from 42to 46 and Ladakh from 2 to 4).J&K has total 87 elected MLAsbut the number goes up to 89 asthe State has provision of twonominated women MLAs, whocan vote in the Constitution

Modalities being worked out for Panel

Govt heads towards setting up of Delimitation Commission

Guv summonsLegislature

on Jan 2Excelsior CorrespondentJAMMU, Dec 13: Governor

N N Vohra has summoned theState Legislative Assembly andthe Council to meet at Jammuon January 2, 2017 at 11.00 a.m.

Vohra, has called upon theMembers of the J&KLegislative Assembly and theLegislative Council to assembletogether in the Central Hall ofthe Legislature Building onJanuary 2 to hear his Address toboth the Houses of theLegislature.

Dense fog hits train trafficExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 13: The dense fog in the northern region con-tinued to badly hit the train traffic in the region while PoojaExpress was cancelled due to late arrival by more than 12 hourstoday.

Official sources said that Pooja Express train was today can-celled as it was late by 12.30 hours. Kolkata-Jammu Express was late by nine hours,

Kamkhya-Katra Mata Vaishnodevi Express by nine and half hours,Tata Nagar-Jammu Express also by nine hours; BegumpuraExpress by 7.30 hours, Jammu Mail by six hours while Shalimar,Hemkund and Swaraj Express were late by 3.30 hours.

Intrusion bid foiled, one nabbedExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 13: The BSF last night foiled an infiltrationattempt by a group of four to five militants in Ramgarh sector ofSamba district and apprehended a former Pakistan army personnelwhile other militants retreated to Pakistan.

Official sources said alert jawans of the BSF noticed movementof four to five militants inside Pakistan territory close to theInternational Border in Ramgarh sector last night and became alert.They fired para illuminating bombs to lit up the area.

Finding the BSF jawans alert, the militants, who were trying toinfiltrate into the Indian territory under the cover of dense fog andthick sarkanda growth, retreated to Pakistan. The BSF later

5th charge-sheet filed in ETT scamExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 13: In the much-publicized ETT scam, CrimeBranch today produced supplementary charge-sheet for the session2007-2009 before the Special Judge Anticorruption Jammu againsteight accused persons.

These accused persons are Janak Raj Bharti, son of OmParkash of Kathua (promoter of Jammu Educational Society ETTInstitute Kathua), Udhay Bhanu Chib, son of Th Hari Singh ofPaloura (promoter of Th J B S Institute of ETT Barnai), RaviKumar Gupta, son of C B Gupta of Kanji House (promoter ofShankaracharya ETT Institute), promoter of ACE HumanResource Development Institute of Education, Jammu, promoter of

Exam cancelled as papers stolenExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 13: Following theft of question papers, the J&KBoard of School Education today ordered cancellation of Historyand Physics exams (Term-I) of Class 11th in Jammu Province andalso announced postponement of the examination of Educationpaper, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow.

The hurried decision in this regard was taken in wake of thetheft of question papers of History, Physics and Education, fromGovernment Higher Secondary School, Reasi. The meet came intothis morning and following a formal complaint, an FIR in thisregard has been registered at Police Station Reasi.

Ex-gratia for Burhan Wani’s kinSRINAGAR, Dec 13:

The State Government has cleared ex-gratia to next of kin of 17persons, including Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani'sbrother, killed in militancy-related incidents in the Valley, whilegiving one week's time for filing of any objection before formalorders are issued.

Burhan Wani's killing by security forces in an encounter inSouth Kashmir's Kokernag area on July 8 this year triggered unrestin the Valley which has left as many as 86 people dead.

According to a notification issued yesterday by DeputyCommissioner Pulwama, ex-gratia relief under rules has beencleared by the District Level Screening-cum-ConsultativeCommittee (DLSCC) in favour of next of kin of those persons who

Sinha pitches for dialogueto resolve J&K issue

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Dec 13:Former Union Minister andBhartiya Janta Party (BJP)leader, Yashwant Sinha, todaysaid talks and not bullet arethe only way forward for reso-lution of Jammu and Kashmirissue.

Speaking to reporters hereafter concluding his second visitto Kashmir valley, Sinha said hisdelegation met cross-section ofpeople including youth andasserted that dialogue is the onlyway forward. "See, like lasttime, wherever we went thistime and met people, I told themin the beginning that we havecome to attach ourselves withyour pain for the sake of human-ity," he said.

Sinha, who is formerExternal Affairs Minister ofIndia, said they conveyed to thepeople whom they met that they

have no Government mandateand have come to Valley as "con-cerned citizens of India". "Wehave not come with anyone'smandate and we haven't comewith any authority but we haveto come to attach ourselves withyour pain and agony as con-cerned citizens of India," he said.

The delegation head, who forthe first time arrived in Valley inthe month of September andcalled on both moderate andhardline separatists, said thetalks went ahead only after theyconveyed to people that there isno Government backing to thedelegation. "Having said this, itis obvious that talks went aheadand we keenly heard them (peo-ple)," he said.

Sinha said that at everyplace and in every meeting,"people said that the basicreason of their pain is perhaps

that no solution has beenfound for the issue of Jammuand Kashmir from last 70years, a solution should comeout of this issue and then auto-matically everything would benormal".

He said they told the peoplethat the way for finding solutionof any issue is holding mutualtalks and "we should talk to eachother". "And when we will talkto each, the solution of the issue

will come out," he said, adding:"bandooq ki goli se nahi niklegapar pyaar ki boli se niklega (thesolution won't come out throughbullet of gun but through lan-guage of love)."

Sinha said he believed mostof the people were happy afterhearing that language of love isthe way forward for settlingissue. "They (people) said 'youare very right and we shouldmove ahead on this path'," theformer Minister said.

The former Union Ministersaid: "So, whatever talks theyhave had in these three days, itwas good and the talks were alsoheld with people who had comefrom far-flung areas. The localyouths also attended severalmeetings and talks were heldwith them as well," he said.

The delegation head said thathe admitted there is lot of pain insome people's minds. "… Whenthey express they do it in anger.But we were ready to understandthat as well. We understood their

Infiltration up, 116militants sneak inFayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, Dec 13: Theinfiltration of militants intoJammu and Kashmir has goneup this year despite Armybeing on high alert along theLine of Control (LoC) andmilitants are making desper-ate attempts to sneak in asthey suffered record numberof casualties this year.

According to Multi-AgencyCentre (MAC) figures, 116 mili-tants, mostly belonging toLashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), have infil-trated into Kashmir this year tillNovember while last year thenumber was 35 for the whole year.

However, sources said that itis a conservative estimate and thefigure could be more than the offi-cial one. Sources said that some ofthe recently infiltrated groups areyet to come under security forcesradar and others are still in theforests along the LoC.

The infiltration attempts arestill going as militant launchpads are active despite firstsnowfall along the LoC. Sourcessaid militant training camps areactive in PoK with 19 of themmost active including those atSkardu, Kel, Karko, Dullu,Titwal, Chakoti, Kotli, Dehri,Barhal Mirpur and Chaprai. Inthese training camps, the mili-tants are receiving rigoroustraining besides map reading,

GPS use, weight, weapon andtactical training.

Sources said that as a recordnumber of militants have beenkilled this year and militants aredesperate to infiltrate in morenumbers to fill the void. They saidthat over 200 militants are stillwaiting at launch pads for infiltra-tion before the heavy snowfallcloses the mountain passes.

According to official figures,147 militants have been killedthis year so far while last yearthe figure for the whole year was97. The killed include 40 of thisyear's infiltrated militants.

As per the official figure,this year 71 security force per-sonnel were killed along theLoC, International Borderand hinterland, in Pakistanitroops firing and during gunbattles with militants.

The figures suggested that 76locals joined militancy this yearand 16 of them were killed andsurrendered leaving 60 stillactive. Majority of them joinedafter July 8 following the killingof Hizbul Mujahideen com-mander Burhan Wani.

Army has intensified its vigilalong the LoC and already twoBrigades of Army have been sentto LoC in North Kashmir to takeon the infiltrated militants andone more brigade of Army hasbeen sent to South Kashmir afterincreased militancy in the area.

Workers in a field on a foggy morning in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

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Mohinder VermaJAMMU, Dec 13: In a tes-

timony of non-seriousapproach towards strictenforcement of The Water(Prevention and Control ofPollution) Act, 1974, severalagencies of the StateGovernment don't have anydata about the hotels, guesthouses and lodges lackingindividual Sewage TreatmentPlants (STPs), which other-wise are mandatory to checkpollution of water bodies.Most shocking aspect is thateven the Government build-ings are flouting the law open-ly right under the nose of theconcerned authorities.

The issue of strict enforce-ment of The Water (Preventionand Control of Pollution) Act,1974 and installation of individualSTPs by the hotels, guest housesand lodges came to the fore whenthe Division Bench of the StateHigh Court comprising ChiefJustice N Paul Vasanthakumarand Justice Tashi Rabstan washearing a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) highlightingencroachments on banks of RiverTawi and its pollution due tounchecked flow of effluent fromthe commercial establishments, inthe third week of last month.

The Division Bench hadnoted with concern that for thelast two decades countless

hotels, guest houses and lodgescame up in the City of Templesand majority of such establish-ments have been contributing tothe pollution of sacred RiverTawi by allowing the effluent toflow into the river.

With these observations,the DB had put three agenciesof the State Government---Pollution Control Board,Jammu MunicipalCorporation and TourismDepartment in the dock asPollution Control Board hasthe mandate to ensure imple-mentation of provisions of TheWater (Prevention andControl of Pollution) Act whileas Jammu Municipal

Corporation is responsible forchecking flow of effluent in theRiver Tawi. Similarly, TourismDepartment is the agency han-dling the registration of hotels,guest houses and lodges.

However, none of these agen-cies of the State have ever paidany serious attention towardschecking this menace, officialsources told EXCELSIOR,adding "the most shocking aspectis that they are even not aware ofnumber of establishments whichare violating the law".

The Pollution Control Boardwhich is the main agency toensure strict implementation ofWater (Prevention and Control

No focus on enforcement of Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act

Govt agencies don’t have data about hotels, guest houses lacking STPs

*Official buildings too openly violating law

Govind SharmaJAMMU, Dec 13: Due to

sheer negligence ofMicrobiology department ofGovernment Medical Collegeand Hospital, Jammu, theState exchequer has suffered aloss of Rs 6.30 crore, anamount which was sanctionedfor establishing a BSL 2/3swine flu lab in the hospitalpremises, as the departmenthas already a Centrally fund-ed laboratory wherein besidesswine flu testing of variousother viral diseases can bedone. However, both the labsare not in a position to conducttests for swine flu and the sam-ples are being sent to GMCKangra, as BSL 2/3 lab is notcomplete in terms of medicalequipments, staff and kitswhile the department has notesting kits for Centrally fund-ed lab.

According to the sources inthe administrative department,the proposal to establish BSL2/3 swine flu lab was moved byMicrobiology Department ofGMCH Jammu in 2009 after theoutbreak of major swine flu epi-demic in the same year but thedepartment didn’t get anyresponse from administrativedepartment.

However, due to increasingmorbidity and mortality witheach passing year and aftermany reminders to the adminis-trative department, the projectwas conceived by the adminis-trative department in 2011 butthe decision to establish theswine flu lab was taken by theState Cabinet only on March 4,2015 following which Planningand Development Departmentsanctioned an amount of Rs 6.30crore for the said project.

Sources said that project wastaken on priority and the work

on the lab along with isolationwards was completed fully tillending December 2015. In June2016, the purchasing committeeof GMCH Jammu also placedorder to J&K Medical SuppliesCorporation Limited (JKMSCL)for required medical equipmentsand testing kits so that the labmay be made functional fromthis winter season but despitelapse of over five months theCorporation could not providethese essential equipments andas a result, the lab is unlikely tobe started from this winter sea-son. As per JKMSCL sources,the Corporation cannot providethese medical equipments inanother 5-6 months as the bid isstill awaited.

“Meanwhile in the year2013, the Department ofHealth Research (DHR),Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR), New Delhialso provided financial grant

worth crores for establishing aBSL-2 Virus ResearchDiagnostic Laboratory(VRDL) to MicrobiologyDepartment of the Hospital.

Though this lab was set upcompletely till ending 2015 buteven a single test could not bedone here for Swine flu in lastseason because of unavailabilityof testing kits, as both State andCentral Governments are notready to provide the same”,sources informed and added thateven in November this yearsome swab samples were sentfor testing at Government

Negligence of Microbiology Deptt causesloss worth crores to State exchequer

* 2 swine flu labs in GMC but samples sent to Kangra

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Coldest night of season in Jammu

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Dec 13:Jammu city today recorded thecoldest night of the season sofar as the minimum temperaturewas 7.4 degree Celsius.

Leh which recorded minus10.6 degree Celsius as the min-imum temperature, was thecoldest town in Jammu andKashmir today.

The temperature dropped to7.4 degree Celsius during thenight in Jammu city, which is

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* Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com

* Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com