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Security situation has improved: CM
1,259 pilgrims leave for Amarnath shrine
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Serial blasts in Srinagar, 3 injured
Twin grenade attacks near Dal Lake
Lone elected legislative council chief
Dental college gets nod for admissions
NC concerned over rights violations
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Security situation has improved: CM
Srinagar, July 20 Azad resolved to bring down incidents of human rights violations to zero and cautioned against politicising issues like human rights violations to win favour ahead of the election process. He said custodial killings had been brought down drastically during the recent years with no such case reported so far this year adding the biggest instance of zero tolerance was the investigation into the Ganderbal case early this year.
Azad was replying to a discussion on the human rights violations that was introduced by the opposition National Conference in the state legislative assembly here today. The discussion was started by leader of opposition Abdul Rahim Rather in which several other members of the National Conference, ruling Congress,
PDP, CPM and BJP participated. With this, the brief session, which began here yesterday with obituary references, was adjourned till August 20. In his 50-minute long reply after day-long discussions, the chief minister said there had been a gradual decline in violence in the state over the years. This, he said, was mainly because of the revolutionary change in mindset of the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the efforts of the police, security forces and the political parties. Responding to the issues relating to human rights taken up by the members of the House cutting across party lines, the Chief Minister said thousands, including 5,000 security forces personnel, had been killed during the past 18 years of violence in the state. He said strict action would be taken against those security forces personnel who were found involved in human rights violations. He, however, said the security forces personnel who were being blamed for the violation of human rights, rape and molestation were also a part of society. The Chief Minister also referred to the recent incidents of the killings, attempts of rape and molestation in
Kupwara, Srinagar, Kangan and Bandipore. |
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1,259 pilgrims leave for Amarnath shrine
Jammu, July 20 The batch, consisting of 683 men, 306 women, 36 children and 234 sadhus, left in a fleet of 34 vehicles from the base camp at the Maulana Azad Memorial Stadium here under tight security. Besides, a good number of pilgrims from various parts of the country were proceeding directly to Baltal and Pahalgam where they were being issued registration slips. A large number of pilgrims from Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and other states throng the base camps. With only 943 pilgrims proceeding to the shrine from here yesterday, doubts were expressed whether the figure would further dwindle. However, the number of pilgrims crossing the 1,200 mark today has revived the hopes of those connected with organising the pilgrimage. Security arrangements have been further tightened along the 400-km highway from Jammu to the two base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam following the grenade attack on Tuesday evening in which one pilgrim was killed and 17 others were injured. About 36,391 pilgrims have left for the cave shrine since the commencement of the pilgrimage on July 2. As many as 1,428 pilgrims had left for the shrine on Wednesday and the authorities hope that the figure will increase in the days to come. However, it is being feared that Shri Amarnath Shrine Board might not achieve its target of five lakh people visiting the shrine during the two months long pilgrimage. |
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Lone elected legislative council chief
Srinagar, July 20 Earlier the council witnessed noisy scenes with the opposition National Conference members entering the well of the House in support of their demand for a discussion on the human rights violations. Acting chairman P. Namgyal adjourned the House for 15 minutes after the agitating members were martialled out of the well. Ashok Shamra of the Congress moved a motion proposing that Lone, MLC, be chosen as the chairman of the council and Ved Prakash Gupta seconded the motion. A similar motion was moved by Bilal Ahmad Lodhi of the PDP and seconded by Ali Mohammad Sofi. However, the third motion of Mohammad Rasheed Qureshi of the National Conference proposing Sakina Ittoo as chairman of the council could not be moved as the entire National Conference had boycott the proceedings. Prof Bhim Singh of the Panthers Party wanted to raise a point of order, which was disallowed by Namgyal. The chairman then put to vote the motion moved by Sharma and Lodhi proposing Lone to be chosen as chairman of the council. The 22 members present in the House unanimously supported Lone and Namgyal asked the members to stand up if they were in favour of Lone. No member stood against the motion thus electing Lone by 22 votes against zero. The opposition National Conference members sought a discussion on the alleged human rights violations in the state and went to the well of the House in support of their demand. They included Sakina, Mohammad Rashid Qureshi, Devinder Singh Rana and M. Y. Teing. The acting chairman of the council sought the expulsion of NC member Mohammad Rashid Qureshi for creating unruly scenes by throwing away papers from the tables of the secretary’s staff and the treasury bench. The lone Panthers Party member, Prof Bhim Singh, also walked out of the House and abstained from voting, describing it as “unconstitutional and illegal”. His party, which has four members in the legislative assembly, has already withdrawn its support to the coalition government on the issue of the PDP’s demand for withdrawal of troops from Jammu and Kashmir.
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Dental college gets nod for admissions
Jammu, July 20 The college has been admitting 20 students for the past three years without formal permission of either the central government or the Dental Council of India (DCI) to run the institution. Health secretary K.B. Jandial told this correspondent today that for the first time the Centre had granted formal permission to admit 50 students for the BDS course during the current session. The case for regularisation of admission of students of the previous three batches would be taken up separately with the DCI. The controversy regarding the functioning of the dental college has to some extent been settled with the Centre granting permission for running the BDS course. The dental college has been functioning for the past about four years without formal permission of the DCI. Several deficiencies were pointed out by the DCI, but finally it has got the nod from the Centre. |
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NC concerned over rights violations
Srinagar, July 20 This was resolved at the Central Working Committee and the Legislature Party meeting here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of party president Omar Abdullah in which chief patron of the party Farooq Abdullah also participated. "The party is deeply concerned about the recent incidents of use of force against different groups whether they are unemployed youth or women protesting against misgovernance in the state", a statement here said. The party resolution added that it felt due to wrong policies of the government the youth of the state was not getting their due and were being alienated and felt frustrated. |
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