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Saturday,
March 23, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Farooq to raise funds’ issue with Vajpayee APHC’s next step generates curiosity Pak plan to give militancy ‘local colour’ 561 JKAP cops pass out |
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Farooq to raise funds’ issue with
Vajpayee Jammu, March 22 Making a suo motu statement during question hour today, the Chief Minister said he would seek the Prime Minister’s help in providing Central assistance to those who had been displaced from border villages owing to heavy Pakistani firing in the Jammu sector. The matter was raised by the Congress member, Mr Tara Chand who said border villagers had, before their migration, secured loans from banks which they could not repay as farming had been suspended because of the firing and shelling. He wanted the Finance Minister to waive the loans. The Finance Minister, Mr Abdul Rahim Rather, informed the House that the government had no powers to waive the loans but the matter could be discussed with banks. The Chief Minister said he would request Mr Vajpayee to allocate substantial financial aid in favour of the migrants. He said the Central funding was a lopsided exercise. “We prepare a Budget of one size and the Centre sanctions an amount which is less than the Budget allocations,” he said. In his suo motu statement he referred to the plight of those Kashmiris who had put up 10 stalls in the handloom exhibition in Gujarat prior to the breaking of the riots. He said their stalls were looted and destroyed. He announced Rs 50,000 as interim relief each to them. The House witnessed a furore when the members belonging to the Congress, the BSP and the PDP raised slogans against POTO. They demanded that the government should withdraw the extension and implementation of POTO in Jammu and Kashmir. The Speaker only allowed Mr Abdul Rehman Veeri of the PDP to speak on the matter. He said though the Chief Minister had said that nobody had been arrested in Jammu and Kashmir under POTO, he had figures which revealed that over 72 persons had been arrested. He said he would resign if it was proved that a mother of six children who was arrested under POTO in his Bijebehara constituency was a militant. The Speaker, Mr Abdul Ahad Vakil, directed the Minister of State for Home, Mr Najib Sohrawardhy, to look into the matter and inform the House about the reasons that led the police to arrest her. Even after the Speaker’s direction, Mr Veeri staged a walkout from the House. The Power Minister, Mr S.S. Slathia, informed the House that tenders were floated for the construction of the Bhagliar power project in Udhampur district and the two lowest bidders were given the contract for carrying out civil and mechanical works. He said the project was estimated to cost Rs 3810 crore and until January, Rs 1,223.39 crore had been spent. The Chief Minister said the decisions taken at the District Development Board meetings could not be implemented because the Planning Commission did not give timely clearance and hence the required funds from the Centre did not flow on time to the state. The government informed the House that since members of the village defence committees were working voluntarily, they were not entitled to any honorarium. However, special police officers attached with the committees were paid Rs 1,500 per month. Later, the Rural Development Minister, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, introduced a Bill seeking amendment to the Consumer Protection Act. |
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APHC’s next step generates curiosity Jammu, March 22 The interest in the next step that the APHC may announce shortly has emanated from the brief statement that the chairman of the 23-party conglomerate, Abdul Gani Bhat, has made in which he said the next step would invite reaction from India and Pakistan. When Bhat was asked to explain the step but he refused to divulge it, saying that the main features of the next stage were yet to be discussed by the executive committee. Bhat, in reply to a question, told TNS that the first step taken by the AHPC was to set up its own election commission. The second step, according to him, was nominating members of the commission. The APHC chairman seems to be confident that the third step would help India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. Inside reports said the step may include the Hurriyat call to militants and the Indian security forces to declare a ceasefire. Once operations from both sides were stopped it could generate an atmosphere suitable for talks. Bhat clearly indicated that he and his party were not at all inclined to participate in the Assembly poll under the present system. “If at all we take part in elections it will not be for the purpose of sitting on the desks in the Assembly, whether on the treasury or Opposition benches, “he said, adding that “out participation will be purely for the purpose of determining the representative character of the APHC”. A senior APHC leader when asked whether the militants would favourably respond to the call for ceasefire from the Hurriyat leadership he said, “They will have to because for that a groundwork was being done not only in Kashmir but also across the border. The important step may also include several conditions which, if accepted, by the Government of India could motivate and encourage the separatists in participating in the Assembly poll even if it was meant to determine the representative character of the APHC. Asked whether he would suggest some other way to join the poll process after the Centre refused to grant any recognition to the commission set up by the APHC and permission to get the Assembly poll conducted under the UN auspices. Bhat said the Centre might have to concede to some of our main conditions. Those who not attach any significance to the Hurriyat’s proposed third step argue that when it decided to hold the first session of the members of the commission only two of the six members, Tapan Bose and Zaffar Mehdi, were present.
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Pak plan to give militancy ‘local colour’ Srinagar, March 22 Two front-ranking militant organisations, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, have been directed to work with local organisations due to the paucity of funds, a local news agency, quoting sources here said. Many top militants of the two organisations had returned to Pakistan, it said, adding that Kashmiri militants in these groups had also been directed to follow certain restrictions. However, no restrictions had been laid on reducing the strength of these organisations. As part of the new strategy, only eight militant groups in place of several others presently operating in Kashmir, would be working at the ground level. They are the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Al-Umar Mujahideen, Islamic Front and Kashmir Resistance Force (KRF). The news agency said the Pakistan Government had asked militant groups to work under the command from the government in order to “continue militant activities and resistance against India”. It stated that a faction of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, led by Nasir Khan from Kupwara in North Kashmir, had merged with the parent organisation after three years. This breakaway group was known as Al-Khalid in Muzaffarabad and was active in the border belt. Another group, Al-Badr had been merged with Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, the agency said. Hizb-e-Islami militant group, popular in Muzaffarabad, had merged with Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen. Hizb-e-Islami had disassociated itself from Muslim Mujahideen led by Ghulam Nabi Azad (Naba Azad) who joined the mainstream and became popular as a counter-insurgent leader in South Kashmir since 1995. Muslim Janbaz Force, Al-Fateh Force, Al-Jehad and Hizbullah, backed by the separatist political party, Peoples’ League, had merged to form the
KRF. |
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561 JKAP cops pass out Kathua, March 22 Dr Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister took the salute and was the chief guest. Addressing the recruits, police officers and political workers, Dr Farooq Abdullah said the JKAP had
sacrificed more than 600 police officers and thousands of policemen while defending people and the motherland in Jammu and Kashmir. More than 15,000 militants had been killed during the past 12 years by the security forces. Dr Abdullah also announced that two memorials to JKP martyrs would be set up in Jammu and Srinagar shortly.
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Wasteland: J&K gets 67.57
lakh New Delhi, March 22 |
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