SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday ordered transfer and posting of two IAS officers in the Union Territory.
According to an order, Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, IAS (AGMUT:2001), awaiting orders of adjustment, is posted as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor.
The order stated he shall also hold the charge of the post of Chief Executive Officer, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, in addition to his own duties.
“Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, IAS (AGMUT:2012), Administrative Secretary, Culture Department, holding additional charge of Chief Executive Officer, Economic Reconstruction Agency, JK, is transferred and posted as Administrative Secretary, Tourism Department relieving Sarmad Hafeez, IAS, of the additional charge of the post.”
It reads he shall also hold the charge of Administrative Secretary, Culture Department and Chief Executive Officer, Economic Reconstruction Agency, J8K, in addition to his own duties, till further orders—(KNO)
SRINAGAR: In last year’s Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services examination, the result of which was declared last week, a dozen students enrolled with the Initiative for Competition Promotion (ICP) cracked the coveted examination.
An ICP event in which the civil services aspirants are being made aware of the syllabus and methodology
The ICP, a registered trust, was home to 35 students for a year when they were being trained by a few bureaucrats who run the centre for free. The centre provides mentoring and coaching to civil services aspirants.
“I enrolled in the interview programme of ICP and it helped me to qualify for the exams. It is a good initiative in Kashmir as people lack guidance and environment which is available in Delhi and even in Jammu,” Saqib Rashid, a professional engineer, who secured 10th rank in the recent examination said. “The Institution provides hostel and library facilities for students from far-flung areas. These students get an environment to study which they lack at their homes.”
Besides, nearly two dozen other lateral candidates from different regions of the UT, who were trained for the interview programme through offline and online orientation classes, expert lectures and mock interviews, have also made it to the service.
Riyaz Ahmad Rather, who secured 104th rank in the JKAS exam recently said, “Honestly saying, I was groomed at ICP, I was a full-time resident from the last three years. They provide services at minimal charges; it has a suitable environment for doubt clearance. One gets admission to the resident programme only after qualifying entrance exam. Students qualifying mains exam are then admitted to the interview programme.”
ICP conducts screening test for free coaching program for Civil Services Exam-2020
Yasir Farooq, who secured 120th rank in the examination said, “I owe my selection to ICP. I appeared in KAS 2018 but failed to go through. ICP played the most important role in my selection. I enrolled in 2018 till I qualified. They provide accommodation, test series and guidance. The teachers treat us like their own children. I had an issue with answer writing but the teachers used to evaluate my answers which helped me a lot. I have also twice appeared in the mains examination of the Indian Administrative Services.”
This year a fair number of female candidates from the ICP made it to the final list of JKAS. Saima Ahad from Gandebal secured 26th rank; Rakshan Peerzada and Hafsa Mohidin placed 31st and 130th in rank respectively this year. Zarqa Naquib, who has secured 74th rank also took regular guidance from ICP.
Even though ICP doesn’t have a centre in Jammu, many aspirants from the Jammu division had also enrolled at the centre in Srinagar.
In 2022, nearly 30 outstation students from Jammu and Delhi also availed the benefit of ICP’s Interview Mentorship Programme, an initiative aimed at preparing for the crucial personality test stage of the examination.
Every year 35 aspirants from across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir enrol with the centre at Raj Bagh. The ICP trust has two small guest houses where all the services including lodging, teaching and library facilities are provided free of cost.
The aspirants are guided by the officers to help them to achieve their civil service dream. Besides the residential coaching programme, the academy also conducts classroom coaching, Test series and regular awareness campaigns about a career in the civil services are conducted at Centre.
Investigations into the twin attacks in Rajouri’s Upper Dangri village in which seven persons were killed have been taken over by the federal investigator, NIA. A day after Home Minister Amit Shah visited the region. Owing to bad weather, however, he could not fly to the distant mountainous area and spoke to the families of the victims on phone. Shah presided over a high-level security review meeting in which various decisions were taken. He announced having a 360-degree security net to wipe out militancy from the Jammu region and strengthen Security Grid within three months. The 360-degree security circle, he said will completely eliminate the support and information system of terrorists.
In two years, Kashmir lost 35 persons (18 in 2021 and 17 in 2022) to electrocution. These included 19 temporary KPDCL employees.
DODA
Two daughters and a son of an erstwhile mechanic at Baglihar power project created history by cracking the coveted JKAS examination together. What is interesting is that they lacked access to personal phones and never went to coaching. They basically belong to a Doda village and have shifted to Jammu. The siblings include sisters – Ifra Anjum, Huma Anjum and their younger brother Suhail Ahmad Wani. It was the first attempt for Ifra and Suhail, but elder sister Huma qualified it in her second attempt. They said they studied together and learned a lot from the mistake that their elder sister committed in her first attempt.
The JKAS results declared by JK Public Service Commission in record time filled 187 positions in the Jammu and Kashmir administration – 56 JKAS, 71 JKPS and 60 will go to the Jammu and Kashmir Accounts Service. Of the 187 candidates, 90 candidates were selected in Open Merit. Rest are from reserved categories – 22 candidates belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) – six of them have secured their seats in Open Merit as well – 19 candidates belong to Scheduled Tribe (ST), 24 candidates belong to Residents of Backward Area (RBA) – eight of them also fall in Open Merit, 18 candidates belonged to Economically Weaker Section (EWS), three candidates belong to Physically Handicapped Category (PHC), eight candidates belong to Pahari Speaking People (PSP) – two of them secured their seats among Open Merit also, eleven candidates belong to Actual Line of Control/ International Border (ALC/IB) and four of them secured their seat among Open Merit, six candidates belong to Social Caste (SLC) and one of them secured the seat among Open Merit. As many as 31 candidates from Kashmir were declared successful.
Nearly 24 per cent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir own a car
WEST BENGAL
A probe is underway to investigate why a West Bengal textbook used the word “Azad Kashmir” in an exercise book meant for the tenth-class examination. The book belonged to Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Vidyamadir, a government-aided school in Malda district. It asked the students to identify several places on the map including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It read: On the map of India locate the following places, with the options being “Azad Kashmir”, Moplah (Malabar) rebellion area, the place where Gandhiji had first undertaken the Satyagraha movement and Chittagong battleground. It became an issue after some BJP leaders put the photograph on social media. In reaction, Jr Education Minister in Delhi, Subhas Sarkar alleged that the question setter was inspiring terrorism. “The paper setter is anti-national. He is inspiring terrorism. This is shameful,” Sarkar said. “The West Bengal Education Minister should write to him and this test paper cell should be shut immediately.”
In four years, Jammu and Kashmir reported 51577 cancer cases. There were 6824 deaths in 2018, 7003 in 2019, 7189 cancer deaths in 2020, 7211 in 2021 and 7396 in 2022.
DELHI
Hindal Haider Taybji
One of the petitioners against Article 370 abrogation, Hindal Haidar Tyabji, former Jammu and Kashmir former Chief Secretary, died in Delhi. He was 82. Scion of the rich Taybji family – he was the son of Badruddin Taybji, HH Taybji was married in Srinagar, when he was a young officer, but the union ended up in divorce soon. It was much later that he married Nalini Misra and adopted her family. He served Jammu and Kashmir for 37 years and was the only officer who worked as ACS after being removed as Chief Secretary. His death was widely condoled in Kashmir, especially by people who worked with him. He is being seen as a “friend of Kashmir” who was hugely rich but lived a modest life and would spend most of his earnings on charity. The cigar-smoking bureaucrat was faith-neutral but very well-read, dignified and a positive human being. He was briefly the law secretary of the Government of India as well. He was created in Delhi.
J&K Waqf Board says of around 31000 properties in Jammu and Kashmir, they only control only 10 per cent directly.
ANANTNAG
With most of the services that the Jammu and Kashmir government is offering are online. Almost 400 services have gone completely online. Now cell phone is the key player in governance. However, in the quantum jump, a lot of people are caught in the digital divide. One faction of people is the women from weaker sections who had applied offline for marriage assistance. They married and claim they had raised debts in the hope the assistance will come and they will payback. Now they are caught in the mess. Officials, they claim tell them the off-line mode is over. They have been protesting over the crisis they are in. How will the online system manage the off-line backlog, it is something that needs to be watched in ‘smart-governed’ Jammu and Kashmir.
In order to make butchers sell mutton at Rs 535 a kg fixed in 2021, authorities have sealed more than 117 mutton shops.
JAMMU
Administratively, Jammu and Kashmir might be separate from Ladakh but technically it is not. The leaders from the twin districts of Kargil and Leh – now a division and a UT, have been seeking rights and have protested many times in the desert region since 2019. Not seeing it effective, they moved to Jammu where they led a huge slogan-shouting march. Chering Dorjay Lakrook and KDA co-chairman Asgar Ali Karbalaie led a march in Jammu for full-fledged Statehood for Ladakh, constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, recruitment and job reservation for the youth of the region and two separate Parliamentary constituencies for Leh and Kargil. They are now moving to Delhi with their demands to Jantar Mantar. Ladakh leaders have stayed away from the high-powered committee constituted recently by the MHA.
Almost 97 per cent of the Jammu Kashmir population has Golden Card that guarantees cashless health cover.
SAHARANPUR
Mufti Abdul Gani Azhari
Kashmir’s veteran Islamic scholar Mufti Abdul Gani Azhari died at Saharanpur where he was teaching at a respected seminary. He was 100 plus years and was not keeping a good health for a long time. Azhari was head of the Arabic department at the University of Kashmir. Popularly known as Gani Azhari, the respected Gujjar scholar was an authority on Naqishbandiya Silsila and a veteran Arabic scholar. He was a polymath sufi, who was born in Poonch in 1922 and finally migrated to Sagam in Kokernag. He studied at Darul Uloom Deoband and Mazahir al Uloom Saharanpur. He did his PhD from Jamia al-Azhari. He retired as head of the Arabic department of the University of Kashmir in 1997.
LAKHANPUR
Leaders at a stage in Lakhanpur after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra enters JK
A day ahead of Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra’s entry into Jammu and Kashmir, Congress’s spokesperson in Jammu enforced some morality by resigning against the party’s invitation to Choudhary Lal Singh. Deepika Pushkar Nath said she was “left with no option but to resign” from the Congress over the decision taken by the party’s state unit to “allow” Singh to join the Yatra. She said the Yatra was “ideologically opposite” to the actions of Singh as he “divided the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir to protect the rapists.” A two-time MP and three-time MLA who has been with Congress and BJP before floating his own party – Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), Singh had extended his support to the Yatra. He had played a key role in supporting the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in 2018. Nath had stood up for the victim and her family in the Kathua rape case, and had taken the parents of the victim to the High Court at Jammu for monitoring of the investigation. She had also guided them to approach the Supreme Court for seeking a transfer of the trial to Pathankot in Punjab. After Nath took the stand, Omar also questioned Singh’s decision to be part of Yatra. Eventually, Congress said it would stand by the victim’s family. Though Singh was part of the welcome function, he was not invited to share the stage. “Let me tell you, Kashmir-based parties will never allow Jammu to develop, prosper or form its own identity,” a sulking Singh told reporters.
Rahul Gandhi said he is revisiting his routes, His yatra will conclude on January 31 with a grand function in Srinagar.
SHALIMAR
A man shows new Rs 2000 currency after exchanging old Rs 500 and 1000 denominations at Srinagar on Thursday 11 November 2016. KL Image Bilal Bahadur
Under the Ministry of Science and Technology Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (DST-PURSE) scheme, two universities in Kashmir – SKUAST-K, and Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) got substantial funding of Rs 10 crore each. The universities have to formally apply and justify the grant on basis of the scientific work they had done and the publications they have made. These funds go into the creation of adequate infrastructure for high-end scientific research. The grant comes on basis of high-impact scientific publications. In 2021, the University of Kashmir also got a Rs 10 crore DST-PURSE grant. Jammu University got a Rs 16.75 crore grant in 2016. The grant is once in a five or 10-year affair.
SRINAGAR: In the just-released JKAS results, Sana Fayaz emerged as the topper from Kashmir region. She secured 1138.5 marks, the highest in the tally of Kashmir’s 31 candidates who passed the examination from the Srinagar centre.
Though Sana, a resident of Peer Bagh, ranks fourth in the overall list of Jammu and Kashmir, she tops the Kashmir region. Three top slots in JKAS were bagged by Jammu. Megha Gupta topped the list with 1177.5 marks, Shreya Sharma the second topper with 1167.5 marks and Vishal Kumar is the third topper with 1142.5. He is also on the list of reserved category candidates at the same time.
However, what is interesting about Sana is that she also cracked Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in 2021.
Sana has completed her schooling at Presentation Convent Higher Secondary School. She holds a BTech from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar and a postgraduate degree in Climate Change Studies. She started preparing for the Civil Services Examination after completing her engineering in 2017.
“The syllabus of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is very much allied with the syllabus of JKAS,” Sana said. “While preparing for GATE, I prepared for Civil Services too, but my main focus has always been UPSC.”
She attempted both JKAS and UPSC for the first time in the year 2017. In the year 2021, she appeared for JKAS for the second time and for the fourth time for UPSC and achieved success in both exams. She has been appointed to the Junior Time Scale of the Indian Trade Service as Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade.
“I faced problems in my optional subject and every time my score was affected because of it,” Sana said. “I suggest everyone choose their optional subjects very carefully.” She is of the belief that the number of hours that one invests in the study does not really matter. “What matters is how focused you are and your concentration level matters. One should not give up so soon in such competitive exams.”
She credits her family and friends for her success. The support she has received in all these years while she was preparing has been a pillar for her. She is the first member of her whole family to attempt and qualify for both the JKAS and UPSC. “The hard work of my parents has been my biggest inspiration to achieve something great,” she added. Both of her parents are professors.
While talking about the challenges she faced in the journey, she opined, “We have to turn our setbacks into our stepping stones. If you truly want to come into this service and you are sufficiently motivated, you will achieve this even if it takes time and several attempts.” “Competitive exams do not come with an assurance of success and people may not have backup plans. Many aspirants face anxiety ahead of exams because everyone wants a secure future,” she added.
