13Tuesday December 18, 2018

Employees demand credit ofadvance salary

STATE TIMES NEWS KISHTWAR: A meeting of Joint Employees Front, Distt.Kishtwar was held at Kishtwar which was chaired by PardeepKoul, Distt General Secretary.

Addressing the employees, Koul congratulated Governor ofJammu and Kashmir State, Satya Pal Malik and ChiefSecretary J&K for successfully conducting Urban LocalBodies and Panchayati elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

He welcomed the announcement of B.V.R Subrahmanyam ,Chief Secretary of providing one month additional salary to allemployees involved in poll process of both ULB andPanchayati elections.

Koul urged Governor to expedite the process of crediting thesame in the bank accounts of the employees concerned.

Tariq Hussain, Suresh Kumar, Farooq Ahmed, NazirAhmed, Rajesh Sharma, Sanjay Parihar and Sajjad Hussainwere also present.

STATE TIMES NEWS KATRA: A week-longFaculty DevelopmentProgramme (FDP) on 'BestManufacturing Practices inIndustries', sponsored byTEQIP-III, in collaborationwith JNTU Hyderabad wasinaugurated on Monday atthe School of MechanicalEngineering, Shri MataVaishno Devi University(SMVDU), Katra.

The FDP, coordinated byDr. Balbir Singh and Dr.Sanjay Mohan Sharma,faculty members, SMVDU,aimed at highlighting thevarious fundamentals ofquality management, indus-trial safety, maintenanceand industry 4.0 and Dr.Singh briefed all the partic-ipants about the need oftotal quality managementin the current industrialscenario. Further, theCoordinators thanked theVice Chancellor, SMVDU,Prof. Sanjeev Jain, for hisencouragement and sup-

port. Experts from IIT's,NITs, BIS and industrywere invited to deliver lec-tures on new trends in thearea of quality manage-ment. Around thirty facultymembers and I participantsfrom industry registered forthe FDP. The Dean,Faculty of Engineering,SMVDU, Prof. V. Verma,graced the occasion as theChief Guest.

The Head, School ofMechanical Engineering,Dr. R.K Mishra, also spoke

about the various aspects ofmanufacturing at the occa-sion. Dheeraj Arora (SeniorConsultant, iMinds) andProf. Pradeep Kumar ofMechanical and IndustrialEngineering, IIT, Rourkee,were also present at theinaugural. Prof. I.K.Pandita, Dr. Ankush Anandand Dr. Y. Anand, Er. MirIrfan Ul Haq, Asst. Prof.,SME carried out the pro-ceedings of the event andproposed the vote ofthanks.

STATE TIMES NEWS KATRA: In its endeavour tomaintain best medical prac-tices in the State of Jammuand Kashmir, the Institute ofOncology at Shri MataVaishno Devi NarayanaSuperspeciality Hospitalorganised its 3rd Masterclasson Head and Neck Oncology.

This year's focus was Headand Neck cancers in which Dr(Brig) Man Mohan Harjai,Chief Administrative Officerof Shri Mata Vaishno DeviNarayana SuperspecialityHospital (SMVDNSH), wasthe Chief Guest.

Brig Harjai also congratu-lated the organising team forsuccessfully conducting thethird meet associating dele-gates of exceptional expertisefrom different parts of thecountry to share their valuableexperience here.

More than 30 eminent facul-ties from different institutionsacross Delhi, Srinagar,Chennai, Chandigarh andLudhiana delivered lectureson different topics related toHead and Neck - Oncology.

This year masterclass wascompleted in three sessions,the first session was coveredby Prof Dr BK Mohanty,Dr.Hema Malini Aiyer,DrMadhu Vijay, Dr NitinVermani, Dr.Geetangli Gupta,Dr. Geeta Bhagat, Dr ParveenRoyal Mokkapati,DrAshutosh Gupta participatedand cover the topics fromscreening,prevention, patho-logical factors on which treat-ment of head and neck cancerdepends and brachytherapy.

Similarly, the second sessiondescribed in detail the role ofsurgery, radiotherapy andchemotherapy in head andneck cancer. The speakersincluded Dr Jagadesan P, DrRitesh Ranjan, Dr NadeemShaukat, Dr.Shoukat Khan,Dr.Mir Hussain, Dr MalikTariq, Dr.DodulM o n d a l , D r. M a n d e e pSingh,Dr. Deepak Abrol,andDr.Sunil Kumar have dis-cussed the various topic ofhead and neck cancers in

detail.In the third session, there

were debates and discussionsabout different presentationsof head and Neck cancersmoderated by Dr ShababAngurana and Dr. ArshadManzoor. Various Panelistinvolved are Dr PramodKalsotra, Dr Satish Mehta,Dr Nazir Ahmed Khan, DrAnkur Mittal, Dr BalwinderSingh, Dr Kuldeep Sharma,Dr Vikash Kumar, Dr. RahulSharmaDr Rohan Gupta, DrArjun Malhotra, Dr RajeshGupta, Dr Aman Sharma, DrNiranjan Naik, Dr AlokTiwari, Dr Aman Sharma.

There was also a parallel ses-sion on Radiotherapy work-shop on Head and Neck can-cers, Contouring guidelinesand controversies coordinatedby Senniandavar, TitikshaVasudeva. There was also e-participation from two speak-ers Dr.S Zenda, ChiefRadiation Oncology, NationalCancer Institute, Japan, andDr Purnima Upadhayay,Assistant Professor, Divisionof Hematology Oncology,

Howard University.The conference Secretariat

including doctors Dr. VikasRoshan (RadiationOncologist), Dr Rajeev Saini(Medical Oncologist), DrSatyankar Gupta, Dr ParasKhanna, Dr JagmohanSingh, Dr. Vikas Heer alsodiscussed the staging part andhead and neck topics like therole of proton therapy, headand neck sarcoma surgeriesand immunotherapy in headand neck cancers

The sessions were coordinat-ed by organising committee atSMVD Narayana Hospital,Consisting of Dr VikasRoshan (Radiation oncologist), Dr Rajeev Saini ( MedicalOncologist), Dr SatyakarGupta ( Medical Oncologist),Dr Tapan Sharma (SurgicalOncologist) and Dr.ParasKhanna (SurgicalOncologist).

The Conference was attend-ed by 250 delegates, Medicalstudents from GovernmentDental college and nursingstudents from various col-leges.

Narayana Hospital organises Masterclass on Head and Neck Oncology

A dignitary lighting a traditional lamp.

TEQIP-III sponsored FDPbegins at SMVDU

A dignitary lighting a ceremonial lamp.

STATE TIMES NEWSJAMMU: InformationTechnology Department in col-laboration with NationalInstitute of Smart Governance(NISG) on Monday started 3-Day training programme on'Government Process Re-engi-neering' and 5-Day pro-gramme on 'ProjectManagement PRINCE2'.

The training on 'GovernmentProcess Re-engineering' pro-gramme will addressUnderstanding GovernmentProcess & Service Quality,Process of Re-engineering,Collection of Data for ProcessMapping, Definition of theVision 7 UnderstandingService Prioritization andLegal & Policy Framework forGPR.

'Project Management onPRINCE2' will cover areaslike PRINCE2 & AXELOS,Business case, Organization,Quality, Risk and PRINCE2seven processes.

On day one, separate trainingprograms were attended bysenior officers of variousDepartments of the StateGovernment includingPrincipal Secretary, Transport,Asgar Hassan Samoon,Principal Secretary, Planning,Development and MonitoringDepartment (PD&MP), Rohit

Kansal, CommissionerSecretary Forest, Environment& Ecology M K Dwivedi,Deputy CommissionerBandipora Dr Shahid IqbalChoudhary and AdditionalCommissioner Jammu, RahulSharma.

Secretary, InformationTechnology, Saugat Biswasinformed that the J&K e-Governance Agency(JaKeGA), Department ofInformation Technology hasfor the first time collaboratedwith professional agencies suchas National Institute for SmartGovernment (NISG), Nationale-Gov Division (NeGD),NIELIT and NIIT with a viewto raise the standards ofCapacity Building and makingthe trainings relevant to con-temporary requirements.

He added that trainings havebeen started in a big way thisyear after a gap of six yearsand have already coveredadministrators and officers ofvarious levels from differentdepartments of the StateGovernment, districts includ-ing Leh and Kargil& StateTaxes department.

Biswas said that in a series oftrainings undertaken in collab-oration with NISG, trainingson Government Process re-

engineering (GPR), ProjectManagement (PRINCE 2) isbeing held, while as training onInformation Security & CyberSecurity Management hasbeen completed yesterday.

He added that these trainingprograms will cover around250 officers positioned atstrategic levels in theGovernment including officersof the rank of AdditionalDeputy Commissioner,Directors and officers fromvarious other administrativedebarments.

During the workshop, it wasinformed that presently over100 G2C services are beingoffered online by the J&K gov-ernment. The land records arebeing digitized, transportdepartment services are onlineand the offices are movingtowards file and record digiti-zation and adopting e-tender-ing for procurement purposes.

It was given out that e-Governance is penetratingdown up-to the Panchayatlevel, as a result of which,there will be huge data cre-ation and for the safe-keepand efficient data manage-ment, requirements of equip-ping oneself against threatsthat exist in the cyber spacebecomes imperative.

BY DAYA SAGAR

Saifuddin Soz, former UnionMinister of Environment &Senior Congress leader, had on

28th June, 2016 in his letteraddressed to the then Syed BasharatBukhari, J&K Revenue Minister,expressed his view about TheJammu and Kashmir State Lands(Vesting of Ownership to theOccupants) Act, 2001 Act No. XII of2001 (that received the assent of theGovernor on 9th November, 2001and was published in GovernmentGazette dated 13th November, 2001and later amended in 2004 & 2007 -so commonly addressed as RoshniScheme/ Act ) among things saidthat it appears to the people of theState that "the Jammu and KashmirState Lands, (Vesting of Ownershipto the Occupants) Act 2001", hadwrongly been titled as Roshni Actand to him it appeared that thewidest area of fraud has taken placewhere encroachers had been allottedland as agriculturists, free of chargesand hoped that Government isenvisaging to organise a probe intothis scam. If at all any probe wasordered by the government into anyirregularities as regards the landsallotted free of cost with just Rs.100per Kanal as documentation chargeshas not been made public so far.

When the Act under question wasfirst passed on 2001 it was aimed attransferring the occupied Statelands at market price with cutoffdate 1990 and for using the generat-ed funds of around Rs 25,000 crfrom 20 Lakh Kanal of land for newprojects for power generation, so itwas for that reason that it was com-monly known as Roshni Scheme.But later when in 2007 the State

Legislature vide Act No. III of 200720th November, 2006 decided toallot over 16 Lakh Kanal of land freeof cost the spirit of generating fundsfor power projects was over shad-owed by the intentions of the thenPDP-Congress Government to givelands to the farmers free of cost.The then Chief Minister GhulamNabi Azad, who moved the amend-ment Bill in the Assembly had saidthat the land occupying farmerswould have to pay a nominal fee ofRs 100 per Kanal for getting muta-tion in their favour in the revenuerecord and Bill would go down asrevolutionary in the history of theState after the Land to the TillerAct [Jammu and Kashmir BigLanded Estates Abolition Act, 2007(1950 AD] as was got passed in1950 by the then Sheikh MohdAbdullah government {excluding allthe orchard and other land hold-ings larger than 182 Kanals andtaking away bulk of lands from thelarger land holders Clause -4(2) a &c - Extinction of the right of owner-ship in certain lands} leading togrowth of the agriculture sector, onwhich the State's economy depends.As per CAG report up to March2013 out of the 3,48,60 Kanal landcases decided till March 2013,3,40,090 Kanal (97.68%) had beenunder free agriculture land catego-ry where only Rs.3.40 cr had beenrecovered and too as documentationcharges. So, the popularly knownRoshni Scheme was in a waychanged to Free Land to "Tiller"

Scheme in 2007.Surely The Jammu and Kashmir

State Lands (Vesting of Ownershipto the Occupants) Act, 2001whenimplemented in 2007 (Act No. III of2007, w.e.f. 20th November, 2006)was not the same Act in spirit as hadbeen passed during the times ofNational Conference Government in2001. Therefore, after amendmentAct No. III of 2007 was passed byJ&K Legislature making a provi-sion for transfer the ownershiprights of over 16 Lakh Kanal ofState land to the occupants/ unau-thorised holders free of cost withjust Rs.100 per Kanal as documen-tation charges with cutoff date foroccupation also shifted from 1990to beyond 2004, it will not be thatfair to level all types of allegationson the J&K State RevenueDepartment officers for the realis-able revenue falling rock-bottom ofthe level of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000cr as was estimated / anticipated in2001 since the possible targetamount would have fallen to lessthan Rs 2,000 cr with the amendedpolicy and the auditors should haveseen the free allotments with more aclose eye. If at all, there was moreof an immediate need to see themanipulations made and favoursdone (if any) , the investigationsshould have been taken on the Free"Agricultural" lands as the first pri-ority instead of mainly concentrat-ing / hobnobbing around only someurban cases against which cost wasto be realised as per prices fixed byPrice Fixation Committee (PFC)and even the long residential officiallease holdings of 40/60 years exe-cuted as back as 1950s/1960s werealso included in the scope for giving

ownership rights.It will not be wrong to say that

even the CAG report tabled in LAin 2014 had not been made andseen in the right prospective sincethe report had concentrated moreon the shortfall in revenue genera-tion as was targeted in 2001 thanon the drastically reduced revenuethat could only / possibly be gener-ated in view of the amendmentsmade in the Act 2001 through 2007by the Legislature and the possibleirregularities that could be there inview of taking the cutoff date to2004 and giving land free in theshape of agriculture lands. AGAuditors had instead kept theirfocus on questioning the revenueofficers for the shortfall being moreout of individual urban allotmentsthat were made on the basis ofprices of land fixed by the PFCand the rules made by theGovernment under the Act for dif-ferent categories. The CAG /Auditor had totally ignored the factthat Ghulam Nabi Azad ledCongress-PDP Government haddecided to transfer the ownershiprights to occupants / encroachers ofthe agricultural land in their posses-sion "Free Of Cost" by charging justRs.100 per Kanal towards documen-tation costs this way the target rev-enue of Rs 25,000 cr would itselfhave fallen to less than Rs 2,000 crkeeping in view that 97.68% of theland allotted under Roshni till March2013 was under agriculture category(3,40,090 Kanal out of 3,48,160Kanal).

The CAG report had also statedthat for transfer of 3,48,160 Kanalof land tested up to March 2013demand notes for only Rs 317.54 cr

were raised on the applicants butthere too only Rs 76.24 cr wasrealised (24 per cent). One wouldask in case the lands were given atexorbitantly low prices with incentiveof 25% discount in case the demandnote is paid within three months whydid not the applicants pay againstthe demand notes? It has also beenunderstood that the payments havenot been made by some urban appli-cants/residential urban lease holdersprotesting that the demand notes arepriced 'high' and some have evenapproached courts pleading thatsome (around 13) residentialcolonies regularised (30-12-2004) bythe Housing and UrbanDevelopment Department/JDAwere regularised on payment ofRs15,000 to Rs 40,000 Per Kanal(Jogi Gate Rs 15,000 per Kanal,New Plot area Rs 20,000 per Kanaland Chand Nagar Rs 40,000 perKanal) under government order No.88 of 2005 dated 18-03-2005 whereas lease owners of government landwho had been granted lands underproper government orders as farback as 1950s/ 1960s for residentialpurposes had been unfairly senddemand notices treating them worthrights even less than the unautho-rized possession holders/ encroach-ers asking them to pay more thangrabbers (Rs 15 to 30 Lakh perkanal).

No doubt need to see any manipu-lations made and favours done forthe Free "Agricultural" land cases doneed some random investigations asthe first priority instead of remain-ing lost more in urban cases.

(Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalistand a social activist can be reached

at dayasagr45@yahoo.com)

‘Roshni Scheme’ in a way changed free land to ‘tiller’ scheme in 2007

STATE TIMES NEWSJAMMU: The newly consti-tuted Service GrievanceCommittee (SGC) headed byAdvisor to Governor, KewalKumar Sharma, shall con-duct its first hearing on 19December 2018(Wednesday) at ConventionCentre, Canal Road,Jammu.

The Committee has beenconstituted by the govern-ment to redress the service-related grievances of the gov-ernment employees.

The Members of theCommittee include Umang

Narula, Principal Secretaryto Governor; Shaleen Kabra,Principal Secretary,Industries & Commerce;Rohit Kansal, PrincipalSecretary, Planning,Development, Monitoring &Grievances and HilalAhmad, CommissionerSecretary, GeneralAdministrating Department.

Government employees canregister their service-relatedgrievances with theCommittee at ConventionCentre, Jammu from 10:30AM to 12:30 PM on thescheduled date.

STATE TIMES NEWSJAMMU: Advisor toGovernor, K Vijay Kumaron Monday chaired a meet-ing of the DeputyCommissioners and SSPs ofthe border districts of thestate to discuss the issue ofdevelopment of borderareas.

IGP Jammu Dr S DSingh Jamwal was presentin the meeting while asDC's and SSP's of Jammu,Samba, Kathua, Rajouri,Poonch of Jammu divisionand Bandipore, Baramulla,Kupwara of Kashmir divi-

sion attended the meetingthrough video conferencing.

During the meeting, theAdvisor discussed in detailthe border developmentalissues district wise andsought details of the worksthat are being carried outfor the benefit of the peopleliving there.

He sought the status ofconstruction of communitytype/individual bunkersalong the border in theirrespective districts alongwith details of other worksthat are being projected bythe border people.

The DCs informed theAdvisor about the numberof bunkers that have beenapproved for their districts,other important develop-mental issues including bet-ter road connectivity andtele-communication servic-es, up-gradation of healthinstitutions, requirement ofbullet proof bunkers, ambu-lances for safe evacuationof people during ceasefireviolation incidents, con-struction of BorderBhawans, fast execution ofdevelopmental works andothers.

K Vijay Kumar stressedon resolving the issues ofborder people and bringingissues in the notice of thegovernment which needsimmediate attention fortheir resolution. He saidthat all ongoing develop-mental works should becompleted in a given timeframe for which strongmonitoring and supervisionis required.

While discussing the bor-der security with the dis-trict police heads, theAdvisor was briefed aboutthe present situation and

the efforts that have beenundertaken to ensure effec-tive people evacuation planduring the time of emer-gency. They also highlight-ed few important issueswith regard to furtherequipping of the BorderPolice Posts, providing bul-let proof bunkers, establish-ing VDCs etc.

The Advisor asked themto maintain strong coordi-nation with other securityagencies and regularly holdmeetings to review the secu-rity situation in their dis-tricts.

Advisor Kumar discusses border developmentissues with DCs, SSPs of border districts

Class work in Srinagar collegesto remain suspended

STATE TIMES NEWSSRINAGAR: The authorities in Srinagar have ordered sus-pension of class work in all colleges across the district onTuesday. The decision has been taken as a precautionarymeasure to avoid law and order situation in the district.

Service Grievance Committee toconduct maiden hearing on Dec 19

STATE TIMES NEWS UDHAMPUR: Dozens ofyouth joined NationalConference under the chair-manship of Swran SinghRathore Vice President NCUdhampur along withParduman Singh JointSecretary NC Udhampur at afunction organised onMonday at Udhampur inwhich Ashok Sharma and

Akash Verma were also pres-ent.

Speaking on the occasionSwran Singh Rathore wel-comed the youth to party fold.Singh accused authorities andBJP PDP Government for itsfailure in development ofUdhampur. Parduman Singhappealed to the people to sup-port their own local NC partyto settle their pending issues.

BJP, PDP failed to deliver: NC

NC leader addressing a gathering at Udhampur.

Training on IT-enabled Govt ProcessReengineering for officers begins

A resource person speaking at the programme in Jammu.

A Look ThroughThe Mist

STATE TIMES NEWSJAMMU: Hundreds of PublicHealth Engineering (PHE)ITI Diploma holders and casu-al workers from 29 divisionsfalling in Jammu region onMonday carried out a strongprotest rally and marchedtowards Chief Engineer's Officehere to express their resent-ment against the callousnessattitude of the state govern-ment for not addressing theirlong pending demands includ-ing regularization.

The protesters led byAssociation President, TanveerHussain assembled atExhibition Ground Jammu toparticipate in the rally.

They carried out a rallytowards CE Office and blockedthe traffic movement for half anhour at Dogra Chowk to pressthe government over their longpending demands. Speakingon the occasion, Tanveer said,

"We held various meetings withprevious and present dispensa-tions but they didn't fulfill ourdemands but only come up withthe fake assurances just to playwith the future of PHE casualworkers and their families forthe last many years."

"Every time government isgiving irresponsible response toour issues and demands beingfaced by the workers, which willnot to be tolerated in future.

Now, we are going to submitour demands to StateGovernment through PHEChief Engineer, if our issues arenot be conceded during upcom-ing Budget session, we will stopthe water supply in Jammuregion," he threatened. He fur-ther urged upon the GovernorSatya Pal Malik to personallyintervene into the issue keepingin view miseries of families ofcasual workers.

PHE ITI Diploma holders, casual workershold protest, seek regularisation

PHE daily wagers raising slogans during a protest at Jammu.