Govt was caught napping on all three---sadak, bijli, paani

 NHAI was sleeping, we were called on Jan 7^th: CE Beacon

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 11: Top ranking officials of Border Roads Organization (BRO) and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation of India (NHPC) today revealed that authorities were caught napping when the season’s first snowfall in Kashmir valley plains sent life out of gear last week.

Chief Engineer of BRO’s Projection Beacon in Jammu & Kashmir, Brig TPS Rawat revealed to Early Times that under orders from Government of India and Government of Jammu & Kashmir, his organisation was supposed to completely hand over 294-km long Srinagar-Jammu national highway to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) by March 2011. In the year 2010, Government of India had approved the ambitious Rs 10,000 Cr project of four-laning of the highway and the work was assigned to NHAI.

“We were ready from day one to hand over the highway to NHAI. But even after floating tenders for six major patches, including two major tunnels, they had certain difficulties in taking over the highway. As they had allotted works for execution, we made it clear to them that we could not continue maintenance works beyond March 2011 as two different organizations could not simultaneously work on the same highway”, Brig Rawat said. He disclosed that due to such difficulties, NHAI was ready to take over only 100 Km distance in the year 2011.

“Earlier last year, they took over 59 Km from Jammu to Udhampur and also 40 Km from Chinani to Batote. Chinani-Batote patch on either side of Patni Top was handed over to NHAI as they were going to start execution of a major tunnel”, Brig Rawat said. He revealed that until January 6^th, when the heavy snowfall happened at Patni Top, NHAI had no preparedness to keep the highway through.

“NHAI as well as J&K Chief Minister’s office and Deputy Commissioner of Ramban approached us in the morning on January 7^th and requested us to carry out snow clearance on Chinani-Batote patch. We made it clear to them that we could not do it in absence of a written requisition as we were supposed to charge the bill from the client, NHAI. The requisitions from NHAI came to us by fax at 1300 hours on January 7^th. By that time, we had mobilized our men and machinery. Thereafter, it took us around 40 hours, to make the highway through. It remained blocked for 50 hours, from 1800 hours on January 6^th to 2000 hours on January 8^th”, Brig Rawat said. He said that on January 8^th in the evening, he came all the way from Doda to Batote and the first caravan of 80 vehicles crossed the troubled patch from Ramban to Jammu at 2000 hours.

Brig Rawat said that Project Beacon would completely hand over the highway to NHAI by May 2012. He made it clear that thereafter the four-laning of the highway, as well as its maintenance, would be fully the responsibility of the NHAI. According to him, Project Beacon had maintained the highway with its own engineers and staff while as NHAI would possibly outsource the maintenance to private contractors.

Meanwhile, highly placed sources in NHPC revealed to this newspaper that even in the field of power transmission, Government of Jammu & Kashmir had no infrastructure to directly utilize the power generated at 480 mw Uri plant as it had no carrier. “They have been boasting of the competence and hard work of their bureaucrats and engineers and granting them extensions in service after retirement without asking them why a transmission line had not been laid for directly receiving power from Uri in such crises”, a senior NHPC official said. He made a significant disclosure that Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary, Bharat Bhushan Vyas, and incumbent Principal Secretary Power, Sudhanshu Pandey, learned it only on their recent visit to Uri that the state government had never laid a transmission line, capable of taking power directly from NHPC’s Uri plant, in the last several decades.

The NHPC officials, wishing anonymity, revealed that till date power from Uri plant was flowing directly to the northern grid through a 400 kv transmission line of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) and the same was returning to the Valley through another transmission line. “They are holding us guilty of everything and creating an impression that NHPC was averse to supplying power to them directly. We are, in fact, ready for it. Sometimes we have to simply shut our systems as the state government’s PDD has not created any infrastructure of taking it directly from us in such crises when the PGCI link between Uri and Jammu develops a fault”, said an official.

“We told Messers Vyas and Pandey that we were ready to supply power directly from Uri. They returned after learning, rather surprisingly, that their PDD had never created a carrier for it”, he added.

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PDD claims to have restored 1000 mw supply in Valley

Darkness prevails in rural areas, consumers cry but Govt says crisis is over

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 10: Notwithstanding continued darkness in many of the rural areas and consumers complaining no-power no-voltage, officials of Power Development Department (PDD) today claimed that almost all the transmission and distribution systems had been fully repaired and entire 1,000 mw electricity supply had been restored in Kashmir valley.

Highly placed sources in PDD revealed to Early Times that the four-day-long power breakdown in Kashmir valley was the result of multiple faults caused to the Power Grid Corporation of India’s 400 kv Kishenpur-Wagora transmission line by heavy snowfall on Friday last. They said that faults of varied kinds and intensity occurred when PGCI’s Optical Fiber Cable, that runs over the high altitude pylons, got snapped and caused faults to the transmission line in Ramban area. On Saturday, PGCI authorities requisitioned a state helicopter for air dropping a team of its engineers for necessary repairs. The helicopter was provided immediately but it failed to drop the engineers at the desired spot.

Thereafter, PGCI requisitioned a specially trained pair of pilots and a helicopter from the Indian Air Force (IAF) which successfully carried out the ladder dropping despite extremely hostile weather conditions. In the next 24 hours, the team of PGCI engineers and technicians repaired the transmission lines as well as the OFC that is being used for earth wiring purposes as well as a carrier of telecommunication data. Capable of high resolution digital data transmission, including audio-visual data, PGCI’s OFC is being used by the corporation as well as a number of other government and private clients.

“400 kv transmission line as well as OFC have been fully restored by PGCI. Our engineers are, however, still repairing the faults on the state-run 220 kv Kishenpur-Pampore transmission line over Battery Chashma and other high altitude areas in Ramban”, a senior PDD official said. He said that the entire 1000 mw power supply had been restored in the Valley with the repairs of PGCI’s 400 kv line. According to him, repairs of 220 kv line would also provide a cushion. He claimed that PGCI’s line was capable of carrying power upto 900 mw.

Chief Engineer Maintenance and Rural Electrification Kashmir, Mohammad Muzaffar Matoo, confirmed that entire pre-crisis supply of 1,000 mw had been restored by this evening. He told Early Times late tonight that all grid stations, receiving stations and sub stations in the Valley had been charged by this evening, though the distribution system had been restored “only partially in south Kashmir”. He claimed that the system had been restored 100% in Srinagar, 90% in Budgam and over 80% in north Kashmir. He was hopeful that 90% restoration would be achieved in south Kashmir by Tuesday evening.

Mr Matoo revealed proudly that PDD had also restored the “highly challenging” transmission line from Kupwara to Tanghdaar that passes through the snowbound Sadhna Pass. He said that the faults on PGCI’s 400 kv and the state government’s 220 kv transmission lines over Ramban were not of very high intensity. “It became a crisis for two reasons. First, the problem occurred simultaneously to both the lines for the first time and, secondly, the terrain was inaccessible and highly snowbound”, he said.

Mr Matoo said that 720 to 730 mw of power was now again flowing into the Valley through the PGCI’s 400 kv line. He said that in addition to NHPC’s 120 mw from Uri, PDD was currently in possession of 120 mw to 140 mw from other power projects, mainly LJHP, Upper Singh and Gas Turbine of Pampore. “The crisis is over now. Supply would be restored upto 90% of areas in south Kashmir in next 24 hours”, Mr Matoo asserted. He said that in Bandipore district, only Arin and Athwatoo areas were still uncharged.

Notwithstanding the refrain of official claims, situation did not improve drastically in most of the areas in the Valley. Even in the capital city of Srinagar, not a single locality was provided power for 24 hours on Monday. Subscribers in many of the urban neighbourhoods in the fully metered areas complained that on the fourth day of the breakdown today, they got supply for not more than 12 hours. In non-metered areas, subscribers complained that the supply was “high erratic” and did not remain available for aggregate of more than 8 hours.

On the fourth day of the breakdown, mobile telephony remained badly disrupted as neither the calls nor SMS and internet services operated smoothly. After GPRS, BSNL’s Broadband too collapsed in most of the urban and rural localities. Internet failure affected ATMs, credit card utility and other banking services, private cable television networks (which are fully shut since Friday last). Most of the internet services operated through Tata’s Photon and data cards of other private cellular operators.

Reports from rural areas said that power was provided intermittently on rotational basis but it was nowhere available for more than 8 hours a day. Consumers from over a dozen villages, all over the Valley, complained to this newspaper that transmission and distribution systems were unaffected there but the authorities did not still restore supply. In certain areas, supply was provided for just one or two hours in the last 24 hours. Voltage was extremely low in entire Valley wherever the supply was restored.

CE M&RE Kashmir admitted that the voltage in “entire Kashmir is lowest of the season today”. He, however, attributed the fault to the Northern Grid and claimed that it could be due to shutdown of a power plant in Punjab or adjoining states.

Meanwhile, yet another respite came when over a hundred stranded trucks and other modes of transport arrived in Srinagar from Ramban and Banihal this evening. Beacon officials said that the highway had been fully cleared but it would remain operational only for one-way traffic from Jammu to Srinagar for initial few days. They said that extremely low sub-zero temperature had made the road surface dangerously slippery in Patnitop area besides some spots around Jawahar Tunnel.

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Govt remains buried under 3 inches of snow

Power, water supply, drainage, communication systems collapse in Kashmir

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 8: With the near-total breakdown of power, water supply and communication systems, life has been thrown completely out of gear in Kashmir valley even as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is camping here alongwith senior bureaucrats and making desperate attempts to restore services. This situation of crisis and chaos has nailed the administration’s false claims of disaster management and preparedness ahead of winter.

Less than three inches of snowfall on Saturday, which had been predicted in repeated statements from Divisional Commissioner’s office since last week, has thrown life completely out of gear in entire Kashmir valley. All claims of disaster management and preparedness for the natural calamity by the administration have proved false as the entire Valley has been reeling under total darkness since Friday afternoon and all the services and systems dependent on electricity have gone awry.

Notwithstanding Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s camping here alongwith a team of Ministers and bureaucrats and making desperate attempts to restore the systems, there was little improvement on day three of the catastrophe today. In the one-odd soothing development, Srinagar Airport remained fully operational and all flights, excluding one morning flight of Go Air, operated today. Even on the worst day on Saturday, most of the afternoon flights had operated but proceeded directly to New Delhi while skipping Jammu due to poor visibility there.

Surface communication between the Valley and the rest of the word remained cut off on the third consecutive day as Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained badly affected by accumulation of snow from Qazigund to Banihal. Besides, acute slippery conditions on Batote-Patnitop patch made operation of all types of traffic impossible. Landslides on Ramban-Banihal patch also blocked the highway at several places.

Addressing a news conference here this evening, Chief Minister said that the highway had been fully cleared of snow from Qazigund to Banihal. He said that operation of traffic was still very difficult in Patnitop area due to acute slippery conditions and freezing of water on the road surface. He was hopeful that one-way traffic on the highway would be restored by Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

Power breakdown has caused the worst crisis as the Valley has been continuously reeling under darkness since Friday evening. Chief Minister’s much hyped orders of freezing the power supply to his home and other VIP clusters until restoration of electricity to the ordinary population has failed to minimize the miseries, today at least. However, after more than 36 hours of total breakdown, electricity was supplied to Srinagar and some rural areas on rotational basis but not for more than aggregate of three hours in 24 hours in any area.

Power was supplied to these localities for intermittent durations of 20 to 30 minutes by rotation. It only helped the telephone subscribers to recharge batteries of their mobile phones. Some of the consumers could also recharge their fully discharged inverters and car batteries. Those having unaffected water supply could also fill up their overhead tanks with electric motors.

Due to the power breakdown, dependent telecommunication, healthcare, water supply and drainage systems also collapsed. BSNL’s Broadband and landline services operated without much disruption but the mobile phone systems remained badly hit with indication of “NO SERVICE” in most of the areas. BSNL’s GPRS internet system remained completely shut since Friday last. However, Tata Indicom’s Photon remained unaffected in most of the areas. It had little relevance as computers and laptops of over 90% of the population remained frozen due to total exhaustion of batteries.

Doctors failed to conduct many of the scheduled surgical and diagnostic procedures at all hospitals. Cable television networks too have been fully dysfunctional since Friday last. Reports said that most of the ATMs too failed to work yesterday and today in the Valley. Water supply and drainage systems remained badly affected due to non-availability of power and freezing of GI pipes under sub zero temperature. Srinagar recorded the coldest day of the year as the maximum temperature here was 0.6 degree Celsius and the minimum plummeted to the lowest of the season i.e minus 5.5 degree Celsius. Conditions were worse in high altitude areas like Gulmarg which recorded the lowest of the decade at minus 16.5 degrees.

Addressing the press conference in the evening, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that as against the total availability of nearly 1000 mw until Thursday last, not more than 155 mw was available today. He said that the breakdown was the result of a major transmission disruption in Chanderkote-Ramban area. He said that both the key transmission lines---440 kv Kishenpur-Wagora as well as 220 kv Kishenpur-Pampore had got cut off. According to him, just 60 mw of water was available from the 480 mw NHPC-run Uri project and just 15 mw from the 105 mw state-run LJHP. In addition, 90 mw was available from the twin gas turbines of Pampore which had been operated last week only. He said that hospitals, water plants, dewatering stations, telecommunication installations besides Radio Kashmir and Doordarshan were the government’s top priority and rest of the meager availability was going to the ordinary population.

Chief Minister said that a team of engineers had been called in from New Delhi and pressed into service to restore the transmission lines at Chanderkote. He was hopeful that the supply would be partially restored by 2100 hours tonight or till Monday morning. According to him, additional 200 mw of power would be available by Monday morning and full of 1000 mw till Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

Nobody from the Government has so far explained why the disruption was not restricted to only the inflow of nearly 400 mw that came through the two particular transmission lines. Until yesterday, PDD authorities had been claiming that out of 950 mw power pool, nearly 550 mw was coming from the local hydroelectric generation besides two 50 mw gas turbines at Pampore.

Highly placed official sources revealed to this newspaper that the NHPC authorities on Saturday made it clear to a high level visiting team of officials, comprising Principal Secretary Planning B B Vyas and Principal Secretary Power Sudhanshu Pandey that the corporation would not provide any more quantity of power to the state government.

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Civilian killed, 3 cops injured in Sopore

Series of strikes on Police on anniversary of 1993 massacre

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 7: A shopkeeper died and three Police personnel sustained injuries, two of them critically, when militants carried out a series of broad daylight strikes on Police in the north Kashmir township of Sopore on the 19^th anniversary of massacre in which nearly 50 civilians had died and scores of commercial establishments and residential structures had perished in 1993.

Informed sources in north Kashmir told Early Times that two militants carrying AK-47 rifles fired towards Police Station at Sopore when the apple town bustling with business at 1050 hours. Guards on duty fired back in air but with the advantage of a human shield, both the militants vanished into a narrow alley.

Even as most of the shopkeepers and pedestrians ran for life and Police launched a minor search operation, three to more militants in ambush at Main Chowk fired indiscriminately on a passing Gypsy. It was carrying SP Sopore Imtiyaz Hussain Mir’s escort personnel to the Police Station. SP Sopore was on way to Jammu to attend an official meeting with Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, and other senior officers. However, re returned from Srinagar when the meeting was canceled due to overnight snowfall and none of the flights operated at Srinagar Airport.

While SP Imtiyaz was in Srinagar and driving back to Sopore, militants targeted one of his escort vehicles that had stayed back. According to sources, almost the entire unit of SOG Sopore was busy with an operation outside the township when the militants struck in a big way, after weeks of calm in Sopore.

Sources said that three of SP’s escort personnel, including his Personal Security Officer (PSO), sustained injuries in the ambush at Main Chowk. With a lightning speed, militants made good their escape after leaving three personnel wounded. A 31-year-old shopkeeper, who was walking towards his work place, was hit in the crossfire. He died on spot. He was identified as Meraj Ahmad Sheikh S/o Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh R/o Gulshan Mohalla, Shah Gund, Sumbal.

SP Sopore, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir, told Early Times that in the first incident at Police Station, guards did not retaliate for fear of civilian casualties as large number of people were in movement when the militants struck from an alley, some 50 yards away. He said that the second strike was clearly an ambush. A Police Rakhshak passed by few minutes earlier but militants did not target the armoured vehicle. However, as soon as they spotted a non-BP Gypsy, they opened indiscriminate fire. Three of the escort personnel, including one of Mir’s PSOs, sustained injuries.

SP Sopore said that all the three injured personnel were evacuated by a Police party led by SHO Sopore. While one of them, selection grade constable Mudassar Ahmad of Srinagar, was treated at Sub District Hospital of Sopore and later in the day discharged, two more with critical injuries were admitted to 92 Base Hospital at headquarters 15 Corps in Srinagar. Both were battling for life and had not been declared out of danger till late tonight. They were identified as selection grade constable Shabir Ahmad of Shopian and constable Altaf Ahmad of Ganderbal.

Mir claimed that the civilian was hit by the militants’ fire. He said that one of the fleeing militants was identified as Hizbul Mujahideen’s Javed Matoo of Mohalla Khushaal Matoo who was hit in his hand but managed to escape under the cover of civilian concentration. He claimed that Matoo’s short barrel AK-47 rifle was seized by Police.

Third successive strike of the day happened 20 minutes later near the Bus Stand when militants fired a couple of rifle grenades. Both exploded in the air and failed to cause any damage in the cluster of Police and CRPF installations in the town.

Some of the residents contested Police claim that the shopkeeper died in the militants’ firing. At least one of them alleged that Police fired indiscriminately minutes after the militant strike. He suggested that the shopkeeper died in that over-reaction. However, immediately there were no such pointed allegations against Police by the traders’ community.

Residents claimed that at least four civilians sustained minor splinter injuries and three more got injured due to falling in the stampede. They said that the series of militant strikes led to virtual panic and stampedes at the crowded places. Shopkeepers, who were at work in defiance of chilly winds and moderate snowfall overnight, downed shutters and left back to their places of residence. Within minutes, the business hub turned into a ghost town.

Officials claimed that they were already on high alert as certain intelligence inputs had indicated “major trouble” on the 19^th anniversary of the massacre of January 6, 1993, when around 50 civilians had got killed and equal number of commercial and residential structures had perished in an inferno allegedly set off by Border Security Force.

“We were actually expecting it yesterday”, SP Sopore said. “Hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is actually from Sopore, had been repeatedly mentioning the 1993 carnage in his statements since last month. We had also inputs from our planted sources that Hizbul Mujahideen could strike on January 6^th in a big way. But it came a day later when our Special Operations Group was busy with an operation outside the town and I was myself on way to an official meeting in Jammu”, Mir added.

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6 IGs, 11 DIGs become eligible for rank promotion

Sahai, Dibagh being promoted as ADGs; Javed, Gani, Farooq as IGs

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 6: Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Shiv Murari Sahai, as well as IGP Jammu, Dilbagh Singh, are among six IPS officers of 1987 batch who are shortly being promoted to the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADG). Half-a-dozen IPS officers of 1994 batch---including Javed Mujtaba Gilani, Abdul Gani Mir and Farooq Khan--- are among eleven DIGs who have become eligible for promotion to the rank of IG, subject to the rating of their APRs and vigilance clearance, on January 1^st, 2012.

Completing 25 years of service in IPS in the current year, six senior officers of Jammu & Kashmir cadre, currently holding the rank of IG, have become eligible for promotion to the rank of ADG on January 1^st. They include V K Singh, who has been on Central deputation since June 2007 and is currently posted in Singapur (in RAW). Others in the group include IG Kashmir S M Sahai, IG Jammu Dilbagh Singh, IG Crime Raja Aijaz Ali, IG Personnel & Training at Police Headquarters Sheikh Owais Ahmad and Director at Sher-e-Kashmir Police Training Academy Udhampur Ashok Gupta.

While as V K Singh is on Central deputation and likely to seek extension of two more years beyond June 2012, two IPS officers of 1987 batch, namely Raja Aijaz and Ashok Gupta, are reaching superannuation on February 29^th. In addition of them, three more officers of State Police Service, currently functioning as IG, are also retiring from service in 2012. They include Managing Director of J&K Police Housing Corporation Mohammad Amin Shah, IG Railway Zahoor Ahmad Chisti, both having 1988 as their year of allotment, and IG Armed/IR Jammu Gulzar Singh Salathia (1993). None of the three will be having qualifying service for rank promotion until their retirement on February 29^th, May 31^st and September 30^th, 2012.

With V K Singh being on deputation and Raja Aijaz and Ashok Gupta retiring at the end of February, all the remaining three of 1987 batch---SM Sahai, Dilbagh Singh and Sheikh Owais, are certain for promotion as ADG within a few weeks.

Highly placed sources in the state Home Department revealed to Early Times that a Departmental Promotion Committee, comprising Chief Secretray Madhv Lal, Principal Secretary Home B R Sharma and DGP Kuldeep Khoda, would soon consider rank promotion of the four IGs. Messers Sahai, Dilbagh and Owais are likely to be elevated to substantive posts of ADG and VK Singh would be promoted on proforma basis. According to these sources, currently there was only one substantive vacancy of DG and all the five sanctioned posts of ADG stand filled up. However, the government had powers to create ex cadre posts equivalent to the number of substantive posts as a special arrangement.

APRs of the incumbent officers for the previous five years, which should be ‘Outstanding/Excellent’ for 2 years and ‘Very Good’ for 3 years, as also clearance from State Vigilance Organisation, determine all these time-bound rank promotions in IPS, IAS and IFS.

As against the sanctioned strength of two posts of DG, J&K has currently only one in Mr Kuldeep Khoda who is due to reach superannuation on May 31^st, 2012. In addition to three IPS officers (proforma/ ex cadre), namely Commissioner Vigilance P L Gupta (1984), S K Mishra (1985) and Gopal Reddy (1985), five IPS officers of J&K cadre are currently functioning on substantive posts of ADG. They include ADG Armed/ Law & Order K Rajendra Kumar (1984), ADG Security Ram Lubhaya (1985), ADG Headquarters Dr Shesh Pal Vaid (1986), ADG Home Guard & Civil Defence D R Doley (1986) and ADG Prisons Navin Agarwal (1986).

None of the eight ADGs will be having the qualifying service of 30 years for elevation to the rank of DGP on Mr Khoda’s superannuation on May 31^st this year. Senior most, K Ranjendra Kumar, would attain it on 01-01-2014 and the runner-up P L Gupta on 01-01-2015. Ram Lubhaya would retire in just the 28^th year of his IPS on March 31, 2013.

Among the total of 37 DIGs, eleven IPS officers of 1994 have become eligible for promotion to the rank of IG on January 1^st. Only one of them, namely Javed Mujtaba Gilani, is currently on Central deputation. He too is returning to the state after completion of seven years of deputation with CBI at the end of next month.

Others, who have attained eligibility for promotion to IG by reaching 18^th year of service in 2012, include DIG Kashmir (Central Kashmir and Ladakh) Abdul Gani Mir, DIG Vigilance Mohammad Sulaiman Salaria, DIG CID Jammu Sunil Kumar Sharma, DIG Jammu-Kathua Farooq Khan, DIG IR Jammu Kamal Kumar Saini, DIG Security P R Manhas, DIG Crime Yoginder Kaul, DIG Administration Alok Puri, DIG North Kashmir Munir Khan and DIG Training at Armed PHQ Abdul Qayoom Manhas (retiring on 31-08-2012).

According to sources Messers Javed Gilani, AG Mir, Sulaiman Salaria, Sunil Sharma, Farooq Khan and Dr Kamal Saini have bright chances of the rank promotion as a minimum of six posts of IG are likely to be available by later this year.

Seven SSPs, who have 1998 as their year of IPS allotment, have also become eligible for promotion to the rank of DIG on January 1^st. They include RP Resutra (SSP CID SB Jammu), Parminder Singh (SSP SSG), Dr Showkat Ahmad Malik (SSP CID SB Kashmir) Syed Ahfadul Mujtaba (SSP Vigilance), Abdul Hamid (CO IR-1st Bn) Mushtaq Mohammad Sadiq (Principal PTC Manigam) and Shakeel Ahmed Beigh (SSP Udhampur).

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