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PDP-Cong alliance fails to install own Mayors
Opposition grills govt over sugar shortage
Hizb Commander among four militants killed
IAF lifting civilian officials to Kargil
Rs 50 crore proposed for Mughal road
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Strike in valley against VAT
Srinagar, March 8 Shops and business establishments across the Kashmir Valley were closed today in response to a call given by the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation in protest against the proposed implementation of the VAT from next month.
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PDP-Cong alliance fails to install own Mayors
Jammu, March 8 While the PDP of Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed failed to get a majority for installing its own Mayor in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), the Congress faced a humiliating defeat when the Independent backed by it failed to become Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) yesterday. The Opposition National Conference (NC) captured the Srinagar MC and
installed its men, Mr Ghulam Mustafa Bhat and Mr Ghulam Mohammad Hajam, as Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The BJP nominee, Mr Kavinder Gupta, elbowed out the Congress candidate in the Jammu MC and became Mayor. However, Mrs Rani Beloria, Congress candidate and wife of Chief Secretary S.S.Beloria, won the election of Deputy Mayor. With the Opposition capturing both prestigious municipal corporations, the PDP and Congress find themselves in an awkward position. Both corporations were set up recently. It is for the first time that election for the post of Mayor was held. Unlike the earlier Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the NC and the BJP have performed better in the civic polls. Although the Congress had won all three Assembly seats in Jammu city and also the Lok Sabha seat in the area, its poor performance in the election for Mayor has come as a jolt. Senior leaders of the Congress are trying to find a scapegoat for the unexpected results. What is being seen as embarrassing by the Congress leaders is that Ms Sonia Gandhi had got herself involved in the process of choice of the candidate for the Mayor’s post after a minister, Mr Raman Bhalla, led a group of Independent councillors to meet her at Delhi. The issue is expected to be hotly debated at a meeting of the Congress when Ms Sonia Sandhi visits here on March 29. A senior party leader accused Mr Bhalla of having created confusion and heart burning among a section of councillors by sticking to his guns over the choice of the candidate for the post of Mayor. This had led to cross-voting that had resulted in the win of the BJP candidate, Mr Kavinder Gupta, although the party did not have requisite majority, he said. The desire of the Congress leaders to grab the civic body remains unfulfilled. The BJP has not allowed the former to occupy the top chair of the civic body here so far. Observers suspect that in a bid to capture power, the Congress might pressurise Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed to amend law so as to nominate some councillors with voting rights to topple the BJP Mayor, as was recently done in the case of the Kargil Council. The Congress is itself to blame for its defeat in the Jammu MC polls. The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, the main strategist during the elections, failed to foresee the simmering anger among partymen on the choice of the candidate for the Mayor’s post. Moreover, the party leaders were overconfident of winning over the eight Independents to get their own Mayor installed. However with a hung Jammu MC, the Congress had no choice but to support an Independent for the post of Mayor to keep the BJP away. |
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Opposition grills govt over sugar shortage
Jammu, March 8 There was pandemonium in the Assembly as the NC and BJP members virtually blocked the proceedings of the House on the issue and demanded that a House committee should be set up to inquire into the shortage of rations at various places. The Speaker, Mr Tara Chand, vainly tried to make the agitated members resume their seats and finally allowed a discussion on the issue. The Opposition members accused Mr Taj Mohiuddin, Minister for Consumer Affairs, of misleading the House on availability of sugar. Mr Jugal Kishore of the BJP walked out of the House protesting against the non-availability of sugar and other stuff in the ration depots. While the minister on the one hand said 700 gm of sugar was being supplied per head per month, on the other hand, he added that there was shortage of sugar throughout the country and only 250 gm of sugar was being supplied in the urban and rural areas because of shortage. The NC members were not satisfied with the minister’s reply and alleged that several ration depots were without foodstuffs and rotten rice was being supplied at certain places in the Kashmir valley. Mr Abdul Rahim Rather and Mr Mehboob Beg (both NC) said it was a serious issue and the government was taking it lightly. |
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Hizb Commander among four militants killed
Jammu, March 8 On specific information about the presence of militants in the Chatroo belt of Doda district, Army troops launched an operation early today, triggering an encounter with the militants, the sources said. Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, identified as Area Commander Shahid and his close associate Majeed, were killed in the ensuing gunfire, the sources said. Two AK rifles, four grenades, seven IEDs, 105 cartridges and 17 detonators seized from them, they added. In another encounter, troops of Rashtriya Rifles shot dead an unidentified militant during search operations at Garoora village of Bandipora in Baramula district late last night, sources said. Junior Commissioned Officer Bhagat Singh was injured in the encounter which lasted several hours, damaging a residential house where the militant had taken shelter, they said. The encounter broke out last night when the troops, on a tip-off, raided a house belonging to Mohammad Ramzan Mir. Some arms and ammunition were recovered from the deceased militant whose identity and group affiliation were being ascertained, the sources said. One of the top militant of HM, Abdul Rehman was killed and his body was recovered in Kote Kasab area in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district last night, they said.
— PTI |
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IAF lifting civilian officials to Kargil Chandigarh, March 8 “We are now concentrating upon clearing the backlog of men and cargo destined for the Ladakh Sector,” Air Officer Commanding, 12 Wing, Air Cmde T.K. Venugopal said. “Though relief material operations are by and large over, we are still called upon for certain commitments,” he added. Following a request from the J&K Government yesterday, the IAF had airlifted civilian officials to Kargil from Srinagar and back. The Kargil airstrip is in close proximity to the Line of Control and war re-activated after the 1999 conflict. The IAF now operates regularly from this strip. After the Jammu-Srinagar highway was closed due to unprecedented snowfall last month, the IAF had maintained an airbridge across the Bannihal Pass, ferrying in tonnes of rations, vegetables, relief equipment and airlifting thousands of stranded troops and civilians The IAF had carried out over 600 sorties, involving Il-76 and An-32 aircraft as well as Mi-17 and Cheetah helicopters, which is being described as one of the largest peace time operations. Transport squadrons at Chandigarh, which are primarily responsible for air maintenance of the northern sector, were in the thick of the operations. Though sorties were also flown to Leh and Thoise during the past month, the effort was directed towards the relief operations, which resulted in backlog of troops and supplies. IAF officers said that four to five IL-76 and six to eight An-32 sorties are being flown every day from Chandigarh to Ladakh. Pilots said they were also flying on Sundays and holidays to get the job done. Besides, there were other commitments and couriers to be executed. Over the next few days, the IAF is expected to airlift over 1,200 troops and several hundred tonnes of cargo. The defence services maintain a strategic logistics reserve in the northern sector, which can sustain troops deployed there for several months. Sources said the IAF airlifted about 25,000 tonnes of supplies to the northern sector annually.
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Rs 50 crore proposed for Mughal road
Jammu, March 8 Senior government functionaries said Rs 50 crore had been earmarked for the project in the Budget proposals presented in the Assembly yesterday. It is for the first time that a sizeable amount of funds have been allotted for the Mughal road on which the work was started in 1979. During the past 26 years, financial stringency and political security related problems had caused inordinate delay in the construction of the 89-km-long road, sources said. Since a long stretch of the road lay close to the LoC in Poonch its construction and consequent opening to passenger traffic were not felt feasible as the border area had been witnessing intermittent heavy firing and shelling by Pakistani troops for the past 20 years. Following the enforcement of ceasefire on the LoC since November, 2004, the road had not remained unsafe for passenger traffic, sources said. The idea of constructing this road was mooted by late Sheikh Abdullah. The National Conference, headed by him, had included it in its poll manifesto in 1977 Assembly elections. It is believed that this promise was one of the main factors that made it possible for the National Conference to win two-third majority in the elections. The recent closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway for about 20 days, following heavy snow, avalanches and landslides, had prompted both the state government and the Centre to construct an alternative route that connected Kashmir valley with Jammu. Once completed, the road can remain open throughout the year. In case some stretches of the road in Poonch and Shopian (in Kashmir) lay buried under snow, the clearing operations will be much easier to carry out. The only drawback is that travel from Jammu to Srinagar via this road will be more time consuming. It may take over two days for the journey. At present, light motor vehicles take six to seven hours for this journey, while heavy vehicles take 10 to 12 hours to reach Srinagar from Jammu via Udhampur and Banihal. |
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Strike in valley against VAT
Srinagar, March 8 The state government, on the other hand, is working on to implement the value added tax (VAT) with effect from April 1. The Finance Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, has already made it clear that the VAT would be implemented in the state from next month. To clarify its merits, a government spokesman here stated that the VAT was a “method of taxing by instalments or stages.” Jammu, March 8 A bullet got fired and hit his leg when the minister was fiddling with his revolver. He has been admitted to medical college hospital here.
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