Jammu, January 12
The legislative assembly today witnessed ruckus when Mr Ghulam Hassan Khan, chief whip of the PDP partner in the ruling coalition, alleged that information on the movement of VIPs was being leaked to militants from various police stations in Jammu and Kashmir.

This led to heated arguments during question hour as members of the Panthers Party, which is another partner in the coalition, joined the opposition National Conference (NC) members and Mr Usman Majeed (Ind.) in grilling Mr Taj Mohiuddin, consumer affairs minister, who on behalf of the chief minister was replying to Mr Khan’s question pertaining to allotment of bullet-proof cars to VIPs.

Mr Majeed, who has twice survived terrorist attacks on him and Mr Qaiser Jamshed Lone (NC) walked out of the house saying the allegation by Mr Khan was of serious nature and the government should take note of it.

Mr Khan alleged MLAs were allotted worn-out bullet proof vehicles, whereas certain ministers and senior police officers enjoyed the privilege of changing cars every six months.

The members were annoyed when the minister because of security reasons refused to disclose names of the persons provided with bullet- proof vehicles by the government. Later, he, however, placed the list on the table of the house.

The members said there was no secret about the bullet-proof cars and the government should not hesitate to give details.

Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar (NC) said such details were not kept secret in 1996 when terrorism was at peak, what was the need to hide facts now.

Congress, Panthers clash

The two coalition partners, the Congress and the Panthers Party, clashed again on a call attention motion on the strike by the Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers.

Mr Harshdev Singh (Panthers Party), who had moved the motion, snubbed senior Congress minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, for interrupting him and said “don’t try to teach rules to me”.

Provoked by Mr Singh’s remarks, Mr Yogesh Sawhney and Mr Shyam Lal (Cong) asked him to ask relevant questions on the issue.

Mr Harshdev, Mr Balwant Mankotia and Mr Yashpal Kundal (all Panthers Party) walked out of the house as they were not satisfied with the reply of education minister, Manjeet Singh, on the issue.

Earlier, Mr Harshdev, who was holding the education portfolio in the previous ministry of Mufti Sayeed, pointed out it was injustice to pay meagre monthly honorarium of Rs 1500 to graduate and post-graduate teachers employed under the Rehbar-e-Taleem scheme while illiterate and middle pass labourers were getting Rs 2100 per month.

He said such teachers were playing key role in keeping schools in rural areas running.

Mr Manjeet singh said the scheme envisaged monthly honorarium of Rs 1500 for the first two years that shall be increased to Rs 2000 from the third year onwards. On satisfactory completion of five years the teachers shall be eligible for confirmation of service.

As soon as the house assembled in the morning, noisy scenes were witnessed as members of the Panthers Party, the BJP and the JSM sought an explanation from the government on the issue of granting a large number of liquor shop licences particularly in the Jammu district.

These members alleged by doing so the government was trying to make the people of Jammu addicts.

Noisy scenes were again witnessed when the NC members claimed during the question hour many victims of the last year’s earthquake had not yet been rehabilitated by the government. Schools in certain affected areas were not functioning and engineering staff engaged in the rehabilitation work has been transferred from the area.

Mr Kafil-ur-Rehman (NC) staged a dharna in the well of the house demanding the issue of providing relief should be discussed in the house.

Jammu, January 12
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today hoped fruitful results would come out of tomorrow’s visit of External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to Pakistan where he is expected to discuss various Kashmir-specific issues with his counterparts.

Mr Azad, who was replying to the three-day debate on the Governor’s Address in the Legislative Assembly, expressed confidence Mr Mukherjee would represent aspirations of all three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh during the talks.

Asserting that for the first time a three-pronged strategy has been launched by the Congress-led UPA government to address all issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir, he said dialogue between India and Pakistan, interaction between the Centre and separatists and constitution of five working groups following decisions of Srinagar roundtable conference are main components of the peace strategy. — TNS