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Saturday,
January 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Hizb rejects Mufti’s soft
policy Farooq’s ideas on LoC being talked about Shah detained, released
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Border troops exchange fire LeT ultra killed in Kupwara Bank attaches Super Bazar stocks Midday meals revived in primary
schools Varsity to popularise
pre-primary education
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Hizb rejects Mufti’s soft
policy Srinagar, January 3 The “directive” has come at the end of two months of the PDP-Congress coalition government. The coalition government has been working on the oft-repeated “healing touch” and common minimum programme reached out between the four coalition partners. A spokesman of the Hizbul Mujahideen here said a meeting of the field commanders under the chairmanship of Saif-ul-Islam, chief operational commander, accused the coalition government of “releasing prisoners to tame the militants”. Though there has not been any significant respite in the ongoing militancy in Jammu and Kashmir since the new government took over, these have been different in many respects as compared to the previous months. Highly placed police sources here said no case had been registered under POTA during the past two months, even though a number of cases were fit for registration under POTA. This is against at least 100 POTA cases already registered at 84 police stations across six districts of Kashmir valley during the first 10 months of last year. Observers here believe that the sudden pause in the release of separatist political prisoners was mainly due to the criticism of the coalition government by the NDA partners. |
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Farooq’s ideas on LoC being talked about Jammu, January 3 Dr Abdullah had, between 1996 and 2001, repeatedly argued in favour of the conversion of the LoC into a permanent border as he believed that it was the only solution to the Kashmir imbroglio. His suggestion had been pooh-poohed by several leaders of the BJP, the VHP and the RSS. Even a section of the Congress leaders had opposed it. Those who were against the Farooq formula argued that the conversion of the LoC into a permanent border would amount to surrendering “our claim on the territory under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.” Now when the Farooq plan has surfaced again, there are no takers either in Kashmir or in Pakistan. Among the opponents are All-Party Hurriyat Conference leaders and other separatist groups who doubt the feasibility of the formula. A senior Hurriyat conference leader, Maulvi Abbas
Ansari, said, “It will not work.” He said talks on the issue of converting the LoC into a permanent border had been held between Sardar Swaran Singh and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, respectively, in 1963. However, there was no progress. Others who oppose such an arrangement are of the opinion that if Islamabad accepts the conversion of the LoC into a permanent border, there will be no Kashmir dispute. Reports from across the border confirm that Islamabad is not ready to accept this plan. In fact, it has never supported it even when suggestions were made from the Indian side that some major border adjustment would precede the conversion of the LoC into a permanent border. As such, opposition to the plan from the All-Party Hurriyat Conference or any other separatist camp is understandable since they cannot afford to go against the line being pursued by Islamabad. It is in this context that Maulvi Abbas Ansari has blamed the Government of India for not giving weightage to “our plan of bringing Islamabad and New Delhi to the negotiating table.” In support of his contention, he referred to the plan of New Delhi to initiate talks with the “elected representatives.” He said “if these talks were held, these will not restore peace and normalcy which we crave for.” Maulvi Ansari told TNS that “talks without direct or indirect involvement of Pakistan and leaders of militant outfits cannot prove successful in the settlement of the Kashmir issue. He said the recent statement of the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr
L.K. Advani, in which he had stated that “the key to peace depends on the intentions and the attitude of Pakistan”, clearly “substantiates my stand.” The senior Hurriyat leader said “our suggestion that a Hurriyat team be sent to Pakistan for meeting government functionaries and leaders of militant outfits was the most reasonable demand. He said even Jawaharlal Nehru has sent Sheikh Abdullah to Pakistan in 1964 to discuss the matter with the then Pakistan President, Gen Ayub Khan. “When Sheikh Abdullah could be sent to Pakistan, what harm is there if a Hurriyat team is given permission to pick up the thread that the Sheikh had left during his tour, which was cut short by the demise of Nehru?” the Maulvi asked. He said terrorist camps across the border “cannot be closed” by any Indian invasion. “They will be closed once tripartite talks are initiated, “he said, adding that “during our visit we will persuade leaders of militant outfits to stop the gunfire and allow the talks to yield some positive results.” Maulvi Ansari said he was intrigued over the way New Delhi has so far not accepted the suggestion of the Kashmir Committee, headed by Mr Ram Jethmalani, regarding its support to the demand of the APHC to allow its team to visit Pakistan and permission to the committee to interact with the Pakistan Kashmir Committee. |
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Shah detained, released Srinagar, January 3 Shah, accompanied by his party supporters, was stopped by the police and detained for a few hours at Pulwama police station to prevent him from addressing the meeting in violation of the prohibitory orders in effect in the town, official sources said. Senior JKDFP leaders held a protest demonstration at the police station, demanding Shah’s immediate release.
PTI |
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Border troops exchange fire Jammu, January 3 The Pakistani troops, using light and medium machine guns, opened fire at around 8 p.m. at Kandra border outpost. The firing lasted till 10.30 p.m. Indian troops retaliated and the exchange between the two sides continued for some time, but no loss of life or damage to property was reported from the Indian side.
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LeT ultra killed in Kupwara Srinagar, January 3 The militant, identified as Zakir Hussain of the Rahimyar area of Pakistan, was killed in a gunfight with an army search party at Madmadu forest in the Kalaroos area early today, the sources said. An AK rifle, its four magazines, three grenades, an under- barrel grenade launcher with nine grenades and some ammunition was recovered from the killed militant. In another operation, troops of 21st Rashtriya Rifles unearthed a militant hideout from Handwra forest and recovered four pistols, 10 kg of explosives, 20 detonators and eight grenades last night, sources said. However, no one was arrested during the operation, they said.
PTI |
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Bank attaches Super Bazar stocks Jammu, January 3 This was done in pursuance of an award passed by the Registrar cooperative societies, Jammu and Kashmir, for recovery of Rs 216.00 lakh due to the bank from the store, JCCB Chairman Baldev Sharma told reporters here. The super bazar, which fell under the category of chronic defaulters, had earlier reached an out of court settlement, under which the bank had waived nearly Rs 36.06 lakh from the interest amount. But the super bazar did not fulfil its part of the settlement of repayment of the dues, which resulted in the bank taking the extreme step of attaching its
stocks, he said. The bank, Mr Sharma said, is under constant pressure for reducing its non-performing assets (NPA) which was mainly due from the cooperative sector, particularly the Jammu and Kashmir Federation (JAKFED), which owns more than Rs 60.00 crore inclusive of the interest, and is guaranteed by the state government. Mr Sharma said the board has already decided to file a recovery suit against the JAKFED as also the state government which is the guarantor as all persuasive methods have failed including a legal demand notice served on the state government. He said the action against the super bazar was a clear signal to the debtors of the bank, including individuals who are not responding to the bank’s persuasive efforts for settlement of dues. Steps have already been initiated against individuals and the names of some of the defaulters were recently notified in the newspapers and the second such list is about to be publicised before their assets hypothecated to the bank are attached, he said. Mr Sharma said the bank had recently introduced a one time settlement scheme for the chronic defaulters on the model of a scheme formulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD but the scheme did not evoke much response. In the last board meeting, the bank had prepared a scheme, which will be submitted to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies. He said two recovery teams have also been constituted in Jammu district, one for the rural branches and the other for the city branches, which are empowered to proceed vigorously against chronic defaulters.
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Midday meals revived in primary
schools Jammu, January 3 A senior officer of the Directorate Education said the programme, which had been started in 1995, was stopped in 1997. He said under the Supreme Court directions students studying in several thousand primary schools would be provided with midday meals. Official sources said the programme was suspended after government experts found that it amounted to the waste of time of the students and the staff who remained busy in arranging the meals. The programme was launched to check the level of school dropouts, attract children of poor families to educational institutions and ensure that those belonging to the deprived class received good quality meals in schools. It is learnt that for some years the state government received financial assistance and additional food grains for the programme but that was diverted to other sectors after the midday meal scheme was abandoned. A senior Congress leader, Mr Raman Bhalla, while welcoming the revival of the scheme, has suggested to the Minister for School Education, Mr Harsh Dev Singh, to set up a cell of experts to monitor the implementation of the scheme and ensure that quality stuff was made available to the students of primary schools. He said in the past either the teachers used to gulp part of the foodgrains quota earmarked for the midday meals or the managers swindled funds meant for the scheme or sold foodgrains to the dealers. |
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Varsity to popularise
pre-primary education Srinagar, January 3 A spokesman of the university said the project would cost Rs 3.52 crore. In the first year Rs 25 lakh would be spent on it, he said and added that the project had been launched in collaboration with Mr Madanjeet Singh, Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO, a well-known philanthropist and founder of the South Asia Foundation. Mr Madanjeet Singh had donated Rs 20 lakh as seed money for this pilot scheme for the current year with whom an ‘MoU’ had already been signed by the Vice-Chancellor. The project envisages combating school dropout rate in rural areas, providing better motivational strategies for universalisation of elementary education especially for the ‘girl child’, making available the attractive and psychologically effective scheme of enmass enrollment of children between three to six years in the locality and their subsequent retention for learning in school at advanced stages, encouraging educational entrepreneurship among the rural educated girls and supplementing and supporting the ICDS programme. To start with 30 educated girls drawn from rural belts of the Budgam tehsil and Ganderbal should be enrolled to undergo one year Pre-primary Teacher Training.
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