FEDERATION CUP 2013

FEDERATION CUP 2013

JKFA Seeks Govt. help to host football tourney in August. 

Yash Khajuria 
JAMMU, Jan 10: After the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has accepted the proposal of J&K Football Association (JKFA) thereby giving its nod to host the prestigious Federation Cup in August 2013, the association has now decided to approach the State Government in a bid to get its necessary approval for conducting the event.

According to sources, AIFF President Praful Patel during the recently held meeting at New Delhi on December 20, had verbally assured JKFA president, Thakur Zamir Ahmed that the federation would allot the coveted the tournament to J&K provided the concerned authorities back home would also show their keenness to host it.

Sources added that after the successful hosting of Santosh Trophy national football championship in 2008, JKFA had submitted a proposal before AIFF to hostFederation Cup in the State. Sources said the football association in its proposal had briefed the apex football body about the infrastructure they possess to conduct the tournament in a smooth manner.

AIFF President, Praful Patel has assured JKFA verbally to allot the prestigious championship to J&K and a lot depends on the State Government to whom we are going to meet soon to discuss the modalities besides getting green signal to host the championship, he added.

Much ambitious to this event Thakur Zamir Ahemed president JKFA said that indeed we did not get the officially allotmentof this event yet by the AIFF but as per the process is on we are hopefull that we will be able to conduct this event very successfully.

The last time J&K had hosted Federation Cup was way back in 1986 at Srinagar and we are waiting for a long time to push our case forward before AIFF to host it again. “With the kind of infrastructure we have, I am hopeful that the State Government would not let us down and give its necessary nod to host the coveted championship after 26 years”, JKFA President claimed.

“Conduct of any national championship in the State will not only help in improving the image of sports but more importantly, the budding footballers will get an excellent opportunity to interact with the star players representing various prestigious football clubs of the country”, Thakur said.

“The matches in the Federation Cup will be played at Bakshi Stadium and Polo ground. Though, the infrastructure for hosting national level tournaments at present is satisfactory with some renovation work is to be done at Polo Ground but once we got the allotment we will complete all needed work with the help of sports council. We are optimistic about getting further support from the authorities to improve it further for overall betterment of this famous game”, he maintained.

Getting LPG Cylinder a herculean task for common man

Getting LPG Cylinder a herculean task for common man

Yash Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 09: Inspite of completing all prescribed formalities and verifications, the availability of cooking gas (LPG) cylinders still seems to be distant dream as more than four months has passed but nothing concrete has come out so far to address the genuine problem of common masses.

Though the oil companies has started the home delivery service in some parts of the Jammu city but still a major chunk of population of Jammu is being deprived of this service.

Concerned Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and Transport CAPD authorities on the other hand keeping abreast entire controversy saying that they were completely unaware of this scheme and are acting as just facilitator.

Authorities also maintained that that their job is to check the misuse of domestic LPG cylinders meant for household use only and could not take any step to streamline the home delivery of LPG cylinders as this service it was not associated with the concerned department and is a product of agreement between the dealers and oil companies.

It may be mention here that the oil companies in Jammu had blocked about 1.25 lakh consumers due to non- verification of LPG connections in view of the policy to cap the number of subsidized cylinders and assured of streamline home delivery of the LPG cylinders after completion of all formalities and verification.

 But almost four months has lapsed and except some areas of the city the home delivery of the LPG cylinders has not been arranged. People living outside the city, rural areas and different outskirts of Jammu are the most sufferers as they still have to travel a long distance and to stand in queue for refill of their LPG cylinders despite going through a tough and lengthy verification process.

 Sources said not only this, the LPG cylinders are denied at outlets as well, as the offices of the distributors are too small to handle the chaotic consumers on daily and they even have not installed the external booths for the verification process so the consumers who have verified connection can receive the gas delivery, which has poured the unnecessary rush at the distributors offices and the people with verified connection have to wait for long hours and even they back with empty cylinders.

 Meanwhile, when contacted, Director CAPD Jammu, Parvez Ahmed Malik said very distressingly “City Ma Badi Mushkil Se Available Krayi Hai”, “We hardly arranged it in the city area” and could not say anything about the rural and other areas.

 He stated that they were not associated with the home delivery of LPG cylinders in any manner and their job to control the misuse of domestic cylinders as this scheme has been formulated on the basis of agreement between dealers and oil companies.

 He also gave a wary statement over the matter by saying that it is very apprehensive and lengthy process as firstly the consumers needs to visit the dealer shop for the booking of cylinders and then he/she will receive it if the service available in the respective area.

 “I don’t know whether the oil companies have prepared their road map for the home deliver as they have not disclosed it with us and if anybody lodges complaint with us regarding the home delivery service, we could not do anything except forwarding it to the oil companies” he added.

 Qamar Ali Akhoon- minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) for his comment could not be contacted despite several attempts.

JKCA on jubilant mood as Kashmiri Cricketer makes it to INDIA ‘A’

JKCA on jubilant mood as Kashmiri Cricketer makes it to  INDIA  ‘A’

Yash Khajuria         1/2/2013 7:48:06 PM
 JAMMU, Jan 02: After medium pacer Surinder Singh Bagal, all rounder Parvez Rasool has become the only second J&K cricketer and first Kashmiri lad to make it to India-A team. He is been included in the 14-member squad that will take on England in a warm-up game at Delhi on January 6. 

Talking to TNI, Ranjit Kalra, chairman of JKCA Media Committee said, “Parvez Rasool’s inclusion in the India-A squad has been superb opening to the new year. It is a very proud moment for JKCA”. He, on the behalf of the JKCA president Dr. Farooq Abdullah and all the members besides cricketers of the state, congratulated the young Kashmiri lad. 

Pertinent to mention here that, more than a decade have been past when any of the state cricketer had have represented for national level from Jammu and Kashmir state the only name before Rasool was Surinder singh Badal who played against Australia as a member of BCCI Board presidents' eleven long ago in 90's and now after a long wait Parvez Rasool has attained this honor to register his name in the elite of the players who have marked their berth at the national podium from state J&K.  

Manzoor Wazir, Treasurer JKCA, said “Young spearhead of JK Cricket Team, Rasool has remained among the disciplined cricketers of the team and is an excellent player with charismatic talent both with bat and bowl as he proved in the current Ranji Season by claiming 33 wickets and generating almost 600 runs”. His selection in the India (A) is an honour for JKCA, he added. 

The other members of the squad for the one day match to be played at the Palam Cricket Ground Delhi included, Abhinav Mukund (C), Murali Vijay, Robin Bist, Kedar Jadhav, Ashok Menaria, Rohit Motwani (Wk), Jalaj Saxena, Akshay Darekar, Ishwar Pandey, S Sreesanth, Rishi Dhawan, Paras Dogra and Mohit Sharma.

Pertinently, the previous year remained a nightmare for JKCA with bagful of controversies. In first half of the year multi crore scam surfaced whereas, in the end of year the Kashmiri cricketers revolted over selection issue.

Traffic signals lose steam in just four months.

Traffic signals lose steam in just four months.

Commuters face inconvenience at many intersections

Yash Khajuria             12/28/2012 7:25:43 PM
JAMMU, Dec 28: Within four month of installation, the traffic signals at several points in the winter capital city have turned non-functional causing chaos among the commuters. Sources disclosed that inferiority had been adopted in planning and there was complete lack of coordination among various agencies. As a result of which the traffic signals have developed mal-functioning. 

Commuters face a harrowing time as vital circles in city were grid locked due to non-functioning of traffic lights. Traffic Police said the signals were made non-functional on an ‘experimental basis’ to assess the flow of traffic on these Circles. 

In the run-up to the exercise of relocating traffic signals to busy chowks from ‘redundant places’, traffic lights at Panama Chowk, Ambphalla, Panjthirthi and Paloura rotaries were made non-functional for past two days, resulting in chaos and frequent traffic snarls.
“Some lights were not working at the busy rotaries. There was complete chaos at Panama Chowk in the afternoon where long traffic jam was witnessed due to non-functioning of the traffic signal. Even traffic policemen were conspicuous by their absence that had made the situation more complicated,” said a Local of area. 

Muneer Ahmad Khan, Inspector General of Police (Traffic), J&K, however, said some traffic signals had been made non-functional on an ‘experimental basis’ to assess and get an update about the flow of traffic on these rotaries. 

“There are some places where there is no or less use of traffic signals. We are assessing the traffic scenario on these rotaries and will make recommendations to the government to bring some changes in the existing system so that traffic signals are installed on such places where there is an immediate need for them,” the IGP said. 

He said the department was facing problems in regulating and streamlining the traffic because of the non-installation of traffic signals at some points. “The Roads & Building department and Jammu Municipal Corporation have also started marking of roads, preparing zebra crossing bands and lane arrows at several places to further streamline the system,” Khan said. 

The Traffic Lights in Jammu were likely to give up soon by the time of their Installation. Despite been highlighted in the news papers that the ‘planning Committee for baffling reason had ignored some of the busiest locations of the city from its ‘priority points’ at the time of installation of traffic signals in the first phase. 

The 30 city intersections where traffic signals were installed on a priority basis in the first phase include, Satwari Chowk, Main Stop, Gole Market, Green Belt Gandhi Nagar, Chattri Point Gandhi Nagar, Bikram Chowk, Jewel Chowk, KC Crossing, Shakuntla Crossing, Medical College Crossing, Ambphalla Chowk, Canal Head Crossing, Bakshi Nagar Pulli, Talab Tillo Chowk, BSF Paloura Crossing, Library Chowk, Vigilance Rotary, Parade Chowk, Rameshwar Temple, Shalamar Chowk, Indira Chowk, Vivekanand Chowk, Saheedi Chowk, Panama Chowk, Janipur Main Chowk, Janipur-Roop Nagar Crossing, High Court Turning, Kunjwani Chowk, Narwal Chowk and Bathandi By-pass road. 

Indeed the minister of State for Home, Nasir Aslam Wani had also chaired a high-level meeting and constituted a new committee comprising JMC Commissioner, DIG Traffic, Jammu, Deputy Commissioner and officials from the R&B and the PDD to coordinate and remove impediments in the smooth regulation of traffic.