Zabarwan Times E-Paper English 07 November

CMYK

CMYK

CMYK

CMYK

THURSDAY November 07 | 2013 | 02 Muharram 1435 AH | PAGES 12 | VOL NO: 3 | ISSUE NO: 280 | RS: 2/- (AIR SURCHARGE FOR JAMMU /DELHI/LEH 50 Pen For JusticeLargely Circulated, No. 1 Bilingual Daily of J&Khttp://www.zabarwantimes.com

WEATHER

TEMPERATUREMAXIMUM MINIMUMSUNSET ON(THURSDAY)SUNRISE ON (FRIDAY)

05:34 pm06:58 am

7.0 0C15.3 0C

FORECAST FOR NEXT 24 HRS:

FORECAST OF SRINAGAR:

Weather will be mainly dry over the state.

Local forecast for Srinagar dated:07.11.2013:- Rain/thundershowers. Maximum & Minimum temperatures will be around 12°C & 3°C respectively.

Threat is not countryspecific:

Visits LD Hospital

Srinagar, Nov 6 :

Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Umar Farooq Wednesday said that they are ready to coop-erate with the Government of India if follows Vajpayee’s ‘Insaniyat Policy’. “Let the Gov-ernment of India follow Vajpayee imitative on Kashmir, Hurriyat is ready to cooperate with it,” Mirwaiz told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organized in remembrance of Jammu martyrs at Raj Bagh Hurriyat headquarters. He said that Election is a non-issue for us. “Our focus is on the resolution of Kashmir issue and we don’t believe that elections be a substitute to Kashmir solution. Even the par-ties who contest polls believe that elections won’t be a substitute to Kashmir issue. We had been saying that Kashmir is not an adminis-trative issue and ‘Change of Guard’ could have on the issue,” he said. Without naming Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Mirwaiz said that some people try to befool people on Kashmir problem who issue one statement in Kashmir and talk in different tone in Jammu and New Delhi. “Kashmir is an issue and both Pakistan and India should create a congenial atmosphere to resolve this long-pending issue,” he said adding that both the countries should include Kashmiri people

in the dialogue process. “Both India and Pakistan should understand that Kashmir is the core issue between them. It is high time for them to resolve this core is-sue and maintain amicable relationship,” he said. “Those days are over when issues were settled through wars. If India and Pakistan are serious to resolve the Kashmir dispute, then Hurriyat is ready to extend its full contribu-tion,” Mirwaiz said. Terming 2014 as a crucial year, Mirwaiz said that, “we want a solution to the Kashmir issue. We want a solution that takes into ac-count the views and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The time has come for the governments of India and Pakistan to make a new beginning and formulate a way to resolve the crisis in Kashmir in a friendly and amicable manner, keeping in mind the wishes and hopes of the people.” While replying to a question, Mirwaiz said that it is premature to comment on elec-tion boycott right now. “Hurriyat will sit and decide on the issue once election dates and schedules are declared. So far those parties who will contest these elections are not mak-ing any preparation so why should we would bother about this issue at this

See Mirwaiz On Page 11...

‘Ready to cooperate if New Delhi follows Vajpayee’s Insaniyat policy: Mirwaiz

Huriyat (G), Malik react to Haqani’s Kashmir remarks

Srinagar, Nov 6:

Taking strong note of the recent remarks of former Pakistan’ ambassador to US, Hussain Haqani, that Pakistan rejected the US offer for Kashmir resolution in 2009, Kashmir’s pro-freedom camp Wednesday questioned the ‘credibility’ of the report.Talking to Kashmir News Service (KNS), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yasin Malik said that the; theory seems to be bizarre’ and that it is also contrary to the valley’s ground situation.Terming Haqani’s remarks an ‘imaginative theory’, Malik said that the ground reality in Kashmir is opposite to what the news report is suggesting. “If we talk through Kashmir perspective, the theory remains questionable, army itself confesses that the 98 percent militancy has been declined in Kashmir, why no solution came out?.” Malik stated further that keeping in view the actual-ity of the current situation , the credibility of the report seems ‘questionable.’ “If international requirement of the resolution of Kashmir is peaceful atmosphere, it is

See Huriyat On Page 11...

Govt will conduct inquiry into Lal Ded fire incident: Taj

Srinagar, Nov 6 :

“The martyrdom of Imam Hussain (RA) and his companions in Karbala is a lesson for all generations to follow the path of truth, justice and sacrifice. Hussainiat always stands for justice and truth,” tThis was stated by the chairman JKLF Mohammad Yasin Malik in a statement issued in regards to the start of Muharam today.

In its statement issued to KNS, Malik said that Imam Hussain and the fam-ily of prophet SAW sacrificed their lives at Karbala for truth, justice and morality. “They stood against the tyr-anny to uphold the flag of justice. That is why even after hundreds of years we all identify ourselves with Hussain not with the tyrants who fought against Hussain in Karbala.”Malik has said that Hussainiat teaches

us unity and oneness and we should also remain one and united. It provides all of us a lesson that we should stand for truth and justice. When it comes to choose between tyrants and those who are oppressed, we should choose oppressed and be on their side, added Yasin Malik.Yasin Malik said we all have one Kalima La Illaha Illalllah Mohammad-ur-Rasoolullah

See JKLF On Page 11...

‘Hussainiat always stands for justice and truth’Extend

minority status to Sikhs: APSCC

tells Home Department

Srinagar, Nov 6 :

All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee Wednesday during its interaction with Home De-partment Committee alleged

that Government failed to book the ‘killers’ involved in Chattis-inghpora and Mehjoor Nagar massacres. APSCC headed by Jagmohan Raina met the team of Departmental Related Par-liamentary (DRP) Standing Committee on Home Depart-ment for Rehabilitation of mi-grants of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday in Srinagar. Raina told CNS that APSCC discussed all the

See Mehjoor On Page 11...

Book Chattisinghpora and Mehjoor Nagar killers

Elections are non-issue,

resolution of Kashmir is our

priority

Jammu 06 November:

Pitching strongly for empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today promised sar-panches that his party will fight for their rights and build pressure on the Jammu and Kashmir government for it. Gandhi's two-day visit to the state which began to-day is seen as a move by Congress to build pres-sure on coalition partner National Confer-ence to incorporate certain provisions of the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitu-tion on Panchayati Raj. Rahul assured the sarpanches in Jammu that Congress Party will implement the 73rd amend-ment adding he will fight this battle. Reminding Sarpanches and Panches that it had taken almost one-and-a-half years to ensure passage of the new Land Acquisition Bill, he said this will also eventually happen "not easily" but only after people fight for it. Highlighting schemes like MGNREGA, RTI and food security brought by UPA, the Congress Vice President said these pro-grammes cannot be implemented

See Rahul On Page 11...

Rahul Gandhi arrives in Jammu on a 2-day visit of the state

Addresses Sarpanchs, lashes out at state govt.

Srinagar, Nov 6:

The minister for medical education Taj Mohi-u-Din today said that govern-ment will install internal fire safety mechanisms in all the associated hospitals of Government Medical Col-lege (GMC) Srinagar very soon. He said that the age old electric wiring in these hospitals will also be reviewed and steps would be taken to rectify the loopholes.Taj was addressing media persons at Lal Ded hospital in seminar hall after his arrival from Jammu to take stock situation surfaced after the Tues-dayevening fire incident that had en-gulfed a block of the Valley’s only ter-tiary care maternity hospital.The minister for medical education complimented the administration and the staff including doctors, par medics and other officials for their commend-able job at a time when the fire had

engulfed casualty block of the 500-bed maternity hospital. When asked by Kashmir News Service about the inbuilt fire safety mecha-nism available in the

See Taj On Page 11...

‘Rs 5 Crores needed for fire safety in old hospitals buildings in City’

Omar visits LallaDed Hospital

SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 06:

Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Wednesday evening visited Lal-laDed Hospital to take stock of the situation and functioning of the Hospital after fire incident that took place in the Hospital last night. The Chief Minister inter-acted with patients, Doctors and the attendants and

See Omer On Page 11...

Srinagar, Nov 6 :

The district hospital Kulgam has carried out a very rare and prolonged surgery, ''Hair transplantation for Post-burn bald-ness of beard'' and the patient is said to be fine and has been discharged from the hos-pital. According to the reports, the surgery was performed on November5, at District Hos-pital Kulgam by Plastic Surgeon Dr Hamid Ullah Dar. A 17-year-old Shahzad Ahmad (name changed) MRD No 2145 a resident of Harnag, Anantnag was suffering from post-burn baldness of beard (Scar Alope-cia) on the right side of his face.“The extensive surgery took nine hours

starting from 8.00 am to 5.00pm. Whole bald area was covered by transplanting 500 hair follicles which covered the scar area densely. This is the first of its kind surgery performed in any Government setup in J & K. The patient is doing well post opera-tively and has been discharged. It is perti-nent to mention here that prior to this four successful hair transplantation surgeries have been performed at the same hospital and all of them have attained normal hair growth,” a handout issued by the director-ate of health services Kashmir added.It said: “As surgeries of this quantum are costly, time consuming and with a factor of huge influx of patients at

See Kulgam On Page 11...

Kulgam hospital performs 9-hour-long rare plastic surgery

Srinagar, Nov 6:

Jammu and Kashmir Private Schools United Front (JKPSUF) has demanded that government devise rules and regulations based on scientific principles for deciding dates and duration of winter vacations.In a statement issued to Kash-mir News Service, G N Var, JK-PSUF General Secretary of the Front has said that every year the announcement of winter va-cations has become a big issue in Kashmir. “There is no logic in

those dates except the benefits to some officers, whose wives and other relatives want to cherish the heat of Jammu,” said Var, in his statement issued to Kash-mir News Service. “As soon as the Durbar Move migrates to Jammu, a vested lobby gets to work to get winter vacations an-nounced quickly.”The Front said that during last so many years we have seen that a slight snowfall triggered win-ter vacations. “But after some days the weather became sunny again and thus we lost many aca-

demic days,” said Var, as per the statement received by Kashmir News Service. “Sometimes even our syllabus remains incom-plete, so it is better government forms proper rules and regula-tions for announcing such vaca-tions.”The Front demanded that the government constitute an ex-pert committee comprising of of-ficials of government education department, private schools, weather department and a stu-dent parent body.

See JKPSUF On Page 11...

‘Stop announcing winter vacations to benefit bureaucratic families’

Decide winter vacations based on scientific principles: JKPSUF

Will work to strengthen brotherhood, unity, harmony among Muslims: JKLF

2 arrested in Pulwama rape case

Srinagar, Nov 6:

Police today claimed to have ar-rested two youth allegedly involved in rape of a minor girl in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.A senior police officer talking to Kashmir News Service identified the youth arrested as Aadil Wani and Shahid Manzoor Wani, residents of Khrew-Pulwaha.The police said the two youths were arrested after the victim girl lodged a complaint that she was abducted and raped by the two accused. Medical examination of girl has also con-firmed rape. (KNS)

Laborer murdered by coworker

Bandipora, Nov 6: A laborer was allegedly murdered by his co-worker at a construction site in Bandipora. A 29 years old laborer Pawan Kumar Gupta son of Binishwar Gupta resident of Deoghar, Jharkhand was allegedly killed by his coworker Naseem Ansari resident of Jharkhand. Both of them were working as laborers in Beacon, Sonawari. Police arrested the accused and a case has been registered in this regard. After completing all legal formalities the body of the deceased was handed over to the concerned authorities. (CNS)

Police Public meet held in Baramulla

Srinagar, November 06:

A meeting was conducted with Civil Society Committee members in the premises of Police Station Boniyar by Shri Irshad Ahmad SHO Police Station Boniyar.The participants highlighted various grievances like link roads of village Chandanwari needs to be widened, road from village Uranbowa to Chan-danwar need to

See police On Page 11...

Yoga can curve every disease

Owner , Printer & Publisher: Suhail Malik Editor -in-Chief: Shahana Malik RNI NO. JKBII/2011/39764, Email: [email protected] Publised at Govt. Quarters ( M-13 Magarmal Bagh Srinagar-190001 J&K, Printed at:- Sangarmal Offset Press Humhama Sheikhpora Tele/Fax: 2478370 Cell No. 09999964750, 9796 787844

From the front page Omar

Kulgam

JKPSUF

JKLF

Mirwaiz

Rahul

Huriyat

Taj

Mehjoor

Mehjoor

11 Thursday 07 November 2013 Zabarwan Times

Sagar inspects work on community halls

SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 06:

The Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Mr. Ali Moham-mad Sagar today paid extensive visit of various areas of downtown city of Srinagar, which include Daulatabad, Reiteng, Rainawari and Khanyar and inspected various de-velopment works under execution which include two Community Halls at Koolipora and Daulatabad. The Minister accompanied by the officers, executing the project informed the Minister that Rs. 1.60 crore has been spent on the project till date.He also went round Rainawari and adjacent areas. The development of Park, repairs of lanes and drains is apace in these areas at a cost of Rs. 30 lakhs. The Minister announced Rs. one crore for construction of Com-munity Hall at Bahu-ud-Din Sahib Nowhatta on the occasion. Earlier, fire victims of Shaham-pora Nowhatta called on the Minis-ter at his residence today morning. Mr. Sagar announced Rs. 9,000 ex-gratia relief for the affected fami-lies besides Rs. 25,000 each out of his Constituency Development Fund. Later, the Minister interacted

with many deputations from Abi Nowpora Khanyar and deputation of Rainawari Traders Association enroute who put forth their demands

on the occasion. The Minister gave them patient hearing and assured that their developmental need would be looked into on priority.

Announces relief for fire victimstime,” he said adding that elections can’t change the face of Kashmir issue. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that Hurriyat would soon meet to decide how the amalgam would reach out to people of all the three regions. “We want to reach out to the people of all the three regions. Hurriyat wants to take them on board, so that Kashmir issue could be resolved amicably,” he said. (CNS)

without Panchayati Raj and without sarpanches as "in order to implement these programmes, the leader-ship should be in villages." Rahul said that if we have to change Jammu and Kashmir, then first of all we will have to empower the leaders of Panchayats and local bodies.Meanwhile Sarpanchas and Panchas Wednesday complained to All-India Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi that they are being suppressed by the State Gov-ernment and are deprived from the power and rights. As Rahul Gandhi who is on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir was busy in addressing the rally of Con-gress Sarpanchas, one of Sarpanch from Ramnagar, Parikshit Singh stood up and started yelling at Rahul Gandhi which brought security officials on their toes. Reports said that the agitated Sarpanch tried to cross the barricades, however, security personnel stopped him and did not allow him to go nearby. However, the Sar-panch continuously yelled at Rahul Gandhi complaining that about not getting enough power from the Jammu and Kashmir government. "We are elected but we are toothless. The state govern-ment did not give us anything. We have not even being provided the secuirty" Sarpanch Ramnagar Parikshit Singh shouted. Rahul Gandhi asked him to cool down and said that he has come here to redress your grievenc-es. "If I did not want to listen to your voices, would I have come here? I have come here to listen to you. I will pres-surize the state government and fight for your rights." Rahul told the Sarpanch. Parikshit Singh later on told reporters that Govern-ment of Jammu and Kashmir is leaving no stone un-turned to suppress those village representatives who belong to Congress. “The government has provided secu-rity cover to the kiths and kins of MLA’s but not a single Sarpanch has been provided security so far. We want Ra-hul to intervene and save us from the wrath of State Gov-ernment,” he said. Reports said that Rahul was inter-rupted by another Sarpanch who complained that State Government is maltreating them. Rahul Gandhi assured the Sarpanchas that he would take up the issue with the State Government. Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to arrive in the valley today. He will be visiting Budgam and also will inaugurate a private sector industrial house in Pul-wama.

indeed here but where is the solution.”Pertinently, Husain Haqani in his recent book, Magnificent Illu-sions, revealed that the United States President Barack Obama secretly offered Pakistan in the year 2009 that he would nudge India towards negotiations on Kashmir if Pakistan ends support to militant outfits. The book has further revealed that Pakistan rejected the offer of US President.Huriyat (G) while reacting to the recent remarks of Hussain Haaqani accused Haqani of being the ‘contro-versial’ figure in Pakistan and that the amalgam doesn’t take the report seriously.Talking to Kashmir News Service (KNS), Huriyat(G) spokesman Ayaz Akbar said accused that Haqani has no ‘credibility’ on ground and that policy makers of both the countries should not take the report seriously. “We don’t trust we he has said recently, wikileaks has unmasked him earlier and though these remarks he is serving his vested interests.” (KNS)

hospitals in Kashmir, Taj said: “There is no inbuilt fire safety mechanism in hospitals constructed decades ago. However, there is a fire fighting mechanism available in all newly constructed hospitals. We need around Rs 5 Crores to install such mechanism in old buildings of associated hospitals of GMC Srinagar and we are looking into how and wherefrom that money can be allotted. Be-sides the old electric wiring which has been placed over 40 years ago also need to be replaced. We will also try to rectify any other loopholes which can cause such unfor-tunate incidents,” he added.It may be recalled that the fire services department had pressed into service 18 tenders and over 50 firemen to bring the blaze under control.“Thank God there was no loss of life. The records, drugs and the furniture are safe," the minister for medical edu-cation informed the media. He added that initial reports suggest the fire broke out due to short circuit but they are waiting for forensic reports to know the exact cause of fire. “We will also conduct an inquiry into the circum-stances which caused the fire.”“I salute the administration, doctors and para medical staff who did not allow the fire to impact their working and without bothering for their lives were performing their duties. Doctors and their para medical staff deserve accolades for they were performing caesarians and oth-er surgeries in operation theatres while witnessing the flames leaping and plumes of smoke touching skies,” Taj informed.He said that the officials working in nearby laboratories in an adjacent building of the hospital did not left their rooms and despite inundated in water upto knees, con-tinued to carry out different serological and pathological tests in order to facilitate the surgeries and other proce-dures in theatres and labor rooms in the hospital.Pertinently, the Minister early this morning rushed to the summer capital after learning about the incident which took place at LD Hospital during the night and inspected the hospital and reviewed its functioning. He also appreciated the GMC administration, hospital man-agement, faculty and staff of the LD hospital who put in their best efforts in saving patients and kept the opera-tion theatres, labor rooms and laboratories open to pa-tients.On this occasion, the hospital administration informed Taj that despite the fire 10 deliveries and 20 caesarians were conducted at the hospital. He was told that 86 new admissions were done during the last 24 hours, 25 of them during the night itself, soon after the fire incident. He was told that hospital administration constituted dif-ferent teams to tackle the situation and concluded the rescue operations without any loss. (KNS)

got first hand appraisal of the incident. He directed the management to make all out efforts for making neces-sary medical facilities available to the patients.

tertiary level this step will be a huge breakthrough in conducting advanced surgeries at the door steps in rural areas with ease and that too free of cost.”Director Health Services, Kashmir Dr Saleem-or-Rehman while talking to Kashmir News Service has complimented the operative team headed by the plas-tic surgeon on achieving this remarkable feat and has assured to provide better logistics to the hospital administration so that advanced surgeries like these be conducted at the hospital thereby benefiting the needy patients at large. (KNS)

According to the statement issued to KNS, Var has said; “This committee should be empowered to de-cide the winter vacations based on scientific and lo-gistic principles and also keeping in mind education requirements.” “It should not be the decision made purely for the benefit of wives, daughter in laws and other relative of babus.”The global warming has changed weather pattern of Kashmir and harsh winter of old days is a distant memory. “The good thing is that the Meteorologi-cal Department has month long weather forecast in hand, so why not utilize that,” said Var. “We can see which are the harshest days and accordingly decide holidays.”The association said the government to take a look at other countries in Europe and America where similar or harsh weather conditions prevail, but they have minimal winter holidays. “Those countries term winter as the most unproductive season, so their principle is, the more we utilize it inside classrooms the better it is,” said Var, in his statement issued to KNS. “Otherwise during these vacations majority of students end up doing nothing in homes or simply continue attending classes at coaching centres.”The association said that extended winter classes will also help build winter compliant infrastructure at schools. (KNS)

and this is the bond that unites us all. Our Allah is one, our prophet is one, our Ka’aba and Qibla is same, that is why we all should be one, united in our love, grief and joy.”Malik said that we can have difference of sect or creed but we have no difference on the fundamen-tals, so we all shall follow the rule, ‘don’t leave your sect but don’t ever tease the others sect.’Malik said that JKLF as in past will do everything possible to strengthen the brotherhood, unity and harmony among various sects of Muslims. We will leave no stone unturned in this sacred mission, added Malik.He also prayed to Allah for strengthening the uni-ty among Muslim Ummah .referring to the ongo-ing freedom struggle in Kashmir, Yasin Malik said that the last many decades of struggle in Kashmir is also Continuation of the Battle of Karbala.“Hussainiat asks and directs us to strengthen the hands of those who fight the war of the oppressed and be on their side. Yasin hoped that we all will keep ourselves with the teachings of Imam-I-Hus-sain.”Meanwhile, a delegation of JKLF led by Noor Mo-hammad Kalwal (zonal president JKLF) Matipora Pattan Baramullah. The delegation included se-nior leader Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Bashir Ah-mad Kashmiri (zonal organizer), Ashraf Bin Salam (zonal press secretary),Abdul Rashid Magloo (dis-trict president Baramulla), Abdul Qayoom, Molvi Reyaz, Mohammad Azam Zargar and Ghulam Qa-dir Khan. The delegation met with the local people of the area and deliberated upon the upcoming Ashoora processions the leaders emphasized on the need of unity and harmony among all sects of Muslims during Muharam days.The Front leaders assured the locals that JKLF will fulfill its duties in this regard. JKLF has also expressed its heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of 4 people who lost their lives in a tragic road accident at Panzan Chadoora Budgam, reads the statement issued to KNS. (KNS)

important issues with the Committee members and urged upon them to extend minority status to Sikh of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the Committee gave patient hearing to the delegation and assured that all these issues would be taken up with the Home Ministry of India. APSCC told Committee that it is the job of Home Ministry to grant minority status to the Sikhs of Kash-mir. “Despite all odds the Sikhs did not migrate. We were threatened to leave the Kashmir and yet we stayed here. Our brethren were killed in cold blood in Mehjoor Nagar and Chattisingpora but no action was taken against the killers who roam freely till this day,” Raina told Committee members. APSCC demanded that Punjabi should be added to the curriculum in Central University of Kashmir. Pertinently, the DRP Standing Committee is in Jammu and Kashmir to know about the welfare of migrants and minorities of the State. The Com-mittee visited Jammu on Tuesday. The members of the Sub Committee included Naveen Jindal, Vandan Chavan, Nr.Saniuse Kujar, Satish Chanser Misra, Dr. Shafiq Rehman Barq, Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Detta Maghe, Sanjay Dina Patil, Rathod Ramesh, Neertay Shekhar, Rajiv Pratab Rudy and Raman Deka. (CNS)

macadamized on priority basis, one separate electric Transformer needs to be issued to Khan Mohalla, Uran-bowa, Solar Lights needs to be installed near Masques of village Uranbowa.The police officer assured the participants that their grievances will be forwarded to the concerned authori-ties.

POONCH, NOVEMBER 06-

DLRC meeting of District Poonch was convened today under the Chairmanship of District Develop-ment Commissioner Poonch, Sajjad Ahmed Khan to review the perfor-mance of various government agen-cies and banks in the district for the quarter ending September 2013. On the occasion, LDM Poonch, Mohd Shafi Ayaz informed that in the last quarter the banks in the district were having a deposit of Rs.1395.27 crores and advance to the tune of Rs.245.61 crores were made. During the first half of this year the banks have disbursed an amount of Rs.55.12 crores among 3579 benefi-ciaries, out of which Rs.5.52 crores in agriculture, Rs.16.87 crores in Micro small Enterprises, Rs.0.70 crores in Education,Rs.1.81 crores in Housing and Rs.2.35 crores in other priority sectors were disbursed. In non prior-ity sector Rs.28.49 crores have been disbursed. The total disbursement constitutes the 23 percent of the An-nual Credit plan of the district. It was informed that during the first two quarters of the financial year 1473 fresh Kissan Credit Cards were issued amounting Rs.3.60 crores by the banks, thereby raising the total number of KCC issued by the banks to 12457 amounting Rs.11.87 crores

out of which JK Bank alone has is-sued 10300 KCC amounting Rs.7.38 crores. The contribution of JK Bank in total credit folio of the district is 64.52 percent. DDC impressed upon all govern-ment agencies to accelerate their ef-forts to sponsor all the cases to banks up to the end of third quarter of the financial year and asked the banks to ensure their sanction as well as disbursement well before the closure of the financial year. He said that government is committed to provide the employment opportunity to un-employed youth and for this purpose various sponsored schemes have been launched. These schemes have incentives linked by way of margin money and subsidy which do help unemployed youth in establish-ing their own income generating units. He asked all banks and line departments to adopt proactive approach in their assigned job and make it sure that targets un-der all sectors are achieved. He further stressed to increase the CD Ratio of banks and target under ACP be achieved. District officers of various government departments and banks, LDO RBI, Sharma, DDO NABARD, Des Raj, Cluster Head JK Bank G. Jeeali and area, Manger JK G Bank, R.S Sumbaria attended the meeting.

DLRC meeting convened at Poonch E&S deptt condoles demise of Dy Director

JAMMU, NOVEMBER 06-

A condolence meeting was orga-nized by the staff of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics J&K, Statistical Training School Jammu and Regional Joint Directorate of Evaluation and Statistics Jammu, under the Chairmanship of Director Gen-eral, Economics & Statistics, B R Lachotra to pay homage to the departed soul of Joginder Paul, Deputy Director (P&S) who left for heavenly aboard after brief illness. On the occasion, Lachotra said that due to said demise of Joginder Paul E&S Organization J&K has lost one of the honest, sincere and dedicated officer. A two-minute silence was observed with prayers to almighty God for granting eternal peace to the departed soul and for giving courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss. On the occasion, Lachotra said that due to said demise of Joginder Paul E&S Organization J&K has lost one of the honest, sincere and dedicated officer.

Srinagar, Nov 06:

Terming the rescue and evacua-tion measures in India much better and effective than the ones recently conducted in developed countries during disasters Vice Chairman Na-tional Disaster Management Author-ity (NDMA) New Delhi M. Shashidar Reddy has stressed on safety of chil-dren during any such eventuality whom he said form the most vulner-able group amongst the victims of disasters.While addressing the faculty mem-bers, students and delegates at Uni-versity of Kashmir during the inau-gural function of a SAARC Regional Training Program on, Children Safe-ty including Children with Special Needs in South Asia, organised by SAARC Disaster Management Cen-tre, (SDMC) New Delhi in collabora-tion with Department of Geography Regional Development KU Reddy said “ If we compare the biggest evac-uation measures conducted recently in our country during disasters then we are much better than some of the developed countries like USA where the rescue measures during torna-dos and hurricanes like Katrina left many things to be desired.”Reddy said that India as a country has performed well in the past also with NDMA bringing in quality and prompt rescue measures through effective planning and mass aware-ness amongst the people at grass root level and now other South Asian and SAARC countries are replicating the same procedures and evacuation measures to bring down the causali-ties during various disasters.He added “However we don`t have to be complacent and serious efforts are needed to create more awareness amongst the people through mock drills particularly in schools which

is the major area of our concern as past trends have shown that chil-dren form the most vulnerable group amongst the victims. Therefore, we have to make sure that our school buildings are designed keeping in tune with all the safety measures and precautions.”Reddy said that the key to survival during disasters like earth-quakes, floods, cyclones and tornados lies in effective preparedness and all mem-bers of SAARC nations have to pool-in their efforts and resources to come up with multi-pronged strategy to tackle such disasters which he said are common to all the SAARC coun-tries in terms of the vast devastation and damage they cause to the life and property of the people.Appreciating the University of Kash-mir for introducing PG Diploma in Disaster Management and subse-quently upgrading it to masters level Reddy said that NDMA is looking for-ward to work in collaboration with KU which he said would promote a mutual exchange of ideas and pro-vide an opportunity to the students and the faculty members to interact with the experts of the NDMA.Vice Chancellor University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad who was chairing the inaugural session said that the decision of SDMC and NDMA to select University of Kash-mir for the training program is very encouraging and will in turn help the participants and delegates from various SAARC countries to know about the various strategies and study conducted in the area of disas-ter management by the researchers and academicians of KU which he said is actively involved in mapping the vulnerabilities of various social groups in the J&K region.Maintaining that it is the buildings which kill the people and not the di-

sasters Prof Talat while laying stress on disaster -resilient structures and buildings said “During our survey to Kishtawar -Bhaderwah belt of J&K state which witnessed several earth-quakes and subsequent aftershocks this year we found that buildings which were carefully constructed keeping in tune the disaster resis-tance procedures and engineering techniques were able to bear the shocks where those structures which were poorly constructed collapsed and caused maximum damage.”Prof Talat said that he is looking forward to a very purposeful delib-eration during the training program and said that the recommendations of the training program would be for-warded to the authorities in NDMA and other concerned people in New Delhi so that a robust policy plan-ning is made effective at grass root level which will help in minimizing the loss of life and property caused by disasters like earthquakes, floods and cyclones.Speaking on the occasion Dr. Muzaf-far Ahmad member NDMA and a renowned public health expert while presenting some statistics said in his remarks that South Asia is home to the largest number of children in the world and according to UNICEF’s State of World’s Children 2010, South Asia’s population of children under 18 was 614 million - nearly 28 per cent of the world’s total child population.“South Asia is also one of the most disaster prone regions in the world. The children of South Asia are among the most vulnerable in the world. One of every three child deaths globally occurs in South Asia. The vulnerability of children is ex-acerbated during disasters, and chil-dren have suffered disproportionate-ly in almost every natural disaster in the region.

SAARC Regional Training Program begins at KU

Our evacuation measures during disasters much better than those of developed countries: M. Shashidhar Reddy

SRINAGAR, NOV. 06-

In order to assess the damage caused by the fire incident, the Min-ister for Rural Development and Pan-chayati Raj, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar yesterday evening visited the LD Hos-pital where a fire had broken out and took stock of the situation which has arisen due to the incident.The Minis-ter was accompanied by senior offi-cers and Doctors of the hospital.While interacting with the patients, the Min-ister said that a fool proof fire fighting system has been put in place to en-sure that the spread of these types of incident are controlled. He said that the staff of the hospital deserves spe-cial appreciation for ensuring that the fire did not spread and cause damage to the entire hospital.Mr. Sagar said that the health is one of the top most priority sectors of the state and every care has been taken to augment the infrastructural assets by constructing State of art hospitals which provide round the clock services to the public.

He said that special care is being taken to see that the patients are pro-vided best possible services, besides giving medicines to them.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER | 07| 2013Daily ZABARWAN TIMES NEWSSagar visits

LD Hospital

Inaugurates new Academ-ic block

SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 06:

Saying that besides ensuring quality education equipped with modern technological trends along inculcating moral and ethical values among students the Minister for Higher Education, Mr. Moham-mad Akbar Lone reiterated that government has initiated number of projects for the upgradation and development of higher education setup in the State so that students are enriched with best education, leader-ship qualities, sense of responsibility and creative thinking.

The Minister was addressing an Annual Day function of Government Degree College (GDC) Bemina after inaugurating new Academic block

comprising of six lecture halls, staff room and one wash room of the Col-lege constructed at a cost of Rs. 1.59 crore.

Mr. Lone also inaugurated a Smart Room fully equipped with modern gadgets and latest technology devel-oped at a cost of Rs. 10 lakhs.

Secretary, Higher Education De-partment, Mr. Sheikh Mushtaq Ah-mad, Advisor to Higher Education Department, Prof. Nisar Ali, Director Colleges, Prof. Tariq Ahmad Kawoosa, Principal GDC Bemina, Dr. Yasmeen Kawoosa, Principals of various Degree Colleges, educationists, faculty mem-bers and large number of students of the college were present on the occa-sion,

Mr. Lone said that government will not leave any stone unturned for making J&K State an educationally sound State besides making students able to face national and global level challenges.

The Minister said students of our State have lot of potential and talent

but need proper guidance and coun-selling for ensuring excellent perfor-mance. He urged upon all the College heads and faculty members to utilise their experience and skills for chan-nelizing the potential and capability of the students in right direction so that they can exhibit their talent in all the spheres of life and lead the State to new horizon of success and pros-perity.Underscoring the importance of extracurricular activities and mod-ern electronics revolution, the Minis-ter stressed upon College authorities for providing suitable platform to students for extracurricular activities which are very important for their mental and physical development.

Mr. Lone assured college frater-nity that their genuine demands and issues will be redressed in a phased manner.The Minister released College Tarana, on the occasion.

Various mesmerizing and colour-ful cultural items were presented by the college students which bagged great applause from the audience.

GDC Bemina celebrates Annual-Day, releases College Tarana

Modernization of Hr. Edu underway across the State: Akbar Lone

Money matters may need attention today. Bills need to be paid, checks deposited, or contracts executed. The relief you get from handling this should lift your spirits consider-ably. Get out in the fresh air, take a walk, and work off some of your energy. Get the endorphins going. Phone a friend and spend the evening on the town. You’ve worked hard and you deserve it.

You’re in a great mood, and you’re raring to go at just about anything. Your physical energy is high, so some exer-cise is indicated, possibly sports. You might want to take a short trip out of town or embark on a new course of study or try your hand at writing. Your enthusiasm and optimism are high, so the sky’s the limit.

Today you might feel a strong psychic link with a friend who lives far away that you haven’t seen for a long time. You might wonder what this person is up to and this could be a bit worrying. Don’t be shy. Call! One way or another, you should know what’s happening. It could be that your friend is just having a bad day. Provide a sympathetic ear!

Group activities or meetings could prove fraught today as those around you get pulled into discussions about which they feel strongly and on which they don’t all agree! This isn’t a good day to get involved in heated discussions even if you find the idea tempting. Stay out of it! Find someone who’s also staying out of it and talk to that person.

The possibility of impending changes in your personal or professional life could have you feeling worried and inse-cure. Don’t be. If anything, you’ll benefit from these changes. There could be a lot of tension and stress in the air, and it will be hard to avoid picking up on this energy. Try to relax! Let yourself be carried along by the current.

You may have been making plans to take a long trip or return to school for an advanced degree. Until now you may have put it off. You’ve finally stepped over the line and made the decision to do it. There’s no stopping you! You may spend a lot of time on the phone gathering information and making preliminary arrangements.

A lot of calls could come your way today. Some involve people who live far away, some are from friends with heavy emotional difficulties, and one could come from a romantic partner with whom you’re very anxious to get together. You might hop in the car to meet this person somewhere familiar in your community. Don’t wear your voice out talking on the phone!

Legal papers regarding money that you may have been working on for a while should finally be done today. This should lift your spirits if for no other reason than to have it all out of the way! You should feel especially talkative, enthusiastic, and passionate. You may want to schedule a romantic evening with your partner. Have fun!

Some bad experiences regarding career, family, travel, or education could have a friend, colleague, or love partner in an explosive mood today. This person could be unpredict-able now - happy one minute and in the depths of gloom the next. Don’t try to give advice or cheer up him or her. It will only result in anger. Stay out of the way and let your friend work through it.

Job stress might be getting to you. Drinking a lot of wa-ter would be a good idea. Moderate amounts of exercise and rest are also indicated. Don’t eat very spicy foods. This is a good day to catch up on reading, studying, or research. Your physical self may not be what it should be, but your brain is sharp.

Today you should feel romantic and passionate and want to get together with your love partner. You’ll prob-ably do that, but it may be difficult and only arranged at the last minute. Don’t panic if you can’t reach your friend during the early part of the day. Don’t give up. You’ll have a great evening.

A woman, perhaps a colleague who’s very bright and sometimes annoying, could visit you today. If you aren’t careful, this person could goad you into a heated discussion or arouse your insecurity. Try to distance yourself. This per-son has issues of her own to deal with that have little if any-thing to do with you. Be polite and understanding and then show her the door!

Required arrangements put in place for smooth conduct of Muharram procession: Feroze

JAMMU NOV. 06:

Minister of State for Science Technology and Information Tech-nology Mr. Feroze Ahmad Khan to-day chaired a joint meeting of of-ficers and representatives from All Jammu and Kashmir Shia Federa-tion, Anjuman-e-Shariee-Shiyaan and All Ladakh Muslim Students Association convened to review the arrangements put in place for taking-out smooth and peaceful processions in Jammu on the eve of Muharram that starts from to-day.

Political Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr. Tanveer Sadiq, Di-rector Consumer Affairs and Pub-lic Distribution (CA&PD) Jammu, Managing Director JKSRTC, Mr. J. S. Tondon, Senior Superintendent of Police Jammu, Commissioner, Mu-nicipal Corporation Jammu, Su-perintending Engineer PDD, Gen-eral Manager SRTC Mr. R S Jamwal, President All Jammu and Kashmir Shia Federation, Jammu Province, Mr. Aushiq Hussain Khan and rep-resentatives of other Shia Federa-

tions attended the meeting.The meeting was informed that

to mark the 6th day of Muharram falling on November 11, 2013, a procession will be taken out from Janipur which will pass through New Plot, Ambphalla, Ustaad Mo-hallah, Dauntalli Bazar, Peer Mitha and conclude at Karbala Complex.

It was also given out in the meeting that the main Ashoora procession will be taken-out on November 15, 2013 which will start from Peer Mitha in the after-noon and after passing through Lakhdatta Bazar, Rajinder Market, Shaheedi Chowk will conclude at Karbala Complex.

President, All Jammu and Kashmir Shia Federation, Jammu Province Mr. Aushiq Hussain Khan informed that Muharram proces-sions will also be carried out in Chanderkote, Ramban and Poonch of Jammu Division.

The meeting was informed that besides the Muharram pro-cessions, daily Majlis and other religious prayers will also be held at Kargil Colony, Gulmarg Colony,

Bathandi and New Plots in the Jammu district.

It was informed in the meeting that on the eve of Youm-e-Ashore, the volunteers of All Ladakh Mus-lim Students Association will orga-nise a blood donation camp near Karbala Complex where a large number of youngsters especially the students are expected to do-nate blood.

The meeting was informed that elaborate security arrange-ments have been put in place for the smooth conduct of Muharram procession. Additional security personnel will also be deployed on duty along the procession route and in and around the Immam-baras and other religious places.

The Minister instructed the au-thorities of Jammu Municipal Cor-poration to illuminate the routes identified by the representatives so that the procession can be car-ried out easily, besides ensuring sanitation. He also instructed to provide un-interrupted power and water supply to Karbala Complex and adjoining areas during the

Muharram days.Mr. Feroze instructed the au-

thorities of R&B department to en-sure maintenance of roads, lanes and drain in the Shia population areas. He also directed the MD, JK SRTC to make adequate arrange-ments of transportation from Kargil Colony, Boys Hostel Chhani Rama to Karbala House for the convince of the people intending to take part in religious sermons.

The Minister instructed the Director, CA&PD, Jammu to ensure adequate storage and dis-tribution of LPG Cylinders, besides other essentials on subsidized rates to the Shia populated areas during Muharram. He also in-structed the authorities of Health Department to keep available the ambulances alongwith required medical aids and oxygen cylinders to accompany the processions.

The Minister desired to check the menace of continuous thefts in Kargil Colony, Makka Masjid and adjoining areas where some cases have been noticed during last some days.

Efforts afoot to strengthen Red Cross movement in Ladakh RegionGS hands

over ambu-lance keys to DC Kargil

SRINAGAR, NOV 6:

A team of Indian Red Cross Society, J&K State headed by its General Secre-tary (GS) Mrs. Roma Wani-today conducted tour of Leh and Kargil districts to reju-venate the Red Cross move-ment in twin Districts of La-dakh region.

During the tour, the team met with the Deputy Com-missioners of Kargil & Leh Districts who are also the Chairmen of District Red Cross Committees of their respective districts and dis-cussed various issues per-taining to functioning of Red

Cross Society in twin Dis-tricts of Ladakh region

Mrs. Roma underlined the need for strengthen-ing the volunteer base in the districts for carrying out Red Cross operations in a coordinated and effective way at the time of any natu-ral calamity and mishaps. She also discussed issues of functioning of Jan Ashauadi Shop at District Hospital Leh and revenue collection with Deputy Commissioner Leh, Mr. Simrandeep Singh.

District Development Commissioner, Kargil, Mr. Fida Hussain informed that the Red Cross volunteers are adequately trained and equipped to provide ade-quate and timely help to the needy at the time of natural or manmade catastrophe . He said that efforts are be-ing made to significantly enlarge and strengthen the Red Cross movement in the

region. The General Secre-tary handed over the keys of an Ambulance to Deputy Commissioner, Kargil.

Meanwhile, various del-egations of volunteers and members from civil society of Ladakh region met Gen-eral Secretary Red Cross in Kargil and Leh.

The General Secretary appealed the volunteers and civil society members to spread the message among the general public to get them registered with their respective District Red Cross Committees to become the volunteers of Indian Red Cross Society. She empha-sized the need for raising the corpus of Red Cross Vol-unteers at the village, block, tehsil and district levels to strengthen the Red Cross movement in the Ladakh re-gion to help the needy in the event of any unforeseen or emergent situation.

JAMMU, NOV 06:

Minister for Tourism, Mr Ghulam Ahmad Mir was honoured with peace award in London.

The award was given by Wold Travel Market Asso-ciation to Jammu and Kash-mir Tourism Minister for his appointment as peace ambassador of South Asia.The Tourism Minister who is representing a delegation of the state accompanied by both the Tourism Directors of Kashmir and Jammu in biggest 4 days travel event in the world, which com-menced from today at Excel Center London evinced a large participation from J&K and other States of the Coun-try.

The exhibition saw the participation of almost 5000 exhibitors from around the world. The J&K stall was decorated with emphasis on

Heritage and Culture, Scenic splendour, Golf, Adventure decorations etc. made the stall very attractive. The stall was visited by many mem-bers of the world travel and trade fraternity. J&K trade members who participated in WTM appreciated the overall decor and design of the stall. The attractive stall helped in generating many footfalls which in turn pro-vided excellent networking and marketing opportunities for the State trade members to conduct business.

The Tourism min-ister expressed his satisfac-tion at the outcome of J&Ks, participation and hoped that Jammu and Kashmir will succeed in attracting many tourists from the United Kingdom in the coming sea-son. He mentioned that the UK was an important market and tourist arrivals from UK have been witnessing a de-

cline in the recent years due to neglect of proper market-ing and promotion.

Mir mentioned that the J&K Tourism Department will be carrying out a mas-sive promotional strategy in this market in future. The trade members requested the minister to ensure that the standards of the stall are maintained and further im-proved in view of the state’s future participation in im-portant travel marts around the world so that the tourist arrivals in the state increased to a large extent.

The Tourism Minister said that Jammu and Kash-mir is known as heaven on earth provides all facilities to the tourists. He said State has explored new virgin tourist destinations and J&k is round the year destination with at-tracting golf courses besides convention centers to hold International conferences.

JAMMU, NOV 06: Deputy Chairman, Jammu and Kash-mir Legislative Council, Mr. Javed Ahmed Rana has said that the Government under leadership of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has initiated various flagship programmes with the aim to improve the socio-economic condition of the people of the State especially those living in rural and far-flung areas.

Mr. Rana was interacting with the various depu-tations who called on him here today. A deputation from Panchayat Halqa Chowadi Tehsil and district Jammu led by Sarpanch, Mr. Mohammad Asgar also met the Deputy Chairman. The Deputy Chairman said that the Government has launched various welfare schemes and appealed the people to take advantage of these schemes.

J&K Tourism Minister honoured by peace award in London

Efforts on to improve Socio-economic condition of

rural areas: Javed Rana

CHC coming up at Rs. 5 cr at Tangmarg

Mir stresses for time bound completionof the project

TANGMARG, NOVEMBER 06:

Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Ghulam Hassan Mir today inspected site plan of 30 bedded double storied Community Health Centre, Tangmarg to construct-ed at an estimated cost of Rs. 5 crore. The hospital will have various facilities including blood bank, baby care unit, pre-labour and post labour wards, 2 operation theatres, ICU, store room be-sides lift facilities and centrally heating system.

The Minister while apprising about the achievements of the state co-alition government said that the com-mitment of providing all basic facilities including medicare and education is being fulfilled and people are express-ing their satisfaction over the pace of development and welfare in different fora.

Interacting with patients and attendants in old admitted in old com-plex of the hospital, the Minister said that in view of great tourist attraction of Gulmarg, large number of tourists visits the area who need immediate health

care facilities. He said thrust will be given on mother-child care and treat-ment facilities for other ailment will also be ensured in the hospital.

Mr. Mir stressed for time bound completion of the hospital be-sides ensuring quality work and judi-cious use of funds

The Minister said that NRHM

is successfully contributing towards ex-tending latest Medicare facilities to the patients in the area and also across the State.

Director Health Services, Kash-mir, Dr. Saleem-ur-Rehman, officers of concerned executing agency and other concerned were present on the occa-sion.

You are celebrating your birthday but I am celebrating the anniversary of your arriv-ing in the world and making it a better, beautiful and happier place for me, thanks for being there. From D person to whom U means everything.

{HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR OWI}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

E&S deptt condoles demise of Dy Director

JAMMU, NOVEMBER 06-

A condolence meeting was organized by the staff of the Di-rectorate of Economics and Statistics J&K, Statistical Training School Jammu and Regional Joint Directorate of Evaluation and Statistics Jammu, under the Chairmanship of Director General, Economics & Statistics, B R Lachotra to pay homage to the departed soul of Joginder Paul, Deputy Director (P&S) who left for heavenly aboard after brief illness. On the occa-sion, Lachotra said that due to said demise of Joginder Paul E&S Organization J&K has lost one of the honest, sincere and dedicated officer. A two-minute silence was observed with prayers to almighty God for granting eternal peace to the de-parted soul and for giving courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss.

2-day medical camp held at J&K Sainik School

Manasbal SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 06:

A 2-day medical camp was organized at J&K Sainik School, Manasbal for thorough medical checkup and health aware-ness of the students of the school under the supervision of Block Medical Officer, Hajin, Dr. Tariq Hassan Parray. The fac-ulty included an Ophthalmologist, Dental Surgeon, General Physician and an extension educator.The camp was inaugu-rated by the Principal of the Sainik School, Manasbal, Sheikh Gayas-ud-Din, who stressed for organizing such camps in future also.

Daily Zabarwan TimesEDITORIAL/ OPINIONEDITORIAL/ OPINIONDaily Zabarwan Times Thursday 07 November 2013

Daily Zabarwan Times Thursday 07 November 2013

Education is the glue that makes the so-ciety cohesive and helps in the forma-tion of its paradigms. Never before has education acquired such dominant a role in shaping of the Indian society

as in today’s era. Education has very well played the role of a Great Liberator. It has become an instrument of empowerment. The urge for high-er education among students from Scheduled Castes (SC) have let them cement their positions in the society, thereby helping them in looking out for newer avenues of social mobility. Unless education brings home the bacon for them, they would not succeed in dampening or completely demolishing the social barriers put up in their path of upward social mobility. Keeping this in the back of the mind, the Government of India played the part of the single largest intervener for the educational development of SC students.Serving as the biggest leveler of the society since 1944, the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Castes Students presently eases the path of education for about 50 lakh students. It is a national level Scheme furnishing financial assistance to SC students at post-matriculation level in the country. The Scheme provides valu-able support for the SC students to raise their ed-ucational status, enabling them to become a part of the mainstream society. The Scheme provides for 100 per cent central assistance to the state governments and Union Territory administra-tions over and above their committed liability. The North-Eastern states are exempted from the committed liability. A flagship Scheme of the Ministry of Social Jus-tice & Empowerment, the scholarships are given to students belonging to SC for the study of all recognised post-matriculation or post-secondary courses pursued in recognised institutions ex-cept for courses like Maintenance Engineer’s Courses and Private Pilot License Courses; and courses of training at the Military College, and courses at Pre-examination Training Centres of all India and State levels. It is to be mentioned that those students who pursue their studies through correspondence courses are also eli-gible for the scholarships. Employed students whose income combined with the income of their parents/guardians do not exceed the maxi-mum prescribed income ceiling are also made entitled to post-matric scholarships to the extent of reimbursement of all compulsorily payable non-refundable fees.The financial aid under the Scheme to the SC students includes maintenance allowance, re-imbursement of non-refundable compulsory fee charged by the educational institutions, book bank facility, among other allowances. Since April 1, 2013, scholarships will be paid to the stu-dents whose parents/guardians’ income from all sources does not exceed Rs. 2,50,000 per annum. Additional allowance for disabled students for the complete duration of the course is also a part of the Scheme. Apart from Reader Allowance for blind students which varies on the level of the course, there is a provision of transport allow-ance, escort allowance and allowance for extra coaching to mentally retarded and mentally ill students too. The disabled students belonging to Scheduled Castes covered under the Scheme

can also get such additional benefits from oth-er Schemes, which are not covered under the Scheme. The Scholarship Scheme also includes annual book allowance. For this book banks have been set up in various educational institu-tions, where books are supplied to SC students in installments, depending on the course, semester structure etc.The eligible students will be given scholar-ships subject to the application of Means Test prescribed in the Scheme. Those students who belong to a particular state but are studying in other state will be awarded the scholarships by the state to which they belong after submitting their applications to the competent authorities in that state. The duration of the scholarship de-pends on factors like good conduct and regular-ity in attendance till the completion of the course subject. The scholarship is renewed on the basis of the fact that the scholar secures promotion to the next higher class irrespective of the fact whether such examinations are conducted by a University or the Institution. However, if a SC scholar pursuing certain courses (mentioned in the Scheme) fails in the examination for the first time, the award may be renewed. This is clear that the purpose of the scheme is to be as compre-hensive in its coverage as is reasonably possible. The limitation imposed by historical injustices need a scheme that is easy to avail and covers all the points of restrictions and deprivation that may befall a SC seeker of education.In order to smoothen the way for timely payment of the scholarship amount to the students, states like Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have fully computerised the implementation of the Scheme and have started online processing of the scholarships. Kerala has started the sys-tem of e-grantz for the timely disbursement of the scholarship amount. Furthermore, various state governments and UT administrators have also agreed to make payment of scholarship to the beneficiaries through their (beneficiary stu-dents) accounts in post offices or banks. As men-tioned earlier, the Scheme receives 100 per cent central assistance from the central government for total expenditure under the Scheme, over and above their respective Committed Liability. The level of Committed Liability for a year is equiva-lent to the level of actual expenditure incurred by the administrators under the Scheme dur-ing the terminal year of the last Five Year Plan period and is required to be borne by them for which they are supposed to make necessitated provision in their budget.The number of beneficiaries under the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for SCs has been increasing over the years. During the 11th Plan, the number of students financially assisted un-der the Scheme went up from 31.58 lakh to 46 lakh. The total expenditure under the Scheme including the Committed Liability of the states increased from Rs. 2,158.70 crore in 2007-2008 to Rs. 3,994.96 crore in 2011-12. The national aver-age of female beneficiaries under the Scheme for the year 2011-12 was 38.31 per cent. In this man-ner, active government intervention through a Scheme focused on education for students of Scheduled Castes paved the way for mainstream-ing them into the society.

Post-Matric Scholarship

Scheme for Scheduled Castes Students -

Educating to Empower

A flagship Scheme of the Ministry of So-cial Justice & Empowerment, the scholarships are given to students belonging to SC for the study of all recognised post-matriculation or post-secondary courses pursued in recognised institutions except for courses like Mainte-nance Engineer’s Courses and Private Pilot License Courses; and courses of training at the Military College, and courses at Pre-ex-amination Training Centres of all India and State levels. It is to be mentioned that those students who pursue their studies through cor-respondence courses are also eligible for the scholarships

Emphasis on Experimental Science Helps India Reap Medals in International Maths and Science Olympiads

Disclaimer : The contents and comments appearing in any article published in this paper are purely the personal opinion of the writer

Whether Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, Soma-lia, Algeria or any

other part of the world, the peace is eluding and haunting the world community. There are various factors which are responsible for world wide unrest, violence and terrorism. One of the main factors is inequitable distribution of the world resources which are domi-nated, encashed and harnessed by the powerful countries of the world. These economic resources have never been within the reach of poor countries and the ultimate poverty prevalent in those coun-tries has given rise to armed strug-gles which have snatched the peace of mind of the whole world. The second most important factor lead-ing to armed struggles in different countries is religious based and the organizations fundamental in nature want that the societies and the countries be ruled according to religious guidelines. Most of these armed movements are going on in the Islamic countries where these are funded and run by religious fanatics who preach and interpret the religion according to their own whims and conveniences. The reli-gious fundamentalism has claimed the lives of lakhs of people from Algeria to Uganda and from Libya to Syria and Afghanistan besides Iraq and other countries. In fact Is-lam is one of the most progressive, accommodative and scientific re-ligions which believes in co-ex-istence, brotherhood, equality of every human being in the society and right to expression. This is the religion which was first to launch and organized movement against slavery and gave the conception of democratic institutions. This is the first religion which stressed the need of education without the discrimination of gender and gave equal rights to women. However if in the name of this religion some one does something wrong, it does not mean that Islam supports that as Islam never preaches violence. If it preaches anything that is hu-manity, equality, co-existence, brotherhood and service to hu-manity. There may be some prob-lems in certain areas, there may be some grievances of particular groups, there may be some bias towards the community but that does not mean it will lead to vio-lence which will create horrible conditions for the whole world and will make it unsafe and unse-cured for every human being. Till these two important factors eco-nomic and religious are addressed properly the peace will continue to elude the world.

Why does peace elude the world? It all started exactly 25 years ago. In last

quarter of 1988, the National Board of Higher Mathematics (NBHM) initiated process to identify the first ever Indian team to participate in an International Olympiad. Although the Olympiad movement at the international level was much older, India had not ventured in that direction till then. From 1998 onwards, Indian participation in other Olympiads began in a phased manner. Physics (1998), Astronomy (1999), Chem-istry (1999), Biology (2000), and Junior Science (2007) followed.The International Olympiads (IOs) pres-ent academic challenges of high diffi-culty level to young minds and thus rep-resent celebration of the best in senior secondary and higher secondary levels.For every Olympiad, each country sends a contingent of fixed number of students as its representatives. These students individually participate in various tests set by the host country and they are awarded medals based on their performance. Different Olympiads have slightly different formats for rounds and criteria for medals. However, basic tenets of the competition are same in all. Maximum number of students by each country also varies from four in Chem-istry and Biolgy to six in Mathematics and Junior Science.The Olympiad Movement The Olympiad movement started in the year 1958 in Romania by a group of

mathematicians in the form of Interna-tional Mathematics Olympiad (IMO). A total of seven countries participated in the first IMO. Chemistry and Physics Olympiads began in late 60s while Biol-ogy Olympiad started in 1990. Rest of the Olympiads are much younger. Today, the Mathematics Olympiad is the big-gest Olympiad with more than 100 coun-tries participating in it every year. In other Olympiads the number of partici-pating countries ranges from 40 to 80. India in the Olympiads In the Indian context, the focus of Olym-piad activities has been on promoting excellence at the higher secondary stage. Emphasis on nurturing motivated sec-tions of students is consistent with the basic tenet of the National Education Policy, that is, promotion of excellence in higher education for ensuring profes-sional human resources for the country. Good performance of the Indian teams right from the beginning has acted as a catalyst and led to the consolidation of the national Olympiad programme. Availability of country-wide network of Indian Association of Physics Teach-ers (IAPT) helped in smooth launching of the Science Olympiad programme in the country. Involvement of teacher as-sociations and various decisive funding departments such as the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Min-istry of Human Resource Development

(MHRD) and Department of Space (DoS) on a consensual basis is the key factor that triggered the inception and growth of the programme. The current national Olympiad pro-gramme involves three stages. The pro-cedure is identical for all the science subjects and is slightly different for mathematics. The academic responsi-bility of the first stage in the science sub-jects lies with respective teacher organi-zations (namely, Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT), Association of Chemistry Teachers (ACT) and Associa-tion of Teachers in Biological Sciences (ATBS)). The first level examination -called the National Standard Examina-tions - NSEs), conducted at around 900 centres across India in November is tak-en by students of both Class XI and XII level. The Junior Science Olympiad and the junior level of the Astronomy Olym-piad are taken by students between classes VIII and X.The second stage -called Indian National Examinations: INOs is conducted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) at around 16 differ-ent centres in late January or early Feb-ruary. It consists of problems of high difficulty level designed on the lines of those appearing at the International Olympiads. While the participation in the first test runs into tens of thousands ,for example, the enrollment in the year 2012-13 was about 41000 in Physics, 35000

in Chemistry, 14000 in Biology, 12000 in Astronomy and 25000 in Junior science, the second level is limited to the top 300 students in each subject.For the mathematics Olympiad pro-gramme, the first stage consists of the Regional Mathematical Olympiad (RMO) and is taken by a large number of students, around 30000 in 2012-13. This test is organised in a decentralised manner in 36 different regions in the country. The second stage, called the Indian National Mathematical Olym-piad (INMO), is organized by HBCSE and is limited to the top 750 students from RMO.In the final selection, about 35 students in each subject are selected from the Indian National Olympiad ex-aminations and are invited for Orienta-tion-cum-Selection Camps (OCSCs) held at HBCSE. During these camps, which last between two weeks and a month, students appear for several theoretical and experimental tests, leading to the selection of Indian teams for the final International Olympiads. Over 200 of the best students from across the nation are exposed to a high level experimental and theoretical training every year at the OCSCs. The teams, consisting of 4 to 6 students, depending on the stream are selected at the end of the OCSCs and are trained for about two weeks just prior to their participation at the international events at the Pre-Departure Training camps at HBCSE .

Infants as young as three months of age are able to automatically detect and learn complex dependen-cies between syllables in spoken language, a new study has revealed. In contrast, adults only recognised the same de-pendencies when asked to actively search for them.

The study by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig also highlights the im-portant role of basic pitch discrimination abilities for early language devel-opment. The speed and apparent ease with which young infants learn the

basics of a language regu-larly astound parents and scientists alike. Of course, adults are usually assumed to have the edge in sophis-ticated language learning. However, scientists Jutta Mueller, Angela D. Fried-erici and Claudia Maennel have now found that when it comes to extracting com-plex rules from spoken language, a three-month-old outperforms adult learners. For 20 minutes, the sci-entists played a stream of syllables to babies while measuring their brain re-sponses using electroen-cephalography (EEG). Pairs of syllables appeared together, but were separat-ed by a third syllable.

of the study, stresses that "such dependencies be-tween non-neighbouring elements are typical for

natural languages and can be found in many gram-matical constructions." For instance, in the sen-tence "The boy always smiles", the third-person-

dependent on the noun "boy". In the study, this was re-

-binations like "le" and "bu" in sequences like "le-wi-bu". From time to time, however, combinations like "le-wi-to" would ap-pear, in which one of the syllables was out of place. "EEG measurements showed us that the babies recognized this rule viola-tion", Mueller said. Additionally, the scientists would occasionally change the tone of one syllable to a higher pitch - with an interesting outcome: Only those infants whose brains reacted to pitch changes in

a more mature way could detect the syllable depen-dencies. When facing the same task as the babies, adults only showed a reac-tion to the rule violations when asked to explicitly look for dependencies be-tween the syllables. Muel-ler and her colleagues conclude that, evidently, the automatic recognition ability is lost later on. "What we found particu-larly interesting is that the small group of adults who did show evidence of rule learning also showed a stronger brain response to the pitch changes," she

only help understand how children manage to learn language so quickly dur-ing early development, but also point to a strong link between very basic audito-ry skills and sophisticated rule learning abilities.

HEALTH AND FITNESS

ZABARWAN TIMES Saturday 01 November 2013

Babies better at learning complex languages

Sleeping pills don`t work for 40 percent poppers

London: Sleeping pills seldom worked for 40 per-cent of the poppers who suffer from insomnia, says a survey of 20,000 peo-ple, according to a British study.Some 42 percent of the pa-tients currently on medi-cation have been sleeping badly for over 11 years or more. A further 22 percent had insomnia lasting two

six had suffered between six and 10 years, the sur-vey revealed.Experts said the study suggested that sleeping pills were not combating long-term sleep problems and that cogni-tive behavioural therapy has been proven to be more effective.Around 10 million National Heath Service (MHS) prescrip-tions for sleeping pills are issued each year. But NHS guidelines say they should be for short-term use only - usually for two weeks

and up to a maximum of four weeks at a time. Findings from The Great British Sleep Survey of more than 20,000 adults in Britain found we are a nation of poor sleepers. The average score of sleep

10. Long-term poor sleep-ers were twice as likely to have relationship prob-lems, suffer from daytime fatigue and lack of con-centration.The survey also showed almost one in 10 with insomnia were on sleeping pills prescribed

by their doctor, with one -

ter remedies. American research this year found

-cantly increase the risk of premature death.The lat-est survey was sponsored by Sleepio, an online sleep improvement programme which uses cognitive be-havioural techniques. Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, has campaigned for the NHS to highlight the impor-tance of sleep.

Toiletries that might damage your health

As experts deem fake tans 'dangerous', we look at other toiletries that might well be damaging your health, too. Fake tan products are far from alone in containing chemicals that research sug-gests can have nasty side ef-fects. Many cosmetics are formulated with a mixture of controversial synthetic ingre-dients that have been linked to health problems including breast cancer, hormone dis-ruption, fertility issues, asth-ma, allergies, diabetes and

birth defects. And it's this so-called 'chemical cocktail' that has some experts worried - especially when you consider the huge number of different lotions and potions most of us use each day."No one can say that if you use X, Y and Z you're going to develop cancer or diabe-tes," says Elizabeth Salter-Green, of a UK charity. "But an increasing amount of research suggests that high levels of certain in-gredients can affect our health."

"When you take into ac-count the sheer number of products we now use, and the fact that we're also exposed to some of these chemicals through household cleaners, food pesticides, packaging and general industrial out-put," continues Elizabeth, "there's a concern that this collective onslaught could take us over the safety threshold.""Our skin is not an im-penetrable barrier," says author Dawn Mellowship.

amount of what we apply to it into the bloodstream and it can then be stored in the body, where it ac-cumulates and has the po-tential to do harm." How to reduce your levels of chemical exposure1.Use fewer products to reduce your overall expo-sure.2. Check the label and watch out for synthetic chemicals such as para-bens, formaldehyde and triclosan. 3.Don't assume organic or natural is always best. While many such products contain fewer toxic syn-thetic chemicals, it's still worth checking out the in-gredients on a product to

there.4.If there is a big long list of unpronounceable chemical names then it might be worth looking for something with few-er ingredients that you recognise.5.Pay particular attention to the products that stay on your skin the longest, such as creams and lotions.6. Swap dark hair dye for vegetable-based colours or those stating they're PPD-free.

Grapes good for men's heart health

Consuming grapes may help protect heart health in people with metabolic syndrome, a new study has revealed. Researchers observed a reduction in key risk factors for heart disease in men with metabolic syn-drome: reduced blood pres-

Natural components found in grapes, known as poly-phenols, are thought to be responsible for these ben-

The randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study, led by principal investigator Dr. Maria Luz Fernandez and Jacqueline Barona, a PhD student in Dr. Fernan-dez' lab at the Department of Nutritional Sciences of the University of Connecti-cut, recruited men between 30 and 70 years of age with metabolic syndrome. The study is believed to be the

of grapes on metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syn-drome is a cluster of con-ditions that occur together - increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist or low HDL (the good cholesterol) and in-

creased blood triglycerides

the risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Meta-bolic syndrome is a major public health concern, and is on the rise in the U.S. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to consume grapes, in the form of a freeze-dried whole grape powder, or a placebo powder, for four weeks. Then, following a 3-week "washout" period where neither grapes nor

placebo were consumed, individuals were allocated to the alternate treatment. This powerful study de-sign allowed investiga-tors to compare the re-sponse of each individual to consumption of both the placebo and grapes. The study results showed that for each of the study's subjects, grape consump-

decreases in blood pres-

(greater vasodilation), and

decreases in a compound -

tion. "These results suggest that consuming grapes can improve important risk fac-tors associated with heart disease, in a population that is already at higher risk," Fernandez said. This further supports the ac-cumulating evidence that grapes can positively in-

extends it to men with metabolic syndrome," Fernandez added.

Migraines do not hurt your brain

Migraines are not as-sociated with cognitive decline, suggests new research even though previous studies have linked the disorder to increased stroke risk and structural brain le-sions. Migraines affect about 20 percent of the female population, and while these headaches are common, not much is known about this complex disease. "Previous studies on migraines and cog-nitive decline were small and unable to identify a l ink be-tween the two," said Pamela Rist , research fel low in preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospi-tal (BWH), who led the study. "Our study was large enough to draw the conclusion that mi-graines, while pain-ful , are not strongly

l inked to cognitive de-cl ine," said Rist , the British Medi-cal Journal (BMJ) re-ports. The research team ana-lysed data from the W o m e n ' s Health Study, a cohort of nearly 40,000 wom-en, 45 years and older. In this study, research-ers analysed data from 6,349 women who provided information about migraine status at baseline and then participated in cogni-tive testing during fol-low-up, according to a BWH statement. Participants were clas-sified into four groups: no history of migraine, migraine with aura (unpleasant smell, seeing flashing lights), migraine without aura,

and past history of mi-graine. Cognitive testing was carried out in two-year intervals up to three times. "Compared with women with no history of migraine, those who ex-perienced migraine with or without aura did not have significantly differ-ent rates of cognitive de-cline," said Rist. "This is an important finding for both physicians and pa-tients. Patients with mi-graine and their treating doctors should be reas-sured that migraine may not have long-term con-sequences on cognitive function.

The postpartum diet need not be complicated — just a mix of age-old remedies and home science The stork came and went, and left you multitudes of relatives who are telling you what to eat. They are peddling age-old rem-edies, while you are clutching on to your doctor's advice of no green vegetables or fruits. Iron deficiency, constipation and soreness are some of the things you may suffer, while expending more energy and needing more calcium. The best path is to try out both sets of advice and see what works for you. Ketaki Karpe-Kolgaonkar, new mother and clinical pharmacist found that 'the diet should be all about the mother's needs'. "The baby takes the nutrition it needs and doesn't need any help doing that," she says. "Watch out for bacteria from unwashed vegeta-

-tered water or uncooked meats."

Raise calorie intake Nutritionist Dr Shilpa Joshi em-phasises on the importance of wholesome meals with no restric-tions apart from oil and spice, un-

"The mother needs extra energy, -

cause she will be nursing the baby more often," she says. "So she needs to eat more calories, which will come from small meals, which are rich in proteins — nuts, daals and legumes." If you are a non-vegetarian, don't switch to a leafy vegetarian meal instantly. This will cause you more harm than good. Eat shred-ded meat in soups and broths without too much spice or oil.

Pump iron Since a new mother suffers from loss of blood, her iron levels could be precariously balanced. A little spinach can go a long way. Ketaki developed low iron levels in her second trimester, and pan-icked. "So I started to incorpo-rate spinach in everything such as daal, chappati dough and even in chicken curry." She continued this after the baby came, which steadied her iron levels.

Milk the calcium It goes without saying that you'll need lots of calcium so that the baby can use the cafeteria unin-terrupted. "If you are lactose in-tolerant, and can't drink milk or eat milk products, go for curd," says Joshi. "Garden cress seeds (aleev or haleem), are a rich source for calcium. Traditionally,

these are made into sugar-rich ladoos. If you are being care-ful about sugar, make a haleem kheer."

Water yourself There's not much you can do to

Also, new mothers tend to be a little scared of the pain and resist passing urine or stools, which can result in constipation. Or-dinarily, this can be resolved by medication, but because medicines will pass on the baby, it's better to take pre-ventive action. "I used to keep a huge bottle of water and use a straw to sip it so as to not put pressure on a the C sec-tion incision," says Ketaki. Joshi also suggests ingest-ing fluids by drinking lots of soup, coconut water, broths, whole fruits, fresh fruit juices and milkshakes that are also easier to eat for the harried mother. "I would drink straw-berry milkshake so that it didn't feel like you are adding ten things to the plate. Even eating seems overwhelming to a new mom and if she has to chew one thing less, it's a huge convenience," says

Ketaki. "Fluids help flush out toxins and medication, and help stay oriented even with the lack of sleep that comes with parenting." Yoghurt is not only a stool softener but also has the pro-biotics essential for keeping Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) away. Edible gum balls (dink ladoos) are a good laxative because of their combination of ghee, edible gum and nuts. "After the baby came, I would resist therapeutic Indian food without thinking about whether

eventually did eat one dinkache laadoo a day and that did me good. Sometimes, it pays to listen to your mother - she may know best."

Thursday november | 07 | 2013

An allergy is a medical condition that makes you feel ill when you eat or come in contact

with a particular substance. General physician Dr Shahid Bar-

mare says, “Allergies happen when the immune system mistakenly be-lieves that something the person ate or came in contact with, is harmful to the body. To protect the body, the immune sys-

tem produces IgE antibodies to that allergen. IgE antibodies then trigger mast cells (allergy cells in the body) to release chemi-cals into the bloodstream. One of these chemicals is his-

tamine. Histamine acts on the eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin or gastrointestinal tract and causes symptoms of an allergic reaction. Once the body has made antibodies against a cer-tain allergen, these antibodies easily recognise the allergen. Each time the person comes in contact with the allergen, the body releases histamine into the bloodstream again, creating al-lergy symptoms,” says Dr Barmare. Cosmetic physician Dr Rashmi Shet-

ty lists common allergies that affect people:

Dust allergy Having runny or stuffy nose, itchy,

watery eyes and sneezing due to dust exposure such as vacuuming, sweep-

ing, and dusting means you are af-fected by dust allergy.

Symptoms Well-known dust allergy symptoms

are unmanageable sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and in some cases a small red coloured dust allergy rash located on some part of your body such as your stomach or your upper arm.

Pollen allergy During spring and summer, tiny

particles are released from trees, weeds and grasses. Known as pollen, these ride in the air and enter noses and throats, triggering a type of sea-sonal allergic rhinitis called Pollen Allergy.

Symptoms: Although pollen allergy symptoms

are similar to cold symptoms, you

can tell the difference because colds are associated with thicker nasal se-cretions, sore throat, hoarseness, and possibly fever. Also, colds tend to get better fairly quickly.

Contact allergy Contact allergy is caused in sensitive

individuals, who can get allergic reac-tions through different things such as metals (gold-silver oxidised jewelry), leather (wrist watch), synthetic fibers

(clothing such as undergar-ments).

Symptoms: Symptoms of a contact al-

lergy usually occur within 30 minutes after exposure to the allergen, although symptoms may take up to several hours to appear. Common allergens include poison oak and poison ivy, latex, rubber, nickel, pre-servatives, dyes, medications, fragrances, and cosmetics such as hair dye and perfume. Sun allergy Sun allergy is having small

white patches due to sunlight on the exposed areas of the body.

Symptoms: Having small white patches due to

sunlight on the exposed areas of the body. In addition, there is a syndrome known as “sun drunk” which affects some children who suffer from a sun allergy.

You love your bowl of strawber-ries and yogurt after dinner or prefer your melon wrapped in

ham. But can you really have fruit any way you want to?

Is it enough to eat them frequently, or is there a right way to eat fruits? Is it okay to eat fruits as dessert

right after a meal? Nutri-tionist, Naini Setalvad tells us what the right way to eat fruits is.When should I eat fruits?

The best time to eat fruits is first thing in the morning after a glass of water. Eat-ing fruits right after a meal is not a great idea, as it may not be digested properly. The nutrients may not be absorbed properly either.You need to leave a gap of

at least 30 minutes between a meal and a fruit snack. Ideally, one should eat fruits an hour before the meal or two hours after, if

they have diabetes or any other digestive problem like acidity. This is be-cause, sometimes, diabetes is accompanied with diges-tive problems.Can I mix fruits with other

foods? You can mix fruit with yogurt or salt as long as you do not have any di-gestive problems like indi-gestion or acidity. You can also mix fruits

like pineapple, oranges, melons or pomegranate with salads if you like. There is no harm in mixing berries and dry fruits with cereals either.Shelf-life of common

fruitsBanana: Three-four daysApple: Up to a weekPears: Five-six daysPapayas: Two-three days

(depends on how ripe the papayas are to begin with)Chickoos: Two days (de-

pends on the ripeness)Most other ripe fruits have

a shelf life of up to three days if stored in the refrig-erator. Here are more tips on the right way to store fruits and vegetables.

Hip replacements for some patients could be a thing of the

past after surgeons pioneered a new stem cell procedure to tackle

a bone disease that leads to ar-thritis, The Independent reported

Monday.

Doctors at Southampton General Hospital are ex-tracting stem cells from the

bone marrow of patients in need of hip repair due to osteonecrosis - a condition where poor blood supply causes significant bone damage leading to severe arthritis. These cells are

mixed with cleaned, crushed bone from another patient who has had their own hip replaced and used to fill the hole made by surgeons after dead and damaged tissue has been removed from the joint, according to the newspaper.

Arthritis usually strikes people between 30 and 50 years of age.

Hope for arthritis treatment

Researchers have found that a combination of two over-the-counter drugs could help fight heart dis-ease and reduce deaths by half, researchers say. The study revealed that

not only did the 1.10 pounds-a-day tablets reduce the risk of elderly patients dy-ing, they were also found to help the heart to work more efficiently. The findings can have ma-

jor implications for Britain where heart disease affects around 2.6 million people and kills about 94,000 each year. Over six million people

are prescribed powerful drugs like statins to reduce artery-clogging “bad” LDL cholesterol. This slashed their risk of

stroke and heart attack, which is the leading cause of deaths from heart dis-ease. But a natural miner-al, which has already been linked to a host of health benefits, can also be a po-tent new treatment. Scientists found that the

combination of selenium yeast and the vitamin-like compound coenzyme Q10

significantly reduced car-diovascular deaths in the elderly. A study of 443 healthy men

and women aged 70 to 88 was conducted by the research-ers and they found that those given daily supple-ments of selenium and co-enzyme Q10 had more than halved their risk of dying of

heart disease and showed improved heart function. Professor Urban Alehagen, of Linkoping University, Sweden, found that of those given the widely available supplements, 5.9 per cent died of heart disease after five years compared with 12.9 per cent in a placebo group. People who used supple-

ments were also found to have significantly lower

levels of NT-proBNP, a chemical marker that indi-cates that the heart is work-ing under greater pressure. The treatment group had

been given a 200 microgram branded selenium pill and two 100mg Q10 pills. The research backs up the

previous studies done. One, in Finland, found a 2.9-fold

increased risk of heart death in patients who had low selenium. Other studies have showed

low heart levels of coen-zyme Q10 in patients with heart muscle disease. Selenium is a powerful

trace mineral found in soil and foods, which has been shown boosting resistance against flu, fight cancer, boosting fertility and help-ing people live longer.

Over-the-counter pills cut heart disease risk

Yoga therapy can cure every disease and disorder, even cancer, says a Delhi-based yoga therapist but warns against the mass teaching

of yoga - including popular pranayams like kapalbhati and anulom vilom

- saying they “can cause complica-tions”.

“Yoga cannot be universa-lised...like prescribing a parac-etamol tablet,” says Subhash Sharma, a yoga therapist who spent 19 years in a gurukul in Rajasthan and is also a post-graduate from the Kasturba Medical College, Manipal.

Sharma said: “People have different physiologies and each person’s response to yoga is individualistic. Therefore, there can’t be standardisation of yoga for any particular dis-order.”

Sharma, who describes himself as a pioneering yoga therapist and runs a busy practice in south Delhi, says even a step-by-step book on yoga can be “fatal”. Recounting a particular case, he says one gentleman had come to him with a problem - he had lost the sensation of the nerves to the anus that tell us when to pass faeces.

“He had learnt the steps from a book and started practising ‘nauli kriya’, or rotating of the intestines. This pa-

ralysed the nerves to the anus. He did not know when he was passing stools, he would only make out from the bad

smell.” Bhastrika, a popular yogic pranayam that many people do while following an expert on television, can cause asthma, warns Sharma.

“In bhastrika pranayam you pump the lungs. It can hyperventilate the lungs and people can develop asth-ma.” Another popular pranayam, ka-palbhati, is “dangerous, especially for women”, he warns.

“If kapalbhati is done without ‘bandhas’, or shutting the anus and vagina, then the pressure will fall on

the visceral organs (internal organs) and they will be pushed downwards. Women can develop uterus prolapse

(where the uterus can sag from its normal posi-tion).”

Each of Sharma’s pa-tients is given yoga thera-py keeping in mind their body type and problem. The patient’s response is monitored closely and changes are made accord-ingly.

Anulom vilom, per-ceived to be a simple pranayam in which you breathe in through one nostril and breathe out though the other, is also not advisable for all, he

says. “When we force in air from one nostril and exhale from the other, it upsets the respiratory centre of the brain which controls breathing,” he says, adding, “Lots of precautions should be taken before going in for anulom vilom.” Sharma has crowds of people coming to him with all kinds of problems, ranging from arthritis, asthma and blood pressure to cancer and even cases of muscular dystro-phy. Sharma says he has cured many cancer cases, including blood cancer.

‘Yoga can cure every disease’Oxytocin

improves brain function in

autistic kidsOxytocin — a naturally

occurring substance pro-duced in the brain and throughout the body—

increased brain func-tion in regions that are

known to process social information in children

and adolescents with autism spectrum disor-

ders (ASD).These are according to preliminary results from an ongoing, large-scale study by Yale

School of Medicine re-searchers.The Yale Child

Study Center research team includes postdoc-

toral fellow Ilanit Gordon and Kevin Pelphrey, the Harris Associate Profes-

sor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology.“Our

findings provide the first, critical steps toward

devising more effective treatments for the core

social deficits in autism, which may involve a

combination of clinical interventions with an administration of oxy-

tocin. Such a treatment approach will funda-

mentally improve our understanding of autism

and its treatment,” said Gordon.Social-commu-

nicative dysfunctions are a core characteristic of autism, a neurodevel-opmental disorder that can have an enormous

emotional and financial burden on the affected

individual, their families, and society.Gordon said that while a great deal of progress has been made

in the field of autism research, there remain

few effective treatments and none that directly

target the core social dysfunction. Oxytocin has recently received

attention for its involve-ment in regulating social

abilities because of its role in many aspects of

social behaviour and so-cial cognition in humans

and other species.To assess the impact

of oxytocin on the brain function, Gordon and her

team conducted a first-of-its-kind, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

on children and adoles-cents aged 7 to 18 with

ASD. The team members gave the children a single

dose of oxytocin in a nasal spray and used functional magnetic

resonance brain imaging to observe its effect.

Migraine ‘neu-rological and not vascular

disorder’Migraine is a neuro-logical, not vascular,

disorder and both acute and preventive treat-

ments being developed target peripheral and

central nervous systems, according to a new study.

Current acute migraine medications were devel-

oped to constrict cerebral blood vessels based on the

prevailing concept that migraine is a vascular

headache disorder. David Dodick, MD,

professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix,

explained that triptan medications used to

treat migraine patients are designed to constrict blood vessels, which for

centuries were believed to cause migraine.“While mi-

graine research has been massively underfunded and the disorder often is clinically dismissed as a

‘headache,’ its genetic and biological basis

is increasingly coming into focus as the result of

considerable scientific advances over the past two

decades,” said Dodick.

Don’t let allergies get you downThe right way to eat fruits

Your smartphone can make your face sag Spending time poring over your phone can lead

to the ‘smartphone face’ - i.e. a drooping jawline A’smartphone face’, as explained by

Dr Mervyn Patterson of the Woodford Medical group, is a new condition caused by spending too much time looking down into your phone. “If you sit for hours with your head bent slightly forward, staring at your smartphone or laptop screen, you may shorten the neck muscles and increase the gravitational pull on the jowl area, leading to a drooping jawline.” How-ever, is there a connection between the increase in the number of people opting for chin implants and an addic-tion to the latest technology?

Nilofar Sheikh (name changed), 25, who is constantly connected to the vir-

tual world courtesy her smartphone and laptop says, “I am dependent on my smartphone and my laptop, as I can manage my work and con-nect with friends at the same time. I recently had to consult my dermatolo-gist because I wanted to get rid of the sagging skin around my chin. I am not sure if my addiction to technology has caused this, but I think my habit of sit-ting with a bad posture may have con-tributed to it.” While Nilofar’s doubts may sound far-fetched, she may have a point. More about the condition

Mohan Thomas, a senior cosmetic surgeon, says, “Smartphones are known to cause chronic upper back and neck problems like kyphotic deformities and neck strain, as a result of the head constantly droop-

ing down by looking at the screen for long hours. The smaller the screen, the more one tends to bend the neck and elbow. Prolonged neck flexion causes loosening of the neck skin and aggravates the double chin deformity in people already predisposed to it. However, there is no consensus on the smartphone face terminology as of yet, and the effects need to be studied on a long term basis in a large population base to collectively label the seen effects as smartphone syndrome.” Dr Apratim Goel, a dermatologist, adds, “I have definitely seen an increased awareness about the double chin and sagging jowl lines over the last year among the age group of 18 to 30 years. Prior to this, it was a common complaint with people in their 40s. So far, I have

noticed an increase of 20-25 cases a month with such concerns, especially among the youth. However, I would not put the entire blame of this con-cern on the growing use of technology. I also have housewives who don’t use mobiles and laptops and still have the same issues. But technically, I agree that forward bending of the neck increases the gravitational pull on the neck tissues and increases sagging. Since there are static and dynamic lines on the neck, holding the neck in the same position for long hours does lead to increase of static horizontal lines and increase in double chin. However, this does not lead to shortening of neck mus-cles at all.” She adds that the use of tech-nology is reducing our physical activity, due to which we put on weight leading

to further weight gain and double chin. Goel finds support from Dr Nick Lowe of London’s Cranley Clinic, who revealed that other causes of a sagging complexion can include a naturally short, weak chin, weight fluctuations and even exercise and diet. As for rea-sons why people are going in for skin tightening and chinplants, Dr Meenak-shi Agarwal, a cosmetic surgeon, says, “The number of cases of youth inquir-ing about chinplants and tightening of skin around the chin have definitely increased from roughly 10 to 12 per cent last year to around 20 per cent this year. However, the reasons vary from an increased awareness to looking their best at all times to a general awareness about non-surgical treatments, which are available for a fraction of the cost.

Your smartphone can make your face sag

The research explores how lack of sleep can impact appetite regu-lation, impair glucose metabolism and increase blood pressure.

“Obesity develops when energy intake is greater than expenditure. Diet and physical activity play an important part in this, but an ad-ditional factor may be inadequate sleep,” said Dr Kristen Knutson, from the University of Chicago.

“A review of the evidence shows how short or poor quality sleep is linked to increased risk of obesity by de-regulating appetite, leading to increased energy consumption.”

Dr Knutson accumulated evi-dence from experimental and observational studies of sleep.

Observational studies revealed cross-sectional associations be-tween getting fewer than six hours sleep and increased body mass in-dex (BMI) or obesity.The studies revealed how sig-nals from the brain, which control ap-petite regulation, are impacted by experimental sleep restriction. Inade-quate sleep impacts secretion of the sig-nal hormones ghrelin, which in-creases appetite, and leptin, which indicates when the body is satiat-ed.This can lead to increased food intake without the compensating

energy expenditure.“In the United States 18 percent of

adults are estimated to get less than 6 hours of sleep, which equates to 53 million short sleepers who may

be at risk of associ-ated obesity,” said Knutson.

“Poor sleeping patterns are not random and it is important to con-sider the social, cultural and envi-

ronmental factors which can cause inadequate sleep so at-risk groups can be identified.”

The evidence suggests the asso-ciation between inadequate sleep

and higher BMI is stronger in chil-dren and adolescents. It also shows that sleep deficiency in lower so-cioeconomic groups may result in greater associated obesity risks.

The majority of the studies Dr Knutson examined came from Western countries, which high-lights the need for more research to understand sleep’’s role in dis-ease risk. However other research papers in the special issue focus on obesity in the United Arab Emir-ates, Samoa, and Brazil.

“These findings show that sleep-ing poorly can increase a person’’s risk of developing obesity, diabe-tes, high blood pressure or heart disease,” said Knutson.

Lack of sleep can make you fat

Agencies

If today’s Jammu and Kashmir address of Rahul Gandhi is symptomatic of what is ailing Congress’ vice-president and in the process jeopardising Congress’ poll fortunes, one only has the junior Gandhi’s lacklustre persona and visible lack of enthusiasm to blame. The art of driving thousands of people from a social stra-tum starkly different from his own to a name-chanting frenzy and whose language of intellect is derived from sources very different from his own, is no mean job. While Gandhi usually tries to put his best foot forward at reasoning, it is not what the rally-going masses thrive on.

And in at attempt to bend his natural business-school like style to appeal to the masses, Gandhi ends up losing who could be his ideal target audience – the urban voters. His lack of charm, when it comes to rural masses, has started to worry the Congress.

A report on The Eco-nomic Times points out that state Congress units have now employed local leaders to make sure the turn out at Rahul’s rallies are impres-sive. ET reports: “Flustered by the “less than satisfacto-ry” public response to Rahul Gandhi’s first few campaign rallies in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress pushed the panic button on Tuesday, drafting its UP incharge Madhusu-dan Mistry to ensure a bet-ter turnout in the next phase

of the Amethi MP’s elec-tion rallies. Mistry, who has called for a special meeting of zonal incharges, coor-dinators and senior party leaders on November 9, will also strategise ahead of the next rallies, identify gaps and plug the lacunae.” Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi. Agencies.

A New Indian Express report from 12 October had even suggested that two UP rallies to be addressed by Rahul were cancelled in view of the low turn-outs. The most number of people who have turned up for Ra-hul’s rallies has been pegged at a maximum of 50,000 by some reports.

Given that rally num-bers are flaunted by parties as an indicator of a leader’s mass connect, this is not an encouraging number. There-fore, Congress’ de facto Plan A, has officially taken the lead in all of Congress’ poll plans – find more ways to catch Narendra Modi on the wrong foot.

Congress has therefore decided to rake up issues

like article 370 that accords special status to Kashmir, the Ayodhya temple and Modi’s claims of economic development.

The problem with Con-gress’ alternative plan, how-ever, is the fact that they have come up with the plan. A critique of Modi’s econom-ic policy from a party being blamed – uniformly by even Modi-haters – for befuddling the country’s economy, has very little legitimacy. A party like say AAP, can make such claims and even pin BJP and Narendra Modi down – their argument is at least credible on an ideological ground. The Congress, on the other hand, will be hard pressed to back up accusations against Modi with a sense of their own achievements.

Another factor that will be playing a big role in de-feating Congress’ new plan A is the fact that a greater section of Modi’s supporters – of the virtual kind and the rally-gathering kind – have little patience for finer de-tails of global economics or questions of ethics.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER |07 | 2013ZABARWAN TIMES 7

Police charge Asaram with rape in sexual assault caseThe Jodhpur police today

charged self-styled godman Asaram Bapu with wrongful con-finement and rape of a 16-year-old girl, more than two months after he was arrested in the sexual as-sault case.

The 1,011-page charge sheet, comprising 121 documents and statements of 58 witnesses, was filed in the District and Sessions Court in the presence of Asaram and four co-accused -- Shilpi, Shi-va, Prakash and Sharad Chandra.

District and Sessions judge Manoj Kumar Vyas extended their judicial custody till November 16 when the arguments on the charg-es will begin. Asaram was arrested by the Jodhpur police from his ash-ram in Indore on August 31 night after the parents of the girl, an inmate of Chhindwara Gurukul in Madhya Pradesh, filed a complaint of rape against him. The four co-ac-cused were taken into custody over the next few weeks. The charges against Asaram and other accused include sections 342 (wrongful confinement).

Advani has pointed out injustice being done to great country’s freedom fighters: BJP

Agencies

Commenting on L K Advani’s blog in which he quotes from MKK Nair’s book titled The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will, which said that then Prime Minister Jawahar-lal Nehru called his home minister a “total communalist”, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday stated that party patriarch has pointed out the injustice that is be-ing done to the great freedom fight-ers of this country.

“Advaniji has pointed out the injustice that is being done to the great freedom fighters of this country and those very great lead-ers who led the foundation of this great country. In last 67 years, Con-gress has ruled this country for al-most 60 years and in fact tried to turn the history of this country and kept focused around only one fam-ily,” said BJP spokesperson Captain Abhimanyu.

“BJP believes that people of this country now want justice to be given to Shahid Bhagat Singh, Ash-faqullah Khan, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Sardar Patel, Dr. Shayama Prasad Mukherjee, Lal Bhadur Shastri and

Baba Sahib Ambedkar and due place in history must be recorded and it must be accorded to them,” he added.

In his latest blog posting, Advani has referred to extracts of a book - “The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will” by MKK Nair which deals with the “sharp exchange” between Nehru and Sardar Patel in a Cabi-net meeting before “police action” against Hyderabad.The Nizam, who wanted to accede to Pakistan, had sent an emissary to the neighbour-ing country and transferred a huge sum of money to the government there.“At a Cabinet meeting, Patel had described these things and de-manded that army be sent to end the terror-regime in Hyderabad. Nehru who usually spoke calmly, peacefully and with international etiquette, spoke losing his compo-sure, ‘You are a total communalist. I will never accept your recommen-dation,” Advani says, quoting from Nair’s book.“Patel remained unper-turbed but left the room with his papers,” the blog further said.

In his blog, Advani says then governor general Rajaji prevailed over Nehru to send the army to Hy-

derabad.Advani says, further quoting

from Nair’s book: “The situation in Hyderabad worsened day by day. Rajaji wanted to find a solution to the basic issue and also conciliate between Nehru and Patel. He called V P Menon and talked to him. VP let Rajaji know that the army was be-ing kept battle-ready and could be asked to attack at any time. Rajaji invited Nehru and Patel to come to Rashtrapati Bhavan (then the Gov-ernor General’s house) next day.”

“V P Menon was also asked to be present. As V P Menon was on his way to Rashtrapati Bhavan for the meeting, an ICS officer named Butch (from the State Home Minis-try who had conducted discussions for integration of Travancore and Kochi) stopped him and handed over a letter. It was from the British High Commissioner and protested the rape of seventy year old nuns of a convent two days earlier by Raza-kars. V P Menon handed over the letter to Rajaji when he reached for the meeting,” the blog said.

Advani also quoting from Nair’s book: “It was from the British High Commissioner.

Cong’s plan Rahul not working, but plan ‘bash Modi’ won’t either

Celebrity cook Tarla Dalal is dead

Threat is not country specific: Shinde

Agencies

Mumbai: India`s first celebrity cook, Tarla Dalal, died here Wednesday following a cardiac arrest, family sources said. She passed away at her residence in south Mumbai.

A widow, Dalal was 77 years old and is survived by three children. She leaves behind a rich legacy of over 17,000 recipes created by her.

A household name spe-cializing in vegetarian cui-sine, Dalal penned over 100 cookery books which sold more than three million cop-ies. She was conferred the Padma Shri in 2007.

A terse announcement on her Facebook page Wednes-day evening read: “We would like to thank all of you for your support and affection

through the years of Mrs. Tarla Dalal`s career. She is no more with us as she expired in the early hours of this morning. We thank her for all the happiness that her talent has given to us and our families.”Born in Pune in 1936 in a conservative family, she shifted to Mumbai after her marriage with Naveen Dalal in 1960 and launched cookery classes at her south Mumbai home in 1966.With her unique and simple styles of whipping up the best of Indian vegetarian cuisine, Dalal`s classes became very popular with a long waiting list of pro-spective women wanting to join and learn the culinary art.

At one time it was said among conservative Gujarati and Marathi households that if they wanted their daughters to get married, they must learn cooking from Tarla Dalal.

In 1974, Dalal published her first cookery book, `The Plea-sures of Vegetarian Cooking`, which turned out to be a best-seller.Over the years, the housewife-turned-celeb cook fol-lowed it up with more than 100 other cookery books with a wide variety of recipes and step-by-step cooking instruc-tions which were lapped up by the hungry readers and young housewives.

Agencies

PETROPOLE: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the external threat to India was not country specific and it would have to be on alert all the time.

“It is not a matter of any specific country pos-ing threat to India. India has to remain alert ir-respective of any nation,” Shinde told reporters when asked whether China was perceived as a threat to the country.

Shinde, who inaugurated the Joint Retreat Ceremony at the Indo-Bangla border post here along with his Bangla counterpart Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, said with the new initiative which began today, terrorists would gradually find it difficult to use Bangladesh as a transit point.

“Not only from Bangladesh, terrorists are also coming from other neighbouring nations,” he said.

Asked about the ticklish issue of Teesta water sharing and land enclave agreements which the Bangladesh government was eager to sign with In-dia, Shinde said, “Let’s hope (so).”

To another query, Shinde said the current in-

ternal disturbances in Bangladesh would have no impact on the bilateral relations between the two nations. “This is a temporary phase and the country will overcome it,” he said.

“So far the relations between the Bangladesh and India governments were cordial and fine,” he added.

BJP, Congress at loggerheads over Narendra Modi's security cover

Agencies

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are at loggerheads over the security of Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Naren-dra Modi. The BJP’s Parliamentary Board on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding Modi be given prime minister level security while claiming that he was high on the hitlist of ter-ror groups.

However, sources in the Central govern-ment say that Modi is already being given security which is at par with the Prime Min-ister. Government sources say that Modi has Z+ security and additional orders have been issued to take extra precautions whenever he is addressing a public gathering. The Home Ministry has said that the government looks at threat perceptions for all individuals and provides them security. “As far as Modi is con-cerned, we have already enhanced his secu-rity, he is NSG protected. We have given him

advance security liasoning and he has got all the security that is available. He is as well cov-ered as the PM,” MoS Home Affairs RPN Singh said. BJP, Congress at loggerheads over Naren-dra Modi’s security cover He added that SPG cover provided to the Prime Minister has been sanctioned by Parliament.

“An ex-home minister of the country is also on the parliamentary board, he knows that SPG can only be provided by an Act of

Parliament,” he said. The BJP’s demand comes days after reports surfaced alleging that Paki-stani’s ISI was looking to target Modi using Khalistani terrorists and also after multiple blasts had taken place near his Hunkar rally in Patna recently. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar asked the central government to avoid politicising issues like security. “We demand that central government must take all the necessary steps to provide adequate security to our PM candidate Modi and other leaders.

Now after the revelations of Ranchi mod-ule and after live bombs have been recovered, we cannot do politics with security,” Javadek-ar said. According to the SPG Act, SPG cover can be given only to former PMs or immedi-ate family members. The cover for former PMs according to the Act is given for 1 year after they step down from the top post and it is the Centre’s decision to extend the duration of the security cover considering the source of the threat.

Agencies

The police had sought seven days remand of both the accused, saying they have to re-cover weapons of the offence, including an iron press and video recording of the CCTV footage installed at their residence where the incident took place.

BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jag-riti, arrested in connection with the murder of their maid, were on Wednesday remanded in five days police custody by a Delhi court which observed the alleged offences were “very seri-ous”.

Dhananjay, BSP MP from Jaunpur constitu-ency in Uttar Pradesh, and Jagriti, a dental sur-geon at the RML hospital here, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Dheeraj Mittal following their arrest yesterday in connection with the death of their 35-year-old maid Rakhi Bhadra, a resident of West Bengal.

“I have perused the records and considered the submissions made by the additional public prosecutor for the state and the counsel for the accused persons.

“The alleged offences are of very serious na-ture. The accused persons have been arrested yesterday, i.e on November 5. In my considered opinion for the recovery of the case property and in aid of the investigation, five days police custody remand is desirable. Accordingly both the accused are remanded to police custody till November 11,” the magistrate said.

The police had sought seven days remand of both the accused, saying they have to re-cover weapons of the offence, including an iron press and video recording of the CCTV footage installed at their residence where the incident

took place.The police said that besides the deceased,

there were two more domestic helps, includ-ing a 17-year-old boy, employed at their resi-dence and they were also beaten up merci-lessly by Jagriti, 29, and Dhananjay, 38, as well.

Additional public prosecutor Mukul Kumar told the court that one of the maids, Meena, was severely injured and she is presently un-dergoing treatment at a hospital here.

He said that the domestic helps were beat-en up by wooden sticks, iron rods, iron press and even metallic deer horns by the accused.

The minor boy was also produced in the court and he showed to the judge the severe injuries inflicted on him.

Regarding Dhananjay, the police said he tried to destroy the video recording of 20 CCTV cameras installed in his house after the inci-dent.Senior advocate Hariharan, who appeared for Dhananjay, said that the MP had nothing to do with the alleged incident as he was not re-siding at the Chanakyapuri house here.

BSP MP Dhananjay Singh, wife sent to 5-day police custody in maid murder case

Rabri misses Lalu during ChhathAgencies

PATNA: With ‘Nahai-khai’ on Wednesday, former Bihar CM Rabri Devi is busy making the final prepa-rations to celebrate Chhath, perhaps for the first time in the absence of her

husband and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.Rabri, who would perform the rituals at her 10 Circular Road residence, was seen drying wheat on Tuesday after-noon with her granddaughter while checking out other arrangements be-ing made for the festival. “When Lalu ji was present, he used to inspect each and everything himself. He would be missed on this pious occasion,” she said, adding, “We, however, have complete faith in judiciary and Lalu ji would be back among us soon.”

Lalu, who is lodged in Ranchi jail after his conviction in a fodder scam

case, used to make the festival very lively for family members, party work-ers and others.

Rabri, who is commanding the af-fairs of the RJD in his absence said, “Now both my sons, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap would take over the responsi-

bilities.”Extending Chhath greetings to Bi-

haris, she hoped that Chhathi Maiya would fulfill the wishes of the devo-tees. “I would pray for the peace and harmony in the state,” said the former CM.

She also urged the state govern-ment for proper upkeep of the ghats so that the devotees wouldn’t face any problem while performing the rituals. While inviting the RJD rank and file for the ‘kharna’ prasad, she also urged them to help the vratis in their areas with the festival rituals.

Patna blasts planned on instant messaging site: investigatorsAgencies:

New Delhi: After establishing what they call a direct link between the Patna blasts and those in the pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar three months apart, investigators now allege that orders for both operations came directly from Pakistan, where Riyaz Bhatkal, believed to be the founder of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen now lives.

They claim to have intercepted several chats on instant messaging site Nimbuzz between Riyaz and Tehseen Akhtar, the Mujahideen man report-edly running the group since its leader in India, Yasin Bhatkal, was arrested from Bihar in August.

Riyaz Bhatkal, investigators believe, has been giving direct orders on ter-ror strikes. After his arrest, Yasin Bhatkal allegedly told interrogators that he did not know about the Bodh Gaya blasts and that many IM modules now work simultaneously on multiple instructions.

Both Yasin and Riyaz belong to the same village in Karnataka, where they are believed to have begun their careers in terror.

The terrorists were emboldened to strike before a Narendra Modi rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on October 27, by the fact that investigation agencies had made no arrests or breakthrough in the Bodh Gaya case in which two monks were injured, investigators now say.

Earlier this week, the National Investigation Agency or NIA raided a small hotel in Ranchi in pursuit of Haider Ali, one of the main suspects in the Patna blasts which killed six people and injured 83.

Haider Ali had escaped by then, but the NIA found 27 live bombs and a chart that lists the men who allegedly planted a total of 13 bombs in Bodh Gaya in July. The similarities between the two attacks are many; investiga-tors say they were both conducted by the newly-formed Ranchi branch of the Indian Mujahideen.Both teams had six members and in both cases they allegedly worked in teams of two assigned to plant three bombs each.

Among the bombers in both cities, say investigators, is Imtiaz Ansari who was caught while trying to escape from the Patna railway station where the first bomb exploded just hours before Mr Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, addressed a massive rally.

Agencies

KOLKATA: After having made a goof-up in spelling Sachin Ten-dulkar’s name, the Cricket Associa-tion of Bengal (CAB) were in for an-other embarrassment on Wednesday when they addressed the batting leg-end’s wife as “Mr” Anjali in the wel-come message on the giant electronic scoreboard.

The CAB’s second goof-up came in as many days when the giant dis-play at the High Court end kept on flashing Welcome “Mr Anjali Ten-dulkar and Master Arjun Tendulkar” during the lunch break on the open-ing day of the first Test between India and West Indies.

As Anjali along with son Arjun got into the President’s box around the lunch break, the giant screen flashed the wrong message and it was only after a few minutes that the mistake was realised and corrected, but by then the damage was done.

The CAB, which had already drawn flak for its over-enthusiastic preparations for Tendulkar’s 199th Test, had yesterday misspelt the se-nior batsman’s name as “Sachine” in a giant billboard.

The CAB had then put the entire

blame on a private agency. The CAB, however, apologised for

the goof-up. “It’s really unfortunate that something or other is happen-ing everyday. We’re helpless now as it’s being looked after by a private agency.

“However, we’re committed to take action against the agency after the match gets over. We apologise for the inconvenience it caused,” an apologetic CAB joint secretary Subir Ganguly said.

On Tuesday, India skipper Ma-

hendra Singh Dhoni, im-mediately after entering the press conference, had point-ed out CAB’s mistake of mis-spelling the iconic batsman’s name.

“Pehle ye batao Sachin ki naam ki spelling galat kisne likhi? Yeh bahut bada... (First tell me who misspelt Sachin’s name, It’s a big mis-take,” was what Dhoni had to say about the billboard that had mentioned: “Cele-brating Sachine Tendulkar’s 199th Test match”.

The CAB treasurer Biswarup Dey in turn had criticised Dhoni for making an issue out of the spelling mistake.

“He could have told us about the mistake. But it’s not in the interest of captain to see to this,” Dey had said.

While 80 school chil-dren wearing T-shirts with

Tendulkar’s image and 199 written on the back lined up till the dress-ing room to greet him when he dis-embarked the team bus, Tendulkar remained calm and went about the routine in a casual manner.

Mandzukic sends Bayern past Pilsen, into last 16

Agencies

PRAGUE: A second-half goal from Mario Mandzukic handed Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over die-hard Czech champions Vikto-ria Pilsen that granted the holders a spot in the Champions League knockout phase on Tuesday.

The Croatian striker capital-ised on a cross from Philipp Lahm, sending a powerful header past a diving Pilsen keeper Matus Ko-zacik in the 65th minute, only six minutes after coming onto the pitch.

Bayern have made it to the last-16 for the sixth time in a row, ac-companied by Group D runners-up Manchester City who beat CSKA Moscow 5-2.

Bayern sit at the top of Group D with 12 points from four games, leading City by three points and CSKA Moscow by nine, with Pilsen

stuck at the bottom with no points.Bayern dominated the early

minutes of the game as David Alaba forced a diving save from Pilsen’s Slovak keeper Matus Ko-zacik from a free kick.

Bastian Schweinsteiger hit the post with a low curling shot in the 16th minutes and Kozacik stopped several good shots that got past the solid Pilsen defence.

Outshot 35-0 by Bayern in a 5-0 trashing in Munich two weeks ago, Pilsen vowed a braver per-

formance in the home game and made good on the pledge as they put the Bundesliga leaders under some pressure half an hour into the game.

But Milan Petrzela sent a pow-erful left-footer just over the bar and Daniel Kolar followed suit with a header.

The hosts seemed to lose steam as Bayern almost scored three min-utes after halftime but Lahm’s shot was cleared by Pilsen defender Marian Cisovsky off the goal line.

Daniel Van Buyten sent his header past the Pilsen goal and Ko-zacik denied Franck Ribery’s shot from close range before clearing another effort by Lahm a minute before the end.But Pilsen did not give up and with 15 minutes left, striker Stanislav Tecl first forced a dive from Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer and then missed a perfect pass a few feet from a gaping net.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER | 07| 2013Zabarwan times6

Agencies

NEW DELHI: ASSOCHAM, an apex in-dustry body, has suggested the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to bring the Board of Control for Cricket in In-dia (BCCI) under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

“The BCCI is not a regis-tered National Sports Feder-ation as it does not take any grants from the government and thus it cannot be brought under the RTI Act, but if the National Draft on Sports De-velopment Bill 2013 is finally passed by the Parliament, then BCCI may not be able to use the word ‘India’,” said the Associated Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry of India, in a communication addressed to Sports Minis-ter Jitendra Singh. As per the Draft National Sports Development Bill 2013, only those federations who come under the RTI ambit will have the right to use ‘India’ as the team name.

“The Bill should have its focus on three major aspects viz., encouraging privatisation through public-private partnership (PPP) mode, transforming India as a manufactur-ing base for sports’ equipment and ensuring

job security and incentives to sportspersons,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM. “Besides, there is also the need for a clear plan highlighting grassroots and international events, athlete development, sports medicine and science which is critical for growth of sports in India,” he added. ASSOCHAM has

also stressed that the bill should clearly de-fine the role of Sports Authority of India (SAI) comprising its infrastructure related respon-sibilities and the roadmap to make those pro-ductive. Though the bill proposes to bring in accountability on part of the National Sports Federations and the National Olympic Com-mittee, ASSOCHAM said that central govern-ment has a significant role to play in execu-tion of said statues in the bill.

ASSOCHAM urges Sports Ministry to bring BCCI under RTI ambit I enjoyed picking Sachin Tendulkar’s brain: Federer

After ‘Sachine’, CAB flashes welcome Mr Anjali Tendulkar

Agencies

LONDON: Roger Federer’s smile touched his eyes when cricket star Sachin Tendulkar’s name was invoked. “Hey! I’m a cricketer too,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, before adding, “at heart.”

Federer’s father Robert is Swiss, but his mother Lynette is South African and that’s where the tennis great’s love for cricket comes from. The tennis superstar has long kept track of games in the cricketing world, particularly those involving India’s superstar Sachin, who he met at Wimble-don two summers ago.

Sachin Tendulkar will bid adieu to cricket in Mumbai in a fortnight, playing his 200th Test match. In an exclusive chat with The Times of India Federer said, “it is always sad when the curtains come down on a great career. I’m really happy for him that he can

go out on his terms, at the time he has chosen, at a venue of his choice. That’s really great. I hope his farewell game is everything he wants it to be. He deserves it.”

“I wish him a great life after cricket,” Federer said, “Hope it is as exciting and memorable as his cricket.”

The 32-year-old, winner of 17 Grand Slam titles, said he watched Tendulkar bat on a num-ber of occasions. “I’ve seen him play, not as much as I would’ve liked, but I’ve watched him on television several times,” he said.

Federer said he re-membered his conversation with Tendulkar. “I’m glad I got to meet him, we had tea in the terrace at Wimbledon. I remember the meeting clearly,” Federer said. “I enjoy meeting great athletes. It is an experience for me. I like picking their brains, seeing how it works. I enjoyed my time with Sachin.”

Kapur will present a strong challenge at Indian OpenAgencies

NEW DELHI: India’s Shiv Kapur and Jyoti Randhawa will compete in a very com-petitive field, including many a Asian golf stars, when the prestigious 50th Hero Indian Open begins on Thursday.

Kapur is going into the tournament high on confidence after winning title in Dubai, where he earned playing rights in Europe for next season.

Kapur will be joined by an elite field at the $1.25 million Asian Tour event which include Arjun Atwal, the Asian Tour num-ber one in 2003, PGA Tour winners Daniel

Chopra of Sweden and Michael Thompson of the United States and David Gleeson of Aus-tralia, the 2011 Hero Indian Open champion.

Randhawa, who won the Indian Open in 2000, 2006 and 2007, Siddikur, the first Bangladeshi to play and win on the Asian Tour, Angelo Que of the Philippines, Pari-ya Junhasavasdikul of Thailand and SSP Chowrasia of India, all multiple Asian Tour winners, will also feature in the prestigious event.Fresh from a satisfying but mentally exhausting win in Dubai, Kapur is deter-mined to win Indian Open, which he terms as the fifth Major tournament for all Indian golfers.

“Every year I sit here and keeping tell-ing all of you that it is always my dream to win the Indian Open. It is the fifth Ma-jor for all of us and I would love to win it, more so because it is held at the Delhi Golf Club,” said the 31-year-old Kapur.

“Obviously the Indian Open being in its 50th year makes it more special. The fact that I’m coming into this week with a little bit of form will help my chances. It will mean a lot more than winning last week,” he added.

With a string of solid results this year,

Kapur is eager to take advantage of his con-sistent form where he won two tournaments and has four other top-10 results.

“It is not my last chance at winning it but I would say that it is my best chance at win-ning. I know I got a few more years to try and win the Indian Open but it is not often that you come into a week, feeling that you are playing closed to your best.

“It is satisfying to win but you get weeks when you are playing really well and not win. You have to have a fair share of luck to win. I had a couple of good breaks go my way so hopefully it is a sign of good things to come,” Kapur added.

Thompson, who is playing on a spon-sor’s invitation this week, hopes to follow in the footsteps of the late Payne Stewart, who headlined and won the 1981 Indian Open.

“I got the chance of meeting him (Stew-art) when I was eight or seven years old and remember getting his autograph. To be here and playing on the same golf course where he tasted success is a great honour.

I hope that I can go out and perform to the best of my abilities and beat a really strong field,” said the American, who won his first PGA Tour title in March.

Agencies

KOLKATA: Pacer Mohammed Shami announced his arrival on the Test arena by scalping four wickets in a dream spell against the West Indies as a dominant India started Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series by taking early con-trol of the first Test on Wednes-day.

Shami returned impressive figures of 4-71 in 18 overs as India bowled out the visitors for a pal-try 234 after they opted to bat at the Eden Gardens on the opening day.

At stumps, India were com-fortably placed at 37 for no loss with the two openers, Shikhar Dhawan (21) and Murali Vijay (16), at the crease. At the end of first day’s play, India trailed the West Indies by 197 runs with all their wickets intact.

West Indies skipper Darren

Sammy’s decision to bat may have prevented the crowd from watch-ing Tendulkar bat on the first day itself, but the 40-year-old retiring legend did his bit with the bowl picking up a wicket in his first over itself, taking his Test wicket tally to 46.

While Tendulkar was un-doubtedly the cynosure of all eyes, Shami grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he rocked the West Indies middle-order with a hostile spell that included quite a few reverse-swinging deliveries.

The 23-year-old Shami’s wick-ets included Kieran Powell, top-scorer Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Sheldon Cottrell.

Earlier, West Windies were placed were placed comfortably at 107 for two at lunch, but Shami wreaked havoc in the second ses-sion, extracting excellent reverse swings from the Eden pitch to trigger a collapse. The touring side

lost eight wickets for 96 runs to be skittled out in 78 overs.

Samuels scored 65 off 98 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes.

About 40,000 turned up on

the first day, expecting Tendulkar to bat. While that did not hap-pen, with the ball he turned the clock back as he trapped Shane Shillingford in front of the wicket with a straighter one after bowling

three turning deliveries. Left-arm spinner Pragyan

Ojha (1-62) too impressed with his tidy bowling but he was un-lucky twice with skipper Dhoni dropping Samuels and Shane Shillingford on two occasions. Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 2-52.

Born in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Shami moved to Bengal eight years ago on coach Badrud-din SIddique’s insistence as there were not many opportunities for the young pacer in his home state.

Son of a farmer, Shami, who hails from a remote village called Sahaspur about 22kms from Mo-radabad, found his calling in Kol-kata where club cricket was very much active as he went on to ply his trade for clubs like Dalhousie AC and Town before being called for Bengal under-22.

He was also a part of the Kol-kata Knight Riders squad in IPL

2011 and the tips from bowling consultant Wasim Akram proved invaluable.

It was a good move by Dhoni as he preferred Shami over the out-of-sorts Ishant Sharma, who, incidentally, gave the Test cap to the debutant pacer. The other debutant of the day was Rohit Sharma and he got the cap from Tendulkar.

Shami showed fine fitness as he bowled in four spells with the third being the longest and most fruitful (7-0-30-2). He was at his best in the last spell that read 3-1-2-1.

Shami was also instrumental in Darren Bravo’s run-out as West Windies committed a harakiri in the middle, losing three wickets in as many overs to tilt the match in favour of India.

Shami got his maiden Test scalp in the form of Powell (28) af-ter Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave the

initial breakthrough, taking the prized wicket of Chris Gayle (18).

India exploited the slow Eden pitch to good effect as Bhuvnesh-war dismissed Gayle with a low delivery. Both the WI openers looked impatient and got out in the space of four overs.

Playing his first Test at his home ground, Shami was impres-sive from the first over as he trou-bled both the openers.

With his second ball, Shami nipped one back against Pow-ell, but the height saved the left-hander who appeared a little ten-tative to start with.

Gayle, on the other hand, went about in his usual brisk manner and even had an inside edge off Shami but was lucky as the ball missed the stumps.

Dhoni made a smart change, bringing in Shami from the High Court end that resulted in the wicket of Powell.

Ind vs WI: India 37/0 at stumps on Day 1 after West Indies score 234

Smith to leave tour with post-concussion syndrome

Agencies

Graeme Smith was ruled out of the remainder of South Africa’s limited-overs series against Pakistan on Wednesday with post-con-cussion syndrome follow-ing delayed symptoms of blurred vision and dizziness a week after he was hit on the head by a bouncer.

The opening batsman and test captain was hit on the right temple by a bounc-er from giant Pakistan seam-er Mohammed Irfan while making a double century on day two of the second test on Oct. 24, Cricket South Africa said.

Although he showed no signs of problems apart from a mild headache soon after the blow on his helmet, he started experiencing symp-toms in the second one-day international on Friday, a week later.

“Tests at the time al-lowed him to continue play-ing,” South Africa manager and team doctor Moham-med Moosajee said in a statement. “However ... post-injury during the sec-

ond ODI in Dubai he started complaining of blurred vi-sion which progressed to dizziness, unsteadiness on his feet and difficulty focus-ing.”

Smith will leave the tour on Thursday and has been advised to rest for at least two weeks, and will “con-tinuously be monitored,” Moosajee said.

Moosajee said Smith had also been for a brain scan, which was clear, but it was still decided he should be withdrawn from the re-maining three ODIs and two Twenty20s on South Africa’s tour to the United Arab Emirates.The team doctor

described post-concussion syndrome as “a collection of symptoms that some peo-ple develop after they have experienced a minor trau-matic brain injury otherwise

known as concussion.”South Africa and Paki-

stan drew the two-test series 1-1 after Smith’s 234 set up the Proteas’ victory in the second match. They are tied 1-1 in the five-match ODI se-ries ahead of Wednesday’s third one-dayer and the tour will conclude with two T20s.Quinton de Kock replaced Smith in Wednesday’s line-up, while batsman Henry Davids will join the squad as cover, CSA said.