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in Delhi

Raiyar Yach depot without

ration for 3 months

Budgam, July 14: Residents of Raiyar Yach, a remote hamlet in this district, today complained that the CAPD ration depot in the area was without supplies for last more than three months.

The residents appealed CAPD Minister Chaudhary Muhammad Ramzan to look into the issue and direct the officials concerned to supply the ration to the depot.

A delegation of the residents visited Greater Kashmir office to narrate their woeful tale. “Our kitchens are running dry and we have not been able to get the rice from depot for months now,” said Ghulam Muhammad.

“We have kept few kilograms of rice which is left in kitchen for guests and we have been eating bread for over a month,” said Nasir Ahmad.

Sleuths face 'dog attack'

after detecting `20 cr evasion

New Delhi, July 14: Excise officials were attacked by dogs let loose during the searches at the home of one of the directors of a private iron and steel company in Uttar Pradesh in connection with alleged excise duty evasion to the tune of Rs 20 crore.

One of the officials was injured after he was bitten by the dog, according to official sources.

An FIR has also been registered against the director concerned for letting the dogs on the excise offi-cials and hampering their work, they added.

Acting on an intelligence input, a team of Directorate Gen-eral of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) here conducted searches in the official and residential premises of directors of M/s Trikoot Iron and Steel Casting Ltd, Muzaffarnagar.

The company, which was asked on phone to give its comments on the dog attack, did not give any response yet.

The officials carried out search operations in the factory, head office and residence of directors of the firm early this month, the sources said.

Several incriminating docu-ments, pen-drives, hard disc con-taining incriminating data were recovered during the course of the search proceedings.

The sleuths faced severe resis-tance at some of the places during the course of search. Prima facie, the excise duty evasion is at least Rs 20 crore, the sources said.

According to DGCEI sources, the officers were attacked by two dogs during the searches at the resi-dence of one of the directors of the company. PTI

163-yr-old telegram service is deadGovt working hard to resume supply

Petrol price hiked by `1.55/lnew Delhi, July 14: Petrol price was today hiked by a steep Rs 1.55 a litre, the fourth increase in rates in six weeks, as falling rupee made oil imports costlier.

Oil companies raised petrol rates by Rs 1.55 a litre, excluding local sales tax or VAT, with effect from midnight.

Actual increase will be higher and will vary from city to city depending on local taxes.

Petrol price in Delhi has been hiked by Rs 1.86 per litre to Rs 70.44, e f f e c t i v e tomorrow, as against Rs 68.58 cur-rently.T h i s i s the fourth increase in

rates since June. Oil firms had on June 1 raised prices by 75 paisa, excluding VAT, and followed it with a Rs 2 per litre increase on June 16 and a Rs 1.82 on June 29.

The revision in prices, as per the practice of changing rates in line with cost every fortnight, was due on Tuesday July 16 but will be raised a day earlier.

However, there will be no change in diesel prices just yet as the revision in its rates are due at the month end.

With the latest increase, all of the gains made from four reductions in prices earlier this year had been neutralised. The rates cuts had brought down the price to Rs 63.01 at the beginning of May. PTI

‘Crewel, chainstitch products exempted from VAT’

LIC opens mini-office

in BandiporaGK News NetworK

Srinagar, July 14: In a bid to increase its pres-ence in the far and wide of the Valley, Life Insurance Corporation, a premium state-owned PSU of India, has opened a mini-office at Bandipora.

The office was inau-gurated by Nizam ud Din Bhat (MLA) Bandipora in the presence of A U Alaie, Manager (Sales).

Addressing a sizable public gathering on the occasion, Alaie said the objective of LIC was to provide financial security to the masses especially in the rural areas.

Pertinently, the LIC plans to open mini offices in other rural areas of the state also.

YoGesh saGotra

Jammu, July 14: Fearing public back-lash and considering the sensitivity of the matter, Jammu and Kashmir govern-ment is working hard to ensure resump-tion of supply of sugar through Public Distribution System this month.

Sources said CAPD department has been directed to work over night and complete the process to procure sugar- the supply of which has been stopped by the centre government for past two months.

Sources within the department informed Greater Kashmir that keeping in view the public outrage over delay in supply of sugar during holy month of Ramadan, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) has been working over night to ensure that the consumer

get the sugar quota for the month of July.

They informed that tendering pro-cess for supply of Sugar S-30/31 ISS Grade for one year had been completed, adding that the ten-ders would be opened on Monday, July 15 and after securitiza-tion, the department would give supply order to the lowest bidder.

They said that department was look-ing forward to complete the process within a week, adding it has constituted three special teams to reduce the time in the completion of the process.

Confirming the reports, deputy sec-retary CAPD, F C Dansalia told Great-Great-Greater Kashmir that the er Kashmir that the er Kashmirdepartment was com-mitted to resume the sugar supply and has constituted three teams to oversee the procurement process so that the consum-ers get sugar quota of this month.

“A state level team is examining the tendering process and ensure that the supply order is placed in shortest pos-sible time to lowest bidder, whereas two divisional level teams have been assigned to keep a strict check on the quality of imported sugar and ensure the supply

of the same to all districts,” he said.Pertinently, government of India

has directed all states to procure sugar from open market in a move to partially decontrol the sugar sector.

However, Jammu and Kashmir gov-ernment remained slow and failed to ini-tiate the process evoking strong public outcry.

On delaying the process, he said, “We constantly approached GoI to pro-vide sugar for the month of Ramadan but they paid no heed which consumed a lot of time,” adding that the situation was now different as “the tendering process for procurement is complete and depart-ment will provide the sugar quota by last week of this month.”

He said that department will not reduce the per ration quota nor would it increase the price of sugar.

SuGaR ShoRtaGe

Kichloo inaugurates Special Handloom Expo-2013 GK News NetworK

Srinagar, July 14: With a view to boosting sale and export of handloom and hand-icraft products, the State Gov-ernment has fully exempted crewel cloths, embroidered chain stitch fabrics and their products from VAT.

This was announced by the Minister of State of Industries and Commerce, Sajad Ahmed Kichloo, while speaking to a gathering of Handloom Weavers, Hand-crafts Artisans, Tourists and Amarnath yatris, after inau-gurating a 15-day long Spe-cial Handloom Expo-2013 at Sonamarg base camp today.

Kichloo, according to an officials statement, said that government is making

every effort to uplift the living standard of Handloom Weavers, adding that 8000 Modern Looms each costing Rs. 55000are being distrib-uted to weavers free of cost.

He said about 15000 weaver families have been covered under weavers’ Health Insurance Scheme.

The Minister said that the Special Handloom Expo is being organised by the J&K Handloom Development Department and sponsored by the Development Commis-sioner Handlooms, Union Min-istry of Textiles with a view to showcase world famous han-dloom products and to enable tourists and Amarnath pil-grims to get genuine products at reasonable price tag.

The Expo will also pro-vide platform to Handloom weavers to sell their prod-ucts directly to the custom-ers without exploitation of the middleman.

Kichloo asked the weav-ers to avail benefits of vari-ous welfare schemes intro-duced by the government for them.

Was launched in JK 119 years ago

aBhiNav verma

Jammu, July 14: The 163-year-old telegram service in India - the harbinger of good and bad news for generations - is dead.

Like elsewhere in the country, the service was closed on Sunday in Jammu and Kashmir as well - bringing an end to a system of urgent mes-sage delivery which has served people for last about 119 years in the state.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the initiative to have telegram service was taken by Mahraja Hari Singh in 1877 after he ordered to establish a telegram line between the two major cities of Jammu and Srinagar and rest of the country.

It took the Maharaja about 17 long years to complete the telegram line between Kash-mir and Jammu and rest of country. The service was launched in 1894 in Jammu. In India the service had been in use since 1850 on an experi-mental basis, while it was made available to the public in 1854. The first telegram was sent between Koklata and Dia-mond Harbour.

As per official records, around 65 telegrams were being sent every month in Jammu and Kashmir including 30 from Kashmir and 35 from Jammu. Most of the senders were said to be Army person-nel and government employees who would convey message to their department for extension of leave or with regard to any other problem.

In Jammu, the telegram facility was available in Kachi Chawni exchange and in Sri-nagar it was available at CTO Lal Chowk, Exchange Road.

The existing rate for the

telegram was Rs 4 per word. Rajeshwar Kumar, a CRPF

man from Jammu posted at Jharkhand, said that the mobiles e-mails and on line services have changed the life of human beings and in such a situation telegram had lost its utility.

“In reality telegram was considered as official docu-ment and in the emergency we would sent a Telegram (Tar) to our office to convey our mes-sage” he said, adding now in absence of telegram they have to find alternate service for

such messages or the govern-ment had to make speed ser-vice more faster as it reaches after one day.

A scholar of Jammu Uni-versity, Harish Sharma appre-ciated the initiative of govern-ment and said that the govern-ment has a lot of alternates for this service.

He however added that one of drawbacks for stopping this service forever is that the next generation will find telegram in museums only.

Pertinently, on the direc-tion of Government of India (GOI) a circular was issued by Senior General Manager (Telegraph Services) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Corporate office in New Delhi, Shameem Akhtar, asking the telecom districts and circle offices to stop the telegram service from Sunday.

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