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Monday,
January 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Blast in Kashmir, 35 hurt Powermen in no mood to oblige
Mufti BJP chief vows to galvanise party
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Firing along LoC 400 NC activists join
PDP
Demolition drive on in
Srinagar Topper rewarded by CM Awards for seven Kashmiri Pandits
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Blast in Kashmir, 35 hurt Srinagar, January 5 Militants lobbed a grenade towards a security patrol at the crowded Kulgam bus stand, 70 km from here, around 2.15 pm, the sources said. The grenade exploded injuring four CRPF personnel and 31 pedestrians including some women. The injured had been admitted to a nearby hospital and some of them have been referred to Anantnag district hospital, the sources said. None of the injured were critical, they said. Security forces immediately cordoned off the bus stand but the militants fled taking advantage of the panic which followed the explosion. Six militants were killed in separate operations by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, where ultras targeted the house of a senior Congress leader and made an abortive attempt to set off a blast since last night, an official spokesman said today. Militants opened fire on the house of district Congress president Abdul Majid Padar at Kulgam in Anantnag district of South Kashmir, but none was hurt in the firing, the spokesman said. He said police guards posted at Mr Padar’s house retaliated but the militants escaped. Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces at Dawal-Pida village in the Gulabgarh area of Udhampur district in Jammu region today, the spokesman said. He said two militants were gunned down by security forces at Dhara-Sangla village in the Surankote area of Poonch district today.Modem Security forces killed a Pakistani militant, Mohammad Sajad, in an encounter at Silkot in the border district of Kupwara, the spokesman said, adding that an Army jawam was also injured in the gunbattle. An improvised explosive device (IED) was defused by security forces near Anganwari centre Sogam in Kupwara. The IED was planted by ultras with an intention to trigger an explosion apparently to harm the security forces, the spokesman said. He said security forces also seized two IEDs, four grenades, four detonators, a wireless set and some explosive material from a militant hideout at Haigam in Baramula district today. The police apprehended a militant of Al-Badr outfit along with an AK rifle, one magazine, 20 rounds and three kg of black powder from the Ganderbal area of Srinagar yesterday, the spokesman said. Meanwhile, on a tip-off security personnel arrested two suspected militants, including a student, from the Jammu University campus. A letter head of Lashker-e-Toiba was seized from the car of one of them, sources said. Local people overpowered two suspected militants at Mangnar village of Poonch district and handed them over to the police. The two identified as Ashiq Hussain and Masood Hussain, weilding a rifle, were looting people of cash and other valuables. Meanwhile, an Army jawan was killed in overnight shelling by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, official sources said today. Sepoy Kernail Singh of 9 Assam Rifles was killed when a shell fired from across the border exploded near Bimla post in Keran sector, they said. Two fire service personnel suffered injuries during a fire fighting operation at a commercial complex in heart of the city today. Station Officer B A Abbassi and leading fireman Abdul Ahad received minor injuries as the fire service personnel fought the blaze bravely and prevented it from engulfing adjacent structures in the congested Konikhan area of Dalgate, fire service sources said. They said the fire broke out in the three-storey commercial complex of Estates Department having eight shops in ground floor around 10.55 am today.
PTI |
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Powermen in no mood to oblige
Mufti Jammu, January 5 The Mufti and his Finance Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beig, have vainly been pleading with Power Department staff to mend their ways and ensure that the outstanding bills of Rs 1700 crore were realised. There are allegations that nearly 60 per cent of the total consumption of power is burnt unauthorisedly in connivance with the lower rung staff of the Power Department in the state. More than 10 lakh illegal power connections have been detected in the state. It is alleged that law-abiding electric consumers who do not join hands with the lower staff in the loot and chose to pay their bills regularly are harassed and the others who share the cost of the illegally consumed energy have no problem. A consumer alleged that the staff avoided issuing him a bill on one pretext or the other and was asked to grease the palm of an official in case he wanted to have a proper bill. Power generation and transmission here is being done by the Power Development Department and no power board has been established as has been done by almost all other states of the country. There is no practice of issuing computerised power bills and the collection of arrears is generally done once a year which leaves room for the leakage of revenue. The situation has become so alarming that the total loss of Rs 900 crore in the Budget this time was due to failure of the Power Department to plug the leakages. A cut of Rs 350 crore in the Budget of the Power Department was made this year. To meet with the distressing position, the government has fixed a target of collecting a revenue of Rs 485 crore by the department. As many power projects were generating less power than the installed capacity, a sum of Rs 212 crore was being spent for purchasing power from other sources. The efforts of the previous governments to streamline the functioning of the department yielded no results and the move to install electronic meters was suspended during the Assembly elections because of political pressure. Power Department staff wields significant pressure on political bosses who have generally avoided confrontation with the consumers on the issue of collection of power bills. Fed up with the indiscipline, the Mufti government has now ordered that the salary of its officials will be disbursed in the month of March and the pending payments of contractors will be released only in case they submitted a no-demand certificate of the Power Department for the electric bills. |
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BJP chief vows to galvanise party Jammu, January 5 Prof Nirmal Singh had lost the Lok Sabha election last year because of “intrigues” from within the party. He has now replaced Mr Daya Kishen Kotwal who too had lost the recent Assembly elections from Bhaderwah because of alleged conspiracy by a section of the party. Prof Nirmal Singh told TNS here yesterday that the immediate task before him was to restore the lost strength of the party by uniting all factions and making the party a vibrant opposition — the reputation which it enjoyed earlier. He said the BJP would fight for the empowerment of the Jammu and the Ladakh regions which had been given a stepmotherly treatment by the successive Kashmir dominated governments in the state. People were not satisfied simply with a Congress leader being designated as Deputy Chief Minister who was playing the role of second fiddle to the Kashmiri leadership. He alleged that the National Conference government was never serious in solving the problems of the Jammu region and the Congress and the Panthers Party, which projected themselves as champions of the cause of the region, had finally exposed their lust for power by entering into an alliance with the Mufti Sayeed’s PDP to be a part of the government. Prof Nirmal Singh warned that indiscipline would not be tolerated in the BJP and the asset with him was the confidence which the central leadership had put on him by appointing him as the state BJP chief. He said it would be his endeavour to carry all sections of the party along. He said drastic structural changes had to be made by the government to infuse a sense of participation among the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions. Delimitation of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies should be done without further delay because the number of seats in the Jammu region was “intentionally” not increased although the population here was more than the Kashmir valley. The Jammu region should be given powers to decide its future, he added. |
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Firing along LoC Jammu, January 5 Defence sources said Pakistani troops stationed across the LoC opened heavy mortar shelling around 2 p.m., targetting forward military installations and civilian areas. Two houses were damaged at Laroka village in Nowshera sector and 20 head of cattle were killed in Pak shelling.
UNI |
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400 NC activists join
PDP Jammu, January 5 Mr Zulfiqar Ali led the team of NC supporters who were welcomed into the party fold by the PDP Vice-President, Ms Mehbooba Mufti. Mr Ali, son of late Ch. Mohd Hussain, Minister of State for Revenue in the erstwhile Council of Ministers headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, had sought the NC ticket for contesting from the Darhal constituency which his father had represented five times till his end last year. Ch. Mohd. Hussain died a couple of weeks before the elections. His son was denied the ticket and he had been nursing the grudge for all these months. The Ali family is quite influential in the Darhal-Rajouri belt. According to Mr Ved Mahajan, a senior PDP leader, the entry of Mr Zulfiqar Ali and others in the ruling party would strengthen the PDP base in Rajouri district. Mr Mohd. Shafi Bhat, MLA, had resigned from the NC and join the Congress a few weeks before the poll. As a Congress candidate he was re-elected from the Amirakadal Constituency in Srinagar. Reports said the PDP Vice-President, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, has been approached by several NC activists for permission to join the ruling party. And the PDP leadership is willing to accept activists and leaders from other parties provided they have influence in their areas and their record is clean. The PDP leaders are not prepared to admit “deadwood” and discredited political activists into the party fold. |
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Demolition drive on in Srinagar Srinagar, January 5 The demolition squads of the Srinagar Municipality and Srinagar Development Authority, assisted by the police and the CRPF, yesterday pulled down 250 structures, allegedly raised in violation of the master plan, amid strong protests by residents and owners. Among the constructions were 12 shops owned by the brother of a local administrator of the municipality, Muhammad Aslam Laigaroo. According to an official spokesman, the unprecedented drive, launched on January 1, was aimed at clearing constructions raised in violation of the agreement by owners with the Roads and Buildings Department, which disallows any construction within nine ft from the centre of the road. Mr Laigaroo said initially, the Indira Gandhi road would be cleared of the illegal constructions but the drive would continue to cover the entire city. Aggrieved shopkeepers alleged that no prior notice was given to them and several persons would lose employment as a result of the drive. Aijaz Ahmad, owner of a workshop at Peerbagh which was demolished in the drive, said over 50 persons working in the workshop had been rendered jobless after the demolition. “We were not given an opportunity even to shift the costly merchandise,” he alleged. Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Finance, Muzaffar Hussain Beg, has asked the Srinagar Development Commissioner to ensure speedy removal of structures acquired for the construction of the approach roads. “Every possibility will be explored to provide dislocated shopkeepers suitable sites for the construction of shops so that they can earn their livelihood,” the minister said. He said the government had already started a massive campaign to remove all encroachments on the directions of the High Court.
PTI, UNI |
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Topper rewarded by CM Jammu, January 5 What could be more inspiring for the labourer’s daughter than to get an assurance and encouragement from the Chief Minister himself about all the help needed for career development and pursuing academics’. “We will sponsor your coaching for the civil service examinations and if need be you can have it in Delhi”, the Chief Minister told Sudesh Kumari, this year’s topper in Mathematics in the Postgraduate Department, Jammu University, while presenting a token Rs 25,000 for her enviable success in the given background. He appreciated her devotion and hard work, saying the government sponsorship would not be a concession but a matter of right to a promising youth having burning desire to achieve academic excellence. Her father Chanderpal fills gas cyclinders and his wife works in a plastic factory getting an income of around Rs 3000 a month. |
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Awards for seven Kashmiri Pandits Jammu, January 5 Those selected for the awards are the late Justice Jia Kilam, the late S.N. Fotedar, Chairman, Legislative Council, prominent journalist A.N. Dar, noted scientist Ashok Hanjura, Mr M.K. Kaw, former Union Education Secretary, and Gokal Demby, artist. |
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