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Thursday,
April 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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J&K
demands Rs 3,000 cr Annual Plan Two
militants among 4 killed 2 killed
in Pak shelling Hurriyat
strike tomorrow ‘No
Pandit left in Nadimarg’ |
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| Rashtriya
Rifles strength to be raised Jammu, April 16 The deputy chief of the Army, Lieut-Gen J.B.S. Yadava, who has come here to attend the fourth biennial conference of the Rashtriya Rifles, told reporters today that 13 more battalions of the Rashtriya Rifles would be raised in the state by 2006 to counter insurgency. 
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J&K
demands Rs 3,000 cr Annual Plan Jammu, April 16 On several occasions in the recent months the state government had conveyed to the Centre the need for finalising the Annual Plan, failing which the coalition government could not present the Budget proposals in the state assembly last month. Instead it had sought a vote on account for three months. As such, it has become mandatory for the state government to present the Budget proposals in the Assembly either towards the end of June or in the first week of July. It is in this context the state team is visiting Delhi to persuade the Centre to give final shape to the Annual Plan. The state government has already demanded a plan size of Rs 3,000 crore against Rs 2,150 crore last year. While making this demand the state authorities have informed the Union Finance Ministry that out of the Rs 2,150 crore Annual Plan over Rs 500 crore was deducted at source on account of interest on the loan component leaving a paltry amount for the state. Finance Department officials have also conveyed to the Centre that so far the funds sanctioned for eco-development, promotion of handicrafts and information technology had not been received. Only Rs 100 crore sanctioned for border area development had been released. What has dismayed the state authorities is the way successive central governments had announced a massive economic package for Jammu and Kashmir when in reality not even 20 per cent of the amount was meant for the development of basic amenities. A senior Finance Department official referred to a Rs 6,000 crore package the Centre had announced three years ago and this included the building of the
Manali-Leh road and the Jammu-Srinagar railway project on which 60 per cent of the allocations were to be spent. Since the formation of the
PDP-Congress coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir the financial crunch had remained a permanent feature, restricting the state administration in its plan of taking new projects in hand and increasing the job avenues for educated youth. However, a redeeming feature is that the government has been able to make payment of all pending bills of contractors and suppliers by the end of March. Meanwhile, the state government has decided to introduce VAT from October. A senior Finance Department officer said the introduction of VAT “will not result in inflation.” He said: “We have to go in for additional resource mobilisation. Our experiment in this connection has succeeded and last year our tax receipts touched Rs 975 crore against the target of Rs 935 crore.” Among several demands the state has decided to request the 12th Finance Commission to recommend the waiving of the central loan to the tune of Rs 175 crore, on which the annual interest payable has touched Rs 600 crore and the release of compensation in lieu of Rs 6,000 crore annual loss on account of the limitations imposed by the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 on the use of the water of
Jehlum, the Indus and the Chenab. Another demand is that the pattern of giving to the state central funds as 90 per cent aid and 10 per cent loan should be given retrospective effect. |
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Two militants among 4 killed
Srinagar, April 16 Official sources said acting on a tip-off, security forces had conducted a search operation at Dabligam village near Kokernag in Anantnag district early today to catch the militants. However, when security forces were about to storm a house, they came under heavy fire and the two militants were killed in the ensuing clash that ended in the afternoon. Sources said militants had shot a counter-insurgent, Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, at Pulwama, while a police constable, Muzaffar Ahmad, who had got injured at Shopian in a recent grenade blast, had died in hospital early today. An official spokesman said security forces yesterday captured a militant from the border area of Boniyar in Baramulla district Another militant had been arrested at Batkote in the district of Kupwara, he said. Security forces also seized three AK assault magazines, 150 rounds, two grenades and six UBGLs from Tootigund forest in Kupwara late yesterday. JAMMU: Security forces have recovered the body of a Hizbul-Mujahideen militant, Safdar Ali, who was killed in a group clash at Bungalokatri in Gandoh tehsil of Doda district, official sources have said here today. Security forces recovered the body during patrolling in Bungalokatri area yesterday. Ali, a Pakistan-trained militant, had joined militancy in 1992. No weapon was seized from the spot. A search operation is on in the area to track down other militants.
UNI,
PTI |
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2 killed in Pak
shelling Jammu, April 16 The firing and shelling from across the Line of Control started at 8.30 p.m. yesterday and continued throughout the night, they said adding Indian troops retaliated effectively. A few houses were damaged in the Seeri and Makri areas of the Noushera sector due to the shelling. However, there was no report of any casualty on the Indian side, they said. Pakistani troops had also targeted the Bhawani and Noushera sectors yesterday in which an Army Havildar and a woman were killed and two youths injured. Reports from the international border said intermittent exchange of light arms fire took place at some places in the Samba and RS Pura sectors in Jammu district last night without any loss of life or damage to property on the Indian side.
PTI |
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Hurriyat strike tomorrow
Srinagar, April 16 “We appeal to the people of Kashmir to go on strike during the Prime Minister’s visit,” the Hurriyat Executive Council, the highest decision-making body of the amalgam, said at a meeting here. The Hizbul-Mujahideen outfit has also called for a general strike during Mr Vajpayee’s visit. Newly-appointed Hizb chief operational commander Gazi Naseer-ud-Din, in a statement to local media organisation, said “We appeal to people to observe a complete strike during the visit”. He said such visits and announcement of economic packages would not help resolve the Kashmir issue.
UNI |
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‘No Pandit left in Nadimarg’ Jammu, April 16 The vice-president of the All-State Kashmiri Pandits Conference (ASKPC), Mr Hira Lala Chatta, told the PTI here today that, besides Nadimarg survivors, seven persons of two families from Begam village in Kulgam area of Anantnag and two other Pandits from Srinagar had also arrived here. “With this, 154 Pandits have, so far, migrated from the valley to Jammu after the Nadimarg massacre,” Mr Chatta said. Soon after the carnage, six persons migrated from the village, followed by migration of 24 Pandits on April 6 and the last batch of 11 arrived here late yesterday. “The administration did not allow us to move out of the village guarded by the police,” Mr Lal alleged.
PTI |
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Rashtriya
Rifles strength to be raised Jammu, April 16 He said the Cabinet Committee on Security had decided to increase the strength of the force to 66 battalions from 53 battalions at present. The General said he hoped that the developments in Iraq would demoralise terrorist groups operating from Pakistan. To modernise the Rashtriya Rifles, night-surveillance equipment and a wider range of arms and ammunition would be given to its soldiers to check infiltration by Pakistan-trained terrorists, who used sophisticated gadgets to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir unnoticed by the security forces. General Yadava said that infiltration had increased these days, as militants not only hired guides to take them across safely, but also used night-vision goggles to escape the Army ambush patrols, mines and metal detectors. Negotiations were on with manufacturers of such sophisticated equipment for the purchase. Indian soldiers would also be provided with enough body-protection equipment in its modernisation drive. The Director General of the Rashtriya Rifles, Lieut-Gen Kapil Vij, and all five General Officers Commanding — Maj-Gen H.S. Lidder, Maj-Gen P.S. Chaudhary, Maj-Gen Jasbir Lidder, Maj-Gen Satyavir Yadava and Maj-Gen R. Singh — were present at the press conference where Lieut-Gen Yadava said the entire state would eventually be covered by the Rashtriya Rifles. Terrorist activities were expected to increase in summer, but the force was ready to meet the situation. There were also plans to fence infiltration-prone areas on the LoC. There would be no de-mining along the LoC, but landmines were being removed from the international border. He said there had been a split in Hizb-ul-Mujahideen after the killing of its commanders, Majid Dar and Sharif Islam. The new commander, Qazi Naseeruddin, was not being accepted by a section of the militant outfit. |
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