Srinagar, July 1
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for the transfer of the 390 MW Dulhasti power project to the state as compensation for the losses it suffered due to the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.

Azad stated this at a high-level meeting chaired by union home minister Shivraj Patil to review the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan for Jammu and Kashmir here last evening. Azad said he had taken up the matter with the Prime Minister and impressed upon him the need to transfer the project to the state. The treaty put the state at a disadvantageous position and the losses suffered were more than could be met by the transfer of Dulhasti project, Azad added. "This is the least we could ask for and hope that the central government would concede our demand", Azad commented.

He said the Rangarajan Committee appointed by the Prime Minister had also recommended the transfer of the Dulhasti Project to Jammu and Kashmir. He said 70 per cent of the Rs 24,000 crore Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan was about power generation and strengthening of the transmission system.

Azad also stressed the need to speed up work on development projects and pleaded for more Central assistance for medical facilities in the state.

Responding to the demand of the state government to take into account cost escalation of various development projects under the Reconstruction Plan, the union home minister said modifications, if required, could be looked into by the ministries concerned. He said these modifications could be made in the plan so that it was implemented without causing delay. He said the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry could look into the demands of the state government adding he and the Chief Minister would request the union power minister to visit Jammu and Kashmir and remove bottlenecks in the early completion of the power projects.

Patil said the Himalayan region, including Jammu and Kashmir, had the potential of generating 1.5 lakh MWs of hydel power which if harnessed could change the face of the region.

State chief secretary C Phunsong gave a power point presentation on the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan and briefed the home minister on the status of all the projects. Power projects, infrastructure development in education, health, tourism and roads sector, besides rehabilitation of displaced people on borders, Kashmir migrants, the National Rural Health Mission and conservation of the Dal Lake were reviewed.

Srinagar, July 1
Amarnath yatra that was scheduled to begin yesterday in the upper reaches of Pahalgam in south Kashmir was inaugurated with Governor S. K. Sinha performing Pratham puja at the cave shrine this morning. It had to be put off by a day due to bad weather and heavy rain in the region for the past few days, even as hundreds of unregistered pilgrims had already even visited the cave shrine.

Thousands of devotees chanting hymns kept traversing the rugged terrain from Baltal and Chandanwari to reach the cave shrine and hundreds were in the queue since early morning adjacent to the sanctum sanctorum to join the Governor in the Pratham puja. He performed special puja in the shrine, rediscovered by a Muslim shepherd 150 years ago.

The Governor, who is also chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, wished pilgrims a successful yatra and said arrangements had been made for their stay at various camps. He also lauded the people of Kashmir for extending all facilities to the pilgrims.

The Governor conferred with high officials of the administration, security forces and the shrine board and took stock of the arrangements made for the pilgrims.

Principal secretary to Governor and chief executive officer of the Board Dr Arun Kumar and General Officer Commanding, Victor Force, Major-Gen R K Bhardwaj also accompanied the Governor.

Jammu, July 1
Even before the Amarnath yatra began, the holy ice lingam in the mountain cave shrine in south Kashmir has melted causing disappointment among thousands of devotees come from different parts of the country to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva.

Arun Kumar, chief executive officer of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), after flying to the shrine, along with Governor S.K.Sinha and union home minister Shivraj Patil, confirmed that the ice lingam had almost melted.

This is for the first time in human memory that the ice lingam has disappeared even before the Pratham Puja(first prayer) was performed in the cave shrine to mark the beginning of the annual pilgrimage.

Arun Kumar told TNS over the telephone that the phenomenon might affect the pilgrimage as many people generally come to have darshan of the ice lingam.

The SASB expected five lakh pilgrims to visit the shrine this year, but the figure might dwindle because of melting of the ice lingam.

This is the second consecutive year that the pilgrimage has got mired in controversy. Last year the SASB faced allegations of an artificial ice lingam having been set up in the cave. A commission of inquiry, however, gave a clean chit to the SASB and suggested several measures to prolong the life of the ice lingam.

The SASB authorities attribute the melting of the ice lingam to global warming, but those connected with the pilgrimage accuse the government of having allowed unauthorised persons to visit the shrine even before the yatra was to be officially inaugurated. It is estimated that more than one lakh persons had visited the shrine in the past 35 days although the pilgrimage was to begin on June 30.

It is being alleged the unauthorised pilgrims were responsible for the early melting of the lingam and the authorities also allowed the private helicopter operators to begin sorties to the shrine many days ago generating heat near the cave. More than 12 sorties of private helicopters, besides those of the VIPs, were being made every day. The Justice K.K.Gupta Commission last year suggested that the helipad should be shifted away from the cave as the flying machines generated a lot of heat and vibrations, particularly while taking off.

Moreover, in a bid to commercialise the pilgrimage, the SASB had allowed Murari Bapu to deliver spiritual week-long sermons at the cave shrine that concluded this morning. A large number of people trekked to the shrine to listen to his discourse.

The authorities had announced in the first week of June that the ice lingam was maintaining its full height of 12 feet, however its width reduced considerably by June 28. But reports reaching here yesterday indicated its height had suddenly reduced to 18 inches and it had almost vanished when the Governor and the home minister visited the shrine to perform Pratham Puja.

The devotees were annoyed that in a bid to commercialise the shrine, the SASB had stretched the pilgrimage to two months over the past five years. Earlier, the pilgrims used to follow the Chhari Mubarak(holy mace) that was carried to the shrine by the mahant of the Srinagar-based Dashnami Akhara during Raksha Bandhan, but now the tradition has been reversed and the holy mace reaches the cave at the fag-end of the pilgrimage.

Udhampur, July 1
With the elimination of all three holed-up militants, 26-hour-long encounter at Doli village in the Kulhand area of Doda, ended this evening. The militants killed in the encounter belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and were active in this belt .

A Special Task Force jawan was also killed and eight others were wounded in the gunbattle, which erupted on Saturday at 3 pm and continued for more than 26 hours.

The deceased policeman was killed on late Saturday night, but his body could be retrieved only after the elimination of all militants who were hiding in a house. The identity of the deceased policeman has been established as Abdul Rashid of Ramnagar Udhampur at present putting up at Peer Baba, Satwari Jammu.

According to the police, one of the slain militants has been identified as Abu Sohail Asgari of Udhianpur, Doda. He was involved in the Kulhand massacre in which 20 Hindus were killed by militants on April 30, 2006. It is believed that the remaining two militants were Pakistanis.

The encounter erupted when militants opened fire on a police search party. Eight STF personnel wounded in the gunbattle, are stated to be out of danger.

Two seriously injured personnel Romesh Kumar and Om Parkash were airlifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu last evening.

On a tip-off on six militants hiding in two houses in Morh, security forces launched a search. Cops cordoned off the houses and asked the militants to surrender. But they opened indiscriminate firing in which eight policemen received severe injuries.

Srinagar, July 1
A study by a group has termed suicide as the second biggest cause of unnatural deaths in the Kashmir valley, after two-decade-old violence here.

The report has kicked off concern in the close-knit society, in which suicide is a rare phenomenon. It has particularly upset religious leaders as self-killing is prohibited in Islam, the religion practised by an overwhelming majority here.

Even the grand Mufti has issued a fatwa, terming it ‘haram’ and asking people not to participate in the funeral ceremony of suicide victims.

Experts said the increasing cases of suicide had two interlinked dimensions. "The long spell of insurgency has hit the society hard in the form of unemployment and poverty, and it is worse for those who have lost their kin. Secondly, suicide no longer raises eyebrows in bigger cities, and the locals' exposure to the outside world through the media has presented it as an option to those undergoing some mental trauma," Dr Shafiq, psychologist, said.

Official sources have put the cases of suicide this year close to 50.Though these cases have seen a steady rise over the past few years, a burst of suicide incidents in the past fortnight in different parts of the valley has put the issue at the centrestage. Though Srinagar has

a hospital to treat cases of psychiatry, the stigma associated with mental illnesses often leaves people to themselves to fight their emotional disturbances, and many, as the statistics, suggest are succumbing to it.

Another concern, the expert said, was that the suicide victims were predominantly young persons, who had ended lives due to failure in love, domestic fight or economic concerns. Dr Shafiq says parents refrain from speaking about personal issues and concerns of the youth, whose aspirations are higher than theirs. "It's a universal phenomena, but what sets the valley apart are the unending strife and absence of development which have undermined the youth's optimism," he said.

And how much the religious edict of the Mufti will help is anybody's guess. "Suicide is often brought by moments of impulse. The victims never think of the consequences of their act. But an increased awareness by social or health campaign could help," the expert added.

Udhampur, July 1
Killing of one more child by a leopard sparked a protest in Doda and adjoining localities as residents blocked the Batota-Kishtwar road for more than three hours to protest against the Wildlife authorities’ failure to trap maneater leopards on the prowl, targeting cattle and children.

On Saturday night a leopard entered the house of Sardari Lal at Chakshu village in the Khaleni area and carried away his daughter Sheetla Devi (11). The beast mauled the minor and her mutilated body was found late in the night in a nearby locality.

As this was the fourth such incident in the past three months, hundreds of people thronged Chakshu village and demonstrated against the Wildlife authorities. The killing has shocked and angered residents in the Doda belt. This morning people from various villages reached Chakshu village and joined the protest.

Carrying the body of Sheetla, hundreds of people sat on dharna near Khelani resulting in the blockade of vehicular movement. The blockade was lifted only after an assurance of deputy commissioner, Doda, Sorab Bhagat, who reached the spot and directed the Wildlife authorities to take some measures to control maneaters wreaking havoc in this belt.

Mauling of cattle is a routine affair in the area as beasts frequently carried away animals during the night. In some areas leopard even killed dogs. But during the last some months, these beasts started attacking minors. On June 5, 2007, the beast had mauled a five year old boy Sahil Kumar son of Krishana Nagar of Nai Dangari. After that a massive protest was also organized and authorities had promised but nothing has done so far.

Udhampur July 1
Political parties have launched a campaign to corner the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) in the Jammu region, on the issue of demilitarisation and citizenship rights to refugees from Pakistan. The PDP has decided to “properly educate” the common masses.

PDP's Jammu face and member of the Rajya Sabha Trilok Singh Bajwa has been on the job of counter-propaganda. Bajwa addressed two meetings in Udhampur today and tried to “educate masses” that the party's demands were not anti-national.

Seeking to allay the apprehension of demilitarisation leading to further eruption of militancy in other peaceful areas, Bajwa said his party had been demanding that troops should be removed from those areas where peace had been established. “We do not want that the Army should be withdrawn from militancy-plagued areas'', he pointed out and argued that schools and other buildings should be got vacated from security forces to give a message that the situation was returning to normalcy.

The PDP leader also informed the people that his party was not against granting citizenship rights to Pakistani refugees. He, however, said this issue had already been taken up at the highest level so there was no need to politicise this matter.

Sources in the PDP said the party high command had taken a serious note of the recent attack on party's rallies and protest against party leadership in the Jammu region. The high command has directed Jammu-based leaders to launch counter-offensive against these attacks.

Udhampur, July 1
Three- day brainstorming session of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party concluded today at Sudhmahadev. All senior party leaders were present at the session and devised a strategy to launch an agitation on the demands of the people of Jammu region.

The session assumes importance as this was the first indoor meeting of the party after leaving the coalition in Jammu and Kashmir.

Party sources disclosed during the meeting party leadership decided to cash in on its decision of withdrawal of support to the Congress- led coalition regime in the state. Majority of the party leaders were of the view it was high time to corner all other parties on the issue of demilitarisation.