Hiking Electricity Tariffs Despite Longer Power Cuts Unjustified: Tarigami

SRINAGAR: Expressing serious concern over the precarious power situation in Kashmir at a time when it is needed more to cope-up with the chilly winter, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Sunday said the electricity woes continue unabated while the power tariffs have been hiked arbitrarily by the government.

In a statement, Tarigami said that Power cuts inevitably grow longer every winter since the power deficiency in J&K doesn’t seem to improve.

“With the onset of winter, the unscheduled and prolonged power cuts become an unwritten rule, not only in non-metered areas but metered ones as well,” he said.

“People living in rural areas are compelled to arrange for alternate sources of illumination since they are facing the worst power crisis. While the people in cities and towns had to face low voltage and erratic power supply, people living in rural and far-flung areas were left without electricity. Students appearing for different exams are the worst hit by the power crisis in Kashmir,” he added.

“Power authorities have hiked electricity tariff in a unilateral decision when the government has even failed to provide a regular supply to consumers. The Department has no cogent and valid justification in hiking the power tariff thus making it unaffordable to the poorer sections of the society,” he further said.

“At a time when the economy of the people is in doldrums in view of the Covid19 pandemic, the hike in tariff is totally unacceptable and should be rolled back immediately,” said Tarigami in a statement.

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J&K’s Aspirations To Be Fulfilled By Completing Railway Project: Goyal

SRINAGAR: Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday reviewed the progress of the ongoing Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) national project in Jammu and Kashmir and said the “aspirations” of the people have to be fulfilled by completing the project so that the region remains connected to other parts of the country round the year.

Besides Goyal, Railway Board Chairman and CEO V.K. Yadav, Northern Railway General Manager Ashutosh Gangal and Chief Administrative Officer of USBRL project Vijay Sharma were also present during the meeting.

Sharma apprised Goyal about the latest status of work on the last leg of the project between Katra-Banihal.

Expressing satisfaction on the progress of the project, Goyal said, “Aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir have to be fulfilled by completing the project so that the region gets a good transportation system to remain connected to the rest of the country all the year round.”

The Minister called upon the engineers working on the project to expedite the remaining portion on mission mode.

He also instructed them to complete the procurement of materials and permission procedures on time so that there is no delay in the construction of the line.

Gangal shared with the Minister that in spite of Ramban and Reasi districts, where the project is under-construction, being declared as Covid Red and Orange zones, the work on the projects continued following the Covid-19 standard operating procedures.

“Artisan camps and isolation centers have been provided on sites. And 366 people working on the various points had been detected with the virus, but all have recovered well,” Gangal said.

The USBRL is a national project undertaken by the Railways for the construction of the broad-gauge railway line through the Himalayas with the aim of connecting the Kashmir region with the rest of the country.

The all-weather, comfortable, convenient and cost effective mass transportation system will be the catalyst for the overall development of the northernmost alpine region of the country.

Construction of the first three phases of the project has been completed and the line is in operational use for running of trains between Baramulla-Banihal in the Kashmir valley and the Jammu-Udhampur-Katra in Jammu region.

Work on the intervening 111 Km section Katra-Banihal, the most arduous and treacherous portion due to its geology and extensive riverine system replete with deep gorges is ongoing.

There are several iconic bridges and tunnels coming up in this section. Most of the rail track is slated to be in tunnels or bridges in this section. In the absence of an effective surface transport system in this in-hospitable region, Railways had to first lay 205 km access roads to reach the construction sites.

Three agencies — IRCON, KRCL and Northern Railway — with extensive experience in the construction of rail lines are involved in this project.

Railway Ministry officials said many international agencies and premier Indian institutes like IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, DRDO and Geological Survey of India are providing expertise in planning and implementation. Several sets of tunnelling machineries and cranes have also been imported.

Presently 95 per cent of the arch work of the Chenab Bridge, world’s tallest railway bridge is complete while the work on the Anji bridge, an asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, is on in full swing.

Railway ministry officials said that 81.21 km of the total 97.64 km main tunnelling and 53.50 km out of 60.5 km escape tunnel works have been completed. And 12 mega and 10 minor bridges have been completed.

“Laying of the remaining 12 mega bridges and one more minor bridge is to be completed by 2021-22,” the official said. (IANS)

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WhatsApp To Stop Working On These Phones From Jan 1

SRINAGAR: WhatsApp will stop working for some iPhones as well as Android smartphones starting January 1, 2021.

There are several Android and iOS phones that may not be able to run the app as the company will withdraw support for older versions of OS from next year.

According to the information on the WhatsApp FAQ section, WhatsApp will only be compatible with phones running the Android 4.0.3 operating system or newer as well as iPhones running on iOS 9 and newer.

All iPhone models up to the iPhone 4 will lose support for the messaging platform in the next few days. The iPhone models include the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 6S.

For Android, devices including HTC Desire, Motorola Droid Razr, LG Optimus Black, and the Samsung Galaxy S2 will lose WhatsApp support as 2020 ends.

The instant messaging platform will keep the app running for select phones with KaiOS 2.5.1 OS or newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.

To check which OS an iPhone is running head over to the Settings menu, then to the General and Information option, Software and the users will be able to see the OS running that particular iPhone.

Android users can head to Settings, then About Phone to see which Android version their smartphone is running on. (IANS)

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Srinagar Gunfight Fallout: Internet Services Snapped In South Kashmir Parts

SRINAGAR: Authorities on Wednesday late afternoon suspended the low-speed internet services in two districts of South Kashmir following the killing of three militants in Srinagar gunfight.

Sources told news agency KDC that internet services have been snapped in Pulwama and Shopian districts of south Kashmir in view of the law and order situation.

Pertinently, the move comes after government forces on Wednesday claimed to have killed the three hardcore militants planning to carry out the big attack in Srinagar gunfight. However, families of the slain trio contested the claim and staged a protest outside the PCR Srinagar saying their sons were innocent and termed the encounter as ‘fake’.

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‘Srinagar Encounter’: Families Of Slain Protest, Claim They’re Innocent

SRINAGAR: Families of three persons claimed to be militants killed in an encounter with a joint team of police and security forces at Hokersar in city outskirts of Srinagar staged a protest, asserting that they were innocents.

Srinagar Encounter: Families of slain youth stage protest, say ‘our sons not militants’. Pic: Internet

“Yesterday at 10 a.m., he had tea with me and I swear about it. I don’t know where he was brought down from Sumo. Is this what is going to happen in Kashmir. Is this democracy? Is this the governor Raj? Kill me. Why you killed him. He was a student,” said Bashir Ahmad Ganie, grandfather of Aijaz Maqbool, one of the slain.

“Why was he killed? Was he a terrorist?” he asked, adding, “(Aijaz) is the son of a policeman Mohammad Maqbool Ganie who is posted in Ganderbal,” the elderly man told reporters outside PCR here as per news agency GNS. “Tell us why our son was killed. If they don’t, let them send task force and kill us all at home,” the elderly man said.

Besides, Aijaz Mushtaq from Putrigam Pulwama, families of two others—Ather Mushtaq Wani  (class 11th student as per family) son of Mushtaq Ahmad Wani from Bellow Pulwama and Zubair Ahmad Lone (carpenter) from Turkewagan Shopain—also protested and claimed they are innocents. Police could not be immediately contacted for the comments even as on Twitter it said that three militants were killed in the gunfight. The names were revealed by the families and have not been officially revealed by the police so far.

Reportedly also, bodies of all three have been taken to Baramulla for burial with their family members allowed to participate in their last rites.

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India Reports 20,550 New Covid-19 Cases, Tally Reaches 1,02,44,853

SRINAGAR: With 20,550 new coronavirus infections and 286 deaths in the past 24 hours, India’s overall tally stood at 1,02,44,853 on Wednesday, while the death toll touched 1,48,439, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Till now, 9,83,4141 have recovered. Currently, there are 2,62,272 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 95.99 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.

Covid-19 has hit men harder than women in India, where 70 per cent of the approximately 1.47 lakh people who died since the national outbreak in January were male, the ministry has announced.

A total of 17,09,22,030 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 11,20,281 samples were tested on Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state till date. Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory — Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (in random order).

India has recorded 15 more cases of the new UK coronavirus mutant strain, taking total number of such cases to 21, data from the Union Health Ministry and state departments showed on Wednesday.

Of the 20 cases, eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi, 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences in Bangalore, two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.

A two-year-old in Meerut, who just returned with her parents from the UK. The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meerut’s Subharti Medical College. The parents have tested positive for Covid, but not the new strain.

Then there is one each who has been logged at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata, National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi. (IANS)

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Three Militants Killed In Srinagar Gunfight Were Planning A Big Attack: GoC Kilo Force H S Sahi

SRINAGAR: General officer Commanding (GoC) Kilo Force H S Sahi Wednesday said that three militants killed in an encounter at Lawaypora on Srinagar outskirts were planning a big strike on the highway to gain publicity.

Site of an encounter at Lawaypora area of Srinagar in which three militants were killed on Wednesday, December 30, 2020. KL Image by Bilal Bahadur

He, however, said that the identity and affiliation of the slain trio is yet to be known as police is trying to find out to which outfit they belonged to. Addressing a joint press conference at 2 RR headquarters at Zainakote, HMT, Srinagar, GoC Kilo Force said that in the past one week, five militants including a Pakistani national were killed in two separate gunfights in north Kashmir.

“Since past many days, intelligence inputs were pouring in continuously about the movement of militants on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. Yesterday, we developed leads and came to know that militants are hiding in a house right opposite to Noora hospital at Lawaypora in HMT area,” Sahi said as per news agency KNO.

He said that when the presence of militants got established, army’s 2 RR, Police and the CRPF repeated asked them to surrender. “The militants fired indiscriminately at security forces and lobbed grenades as well. The operation was put on a halt due to dark but cordon layers were tightened. With the first light, the firefight again resumed and militant used heavy ammunition against security forces,” the GoC said, adding that in the ensuing gunfight three militants were killed.

“This was a clean operation and there was no causality to the security forces,” said GoC Sahi, who was flanked by commander 10 sector RR Naresh Mishra and SP West Shehzad Saliar besides other officials of army and police.

“The operation ended at 11:30 am. The bodies of three slain were retrieved and police is identifying them,” he said. Asked whether it was clear to which outfit they belonged to, he said: “So far it is not clear. It is been an hour only since the encounter ended, the police are verifying their identity and affiliation,” he said.

To a query why militants are choosing Srinagar outskirts, he said: “Militants choose Srinagar outskirts or highways to carry out attacks on security forces to get maximum publicity. The nature of ammunition used by the militants in today’s gunfight, suggests they were planning a big strike on the highway.”

He said that another reason why militants choose Srinagar outskirts is that the area has congested locality, lanes, and by-lanes, “they perhaps feel, these areas are a safe heaven for them.” “But our intelligence grid is very strong and will not allow to carry out any major strike in these areas. January 26 is coming and they may try to play some mischief, but we are alert and will foil their all plans.”

Asked whether the operation has been called off, the army officer said that the encounter has ended and the traffic that was diverted is also being allowed to ply on the road again. Meanwhile, a police officer told KNO that one Ak-47 rifle, two pistols and a few grenades were recovered from the slain militants.

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