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Wednesday,
March 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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PROTEST AGAINST SPEAKER’S RULING Sayeed among 6 elected to J&K council PDF recognised as separate group
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3 Hizbul ultras
killed in Doda area J&K to
promote pilgrim tourism Fertilisers’ entry only through trains Six held for vehicle theft
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PROTEST AGAINST SPEAKER’S RULING Jammu, March 4 For 15 minutes more than 15 NC members were on their feet protesting against the Speaker’s ruling. The Speaker did not allow Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar to ask supplementary after Finance Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig, rising on a point of order informed the Speaker that no member could ask a supplementary question after the Chief Minister had replied to the basic question. Certain agitated members including Mr Sharief Din Shariq, tore up the list of questions. The PDP and the Congress members, including Mr Yogesh Sawhney, Mr Raman Bhalla, Mr Ghulam Ahmed Saroori, were on their feet trying to shout down the NC members. The two sides exchanged hot words but nothing was audible in the din. The Speaker’s repeated pleas to the members to maintain decorum in the House but the NC members refused to listen. They wanted permission to raise questions on an issue said to be connected with the future of the state. As the proceedings were disrupted Mr Tara Chand had to yield and allowed Mr Sagar to ask another question. It was at this juncture that leader of the opposition, Mr Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, said that rules had not been framed by God. The rules could be relaxed so that members got time to ask relevant questions. The trouble arose during the question hour. The question was tabled by Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar. He wanted to know whether the Government of India intend to hold the dialogue only with the elected representatives or with the separatists also. To this question Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri, said that it was the firm belief of the government that wide-ranging dialogue by the Government of India with the members of the legislature and other segments of public opinion in all three regions of the state would evolve a broadbased consensus on the restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Veeri said the central government had already appointed Mr N.N. Vohra, a former Union Home Secretary, as interlocutor for a dialogue with the elected representatives and other sections of the society. Dissatisfied with the reply Mr Sagar asked a pointed question to the Chief Minister wanting him to inform the House whether Mr Vohra would talk to the leaders of the Hurriyat Conference and the militants also when the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had told newsmen in Delhi, sometime ago, that dialogue would not be initiated with those who were speaking on behalf of Pakistan. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, said that the government was committed to initiate unconditional dialogue with the elected representatives and others and with those who did not participate in the elections. He said “the dialogue cannot be a pick and choose exercise.” He said that in the past a senior bureaucrat, Mr G. Parthasarthy, too had initiated a successful dialogue with the representative of Sheikh Abdullah which resulted in the NC returning to the mainstream with the Sheikh resuming power. The Mufti evaded a direct reply to Mr Sagar’s pointed question whether talks would be held with militants and the Hurriyat leaders and he simply stated that “we should have a joint approach as far as the talks are concerned because terrorism has become cancer and we have to find out a solution.” The Chief Minister said that an opportunity had come to “us and we should take advantage of it by holding talks with Mr Vohra.” When Mr Sagar insisted that the Chief Minister should inform the House what the government meant by talking to others also, Mufti Sayeed again intervened and said that there were to be no preconditions to the talks. He said the state government would draw the road map for Mr Vohra’s dialogue. He wanted the opposition members not to treat “us” as a commodity that can be taken for granted. The leader of the opposition House in J&K, Mr Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, supported Mr Sagar when he demanded that terms of reference or modalities for talks should have been laid down in the beginning. Another member, Dr Mehboob Beg, said that since the Kashmir turmoil had become complex “we should hold talks with the alienated youth first.” To another question related to militancy the government informed the House that it was exploring means to bring back militants to the national mainstream. It said that efforts were on to encourage rebels to surrender and disclosed that in the past one year 165 militants had surrendered. And the total number of militants who had surrendered in the past 13 years had touched 3356. The government made it clear that it had invited all separatist leaders, including those belonging to the Hurriyat Conference, to come forward for a fruitful dialogue. It also denied the charge that separatists had extended support and sympathy to the present government in the recent elections. In a written reply the government informed the House that there was no question of overt or covert support having been received from the separatists during the elections. Instead the separatists gave a call for poll boycott but people did not heed it and participated in the election allowing democracy to be a winner. The Speaker, Mr Tara Chand, today granted recognition to the People’s Democratic Forum as a legislative group in the Assembly. The forum comprises 11 members, most of them independent candidates who had won the recent election. The forum is headed by Mr M.Y. Tarigami, CPM MLA and Mr Manohar Lal Sharma has been elected its chief whip in the House. Mr Tarigami, who had worked hard for the last several days to bring independent MLAs under one umbrella, said that he wanted to form a group in the Assembly so that “our voice was not lost in the battle of wits between the two giants, the NC and the PDP-Congress combine.” However, sources said that Mr Tarigami, who continues to be a member of the ruling coalition, did not want to keep the independent legislators without an umbrella because in that case the chances of horse-trading could have become bright. |
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Sayeed among 6 elected to J&K council Jammu, March 4 The National Conference had fielded three candidates — Mr Ghulam Qadir Tak, (from the Kashmir valley), Mr Bashir Ahmed Naz, and Mr Bashir Ahmed Zargar (from the Jammu region). Bashir Ahmed Naz son won the council seat by getting 19 votes. Though Mr Ghulam Qadir Tak polled 28 votes, he failed to win because he had received more than eight votes as second preferential votes. The Congress won three seats and the PDP two. Those elected from the Congress were Mr Ali Mohammad Sofi (23 votes), Mr Lal Mohammad Sabir (18 votes) and Mr Amrit Malhotra (19 votes). The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, polled the maximum number of 37 votes. Another PDP candidate who could make it to the Upper House was Mr Ved Mahajan who polled 21 votes. The lone Jammu State Morcha MLA, Mr Aswini Sharma, did not cast his vote. Out of 89 voters 88 cast their votes and the lone BJP MLA left the NC and the PDP-Congress combine guessing when he also cast his vote. Election was held for the eight council seats. However, the contest was for six seats as two candidates, Mr P. Namgyal and Mr Nissarullah Khan had been elected unopposed from Leh and Kargil areas, respectively. Their uncontested election was announced after the nomination papers of Mr Qamar Ali Akhon had been rejected by the Returning Officer on February 22 and Mr Namgyal was left as the only candidate in the field. Today’s election confirmed that the PDP-Congress combine enjoyed a two-thirds majority in the state Assembly because its two candidates, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed (PDP) and Mr Ali Mohd. Sofi (Congress) together polled 60 first preferential votes. The National Conference, which has 20 MLAs, had fielded four candidates, including Qamar Ali Akhoon, whose nomination papers were rejected, with the hope that at least two of them would get elected as a result of cross-voting. The NC had tried to woo some independent MLAs but the poll results indicate that it had failed to secure the support of independent.
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PDF recognised as separate group
Jammu, March 4 Speaker Tara Chand under Rule 111 of the J and K Assembly gave recognition to it as a separate group headed by state CPM secretary Mohammad Yousef Tarigami. An Independent MLA Manohar Lal was announced chief whip of the PDF. “We are happy over the recognition given to us in the Legislative Assembly,” Mr Tarigami told reporters. The PDF, which has five ministers in the coalition government led by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, would continue to support the coalition government in the state, he said. PTI
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3 Hizbul ultras
killed in Doda area Jammu, March 4 Three of the four slain ultras have been identified as Mukhtiar Ahmed, Rashmi and Yasir Asif. They belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. Two assault rifles, one SLR, two double barrel guns, 200 rounds of ammunition, 10 kgs of RDX and seven hand grenades were recovered from the hideout. The police said as the security forces neared the hideout they came under heavy fire. The encounter between the rebels and the security forces lasted for a couple of hours. The police did not rule out the possibility of some of the militants, having escaped the security cordon.
Consequently, search operations have been launched in the area. Srinagar: According to a PTI
report two Al-Umar Mujahideen ultras were arrested by the Border Security Force personnel in the city, a BSF spokesman said today. During routine checking of vehicles in the Wazir Bagh area, BSF personnel spotted the militants as they jumped out of a car and tried to escape, he said. The security personnel chased and arrested them. The militants, identified as Aijaz Ahmad Dar and Mohammad Shafi Wani revealed during questioning that they were carrying out extortion for raising money for the outfit, headed by Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, one of the three militants set free in exchange of the passengers of Indian Airlines plane hijacked by militants in December 1999. Meanwhile, according to a UNI report fresh violence in Kashmir has claimed four lives since last night, officials said today. An official spokesman said militants entered the house of Abdul Khaliq at Kulgam in south Kashmir late last night and fired upon the residents with automatic weapons. The daughter of the house owner of the house —Zaitoon — died on the spot while his wife Fatima was injured. The police today recovered body of Sharif Khan at Hompatheri village in Anantnag district while another body, of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Ghulam Nabi Mgray, alias Zubair, was recovered at Niloora Pulwama. He said the beheaded body of selection grade constable Mohammad Yousuf Hajam was recovered at Shopian this morning.
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J&K
to promote pilgrim tourism Jammu, March 4 “We want to introduce
heritage-pilgrim tourism in the Kashmir Valley from summer this year
encouraging pilgrims, apart from regular tourists, to visit the state,
Minister of Tourism Gulam Hassan Mir said here today. “A circuit
of prominent, ancient shrines of Jama Masjid, Charar-e-Sharief, Shah
Hamdan, Maqdoom Sahab, Badshah Tomb, Baba Rishi, Khirbhawani and
Martand will be thrown open for tourists from the country and outside,
bringing it on the tourist map of the country,” he said. The process of mapping out these shrines in a phased manner had already begun and efforts were on to build necessary infrastructure, Mr Mir said. The
government would also involve the Departments of Central Asian studies
at University of Kashmir as well as some from outside the state in
this regard, the Tourism Minister said. PTI |
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Fertilisers’ entry only through trains
Jammu, March 4 The restriction will be enforced from March 15, Agriculture and Cooperative Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar said here today. However, from the rail head onwards, the fertiliser stocks could be lifted by trucks up to the godowns and other sale outlets, he said. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held here yesterday to evolve a fool-proof fertiliser procurement, stocking and sales mechanism in the state, particularly during the ensuing kharif season, the minister said. Pre-sale sample testing of fertiliser stocks procured from the authorised fertiliser manufacturing companies of the country would also be conducted, Mr Zargar said. The government would allow the sale of only ISI and ISO certified chemical fertiliser from the registered firms, he said. The meeting also discussed measures to check the entry of spurious pesticides and fungicides, renewal of licences and availability of spray oil for orchards at reasonable price. Five special check posts would be set up at Lakhanpur railway station, Jammu, Udhampur, Banihal and lower Manda. The posts, along with enforcement inspectors, would monitor the movement of fertiliser truck loads to eliminate chances of adulteration, he said. PTI
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Six held for vehicle theft Jammu, March 4 As many as 26 vehicles were recovered, including three trucks, seven scooters, seven motor cycles, five cars, one van and one mini bus from Jammu and other places in the state. The gang members used to steal vehicles from Delhi and other places outside J-K and sell them mostly in the Kashmir valley.
PTI
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General
Vij to visit J&K today Jammu, March 4
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Three die in
accident Jammu, March 4 The mishap occurred last night, it said, killing the three passengers of the Maruti car on the spot. The police seized the truck while the driver and the conductor were absconding, it said.
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