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Thursday,
April 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Gujarat violence rocks House Demand to review Indus Water Treaty Kabuli yet to join any party
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People’s support ‘must’ for ending militancy Kashmir unit of BJP dissolved POTO accused gets bail
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Gujarat violence rocks House Jammu, April 3 Several National Conference members, including Mr Mohammed Sayed Akhoon and Mir Saifullah, joined hands with the opposition members in shouting slogans against the Chief Minister, Gujarat. Members, agitated over the communal strife in Gujarat, demanded the immediate dismissal of Mr Narender Modi. The PDP member, Mr Abdul Rehman Veeri and the CPM member, Mr M.Y. Tarigami, staged a walk-out. Out of seven BJP members only two were present when the members belonging to the Congress, the BSP, the CPM and the National Conference raised a storm over the Gujarat events. Earlier, the House witnessed a heated debate during zero hour on the Gujarat incidents and members, cutting across the party affiliations, demanded Central Government action against the Chief Minister. They also called for immediate measures to check arson and carnage in the state. However, one member belonging to the PDP said members who were agitated over the Gujarat affairs had shut their eyes on what was happening in Jammu and Kashmir. He alleged that apart from the POTA having been implemented in the state the security forces had been indulging in excesses. Pandemonium gripped the House when opposition members belonging to the BJP, the Congress, the CPM and the BSP staged a walk-out in protest against the unsatisfactory reply given by the government regarding the demand for including Dogri language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. In reply to a question raised by Mr Som Nath of the BSP, the Minister for Housing, Mr Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, said the state government had recommended to the Centre to include Dogri language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. He said so far there had been no response. During the question hour, the Speaker intervened when several members alleged that the decisions taken at the District Development Board meetings were not implemented by the government. The Speaker, Mr Abdul Ahad Vakil, directed the ministers to review the matter and in case the board decisions were not being implemented, the District Development Boards should be abolished. He said it was surprising that bureaucrats were allowed to either scuttle or sabotage the board decisions which were taken in the presence of legislators and ministers. In reply to another question, the government informed the House that it had spent over Rs 146.44 lakh on Ministers’ telephone bills and petrol expenses since 2,000. Between 1996 and March 2002 the Government had spent over Rs 88.26 lakh on the tours of members of the Council of Ministers, including the Chief Minister. |
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Demand to review Indus Water Treaty Jammu, April 3 The demand was made by members of the House belonging to the Opposition and ruling National Conference during the discussion initiated by CPI (M) member M.Y. Tarigami. Mr Tarigami said when the treaty was drafted and signed the interests of Jammu and Kashmir had not been kept in view. He said on an average the state suffered annual losses to the tune of over Rs 650 crore. It may be mentioned here that the state government, in its memorandum to the Centre, had placed the annual loss at Rs 6,000 crore. The CPI (M) member said the state suffered losses because it could not make optimum use of waters of the Indus, Chenab and Jehlum rivers for power generation and irrigation. He said the existing power projects in the state could not generate electricity to their optimum capacity because under the treaty “we cannot raise dams and reservoirs for storing water which could be utilised during the lean period.” Mr Tarigami’s demand that Jammu and Kashmir be accorded a participatory state status so that it could get additional power generated from the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers drew loud support from the House. He said the state’s royalty from the power projects installed in Jammu and Kashmir be increased. Mr G.M. Bawan, Mr Dilawar Mir, both of the National Conference, Mr Shiv Charan Gupta of the BJP, Mr Ashok Sharma of the Congress, Mr Somnath of the BSP and others supported the review of the treaty. Some of them demanded that the treaty be scrapped because of Islamabad’s support to terrorism. Replying to the discussion the Minister for Works, Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar, said the state government had persistently raised the demand for the review of the treaty and compensation for the losses the state suffered because of the treaty from the Centre. |
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Kabuli yet to join any party Srinagar, April 3 His resignation from the BJP is seen as a significant development in the militancy-hit state, at a time when the ruling National Conference has launched its election campaign for the next Assembly elections scheduled to be held by September this year. Another significant development in this direction has been the recent appointment of senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Jammu and Kashmir PCC chief. The last Assembly elections were held in September, 1996, after a gap of seven years, in which the National Conference headed by the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, got an absolute majority in the 87-member House. “I have yet to decide whether to join any other political party or not”, said Abdul Rashid Kabuli who resigned from the basic membership of the BJP and the post of the vice-president of the state unit of the party after about four years yesterday. His letter of resignation sent to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, yesterday followed a letter seeking the Prime Minister’s clarifications on various issues ranging from the recent happenings in Gujarat, POTA to remarks of the BJP MP, Mr Vinay Katiyar, on the relic at the Hazratbal shrine. Mr Kabuli lamented that there was no response to his earlier letter sent to the Prime Minister on March 21 last and “no action was taken”. He claimed that the Prime Minister instead defended Mr Katiyar in Parliament which had hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community in Kashmir. He alleged that Mr Vajpayee who seemed to be a true Gandhian and secular leader had succumbed to the pressures from fundamentalist organisations like the VHP and the Shiv Sena. The former MP, who represented the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, twice from 1982 to 1989 as a candidate of the National Conference, said that various political parties had approached him but he was yet to decide on the future course of action. |
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Fresh DNA samples collected
Srinagar, April 3 The experts completed their task as part of fresh investigations into the killing of five persons by the police in Pathribal in March 2000, which also involved the exhuming of the bodies. The fresh exercise was carried out in the presence of the Inspector-General of Police, Jammu, Mr P.L. Gupta, District Magistrate, Anantnag, Mr B.A. Runyal, and Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag, Mr G.H. Bhat, who is also the chief investigator in the case, official sources said. They said the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Mir Muhamad Yousuf, was also present along with the block medical officer of Dooru and Shangas. A large number of people, including relatives of the deceased, were also present. Teams from the two premier diagnostic laboratories, the Centre For DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostic (CDFD), Hyderabad, and Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Kolkata, led by Dr G.V. Rao from Hyderabad and Dr A.K. Sharma from Kolkata, collected the samples on Monday and Tuesday. They were accompanied by doctors. The bodies were buried at different places in Anantnag district after they were charred to death at Pathribal. The relatives of the deceased identified the respective graves and the entire exercise was photographed and video graphed, the sources said. Fresh DNA testing was ordered following the alleged fudging of the earlier samples which had raised serious doubts on the government’s intentions in the matter. Though Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah asserted in the state Assembly that nothing was being concealed and that those responsible for the alleged fudging were being suspended, his government took more than a week to place the officials concerned under suspension. The DNA fudging had surfaced following a series of reports in this regard. Even as fresh samples were collected under the Chief Minister’s directions, the CDFD on March 10,2002, refused to accept these unless certified as collected before the District Magistrate. They had reportedly argued that the samples be collected using vials, tubes, needles, syringes and preservatives sent by the laboratory to Anantnag in the presence of the District Magistrate. PTI
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People’s support ‘must’ for ending militancy Jammu, April 3 During a day-long interaction with people at several border villages in Kathua district today Professor Gupta said the security scenario in the state would have become normal had Pakistan taken sincere steps in checking infiltration. He wanted the people in the
state to remain vigilant because despite joining hands with those countries that had launched a war against terrorism Pakistan seemed determined to aid terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The Union Minister praised the role of the members of the village defence committees. He said he had already taken up the matter with the Union Home Ministry regarding equipping the VDC members with sophisticated weapons. Professor Gupta criticised the state government for the delay in the submission of utilisation certificates for the Central funds. He said this had forced the Centre to stop releasing additional funds. He urged the state authorities to complete the process so that additional funds could be released.
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Kashmir unit of BJP dissolved
Srinagar, April 3 The executive body, district office-bearers and workers met at the Barzulla office of the Kashmir unit of the BJP and passed a resolution to this effect, a press note issued by the party’s Kashmir unit said. The resolution, announcing the resignation of the Kashmir unit of the BJP en masse and dissolution of the unit was moved by convener Ghulam Qadir, while labour leader Harbinder Singh seconded it. It was passed unanimously. They termed the resignation of Mr Kabuli from the party as “timely” and expressed full confidence in his leadership. Another resolution passed at the meeting expressed concern over the loss of life and property in the communal riots in Gujarat and other parts of the country and urged the Centre to dismiss the Narinder Modi government for its alleged failure to stop communal riots and hindering investigations carried out by National Human Rights Commission there. They also held the Centre responsible for the alleged “step motherly treatment” meted out to Jammu and Kashmir in terms of economic package and on political issues. The meeting lodged a strong protest against the remarks of Bajrang Dal founder and BJP MP Vinay Katiyar on the Hazratbal shrine. PTI
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POTO accused gets bail
Srinagar, April 3 The court held that the case diary revealed that one of the accused Zahoor Ahmed Shah was not involved directly with the alleged offences and that he was a bona fide taxi driver whose vehicle had been hired by the main accused, Abdul Rashid Lone, from Sopore to Srinagar. “After close examination of the case, this court is of the considered opinion that there are grounds for believing that Shah is not guilty of committing the alleged offence. As such, to advance the course of justice, the bail application at hand is allowed conditionally,” the court in its order, issued yesterday. It also directed the Srinagar Central Jail authorities to release Shah on a personal bond of Rs 25,000. Shah was arrested along with Lone early this year under the provisions of POTO while travelling from Sopore to Srinagar. PTI
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