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Blocked highway starves valley of Vaishano Devi pilgrimage
suspended
Prof Gupta accuses govt of negligence
Watch out for enemies of peace process, |
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Two killed in state
Consumer dept fines shopkeepers
Anara case adjourned till March
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Blocked highway starves valley
Srinagar, February 19 Fresh vegetables, mutton, kerosene, and LPG are not available easily over the past two weeks, even as authorities had claimed that it has reserve of about one lakh LPG cylinders. The blockade of 294-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, which is the lifeline to Kashmir, has caught the authorities unawares as it has remained blocked due to inclement weather since the first week of this month. It was in January 1995 that snow avalanches in the Jawahar Tunnel area had led to the death of more than 60 persons, most of them were bus passengers on way to Jammu. The weather gods have played havoc with the highway this winter again, despite the concerted efforts of the Beacon Project of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to keep the highway traffic worthy. According to some LPG dealers supplying IOC and Bharat Petroleum (BP) products here, the shortage of cooking gas was more due to the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned. “These companies, IOC and BP do not have storage facilities” in Kashmir, said one of the dealers. He added that because of this problem the shortage of LPG was unavoidable when the highway gets blocked in winter. Even as the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Mr Khursheed Ahmad
Ganai, here said last week that one lakh LPG cylinders were available, an IOC dealer claimed that he was having one lakh consumers registered. The availability of one lakh cylinders of other companies would not help all customers. There were long queues of customers waiting for refills at a single truckload of LPG cylinders that reached here on Thursday. An IOC dealer revealed that supply plan disposal system instituted by the authorities was in force, but did not help in case of the weather conditions of Kashmir valley. The rule of not providing a refill before 21 days to the LPG consumers could not be applied here as the cold weather conditions did not permit so. “An LPG cylinder gets consumed within two weeks only during winter months in Kashmir, and not in three weeks or more” like that in other parts of the country, he said. He demanded relaxation of such rules in Kashmir and added that only this system could be applicable in other parts of the country which have hot weather conditions. Same was the case regarding providing LPG for heating purposes in offices in winter months, that was not being
faciliated, the dealer commented. |
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Vaishano Devi pilgrimage
suspended Jammu, February 19 All the pilgrims are safe Shri Mata Vaishano Devi Shrine Board Additional Chief Executive Officer Rohit kansal said there was no loss of life or any damage to property in the areas. An avalanche hit the track this morning at manokamana Bhawan blocking the track, they said. Snow clarence operations had been launched by the shrine board, but snowfall in the Trikuta hills — the abode of Mata
Vaishano Devi — was causing difficulties to the pilgrims, they said. Work on clearing the landslide was “going on a war footing and the track is likely to be reopened for the pilgrims in the next eight hours”, Mr Kansal said. “No fresh pilgrims are being allowed to undertake the journey to Bhawan from Katra and we have requested them to postpone the journey in view of the bad weather”, he said. Stranded pilgrims were being housed in a 700-bed hostel of the Board free of cost, he added. Around 4,000 to 5,000 pilgrims have been visiting the cave shrine daily despite the snow and rains and over 80,000 have paid obeisance at the shrine so far this year. |
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Prof Gupta accuses govt of negligence
Jammu, February 19 Prof Gupta indicated politicians for removing machines for clearing snow from the Paddar areas. He criticised the state government allegedly not providing succour to the affected people. He said the government was instead busy in creating euphoria certain emotive issues like opening the routes in Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan. |
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Watch out for enemies of peace process, says
Mufti
Jammu, February 19 Speaking at the civil-military liaison conference here this morning, the Chief Minister stressed the need to watch against the enemies who, he said, would try to derail the peace process. “Elements who do not want peace to prevail in Jammu and Kashmir will not sit quiet”, Mufti Sayeed said and highlighted the need to have greater vigil on them. He called for regular interaction between civil administration, Army and security forces. Today’s meeting was the third successive annual interaction between the Army and the civil administration at the highest level in the state. The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, Minister of State for Home, Mr Abdul Rehman Veeri, Chief Secretary, Dr S.S. Bleria, Army Commander, Northern Command, Lieut-Gen Hari Prasad, Director- General of Police, Mr Gopal Sharma and senior civil, military and security forces officials were present on the occasion. Mufti Sayeed underscored the need to eliminate the chances of human rights violations and said even an isolated incident has the potential of undoing the good work done by the Army and the security forces. Describing the announcement of opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road as an epoch-making decision, Mufti Sayeed said it was a great beginning and shows statesmanship of the Prime Minister and the country’s confidence in the people of Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Two killed in state
Srinagar, February 19 The Hizb militant identified as Mohammad Yaqoob Bhat, alias Suhail Yasir, was killed in an encounter with security forces during search operations at Ganapora-Arsh in Pulwama district of South Kashmir yesterday, the spokesman said. He said one AK rifle, five magazines, two grenades and a wireless set were recovered from the deceased militant, who was wanted in connection with a large number of militancy-related incidents. Militants shot dead 60-year-old Ghulam Hassan Zargar, an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, while he was returning from the local Jamia Masjid after offering Friday prayers at Salla-Aishmuqam, 70 kms from here, the spokesman said. Zargar was fired from a point blank range and later succumbed to injuries in the hospital, he said. Meanwhile, five of the nine persons injured in a grenade explosion at city chowk in Poonch yesterday, were discharged from hospital last night, the spokesman said. —
PTI |
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Consumer dept fines shopkeepers
Jammu, February 19 The department had asked the state transport authorities to take action against those vehicle owners who were using LPG cylinders as a fuel for their cars. |
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Anara case adjourned till March 5
Jammu, February 19 The intervention applications have been filed by Superintendent of Police Deepak Salathia, Deputy Superintendent Tanveer Jeelani and Inspector Kiran Bala, who were suspended a month back for keeping Anara in "illegal custody". While postponing the hearing, the CJM directed the Crime Branch to reply to the three applications by then. As the CB had on February 14 approached the court to stop investigations into the case due to lack of evidence, the three suspended police officers have in their applications emphasised the need for an in-depth probe. They have stated that since the case was closed by the CB on the basis of a Hyderabad-based Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report, it ought to be reopened and investigated in the light of a Chandigarh-based FSL report, as the two reports were contradictory. Yesterday, the CB had registered an open FIR against the Jammu district executive police for keeping Anara in "illegal confinement" in the women police cell here for 12 days. -
UNI |
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