Inviting Tragedy

Awaiting  Tragedy                                                                                           Construction of Bikram Chowk Flyover on Without Any Safety Measure

Bikram Chowk Flyover Bridge Construction                                             

Administration Closes Eyes, No Safety  at Construction Site

Jammu, 28/Apr/2016:Taking no cue from the Kolkata flyover bridge collapse that took lives of at least 21 innocent civilians on 31^st  March this year, the Jammu and Kashmir government and especially the local officers of the administration have closed their eyes as they are not paying any heed to the ongoing construction of flyover bridge at ever busy Bikram Chowk-Satwari Road of Jammu where the construction is in full swing but there are no safety guidelines followed.

The necessary safety arrangements have not been done, the vehicular traffic has not been diverted and everyday thousands of vehicles besides pedestrians pass through this construction site risking their lives.

Weighing 100s of tons of under construction pillars and concrete slabs are erected at the construction site and the innocent citizens in Vehicles and on foot are passing through this  it just inches away.

There are no safety norms followed by the construction company nor any other officer or official of any government department remain present there on the site to at least keep people away from this gigantic and  colossal construction material hanging in the air.

Though a petition in this regard was also submitted to the deputy commissioner Jammu copied to SP-City South, SDPO City South and SHO Police Station Gandhi Nagar, Jammu wherein RTI activist Raman Sharma has asked the authorities to take necessary steps in this regard. He has submitted to the district magistrate “ As you are well aware that the Construction of Bikram Chowk, Fly Over Bridges is going on & the department of traffic police has not diverted the traffic to any other route therefore thousands of vehicles & pedestrians cross this construction site of the flyover bridge”.  The petitioner besides blaming  the private Construction Company has also raised the issue of the negligence of the Economic Reconstruction Agency(ERA),   “This is really astonishing that neither the private construction company nor the ERA(the govt agency) took any Safety measures to ensure compliance of SOPS, Standard Operating Procedures & safety guidelines of civil constructions on a Public Place”, his plea to the DC reads.

Sharma has stated that there is hardly any arrangement made by the construction company to keep people away from the construction site, the under construction slabs & heavy pillar structure of the bridge passes through the main road & there is free movement of vehicular traffic.

While expressing concern, the activist has prayed to the DC to take immediate cognizance of the issue “ God forbids but if any vehicle even in low speed touch these under construction pillar & slabs there may be huge loss of precious human lives” he feared.

The petition was submitted in the DC office and other offices on 22/April under a proper receipt but even after loss of almost a week’s time no action yet been taken to ensure safety of the citizens.

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To                                                                                         

                                                                                       MOST IMPORTANT/URGENT

The District Magistrate,                                                                                     22/04/2016

Jammu.

Subject: Criminal Negligence of the Construction Company / Risk to Lives of Citizens near the construction site of under Construction FlyOver Bridge from Bikram Chowk towards Satwari .

Respected Sir,

I am a resident of Jammu and through this petition seek your kind intervention at an earliest, as the matter relates to precious lives & safety of innocent citizens. The details are as follow:

As you are well aware that the Construction of Bikram Chowk, Fly Over Bridges is going on & the department of traffic police has not diverted the traffic to any other route therefore thousands of vehicles & pedestrians cross this construction site of the flyover bridge.

This is really astonishing that neither the private construction company nor the ERA(the govt agency) took any Safety measures to ensure compliance of SOPS, Standard Operating Procedures & safety guidelines of civil constructions on a Public Place.

There is hardly any arrangement made by the construction company to keep people away from the construction site, the under construction slabs & heavy pillar structure of the bridge passes through the main road & there is free movement of vehicular traffic.

God forbids but if any vehicle even in low speed touch these under construction pillar & slabs there may be huge loss of precious human lives.

We all are well aware of the recent tragic incident there at Kolkata (West Bengal) where a flyover bridge collapsed causing loss to dozens of lives.

Hope, you take cognizance of this petition & direct the concerned authorities to take necessary steps so that no untoward incident happens.                                           

                                                                                                                        Yours faithfully,                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                       Raman Sharma,

                                                                                                                          [  Applicant    ]

Applicant: Raman Sharma, 236,Mast Garh, Jammu 180001.

Mob: 9796811012, e,mail: jkrtiact@gmail.com.  

Copy to:  Worhty SP South,  SDPO-Gandhinagar,  SHO , Police Station:  Gandhi Nagar,                                         In-charge P/P: Ware House,    Jammu.

                                                                                                                        Raman Sharma.

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Jammu University students seeks NHRC intervention on NIT Srinagar

NIT Srinagar Row

Jammu University  students seeks NHRC intervention on NIT Srinagar 

 Threats to Non-Kashmiri Girls: JU LaW Students’ Plea to NHRC

Jammu, 11/April/2016: The issue of brutality against the non-local students at NIT Srinagar have  finally reached the National Human Rights Commission with the plea of Law students of Jammu University. In a petition addressed to the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, the students have asked the Human rights panel to send a fact finding team to NIT Srinagar to interact with the students to find their grievances and for allowing media to enter the NIT Campus. The petitioners have urged the apex rights body to issue appropriate directions to the J & K Government to take strict action against the police officials who used cruel and brute force against non-Kashmiri students.The  petitioner-students citing threat of security and personal safety of non-local students there at  NIT Srinagar who  have been virtually made state’s prisoners and are confined in the campus without their will and choice have urged the NHRC to ensure their safe return to their homes.The state of affairs and security situation of students is so worse and serious that non-Kashmiri girl students are even threatened of rape and molestation. The media is not allowed to enter the NIT Srinagar campus which further exposes the State’s intention to stifle the lawful voice of non-Kashmiri students. The non- Kashmiri students have been beaten mercilessly and treated with brutality by the J&K Police personals, which further has aggravated the miseries  of students and has  created an atmosphere of terror and fear for the non-Kashmiri students inside the NIT Srinagar campus, read the petition. The plea also mention the threats of rape and molestation to the non-local students who are harassed in the campus. It is being submitted that the non-Kashmiri students are not allowed to interact with the media and the state government is also misleading where at one hand it saying the situation under control and on the other hand it has imposed civil restrictions under prohibitory  order using section 144 inside the campus violating the constitutional rights of the students.Giving chronological background of the incident to the human rights panel, it  have been informed “This all started on March 31, 2016 when a clash took place between the Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri students after the end of cricket match between India and West Indies. The non-Kashmiri students were assaulted which resulted in injuries to some non-Kashmiri students.  That on 5th of April 2016, the non-Kashmiri students held a peaceful protest inside the campus against the assault but the Personals of J&K police used cruel and brute force against the peacefully protesting non-Kashmiri students, which resulted in grievous injuries and fractures to many non-Kashmiri students”.          The petitioners have also demanded immediate registrations of FIRs on the statements of the non-kashmiri girls on their allegations of rape threats by the miscreants. The petition is jointly signed and endorsed by Law Students of Jammu University namely Harsh Dubey, Deepak Sharma, Alok Singh Chib, Dinesh Kumar, Vishav Sharma, Kulveer Singh Parihar, Manmohan Kumar, Hiteshwar Kesar, Sohit Lalal, Aakash Manhas, Karan Kapoor, Prashant Jiyal and others 

J & K: BSNL gets Over 5700 Complaints in Less than a Year

Poor Mobile Connectivity

Jammu, 16/04/2016: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, BSNL in an RTI reply has admitted that it has received over 5000 complaints from mobile subscribers across the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In an RTI reply to the information seeker RTI activist Raman Sharma the DGM(CM) cum Public Information officer of the BSNL informed that during 11 months’  period from April-2015 to Feb-2016, the total number of complaints received by the company is 5780, during this period, 563 complaints of Call drops and 5217 regarding poor network connectivity were received.  

In the communication letter sent by the BSNL to Sharma vide their letter no. 1-288/DE/Plg//RTI Cases/2010-11/24 dated 29/03/2016, the PIO has also informed that as on date there are total  12,58507 registered mobile subscribers with the  company in Jammu and Kashmir including  973684 pre-paid connections and 284823 mobile subscribers.

The RTI reply also states that during the financial year 2014-15, at least 526 mobile subscribers moved to other companies using mobile-portability facility and during the financial year 2015-16 the number of mobile subscribers shunned BSNL gone more than double and during the last financial year, 1123 Mobile subscribers preferred other companies using Mobile Portability service.

The year wise information provided by the BSNL also reveals slow pace of  growth of the company in Jammu and Kashmir, in long time of even 5 years BSNL added less than 3 Lac new mobile subscribers in all 22 districts of the state.

Shockingly the data reveals that in the Financial year 2014-15 the company lost at least 10,000 mobile subscribers, in the year 2013-14 BSNL had 926045 pre-paid and 248208 post mobile subscribers (total 1174253) that witnessed a steep downfall and in the year 214-15 the company had only 887713 Pre-paid and 275829 post paid subscribers a loss of total 10,711 subscribers.

Interestingly, during last 2 years 7757 mobile  subscribers shifted to BSNL network using mobile portability, 1873 in financial year 2014-15 and 5884 in 2015-16.

Raman Sharma, the information seeker also informed that BSNL has denied him information regarding total amount of money it earned by selling Vanity/VIP numbers and also information regarding the detail about vanity numbers given free of cost by the company and for it he would be submitting proper appeal before higher authorities of the company.   

Attached Link : http://jkrtiact.blogspot.in/2017/04/500-new-subscribers-join-bsnl-everyday.html

 

Technical Education Department trashes Raj Bhavan's Directive

Technical Edu Deptt mum over procurement delay Babus trash reminders of Guv's Secretariat Akshay Azad Early Times Report JAMMU, Apr 1: Ignorning directives of even Governor's Secretariat, few officials sitting inside the civil Secretariat appear to have even forgotten the bureaucratic courtesies like issuing acknowledgment of the communications received from the Raj Bhawan. As per the documents in possession of Early Times, one such example is Jammu and Kashmir Technical Education department. On 22nd of December 2015, Additional Secretary to Governor vide Raj Bhawan's letter no 965(G)Apl/15/6425 addressed to Commissioner/Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Technical Education Department had asked him to submit a report to Raj Bhawan on or before January 10, 2016. The Governor office had sought report from Technical Education, over a plea of RTI activist Raman Sharma who had earlier submitted a complaint to the Raj Bhawan regarding the delaying procurement of essential and modern machines for the ITI and Polytechnic Colleges of the state despite having adequate funds by Technical Education Department. RTI activist, Raman Sharma's complaint was based on Early Times news report published on December 11, 2015 titled "Technical Edu Deptt takes years to procure machinery- Skill Development mission a farce". Taking cognizance of the complaint, though the Raj Bhawan had asked the Commissioner/Secretary to submit a report by 10th of January but the Technical Education department remained in deep slumber and neither conduct any probe in the matter nor send any not response to the Governor's Secretariat. Moreover, understanding the bureaucratic attitude, Raj Bhawan once again after almost two months later sent a reminder to the Technical Education Department on 16/Feb/2016 (Reminder letter no. GS-965/G/APL/2015-16/2039 and asked it to submit the report within ten days. In an RTI reply dated March 8, Raj Bhawan have intimated that the report in the matter is still awaited. Earlier this newspaper, in a report on the issue regarding delay in procurement of items there in the Technical Education Department, have revealed that how did the department deliberately not finalized the tender and choose re-tendering for procurement of 106 machines for sewing trade (valuing Rs. 42000 each) as these tenders were floated over 14 months back & the delay was deliberate just to favour their favourite firms without caring the fact that the delay would result in cost escalation of the product if new tenders are called. It was also reported that how did the state level purchase committee, had reportedly earlier approved the quality and rates of these high speed, single needle industrial use sewing machines (valuing Rs. 42000 each) & for which even the samples were approved by the SLP did not place order despite having adequate advance funds in hand. "Moreover even today a sample of this high-tech machine is lying in the polytechnic college, Jammu", sources said. Sources further alleged that without any argument, State Level Purchase Committee was reportedly once again mulling to float re-tenders for purchase of these machines at much higher rates just to favour some favourate firms. " published in Early Times  dated  02/04/2016 http://www.earlytimes.in/m/newsdet.aspx?q=173050