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Yaseen Malik calls for poll boycott
Azad asks CMs not to ‘harass’ Kashmiris
Horticulture Dept spent Rs 179 crore, could not achieve target: CAG report
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Intelligence man, 5 militants killed
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Yaseen Malik calls for poll boycott
Srinagar, April 12 The march would begin in the Kashmir valley and would pass through villages and towns of Jammu and Ladakh. Talking to the media, he said here today that this “peaceful process” would be taken to all areas in support of their demand. He also announced to launch an anti-election campaign from tomorrow. The byelections will be held for three Assembly constituencies on April 24. Quoting a former Election Commissioner, he held that the participation or non-participation was a democratic right of the people. “I hope no restrictions are imposed on us while we talk to the people about our point of view,” he said. “No optimism over the peace process has been developed among Kashmiris because they know it through the media alone,” he said, adding that his party did “not want to derail the peace process.” He said though both India and Pakistan had made it clear that it was an irreversible process, it was going on “without engaging voices of Kashmiris.” He also stressed the need for the involvement of militant leadership in the dialogue process. |
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Azad asks CMs not to ‘harass’ Kashmiris
Jammu, April 12 In a message to the Chief Ministers, Mr Azad has said no action should be taken against any resident of Jammu and Kashmir without consulting the DGP and ADGP (CID) to ensure that innocent persons are not harassed on the pretext of questioning in the event of any terrorist act in their respective states. He has sent the message to the Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Mr Azad has sought an assurance on the safety of residents of Jammu and Kashmir and has pointed out that fairly a good number of businessmen and traders have settled down in commercial centres to earn livelihood. The outflow has helped to contribute to the economic regeneration of the state, which has suffered a lot in the backdrop of 16 years of turmoil. He has also sought the assurance for the safety of students of Jammu and Kashmir studying in various states. |
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Horticulture Dept spent Rs 179 crore, could not achieve target: CAG report
Jammu, April 12 Apple continues to occupy predominant position with a share of 83 per cent of total fruit crop in the state where five lakh families are in horticulture. However, what appears from a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was that the funds earmarked for development of horticulture were being spent on projects that even failed to take off. The horticulture department envisaged increased productivity of apple crop of 20 metric tonnes from 2001-02. However, the average yield per hectare between 200-01 to 2004-05 ranged between 8.53 metric tonnes and 10.32 metric tonnes. Even the production of 10.72 metric tonnes per hectare achieved by the department during 1999-2000 declined. The department attributed the decline in the average yield of apple to un-availability of sufficient root stock and lack of facilities in the departmental nurseries. The CAG has pointed out that the Horticulture Development programmes envisaged for making the nurseries and orchards viable and produce quality plant material. However, because of a high mortality rate and other expenses, the departmental nurseries were producing each plant at a price ranging between Rs 46 to Rs 231 against the average market price of Rs seven per plant. As there was a meagre production of 14,000 apple plants and 45,000 walnut plants in the government nurseries in the four districts of Anantnag, Srinagar, Kupwara and Pulwama between 2000 to 2004, the chief horticulture officers of these districts purchased 4.59 lakh apple plants and 78,000 walnut plants from private nurseries the which by resulted in the failure of the department to achieve the objective of providing quality plant material to fruit growers at a reasonable rate. The CAG has made shocking revelations about the working of the government nurseries in the state where money was being allowed to go down the drain without any production. The two nurseries at Gool and Hander produced 225 plants in four years against their annual production capacity of 15,000 plants. This was despite the fact that 10 officials posted in these nurseries were paid a salary of Rs 7.94 lakh between July 2003 to September 2004. Similarly, there was no production in the two departmental nurseries at Chak Rakhwal and Gandarwan in the Jammu district in four years between 2001 to 2004 although six employees were posted there who were paid salary of Rs 8.17 lakh in two years of 2002-03 and 2003-04. Against the production capacity of 1.73 lakh plants in 17 nurseries in the Udhampur district, the actual production was between 27,000 to 62,000. Production of apple, cherry, walnut and root stocks in the nursery at the advanced centre for Horticulture Development (ACHD),Zainpora in Shopian, has decreased by 72 per cent in the last five years. The number of apple trees in the farm also got reduced to 18,739 from 55,146.
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Intelligence man, 5 militants killed
Srinagar, April 12 He said militants at Bulli Sherabad fired upon intelligence officials travelling in a Maruti car from Tral to Awantipora in south Kashmir district of Pulwama this afternoon. An official died on the spot and two others were injured. The spokesman said the security forces gunned down a JeM militant, Hyder, alias Imtiyaz, in an encounter at Dhana Behak under the Lalpora police station in the frontier district of Kupwara late last night. Two more militants of the HuM were killed by the security forces during a search operation at Waran, 4 km from Surankote, last night. He said an encounter took place during a search operation at Sukhanai village in Doda district of the Jammu region last night in which two militants were killed. The security forces and the police in a joint operation arrested two LeT militants during a search operation at Sopore in Baramula district.
— UNI |
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