After price hike, now traders resort to hoarding of onions

PS Bali

Jammu Tawi, January 15

Owing to the inflation of various edible products in the market, especially onion and tomatoes, some local dealers and traders in the wake of earning more profit have allegedly started hoarding the commodity, leaving commoners to lurch.

On the one side soaring rate of tomatoes and onions has broken the back-bone of the commoner, whereas on the other side hoarding has added to their miseries.

With tomatoes over Rs 35-40 per kg and onions with Rs 47-50 per kg have shaken the budget of common man and now shortage has multiplied their woes.

Some shopkeepers at the terminal points, say the supply of onions has come down by almost 50 per cent as the crop was damaged due to unprecedented rains, whereas the most of the crop has been hoarded by big players.

“For the sake of earning more profit, some self interested dealers have hoarded large quantity of onions and tomatoes,” said a vegetable vendor, Subash, adding that due to their greed, “we have to sell it on exorbitant rates.” The increase in onion and tomato rates is turning profitable only for such dealers and not for others.  

He further said that the hike in onion and tomato rates is likely to jump more as huge quantity of consignment is stocked for black-market.

Talking to Newspoint, president, Jammu Vegetable Association, Vijay Kumar said that there is less supply of onion from main markets, as huge quantity has been spoiled due to unprecedented rains, so there is a less chance of hoarding by traders. He said on an average around 10-20 trucks reach Jammu mandi, daily with onions, but due to shortage in the main markets, this time only one truck reached here.

He anticipated that with the arrival of new crop this price spiral will see a decline. “It will take more than 15-20 days to get the new crop and once this reaches the markets, prices of onions will also come down.

Despite generating, state plunges into dark

                                        Public needs awareness to shun illegal usage: Qasim

PS BALI

Jammu Tawi, January 11

Though Jammu and Kashmir State is generating enough electricity but with the onset of winters the unscheduled power cuts become a regular feature.

This is despite Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asking the Power Development Department (PDD) to recover outstanding dues from various departments as well as people.

Ironically government is the biggest defaulter as far as a paying power bills are concerned.

Adopting a heavy-handed approach against others for making recoveries, PDD has failed to recover over crore of pending rupees from various government departments and to retain this loss department has implemented curtailments, mostly during prime hours.

According to sources more than 20 government departments, including various wings of PDD itself, have not deposited their electricity Bills, compelling PDD to resort to unscheduled power cuts.

In addition to the breach of CM, the department has also added to the miseries of students, preparing for various examinations.

“PDD has maximized our miseries in this cold with persistent power curtailments. Our examinations are over head and every minute is precious, but due to constant power cuts, we are unable to concentrate, courtesy PDD,” said an engineering student, Adil Yousuf, adding that it is hard to study in dark and in cold, it is obvious that in winter one can’t sit without proper heating arrangement.

When during winters, power is much consumed as compared to rest of the year; the department emerges with more strict curtailments.

“If PDD is imposing curtailments with the pretext of over loading and extra consumption, then they must have to act strictly against illegal connections and has to work passionately in realizing more revenues and in curbing pilferage,” he said.

The condition of the tamper-proof areas is also same, as residents of such areas allege PDD for deliberately imposing curtailments.

“In our area, the PDD had installed electronic meters to check pilferage and during installation we were promised continuous power supply throughout the season, but with the arrival of winters, the supply has been irregular,” said Lakhvinder Singh, a resident of the Digiana locality, adding that the power supply, if linger for subtle odd hours is single line with very low voltage, which is of no use.

Admitting the fact, PDD Chief Engineer, Mohd Qasim said that the curtailment is the penalty of over-loading, “as during peak hours people in almost all areas make unnecessary use of illegal power supply, thus disturbing the setting,” said Qasim, adding that people by making superfluous use of electricity are bothering other legitimate consumers.

He also appealed public to shun pilfering, as it creates disturbances in scheduled setting, following creates inconvenience to many others. Welcoming people to work as enticers (Khabris), Qasim said “we appreciate the people to come forward and complaint against those, using illegal connections.”

It is pertinent to mention here that PDD is continuously raiding areas and is putting all its effort to curb illegal usage and in recovering pending Bills from people.

In the raiding drive, the department has already suspended four of its workers for deceiving department, said chief engineer.

Education in 2010: Year of crests and troughs

PS BALI
Jammu Tawi, December 29
Like any other area, education sector of the state also witnessed various crests and troughs during year 2010. From protests to negotiations, seminars to publications, criticism to admiration, targets to miss-outs, participation to pull outs and from controversies to achievements, the sector had surprises through out the year for Jammuites.It all started with the allocation of Central University (CU) to Jammu, what many tout as mother of all controversies in the sector, followed by number of political, social, educational, partial, inspirational, self-vested and discriminative agitations.The appointment of Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, as Vice Chancellor of the CU, however, was expected to mark the beginning of its functioning.But the controversy over it would not be pacified here only, when the other 30 Central Universities all over the country had almost completed their one session, even though its counterpart, CU in Kashmir has also started its proceedings. The CU granted to Jammu has been the victim of political melodrama and is craving for constitution, even as Jammuites are anticipating its functioning in coming year. In limbo for past one year, the Central University raised many eyebrows over the working of management, it seems perhaps wrong to say that regionalism was extending its roots in the state over the controversy of Central University, which was dedicated by centre with the motive of promoting education system of the state. The year also witnessed impersonation scam, where renowned politician has to bequeath his chair, paper leakage scam came out this year and superintendent involved in this also get caught red handed.
When on one side constitution of CU created number of hurdles and headaches in the working of higher education, while the year had something to cheer about for the education sector as well.Notwithstanding its lows, higher education in 2010 attained new glories, with 8-10 per cent of augmentation in literacy rate, in addition to Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of state, which touched 12 per cent from 7.09 per cent. The achievements of the higher education could be sensed with the ever increasing literacy rate and infrastructural rate that reached on six universities, excluding Central University and more than 90 government colleges in addition to around 323 privately run colleges. Beside, this many infrastructural development including hostels, laboratories, libraries, sports infrastructure and other such growth was also witnessed in the year.  Contradicting the achievements of higher education, 2010 also beheld various miss-outs, which pulled back this strife-torn state, the continuous protest by students, teachers and non-teaching faculty for many legitimate and some illegitimate demands. Rejection of Union Human Resource Development Ministry on the demand of the State Government for more funds for the construction of 18 polytechnics, whose fate is hanging in balance for the past over one and half year because of the financial constrain.Meanwhile similar was the year for Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE), where the literacy rate jumped to 65.67 per cent from paltry 55 per cent, the number of school dropouts also reduced from 3.67 lakh to 0.39 lakh due to opening and upgrading of primary schools, establishment of education guarantee scheme (EGS) center and organising seasonal camps.
During this year, to meet the shortage of teaching staff, about 6,000 teachers were selected by Service Selection Board (SSB) and 54,497 Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers were engaged in newly opened and upgraded schools.4,242 primary and 616 middle-school buildings were constructed and 4,585 additional class rooms and 330 computer learning centers were          established.
As per official data around 8.51 lakh and 3.14 lakh children have been covered at primary and upper-primary level, respectively under mid-day meal scheme. Alike controversy of CU, JK BOSE also witnessed agitations, over the superannuation of chairman, Desh Bandhu, which was not accepted by the student community.

Cr rupee mistake: Floriculture blames ‘natural calamity’

PS BALI 

Jammu Tawi, January 5

In the days after slight rain washed away the embankment of the canal at Gangyal, the ill-planning of the Floriculture department not only eroded embankment, but also washed away crore of rupees used for construction of a park alongside the canal.

Blaming the floriculture department, an engineer of Irrigation department, said that no one at the helm of affair in Floriculture department approached Irrigation department for this project.

“The technical wing of the floriculture department initiated work on its own, without consultation of Irrigation department, which resulted in a disaster,” he said, adding that the department dug the sides of the canal which ultimately led to breach.

Interestingly signpost hanging on the wall of Director’s cabin contradicts its working which goes, “Strength in the forearm is of no use, if there is no strength in forehead”

Whereon, one side the residents are craving for legitimate compensation from the authorities, on the same side the department is anticipating ‘more aid from the government to resume this project’.

Group of aggrieved residents claimed that due to entering of water into their houses they incurred a huge loss. They alleged that “the department and contractor continued their digging even during the rains”, which weakened the embankment of the canal.

“We sought compensation from concerned department for the loss of our property, as if they initiated work, they must be versed with the pros and cons of the project,” lamented Rakesh, a resident and vice president of Youth NC Jammu province.

The residents also expressed anguish saying that after the episode, “no Floriculture employee visited here to take stock of the situation, we had a narrow escape as all our houses were inundated in the water,” said he, adding that what would be the consequences if this breach happened at night time.

Earlier, inaugurated on December 26 by the Minister of state for Revenue and Relief, Raman Bhalla the project was in its infancy and by the alleged negligence of the department on December 31, it eroded the embankment of the canal.

Denying the allegations, director, Floriculture department, KK Sharma said that it was due to natural calamity and as far as sliding of the embankment is concerned “it starts from the other end of the canal” which has no link with tilled area.

“We excavated only two feet after leaving distance of six feet between canal and the digging area,” said Sharma, adding that the sliding of the embankment starts from another corner and it was due to natural calamity.

Admitting that they did not consult Irrigation department, he said that “due to time constraint and pressure, we started work without consulting any department.”

On whether, resumption of project, Director said that they will start project again “after proper consultation of the Irrigation department” and expected aid from government.

Rain exposes Floriculture dept’s callousness

PS BALI
Jammu Tawi, December 31
Few centimeters of rain in Jammu, where on one side provided a sigh of relief from persistent dry weather conditions, on the other hand exposed tall claims of the government of heading towards positive development, wherein an under construction park at Gangyal has eroded the embankment of the canal, allegedly by the mistake of contractors and workers of floriculture department.Inaugurated on December 26 by the Minister of state for Revenue and Relief, Raman Bhalla the project was in its infancy and by the alleged negligence of the department it damaged the nearby embankment of the canal, causing inconvenience to the locals, with water entering the houses. “This project was initiated by the Floriculture department some five days back, but as per its condition it seems it was ill-planned and was not prepared for rains,” said president of residents association, Baldev Singh Baloria, adding that due to this damage residents have to face great trouble, as water entered into their houses damaging costly appliances and furniture.Residents of the area also held contractor, who is executing the works responsible for the damage and demanded a probe against him and the department.“Despite of poorly planned project, Floriculture department, and contractor continued their digging process even during the rains, which has weakened the embankment of the canal, resulting into flooding,” said Baloria.The residents also expressed resentment over the working of the Irrigation department as after hours of incident they failed to reach the spot.“All the government departments are working to please their bosses, as after informing Irrigation department in the wee hours, they reached the spot after five hours, which showed their interest,” said Baloria, adding that after Minister Raman Bhalla reached spot, all the departments including DC also appeared on the spot.Raman Bhalla released Rs 12 lakh for the restoration of damaged canal and instructed Irrigation department to complete work on priority basis.