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THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
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J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Azad favours law to deal with graft
Srinagar, August 25
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for social sanction against people responsible for corruption and favoured a legislation to deal with elements inducing it.

Minor was raped, killed, House told
Srinagar, August 25
A minor girl, whose body was recovered from an abandoned house in the Raj Bagh area here yesterday, had reportedly been raped, the Legislative Assembly was told today.

Army depot fire: Villages yet to hum with life
Sombran (Anantnag), August 25
Army vehicles zoom on the Achchabal-Shangus road through this village. It does not appear to hum with life as it has been deserted after the fire inside the Army’s Field Ordnance depot on August 11.

Mobile phone bomb defused
Rajouri, August 25
The police and para-military forces today detected an improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a mobile phone, along with a grenade and detonator here, at 7.30am in the morning.

Steps to wean away students from madarsas
Jammu, August 25
To counter the brainwash of young children in madarsas which have mushroomed in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, the Romeo Force of the Army has launched play-way schools for them.



YOUR TOWN
Jammu
Srinagar


EARLIER STORIES



Road caves in due to heavy rain
Jammu, August 25
A newly constructed road around the Indira Crossing, near the general bus stand, caved in today due to heavy rainfall that waterlogged the lower areas of the town, paralysing the movement of the vehicular traffic.
Many roads in Jammu were waterlogged due to heavy rain on Saturday. —Tribune photo by Anand Sharma
Many roads in Jammu were waterlogged due to heavy rain on Saturday.



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Azad favours law to deal with graft
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 25
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for social sanction against people responsible for corruption and favoured a legislation to deal with elements inducing it.

On a discussion on corruption, initiated by Leader of the Opposition National Conference Abdul Rahim Rather, in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said his government had launched a war against corrupt officials.

He said greed of wealth among people was ever increasing and there was a mad rush to acquire assets by whatever means. He said ostentatious lifestyle and amassing of money was responsible for corruption and other social evils.

Azad sought the support of judiciary, media, political parties, legislators and opinion makers to cleanse society of this evil. He said against 54 non-trap cases in Kashmir, 46 were initiated in Jammu.

In the trap cases where the organisation initiates action only after some member of society makes a complaint against an official for demanding bribe from him, the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) has initiated cases against 89 officials in Kashmir and 23 in Jammu.

He said there was no question of region and religion in fighting corruption. Between 1990 and 1996, during militancy, when there was no accountability and monitoring mechanism in the absence of elected representatives and officers not being able to move out, corruption was on the rise.

Subsequent governments took cognizance of corruption and tried to check it. He said during his tenure conviction rate was higher than that of previous ones.

Azad said from 1996 to 2002, 786 cases were registered of which 237 were challaned and 66 per cent cases were not proved.

Between 2002 and 2005, he said 165 cases were registered, 93 challaned and 27 per cent not proved. Against this, he said the 147 cases registered during his time, only 4 per cent were not proved.

Azad said 146 public servants were caught accepting bribe from November 1, 2002, to August 10, 2007.

Thirtyeight cases were registered against officers for possessing disproportionate assets during the period.

The Prevention of Corruption Act was amended by his government to empower the SVO to attach, during investigation, property acquired by an accused public servant through corrupt means.

He added that the property of nine corrupt public servants valued at Rs 3.48 crore was attached.

He said the government has instituted Chief Minister’s gold medal to honour public servants for extraordinary public service or outstanding achievements in the discharge of their duties and demonstrated exceptional integrity and honesty. Five officers were honoured on the Independence Day last year and six this year.

The Chief Minister said the Right to Information Act applicable in Jammu and Kashmir did not have enough teeth and his government was considering applying the Central Right to Information Act.

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Minor was raped, killed, House told
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 25
A minor girl, whose body was recovered from an abandoned house in the Raj Bagh area here yesterday, had reportedly been raped, the Legislative Assembly was told today.

Fours suspected persons have been picked up for investigations in this connection.

Minister for consumer affairs and public distribution Taj Mohi-ud-Din informed the House that Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh of the Ikhrajpora locality in Raj Bag reported to the police yesterday that his daughter, Sabreena, 10, had not returned home.

The police found the body of the girl in an abandoned migrant house in the same locality.

The body was sent for post mortem and samples were sent to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) for further tests, which are awaited. The minister was responding to a point raised by Mubarak Gul regarding the murder of a minor girl at Ikhrajpora in Srinagar recently.

He said the House condemned and expressed grief and anger over this heinous crime.

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Army depot fire: Villages yet to hum with life
Ehsan Fazili
Tribune News Service

Sombran (Anantnag), August 25
Army vehicles zoom on the Achchabal-Shangus road through this village. It does not appear to hum with life as it has been deserted after the fire inside the Army’s Field Ordnance depot on August 11.

A wall separates this village from the ammunition depot, wherefrom peasants had to run for their lives minutes after explosions.

The population of 1,000 had the test of their lives, with members of a family separated from one another and living either in camps or with relatives outside.

More than 13 villages comprising 26,000 people had been evacuated soon after the fire followed by explosions.

More than a week after the incident,on Saturday last, the village is dotted with heaps of grenades, bombs and shells, while red flags marking "dangerous" explosive objects are spread across the village.

Driver Ghulam Hassan had a miraculous escape during a stopover with a group of visiting journalists here. He was about to crush a fallen walnut with a stone, nay a grenade, when an alert Army jawan prevented him from doing so.

"Thank God…", he heaved, adding that the soil-soaked grenade looked like a stone.

Bomb disposal and ammunition experts with tools to clear the area are engaged in identifying and clearing the little hamlet of explosives lying scattered.

These explosives shattered the outer walls, tin roofs and other structures as several houses are burnt down by flames, rendering these useless.

Electric and telephone lines lie haphazardly on the link roads.Very few residents walk along with security personnel engaged in identifying and defusing the explosives.

Only four houses in this tiny village were cleared of explosives till Saturday afternoon, lamented Abdul Aziz Najar, an elderly villager.

He had been among the few residents in the village while security personnel are engaged in clearing the explosives before declaring the area safe.

"In no case it will be safe here now", said Najar, whose family members have been putting up at eight different places after the tragedy struck the area.

He has many questions, even as he admits the shattered houses were not safe for living now. How would anyone venture to harvest paddy beginning over a month ahead? asks Najar.

What befell the family of Mohammad Abdullah Bhat is no different from many of his co-villagers and others in nearby villages of Khundru, Nowgam, Puhloo, Kothair and Pungwan.

Bhat was on the way to Toor village at the time of the incident on that Saturday for day’s work.

He was hardly aware of the happening that left his family scattered. Bhat alongwith others reached the safety of Gopalpora village.

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Mobile phone bomb defused

Tribune News Service

Rajouri, August 25
The police and para-military forces today detected an improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a mobile phone, along with a grenade and detonator here, at 7.30am in the morning.

Sources said a passerby after spotting a container (weighing 2-25 kg) attached with a mobile phone and detonator in the lane between Government Dak Bungalow and under construction women's park informed the CRPF personnel deployed at the nearby security picket.

On receiving the information, the CRPF personnel informed the police, which called the bomb disposal squad, sources added.

"This is for the first time an IED connected to a mobile phone has been recovered during the 19-year long militancy in Jammu region", said a senior police officer.

"The IED could be exploded by ringing up the mobile number and can cause huge loss of precious human lives".

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Steps to wean away students from madarsas
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 25
To counter the brainwash of young children in madarsas which have mushroomed in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, the Romeo Force of the Army has launched play-way schools for them.

It has taken up projects worth Rs 3.36 crore to provide quality education to students in the remote areas of these districts.

Education has been the biggest casualty of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in Rajouri and Poonch districts. Many educational institutions were torched by ultras and teachers are still scared of going to schools in remote areas.

A senior officer of the Romeo Force today said some schools which lacked bare essential infrastructure had been identified for renovation.

Poverty in these districts has led to the mushroom growth of madarsas and due to the failure of an education system, religious education has outperformed the formal education sector through better packaging in the form of free education, food and boarding.

The process of learning in the play-way schools has been made simpler and interactive.

The Romeo Force will improve the infrastructure of about 80 educational institutions every year within its area of operation.

Books, stationery, school bags and uniform will be given free of cost to students.

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Road caves in due to heavy rain
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 25
A newly constructed road around the Indira Crossing, near the general bus stand, caved in today due to heavy rainfall that waterlogged the lower areas of the town, paralysing the movement of the vehicular traffic.

Electric supply was also cut in certain areas around Gandhi Nagar as trees fell on the power lines.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had recently visited the place to take stock of the completion of the road.

This has exposed the poor quality of work done by the state PWD.

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