DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016 (PAGE 9)

10 houses, 26 transformersdamaged during rains in Jammu

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: At leastten houses including a threestorey building were fully dam-aged in Poonch, Rajouri andMahore area of Reasi while twodozen houses partially in thesedistricts whereas, at least 26electric transformers of the PDDwent out of order due to heavyrains during last three days.Most of the roads includingNational Highway, have alsobeen restored.

Official sources fromPoonch said that due to massiverain last evening, a three storeybuilding of one Mohd Iqbal, sonof Mohd Hussain at villageMalikan in Mandi collapsed. Itwas raining heavily and the fam-ily had already vacated thehouse due to partial damage to ittwo days back. It was heavyrain last evening and the entirebuilding collapsed.

Five more houses were fullydamaged at village Arai inMandi tehsil of Poonch lastevening. No loss of human lifehas been reported in these inci-dents. The damaged housesbelonged to Bhag Hussain andbrother Mohd Akbar, sons ofRaj Wali; Saifuddin, son ofAbdul Aziz, Bader Din, son ofAbdul Rahim and Mohd Sadiq,son of Faqar Din- all residents ofArai. Most of these houses wereKucha. At least a dozen houseshave been partially damaged inthis area. Tehsildar and policeteam from Mandi visited theaffected area and also providedsome immediate relief to thevictims, an official spokesmansaid.

Reports from Rajouri saidthat two houses were fully dam-

aged and at least half a dozenpartially in Thannamandi andKotranka area due to heavyrains. The house of oneShamshad Ahmed, son of MohdMaqbool, resident of UpperShahdara near Thannamandiand Mohd Shafi, son of AbdulRehman of Ward No. 6Thannmandi were fully dam-aged due to heavy rain onMonday. Three cattle shed werealso damaged in the district inKotranka and Thannamandi.

As reported by SDMMahore in district Reasi,Subhash Dogra two houseswere fully damaged and at leasthalf a dozen partially in MahoreSub Division. He disclosed thathouses of Mohd Iqbal, son ofGhulam Mohiuddin, resident ofSugga in Chasana andManzoor Ahmed, son of GhQadir, resident of Shuksar (

Chasana) were reported to havebeen fully damaged. Besidesthis, at least half a dozen hous-es have been damaged inChasana, Chhajru, Bagga andGulabgarh area. Further reportsare being received from theconcerned Naib Tehsildars. Noloss of human life has beenreported.

Chief Engineer, PDD(M&RE) Ashwani Gupta saidthat at least 26 power trans-formers are reported to havebeen damaged due to rains dur-ing last three days. He said thatpower supply which was alsosnapped in many areas has beenrestored to majority of the areasby this evening, while therestoration work in some ruralareas was still in progress. Heclaimed in Jammu city most ofthe damaged transformers havebeen replaced.

Hundreds of goldsmiths from J&K to participate in rally tomorrow

Jewellers’ protest over excise duty decision continues for 14th consecutive day

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: AsFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyrejected demands for rollback ofone per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery during hisspeech in Lok Sabha, the jew-ellers continued their rageagainst the decision for the 14th

consecutive day here.Jewellers across the State

have been protesting against theproposed one per cent exciseduty on the production and man-ufacturing of gold jewellery.

All the jewellers, Karigars,Swarnkars and all other associ-ated people sat on dharna at JainBazar, Jammu. While sitting onthe Dharna, many peopleexpressed their rage against theUnion Government and its deci-sion.

Later, the protesters took outa rally from Jain Bazaar, whichpassed through ChowkChabutra, Pacca Danga, RajTilak Road, Purani Mandi, CityChowk, Kanak Mandi, LakhdataBazar and culiminated at JainBazar.

Addressing the rally at dif-ferent places, Raman Suri,Chairman, Sarafa Associationand Swarnkar Sangh Joint

Action Committee, JammuProvince, lambasted the UnionFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyfor not speaking in favour ofjewellers in Lok Sabha yester-day.

He asked the BJP leaders,MLAs and MPs of Jammu, whohad favoured the jewellers strikein 2012 on the same issue, that if

they could support a cause fouryears before, then why they arenot supporting the same causethis time.

"We are not against BJP,Congress or any other politicalparty but we are against the anti-people policies made by them",Suri said and urged Jaitley toimmediately roll back the exciseduty so that the respect, whichthe jewellers have for him willremain intact.

Parjan Kumar Jain, PresidentSarafa Association Jammu,Kulbhushan Anand, PresidentSwarnkar Sangh JammuDistrict, Vijay Verma, GeneralSecretary Sarafa AssociationJammu, Ajay Vaid, GeneralSecretary Swarnkar SanghJammu District and Lucky Jain,Executive Member SarafaAssociation Jammu said that inthe proposed Mega Rally sched-uled to be held on March 17 atRam Leela Maidan, New Delhi,

hundreds of jewellers from J&Kwill participate to express theirfull support against the anti-jew-ellers decision of the CentralGovernment.

Meanwhile, Raj KumarBabber, All India Vice PresidentSwarnkar Sangh and PresidentSwarnkar Sangh, JammuProvince addressed the gather-

ing of Swarnkars andjewellers from RS Puraand Arnia at Arya SamajMandir, RS Pura.

In his address,Babbar reminded that onthe support of traders,BJP came in power inCentre. "PM NarendraModi supported thecause of jewellers in2012, but this time he issilent, which reflects hiscallous attitude towardsthem", he added.

"If the Government'sintention is to snatch thebite from our mouth,

then we will not let this happenat any cost. We will protest tillour voice is heard and action istaken in our favour", Babberwarned.

Manohar Lal, President, RSPura Jewellers Association, RamKumar, Jagjit Singh, DK Luthrabesides many others alsoaddressed the gathering.

Vice President, Peaks Auto JD Singh along with Senior DGMKulvir Kotwal, Sales Manager Gowher Aslam and many otherslaunching Alto 800 Alpha Plus at Peaks Auto, Kunjwani.

Jewellers raising slogans during protest rally at Jammu on Tuesday.

Seminar on Future of Libraries: Trends,Issues & Challenges begins at JU

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: Two-dayNational Seminar on Future ofLibraries: Trends, Issues andChallenges (NASOFOL-2016),organized by Department ofLibrary and InformationScience, University of Jammuand sponsored by IndianCouncil of Social ScienceResearch (ICSSR), New Delhi,began here today.

Professor P B Mangla, Ex-Dean and Head, Department ofLibrary and InformationScience, University of Delhi; DrH K Kaul, Director, DELNET;Professor R Bandyopadhyay,Faculty, Department of Libraryand Information Science,University of Calcutta, Kolkattawere among the important digni-taries who spoke over the themeof the event and enriched theoccasion with their views andexperience.

Speaking on the occasion,Prof R D Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, JU, stressed on thesustainability of the libraries andcalled upon the LibraryProfessionals to focus on vari-ous utilities especially the serv-ices utility and communicationutility so that the best type ofservices and good books aremade available to the users. Healso stressed upon the youngfaculty and research scholars toget benefitted by such type ofacademic activities.

Dr H K Kaul discussed var-ious challenges being faced by

the digital libraries in today'sworld and also stressed more ontheir quality consideration.

Professor Bandyopadhyayspecified participation and col-laboration as the future oflibraries.

In his Keynote address,Professor PB Mangla highlight-ed the service aspect of librariesand eloquently highlighted thedevelopmental perspective ofthe libraries. He tried to viewfuture libraries as a co-existencebetween paper and paperlesssociety.

Other important dignitariesin the seminar, included Dr H SChopra, GNDU, Amritsar; DrSanjay Kataria, JIIT, Noda;Professor Preeti Mahajan,Panjab University, Chandigarh;Dr Dinesh Kumar Gupta,Kurukshetra Univeersity;Professor Shashi Prabha Singh,DLIS, University of Delhi;Professor S M Shafi, KU and DrRajiv Vij, DESIDOC, Delhi.

More than 120 participantsfrom almost every part of Indiaare participating in the seminarby sharing their views andexpertise on the theme.

Professor Sangita Gupta,Head, Department of Libraryand Information Science andorganizing secretary (NASO-FOL), welcomed the guests anddelegates from all across India.

Vikram Singh Sahi anchoredthe inaugural programme whileP K Singh delivered the formalvote of thanks.

Ex-Minister Pawan Gupta addressing a Public Darbar atLower Magiote, Udhampur on Tuesday.

Electricity facility to every family my priority : Pawan GuptaExcelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: A publicdarbar was organized by the res-idents of Village LowerMagiote, Panchayat Sial Jattanhold a Public Darbar in connec-tion with their problems. ExMinister of State and MLAUdhampur Pawan Gupta waspresent in the Public Darbaralong with the authorities ofPHE, PWD, Electrical andIrrigation Department to listenthe public grievances. PoliticalActivist Raj Kumar Bucha,Sarpanch Munshi Ram Sharma,Ram Dass Bhagat, Mohan Laland Romesh Kumar prominentlocals among others were pres-ent in the Public Darbar.

While highlighting problemsof the people Naib Sarpanch,Rumti Devi divulged that the

people of village LowerMagiote are facing acute short-age of drinking water for last 15years. She further opined thatthe available natural watersource in the village may beconverted into dug well to fulfillthe requirement of drinkingwater.

In his address SarpanchMunshi Ram has disclosed thatthe people of Panchayat SialJattan have been ignored for last12 years in connection with sev-eral multiple problems electricPoles, irregular supply and lowvoltage of electric, up gradationof Middle School to HighSchool and repair of all dilapi-dated roads.

MLA Pawan Gupta listenedto the people patiently andassured early redressal ofdemands. He expressed thatelectricity to every family is mypriority during his tenure asMLA Udhampur. Gupta hasgiven instructions to the author-ities of Government depart-ments present in the PublicDarbar to resolve public prob-lems of their respective depart-ments on priority as soon aspossible.

Nat Manch presents ‘Ek Soch’Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: NatManch under its ongoingTuesday series presented aDogri play "EkSoch" written anddirected by TarunSharma.

The play wasbased on the issuesrelated to womenincluding eve teas-ing, sexual harass-ment and molesta-tion. The crimeagainst womenprevails every-where. If a womangoes to mall, BusStand, railway station, theatre,colleges or school, she has toface these issues. Many believethat it is the clothing of womenthat elicits such uncouth behav-iour, but even conservativelydressed Muslim women whowear burqa over their clothesleaving only the eyes and feetvisible are also subjected to it.

The story started with agroup of boys standing on the

road side, who were making funof girls. A girl came there and aboy started making fun of herand passed vulgar comment. Thegirl started crying and ran away

from the spot and narrated theordeal to her father, who made aplan to teach the boys a lesson,but stopped as his own son waspart of the group.

The actors who performedin the play were Tarun Sharma,Rishav Salgotra, Priya Kashyap,Ishan Mansotra, Aman Sharma,Abhishek Mehra, MohitSharma, Priyanshu Gupta andAbhimanyu.

A scene from the play ‘Ek Soch’.

Vigilance produces challanagainst public servant

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 15: VigilanceOrganization Kashmir todaypresented a chargesheet(Challan) against then JuniorAssistant in PHE DivisionHandwara, who is accused ofaccumulating huge assets, dis-proportionate to his knownsource of income.

Challan in case FIR No.56/2007 u/s 5(1) r/w 5(2) ofJ&K Prevention of CorruptionAct, was produced against thePublic Servant MohammadMaqbool Bhat, in Anti-Corruption court, Baramulla,

after obtaining proper sanctionfor launching prosecution, fromthe competent authority.

A verification by theVigilance OrganizationKashmir into the disproportion-ate assets revealed thatMohammad Maqbool Bhat hasaccumulated huge assets, mov-able and immovable, throughcorrupt means which are dis-proportionate to his knownsource of income.

The investigation of the casewas concluded as provedagainst the accused for launch-ing prosecution.