 |
|
Monday,
March 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Rs 2671 cr VOA presented in J&K Assembly Aid with hiccups will not do for J&K BSF bunker attacked J&K to set up mini power projects Bagliar power project strike continues |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Govt keen to beautify Jammu Administrative officer’s
appointment revoked J-K panel to retire corrupt officials One-way traffic restored
|
|
Rs 2671 cr VOA presented in J&K Assembly
Jammu, March 9 “We have presented Rs 2671 crore VOA for the first quarter of 2003-2004 in J and K Assembly for the first time due to the extraordinary situation in the state,” Minister of Finance Muzaffar Hussain Beig, who presented VOA in the state Assembly on Friday, said here today. The total requirement of funds for VOA for the month of April, May and June was placed at Rs 2671.60 crore and it comprised 1910.46 crore under revenue account and 76.03 crore under capital account, Mr Beig said. The plan outlay for the year 2003-04 had been projected at Rs 3000 crore against Rs 2265 crore approved for the fiscal 2002-03, he said. The minister, who also presented the supplementary demands for grants under revised estimates for the year 2002-03, said the total expenditure incurred during the year 2002-03 was estimated at Rs 9991.06 crore, including state Plan of Rs 2500 crore and Centre-sponsored schemes of Rs 180 crore. It had now been revised to Rs 10463.06 crore, including a state Plan of Rs 2265.15 crore and Rs 180 crore under the Centre-sponsored schemes, Mr Beig said. The total receipts during the year were estimated at Rs 8777.23 crore which were now revised to Rs 10357.18 crore, Mr Beig said, adding there had been a total increase of Rs 1579.95 crore under receipts and an increase to the tune of Rs 472.00 crore had been registered under disbursements, including reduction of Rs 234.85 crore under state Plan, during the financial year 2002-03. The net deficit recorded in the revised estimates of 2002-03 was of the order of Rs 105.88 crore as against the Rs 1213.83 crore registered earlier, he said. The tax revenue under state resources was expected to increase by Rs 40.13 crore and non-tax revenue by Rs 266.84 crore. On the expenditure side, an increase of Rs 418.27 crore was expected with revised estimates at Rs 6575.43 crore as against the Budget estimates of Rs 6157.16 crore. The Receipts under capital account registered an improvement of Rs 575.20 crore as compared to Budget estimates of Rs 611.98 crore, which now stood at 1187.18 crore, he said. The capital expenditure under revised estimates 2002-03 indicated a net increase of Rs 249.75 crore under non-Plan which included a liability of Rs 156.64 crore on account of foodgrains lifted from the FCI during 2001-02 and an increase in repayment of loans (Rs 31.29 crore) to the Government of India and others, he said. A net deficit of Rs 27.29 crore mostly under the General Provident Fund (Rs 63 crore) was recorded, which was partly offset by receipt of loans to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore, Mr Beig said.
PTI |
|
|
Aid with hiccups will not do for J&K Jammu, March 9 Senior PDP leaders, who had been critical of Dr Farooq’s decision to support the NDA, have realised that the former Chief Minister had done it under compulsion. He was neither prepared to be ousted as in 1984, nor was in a position to take up cudgels with the Centre as he knew that without Delhi’s financial assistance he would not be able to meet even the wage bill of employees. These leaders seem to be sceptical about the Centre’s promise of bailing the state government out of the current fiscal morass. They argue when the Centre could not release liberal financial assistance to the National Conference, which remained a partner in the NDA, how could it now assist a PDP-Congress coalition government? Senior government functionaries feel that liberal financial assistance from the Centre could enable the PDP-Congress coalition party tackle the problem of alienation and unemployment. Will the BJP-led NDA government initiate a step for which the Congress may take the credit? It is in this context that Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig said, while moving the vote on account in the state Assembly, that the Centre had not abandoned its “aid with hiccups policy.” He referred to the decision of the Centre to release additional financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 336 crore and said till date the funds had not been received by the state government. He had a dig at the Centre when he said what was the fun of enlarging the size of the annual allocation when out of Rs 2200 crore, “we have to pay Rs 1600 crore as annual service charges on the central loan”. What seem to worry Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is the inability to lift the ban on recruitment placed by the former National Conference government over two years ago. His disillusionment is understandable. He had come to power in the hope that he would be in a position to change the destiny of the people. His confidant, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beig, Finance Minister, has said “In four months, no government can change the destiny of its people.” However, the Mufti does not seem to be satisfied with the limitations he has to work under. Those thousands of youths who had supported and voted for his party in the last elections have started getting disillusioned. Class IV jobs to the kin of militancy-affected people does not seem to have satiated a majority of them. The Mufti has initiated several steps. He has approached the Centre with the request that liberal financial aid was the need of the hour which alone could remove people’s alienation. Second, he has had a detailed meeting with the Reserve Bank of India Governor, explaining to him the need for either writing off Rs 1000 crore loan or reducing the interest on bank borrowings from 14 to 5 per cent. The ruling coalition leaders want to convey to the NDA leadership that financial assistance to the state will not be an aid to the Congress and the PDP, but the people of the troubled state. It is in this connection that the Finance Minister has urged the NDA leadership to rise above partisan politics. For the past six years, the NC government has failed to secure any firm commitment from the Central Government on its demand for either terminating the Indus Water Treaty or releasing adequate compensation to the state in lieu of heavy losses suffered on account of the limitations imposed by the treaty on the use of river-waters. A resolution adopted by the state Legislative Council has been sent to the Centre demanding that either the treaty be scraped or compensation be paid to the state in lieu of losses suffered. A note sent to the Centre says as a result of the treaty the state has suffered Rs 6000 crore loss in the power sector and over Rs 530 crore in the irrigation sector, annually. Over 1.70 lakh hectares of agricultural land in the state has been deprived of irrigation facilities because under the treaty the state cannot make optimum use of the water of Jhelum the Chenab and the Indus. The utilisation of water from these rivers, prior approval of Pakistan is mandatory. Similarly, the state could generate 10,000 mw of electricity but the treaty is in the way. A PDP leader said: “We have to meet the challenge posed by funds flowing from across border. We cannot do it by hollow promises and loud slogans. We have to give jobs to the people and build economic structure so that there is no power and water shortage.” Mr Beig has sounded a note of caution: “Our future is linked with India. If we fail, others too will fail.” Will the Centre take the warning and release adequate funds to the state. |
|
BSF bunker attacked
Srinagar, March 9 During a search operation, security personnel killed a militant at Wassu in south Kashmir district of Anantnag late last night. A woman, who was critically wounded in a shootout last week at Paripora Kulgam, died in hospital last night. A civilian was injured when militants hurled a hand grenade at a BSF bunker near the Batmaloo bus stand last evening. The grenade missed the target and exploded on the road. A BSF jawan, Anil Kumar, was wounded when militants fired at him in Khayam Chowk while another jawan, Manoj Kumar, was hurt after he was shot at from close range by ultras at the Anantnag bus stand last evening. Both jawans were hospitalised, sources said, adding the militants managed to escape. A girl was wounded when an explosive device went off at Sogam Lolab in the frontier district of Kupwara last evening. A villager was killed and two were critically injured when militants beat them up with sticks after pulling them out of their homes in Rajouri district of Jammu. A group of militants entered Gadjohd hamlet last night and forced three persons out of their homes on gunpoint. They then beat them up with sticks and fled. One of them, Mohammad Aslam, who was hit on the head, succumbed to injuries. UNI
|
|
|
J&K to set up mini power projects Jammu, March 9 The team for the power sector, which will be headed by Mr Sharief Niaz, Power Minister, and the first cousin of the Congress leader, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, is expected to visit Himachal Pradesh after the Assembly session. The Mufti was initially hesitant on the issue of setting up mini and micro power projects, but has now decided to tap the potential on numerous streams which flow in the interiors of the state where big projects are not feasible and laying of transmission lines is a costly affair. Because of widespread corruption and nepotism, J and K has lagged behind in both these important sectors although its topography and climatic conditions are akin to those in Himachal. It is learnt that initially the Mufti was “misled” by certain bureaucrats and technocrats about the financial implications of the mini and micro power projects who made him believe that only big hydroelectric projects were the answer to the acute shortage of electricity in the state. However, now he has changed his views on the issue and started stressing on small projects as a negligible gestation period is involved in their commissioning. Despite the perennial power shortage, J and K has failed to commission any hydroelectric project on the Chenab in the past 16 years after the 650 mw Salal project in 1987, although the river has a potential of over 10,000 mw. The feasibility of the Sewa project on this side of Chamba district was studied about 30 years ago, but the power station has yet to come up. Successive governments in the state have virtually been sleeping over development in these sectors and blaming the Indus Water Treaty for its failure to tap the power potential. On the other hand, a number of big power projects have been taken in hand in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and 431 sites identified for generating 750 mw of electricity through mini and micro projects ranging between 100 kw to 3 mw. MoUs for as many as 222 such projects have already been signed and work allotted to 129 private companies. The most remote and inaccessible area of Pangi in Himachal Pradesh, too has a power project of its own, but many villages in J and K are without electricity. The main cities here face a nearly five-hour power cut everyday. In the horticulture sector too J and K has not been able to make any remarkable achievement during the past many years. The quality of fruit, particularly apple, is deteriorating and tissue culture is almost absent. The Solan-based horticulture and forestry university has offered to train scientists of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) tissue culture techniques. J and K has also not yet introduced market intervention scheme for procuring culled apple which find their way in the open market, thereby causing a loss to quality fruit growers. |
|
|
Bagliar power project strike continues
Jammu, March 9 The workers, along with their family members, assembled at the construction site at Chanderkote in Doda district this morning demanding the cancellation of the termination orders of the employees and release of their union leader Javed Ahmed. “We want Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Power Minister Mohammad Sharief Naiz to intervene to save the project from delay in its completion”, Central Trade Union of Workers president K. K. Bakshi said. The workers will block Jammu-Srinagar national highway tomorrow if their demands are not met immediately, he said. J P Industries, which is involved in the construction of the power project, had terminated 1,400 employees from its services on Friday. The delegation of workers had met the Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Forum Chairman Y. Tarigami in this regard, he said, adding that they promised to look into the matter at the earliest. PTI
|
|
Govt keen to beautify Jammu
Jammu, March 9 Talking to a delegation of Jammu Paryatan Vikas Mandal here last evening, he said lakhs of Vaishno Devi pilgrims and tourists passed through Jammu and they needed to be attracted to this city too. For this, the government was planning some developmental works. For example, the government had handed over the walkways on the Akhnoor road and Rajinder Park area to the Jammu and Kashmir Bank for development. At a public meeting in Kathua, 8 pm from here, the Mufti said his government was trying to evolve a consensus on major issues and asked the people to give it more time to put things on the right track. “The coalition government does not have a magic lamp to change the system overnight. It should be given time to put things on the right track,” he said. The government was trying to evolve a consensus on major issues within and outside the state. It needed more time to prove that it was honestly working for the betterment of the people. On Opposition criticism of his government on issues like POTA, the Chief Minister said the ground situation had improved, despite his government not resorting to the use of the measure. PTI/UNI
|
|
|
Administrative officer’s appointment revoked Srinagar, March 9 Official sources told UNI that Principal Secretary, General Department, in an order issued last week, revoked with immediate effect her appointment made by the NC government. Sources added that a committee set up by the government, to review her appointment, had come to the conclusion that her appointment was not in conformity with the rules and a Supreme Court judgement. Ms Khan was appointed by the then Managing Director of the Power Development Corporation (PDC) as Deputy Manager (Project Monitoring), without observing the procedural formalities and without obtaining prior approval of the competent authority on April 3, 2000. However, in April, 2001, she was transferred to the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority despite the fact that she was not holding a valid appointment order in the earlier case. The order said as the state government was empowered under Rule 55 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (classification, control and appeal) Act to review its decision at any time, all the orders, appointment and transfers, issued in her favour were hereby revoked with immediate effect. UNI
|
|
|
J-K panel to retire corrupt officials Srinagar, March 9 Headed by Financial Commissioner, Home, S. D. Singh, the committee will look into service records of officials of various government departments and recommend premature retirement and action under law against those involved in corrupt practices, they said. The decision has been taken to rid the administration of officers responsible for swindling public funds and thus creating a wedge between administration and people. Principal Secretary, General Administration Department, N. R. Gupta and Commissioner Secretary Law G. A. Kochak are the others members of the committee. As part of the drive against corrupt officials, state Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh has sought the records of Director Accounts and Treasuries M. A. Lala, who is alleged to have amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, the sources said. A case was filed against Lala by the State Vigilance Bureau in 1998 and the General Administration Department has recommended action against him.
PTI |
|
One-way traffic restored
Srinagar, March 9 “A convoy from Srinagar to Jammu was allowed to pass this morning after the road was reopened last evening after landslides at about 40 places between Ramban and Ramsu were cleared,” official sources said today. Sources said all passenger vehicles, stranded on the highway since Friday, were allowed to move towards their respective destinations. They said heavy vehicles were not allowed as the condition of the road was not good. It was sinking at some places, which was risky for heavy vehicles. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) responsible for the maintenance of the highway has pressed into service sophisticated machines to restore traffic on the highway. UNI
|
|
|
3 cops suspended
for assault Srinagar, March 9 The incident sparked a protest as people present in the area raised anti-police slogans, reports said.
UNI
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
