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Srinagar stinks
Two top ultras nabbed
Record cherry output likely
Parents want probe panel on missing persons
Grenade attack leaves 1 dead
Jammu in grip of serious water crisis
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J&K heading for early poll?
4 held in fake licence racket
Bank told to pay relief
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Srinagar stinks
Srinagar, April 10 Heaps of waste have been lying in various garbage collection sheds in Srinagar for the past six days as the staff of Srinagar Municipal Corporation did not come to collect it. The process of removing garbage from the sheds was stopped when residents of Eidgah and the adjoining areas took to the streets last week protesting against the dumping of waste at the Saidapora dumping ground. The protestors claimed that dumping was not carried out on a "scientific pattern" and the waste was emitting foul smell, which they said could lead to the outbreak of an epidemic. The protests turned violent and nearly 20 persons, including seven police personnel, were injured in clashes. Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Abdul Rashid Pandit told PTI that efforts were on to remove the garbage from all parts of city by tomorrow morning as the authorities were in the process of finding three more alternative sites for dumping of waste. "We will reduce the load on Saidapora dumping ground by 75 per cent. But there have been some misgivings among the residents of the Eidgah area as the government had already sanctioned Rs 31 crore for upgrading the sewage treatment plant," he said. — PTI
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Srinagar, April 10 Acting on a tip-off, a police team nabbed the two near a bus stand at Shopian in Pulwama district while they were trying to leave the country on an important mission, SSP Nitish Kumar said. The two were identified as Mohammed Ishaq Pala and Muzaffar Ahmed Malik, he said adding passports, fake identity cards and some other documents were recovered from them. The SSP said Pala was a self-styled district commander and was wanted in a number of criminal cases, including killings and extortions. He said Malik too was involved in a number of cases of extortion and had triggered IED blasts at several places in Kashmir valley. — PTI
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Record cherry output likely
Srinagar, April 10 Valued at about Rs 50 crore, a major portion of it will be exported. This was revealed during a meeting to finalise arrangements for speedy transportation of fresh Kashmir fruit that was presided over by Minister for Horticulture Mohammad Dilawar Mir in Jammu the other day. The meeting was informed that about 20 metric tonnes of cherry would be exported daily. The meeting was attended by the principal secretary, agriculture production, S.S. Sahni, director, horticulture planning and marketing, Showkat Ahmad Zargar, chairman, new Kashmir fruit association, Parimpora Srinagar, Haji Mohammad Yousuf and officers and representatives of fruit traders. The representatives strongly pleaded for arranging deluxe coach No.2926 of Paschim Express which leaves from Amritsar railway station at 7 a.m. and reaches Mumbai the next evening leaving no apprehension of late arrival of the cherry consignment. The meeting also discussed measures for improving basic amenities at the terminal fruit market, Parimpora. The minister assured the fruit traders that the government would explore all avenues for promotion of fruit industry in the state. He said cold stores at each satellite and terminal fruit mandi of the state would be constructed under public-private partnership. He said Union Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav would be approached shortly to earmark special air conditioned railway bogies for transporting cherry from Amritsar to Mumbai.
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Parents want probe panel on missing persons
Srinagar, April 10 “We want the state to appoint an impartial inquiry commission to look into the fate of over 10,000 persons missing since the eruption of militancy in 1989,” the chairperson of the faction, Parveena Ahanger, told reporters after a meeting of the association. Carrying photographs of their missing kin, over 50 members attended the nearly two-hour long meeting at Partap Park here. Ahanger distributed forms seeking information about the missing persons among the members. Accusing the government of turning a deaf ear towards their genuine demands, Ahanger, whose 17-year-old son Javid Ahmad Ahanger went missing allegedly after being picked up by security forces from her Batmaloo residence in 1990, said, “the government should reveal the details of our kin”.
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Jammu in grip of serious water crisis
Jammu, April 10 It had been knocked down by floods last year. People shall have to depend on water tankers that have been pressed into service to supply drinking water to different localities.Several areas, including New Plots, Janipura, Subhash Nagar, Roop Nagar and the migrant camps, are already in grip of a serious water crisis. These areas were getting tapped water supply on every third day. Water supply in other areas of Kachhi Chawni, Pacca Danga, Jain Bazar and Subzi Mandi was irregular. Engineers of the PHE department feel that the situation would deteriorate further during the peak summer. The old city was faced with shortfall of 11 million gallons of water per day. Against the requirement of 34 million gallons, the availability was 22.88 million gallons. To make drinking water available to the people, the PHE department has purchased 11 tankers to carry water to different localities. Another 16 tankers have been given by the Economic Reconstruction Agency that has been assigned the task of spending the special package of Rs.24,000 allocated by the Prime Minister for development. However, 27 private water tankers have also been hired to meet the situation. The state government had earlier announced that the new pumping station at Sitlee will be commissioned before the onset of summer. However, a visit to the place revealed that the J&K Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC), which was given contract for the works, has been able to erect only a couple of pillars at the river level so far. Sandbags have been put all around these pillars to protect them from damage as frequent floods have twice damaged them. PHE department engineers said it was proposed to pump about 50 lakh gallons of raw water from Tawi to the filtration plant at Sitlee. Tenders for this purpose have already been opened and the work would be allocated shortly. But all this would take plenty of time before the entire water requirement was met. As many as 10 bore wells have already been commissioned in various areas of the city to supply one lakh gallons of water. A percolation well to pump 20 lakh gallons was being tested at Sitlee
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J&K heading for early poll?
Jammu, April 10 The next poll is scheduled to be held in September-October 2008.
Indications are that since the existing alliance between the Congress and the PDP is nothing short of marriage of convenience, both the sides prefer early poll to current political uncertainty. While the Congress campaign is being led by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, National Conference president Omar Abdullah, aided by provincial president Ajay Sadhotra, has been seen touring various areas in the state. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, party chief, give the impression of mustering support for their demand for withdrawal of troops from within the state and repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The PDP's demand for cut in the strength of troops and repeal of AFSPA has seemingly widened the relations between the Chief Minister and Mufti Mohd Sayeed to such an extent that while addressing a public rally in Budgam district on Monday, Azad told the people to "strengthen the Congress-PDF-CPM axis." Political observers here opine that this crisp statement of the Chief Minister indicated that Azad had plans of Congress contesting the next election in alliance with the Peoples Democratic Front(PDF) and not the PDP. These observers say that as a senior politician, Azad would have not forgotten to mention the name of the PDP, the main partner in the ruling coalition. A senior PDP leader said today: "If Mr Azad wants to contest the next election in the absence of any alliance with the PDP, it is his sweet will." He hastened to add "maybe Azad forgot to tell the people to strengthen the Congress-PDP axis." Informed sources said while Azad did not miss any opportunity in having a dig, though vaguely, at the PDP leadership, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has been telling the people that as a result of the policies and decisions of the central government and the Congress high command, peoples' faith in the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir had been strengthened. This way the Mufti is seen keeping Delhi in good humour while ignoring Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, the second line of PDP leaders, including ministers, attribute PDP policies to the multidimensional development of the state.They have gone to the extent of saying that the Congress was trying to take the credit for the decisions taken by Mufti Sayeed when he was the Chief Minister. Against this Azad conveys an impression in public rallies that whatever progress the state has achieved was only during the past 17 months. He does not refer to the contribution of the coalition government when it was headed by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed for the first three years. National Conference president Omar Abdullah, in his bid to woo people to his side, has, in his address at public meetings, said that "inner contradictions within the coalition partners had crippled the process of governance and anarchy in administration had added to the miseries of the people." And if the spate of allegations and counter allegations is any indication, the Congress, PDP and the National Conference were preparing the stage for an early Assembly poll. The current political scenario and the ground realities indicate that if the Congress decided to contest the next Assembly elections without any electoral understanding with the PDP, the National Conference is likely to gain. And efforts were being made by all the three main political parties at "poaching" in each others' territory by engineering defections. Inside reports said that the Congress leadership was baiting for senior PDP and National Conference leaders. The PDP has started hooking leaders and workers belonging to the National Conference and the National Conference is also trying to win the support of a few Congress and PDP men. These reports said that the PDP leadership had developed mistrust on three party legislators and two former ministers who were being lured to join the Congress by the Chief Minister. And if this Congress poaching succeeded the NC may be a gainer again provided two legislators belonging to the National Conference do not cross over to the Congress or
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Jammu, April 10 “We have arrested four commission agents and seized a large number of fake documents during a raid outside the regional transport office here,” they said. The recoveries included fake driving licences, permits, registration certificates, medical fitness certificates and cash deposit receipts, they said. The kingpin of the racket, Charanjeet Singh was arrested last week by the special branch of police in the district. — PTI
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