Wildlife law to be amended

JAMMU, March 28 (PTI) — The Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Department has formulated a proposal envisaging amendments to the law relating to wildlife, official sources said here today.

The draft proposal aimed at amending the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1978, will be introduced in the State Assembly and the Legislative Council, the sources told PTI.

Under the act, various kinds of hunting licences are issued by the Chief Wildlife Warden as, the sources said Jammu and Kashmir was the only state in the country where the killing of endangered and general species was allowed.

Sources said because of this several endangered species, including the white leopard, the white bear and the black buck, had been showing a decline in their numbers recently.

According to the present act, it costs only Rs 200 to shoot a Himalayan brown bear and Rs 50 to kill a Tibetan wolf in the state forests. The amount is paid to the state exchequer as royalty.

Categories had been made with bird hunting falling under "small game", hunting of animals under "big game" and killing of some endangered species under "special game", the sources said.

Under "special game", which included the hunting of the Tibetan antelope, the ibex and the Tibetan wolf, licences could be procured from the Wildlife Department by any Indian citizen on the payment of Rs 500 for a full season and Rs 300 for 60 days.

For a foreign tourist, the fee had been fixed at Rs 1,500 for the full session and Rs 1,000 for a two-month period.

Similarly, traders dealing in "shahtoosh" shawls could continue their business by paying Rs 25,000, although the "shahtoosh" trade was banned all over the world.

Shooting of birds ("small game") had a licence fee of Rs 125 for the full session, Rs 100 for 60 days and Rs 75 for 15 days or less.

Tunnel in 'danger of crumbling'

SRINAGAR, March 28 (PTI) — The Jawahar Tunnel on the 300-km-long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the country, has become a virtual death trap as it may crumble anytime, Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Gautam Kaul said today.

With the western tube of the 2.5-km-long tunnel non-functional for over a year now, the eastern tube was facing great danger and might crumble up due to excessive traffic, Mr Kaul, who inspected the tunnel yesterday, told reporters here.

He said if corrective steps were not taken on a war footing before the onset of the summer, the tragedy that took place on Mont Blanc, in which many persons were killed, would be repeated in the tunnel.

Known as the Banihal Cart Road before being renamed the highway in 1965, the original design of the tunnel was for 300 vehicles per day but now a fleet of 800 to 1,000 vehicles passed through the eastern tube per day, he said.

The traffic response was anticipated to hit over 3,200 vehicles a day during the peak summer season and thus the tunnel was in great danger, he said.

There were two tubes, western and eastern, for incoming and outgoing traffic at the tunnel at Banihal, 125 km from here.

He said as per the design and procedure, vehicles should pass the tube within two minutes and 40 seconds, but they took a longer time to cross it and passengers had to gasp for breath in the middle of the tunnel.

He termed as a "great passenger safety risk" the present state of the tunnel and said there was no ventilation system in it and the lighting system had become "defective".

"It is not that we lack the expertise," he said, and referred to the Uri hydel power project tunnel which was 23-km long and had an efficient ventilation system and other modern facilities.

He said after the tragedy which struck the highway two years ago when an avalanche hit the area killing 60 persons, the lighting system had not been repaired or re-installed so far.

The ITBP, which was to provide security at the tunnel, had been asking for a proper lighting system but "we have yet to see action from the authorities concerned", he said.

Mr Kaul, who has been here for the past couple of days in connection with the ITBP taking over responsibility of the 148-km-long highway from Banihal to Pattan in the valley, said according to a previous understanding the state government and other agencies were required to post engineers at Banihal, but the staff concerned had never been posted there.

He said the ITBP was given women constables for frisking women passengers at the tunnel but one fourth of the force was not there and the performance was "unsatisfactory".

Similarly, only one fourth of the traffic police personnel were present there, he said, adding they were unable to perform better because of the heavy traffic.

He said to the best of his knowledge the passenger safety drill had not been organised for the past 15 years at the tunnel. "It appears that nobody is aware of it (the drill)."

3 militants among 6 killed

SRINAGAR, March 28 (PTI) — Six persons, including three militants and an Army jawan, were killed and four Army personnel were wounded in separate militancy-related incidents in the Kashmir valley since yesterday, a Defence Ministry spokesman said here today.

Army personnel were wounded when militants blew up their vehicle with an improvised explosive device near Barsu in Ganderbal on the outskirts of Srinagar last evening, the spokesman said.

Official sources said four personnel, including Col G.R. Anand and junior commissioned officer Amar Singh, were hurt in the blast which also damaged their vehicle.

The victims were immediately shifted to the Army Base Hospital here where the condition of two of them was stated to be serious, the sources said, adding that Army troops allegedly went berserk after the blast and beat up people as they failed to trace out the militants behind the explosion.

The spokesman said a foreign militant associated with the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba outfit, Hafiz Mohammad Izaz Ali alias Abu Abdullah Saif, of Pakistan, was killed in an encounter with Army search parties in the Diwar forests in the Lolab area of Kupwara district in north Kashmir last evening.

An Army jawan, rifleman Sunil Kumar Kotnala, also lost his life in the encounter which lasted nearly 10 hours, the spokesman said, adding an AK assault rifle, two grenades and some documents were seized from the slain militant.

In another encounter, two militants were killed and a house was gutted at Treel-Nambal near Bijbehara, in Anantnag district early today, the sources said.

They said the encounter took place last evening when a joint party of the Army and the Special Operations Group of the local police raided the militant hideout. Two AK assault rifles, ammunition and grenades were recovered from the debris of the house allegedly blasted during the encounter.

Army personnel allegedly shot dead a girl, Nasreen, when she came out of her house at Pothshahi in the Bandipora area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir early today, the sources said.

They said the Army had laid an ambush in the area following information about the movement of militants in the village. Suspecting Nasreen to be a militant, the jawans opened fire resulting in her death.

As news of her death spread, people of the area assembled and held a noisy demonstration to protest against the killing and demand punishment to the jawans allegedly involved in the shooting, the sources said.

The sources said the body of another girl, Raja, was taken out from the Jhelum at Seelu in Sopore area today. The cause of her death was being ascertained by the police.

Elsewhere, a militant was arrested from his hideout at Gulgam in the frontier district of Kupwara last night, the spokesman said, adding a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including a rocket projectile gun, five grenades and a pistol magazine were recovered.

The security forces also recovered a sniper rifle with a telescope from the Malhut forests in the Darhal area of Rajouri last evening, he said.

Giving details of yesterday’s explosion in Anantnag, the spokesman said 28 persons, including nine women and a police officer, were injured when militants lobbed a grenade aimed at blowing up a security picket there.

In a related incident, militants also hurled a grenade at a security picket at Bemina last evening.

However, the grenade did not explode and was later defused by experts.

FCI credit facility
J&K Food Minister to meet Barnala
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, March 28 — The state government has renewed its plea to the Centre to persuade the Food Corporation of India not to stop the credit facility from next month. In this connection the Minister for Food and Supplies, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, is leaving for Delhi shortly to meet the Union Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.

Mr Sadhotra said the state had to seek the credit facility from the FCI for lifting wheat and rice so as to supply these commodities in advance to remote hilly areas, including Leh, Kargil, Gurez, Tangdhar, Wardhwan, Dessa, Balessa and other upper reaches of Poonch which remained cut off from the winter capital for a period ranging between three and six months.

He said in these areas the foodgrain stocks would last till June. But in urban areas the situation might be difficult if the credit facility was suspended.

The minister explained that when the National Conference assumed power in October, 1996, it had inherited a credit balance of Rs 80 crore and these arrears had been cleared long ago. He felt intrigued that the FCI had extended the credit facility during all six years of Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir. And as soon as the National Conference took over, the FCI started threatening to stop the credit facility for lifting foodgrains from FCI godowns.

It was on account of intervention by Mr Raghuvansh Prasad, Food and Supplies Minister, during United Front rule, and later by Mr Barnala, that the credit facility had been extended. The state government had already explained to the Centre that since several thousand tonnes of foodgrains had been dumped right from September in remote areas for building the buffer stock, the state was yet to receive payment from consumers.

The credit amount has touched Rs 150 crore and the state government has conveyed to the Centre that in view of the continued acute cash crunch it would take some time more to clear the arrears. The state authorities have termed as unfortunate the Union Government's decision not to place Rs 230 crore as a revolving fund with the FCI. Had it been done, it could enable the FCI to continue with the credit facility and in the meantime allow an opportunity to the state to clear the arrears in instalments.

The state government has also made it clear that since the state was placed in a difficult position owing to the continued Pakistan-sponsored "proxy war" it was totally inadvisable to "allow people to starve". "On the one hand we are fighting the militants and trying to bring people to the national mainstream and on the other hand the Centre is suspending the basic facilities, including the reimbursement of security-related expenses", a senior government functionary said.

He said it was not totally correct that the amount earmarked for the purchase of foodgrains from the FCI was being utilised for meeting the budgetary deficit. He explained that the state would procure foodgrains from the FCI worth Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore per month, which meant that during the past two years of the elected government the state purchased foodgrains worth over Rs 700 crore. The state also cleared the old arrears of Rs 80 crore. At present the arrears were of the tune of Rs 150 crore, which meant that the state had paid to the FCI about Rs 630 crore during the past over two years.

Mr Sadhotra does not want the Centre to equate Jammu and Kashmir with other states. He said the moment the financial crisis was over the state would start clearing all arrears.