M A I N   N E W S

Garg acting CJ of Chhattisgarh
Portfolio allocation today

NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (UNI) — The President has appointed Mr Justice Ramesh Surajmal Garg, a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, as acting Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand will inaugurate the Chhattisgarh High Court at Bilaspur on Wednesday shortly after the creation of the state the same day, a Law Ministry spokesman said today.

The Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, and Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, would participate in both functions, at Raipur, the capital of the new state, and Bilaspur, official sources said.

Mr Justice Garg would cease to be a Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court with effect from November 1.

The appointment of the Chhattisgarh High Court Chief Justice ahead of the installation of a new government and the announcement of a Governor is aimed at avoiding any constitutional crisis, the sources said.

While the new Governor would be sworn in by the Chief Justice of the state, the Chief Minister would take oath from either the Governor, subject to prior appointment, or the judicial chief.

The Law Ministry clarified that a collegium of judges, headed by the Chief Justice of India, had recommended the name of Mr Justice W.A. Sheshak, a sitting judge of the Guwahati High Court, for appointment as Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

However, it would be premature to say that Mr Justice Sheshak would be appointed as the Chief Justice.

RAIPUR: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, on Monday said the portfolios of ministers for the new state of Chhattisgarh would be allocated on Tuesday.

Talking to newsmen here, he, however, made it clear that there would be no expansion of his ministry to fill the vacancies caused by the shifting of 13 ministers to Chhattisgarh, though many important portfolios including home, general administration, public relations, water resources and commercial tax were held by these outgoing ministers.

The strength of the Digvijay Singh ministry would be reduced to 35 from 48 following formation of the Chhattisgarh state.

Meanwhile, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress party’s Central observer to Chhattisgarh, on Monday said the final decision on the chief ministership would be taken by the party legislators of that state.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP), which was meeting formally at 11 a m here on Tuesday, would take the decision, Mr Azad told newsmen here.

To a volley of questions, he made it clear that it would not be proper to treat the projection of party spokesman Ajit Jogi as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh as the “viewpoint” of the party high command.

Heavy shelling by Pak
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Oct 30 — For the third successive day today Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar shelling in border villages of Akhnoor, Rajouri and Poonch sectors.

Defence Ministry sources said Pakistani troops today fired over 500 mortar shells in the border belt of Noushehra, 250 shells in the Sunderbani area of Rajouri district, over 450 artillery and mortar shells in the Pallanwala area of Akhnoor sector and over 250 shells in Poonch.

The sources said several houses were damaged. Indian troops smashed more than six Pakistani bunkers across Pallanwala and Sunderbani. Pakistani soldiers suffered heavy casualty, but the sources said there were no specific details. According to a PTI report, a woman of Haminpur Shidar village was killed in the Pallanwala sector.

According to the sources, more than 3,000 mortar shells were fired by Pakistani troops during the past three days in which two civilians were killed and one BSF jawan was wounded.

Two artillery units, mortar regiment and mortar batteries, had been equipped with 120 mm mortar guns which can fire shells up to a range of 7 km.

The most affected villages in the Akhnoor sector were Pallanwala, Milindi. Khui, Panjtoot, Dhar Khour, Jamirpur and Sidhar. Eyewitness accounts said scores of buffaloes and cows had been injured in the shelling. 

SRINAGAR (UNI): Elsewhere in the valley, nine militants and three security personnel were among 14 persons killed in militancy-related incidents last night. Most of the killings were reported from Doda district of Jammu, where seven militants, two securitymen and a woman were killed in a single encounter in the Banihal area on Sunday night, an official spokesman said on Monday.