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| Tuesday, August 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Hizb ready to have political face Talks with militants to be secret: CM Rs 11 cr sanctioned for Gondola project Kashmiri Pandits reject govt plan Houseboats languish as violence drags on |
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Harkat favours
jehad Amendment to J & K
Constitution sought Jawahar Tunnel
cleaned Viral fever epidemic in Jammu Bomb
hoax delays Jodhpur Express
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Hizb ready to have political face JAMMU, Aug 21 — The Hizbul Mujahideen has plans of assuming a “political face” for carrying out negotiations with India, Pakistan and other groups. An indication to this effect has been given by Hizb supremo Syed Salahuddin in a statement issued from Pakistan. Since the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) had failed to project the Kashmir issue in the world fora in right perspective, the Hizbul Mujahideen has planned to jump into politics, Syed Salahuddin is said to have announced. When he was asked whether after assuming political face, the Hizbul Mujahideen would join the APHC, he gave an evasive reply by saying that this would be decided by the Hizb command. The Hizb supremo has made it clear that by joining politics the organisation would not abandon the ongoing jehad. He has stated that armed campaign and political campaign would be part of Hizb’s future policy. Political analysts say the plan of Hizb to join politics was to relegate the APHC to the background. When the Hizbul Mujahideen announced its ceasefire plan and willingness to hold talks with the government, APHC leaders were reluctant to endorse it. Later they said instead of bilateral talks the APHC favoured tripartite parleys. Senior Hurriyat leaders, including its Chairman, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, had stated that talks with a group or groups of militants would not prove meaningful unless they were held with the representatives of the people and Islamabad. Though the Hizbul Mujahideen has also endorsed the demand for tripartite talks, its plan to “assume a political face” was to be in the limelight in case talks were resumed between India and Pakistan. The organisation is keen on showing that it was the real representative of the people of Kashmir. The Hizbul Mujahideen has the biggest number of activists in Jammu and Kashmir. Even official sources admit that it has well-knit cadres in at least 10 districts in the state. Hence it could prove a formidable political force in the state. The APHC is a conglomeration of more than 23 political and religious groups but except for the Jamait-e-Islami, JKLF, Awami Action Committee, headed by Moulvi Umar Farooq, and the Peoples’ Conference, led by Mr Abdul Gani Lone, the rest of the constituents are hardly mass based. And if the Hizbul Mujahideen ultimately joined politics it would pose a serious challenge to the APHC and the National Conference. Only thing that can prevent it from making to the top was the possibility of a vertical split in the organisation. However, senior Hizb leaders were trying to avert the split. |
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Talks with militants to be secret: CM SRINAGAR, Aug 21 — Describing the recent statements of the Central Government and Hizbul Mujahideen as “positive signs”, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today said ground had been prepared for restarting the derailed peace process in Kashmir”. Talking to mediapersons after the meeting of the Gujjar and Bakarwal Advisory Board here this afternoon, the Chief Minister said going by the past experience, this time talks would be held secretly. There would be no media hype either, he said adding that “now the question is how soon the ball starts rolling”. The second round of talks between Central officers and Hizb commanders to chalk out the details of ceasefire on “military level” could not be held following the “change in the Centre’s stand” by rejecting the possibility of involving Pakistan in the talks. Dr Abdullah also expressed the hope that the visit of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee to the USA next month would be useful as he would be able to put across the correct picture of militancy and convince the world of its ill effects. When asked about the Hizb’s charge of dividing the valley on communal lines for return of migrants, Dr Abdullah said perhaps it has not been understood in right perspective. “We are not dividing the valley for the return of migrants”, he said and added, “what we have proposed to do is to create transit camps where they will stay under security and get their damaged houses reconstructed and existing structures repaired to facilitate their return to their homes”. He said the government did not want to reconstruct their houses itself and instead proposed to give the migrants grants and help for the purpose. He said it must be understood that it was not possible to give security at individual houses and instead create areas where they can temporarily stay and complete the work of reconstruction or repairs in the first phase. In the second phase, they can move out to their homes and live in harmony as in the past, he said. The state cabinet had on Friday last approved Rs 2600 crore action plan for migrants’ return, which was being submitted to the Central government. The Hizbul Mujahideen here yesterday rejected the action plan and threatened to use force, if necessary to thwart such a plan which was aimed at dividing the valley on communal lines. A spokesman for the Hizbul Mujahideen had also stated that it considered the Kashmiri Pandits as part of Kashmir and wished them to resettle here but would not allow the division of the valley on communal lines. |
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Rs 11 cr sanctioned for Gondola project GULMARG, Aug 21 — The Eleventh Finance Commission has sanctioned an amount of Rs 11 crore for starting work on the second phase of the Gulmarg Gondola project from Kongdori to Apharvat. Its first phase from Gulmarg to Kongdori has been working for the past two years and has been an attraction for tourists. Talking to a group of mediapersons here the Minister of State for Tourism, Mr S.S. Salathia, said the money would be over and above the award given by the Commission to the state. The minister said the Commission members were impressed by the success of the project and conceded the demand for money to start the second section of the project. The augmentation of the second phase would take the Gondola riders from its present culminating point at Kongdori to Apharvat. On completion, the total length of the cable car ride would be 5 km double than the present one. The minister said 50 per cent concession on Gondola ride was given to student groups on excursion. He said the concession would also be available to toppers in examinations and their parents. Mr Salathia said the visitors to Gondola would now have basic facilities like toilet, rest place and restaurant. He said the premises at the start and the end of the ride have been fenced and landscaped. He said the restaurant, work on which is nearing completion, would offer fast food. The Kashmiri food would also be available there. He said rest and toilet facilities within the fenced areas would also be provided on the token entry fee of Rs 5. The minister said project’s success has encouraged the government to explore possibilities for similar facility at Patnitop and Mansar in Jammu. He said the survey at Patnitop has been completed and the Union government would be motivated to bear 40 per cent cost while the remaining 60 per cent would be mobilised from financial
institutitions. Briefing mediapersons about the Gulmarg Gondola project, the Managing Director Cable Car Corporation, Mr Farooq Ahmed Khan, said the project was conceived in 1987-88 and completed in 1998. He said the commercial operation started in May 1998 and from the very first year the project had operational benefits. He said the revenue realisation in 1998 was Rs 85.55 lakh against which the expenditure was 77.83 lakh, thus making a profit of Rs 7.72 lakh. In 1999, the year when Kargil war affected tourism, the profit fell to Rs 6.35 lakh. This year up to July, the project has earned a record profit of Rs 61.80 lakh. He said the profit was being spent on the extension of facilities for the tourists. The Managing Director said the revised cost of the sections of the project was Rs 38 crore and with the completion of the second phase, the Gondola would be of the international standards. He said if the corporation was able to operate at its capacity of 1500 people an hour, it could consider reduction in the present fee. He said the 90 per cent work force at the project was local while four engineers were trained in France. |
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Kashmiri Pandits reject govt plan JAMMU, Aug 21 — Several Kashmiri Pandit organisations have rejected the government’s plan to raise clusters at three places in the valley for displaced families. The state government has demanded Rs 2,600 crore for the purpose. All-Kashmiri Pandit Solidarity Conference (AKPSC), headed by Mr O.N. Trisal, in a resolution at a meeting here today, criticised the plan of settling displaced families in security zones. The resolution said the security and political scenario was not yet conducive for the return of the migrant to the valley. The AKPSC also supported the demand of Panun Kashmir for a homeland for the displaced families within the valley. It said this was the only suitable way for rehabilitating the migrants. Panun Kashmir leader, Dr Ajay Chrungoo, said the government had perused the Kaul Committee report again by suggesting to the Centre to earmark Rs 2,600 crore for the construction of tenements in security zones and on providing some economic package to the migrants. He said the Kaul Committee report had been rejected by various Pandit bodies a year ago and it was strange that the state Cabinet had accepted the report. He said the intentions of the government were not “sincere.” He said staying in security zones would amount to living in “concentration camps.” He said. “We want a dignified return to the valley where we would be able to lead a safe life”. Pandit leaders referred to the latest Hizbul Mujahideen statement which had also rejected the plan to settle displaced families in security zones. The Hizbul Mujahideen is in favour of a people-to-people dialogue for the return of the migrants and a Hizb spokesman said: “We want them to return as they are part of the valley.” |
Houseboats languish as violence drags on SRINAGAR, Aug 21 — His luxury houseboats, the floating hotels that dot the picturesque Dal Lake in Srinagar, have served as holiday homes for the likes of Indira Gandhi, Feroze Gandhi, Ravi Shankar, George Harrison and Ernest Hemingway during their visits to Jammu and Kashmir. But 11 years of extremist violence in the Kashmir valley have left G.M. Butt a disillusioned man. For Butt, the 76-year-old owner of Clermont Houseboats, the future seems to hold little hope. “I have been buying hope for years now. It is of little use. I do not see any light at the end of this dark and dreary tunnel,” he said. Butt’s houseboats, which are anchored on the banks of the Dal Lake, were once the haunt of the rich and famous. Today, occupancy rates are near zero and most guests are journalists visiting the valley to cover the separatist movement which has almost devastated Kashmir’s tourism industry. A look at the guest register for Butt’s five “super-luxury” houseboats reads like a virtual who’s who. The names on the register include U.S. Congressman Adlai Stevenson, George Harrison of the Beatles, John Kenneth Galbraith and Chester Bowles, former U.S. Ambassadors to India, Sir Paul Gore Booth, Britain’s former High Commissioner to India, world famous authors like Kenneth Keating, Rudyard Kipling, Pearl.S. Buck and Ernest Hemingway, musicians Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin, film actor Dilip Kumar and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who spent her honeymoon with husband Feroze Gandhi on one of the houseboats. The list is long and unending. So are the memories in Butt’s eyes. He tells interesting stories of statesmen, diplomats, celebrities and others, some of whom came crestfallen to his houseboats and returned with new hope. Ironically, it is Butt who now seems to have exhausted his stock of hope. As he talks of the memories of days gone, the bitterness in his voice is inescapable. Peter Popham of London’s Independent newspaper, one of the visiting reporters living in one of Butt’s houseboats, said he was amazed by the beauty of the area. “It is unbelievable. The shades of the setting sun over the waters of the lake and the colour of these lotuses. They transport you into a new world even though I have basically come here to report on the violence in Kashmir,” he said. Michael Fathers of Time International is confident about Kashmir and its people surmounting their present difficulties. “I do not see any immediate solution to the half-century-old problems here, but hopefully better sense will prevail sooner or later,” he says. Butt’s eyes glow like those of a teenager in love when he is asked to narrate stories of the past. “I cannot fully describe the good times I have had. I have rubbed shoulders with people who changed the course of history and here I am today, unable to even predict what might happen in my life in just a matter of hours. Kashmir is a paradise. But right now, it is a poisoned paradise.” Butt makes it a point to warn visiting reporters not to take chances while performing their duties. “Take care and return safely to the boats in the evening,” he tells them. Would he ever be able to relive the balmy, peaceful days of the past, Butt asked this correspondent. Though I hated to sell him hope, I could do little better. “God willing, those days shall return to you.” During Kashmir’s halcyon days, about 2,500 houseboats, big and small, used to be moored on Srinagar’s Dal Lake, Nagin Lake and the Jhelum River catering to thousands of tourists who contributed to the state’s Rs five billion tourism industry, the mainstay of its economy. Now most of these houseboats, like Butt’s, lie virtually abandoned with owners wonde ring whether they will ever see an end to the cycle of violence and unrest of the last eleven years that has taken the lives of nearly 25,000 people and virtually buried the state’s status as a premier tourist destination. |
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Harkat
favours jehad SRINAGAR, Aug 21 (PTI) — Differences among militant outfits over the ceasefire and initiation of talks with India came to the fore with Pakistan-backed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) warning separatists groups and political organisations against such moves and saying the “only” way to resolve the Kashmir issue is through jehad. “Any type of talks with the Government of India are meaningless and fruitless and the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue is jehad”, HUM said in a statement, published in local dailies today, apparently referring to the Hizbul Mujahideen and Hurriyat Conference’s moves to initiate talks with New Delhi. “Militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir should not..... Try to supersede each other in the race for talks as these will prove fruitless and meaningless”, the statement said. HUM accused the Indian Government of “using the ploy of talks, sometimes with the militants and at times with political outfits, to ward off the international pressure to settle the Kashmir issue as per the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state”. Meanwhile, the Imamia Conference, a less known political outfit, termed as “unwise” the proposal put forth by Hurriyat Conference Chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat to constitute two groups of its executive members to initiate talks with New Delhi and Islamabad. Stating that Bhat floated the idea to remove the militant leadership from the scene, the spokesman said “it will not be accepted at all”. |
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Amendment to J & K
Constitution sought JAMMU, Aug 21 — A BJP leader Mr Onkar Seth, has demanded amendment in the state Constitution to incorporate the 73rd and 74th amendment of the Indian constitution so as to have devolution of powers to the panchayats and local bodies. In a statement here today, Mr Seth said while the ruling leaders of the National Conference were clamouring for greater autonomy to the Centre but it was highly intriguing that the leaders of the National Conference have usurped the powers whatever little were available to the panchayats and local bodies. He pointed out that no elections to these bodies were held for the past 20 years and the government-nominated officials were running the show He wanted the National Conference leaders to explain that why the status of municipalities, town area and notified area committees have not been raised as was promised as far back as
in n 1996. |
Jawahar Tunnel
cleaned SRINAGAR, Aug 21 (PTI) — Travellers on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway will now pass through a cleaner and brighter Jawahar Tunnel. Acting on a notice from the state Pollution Control Board (PCB) two months back, authorities have installed 22 heavy duty flow fans in the 2.5 km-long tunnel for pumping out polluted air, a sensor monitor, close circuit
TVs, proper lighting and fire extinguishers. “Tunnel authorities have initiated several measures to check the growing pollution in the Jawahar Tunnel,” an official spokesman said today. The PCB, which found the level of pollutants inside the tunnel to be beyond permissible limits, had issued a notice to the tunnel authorities to take immediate steps to control air pollution. In a bid to check the menace of hospital waste, the PCB served notices on all hospitals and nursing homes here under the bio-medical waste (management and handling) rules, 1998 to immediately install waste management equipment like autoclaves, incinerators and microwave systems. Under the bio-medical rules, it is binding on all hospitals, nursing homes and other such facilities to get themselves approved by the state
PCB. According to the member-secretary of the board, Inayatullah, the deadline for Installing waste management equipment for a 500-bed and more hospital was June 30, 2000. |
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Viral fever epidemic in Jammu JAMMU, Aug 21 — Viral fever has assumed the form of an epidemic in Jammu and reports from government hospitals and private clinics reveal, that between 300 and 400 patients suffering from viral fever and other related diseases are treated daily by doctors. “In every family we find four to five members suffering from viral fever, gastroenteritis and diarrhoea and sometimes viral fever turned into typhoid and malaria, said several doctors. They attributed these infectious diseases to contaminated water, unhygienic conditions, insanitation, choked drains and broken pipes through which drinking water is being supplied. When this correspondent visited a private clinic there was a long queue of patients waiting for their turn. The doctor said the number of patients suffering from viral fever was on the rise due to hot and humid weather. He suggested that filtered water should be used as a preventive measure during the rainy season. Superintending Engineer of PHE Mr I.C. Jandial, said during the rainy season they tested water samples regularly but due to leakage in pipes some contaminated water flowed into the pipes. He said as far as the supply of safe drinking water was concerned the department was using bleaching powder. Mr Jandial said to purify water during the rainy season alum was added to the storage tanks. Officials of the directorate of Health Services said the department was supplying chlorine tablets free of cost to people for making stored water portable. They, however, complained that a majority of people did not cooperate by not keeping water tanks clean. |
Bomb
hoax delays Jodhpur Express KATHUA, Aug 21 — A bomb rumour delayed arrival of the Jodhpur Express at Jammu station by at least two and a half hours. According to Deputy Inspector General of Police, Railway and Crimes, Mr Prem Gupta, a youth was nabbed moving under suspicious circumstances at Gagwal Railway Station at around 7 p.m. During questioning, he revealed that his brother had planted two bombs on the train which would explode after an hour. On getting this information the police swung into action. All 13 bogies of the train were searched, but no explosive was recovered. |
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