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Wednesday,
November 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Promotional packages by J&K Government
soon Resentment among Congress MLAs
Composite talks with Pak must:
Tarigami |
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NC in a fix over RS
seat 150 JSM activists court arrest Two die in Pak shelling
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Promotional packages by J&K Government
soon Jammu, November 5 The package was discussed today by the Finance Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beg, with several senior bureaucrats in the civil secretariat on the first day after the offices reopened. The bureaucrats had a tough time dealing with the well-informed Finance Minister who even scolded an officer, who is in charge of the Dal development project, on the ground that he had not studied the project report prepared by a private consultancy agency. When the officer informed the Finance Minister that the report had been submitted to the erstwhile Cabinet for approval, Mr Beg asked him “have you gone through the report?” The moment the officer replied in the negative the minister wanted to know the reason how the Cabinet could be expected to give its approval when the officer did not know the contents of the project report. Informed sources said the government was keen to introduce the packages so that those affected by militancy could secure some benefits. In this connection it planned to motivate educational institutions in several states to send student groups to Jammu and Kashmir for which series of concessions would be introduced. Mr Beg directed the Director-General Tourism, and Commissioner, Tourism, to prepare a package of incentives for attracting tourists to the state without waiting for the atmosphere to become favourable. Besides working out modalities for providing increased relief to border migrants camping in Kathua, R.S. Pora and Samba sectors, the government has approached several Kashmiri Pandit leaders and organisations to motivate migrant families to return. Interestingly, the PDP leadership is trying to pacify the Congress camp over the allotment of portfolios to the party ministers and over the non-inclusion of senior Congress leaders who had defeated NC ministers in the recent Assembly poll. It is learnt that after the Cabinet expansion the important portfolios retained by the Chief Minister would be given to Congress ministers. Another area which is going to get top priority is the tackling of the problem of unemployment. |
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Resentment among Congress MLAs Jammu, November 5 When this correspondent met a few of the Congress MLAs they expressed dismay over ignoring Congressmen who had defeated ministers in the Farooq-led Cabinet had not been given a berth in the council of ministers. “We have trounced the senior Cabinet ministers and as such we deserved a place in the Cabinet,” said a legislator who had defeated a senior Cabinet colleague of Dr Farooq Abdullah. He was also critical of the less important portfolios having been allotted to the Congress legislators, including the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma. Inside reports said the Mufti was under pressure from not only his party legislators but also from the Congress and 13 Independent MLAs. The Chief Minister has deferred the Cabinet expansion on two grounds. First, he would not like to face cross voting during elections for four seats in the Rajya Sabha and eight seats in the Legislative Council this month. Second, Mufti Sayeed has yet to settle down and has not made up his mind whether some of the legislators could be accommodated by making them chairmen of public sector corporations and boards. The PCC leadership has conveyed to the Chief Minister its preference for inducting Independent MLAs in the council of ministers. For instance while the Mufti is interested in giving Cabinet rank to Justice (retd) M.L. Bhat, the Congress is keen to see Mr Raman Mattoo, who won the Habba Kadal seat as an Independent, inducted in the Council of Ministers. At present, there is a race between the PDP and the Congress for wooing the Independent MLAs. The Congress leadership has been telling some Independent MLAs that they should first join the Congress and then seek support from the party for securing a place for them in the council of ministers. The PDP is also adopting the same strategy. The PDP-Congress coalition needs support of only two Independent candidates for winning the vote of confidence on the floor of the House after the four members of the Panthers Party and two legislators of the CPM have already announced their support. One Panthers Party MLA, Mr Harsh Dev Singh, has already been inducted into the Cabinet. The CPM leader and legislator, Mr M.Y. Tarigami, told The Tribune that the coalition had no threat from the Independent MLAs. In reply to a question, he said there was no hurry in accepting a cabinet post. He said that the CPM politburo had not yet given green signal for joining the cabinet. “I have decided to support the government from outside.” The Congress and the PDP need the support of all the Independent MLAs for winning two seats and one seat of the Rajya Sabha. The fourth seat is expected to be bagged by the NC which has 28 MLAs. It is for this that the Mufti has decided to expand the council of ministers after November 25 because by that time the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council seats would have been filled. There is no constitutional bar on the size of the ministry. But in the light of the financial position of the state the Chief Minister cannot afford to have more than 30 to 32-member ministers. |
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Composite talks with Pak must: Tarigami Srinagar, November 5 Addressing a gathering at Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara last evening, he appealed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to adhere to the opportunity provided by the historic elections and initiate a dialogue with a cross-section of people to ensure peace in the militancy-ridden state. He said the Centre should initiate a composite dialogue with Pakistan to end violence in the state. Mr Tarigami, who was accompanied by local MLA Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi and Hakeem Mohammed Yaseen, was greeted by thousands of people and accorded a warm reception at Handwara. In a veiled call to separatists in the state, the leader of Democratic People’s Forum said the elections had provided an opportunity not only to those who had been elected to the state legislature but also those who remained out of the democratic process. “Opportunity comes seldom and I appeal to those who remained out of the political process to join the caravan of the people of the state who have been yearning for peace,” Mr Tarigami said. He said the de-escalatory measures taken by India and Pakistan were only half-hearted and needed to be further cemented by initiation of a serious dialogue between the two countries. On the decision of the DPF to stay away from the ministry of the state, Mr Tarigami said. “It is a new experience. We will continue to support the coalition government as long as it sticks to the common minimum programme.” Addressing the gathering, Hakeem Mohammed Yaseen, an independent MLA from Khan Sahib, said the proposed accountability bureau” should be started soon. PTI |
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NC in a fix over RS
seat Jammu, November 5 Election to the four Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant this month is scheduled for November 18. The National Conference may not be able to win a single seat with its strength of 28 in the House of 87 because separate notifications have been issued for two seats with the remaining two seats having been included in the third notification. Had a single notification been issued for the four seats, the situation could have been different, and the NC may have comfortably won at least one seat. As things stand today, the
PDP-led coalition is in a position to win all four seats being vacated by Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress and Mr Mirza Abdul
Rashid, Mr Sharif-ud-din Shariq and Mr Kushak Thiksey of the NC. Senior leaders of the NC told this correspondent here today that Dr Abdullah did not give serious thought to the issue as he was confident that the NC would return to power and capture all four Rajya Sabha seats. However that did not happens and these seats were bound to go out of the hands of the NC for the first time in the past 27 years. The leaders pointed out that these seats could have been retained by the NC had the election for these been got done before the dissolution of the earlier Assembly. Following the rout of the NC in the recent assembly elections, the NC leadership has been planning to get Dr Abdullah rehabilitated at the national level by getting him elected to the Rajya Sabha so that he may be inducted into the Central Ministry. The resignation of his son, Mr Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for External Affairs, could be then accepted by the Prime Minister to help him return to state politics. Activists of the NC pointed out that the
PDP-led coalition government could be pressurised by the Congress to spare a seat for Dr Abdullah who had got Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state. |
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150 JSM activists court arrest Jammu, November 5 The JSM activists marched towards the Secretariat raising slogans against the Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed. They accused the Congress and the Panthers Party of having betrayed the people of Jammu by accepting a Chief Minister from Kashmir. The BJP activists led by the party’s state unit chief, Mr D.K. Kotwal, sat on a dharna near the Secretariat in protest against the common minimum programme of the coalition government which they accused was anti-national. They alleged that the Chief Minsiter, Mufti Sayeed, was trying to placate terrorists by promising that POTA would be scrapped. They said the Congress and the Panthers Party had been campaigning that the Chief Minister this time would be from the Jammu region but changed their stand after the election results came in. |
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Two die in Pak shelling Baramula, November 5 Official sources told UNI that Pakistani troops fired more than 20 mortar and artillery shells from across the border in Uri sector yesterday targeting civilian areas and security forces installations. Sources said some of the shells fell at Nawa Randha resulting in the death of Abdul Aziz Hajam and injuries to three others including a woman. The injured were admitted to a hospital here where the condition of one of them was stated to be critical. Sources said shelling from across the border started again this afternoon in the sector. Reports of shelling by the Pakistani troops were also received from Tangdar and other sectors in north Kashmir. However, there were no reports of any loss of life or damage to property, they said. The Indian troops also retaliated and hit a number of Pakistan bunkers in the forward areas. However, the exact damage suffered by the troops across the border was not immediately known. Jammu: A girl was killed when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Mendhar sector of Poonch district late Monday. Official sources said the Pakistani troops opened fire targeting Army and civilian installations in Mendhar sector of Poonch district. A girl, identified as Mariam Khatoon (12), was killed on the spot when a bullet from across the border hit her at Debta-Dhar-Gloon village in Mendhar sector of Poonch district. Meanwhile Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged small arms fire at 15 border outposts along the international border in the district
overnight. UNI |
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