Rajouri, September 21
The police has arrested an Army Subedar after his involvement in the fake permanent resident (PRC) scam was established by a team constituted to probe the scam.

Sources identified the Subedar as Manjeet Singh of Bathooni here. Manjeet Singh was arrested after he had returned home from the North-East where he was posted, sources added.

The PRC scam was brought to light in 2006 when the then Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Rajouri-Poonch range, V.K.Singh, received the complaint regarding fake PRC having been issued to the ward of an Army Brigadier. The DIG had ordered an enquiry and under the supervision of the then SSP Rajouri, Farooq Khan, a special team of the District Special Branch (DSB) was constituted to investigate the authenticity of the complaint.

The investigators, during preliminary investigation, had found that one Patwari, Khursheed Tantrey, prepared the necessary documents required for issuance of PRC. The documents were then signed by the then Tehsildar, Rajinder Singh, then Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR), A.Q.Mir (now retired), and revenue clerk Muhammad Yousuf.

The fake PRC was issued by the revenue authorities in favour of one Harkanwar Singh, son of Brigadier Manjeet Singh of Jalandhar, who during his posting as Col HR with Romeo Force Headquarters had managed to get the document issued.

The senior Army officer at present a Brigadier in Kashmir had managed to get the fake documents issued in favour of his son Harkanwar by showing him to be the son of Subedar Manjeet Singh of Bathooni, Rajouri, and had used the fake PRC to get his son admitted to Acharya Shri Chander Institute of Medical Sciences.

A member of the DSB team while confirming the arrest of Subedar Manjeet Singh told Tribune News Service that the Subedar was among the 11 accused in the scam. "We are also trying to get the other accused in the case so that they can be brought to book".

Jammu, September 21
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has left his ministerial colleague Qazi Afzal cooling his heels as the prestigious forests and environment portfolio that was unceremoniously snatched from him last month is yet to be restored.

Although Qazi sent his resignation to protest against the arbitrary action of Azad, the latter rejected it and asked him to continue in the ministry with the insignificant portfolio of housing.

Expectations that the forest portfolio would be restored to Qazi have diminished now with Azad ordering a high-level enquiry by B.R.Kundal, an additional chief secretary level officer, into the allegations of corruption in the state forest corporation. Earlier, it was expected that the minister might get back the portfolio as PDP leader Mufti Sayeed and the party chief, Mehbooba Mufti, had mounted pressure on Sonia Gandhi when she visited Srinagar on September 9.

The Mufti is believed to have also discussed the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who invited him and Azad over dinner to patch up the 
differences.

The PDP leaders were hopeful that Qazi might be restored the portfolio only after the Mufti and Mehbooba Mufti return from New York on September 25.

Azad had added confusion to the whole affair when he not only rejected Qazi’s resignation, but also gave him a clean chit and asked him to continue in the cabinet.

Mehbooba Mufti has accused Azad of breaking the coalition dharma by sacking Qazi without consulting the PDP leadership. Why should Azad sack him when he did not have any doubt about Qazi’s integrity, she asked.

When contacted on the telephone today, Qazi was hopeful that the controversy would be settled when the Muftis return from abroad.

PDP leaders point out that it was not for first time that Azad has “interfered” in the affairs of the PDP with whose support he was surviving in office. He retained Muzaffar Hussain Beig as finance minister in the cabinet while the PDP had withdrawn him from the ministry.

The issue was resolved only following intervention of the Congress high command. Thereafter, PDP activists point out, Azad again tried to belittle the PDP by trying to deprive Tariq Hameed Karra of the finance portfolio and tipping Mangat Ram Sharma for it. However, Karra was given the portfolio when the PDP put its foot down.

Udhampur, September 21
The on-going “war of words” between the Congress and its erstwhile coalition partner Panthers Party is likely to be intensified as the Youth Congress today joined this “battle” and vowed to counter the “vicious” campaign against the state government.

The Youth Congress launched the campaign to counter the Panthers Party's “malicious” propaganda from Udhampur which is considered as the citadel of the latter as three seats of this district are represented by Panthers Party MLAs.

National general secretary of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) Sheikh Mastan Wali along with Youth Congress state president Mohammed Amin Bhat kicked off this campaign in the presence of a large number of party workers. To boost the morale of the party cadre in Udhampur, Youth Congress leaders claimed that the Panthers Party would be wiped out from this district in the next assembly elections.

They said that new faces would be introduced in the next elections to give a tough fight to Panther Party candidates in their home turf. Youth Congress leaders were of the view that the best way to counter, what they called, the malicious campaign of the Panthers Party, was to highlight the achievements of the Congress led coalition in the State.

Speeches of the all the Youth Congress leaders were confined only to attacking the Panthers Party which, according to them, remained silent for three years while in power and now were raking up some issues when kicked out of power.

Meanwhile, sources in the Congress party said that the campaign to highlight the achievements of the ruling coalition was kicked off from Udhampur as the party wanted to corner the Panthers Party on its own turf.

Srinagar, September 21
The houseboat owners in the state are facing increasing pressure from financial institutions to pay off their debts incurred for the renovation and refurbishing of their houseboats to attract tourists.

This has come to the fore following publication of notices in local dailies against the houseboat owners. These notices published by the Jammu and Kashmir Bank have warned the houseboat owners of the requisite measures for recovery in case these debts were not cleared "as soon as possible". In order to refurbish houseboats and attract tourists, the government had taken various measures to revive Kashmir tourism and the loans were granted in favour of the houseboat owners varying from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Later, in 1999 the amount was enhanced to Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, respectively.

The Chairman of the Houseboat Owners Association said that out of the 1,115 registered houseboats, loans had been extended to 910 owners. The balance amount of the loans with interest had gone up to Rs 29.41 crore as of now.