Jammu, June 12
With an acute drinking water supply in most of the residential areas here and the Kandi belt between Akhnoor to Kathua, the water mafia is calling the shots with the alleged connivance of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHE) that is responsible for providing water.

The sharp increase in the mercury has made the situation worst and many areas are being supplied piped water after four days. With such a situation, the residents of the town and the adjoining areas have become dependant on the water mafia.

Private tankers carrying water not properly purified running on the roads here right from sunrise till late evening have become a common sight. The private water tank operators have suddenly hiked the rate for per tank between Rs 500 and Rs 700 from the earlier Rs 350. The rate differs from area to area depending on the extent of water crisis. They have got their own tubewells bored to sell water.

It is being alleged that in certain areas officials of the PHE, to help the tanker operators, artificially create the water shortage.

An official of the PHE claimed that the pumping stations were unable to operate full time because of low voltage of electricity for the past few days.

However, water scarcity has become an annual feature, although the state government has from time to time been announcing various schemes to meet the problem. The PHE has reportedly failed to get the tubewells sunk for which the Centre has made allocations to the central ground water board.

Sainik Colony, Roop Nagar, Old City and Gandhi Nagar are badly hit because of the taps just trickling. While the water supply was being made on alternate days in Roop Nagar, residents of Sainik Colony are starved of water as not a drop of water has come in the taps for the past five days.

The PHE officials were worried more about the water supply in the illegal colony of Bhatindi where top politicians and officers reside. The colony has been constructed in a forest area and former Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah and several other ministers have their bunglows there. Some close relatives of Union Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad also reside in the colony, as a result of which PHE Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal visits the colony almost every fortnight to enquire about the water supply, but does not find time to visit the PHE installations in the adjacent Sainik Colony and Channi Himmat.

An official of the PHE said that a tanker of the department had exclusively been earmarked for the VIPs in the Bhatindi colony. Besides, about 10 private tankers have also been hired by the PHE for this area. However, only two private tankers have been hired for Sainik Colony and Channi Himmat and residents of these localities have to wait for their turn to get the tanks filled or buy water from the private operators.

The situation is equally bad in the Kandi areas of Samba, Hiranagar and Kathua where women carrying pitchers run from pillar to post for water.

Jammu, June 12
The wordy duels between the hardliners and moderates in the Kashmiri separatist camps have, of late, extended beyond the borders of the valley.

The Hizbul Mujahideen supremo and Chairman of the United Jehad Council, based in Muzaffarabad, Syed Salahauddin, has turned down the suggestion of the moderates led by Molvi Umar Farooq, who are now on a visit to Pakistan, to the militants to join the political mainstream.

In fact, in the war between the hardliners, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and the moderates, Syed Salahauddin has sided with Mr Geelani. He has said in his latest statement that the idea of militants joining the political mainstream was not acceptable to him because it would harm the ongoing Jehad.

Inside reports have revealed that the red carpet treatment given to the APHC team and five other separatists, during their visit to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, has caused an embarrassing situation for Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Mr Geelani has started fulminating against the Pakistan Government in general and President Pervez Musharraf in particular.

During the past five days, Mr Geelani has addressed a series of public meetings in different parts of the Kashmir valley where he has accused General Musharraf of pursuing the American “agenda” on Kashmir. He has said that by initiating the peace process with India, General Musharraf has sidelined the Kashmir issue.

Everything does not seem smooth in the camp of moderates. This is evident by the way the JKLF chief, Mr Mohd Yasin Malik, distanced himself from the APHC leaders despite having boarded the same Muzaffarabad bound bus on June 2.

This became evident when Mr Malik met leaders in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, including General Parvez Musharraf, separately. He was not present when the APHC leaders addressed a press conference in Pakistan.

That establishment in Pakistan treated the delegation of Kashmiri separatists as VIP. This was apparent when the Governor received the APHC leaders at Karachi airport. Sources in the APHC said now the separatist conglomerate, headed by Molvi Umar Farooq, deserved a formal invitation from delhi for the resumption of dialogue and that too when General Musharraf has suggested to them to meet India an leaders in Delhi.

It is yet to be seen whether Delhi is interested in picking up the thread with the APHC that had been left a year ago after completing two rounds of talks with the former NDA government, after the APHC leaders return from Pakistan on June 16.

Since Syed Ali Shah Geelani has rejected feelers sent to him in the past for holding talks with the Indian leaders or with the Central Government interlocuters Delhi may not be under any pressure to persuade Mr Geelani for coming to the negotiating table. But at the same time the situation in Kashmir has not registered a spectacular change to the extent that Mr Geelani can be treated as irrelevant because he continues to draw bigger crowds to his public rallies and those with gun in their hands continue to rally behind him.

Jammu, June 12
Ahead of the commencement of the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine on June 21, a high-level meeting of police and security forces today finalised all arrangements, including deployment of a three-tier security, for the pilgrims’ incident-free visit to the holy cave this year.

Various other measures were finalised for the stay of pilgrims in case of the blockade of Jammu-Srinagar highway and proper security of devotees and langars were discussed at the meeting, official sources told PTI.

The meeting was attended by General Officer Commanding (GOC) Delta Force, Deputy Inspectors-General of the Udhampur-Doda range and Central Reserve Police Force, Senior Superintendents of Police of Udhampur, Doda, Ramban, Deputy Commissioners of Udhampur and Doda, SPs and officers of the Border Security Force, Beacon and traffic police at Batote.

The officers stressed the need of joint efforts of all security agencies for an incident-free pilgrimage. They asked all the agencies to pass on the necessary instructions to their personnel to share intelligence inputs to thwart any attempt by militants to disrupt the Amarnath yatra.

The sources said the entire area of Udhampur-Doda range had been divided into zones and responsibilities would be fixed on the officers to complete sensitisation of their respective areas.

The SSPs were asked to make all possible arrangements for deployment of the security personnel well in time, they said.

The GOC said the complete coordination among the security agencies was imperative for a peaceful conduct of the pilgrimage. — PTI