The Tribune – Ladakh needs connectivity, education, says Rahul; Lays foundation of a tunnel at Z-Morh in Sonamarg

Our Correspondent

Leh, October 4. All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the state, addressed a large public gathering at the Polo Ground in Leh today.

In his address, Rahul Gandhi termed the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) as the best model of an institution in terms of decentralisation of power, which plans and monitors the developmental activities at the district level.

While laying the foundation of a tunnel at ‘Z-Morh’ in Sonamarg today, the Congress leader stressed that Ladakh needed connectivity, infrastructural development and education.

The 6.5-km-long two-lane tunnel is being built at a cost of Rs 2,717 crore. It will be constructed by the Border Roads Organisation in five years. “This project is a step towards connecting Ladakh with the rest of the regions through an all-weather road,” he said.

He also assured early approval of the construction of a tunnel at the Zojila by the Central government, adding they were also considering the option of having an all-weather road from Korzok via the Parangla.

Rahul also held a meeting with the councilors of the LAHDC, during which the chief executive councilor of the LAHDC, Leh Rigzin Spalbar, apprised him about the developmental schemes being implemented in the district and rehabilitation of the 2010 cloudburst flashflood victims. The Congress general secretary was accompanied by Union Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh, Pradesh Congress Committee state president Saif-ud-Din Soz and senior congress leader Mohan Prakash.

In his welcome address, state Tourism and Culture Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora told Rahul that politics in Ladakh was based on achievement and performance, which was not found anywhere in the country. He said the Nehru family had special concern for the people of Ladakh.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121005/j&k.htm#1

Den Haag, HTM, Tram 17 from Jacob Catsstraat to Gravenstraat, 29 June 2012

I walked the full length of the route of Tram 17 from Station Holland Spoor to the Statenkwartier, but went about it in a funny way. On 28 June I walked from Waldeck Pyrmontkade/Laan van Meerdervoort to Gravenstraat. The next day I walked from Jacob Catsstraat via Holland Spoor and Centraal Station to Gravenstraat, then took the tram to Waldeck Pyrmontkade and from there walked to Statenkwartier.

Jacob Catsstraat, Tram 9, 11 and 12
We started this pictorial report at Wouwermanstraat, going west, Jacob Catsstraat is one stop away from there in the direction of Station Holland Spoor  

Tram 1, tramtunnel between Leeghwaterplein and Station Holland Spoor

Tramtunnel between Leeghwaterplein and Station Holland Spoor
Tram 1 to Scheveningen, Tram 10 and 17 to Statenkwartier and Tram 16 to Centraal Station

Tram platforms at Station Holland Spoor

Tram 17 to Statenkwartier via Centraal Station and Gravenstraat

To see more Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – J & K; Samba villagers first noticed tunnel

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria, Tribune News Service

Chalyari (Samba, India-Pakistan border), July 29. Had a retired soldier and a teenager of Chachwal village not informed the BSF about the caved-in portion of their agricultural fields, barely 150 metres from the barbed fence along the international border in Samba sector, Pakistan would have possibly succeeded in its nefarious designs to disrupt India’s Independence Day celebrations.

Fear has gripped the border village after the detection of the tunnel which was being dug 25 feet below the ground. Prem Singh, a 60-year old retired Army soldier, said: “After a brief spell of rains on July 24 and 25, I noticed that a portion of my agricultural land had caved in. Sensing some foul play, I rushed to inform BSF jawans, who then alerted their senior officers.”

Soon the news spread like wildfire and since then senior BSF, CID, IB and district administration officials have been visiting the site to take stock of the situation, he said.

Sukhdev Singh (19) of the same village had also noticed big cracks in his field on July 26.

“My field had caved in and I immediately rushed to the nearby BSF post. The company commandant of the battalion concerned then inspected the site and thereafter an earth mover was requisitioned,” said Singh. He said the first of its kind incident in the area has created scare in the area.

Sandeep, last year in December, had shifted a BSF jawan to safety, who was hit by Pakistani bullets while patrolling the border on a horse. Another villager, Ashok Singh Lalotra, said fear has now gripped the villagers in Chachwal.

“Ahead of Independence Day, they could have used it for any terror activity including pushing armed terrorists and planting high-intensity explosives in the village or on the highway town to cause bloodshed,” said Lalotra.

Some panicked villagers have sent their children to the houses of their relatives in Samba town, he added.

A senior Border Security Force officer said with the detection of the tunnel, a big plan of the “enemy” has been foiled.

Officiating Inspector General of the Border Security Force, Jammu Frontier, NS Jamwal said the presence of a tunnel shows sheer desperation on the part of Pakistan to push armed militants into the state.

“The tunnel is 250 m inside our territory and probably as much stretch is on the other side in dense jungles (Lumbriyal post) in Pakistan. It must have taken more than six months to dig a tunnel that long,” said Jamwal. “We are trying to ascertain its origin,” he said.

In May 2008, heavily armed terrorists had intruded into the Indian side from Bainglard area in Samba sector and killed six persons, including a politician, his wife, two soldiers, a woman and a senior photo journalist of a local daily, besides injuring six others at Kaily Mandi in Samba.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120730/main2.htm