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| Saturday, March 31, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Three Lashker ultras shot NC to stand by NDA, hold rally Walkout over police recruitments 2 Pak agents held, 18 lakh recovered |
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| Leopards not allowed to mate Jammu, March 30 As many as nine leopards, five male and four females, are on heat but are not being allowed to mate for the past year at Manda Sanctuary here. Their eyes “blaze” at times and on other occasions they seem depressed. 
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Three Lashker ultras shot Srinagar, March 30 A report from Baramula said a fierce clash was going on between militants and the security forces at Rampora, about 7 km from Bandipora immediately after Friday prayers were over. Further details are awaited. Elsewhere, unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade at a bus at Mahmood-Abad in south Kashmir today causing injuries to five passengers and the driver of the bus. An official spokesman said an encounter took place between militants and the security forces at Badhal Kanthor village in Kandi sector of Rajouri district this morning during a search operation. He said three Lashkar militants, including a self-styled district commander Hyder Hussain were killed. A security personnel also lost his life in the clash, he said. Another foreign militant was gunned down at Sabzi village under Darhal police station in the same district last night. One AK rifle, two grenades and one improvised explosive device, were seized. He said militants entered the house of Bashir Ahmad Bhat at Kush-Ghari village and shot dead his wife and a relative last evening. Militants also gate crashed into the house of Abdul Rashid at Tralika Mahore and shot dead his wife. And injured his daughter. He said one militant ,who was injured in an encounter at Tutigund in the Kupwara district on March 25, died in the hospital last night. Militants kidnapped one Ghulam Rasool Dar at Alamgari Bazar in the down town last evening. The security forces recovered 3 kg of RDX, one remote control, one detonators, three grenades, one rocket launcher with two rockets, two explosive pakcets and two combat bages during searches across the state since last evening.
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NC to stand by NDA, hold rally Jammu, March 30 The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, today invited leader of the BJP Legislature Party, Mr Shiv Charan Gupta, and another party MLA, Mr Ashok Khajuria to his seat in the Assembly and suggested them to fix a date for the proposed NDA rally to be held in Jammu in support of the Vajpayee government. The Chief Minister later invited Mr Gupta to his chambers for further discussion. Dr Abdullah has plans to invite some Chief Ministers, supporting the NDA, and other senior BJP leaders from the Centre to the proposed rally. He is keen to lend his support to the NDA, which has come under cloud following the Tehelka expose. The National Conference has four members in the Lok Sabha. When the Tehelka expose had rocked the NDA Government it was presumed that the National Conference leadership would adopt the role of fence sitter. But Dr Abdullah has come out openly in support of the NDA Government and participated in all its meetings in Delhi since his return from the Haj pilgrimage. The Kashmir Chief Minister has two reasons to cast his lot with the NDA government. The continued fiscal distress in the state has limited his option and he would like to utilise the opportunity for getting additional funds which the state required to take in hand development projects and for tackling the drought. The internal resources of the state are too meagre to allow the government to meet even the salary bill of the employees. Secondly, the Chief Minister is not in favour of holding the Assembly poll earlier than the schedule. The elections are due in October 2002. He had received a hint that the Prime Minister would welcome an early poll to enable even the separatists, especially the APHC, to participate. Dr Abdullah is said to have conveyed to the Centre that the atmosphere was not conducive to the elections when militants had targeted newly elected sarpanches and panches.
He, therefore, does not want a situation in which he would be forced to go in for early elections. This he can achieve by remaining loyal to the NDA. |
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Walkout over police recruitments Jammu, March 30 The question regarding the total number of persons belonging to SCs/STs recruited in the police since 1996 and the constituency-wise break-up was raised by NC member Mohammad Hussain. Minister of State Mushtaq Ahmed Lone’s reply did not satisfy the members who were on their feet protesting against the “misuse” of the reservation quota. The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, intervened and informed the House that on-the-spot recruitment by the Director-General of Police had allowed youths belonging to remote areas to get jobs in the police. He assured the members that in case representation to SCs/STs was not within the reservation quota, a compensation would be made. This did not satisfy the members and those belonging to the Congress and the BJP walked out of the House, amidst sloganeering. As BJP member Bali Bhagat kept raising slogans, Speaker Abdul Ahad Vakil directed the watch and ward staff to push the member out of the House, which was done. Mr Vakil said: “They are doing this to get publicity. I will not allow it.” Mr Bali Bhagat walked out of the House in protest against the appointment of Class IV employees in Horticulture Department against set norms and rules. The Minister for Agriculture tried to justify the appointments and denied the charge that favouritism had been shown. Mr Sadiq Ali of the National Conference also protested against the “hush hush policy” being adopted by ministers and senior bureaucrats in the appointment of Class IV employees. In reply to another question, the Chief Minister informed the House that the government had plans to renovate two state government guest houses in Amritsar and Chandigarh. He said the Amritsar Guest House was important as it served as a camping place for those from Kashmir who visited Pakistan to meet their kin. He said since the government was faced with an acute financial crisis, there was no plan to construct guest houses in other states. He would examine the possibility of establishing a commercial complex within the premises of the Amritsar Guest House so that the government could generate resources for the maintenance of guest houses. In this connection, the Punjab Government would be approached for permission. The Speaker directed the government to ensure the presence of senior officers in the House gallery so that they could make a note of the problems being raised by members during Zero hour and other occasions. The issue was raised by several members who drew the attention of the Speaker towards vacant chairs in the official gallery. Later, the House adopted two appropriation Bills, one of the tune of Rs 255.65 crore and the other Rs 9413.75 crore. |
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2 Pak agents held, 18 lakh recovered Kathua, March 30 According to Mr Manohar Singh, SP, the local police had a specific information that a huge amount of money is finding its way to Srinagar for the past few months. A special police team was constituted to trap the gang smuggling the money to Srinagar from Delhi via Lakhanpur. The police while checking the vehicles turned
suspicious of two Srinagar-based people and asked them to get down of their car. During physical search they recovered Rs 1.03 lakh from their possession. The police also searched the car and recovered a huge amount of currency concealed beneath the seats of the car. The police immediately whisked the two suspected persons to an unknown place and subjected them to sustained interrogation. They have been identified as Abdul Majid Shafi and Shotkat Ahmed of Srinagar. Ahmed was working as an auditor in the Department of Animal Husbandry. He is also the advisor of the People’s League Party. The money was collected from Delhi and was to be handed over to a Sringar-based Mohammed Khan Sopori, Acting Chairman, People’s League Party. The money was raised by the Chairman of the People’s League Party, Mohammed Rehmani, in Islamabad. Till last report came in the police was interrogating them. |
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Leopards not allowed to mate Jammu, March 30 Rani, a 12-year-old leopard, had delivered 20 cubs, 10 of them had been eaten by male leopards, and still she wants to produce more, the wildlife authorities say. According to Mr S.D. Swatantra, Chief Wildlife Warden, leopards can produce cubs within four months. “If we allow mating the entire sanctuary will be full of leopards,: he says. The ban on mating has been imposed because “we do not have funds to meet the expenses required for the upkeep of leopards”. Out of the Rs 15 lakh allotted to the Wildlife Department, over Rs 6.5 lakh are spent only on the upkeep of the leopards, Rs 4.5 lakh on sambar, neel, gai, ducks, peacocks etc. A sum of Rs 4 lakh have been spent on raising enclosures. One leopard consumes at least 3 kg of mutton every day and it costs nearly Rs 1 lakh for providing mutton to the leopards. The department has conveyed to various zoos its willingness to give away some leopards of rearing. A zoo in Kanpur has responded but so far nobody has come forward to take them away. Only 10 cubs born to Rani were sent to different sanctuaries. The authorities say the entire state is facing an acute cash crunch. “When the funds are not available for executing important development projects, it is not possible for the government to allot bigger funds for preserving animals,” they say. The only way to restrict the population of leopards is to ban mating. However, the leopards seem agitated. They keep looking towards the female leopards in other enclosures. |
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