SRINAGAR: The Army on Friday took responsibility for the killing of two youths and injuries to two others in the November 3 Chattergam firing, saying it will cooperate with any inquiry.

Addressing a media conference at the Army's 15 Corps headquarters in Badami Bagh cantonment here today, the Army's Northern Command chief, Lt Gen D.H. Hooda, said: "We sincerely wish that the killing of civilians wouldn't have happened. We share the sorrow of the families."

"An inquiry has already been ordered." 

Gen Hooda said, "Fifteen civilian witnesses have already recorded their statements, apart from those from the force."

"We hope in the next 10 days or so, the inquiry is completed if all goes well."

Hooda also said the Army would cooperate with any other inquiry being conducted into the incident.

"We will cooperate in any other inquiry. Circumstances of the firing are being investigated."

"We take responsibility of what has happened," the Northern Command GOC-in-C said. 

"Compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for those killed and Rs 5 lakh each for the injured in the firing has been approved by the Defence Ministry."

Gen Hooda said rehabilitation of the injured would be taken care of by the Army.

"I admit that mistake has happened. Otherwise, why would two civilian boys have been killed like this."

Two youths - Faisal Yusuf Bhat and Mehrajuddin Dar - were killed in Chattergam village of Badgam district in firing on a speeding car by jawans of the 53 Rashtriya Rifles.

Two other youths travelling in the car were injured.

The Army had said the driver of the car jumped the mobile vehicle check posts (MVCPS) set up in Chattergam following information that militants were moving in the area in a car.

State police have confirmed that none of the four youths travelling in the ill-fated car had any militant record.

There has been a public outcry following the incident.

The police registered an FIR for murder against the jawans of 53 Rashtriya Rifles responsible for the firing.

All the four youths belonged to Nowgam area of Srinagar district. 

Sporadic clashes between angry protesters and police have been taking place in Nowgam area since November 4 after the bodies of the youths were handed over to their families. — IANS

PM adopts Jayapur village, assures region's development 

VARANASI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today strongly pitched for ending the wretched practice of female foeticide as he adopted Jayapur village in his Lok Sabha constituency, urging villagers to give up dependence on governments for solving their problems.

Touching on a host of issues from potholed roads to female foeticide and crumbling social structure, he regretted that condition of villages have not improved in the last 60 years and blamed policies formulated in Delhi and Lucknow for it.

He said "big people" in the last 60 years made such big talk that these could not be executed on ground. "I, a small man, will bring about big things through my small talk." Taking note of the presence of large number of women among the crowd, Modi condemned the practice of female foeticide and said "those who look upon the girl child as a liability should ponder as to how will mankind survive if we are left in a world with no women".

"If we kill girl child in the mother's womb, then what will happen to the world. If only 800 girls are born against 1000 boys, then 200 boys will remain unmarried. Will government do this job?" he said addressing villagers as he asked them not to depend on government for everything.

"Our villagers need to give up the notion that it is the government that is the doer and they are only beneficiaries.

The Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is an effort in that direction.

It aims to empower villagers and provide them with opportunities to exercise these choices", he said adopting the village under the MPs Model Village scheme.

"I am confident that our villagers have the ability to shape their own destiny through their own entrepreneurial skills and hard work", the PM said, evoking applause from residents of the village who had assembled at the ground several hours before Modi's arrival.

The Prime Minister won many hearts when he got up from his seat to adjust the mike for the village head Durga Devi. 

Referring to a recent report which found that 40 per cent of children died young in a neighbouring country as they did not wash their hands before eating, Modi said villagers should pledge that they would not let their kids eat without washing hands.

Recalling his meeting over high tea with top bureaucrats after Diwali, he said he told them to spend a few days in the place of their first posting to see if conditions of these places have improved while they rose to such high positions.

"I want to bring about a awakening so that those moving ahead in life should see to it that those who have played a role in their rise should also progress," he said.

The MPs' Model Village Scheme will help MPs and government officials understand the needs of villages so that they could know whether policies needed to change and if yes what kind of changes should come about.

Dismissing various reports about the "reasons" behind his adoption of Jayapur village, Modi said the only reason was that this was the first village in Varanasi constituency whose name he heard of after BJP announced his candidature for the seat for Lok Sabah elections.

Modi said, "Jayapur village is doing a favour to him by adopting him under the MP Model Village scheme and he feels proud of being adopted by them (village people).

"The MPs in our country are not doing any favour by adopting a village under this scheme rather the villages (and its village people) are doing a favour by adopting them, and its matter of pride for them." Describing the importance of villages, Modi said, "The things that we learn from villages and its people cannot be learnt anywhere else. If I have to learn good things then I have to reach the people of the villages. All those things cannot be learnt from government officials and bureaucrats.

"Whether they have a degree of school, college or not or they may have not even attended a school but they have so much of experience, which helps them in the time of trouble to come out with solutions which government can never imagine to do so.

"I wish to do a lot for the country. I want to change the mindsets of people, where they think that the government will do work for them. I want that the work be done by the people themselves and with their support," he said. — PTI

Chandigarh: Punjab Police Friday arrested Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh alias Mintoo and his aide Gurpreet Singh from the Delhi airport after they were deported from Thailand.

Punjab Police sources said Mintoo was tracked by police in Thailand's capital Bangkok. He was deported after the matter was pursued with the Thai authorities by Punjab Police and central agencies.

Mintoo is wanted in many terror cases in Punjab and was planning terror strikes again in the region, Punjab's Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Hardeep Singh Dhillon said here today.

He is wanted for 10 terrorist offences and his key aide Gurpreet Singh was tasked to execute a conspiracy of assassinating leaders in 2013, which was foiled by Punjab Police, and to disturb the hard-earned peace in Punjab, Dhillon said.

"Punjab Police traced and located them in Thailand in coordination with central agencies. On Nov 7, they were brought from Thailand to New Delhi in coordination with Thai authorities and arrested at the Delhi airport by Punjab Police," Dhillon said.

The arrest of these two top KLF terrorists comes close on the heels of arrests of two other top terrorists, Rattandeep Singh, the chief of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTFK), who was arrested from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh Sep 17, and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terrorist Ramandeep Singh, who was arrested at Chennai airport Nov 6 after being deported from Malaysia.

Two Punjab Police officers camped in Thailand for three weeks while tracking the terrorists there.

Mintoo was using a fake Malaysian passport issued in the name of Gurdeep Singh. The passport was issued in Ipoh, Malaysia. He also had a fake Malaysian identity card, Dhillon said.

Mintoo was trying to revive and strengthen the KLF with foreign-based supporters. He visited Pakistan and later travelled to Italy, Belgium, Germany, France and other European countries for 11 months between June 2013 and May 2014 before coming to southeast Asia.

Dhillon said Mintoo had close contacts with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers.- IANS

VARANASI: Pitching for modernisation of the textile sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked the weavers to utilise the growing e-commerce market to reach out to global consumers even as he announced a package of Rs 2,375 crore to revive banks in eastern UP.

"E-business is increasing. There are opportunities in the global market," Modi, who is on his first visit to his Lok Sabha constituency after assuming power, said after laying the foundation stone of a trade facilitation centre for weavers here.

The ancient temple town is famous for silk products crafted by its master weavers.
Stressing that there was a huge market for weavers both in domestic and abroad, the Prime Minister said the textile sector provides employment to the poorest of the poor.

Modi also announced a package of Rs 2,375 crore to revive 16 banks in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"We have decided to offer a package of Rs 2,375 crore.

The amount would be used to revive banks in 16 districts," he said.
He also stressed that politics should be kept outside the purview of the package. -PTI

LUDHIANA: A major fire broke out in a timber store on the outskirts of this industrial town today, but no casualty was caused, police said here.

The unit located on Ludhiana-Ferozepur road caught fire, reasons of which were not known immediately, causing loss, a Fire Department official said.

They said the six fire tenders were pressed into service to bring the flames under control.

The fire was brought under control after nearly two hours, he said. –PTI

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Friday told the Supreme Court that its Model Code of Conduct will not come in the way of ongoing relief and rehabilitation work for flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going to polls in five phases from November 25.

"All relief work and enabling administrative work can be undertaken by the governments," the counsel for the Election Commission (EC) told the bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu.

The poll panel also apprised the bench that various communications among Cabinet Secretary, Chief Secretary of the state government and the Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir have been made in this regard and it has been clarified on November 5 that relief and rehabilitation work can go on "unhindered".

The bench, however, said that it will not deal with other aspects of the case today and fixed the PIL, filed by Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh, for hearing on November 14.

Meanwhile, the bench also asked the Centre to appraise it of their stand on the state government's demand of Rs 44,000 crore for relief and rehabilitation work.

On allegation that poor quality food articles were being supplied to flood victims in the state, the bench said, "We expect good governance from the state government".

During the last hearing, the apex court had favoured relaxation of Model Code of Conduct in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir to remove any hindrance in government's relief and rehabilitation work following the recent floods.

The court had also sought response of the EC on the issues and questioned why political parties did not approach the Commission for postponement of elections when it has been claimed that life has not returned to normal. 

The court had made the observations on the submission of Bhim Singh that the Model Code was coming in the way of relief work and the tragedy should be declared as a National Disaster.

It had also raised the question about the ongoing relief and rehabilitation work in the state after going through a report filed by a committee appointed by it.
The committee, in its report, had said people in many affected areas had not got any relief from government side so far.

It had said that relief was not being properly and equitably distributed in some districts, particularly in Srinagar, Udhampur and Rajouri.

The committee had also alleged that there was lack of sufficient number of doctors in the state and adequate number of medical practitioners be sent from AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh and other hospitals to affected areas.

"The state seems to have asked the Centre not to send any team, while nothing much is being done to take care of countless silent sufferers caused by this calamity," the report said.

The apex court had on September 24 had appointed a five- member committee headed by Senior Registrar of Jammu and Kashmir High Court to ascertain the ground situation of the flood-affected state. -PTI

DODA: To ensure smooth and peaceful elections in the district, para-military forces will be deployed during the state Assembly polls, District Electoral Officer (DEO) Doda said.

"Besides J&K Police, other para-military forces will be arriving for the elections and efficient arrangements for their mobility and accommodation have been chalked out to ensure peaceful elections", District Electoral Officer, Doda, S V Meena said during a high level security meeting here.

Meena had convened a meeting of the officers of District Police Doda, Army, CRPF, SSB and Territorial Army here yesterday to assess the overall security scenario for the smooth conduct of the ensuing Assembly Elections in the district, an official spokesman said.

The DEO impressed upon the officers to strictly implement the action plan for the security of candidates and polling booths, in coordination with the district administration.

Besides maintaining law and order during election campaigning, security of the candidates should be a priority so that people can participate freely in the democratic process, he said.

From the security point of view polling stations have been categorised as critical and normal, he said, adding that necessary arrangements for the booths should be put in place keeping in view the sensitiveness of the area.

He stressed for better coordination among the forces to ensure free and fair elections. He said joint meetings of all the forces should be conducted frequently at different levels and they should share their inputs so that timely action is taken to deal with any situation.

The DEO further discussed deployment plan and logistic arrangements for the security forces being deployed for election duty.

During the meeting, a threadbare discussion was held on area domination, patrolling, lying of nakas, and deployment of flying squads among others for the elections. PTI

JAMMU: The list of 69 Congress candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections released Friday did not contain any surprises. It, however, scotched rumours about many senior party leaders deserting the party before polls.

Congress legislator and minister Sham Lal Sharma had fuelled rumours about the likelihood of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he joined its chorus for a Hindu chief minister in the state.

Sharma has again been fielded from Akhnoor in Jammu district.

The party has also repeated all its sitting legislators and ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand who will again contest from Chhamb and Raman Bhalla from Gandhi Nagar in Jammu district.

Similarly, other ministers including Taj Mohiuddin and Peerzada Sayeed have been fielded again from Uri and Kokernag seats of the Valley respectively.

Another sitting legislator and minister GA Mir has been fielded from Doru in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

The party has fielded Raman Mattoo, a local Pandit for the Habba Kadal seat in Srinagar district, against Moti Kaul of the BJP, who is also a Kashmiri Pandit.
Habba Kadal has nearly 20,000 Pandit migrant voters.

It is with an eye on Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters that both the BJP and the Congress chose to field local Pandit candidates for this seat.

Congress has fielded Khem Lata Wakhloo, a Pandit female candidate from Sonawar constituency where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is fighting the elections this time.

Prominent among those fighting elections for the first time is Salman Anees Soz, party national spokesperson and son of Jammu and Kashmir Congress president, Professor Saifuddin Soz.

He has been fielded for north Kashmir Baramulla assembly seat.

The party has fielded candidates from all those seats where the it’s present ruling coalition party, the regional National Conference (NC) has also fielded candidates.

It would be interesting to watch how the two ruling allies claim credit for the good work done during the last six years and at the same time blame each other for the failures of the coalition.

"We would often bring things to the notice of the party high command that the NC is acting at cross purpose with the interests of our party. We would complain about neglect of Congress constituencies by the NC that dominated the alliance for six years, but other than a patient hearing we got nothing," said a senior Congress leader and minister who did not want to be named. -IANS

NEW DELHI: The first expansion and reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers will take place on Sunday with a number of new faces, including some from allies Shiv Sena and TDP, expected to be inducted.

The swearing-in of the new ministers will take place at 1 pm on Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, official sources said here today. Power Minister Piyush Goyal also told an economic gathering that the reshuffle will take place on Sunday.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is a certain induction into the Council of Ministers with Defence Ministry likely to be given to him.

Nearly 10 new faces are likely to be inducted into the exercise being carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first since coming to power in May.

Among the new faces are Vijay Sampla, a first-time Lok Sabha Member of BJP from Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

The other names doing the rounds include former Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and new faces Jayant Sinha, son of former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, Jat leader from Haryana Birender Singh, Bhumiar leader from Bihar Giriraj Singh or Bhola Singh, Col Sonaram Chaudhary and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, both of Rajasthan, and Hansraj Ahir from Maharashtra.

From the allies, the likely names are Y.S. Chowdhary or Ram Mohan Naidu, son of late Union Minister K. Yerran Naidu, of TDP. The name of Rajya Sabha member Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena is also doing the rounds but his inclusion may depend on sorting out of issues between the BJP and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu, who is the Prime Minister's sherpa for G-20 Summit, is widely being speculated as the head of a new body that will replace the Planning Commission. In that capacity, he may get Cabinet rank status.

The strength of the ministry now stands at 45-23 of the level of Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and 22 of the Minister of State rank. 10 of the MoS hold independent charge of their ministries.

The defence portfolio is currently held as an additional charge by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who also has Corporate Affairs Ministry under his fold.

More than six ministers are currently holding more than one portfolio.

Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari also holds the charge of Rural Development Ministry, while Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also has the charge of IT and Communications Ministry.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has I&B ministry as an additional charge, while Power Minister Piyush Goyal also looks after Coal and Mines.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu also has Urban Development, while Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS in Finance Ministry, also has independent charge of Commerce. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Unfazed by denial of the Leader of the Opposition status in the Lok Sabha, the Congress has formed several shadow Cabinet committees along with Twitter handles as part of moves to be an effective Opposition.

Seven shadow Cabinet committees have been formed ahead of the winter session of Parliament beginning November 24 to keep a watch on decisions and policies of key ministries of the Narendra Modi government, a senior party leader said on Friday.

Despite being reduced to just 44 members in the Lok Sabha, the Congress has utilised its pool of talent in Parliament to confront the government, which will be enacting new laws and amending those passed by the erstwhile Congress-led government.

Former ministers, including A.K. Antony, M. Veerappa Moily, Anand Sharma, Oscar Fernandes as also Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, are prominent members of these committees.

The committee that will look into issues relating to finance, foreign affairs, commerce and information and broadcasting has Moily, Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia as members while the panel on home, defence and law and justice has Antony, Ashwani Kumar and IYC chief Rajiv Satav in it.

Digvijaya Singh, Ashok Chavan and Ninong Erring will be part of the group which will focus on agriculture and drinking water and sanitation.

Kharge is on the panel on railways and labour along with Fernandes and Ranjeeta Ranjan.

The panel on health and women and child development has Azad along with J D Seelam and K. Suresh.

The committee on HRD, panchayati raj and northeastern region has Mani Shankar Aiyar, Bhalchandra Mungekar and Sushmita Dev as members.

The panel comprising K.V. Thomas, Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi would look after rural development and environment issues.

The committees are loosely based on British parliament's concept, where the Opposition party appoints an MP to 'shadow' each of the members of the Council of Ministers.

Party leaders are insisting that it was not correct to call them shadow Cabinet committees as they have been formed to look at different issues and ensure that Congress plays the role of a constructive and effective Opposition. — PTI 

PANAJI: The race for the post of Goa Chief Minister hotted up today with Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar emerging the front-runner to succeed Manohar Parrikar, who is tipped to become the Union Defence Minister.

The incumbent Chief Minister will resign tomorrow after a meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board of the BJP in New Delhi. A meeting of the BJP legislature party will be held here to choose his successor.

"The BJP parliamentary board would be meeting in Delhi tomorrow morning (to decide on Parrikar's successor). After that I will resign and within two hours new Chief Minister would be sworn-in," he told reporters after attending the crucial meeting of party legislators here this morning to discuss the names.

During the meeting, three names – state Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, Assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza - were shortlisted for the top post, sources said.

Refusing to divulge the shortlisted names, Parrikar said the list would be submitted to the party's parliamentary board, which will take a final call on it.

The party has already deputed senior leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and organising secretary B. Satish to oversee the legislature party meeting.

The BJP legislators, who met at Porvorim today, hinted that Parsekar is the front-runner for the Chief Ministerial post, though no one preferred to come on record.

"We will accept the decision of the party high command.

Whatever would be the decision, it would be unanimous," said Parsekar, who arrived in the Chief Minister's official car for the meeting.

Asked if he was in the race, he said there was no competition in the party and he has been doing duties given to him by the organisation.

Arlekar said he would undertake any responsibility given to him by the party.

Party MLA Michael Lobo favoured elevating Deputy CM D'Souza to the Chief Minister's post that will give a good signal across the country that BJP was not against minorities. — PTI

TEL AVIV: Contending that terror is a global menace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Tel Aviv have reviewed existing cooperation and future possibilities of enhancing engagement in dealing with the threat.

Both the leaders also expressed their countries’ keenness to strengthen ties, with Netanyahu emphasising that he “believes that relations between the two countries were poised for rapid development” following his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September in New York.

During that meeting, the Israeli Premier had said that “sky is the limit” in terms of prospects of cooperation between the two countries.

Singh and Netanyahu discussed the regional situation and the evolving threats to the global communities from terror.

Singh said terror was a threat not only to countries like India and Israel but to the whole world.

Vowing to strengthen India’s “very warm” relations with Israel, Singh on his first bilateral visit to Israel said, “India and Israel share very warm and cordial bilateral relations. We look forward to strengthen it further”.

Fresh from his participation at Interpol General Assembly in Monaco, Singh told PTI that he also made a strong pitch for cooperation in the field of cyber security during his one-hour conversation with the Israeli Premier.

Singh was earlier widely quoted in the press for highlighting the use of social media for indoctrination by Jihadi elements and the urgent need to device ways to curb this practice through the use of the Internet.

He also made a special reference to Modi’s “Make-in-India” initiative and invited Israeli industries, including the defence sector, to take advantage of the investment-friendly policies adopted by the new government.

Expressing satisfaction at the growth in bilateral ties in a range of areas, including defence and agriculture, Singh noted that signing of agreements recently in the area of Homeland security had opened another sector for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Singh particularly emphasised on the importance of capacity building and training in this context.

“The future emphasis should be to build a hi-tech partnership befitting two leading knowledge economies,” the Indian leader said.

Both leaders also agreed that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under discussion between the two sides should also be signed early.

Netanyahu briefed the Indian Home Minister on technologies that had been developed by Israel in areas such as aviation security, border protection and water harvesting.

Responding favourably to Modi’s ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, the Israeli leader said his country is ready and willing to discuss transfer and development of technologies with India.

“Israeli industries, including the defence industries, could ‘make in India’ and thereby reduce costs of manufacturing products and systems developed by Israel,” the Israeli Premier said.

The Israeli leader also expressed willingness to send a delegation from Israeli industries to visit India to explore manufacturing opportunities in different sectors.

Singh, in this context, proposed exploring together third country markets in Africa and Latin America, where Indian industry has a strong presence.

The Indian Home Minister earlier yesterday took a helicopter tour of the Jordan Valley and Israel’s northern and southern Region with National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen to get a sense of the security situation in the region.

Cohen had recently met Singh in New Delhi and discussed “common challenges” faced by the two countries and their solutions, emphasising his country’s “willingness to expand cooperation in all fields and in any level”.

Israel has extended a red carpet welcome for the Indian leader making several exceptions which are reserved only for heads of states.

Singh was also hosted by Israel’s Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich on Thursday evening. — PTI

NEW DELHI: The Navy on Friday ordered a Board of Inquiry into the sinking of a Torpedo Recovery Vessel off the Visakhapatnam coast last night that left a sailor dead.

In view of the incident, Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan, who is on a four-day visit to Seychelles till November 9, is cutting short his visit to reach Visakhapatnam, Navy officials said.

While one sailor was killed, four others are still missing in the accident and a search and rescue operation was on to trace them.

Navy officials said the Board of Inquiry will look into the various aspects of the accident and find out what led to the sinking of the 31-year-old vessel.

The vessel had sunk at 8 PM last night while it was on a "routine" mission to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships during a "routine" exercise, a Navy statement had said.

The vessel experienced flooding in one of the compartments, they said.

"One sailor has lost his life during the rescue operation and four personnel are reported missing. Twenty three personnel have been rescued safely by the Search and Rescue (SAR) ships dispatched to the area," it said.

The ship was built by Goa Shipyard Limited in 1983 and has served the Indian Navy for the last 31 years.

The latest accident is one of the many in the series that the Navy has witnessed over the last year.

Dhowan took over as the Chief of the Naval Staff on April 17 after his predecessor D K Joshi quit in the wake of a series of accidents.

Admiral Joshi's resignation came immediately after a fire on the INS Sindhuratna, which left two sailors dead.

On October 31, INS Kora suffered minor damage after it was scraped by a merchant vessel near Visakhapatnam. -PTI