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Troop cut: Mufti happy over Centre’s response Expressing satisfaction over the Centre’s response to his demand of troop cut in Jammu and Kashmir, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said people would feel the difference soon and discernible relief on the ground.
Panels on troop pull-out Hostile slogans greet Azad at Soulki village |
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Insurance co told to pay Rs 1.54
lakh Sinha for use of maths to upgrade technology Coordination panel to be recast Rajouri DC shifted in major reshuffle
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Troop cut: Mufti happy over Centre’s response Srinagar, March 31 Addressing mediapersons at the end of the political affairs committee (PAC) of his party, PDP patron Mufti Sayeed said the demands put forth would be met in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the state. It was the first PAC meeting of the party held after the announcement of the Centre’s decision on the setting up of panels on the PDP’s demands that was attended by the Mufti soon after his arrival here today. He said the reports of the committees would help ease situation so that people would feel it. He appreciated the response of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who had shown special interest in the issues taken up by his party. Replying to questions, the former chief minister said the coalition’s survival was the main concern of the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi. “I am on my agenda ….and the Prime Minister has acknowledged it”, Mufti Sayeed commented, adding discussions on the troop withdrawal and repealing of the Armed Force Special Powers Act (AFSPA) had been going on for the past two months. He said there had been a change in the situation and the withdrawal of troops would be the best step for further easing the situation to provide relaxed atmosphere to the people of the state. Earlier, the political affairs committee observed the Centre’s initiative would “further improve the ground realities, inspire people’s confidence in the political process and institutions and pave the way for just and dignified resolution of the Kashmir issue”. It hailed the Centre’s decision as a “positive and constructive response” and contributory factor to the ongoing reconciliation and peace process in the state. “These initiatives aim at measured and responsible reduction and redeployment of the armed forces in the state, repeal of the AFSPA and vacation of the civilian and institutional properties in use by the armed forces for the past so many years”, the resolution passed at the PAC said. |
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Panels on troop pull-out Jammu, March 31 In a statement, Tarigami said the central government seems, once again, to have skirted the real issue of Kashmir, which was evident from its response to the demand for the reduction of armed forces in the state. He said that the declaration to constitute various panels, seemed, first, as nothing but a rigmarole, as it was hard to understand what the proposed members of the committees, who were serving on various positions in the national and the state security set-ups and thus already aware of the security position in the state, could contribute. Secondly, the committees were called upon merely to determine the need to relocate and configure the security forces and not to consider the need to propose any cut in the size of the forces. Thirdly, the panel had enjoined to ensure cardinal aspects of the security were not compromised in any manner, which left no room for initiative by the members of the committee and rule out any appropriate people-friendly change in the existing position. Tarigami said it seemed the setting up of the committees had been announced with the sole aim of saving the political face. |
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Hostile slogans greet Azad at Soulki village Jammu, March 31 Wails of women and men echoed in the village as Azad placed wreaths on the bodies of Sanjay Kumar, Chaman Lal, Joginder Kumar, Rashpal Singh and Baldev Kumar. A security ring was thrown around Azad by the Army, the BSF and armed policemen as he came out of the helicopter. He announced one kin of each person would be absorbed in government service within 10 days and an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh paid to them. Relatives of those killed and wounded in the terrorist attack complained to Azad the police did not take timely action against the terrorists who stayed in the house for night after killing the five labourers. They had announced the bodies would be cremated only after the Chief Minister visited there and listened to woes of the minority community that was living under shadow of death. They threatened mass exodus by the minority from the area in case the government was not in a position to provide them with security. Azad, addressing an angry crowd of people of the neighbouring villages, ruled out demilitarisation or reduction of security forces in the state. He said vested interests were trying to create false impression for political mileage that troops would be pulled out of the state. He said more troops would be inducted in case such incidents recurred. He also promised the villagers that Army and police pickets that were removed sometime ago would be re-established for their protection. The Chief Minister said the massacre and grenade attack in Kishtwar yesterday were real lessons for those who claimed militancy had been eliminated in the state. Azad said since day one his directions to the security forces had been to be tough with militants and soft towards innocent people. Preet Singh, (75) father of victim Rashpal Singh, sobbingly said his son was the only breadwinner of the family. He had joined the group of labourers who were constructing a road of the PWD near Thiriat village where they were shot by terrorists. He said marriage of his son was to be performed in the next few days and other family members were busy making arrangements for the ceremony when they received the news of his death. |
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Insurance co told to pay Rs 1.54 lakh
Jammu, March 31 Justice G.D.Sharma, president of the commission and member Khalid Hussain, today ordered company to also pay interest of 6 per cent on the amount and Rs.4000 as cost towards litigation. The insurance company had denied payment of the medical bill to the patient on the plea that Saraf had “concealed” at the time of signing the policy that he was suffering from an ailment. In strictures against the company, the commission observed “rather it is a case which shows that with mala fide intention dilatory tactics was being adopted to thwart benefits of justice being availed by a consumer”. |
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Sinha for use of maths to upgrade technology Jammu, March 31 The Governor was inaugurating the International Congress and eighth Conference of ISIAM on certain emerging areas in applicable mathematics and 17th annual conference of the Jammu Mathematical Society at Jammu University this morning. Sinha said in this age of technological revolution the knowledge of mathematics was immensely important and hoped academicians would pay due attention to it. He called for taking full advantage of its basic knowledge, roots of which were in the genes of Indians. He referred to the introduction of zero by Aryabhat and great contribution of Ramanujan in the field of mathematics. In a lighter vein, he said he himself was not happy with mathematics in his school days and it was a great relief to say goodbye to the subject at graduation level, as he opted for arts. However, he added that his grandson held a doctorate in mathematics. He hoped the participants will benefit from the delegates attending the conference. In his address, vice-chancellor Amitabh Mattoo said his recommendations to focus on applied mathematics at college level were agreed to by the state government but regretted a poor interest of the students in the subject who preferred job-oriented courses. During the post-lunch session, K.S.R. Sreenivasan, Director, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, presented Dr Zakir Hussain a memorial lecture on “A perspective on the status of Mathematics in India”. In invited and contributed talks segments of the conference, professor H.D. Mittelmann, Department of Maths, Sciences, Arizona University, USA, spoke on state-of-the-art in the solution of control related non-linear optimization problems. Others who spoke were prof S. Fridli, Department of Numerical Analysis, Faculty of Informatics, University of Eotvos Lovand, Budapest, Hungary, Atter Qayyum on ‘A weighted Ostrowski, Guass type inequality and applications in numerical integration and prof P.K. Banerji on Schwartz distribution and the Bohemians for the wavelet transforms. |
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Rajouri DC shifted in major reshuffle Jammu, March 31 Rafiq Ahmed, additional district development commissioner, Doda, has been appointed the new DC of Rajouri in place of Parvez Malik who has been sent as director, geology and mining. Pawan Kotwal, DC, Doda, has been appointed secretary to Chief Minister. The transfers were ordered by the Cabinet that met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Ministers belonging to the PDP ended their boycott and participated in today's cabinet meeting. The cabinet appointed deputy commissioners of the eight new districts, but not a single IAS officer has been posted in these districts. All posts of DCs of the new districts have gone to officers of the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS). B.S.Jamwal becomes the DC of Samba, A.D.Shanas takes charge of Ramban, Shahid Inayatullah becomes DC of Kishtwar, which is hometown of Azad, Shourabh Bhagat has been given charge of Doda, Farooq Renzu, director of information and PR, has been appointed the DC of Kupwara. Sheikh Mushtaq gets posting as DC Bandipura, G.N.Bodha takes charge of Ganderbal, Asfandar Khan, DC, Kargil, has been shifted to Budgam, Abdul Hamid has been appointed DC of Shopian, Abdul Latief Deva gets Kulgam, R.K.Bhagat goes as DC, Kargil, Sanjeev Verma becomes DC, Reasi. Raja Aizaz Ali has been appointed IGP (Traffic).
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Coordination panel to be recast Jammu, March 31 According to PDP circles, the coordination committee had become almost defunct after Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as Chief Minister. Since the inception of the coalition government in 2002 Mr Azad functioned as chairman of the coordination committee. In fact, the Panthers Party, a constituent of the ruling alliance, had complained that the meetings of the coordination committee were not being held regularly and its members could not highlight shortcomings of the government. The coordination committee appeared to have become irrelevant after its recommendations were not implemented by the government. Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad is on record as saying there was no point in convening a meeting of the coordination committee when its recommendations were not accepted by the government. In this connection he referred to the committee’s recommendation on the setting up of the delimitation commission and and the finance commission. Official sources said the Chief Minister had taken steps under which a finance commission was set up and the Wazir Committee’s recommendations were covered under the Delimitation Committee.The Wazir Committee had recommended the creation of four new districts in the Jammu region and one in the Kashmir valley but the Chief Minister surpassed the Wazir Committee report and announced the carving out of eight new districts, four in Jammu and four in the Kashmir valley. And the Chief Minister did not feel the necessity of convening a meeting of the coordination committee, comprising members from the PDP, the Congress, the Panthers Party, the CPIM and the PDF. The PDP circles said here today, “We have pressed for the reconstitution of the coordination committee act as a watchdog of the interests of people and recommend corrective measures wherever the government went wrong. “He indicated that since Mr Azad was occupying the Chief Minister’s post, the post of the chairman of the coordination committee should go to a PDP leader. “We want the coordination committee to have teeth.We want it to promote harmony among the coalition partners,” he said. A senior PDP leader said, “We wish Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to head the committee and in case he was not willing to accept it either Mr G.H. Mir or Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beig be made chairman of the committee.”
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