Jammu, Sep 3: Weather was mainly clear in J&K during the last 24 hours as the MeT office said on Saturday that mainly clear to partly cloudy weather is likely during the next 24 hours.

“Mainly clear to partly cloudy weather is likely in J&K during the next 24 hours,” MeT department official said.

Srinagar had 18.2, Pahalgam 12 and Gulmarg 10 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature today.

In Ladakh region, Drass town had 7.3, Leh 10.9 and Kargil 15.3 as the minimum temperature.

Jammu had 23.5, Katra 22.4, Batote 17, Banihal 15.8 and Bhaderwah 17.8 as the minimum temperature.

Two grenades were recovered from Jabbar forests of Gool area on the “disclosure of main conspirator” of a recent blast in the Ramban district, officials said.

According to police, Shoket Ali Laiwal son of Latief Laiwal of Thakrakot Reasi , who was arrested recently, was the main conspirator in the case—FIR No. 69/2022 u/s 307/120-B/121 IPC, 16/17/18/18B/19/20/38/39 UAPA, 4/5 Explosive Act of police station Gool.

“The grenades were concealed in the Jabbar forests of Gool area with the intention of being used on security forces in near future”, police said.

spot alongwith Laiwal and Naib Tehsildar Gool. “Two live grenades were recovered from the spot in the presence of SP Ramban Ms Mohita Sharma IPS and SDPO Gool Nihar Ranjan”.

Police said that on 2 August this year, at around 0452 hours some unidentified person(s) exploded grenade at Police Post Ind under the jurisdiction of Police Station Gool. On this, a Case FIR No 69/2022 was registered in Police Station Gool and investigation was taken up.

In a first in J&K, performance of the colleges will be judged through comprehensive ranking system to be launched by Higher Education Department (HED).

Regarding this innovative initiative, Principal Secretary HED and Information Department, Rohit Kansal says ranking of all Higher Educational Institutions in J&K would be carried out on the basis of asset of transparent criterion and a unique index.

The Department has roped in IIT Jammu as knowledge partner to design the unique index as well as a special portal to collect the information and rank the colleges.

The MoU would be signed between the Directorate of Colleges J&K and the IIT Jammu soon. The two autonomous colleges of J&K viz. GDC Baramulla and GCW Parade would assist the Directorates of Higher Education in the unique initiative.

A core team would be drawn from Govt College Parade, GDC Baramulla and Director Colleges to help in the creation of indices and primary data would be provided by the department to the IIT team for formulation of ranking indices.

The IIT team would be responsible for creating an index of colleges based on the department’s suggestions, creation of an online portal/ dashboard and processing of raw data to prepare the final college rankings.

Rankings would be a useful guide for students in making a decision about whether a college is doing well in a general academic area compared with its peer institutions. Earlier the perception data was the major factor for choosing colleges in J&K by student community which was sometimes “misleading and amenable to manipulation”.

Now with the initiative hard quantifiable data would provide a more reliable basis for building a ranking matric.

The reliance on quantifiable data presents a result- or output-oriented approach in defining top colleges. The ranking is helpful in evaluating institutions based on what they have achieved over the last year.

The performance of the college in a diverse range of activities including academics, sports activities, research, placement, innovation, diversity, quality would be used to develop an index which in turn would be used to rank the colleges. The IIT Jammu management is very much happy at the opportunity of carrying out such an exercise which would be among the first such initiatives in the country.

Notably, Higher Education Department has already declared 2022 as the year of Excellence and all the colleges have been given broad guidelines for achieving excellence under five broad segments: Achievements under Academic Excellence, Enhancing Skills and Employability, Research and Innovation, My College My Pride, Rewarding Efforts and Achievement.

A student facing difficulty in choosing between the two colleges usually research the thorough breakdown of each parameter and sub-parameters to understand how the colleges stand on the individual aspects most relevant to the student. It’s cumbersome to trawl through hundreds of institutions for their individual scores in each parameter, especially during the heat and hurry of the admission season. Now with the initiative the process would be easily reflective of all criterias. The proposed College Ranking System would encourage the Higher Educational Institutions to strive for excellence and would also enable the department to spot and incentivize the leaders and handhold those who needed assistance.

To improve the standard of the colleges in J&K and take them to the level of competing with best colleges across the country , the feedback system launched by the department is already operational and is providing the students an opportunity to provide feedback about the quality of learning experience. Similarly, the teachers have also been facilitated by the system to provide inputs on the infrastructure and other administrative aspects of their respective colleges.

JAMMU, Sept 3: The stage is set for a battle of ideologies and show of strength this Sunday as former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will hold a rally in his home turf of J&K to gauge the mood of the public, while the Grand Old Party takes to the streets in Delhi against inflation, unemployment and LPG price hike.
In the former chief minister’s hometown Bhaderwah in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district, locals are happy to welcome him and are upbeat about his future plans since he severed ties with the Congress in a public spat where he blamed Rahul Gandhi for the degeneration of the Grand Old Party.
Most supporters of Azad in Bhaderwah say they will always side with him, irrespective of which party he represents. “Azad saab has always worked for the people of Bhaderwah. Even when he was in Delhi, he never forgot the people of this area,” a local businessman said.
The Congress, meanwhile, has tweeted a video of a protest by party workers in Azad’s home block against him, with party general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeting: “This is ground reality, not reality manufactured by people sitting in New Delhi in Modi Sarkar sanctioned bungalows with huge lawns and planting fake news.”
The J&K Congress also tweeted a video of Congress workers of all blocks of Bhallessa sub-division assembled at the Gandoh office for the monthly meeting conducted on the first day of every month for the last over 50 years.
Azad’s scathing letter on his resignation from the Congress, a party he has been associated with for years, took the top brass by surprise amid discussions about elections to the post of Congress chief. While the Gandhis are not keen to take up the post, the name of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is doing the rounds of political circles.
On Sunday, the Congress is holding a ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally. The party had also organised ‘Mehangai Chaupals’ or interactive meetings at mandis, retail markets and other locations in all the assembly constituencies from August 17 to 23.
The party had printed booklets and distributed them to all the state organisations. They were then translated and printed in the local languages for distribution among the public. (Agencies)

Srinagar, Sept 3: The body of a labourer from Banihal who had drowned in river Jhelum while extracting sand two days ago, was retrieved on Saturday in Rajbagh area of Srinagar.

Jaffar Wani, 22, drowned into the river Jhelum while extracting sand in Sonwar area of Srinagar, news agency KNO reported.

Soon, a rescue operation was launched by Srinagar River Police and SDRF to retrieve his body, which was finally recovered today morning, an official said.

Police have taken cognizance of the incident and the body has been sent to hospital for medico-legal formalities, he added.

SRINAGAR, Sept 2: Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari on Friday said a party delegation would call on Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha soon to formally demand the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
Addressing a press conference here, Bukhari also demanded the release of the youths who were detained in Kashmir Valley.
Bukhari said when his party was formed, it had three main agendas — protection of job and land rights of Jammu and Kashmir residents and the restoration of statehood.
”We got the order of job reservation even though there is a point of domicile. But when the statehood is restored and a government is in place, we will restore the PRC (permanent resident certificate) for the citizens of J-K,” he said.
There is 95 per cent protection of land as agricultural land cannot be brought by non-residents, he added.
Bukhari said a delegation of his party will call on the lieutenant governor to seek the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
”We held a meeting today where everyone unanimously decided that a delegation of Apni Party will meet the LG and demand the restoration of statehood formally,” he said.
He said during his public meetings in the last three months, people have been advocating the demand for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
”We will also submit memorandums to the LG through Deputy Commissioners in all the 20 districts across J-K. We want to register and achieve the statehood which was taken away from us on August 5, 2019,” he said.
He said the prime minister and the Union home minister had promised in Parliament that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would be restored. The former state minister also demanded the release of the youths detained in Kashmir Valley in the past few months.
”Preventive detentions have taken place in the last few months. First they (authorities) said it was to maintain law and order. Then they said it was for the smooth conduct of the Amarnath Yatra. Now that the Yatra is over and it concluded smoothly, we demand that all the youths in jails be released,” he said.
He said there was a “draconian system” of detaining people for some faults of their relatives.
They are not given employment. Some are told the verification of their credentials is awaited. ”Should we then hang our youths in Lal Chowk as there is no future for them,” he said.
Asked about the apprehensions of outsiders being added to the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir, Bukhari said the government had given assurances that there would be no wrongdoing.
”When this exercise will culminate by the end of September, we will pick up the first rolls to check if there are outsiders,” he said.
On a question about former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad announcing floating a new party in Jammu and Kashmir, Bukhari said the former Rajya Sabha MP might have defended Article 370 in Parliament and even tore his shirt, “but let me tell the truth that Azad sahab voted for the abrogation of Article 370”. (Agencies)

Rajouri, September 2: In another jolt to the Congress from Jammu and Kashmir, party leader Rajinder Prasad, who is also the son of late Master Beli Ram Sharma from Nowshera Rajouri, resigned from all posts and the primary membership of the party. Prasad blamed the ‘coterie’ system for being a reason for the ‘demise’ of the party.
“The party is today surrounded by a coterie of yes men and parachuters. As a result, they are ignorant of the general public’s reality and sorrows, which leads to this big old party’s demise,” Prasad wrote in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.
This came after over 36 Congress leaders including leaders of the National Students’ Union of India submitted their resignations in solidarity with veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday. On August 30, another 64 senior Congress leaders resigned from the party, in what to be termed a mass resignation following Azad’s exit.
Talking about Azad and his popularity across the country and in Jammu and Kashmir he wrote, “Most significantly, the party has lost a diamond in the form of former Chief Minster Janab Ghulam Nabi Azad Sahib, who has sizable mass support across the entire nation, whose time is known as the “Golden Era,” (in J-K) and who served as the backbone of Congress party”.
On August 26, Azad resigned from all posts of the party citing the “immaturity” of Rahul Gandhi whom he blamed for “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party.
In a hard-hitting 5 page note to interim party president Sonia Gandhi, Azad claimed that a coterie runs the party. At the same time, she was just a nominal head and all the major decisions were taken by “Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs”.
Earlier speaking to media persons in the national capital, Azad said, “I have been forced to leave my home on my own.”
Taking a dig at the Congress over his resignation, he said, “Modi is an excuse, they have had an issue with me since the G23 letter was written. They never wanted anyone to write to them, question them.” “Several (Congress) meetings happened, but not even a single suggestion was taken,” added Azad.
Meanwhile, several political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, on August 27, met veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is planning to launch a new national party. “MLAs from Jammu and Kashmir are here. A few more-some senior leaders and ex-ministers-will come in the evening. Azad Sa’ab said a national party will be formed, we’ll begin from J&K and the upcoming poll will be fought strongly. Don’t want to reply to comments, we’ll reply with a victory,” said ex-Congress leader Salman Nizami.
The meeting came within 24 hours of Azad’s resignation from all posts in Congress and it holds importance as the polls in the valley are likely to be held later this year.
“Under the leadership of Azad ji we will launch a national party and the work will begin from Jammu and Kashmir. Azad ji will go to J-K and form an alliance with like-minded parties and leaders. All the criticism coming Azad Ji’s way will be answered by winning elections,” ex-
Congress leader Salman Nizami had earlier announced. The decision to launch a new national party came just hours after the veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, in a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi resigned from all positions of the Congress party including the primary membership.
Several political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir met veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is planning to launch a new national party, a day after tendering resignations from all posts of Congress. (Agencies)