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Manmohan-Mufti meeting today
Flood alert in Kashmir valley
4 washed away in flashfloods
Soldier commits suicide
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BJP for President’s
rule in state
Road closure hits tourism
CMP lost in ‘din’ of demilitarisation
Body recovered from Tawi
Soldier kills colleague
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Manmohan-Mufti meeting today
Jammu, March 20 The mufti, who was invited by Manmohan Singh at Delhi today, will now fly there tomorrow. He is learnt to have expressed his inability to be at Delhi today because his discussions with other leaders of the PDP were continuing here on the party's demands of phased pullout of troops from Kashmir, repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and vacation of orchards and agricultural land by armed forces. Meanwhile, hectic political activity is on here and the continuance of the coalition has become the topic of discussion. While the National Conference (NC), which is the biggest party with a strength of 25 in the assembly of 89 members, has said it would not support the Congress government, chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has claimed that he possessed the requisite strength to run the government. The current partywise strength in the assembly is, NC 25, Congress 20, PDP 17, Panthers Party 4, CPM 2, BJP, BSP, Awami League, Democratic Movement 1 each, independents 15 and nominated 2. The Panthers Party, CPM, Awami League, Democratic Movement and most of the independents are likely to support the Congress in case the PDP pulls out of the coalition. The Panthers Party leader, Bhim Singh, who was earlier opposed to Azad, is now giving statements in his favour almost every day.
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Flood alert in Kashmir valley
Srinagar, March 20 “Jhelum is flowing one foot above the alarm mark, just two feet below the danger mark in the upstream Sangam area. It has been raining heavily since yesterday and we do not want to be caught off guard,” Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Basharat Ahmad Dhar told PTI. As little can be done at night, orders have been issued to all district development commissioners to keep the required manpower in readiness, he said. Dhar said special arrangements had been made to transport boats from the Dal Lake here to low-lying areas across the valley, especially Anantnag and Pulwama districts. Heavy rainfall has been continuing since yesterday, posing a threat of possible floods in low-lying areas of the Kashmir valley. Though schools in the valley have been closed for the day due to rains, a schoolboy died while two of his friends were rescued after falling into a stream in the Pahalgam area of Anantnag today. Heavy rains lashed Jammu and Kashmir for second day today while Kupwara received another round of snowfall, triggering a fresh cold wave in the state. The heavy rainfall has caused fresh landslides at Panthihal on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, which has ensured that the arterial road connecting the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country remains closed for the tenth successive day. TheQazigund area recorded the highest rainfall at 62.6 mm followed by Kupwara at 55.8 mm and Banihal at 55.4 mm, the official said. Moderate to heavy rainfall was recorded in Srinagar (24.4 mm), Pahalgam (37.4 mm), Katra (32.7 mm), Jammu (25.4 mm), Batote (32.8 mm) and Bhaderwah (28.4 mm). Heavy snowfall began in the frontier district of Kupwara at 7.30 am where the night temperature fell below the freezing point by 0.3°C, he said. The official said the maximum temperatures across the state plunged by 4°C and was recorded at 10.2 °C in Srinagar, 6°C in Qazigund and 0.4 °C in the Pahalgam areas. Last week, the schools were closed due to heavy snowfall in the valley, which extended the winter vacations from the usual two months to almost three months as the schools were closed early in December last year due to the cold wave. — PTI
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4 washed away in flashfloods
Jammu, March 20 A villager Ram Lal was washed away in the flood in the Chenab river in Udhampur last night. An unidentified person went missing in Solni river in Rajouri early today when he was crossing the river, the officials said, adding that police and security forces had launched rescue operation in the areas.
— PTI
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Soldier commits suicide
Srinagar, March 20 The soldier, identified as Rajesh Kumar, died before he could be shifted to a hospital, sources added. The reason for the suicide was not immediately known. More than 20 security personnel were killed during the past six months in similar incidents in the Kashmir valley despite the introduction of yoga and Art of Living classes. Security agencies, engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the valley, have introduced yoga and Art of Living classes to help security personnel come out of stress. At least 12 security personnel, including some officers, were also killed by their colleagues in the valley during the same period.
— UNI |
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BJP for President’s
rule in state
Jammu, March 20 According to BJP sources, the demand was made during a meeting of senior BJP leaders led by president Ashok Khajuria with Governor S.K.Sinha in Raj Bhawan here today. The BJP leaders, sources said, informed the Governor that the "entire state administration had been paralysed because of the rift between the PDP and the Congress resulting in deep uncertainty." Asked whether there was any constitutional crisis in the state warranting imposition of Governor's rule, former BJP chief Nirmal Singh, without divulging anything about what transpired between the BJP leaders and the Governor, told this correspondent that "the ruling coalition has lost the confidence of the state Assembly and the Constitution provides for Government enjoying the confidence of the House." He said when an alliance partner "has started functioning as an opposition party, referring to the PDP's role, one cannot expect functioning of the government in tune with the provisions of the Constitution." He said since the 2002 Assembly elections the ruling coalition had hijacked the separatists' agenda which had the potential of "taking Jammu and Kashmir away from the country." He said "the current situation reflected internal sabotage. " The BJP leader said in order to "arrest the dangerous trend the state be placed under Governor's rule to be followed by fresh elections." He said even the opposition National Conference had aired its views supporting fresh Assembly poll which alone could check the drift in the political scenario. |
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Road closure hits tourism
Jammu, March 20 Tour operators and hoteliers in the Kashmir valley have started receiving cancellations of reservations as tourists are afraid of getting stuck in Srinagar due to the abrupt closure of the highway. The winter tourism virtually got washed away due to the closure of the highway for several days because of snow and avalanches and now the landslides were threatening the summer tourism that has already set in. Today is the tenth day of the closure of the highway due to landslides at Panthal and five other points. About a dozen new landslide zones have this time developed on the highway that has become a headache for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) that maintains the road. A leading hotelier and tour operator of the valley, Mushtaq Ahmed, told this correspondent today that since December last the highway has remained blocked for not less than 10 days every month. This has hit the calculations of the tourism sector in the valley. The secretary, tourism, Nayeem Akhtar, said the major chunk of tourists travel by road to the valley and the erratic road condition was bound to upset the expectations. A good number of tourists reached the valley by air during the winters to have fun in the snow, but the mainstay of tourism was the middle class that travels by road. Akhtar said despite the advisories of various countries against travel to J&K, there was more than 100 per cent increase in the arrival of foreign tourists to the valley. The figure had remained stagnant during the past two years. He said this time the response of tour organisers towards Kashmir was overwhelming, but the road blocks had come as a setback to the tourism industry.
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CMP lost in ‘din’ of demilitarisation
Jammu, March 20 These were some of the many promises made in the common minimum programme (CMP) by the Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) while forming the government in 2002 in J and K. Now when one and half years are left for the Assembly elections or after the passage of four and a half years of the coalition government none of these unfulfilled promises in the CMP has moved the PDP, which now is pulling string of the Congress on the issue of ‘demilitarisation’. It seems the CMP has lost somewhere in the whirpool of the PDP’s hue and cry for demilitarisation in the valley. The demilitarisation has become the most contentious issue for the PDP as it has put the fate of the coalition government at stake. But it never talked of demilitarisation in the first three years of the coalition government’s tenure when the party’s patron Mufti Mohammed Syed was the Chief Minister of the state. The PDP MLAs were seen warming up to opposition National Conference (NC) members in the recently held state Assembly Budget session on the issue of human rights violation. The action taken report (ATR) on the annual report of the J and K State Human Rights Commission, coinciding with the ‘resignation in protest’ by Commission’s chairman Justice (retd) MA Mir, shows the state refused to abide by the recommendations of commission on compensation to the victims of atrocities by the security personnel. The erstwhile chairman of the commission resigned in August last in protest for not giving teeth to the Commission, irrespective of the present regime of Ghulam Nabi Azad or the last regime of Mufti Mohammad Syed. With the BJP playing a spoilsport in Jammu, demanding the dismissal of the J-K state flag and abolition of Article 370, the task of the five working groups formed by the Prime Minister has not moved a single step towards consensus. The separate Constitution of J and K was drafted over five decades with the will of the Union of India in letter and spirit. Now, seeing present situation and prevailing realities coming to the surface like the prices of commodities touching the sky and the essential services of water and electricity in gloom in the coming summer and the un-seasonal snowfall and heavy rain leading to calamities like landslides and floods, patience of citizens in the valley may be misused by certain clients pinning hopes on insurgency.
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Body recovered from Tawi
Jammu, March 20 The body was sent to the mortuary at Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital, a spokesman of the police here said. In another incident, a truck cleaner was killed when his vehicle rolled down into a khud while on the way to Udhampur from Doda. He was identified as Mohd Sadiq Prashant. The driver of the truck sustained serious injuries and was hospitalised. |
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Soldier kills colleague
Srinagar, March 20 The soldier shot dead his colleague in a camp at Zanglipora in Kupwara district, a defence spokesman said. He had been taken into custody and proceedings under army rules had been initiated against him, the spokesman said. The identity of the sodliers was withheld pending inquiry.
— PTI |
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