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Ruckus over Wazir panel report
No fresh taxes in J & K Budget
NC wins Deputy Mayor’s post
One killed, three injured in militant attack
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Ruckus over Wazir panel report
Jammu, March 6 Several members and the security staff intervened to prevent the two MLAs from clashing in the House. The House witnessed noisy scenes on the issue as soon as the session began in the morning when some legislators belonging to the Jammu region started raising slogans against the government for trying to “betray” the people on the issue. They accused the Congress led coalition of trying to backtrack on the issue of implementing the report. Mr Balwant Singh Mankotia, Mr Faqir Nath, Mr Yashpal Kaundal (all Panthers Party), Mr Sajjad Kichloo, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, Dr Chaman Lal (National Conference), Mr Ashwani Kumar (JSM) and Mr Jugal Kishore (BJP) continued to disrupt the proceedings of the House by raising slogans for the implementation of the report. They pointed out that before the Assembly elections the Congress had promised to implement the report, but after coming to power it was trying to back out of the commitment. Later, these legislators walked out of the House in protest. The issue again came up during the zero hour when Mr Yogesh Sawhney and Mr Shyam Lal Sharma (both Congress) said Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad did not want to confine to the recommendations of the Wazir Commission and wanted to give more than that to the people for which another commission would be set up. This was followed by heated exchanges between the treasury benches and these Opposition members. The trouble started when Mr Ghulam Hassan Khan (PDP) remarked that the report was without conviction and was anti-Kashmir. After some arguments, Mr Mankotia and Mr Khan advanced towards each other, but the security personnel made a human wall between them. Earlier during question hour, the Power Minister, Mr Rigzin Zora, who was replying to questions pertaining to the Health Department on behalf of the Chief Minister, was grilled by not only the Opposition members but also those of the ruling PDP on the issue of shortage of faculty in Srinagar Medical College, which has put a question mark on the continuance of its recognition by the Medical Council of India. The minister, while replying to the question of Mr A.R. Rather (NC), said the MCI had derecognised the departments of orthopaedics, pathology and anatomy of the Srinagar Medical College because of depleted faculty position. As many as six posts each were lying vacant in anatomy and pathology departments, while three posts were vacant in the orthopaedics department. In a written reply, the Chief Minister informed Mr Ashwani Sharma (JSM) that out of 1,673 employees of the Civil Secretariat, 420 belonged to the Jammu region, 1,235 to Kashmir and 15 to Ladakh. Giving details of the appointments made during the Past two years, the Chief Minister said among the new recruits 16 were from the Jammu region, 24 from Kashmir and none from Ladakh. |
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No fresh taxes in J & K Budget
Jammu, March 6 The aggregate non-Plan expenditure is estimated to be Rs 9488 crore of which Rs 8857 crore is on the revenue account. The total size of the annual Plan outlay has been fixed at Rs 4348 crore that includes Rs 848 crore under the Prime Minister's reconstruction plan. With the recruitment process having been set in motion for filling up the vacant posts, next year's salary bill will be around Rs 3164 crore against Rs 2992 crore during the current year that indicates an increase of Rs 172 crore. Keeping in view the importance of rural development, the allocations for the district plans have been hiked to 40 percent from the existing 30 percent. While presenting the Budget proposals of the Power Department, Mr Baig said "this year we have started the process whereby power sector will assume responsibility for earning and expanding its own income. The Power Department commands only 10 per cent of the state's revenue receipts and more than 50 percent of disbursements. The estimated power bill per annum was of the order of Rs 2855 crore, but the recoveries were merely to the tune of Rs 500 crore resulting in a net loss of Rs 2355 crore. This is more than the state's own revenues of Rs 1900 crore. The Deputy Chief Minister, who holds the finance portfolio, said that with a view to setting right the mess in the Power Department, the Centre had agreed to give a power reform grant of Rs 1300 crore per annum for the next three years during which the state government is expected to initiate reforms. While the Finance Ministry would provide Rs 1000 crore, the Planning Commission would give a special assistance of Rs 300 crore. He said a sum of Rs 150 crore had been earmarked for payment of DA as might become due to government employees during the year. Mr Baig warned that the pension liability of the government, which was Rs 624 crore during 2003-04, had risen to Rs 760 crore during the current financial year. In case the trend continues, in future the pension liability of the state will be more than that of the salary. He said as in the Centre, state government employees joining the service after an agreed cut off date in future would be asked to subscribe to the contributory pension scheme to curtail the state's burgeoning pension liabilities. A committee would be set up for the purpose to submit its report within six months. He indicated that the sick public sector units that were in a position to revive would be given some financial grants for the purpose and others might be closed. It is also proposed to introduce the system of executing development projects in double shift, as the progress of work was slow because of hostile weather in many parts of the state. |
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NC wins Deputy Mayor’s post
Jammu, March 6 However, with the Congress having the largest number of councillors the party’s nominee for the post of Mayor, Mr Manmohan Chaudhary, defeated the sitting Mayor, Mr Kavinder Gupta of the BJP who was seeking re-election. The defeat of the Congress nominee has come as a blow to the party for the second successive year as during the last year’s election the party had lost the Mayor’s seat due to infighting. The election results this time indicate that Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had failed to unite the warring factions as he held a meeting with the party’s councillors last evening when the official candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post, Ms Rajni Bala, was replaced with Mr Hardeep Mankotia, an Independent. The election results indicate that Mr Azad’s choice of the candidate was not acceptable to most of the councillors of the party, who are learnt to have voted for the NC nominee, Mr Dharamvir Singh. Mr Dharamvir polled nearly 40 votes although the party’s strength was only six in the corporation. Sensing danger, Mr Azad had changed the candidate just 24 hours before the polling, but this did not work. The party-wise strength in the corporation is Congress 27, BJP 26, NC 6, PDP 2, BSP and Shiv Sena 1 each and Independent 8. The Independents had pressurised the Congress to support their candidate for the post of Deputy Mayor. |
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One killed, three injured in militant attack
Srinagar, March 6 They said a group of three militants entered the house of Special Police Officer (SPO) Nazir Ahmad at Pakherpora in Badgam district late last night and fired upon the inmates. ASI Mohammad Ramzan and two children of the SPO were injured in the firing, they said, adding the injured were admitted to hospital. A spokesman of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack. Militants shot dead Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a shopkeeper at Tral in Pulwama district today. In another incident, the security forces averted a major tragedy when they detected and later defused a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) planted by militants at Parigam Bandipora in north Kashmir to target security force vehicles.
— UNI |
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