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Sunday,
May 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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NEWS ANALYSIS Mufti banking on assets Issue White Paper on funds for Jammu: BJP BJP unity a distant dream? BJP backs Zanskar panel demand |
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Heritage status for 2 colleges
Rail link that connected Jammu, Sialkot Two SPOs hurt in attack, 1 kidnapped Air Marshal visits Udhampur base ‘Announce gurdwara bodies’ poll in 15 days’
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NEWS ANALYSIS Jammu, May 24 Addressing a large public rally in Srinagar in connection with the first death anniversary of his father, Mr Abdul Gani Lone, on May 22, Mr Sajjad Lone had suggested to the APHC to abandon rigid attitude and realise that the situation in the world had started changing. The tone and tenor of the speech of Mr Sajjad indicated that within one year he too, like his father, had emerged as a moderate among the separatists favouring negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue and other bilateral problems between India and Pakistan. However, the APHC Chairman, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, denied the charge that the Hurriayat leadership had adopted rigid postures. He said that “right from 1994, when the conglomerate was born, we have been in favour of negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue.” He said “we even suggested to the Government of India to allow a team of Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan and occupied Kashmir for discussing ceasefire with leaders of militants outfits. We have shown willingness to hold talks with senior political leaders in Delhi.” Prof Bhat said “it is unfortunate that neither our team was granted permission to visit Pakistan nor political leaders of the stature of Prime Minister and other national-level leaders came forward to hold talks with us. “Since the Kashmir issue and the ongoing turmoil were political issues they could not be tackled through talks with bureaucrats appointee as negotiators by the Government of India,” he said. The APHC chairman said “we were the first to welcome the peace initiative moved by Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the positive response to it from Islamabad.” He was hopeful that once the India-Pakistan talks would start guns in Kashmir “are likely to fall silent.” It is in this context that he wanted Delhi and Islamabad to make a move and carry the proposed parleys to their logical conclusion. He said both India and Pakistan have adopted hostile postures for the past 55 years and the result of political
instability, unrest and bloodshed. “We in Kashmir have been the worst sufferers of this hostility and I am sure this time both Islamabad and Delhi are sincere in resolving the Kashmir issue which could ensure peace for the people in the entire continent, he added. |
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Mufti banking on assets Jammu, May 24 The Mufti was all these years accusing Dr Abdullah of misusing the fleet of aircraft of the government and sinking crores on laying of an international golf course on the banks of the Dal Lake in
Srinagar. His supporters also accused Dr Abdullah of renovating and refurnishing the official residence of the Chief Minister here by spending lakhs. However, the state government-owned aircraft and helicopters are still being used except that the Mufti at times flies in commercial aircraft to Srinagar and Delhi. The two seven-seater helicopters of the government were for the first time utilised this winter for carrying passengers to the snow-bound areas of the state through which a sum of Rs 6 crore was saved from being paid to he Indian Air Force as had been practice earlier. The Mufti recently went to Mumbai, Hyderabad and other places in the south to invite the film industry and business magnets to Jammu and Kashmir. He said the helicopters would be rented out to producers for shooting of films. The Royal Springs golf course remained on top of the agenda of the Mufti for criticising Dr Abdullah for sinking a huge amount of money for its construction and cutting hundreds of trees for the purpose. However, now the Mufti himself organised a championship for envoys on this golf course recently in a bid to revive tourism in the Kashmir Valley. The huge expenditure on renovating and refurnishing the Chief
Minister's residence in Jammu was criticised during the regime of Dr Abdullah, but the Mufti lost no time in shifting there soon after becoming the Chief Minister. |
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Issue White Paper on funds for Jammu: BJP Jammu, May 24 In a statement issued here today, Dr Nirmal Singh, president of the State BJP, accused the PDP-led government of discrimination against the Jammu region. He demanded that the White Paper should contain details of the funds spent on development in the Jammu division and also the Kashmir Valley. It should also reveal the number of jobs provided in the Jammu division under the coalition government’s “healing touch” policy. He demanded that the White Paper should also reflect the revenue the government was fetching from the Jammu and the Kashmir divisions, respectively. Dr Nirmal Singh warned that the BJP would expose the discrimination which the coalition comprising the Congress, the PDP and the Panthers Party was practising against the Jammu region. The Mufti government, which was claiming to be “people-friendly,” was no different from the earlier Kashmir-dominated governments and its ultimate aim was to jeopardise to the maximum extent the political and economic rights and interests of the people of the Jammu region to keep the people of Kashmir in good humour and appease them under one pretext or the other, he alleged. He demanded that the report of the Wazir Commission should be implemented without further delay and the problems faced by the border migrants of Jammu should be solved immediately. |
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BJP unity a distant dream? Jammu, May 24 The loyalists have submitted a fresh report to the party high command over the continued “anti-party activities” being carried out by the dissidents. The recent statement issued by Mr Shiv Charan Gupta, a prominent dissident leader, in which he had, according to the BJP circles, claimed that the central leaders had accepted Prajya Parishad Yadgaar Samiti as an organ of the BJP was given as reference by the loyalists. Mr Gupta had also been installed as the president of the samiti, they added. BJP circles disclosed that when senior party functionaries in Delhi had convened a meeting to discuss the attempts being made by the dissidents to “hijack” the BJP agenda under the banner of the samiti the dissident leaders were asked to conduct functions under the banner of the BJP. They had agreed but later violated the commitment they had made in front of Mr Rajnath Singh and Mr O.P. Kohli. The notices were issued to Mr Shiv Charan Gupta, Mr Kuldeep Raj Gupta, Mr Chander Mohan Sharma and Mr Sat Pal Grover for organising functions under the banner of the samiti when the state unit of the BJP had announced its programme of holding week long functions in connection with the martyrdom of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and his birth anniversary. President of the BJP unit, Nirmal Singh had stated that the party high command that if the dissidents were encouraged to hold parallel functions it would weaken the party base in Jammu region. A senior BJP leader said since the dissidents were not prepared to work under the leadership of Dr Nirmal Singh they had started kicking up one controversy or the other to malign the name of party leaders. On the other hand the dissidents said instead of taming the RSS-backed State Morcha the party high command was unnecessarily blaming them for anti-party activities. The loyalist camp seems to be bitter over the way the dissidents have ignored the instructions issued to them by the party high command. |
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BJP backs Zanskar panel demand Jammu, May 24 In a statement here yesterday, Prof Hari Om, spokesman of the BJP, accused the ruling PDP and its coalition partners of ignoring the provisions of the J&K Representation of People Act and denying the Buddhists their rightful demand. He said the BJP was of the view that the decision of the Mufti-led coalition to divide the vast mountainous and difficult Zanskar sub-division with an area of over 7000 sq km into three constituencies of the council was unjustified. The area should be divided into at least 10 constituencies. The residents of Stot, Sham, Junghor Changynos, Lungnak, Padam, Shila Pipcha, Sani and Akshow should be given the right to be represented in the council by choosing their respective representatives. He said the socially, economically, educationally and politically ignored Buddhists of Zanskar, who remain cut off from rest of the world for about eight months because of snow, deserve a better deal. |
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Heritage status for 2 colleges Jammu, May 24 This was announced by the Minister for Education, Mr Harshdev Singh, while speaking at a function here today. The minister said the erstwhile Prince of Wales College (now known as GGM Science College), Jammu, and Sri Pratap College in Srinagar were the oldest educational institutions in the state and had become historical monuments. He said the Union Ministry of Cultural Affairs was being approached in order to declare these as heritage colleges. Referring to the education system and making it more job-oriented, he stressed the need for changing the syllabi. For the purpose, a special committee comprising experienced academics was being constituted. He said this gigantic task could only be accomplished if teachers from all faculties were actively involved in it. Referring to the rapidly growing demand of students to go in for higher academic qualifications, the minister said since local universities were not in a position to absorb all students in different PG courses, the government had decided to start postgraduate classes in different subjects in local degree colleges. On the women college,
Gandhinagar, the minister said an allocation of Rs 25 lakh had been set apart to equip the college with a modern library. |
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Rail link that connected Jammu, Sialkot JAMMU: A hose made in Britain stands as a forgotten landmark of the Jammu-Sialkot (Pakistan) rail link in the workshop of the state road transport corporation near the Tawi bridge here. It is covered with wild plantation in one corner of the workshop. This section was the only rail link here before Partition and has not been revived because Jammu and Kashmir has always remained volatile with Pakistan raising disputes over the territory. The old railway station has been converted into a workshop of the government owned road transport corporation and the platform was recently demolished to widen the main road outside. A huge cultural complex is being constructed in a portion of the erstwhile railway station and some part of it is being used as a stores yard of the Projects Construction Corporation. Shops have come up in the building which once housed the customs office. Other buildings in the workshop have been converted into offices of the transport corporation. An old-timer and a veteran journalist, Mr Dharam Chandra Prashant, recalls fun he used to have while travelling to Sialkot to participate in games. Many times he went beyond Lahore, the most developed town of the area those days. Mr Prashant recalls he used to pay a fare of 4 annas for Sialkot. Many residents of Sialkot used to come here for a picnic at the canal. It took nearly 30 minutes to reach Sialkot from here. Mr Lok Nath Mangotra, a timber trader, recalls that he regularly caught the train for reaching Nawanshahr en route Sialkot where he had established his business. The fare for his destination in the train was 3 annas against the bus fare was 4 annas. He travelled to Lahore in the same train in 1945 to appear in an examination of Panjab University. Over the years the rail line has been dismantled by the people and houses have come up in the small railway stations which existed earlier on the route. Most of the land of the railway station at Miran Sahib, 8 kms from here, was allotted to refugees who came from Poonch. |
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Two SPOs hurt in attack, 1 kidnapped Srinagar, May 24 A civilian, Bashir Ahmad Dar, was killed by gunmen for money at Nowbugh bridge in Badgam district today, the Spokesman said. He said Dar, a resident of the same area, was on way home after drawing Rs 3 lakh from a bank when he was attacked And the cash looted, the spokesman added. Suspected militants killed another civilian Mohammad Maqbool at Wahdan in Anantnag district of south Kashmir, he said, adding that Maqbool, a resident of Sellar, was kidnapped and later killed, suspecting him to be an informer. Two SPOs were injured in a grenade attack by militants on a police vehicle near Chakka in Doda district. Militants kidnapped SPO Mohammad Ashraf Khan from his residence at Chandigam-Sogam in Kupwara district last night. Meanwhile, the security forces busted two militant hide-outs, one each at Surankote and Mendhar, in Poonch district, which led to the recovery of four rockets, two boosters, three AK rifles, 6 kg of explosives, nearly 3,000 rounds of assorted ammunition, besides 10 quintals of rice and 200 kg of wheat, he said. The spokesman said two suspected militants were arrested during search operations at Beerwah in Badgam district and Cheerpora in Anantnag district. Three grenades and some documents were recovered from them.
PTI |
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Air Marshal visits Udhampur base Jammu, May 24 He addressed all ranks and gave out his vision for the Air Force in general and the base in particular. In his address he appreciated the dedication of all personnel in providing logistic support to the Army, which is fighting a proxy war in the insurgency-infested state of J&K. He called on all men to give their best. He had interaction with ranks of both at the work place and at social gatherings. He gave some directions for the implementation in a time-bound phased manner to enhance the operational, maintenance and administrative efficiency of the base. |
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‘Announce gurdwara bodies’ poll in 15 days’ Jammu, May 24 Mr Wazir said that the terms of the existing bodies expired in October last, but fresh elections had not been held despite repeated requests to the state government. Mr Jagdev Singh, President of the State Akali Dal, welcomed the unity move between various Akali factions and appreciated the initiative taken by Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra in this direction. |
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3 Ladakh Council members take oath Srinagar, May 24 The Principal District and Session Judge, Leh administered the oath to the councillors Norboo Gyalson, Tsering Norboo and Tundup Tsering of Kkhaltsi, Basgo and Lower-Leh constituencies respectively at a function at conference hall in Leh in frontier region of Ladakh, the sources said. With the filling of three vacant seats, the quorum of hill council Leh is complete.
PTI |
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Srinagar-Leh road opens Srinagar, May 24 The arterial road joining strategically important Leh and Kargil districts to the valley was cleared of several feet of snow and made motorable by the Border Roads Organisation, the sources said. Described as lifeline to the cold desert region of Ladakh, the highway was closed to traffic in November last year as usual for winter months.
PTI |
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Two forest officers suspended Srinagar, May 24 The orders to this effect have been issued on the instructions of Forest Minister Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Sofi after obtaining a first hand report from the state Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. He said the DFO and the RO had illegally extracted timber in compartments of forest in the Kamraj division.
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