SSPs arrested, imprisoned but no conviction in 13 years---- [3]

·        Mumbai drug smuggling

·        Shopian ‘rape-cum-murer’

·        Ganderbal killings

·        Srinagar Sex Scam

·        Anara Gupta interview

·        Pathribal killings

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 22: Even as nearly two dozen gazetted officers of Jammu & Kashmir, both regular recruits (IPS) and state police service (KPS), have been removed from service or posting on complaints, placed under suspension, attached, arrested, imprisoned and subjected to prosecution in the last 13 years, not one of them has been convicted as charges have not been established against them in any court of law.

IPS officer of batch 1995, Saji Mohan, was arrested in Maharashtra on January 24, 2009, when Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) Mumbai claimed to have seized 12 kg of heroin from this senior official of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Saji was on central deputation and posted as Chandigarh Zone Director of NCB when he landed in trouble. Before developing relationship with trans-border drug smugglers in Jammu, Saji had served as Assistant Director of SK Police Training Academy at Udhampur, SP of Ramban and Additional SP of Doda.

NCB later booked him in several others criminal matters. Facing prosecution, he has been in jail for the last three years. All 1995 IPS officers, except Saji, have been promoted as DIG in J&K.

Months later in 2009, Omar Abdullah government placed under suspension then SP of Ramban, Javed Iqbal Matoo, who had previously served as SP of Shopian when dead bodies of two young women, Neelofar Jan and Asiya Jan, had been recovered from Rambiara Nullah on May 30^th. KPS officer Matoo was suspended, alongwith former Dy SP Rohit Basgotra, SHO Shopian Inspector Shafeeq Ahmad and Sub Inspector Gazi Abdul Kareem on the charges of destroying evidences and not registering a murder case. They eventually faced charges of committing rape and killing both the women.

After some court directions during the course of investigation and a report submitted by Justice (retd) Muzaffar Jan Commission of Inquiry, all the four accused officials were arrested on July 15th. Even as Jan’s inquiry held them guilty of lapses and called for a thorough investigation, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by DGP Kuldeep Khoda and headed by DIG (now IGP) Rauful Hassan, left no stone unturned to establish the charges against Matoo and others. However, the investigation was assigned to CBI on August 12, 2009, when it surfaced that some doctors had sent wrong samples for DNA testing to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

In the four-month-long investigation, CBI established that all the charges against SP and three other Police officials were “completely baseless and motivated”. It established that the entire Shopian episode was the result of a criminal campaign by a group of doctors and Shopian-based lawyers who wanted to sully the image of J&K Police for criminal motives and intentions. CBI submitted its report on December 13^th,  2009, and started criminal proceedings against six doctors, five lawyers and two civilians. It established that neither rape nor murder of the duo had happened. Matoo and others were later reinstated on September 15^th, 2010.

The first ever significant action against (until then) unbridled Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police was initiated by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in January 2007. Even Azad had not acted in tracing and arresting Dy SP Abdul Rasheed Billa, charged with murder of three innocent civilians of Srinagar, and getting the alleged killer of advocate Jaleel Andrabi, repatriated from United States of America. The accused happened to be a Major with Budgam-based Sector 12 of Rashtriya Rifles.

Rather than riding on a refrain of rhetoric, Azad straightaway got then SP of Ganderbal, Hans Raj Parihar, suspended and arrested when it surfaced that men of SOG Ganderbal, under Parihar, had eliminated five innocent civilians of Anantnag and Banihal areas in fake encounters and labeled them all “foreign terrorists” on different occasions in the years 2005 and 2006. Exhumation of dead bodies in Ganderbal, Bandipore and Kangan took place on February 3^rd, 2007, and SP Parihar was arrested alongwith a number of his colleagues on the same day.

A Special Investigating Team (SIT) worked hard and the first interim challan was produced in the court of CJM Srinagar on February 28^th, 2007. It held SP Parihar, Dy SP Ram Bahadur, ASI Farooq Gadroo, one driver, three constables besides then Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles 13^th Bn, Col Vikram Singh, Major Navreen Yadav, Havildar K Mohandas and Naik Manoj Singh guilty of killing a civilian, Abdul Rehman Padroo, on December 8^th, 2006. Identical charges were later established in other killings. Army officials have been claiming immunity under AFSPA and Parihar and other J&K Police officials have been facing prosecution without getting bail in the last five years.

Previously a similar carnage had surfaced in March 2000 when troops of Rashtriya Rifles 7^th Bn got five civilians kidnapped from different places and eliminated them all in a fake encounter at Pathribal while claiming that they were “foreign terrorists, responsible for massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpura”. On March 20^th, unidentified gunmen had carried ou mass killing of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpura village on occasion of then US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India. Five days later, Army claimed to have eliminated the “killers” of the Sikhs in an “encounter”.

On April 1^st, SOG camp at Brakpora, Anantnag outskirts, opened fire on demonstrators who demanded whereabouts of the five missing civilians with the allegation that same could have been eliminated as “foreign terrorists” by the troops. Eight civilians got killed and 15 others injured in the shootout. Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government later ordered removal of then DIG South Kashmir, Raja Aijaz Ali, besides suspension of SSP Farooq Khan on April 4^th, 2000. Retired judge of Supreme Court of India, S R Pandian, conducted a comprehensive investigation into the Brakpora shootout. It indicted the SOG personnel and recommended suspension and other departmental action against head of the camp, a Dy SP, and seven others. Government immediately ordered their suspension.

Founder of the counter-insurgency wing of J&K Police and then SSP of Anantnag, Farooq Khan, was absolved of all the charges against him. Pandian’s report recorded that not a single allegation against him was established. He was reinstated and posted as SSP of Jammu by Dr Abdullah’s government in November 2001.

Khan later got a veritable shot in the arm when CBI too declared him innocent in the Pathribal carnage in which the premier national agency established charges of murder and fake encounter against five Army personnel in 2006. The main accused Major of RR 7^th Bn had by then risen to the rank of Brigadier and is now a Major General. CBI filed the challan at its designated court in Srinagar but Army, as an institution, has challenged the prosecution in Supreme Court with the plea that it enjoyed immunity under AFSPA. CBI and Army have locked horns in a pitched battle on the Pathribal killings.

In the year 2004, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government placed under suspension then SP Operations Jammu, Deepak Kumar Salathia, SDPO Bakhshi Nagar, Tanvir Jeelani, and two other officials for permitting television crews interview Miss Jammu of 2001, Anara Gupta, who had been in custody and was lodged inside Women’s Police Station in Jammu while facing charges in the matter of a porno CD. They remained under suspension for a long time. Jeelani, whose father had been gunned down by militants at his office in Hazratbal, is the only officer of his batch of Dy SPs whose promotion is still in a sealed cover.

END

Over a dozen J&K SSPs punished in 13 years

      (2)

Irregularity in appointments, fraudulent withdrawal of cops’ GP Fund, misusing official vehicles for construction of private houses, murder of SI caused a dent to JKP’s image

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 21: Nauman Thakur, the son of a senior retired bureaucrat Ghulam Mohammad Thakur, is the only Police officer in a crowd of over 20 who was not punished for any of his faults. Governor’s administration had appointed Engineering graduate Nauman as Dy SP ‘in relaxation of rules and norms’ vide Order No: 207-Home (P) on 6-7-1995. A division bench of J&K High Court, comprising then acting Chief Justice, V K Jhanji, and Justice S K Gupta, quashed his appointment on 28-5-2003 when Nauman was completing eight years in J&K Police and he had been promoted to the rank of SP on completion of five years of service.

Nauman’s appointment was the result of an employees’ agitation that helped then Commissioner-Secretary General Administration Department (GAD), G M Thakur seek a post-retirement package from Governor Lt Gen K V Krishna Rao---his own appointment as a member of J&K State Public Service Commission (PSC) as well as his son’s backdoor appointment as Dy SP. Even as Nauman proved his worth and fought valiantly during a suicide attack on J&K Legislative Assembly on October 1^st, 2001, in which he had a narrow escape and his PSO got killed, he failed to find favour with High Court or Supreme Court in the matter of his backdoor appointment.

Few years later, SP headquarters Srinagar, Mohammad Ramzan Hafiz’s service was terminated by the state government on account of his carelessness and alleged involvement in swindling of GF Fund of the staff in Srinagar District Police. His culpability was taken far seriously than that of SP Abdul Aziz Samoon who was simply placed under suspension years before for allegedly publishing a paid advertisement in local Urdu dailies. In the text of apology, Samoon had declared publicly that he would not act “against my own brothers” (militants) when he was posted in Anantnag and assigned a counter-insurgency task.

Commandant of J&K Armed Police, 3^rd battalion (Security) Mushtaq Ahmad Keenu was placed under suspension and a departmental inquiry was ordered against him on March 22, 2007. On a specific information, State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) had conducted a raid on Keenu’s under-construction house at Luxmipuram, Chinore, in Jammu on March 7^th and claimed to have seized a truck laden with 45 bags of cement and 500 bricks. According to the charges leveled against the SSP, the officer had misused his official position and transported building material from Srinagar to Jammu in the officially hired vehicle. With the charge still under investigation, Keenu has been since reinstated.

In July 1998, then SSP Anantnag, Ashkoor Wani (SPS-99, presently SSP Poonch)) and then DIG South Kashmir, Dibagh Singh, (IPS of 1987, presently IGP Jammu), were removed and placed under suspension on account of their alleged involvement in a constables recruitment scandal. Their suspension followed submission of an inquiry report to the government by then DIG Armed, Dr Ashok Bhan, when some candidates alleged that the officers had collected Rs 60 Lakhs and favoured unqualified candidates. Dr Farooq Abdullah’s NC government assigned the investigation to Crime Branch and a preliminary inquiry, conducted by senior IPS officer R V Raju, reportedly established part of the charges but a formal criminal case was not registered against the duo. Both were later reinstated even as then DGP Gurbachan Jagat appeared to be gunning for them for some time. Though nothing has been made public, insiders in the executive Police insist that charges could not be formally established against the accused.

In September 2005, Jammu & Kashmir Police was rocked by mysterious killing of a civilian, Nitan Sharma of Nagri Parole Kathua, when Commandant of IRP 6^th Bn, Karnail Singh, and his wife, Ratano Devi, were arrested and booked in the murder case. Charges framed by the prosecution later said that the Commandant, alongwith his wife, had planned and executed elimination of the individual who was allegedly in an affair with one of the family members and was planning to tie his nuptial knot to her. Even as the Commandant was later released on bail and he has been an under-trial for the last six years, his wife has failed to get bail. Six of Singh’s subordinate personnel were also arrested for their alleged participation in the crime.

Previously in 1998-99, then SP Operation at Surankote, Poonch, Sevak Singh was removed from service, arrested and placed under suspension for allegedly using two of his PSOs in the murder of Sub Inspector Ajay Sharma. Prosecution has established charges against Singh and the under-trial has been in jail or the last over 13 years.

[To be concluded]  

IAF aircraft carry 1377 Srinagar-Jammu-Srinagar passengers

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, Jan 21: Even as weather improved and Srinagar-Jammu highway opened for traffic after several days of blockade, state government today arranged Army and IAF aircraft to carry nearly 1400 stranded passengers from Srinagar to Jammu and vice versa.

Even as nobody in the state government was available to share information with media, Early Times learned from informed sources of Airport Authority of India (AAI) that all the 19 routine flights operated from Srinagar Airport to carry passengers in Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi sector today. Sources said that equal number of scheduled flights from Delhi and Jammu landed at Srinagar Airport while carrying over 4,000 passengers.

Making a special arrangement for over 2,000 stranded passengers in Srinagar and Jammu, state government arranged IL-76 aircraft from Army besides a plane from IAF. Both the aircraft made a total of 10 sorties---six from Jammu and four from Srinagar. The big one carried average of 225 passengers on each sortie while as the smaller one carried 55.

There was huge hustle and bustle at Srinagar Airport where flights of the specially arranged planes operated till late tonight. Last flight of the IL-76 took off from Srinagar Airport at 11.00 pm. Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Asgar Hassan Samoon, visited the airport twice, first at 11.00 a.m and later at 8.00 p.m.

Even after around 827 passengers were carried to Jammu and 550 from Jammu to Srinagar by the specially arranged aircraft, nearly 400 passengers failed to get a chance to fly to Jammu. They were all accommodated at old TRC complex and few other hotels around for the night. The passengers were told that they would get a flight on Sunday but sources said that the government was planning to carry them free of cost through 40 SRTC buses from Srinagar to Jammu tomorrow.

While as today’s Srinagar-Jammu ticket on routine flights cost a whopping Rs 7,726/-, passengers were charged only Rs 500 each on the specially arranged flights.

Sources said that over a thousand stranded buses and trucks were heading for Srinagar today. They said that two-way traffic had been restored on the highway but only the passenger buses would be permitted to operate on Sunday. Sources said that no light motor vehicles would be allowed tomorrow from Srinagar to Jammu. Opening of the highway after five-day-long blockade came as a big relief to the people in Valley who are facing acute shortage of essential commodities, particularly LPG.

END

Over a dozen J&K SSPs punished since 1999

IPS, KPS officers faced charges of murder, tampering with evidence, nexus with contract killers, sexual exploitation, drug smuggling, corruption

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 19: 1999-batch IPS officer, Anand Jain, who was removed on January 12^th as SSP of Jammu and posted Commandant of an IRP battalion in J&K Armed Police on account of the leakage of a confidential communication to media, is not one-odd officer of the Police force punished in the last 13 years. Jain is better placed in the sense that quite a number of IPS and KPS officers in the state are either in jail or out on bail for the last many years while facing serious charges including those of murder and corruption.

Jain had unblemished record of previously working as SSP of Rajouri, Reasi and Baramulla, besides having worked as SP East in Srinagar for around five years. An inquiry conducted by Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, held him guilty of carelessness in the leakage that embarrassed a Cabinet Minister in a matter of alleged land grabbing in Jammu.

Jain’s immediate predecessor and year 2000 batch IPS officer Basant Kumar Rath, was unceremoniously removed as SSP in State Vigilance Organisation and attached on November 24^th, 2011, when mysterious sources posted a video clipping of the custodial interrogation of an under-trial, Choudhary Nagar Singh, on YouTube. KPS officer of batch 1999, Mubasir Latifi, then posted as SP of Kulgam, was also attached to Police headquarters in the same matter on the same day. Rath and Latifi were identified among the officers interrogating Nagar Singh and purportedly using abusive language against certain politicians. While as Rath functioned as SSP Jammu, Latifi was associated with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) when he was posted as SP Ramban in 2010-11, the period in question.

Rath’s immediate predecessor and KPS officer of 1984/1991, Manohar Singh, was removed as SSP of Jammu, suspended and arrested in September 2009 on the charge of tampering with evidence in a high profile murder case. He was accused of his involvement in facilitating change of weapon of assault in the murder of Amandeep Singh, son of a former female MLC, and thus trying to protect the main accused, Jatinder Singh alias Raja---leading businessman Nagar Singh’s son. Those who were suspended and arrested in the same post-murder crime and have been in jail for the last about two-and-a-half years include then SHO Gandhi Nagar, Inspector Sultan Mirza, Investigating Officer, Sub Inspector Satnam Singh, and FSL official Sarwar Hussain Bukhari.

Manohar Singh, Sultan Mirza, Satnam Singh, Sarwar Bukhari, Basant Rath and Mubasir Latifi are not the only Police officials who have been consumed by this high profile murder case. Superintendent of Udhampur Jail, Mirza Saleem Beg, was arrested on March 24^th, 2011, on the charge of facilitating the under-trial Nagar Singh’s conversations and communications with some alleged ‘supari killers’, reportedly hired from within the Kot Bhalwal Jail for eliminating witnesses in Amandeep Singh murder case. Previously posted as Superintendent of Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu, Mirza Saleem has been in jail since March 2011 and facing charges of corruption and criminal involvement. His rank is equivalent to that of SP in J&K Police.

Name of yet another former SSP of Jammu was seriously mentioned by men of consequence in politics, business and bureaucracy in J&K in the infamous Chopra murder case investigation. However, he escaped the successive governments’ action, mainly due to his central deputation and posting in National Investigation Agency (NIA).

In 2011 again, Government ordered removal and attachment of 2003-batch IPS officer and SP Reasi, Keshav Ram, additional SP Anita Sharma and Dy SP Mohammad Aslam Choudhary on December 11^th when a verbal altercation in public took place between Anita and Aslam at a National Conference (NC) rally, among others addressed by the ruling party supremo  and Union Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah. Son of an Udhampur-based NC leader, Ch Aslam had reportedly objected to the traffic restrictions put in place by the female KPS officer in the movement of people towards Dr Abdullah’s public meeting. As the two junior officers were attached for publicly violating the service conduct rules, IPS officer was charged with his failure of command and control. Departmental inquiry is reportedly underway in this matter.

However, NC’s Rajya Sabha member, Ghulam Nabi Rattanpuri, has not succeeding in forcing action against 2006-batch IPS officer and SSP of Pulwama, Amit Kumar, in the last several months. The young IPS officer and the NC MP have been at daggers drawn leveling charges of arrogance and ‘shielding criminal elements’ against each other. When the MP’s media statements did not work and everybody from Chief Minister to DGP remained unmoved, Rattanpuri moved a privilege motion in Rajya Sabya against the SSP, DGP and Chief Secretary Madhav Lal. Proceedings of the motion are in progress as notices have been served on the respondents.

 [To be concluded]

Gynecologists asleep, surgeon removes 17 uteruses a month
 
Candlelight surgeon arrested, USG machine, DNC kits seized near Budshah Flats  
 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
 
SRINAGAR, Jan 14: Directorate of Health Services Kashmir has launched a major campaign to seal unlicensed nursing homes, hospitals, clinics and laboratories in Kashmir valley but scores of these illegally running centres have never stopped their business. At one of such centres, authorities on Friday found a surgeon to have conducted as many as 17 uterus removals a month. Officials today caught a dismissed doctor red handed while performing a surgical procedure on a young woman near Budshah Flats in this capital city.
 
Authoritative sources said that a team of the Department of Health, led by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Srinagar, Dr Farooq Ahmad, was proceeding to seal an illegally run untrasonography centre on Friday when it was tipped off about an illegally run hospital, close to the reputed Khyber Hospital, at Khayyam Chowk. The team conducted a raid and caught the staff of the 10-bed private hospital red handed while running an authorized USG centre. It was astonished to learn that the authorities had sealed an unauthorized USG unit at the same ‘hospital, some time back.
 
Investigation revealed that some technicians, medical and paramedical staff had broken the seal of the USG machine and they were operating the same unit without fear of the authorities. Some people insisted that the hospital staff had resumed business only after greasing the palms of some officials of Department of Health. They alleged that the teams had been raiding and sealing such centres but other officials of the department were asking the owners to pay them some money and resume their business.
 
Officials of Directorate of Health Services told Early Times that they had received some of such complaints which were being verified. They asserted that stern action would be initiated not only against these illegally running units but also the officials who had been allegedly fleecing the owners and operators. They said that a criminal case was being filed against the people involved in breaking the seal and operating the illegal and unauthorized business. They revealed that one of the surgeons was found to have carried out as many as 17 hystectomy procudures at the same hospital without proper diagnosis and professional support.
 
“Only a trained and well qualified gynecologist is competent and by law authorized to conduct such kind of a surgery. He too needs a professional anesthetist and several machines after proper diagnosis of the patient. But, in this case, we found an inexperienced surgeon to have conducted 17 uterus removals in a month. We are proceeding against the guilty”, Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Sameem-ur-Rehman said. He added that complete medical audit of the private hospital was underway.
 
A senior medical practitioner said that removal of uterus was an “extreme action” which needed to be avoided as far as possible. He said that removal of uterus subjects a female to numerous medical complicacies including ostoporosis (loss of calcium), psychotic depressions and other side effects. “But the young surgeon had been running a brisk business as he would advise hystectomy in almost all cases in order to charge a huge amount of money as fee from the patients”, said an official.
 
Sources said that in the forenoon today, Director of Health Services received specific information regarding a “candlelight surgeon” who had been allegedly running an illegal “abortion centre” near Budshah Flats. With the assistance of SDPO Shaheed Gunj, Imtiyaz Ahmad Parray, CMO Srinagar conducted a raid on the spot. Front door of the centre was found closed but it became clear within minutes that one Dr Ghulam Nabi Bhat was operating his business through a rear door.
 
One individual, who later identified himself as Dr Ghulam Nabi Bhat of Bumai, Sopore, presently living at Kralpora (Chadoura), attempted to escape from another side. He was soon taken into custody. SDPO Shaheed Gunj said that the joint team of Department of Health and Police found a young woman in an unconscious position. “Her abdomen had been cut. The accused later said that he was conducting only a ligation but there are complaints that illegal abortions and miscarriages at exorbitant costs were being conducted there. We have registered case FIR No: 02 of 2012 under section 3/8 of Nursing Homes and Clinical Establishment Act against the accused, evacuated the woman to Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital Rainawari, seized two or three DNC kits and an aunthorised USG machine. Further investigation is in progress”, SDPO Shaheed Gunj said.
 
Sources at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir revealed further that Dr Nabi’s illegally run Jhelum Diagnostic Center near Budshah Flats had been sealed on a barrage of complaints last year. Case FIR No: 41 of 2011 had been registered against him at Police Station Shaheed Gunj. However, immediately after being enlarged on bail, the accused resumed business at the same center and installed a fresh USG machine and other equipment used in conducting abortions.
 
The accused doctor, who had earlier been dismissed from service on a similar charge and booked under case FIR No: 10 of 2003 at Police Station Chadoura, was arrested afresh today. He was being subjected to extensive questioning. Sources said that in today’s procedure, Dr Ghulam Nabi had charged a sum of Rs 2,000 from the young woman (wife of Mohammad Ayub Baba of Chattabal). She was reportedly operated later at a government hospital at Rainawari and was reportedly stable.
 
Sources said that scores of such centres were running in the capital city and huge amounts of money were being charged from the patients. Acc0ording to these sources, anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 (depending on marital status and economic background of a woman) was being charged for each illegal miscarriage which could not only cause extensive damage to a patient but could also lead to her death in absence of a trained anesthetist and other medical and paramedical staff besides machiney. They said that the doctors arrested today was known as “candlelight surgeon” as he had been caught in Chadoura while conducting a surgical procedure under candlelight and without electricity.
 
END

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.

END

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.

END