J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

CM for fresh recruitment
JAMMU, Jan 28 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, today announced that he would go in for fresh recruitment and bring some employees from districts to work in the civil secretariat.

Power situation better in valley
SRINAGAR, Jan 28 — With the restoration of the 400 kv Uri-Wagoora transmission line the availability of power in the Kashmir valley has been raised from 85 MW daily to at least 230 MW.

"Ladakh's saviour" dead
KANGRA, Jan 28 — 'The Saviour of Ladakh' Col Prathvi Chand, MVC, died of a massive heart attack at his native village, Rangri, near Manali today. He was 90 and survived by his wife, Rukhmani 80.

CM for fresh recruitment
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Jan 28 — The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, today announced that he would go in for fresh recruitment and bring some employees from districts to work in the civil secretariat.

The Chief Minister today seemed to be a worried man after series of talks between the Cabinet sub-committee and the employees failed. The employees have been demanding payment of two instalments of DA and arrears of the Fifth Pay Commission wage hike. The State Government had agreed to pay 50 per cent of the DA in cash, credit the arrears of the pay hike and remaining DA arrears to their provident fund. This has been agreed to by the employees. They want at least the DA instalments to be paid in cash.

Dr Abdullah told newsmen here that the State was faced with acute cash crunch. He said the Cabinet sub-committee had explained to the leaders of the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) the fiscal strength of the State which did not warrant release of both the DA instalments and wage arrears. He said the employees were demanding that the arrears and DA instalments be given to them from January 2,000 and this would mean an additional burden of Rs 400 crore.

He said he had discussed the entire issue with representatives of different political parties recently. He said they were convinced by the government argument but some of them later changed their colours and started backing the employees demands.

The Chief Minister said a time had come when he had no other alternative but to downsize the departments and the strength of the employees. He said the Government would have already gone for fresh recruitment, but that would later mean further increase in the wage bill.

The Finance Minister, Mr Abdul Rahim Rather, explained that three years ago the total wage bill was less than Rs 1300 crore and now it had gone to Rs 2300 crore.

In case, he added, the Government accepted all the demands of the employees the annual wage bill would touch over Rs 2600 crore. This was a frightening figure when the annual budget for the State was Rs 1750 crore.

Dr Abdullah said the Cabinet sub-committee had suggested to the employees to suspend their strike and accept the offer of the Government with the assurance that further concessions would be given after the budget was adopted by the state legislature in April. He said employees' leaders refused to budge from their stand.

Meanwhile, for yet another day the employees held demonstrations outside the office of the Divisional Commissioner. Shouting "Inqilab Zindabad" the demonstrators declared that the strike would continue till their legitimate demands were conceded by the government. Both sides seemed to have kept the option for further negotiations. The Chief Minister said door for talks with the employees would remain open, but he did not specify whether the Cabinet sub-committee or the Divisional Commissioner would resume parleys with the EJAC leaders.

Power situation better in valley
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Jan 28 — With the restoration of the 400 kv Uri-Wagoora transmission line the availability of power in the Kashmir valley has been raised from 85 MW daily to at least 230 MW.

The consumers, who have been getting power for two-hour a day since January 14, will now be getting power for at least six hours daily. According to a Power Development Department (PDD) spokesman, there had been a demand of 850 MW daily against which they had been getting only 230 MW. To regulate the supply of power to the consumers the PDD had divided the areas into four groups on the basis of receiving stations which would be getting the supply on rotation basis.

An additional supply of 230 MW was awaited due to the repair work on the 220 kv Kishanpur-Pampore and 132 kv Udhampur-Srinagar transmission lines at Qazigund. Power supply from the northern grid on this line was disrupted due to blast in a special 220kv tower near Qazigund on the intervening night of July 13 and 14. Supply of 150 MW was disrupted from Uri due to a blast in a tower of the 400 kv transmission line at Qazigund on January 15.

Work is on to restore the transmission lines at Qazigund. According to reports reaching here the work that was started yesterday, was going on a slow pace. There is a possibility of restoring the line after about two weeks. By the time the transmission lines at Qazigund, are restored, the consumers in the valley shall have to be satisfied with a six-hour power supply daily.

Zargar in Kashmir?
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Jan 28 — Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, former chief of Al-Umar Mujahideen outfit, who was among the three released militants in exchange of hostages of the Indian Airlines plane last month, has reportedly entered Kashmir.

The Al-Umar Mujahideen, now a defunct group in the valley, issued a statement recently from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan in this regard. Some of the local dailies had published the statement. It said Zargar entered the valley through the border district of Kupwara in North Kashmir.

However, the police did not confirm the reports of the presence of Zargar in Machhil sector of Kupwara district, which is close to the Line of Control (LoC).

Zargar was lodged at the Central Jail, Srinagar.

"Ladakh's saviour" dead
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, Jan 28 — 'The Saviour of Ladakh' Col Prathvi Chand, MVC, died of a massive heart attack at his native village, Rangri, near Manali today.

He was 90 and survived by his wife, Rukhmani 80.

Col SNS Gurang said here today that Col Prathvi Chand, who saved Ladakh from the Pakistani invasion in 1948 and was the person who raised the Ladakh Scouts Regiment, which has proved its mettle during the recent Operation Vijay in the Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

Col Prathvi Chand, a Buddhist follower, belonged to the Wazir family of Rai Bahadur Amar Chand of Rangri, Manali.

His last rites will be performed at his native village, Rangri, tomorrow.