Jammu, December 24
Though the budget session will get under way from January 7, 2008, opposition parties in the state legislative Assembly are crying hoarse over the session, describing it as a “cruel joke” with the people of the state.

Talking to the Tribune, leader of opposition in the legislative Assembly and former finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather said, “The coalition government is hell bent to shred democracy into pieces. The session is grossly insufficient to discuss budget and other issues of public importance.”

“During the National Conference (NC), we used to have it from 45 days to a maximum of two months,” he said.

He added, “Apart from discussions on the Governor's address and budget speech of the finance minister, the performance of each single ministry has to be discussed before allowing grants.”

“Similarly, several resolutions of the government, private members bill and appropriation bills have to be discussed,” he said.

He further said, “Graph of corruption and HR abuse graph has gone up in the last one year. Constantly rising inflation and unemployment besides, missing basic amenities and increase in fire incidents needs to be discussed threadbare.” The finance minister said, “Hardly a fortnight has left for the session but the government so far has not convened a Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting,” he rued.

“Last year, too, the government rushed through the session on the pretext to spare adequate time for developmental works,” he added.

He reminded that during the last budget session, the government had passed a Bill on the J&K State Lands (vesting of ownership to the occupants) Act, 2001, in haste without giving an opportunity to the opposition to discuss it.

“The Bill had several flaws and despite our protests, the government passed it in haste,” he said.

Leader of Panthers Party legislators in lower house and former education minister Harsh Dev Singh said, “It would be the shortest budget session in the history of the country's legislature.”

“The government has fixed seven days for 29 departments and just one day for over 100 private members’ bills. I can not understand why the government is shying away from its responsibility,” he said.

When asked about the BAC meeting, he said, “The meeting would be conducted during the session itself.”

“This government is a total failure and it would be cornered in the coming session, provided they don't expel me like they did in the last summer session,” Singh said.

The lone BJP legislator in the lower house, Jugal Kishore, also echoed similar views.

However, minister of state for finance, law and parliamentary affairs Prem Sagar Aziz said, “Justice will be done to every issue of the people.”

“Further, we always keep the option of increasing the session,” said Aziz. He, however, admitted that the BAC meeting had not been convened so far saying, “It would be conducted on the first day of the session after the Governor's address.” 

Jammu, December 24
The Traders Federation of the Warehouse (Nehru Market), through a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, have sought renovation of the 50-year-old market.

President of the federation, Ramesh Chander Gupta, said the market was set up by late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, a former Prime Minister of the state (till 1963, J&K was headed by Prime Minister and not the Chief Minister) to decrease congestion in the old market at Kanak Mandi. Since then nothing much had been done for the welfare of the market, he added.

The traders have appealed to the Chief Minister to allocate special funds for the development of the wholesale market in Jammu, which is one of the biggest trading centres of the region.

Traders said the 50-year-old shops in the market had lost their sheen and the government had done nothing to upgrade or renovate them. The traders regretted that even after 50 years, ownership rights had not been granted to them.

The traders said ownership rights would provide revenue to the government, besides they could also renovate their shops on getting ownership rights. 

Jammu, December 24
After National Conference (NC) legislator from Surankote - Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari threatened to resign from the legislative Assembly if the government failed to open a degree college in his constituency, another party legislator from Gulabgarh, Abdul Gani Malik, has threatened of a mass agitation if a degree college was not opened in his constituency.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Gulabgarh legislator Abdul Gani Malik said, “The government’s decision of opening new colleges, including one at Dharmari, has shocked people in Gool Gulabgarh area.”

“People had been demanding a degree college in Mahore which is the headquarter of Gool Gulabgarh, Mahore, Arnas and Chassana areas,” he added.

He said, “Mahore houses a large number of government offices and has a large number of educational institutions,” adding “During the 2005-06 budget session, the government had agreed to the demand of a degree college at Mahore.”

Malik added, “It is astonishing to know that the coalition government has decided to open the college at Dharmari instead of Mahore.” He said, “Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad should send a team of higher officials to see which area needs the college.”

“Despite being a representative of the people, I was never taken into confidence by the government about its decision of opening the college at Dharmari,” he added.

“The decision was taken just to appease a couple of politicians of the area,” Malik alleged.

When asked whether he also had plans to resign if the demand was not fulfilled, he replied in the negative adding, “A mass agitation would be started to take the demand to its logical conclusion.” 

Jammu, December 24
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today honoured five eminent personalities for their contribution in development and promotion of Dogri language and literature at a function organised to commemorate the inclusion of the language in the VIIIth Schedule of the Constitution four years ago.

The recipients include - Ved Bhasin, veteran journalist and chairman of Kashmir Times Group of Publications, Padamshri Prof Ram Nath Shastri and D.C. Prashant, former vice-chancellor, Jammu University, Prof M.R. Puri, and former education minister, Muhammad Shafi Uri.

Azad congratulated the five personalities for their valuable contribution to the promotion and enrichment of Dogri language. He released two books in Dogri titled ‘Sheesha’ by Madan Padha and ‘Geetasar’ by Praduman Singh Jindrahia. He also released New Year greeting card and calendar brought out by the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.

The function was jointly organised by the Dogri Sanstha Jammu and the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.

A brief cultural programme comprising Dogri songs and enactment of poetry was also presented and highly appreciated by the audience.

Earlier, Prof Lalit Magotra, president of Dogri Sanstha, gave a brief account of the progress made in the language during the past six decades. He made a special mention of the contribution of the eminent persons felicitated in today's function for promotion of Dogri language and literature.

General secretary, Dogri Sanstha, Prof Veena Gupta read out citations of the five personalities.

Dr Rafiq Masoodi, secretary, Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, presented vote of thanks and appreciated the contribution of the felicitated personalities.  

Srinagar, December 24
The police tonight rescued all five civilians held captive by militants inside a mosque in Kulgam district and killed all three militants, ending the over 24-hour hostage crisis. The security personnel lobbed tear smoke shells drawing the three militants out of their hiding and engaged them in a gunbattle in which two of the militants were killed, police sources said.

Another militant managed to flee and took shelter in one of the minarets of the mosque and engaged the police in an encounter for nearly an hour after which he too was eliminated.

DIG H.K. Lohia said all five hostages were unharmed and no damage was done to the mosque in the gunbattle.

Earlier in the day, three of the five hostages tricked their way to freedom even as the hostage drama rolled into the second day.

The three civilians were sent out by militants to bring them food offered by the police but never returned to the mosque.

The militants, said to be associated with Hizbul Mujahideen, took five civilians hostage inside a mosque at Palnoo village yesterday when they came to offer prayers and demanded safe passage in return for return of the hostages. — PTI

Policemen stand guard outside the mosque where militants hold two civilians hostage in Palnoo village of Kulgam. — PTI, Reuters Photos

Majalata (Udhampur), December 24
A clerical mistake by the State Planning Department has deprived over 40,000 population of Majalata area of Udhampur district from their rightful share. 

For the last six months, this huge population has been facing hardship despite the fact that authorities have repeatedly assured to rectify this mistake due to which all developmental activities have come to a virtual halt in this Kandi terrain.

After a decade-long struggle of the people, Majalata block of Ramnagar was granted tehsil status. In the meeting of the District Development Board (DDB), which was held in April this year, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had announced tehsil status for Majalata.

Minutes of the meeting were forwarded to the Finance and Planning Department for formulating plans and releasing funds for the new tehsil. Meanwhile, a tehsildar was appointed for Majalata who took his charge on June 1, 2007.

As the department was formulating developmental plan for this new tehsil, comprising of 42 villages, a mistake was committed inadvertently. Instead of typing Majalata it was wrongly written as Manjakote on all official documents. As Manjakote was already a tehsil in Rajouri district, all funds meant for the new administration unit were diverted towards that area.

The matter came to the notice of the deputy commissioner Udhampur only after the newly appointed Tehsildar drew his attention towards hardship being faced by the administration due to non-availability of funds as well as infrastructure. Except appointing a tehsildar, administrative powers were not delegated to the new administration unit, as there was no record of the new teshil in the department.

Interestingly, those sitting in the department have adopted casual approach and twice formulated plans for Manjakote tehsil. "It was only after some local people took this issue with the higher-ups, authorities awoke from deep slumber," said Ranvir Singh, an advocate. He added, "Deputy commissioner Udhampur had written thrice to the concerned department to rectify the mistake but still funds are not released."

The residents of this belt had already announced to launch an agitation as authorities failed to fulfil their promise to provide basic infrastructure to the new tehsil.

Even during "Public Darbar" of the deputy commissioner last month, residents had expressed anguish over lackluster approach being adopted by the authorities to make this new tehsil functional. "Not even a single tehsil-level office has been opened in this area, which amounts to betrayal," said Ranvir, adding "instead of mitigating their (residents of this region) problems, granting of teshil status has further compounded their woes as for every revenue record they have to cover a distance of 60 km to reach Ramnagar, which was earlier the tehsil headquarter." 

Jammu, December 24
The surrender by 12 hardcore militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen at Ramban yesterday is certainly a significant development in the state.

The militants are considered to be most motivated and indoctrinated. The surrender has a lot of symbolic significance and is also indicative of the ground gained by the government in influencing people in general and the youth in particular in the hilly region of erstwhile Doda district to get rid of violence. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad deserves the credit for the same.

After having taken over as the Chief Minister two years ago, one of the great achievements of Azad has been reducing, if not totally eliminating, communal polarisation in Jammu region, particularly in the Muslim majority districts of Pooch, Rajouri and Doda.

The erstwhile Doda district was one of the worst hit by the militancy. While militancy had its roots elsewhere, communal polarisation provided it a fertile ground to grow. Once Azad hit at the root of communal polarisation, it started paying dividends by way of more and more people distancing themselves from militancy. Usually the surrender shows are considered to be of only symbolic significance, if not stage managed. But the recent surrender was indicative of more and more youth getting disillusioned with the cult of violence.

Importantly the DGP, Kuldeep Khoda, also has managed to lead his force effectively by maintaining consistent pressure on the militants.

The recent victory in Poonch by-election also may not signify much in terms of overall electoral balance for the ruling Congress and the People's Democratic Party alliance vis-à-vis the opposition National Conference, but it has certainly sounded the end of the prolonged communal polarisation in the Jammu region.

Thanks to the political domination by the Kashmir region, a section of the population in Jammu region would identify itself more with the majority community there (in Kashmir) than with Jammu. The polarisation was too much pronounced in the districts of Doda, Poonch and Rajouri. So much so that the members of the particular community have already switched over to Kashmiri language against their own local dialects.

Azad himself belongs to district Doda in Jammu region. After he decided to contest from the Baderwah constituency, people irrespective of the community they belonged to supported him. This was a place where communal polarisation was at its extreme worst with one community identifying with the Bhartiya Janata Party and another with the National Conference.  

Jammu, December 24
The Jammu University is coming up with yet another campus in the border town of Kathua. This was announced at a high-level meeting chaired by minister of state for youth services and sports, Babu Singh.

Various aspects, including location, size and compensation mechanism were discussed in the meeting. Vice-chancellor Jammu University Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, divisional commissioner Sudhanshu Panday and director, Kathua Campus, Prof R.D. Sharma were present on the occasion.

Babu Singh said the infrastructure of the campus would be built by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the compensation component would be borne by the state government.

He also informed that 200 kanals had been secured at Janglote, a place near Kathua, for the construction of the campus.

Babu Singh asserted that the establishment of the university campus in Kathua would serve as a major watershed in the academic and educational history of the people living in the state. He also said that a major chunk of students were not able to attain university education as they could not afford to go to Jammu or Punjab for receiving the same. 

Jammu, December 24
Lambasting the Congress-led state government headed by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for "corruption" in the state, the opposition National Conference (NC) today alleged that Jammu and Kashmir would soon be the most corrupt state in the country.

"There is high-level corruption plaguing the Azad government. NC is afraid that if things keep going like this way, Jammu and Kashmir would be soon number one corrupt state," NC provincial president Ajay Sadhotra told reporters here.

"The claim of the present dispensation, headed by Azad, of weeding out corruption from the state stands nowhere," Sadhotra said.

He urged the people to change the present administration. — PTI 

Jammu, December 24
The residents of the Nai Basti area have urged Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to revoke the eviction orders from the land they had inhabited for over six decades.

A deputation of residents in Gandhinagar, led by the local MLAs Raman Bhalla and Shanti Devi, met Azad seeking his intervention on the issue.

The deputation informed him that the residents of Nai Basti, Hajipur/Rampur at Satwari living on the two banks of a nullah have been served with notices of eviction.

The residents said they have been living on the site for last 60 years and have constructed residential houses and shops.

They pleaded that being poor, they were not in a position to pay the value of the land. The deputation demanded their case to be considered under the Roshni Act as they are ready to deposit the amount under the Act.

Azad has asked the revenue secretary to examine the matter so that some relief could be provided to the people.

Besides, Bhalla apprised Azad about traffic congestion in his constituency and demanded early construction of a flyover between Bikram Chowk and Convent Crossing to resolve the problem.

He also projected demands of Gorkha and Valmiki communities and development issues in refugee basties at Gadigarh and Bhour Camp.

He, however, complimented the Chief Minister for the massive development works taken up by his government across the state.

Udhampur, December 24
Although the state unit of the BJP is planning to utilise Narendra Modi's success in Gujarat as a mean to revive confidence of the demoralised party cadre, this victory even failed to bring truce between two warring factions of the party in Udhampur district.

Differences between these two factions have gone so deep that two different victory processions were taken out in the town to mark Gujarat's success.

The celebrations by the BJP factions seemed more of "show of strengthen" rather than victory processions. One group headed by Pawan Gupta took out a procession, which passed through different bazaars of the city. While as another faction, led by former Municipal Committee chairman Pawan Khajuria, celebrated this victory at party headquarters.

Gupta is state secretary of the party and is considered as the confidant of former Union minister Prof Chaman Lal Gupta. Khajuria, on the other hand, is state president of BJYM--youth wing of the party and is believed to be the man of state president of the BJP, Ashok Khajuria.

Although "sincere" efforts were made by the senior leaders to bring both the factions together, yet their efforts apparently failed as marking Modi's victory in two separate functions clearly indicates that every thing is not smooth in Udhampur BJP.

Gupta, who is son of the veteran party leader Lala Shiv Charan Gupta, had contested last Assembly elections on the BJP ticket from Udhampur constituency. He had lost the elections due to internal bickering within Sangh Parivar as RSS supported the Jammu State Morcha candidate, who contested against him.

As Gupta had unsuccessfully contested last elections, this time Khajuria has been staking claim on this seat, which was once considered as citadel of the BJP and erstwhile Jan Sangh.

As both the leaders have been staking their claim on Udhampur seat, infighting has been intensified for the quite some time. 

Jammu, December 24
With the J&K Right to Information Act, a casualty to red-tapism and blissful ignorance in the state, a government school teacher has been shuttling from pillar to post, seeking information about seniority list and vacancies sanctioned by the government for promoting teachers as masters.

Talking to The Tribune, aggrieved teacher Dalbir Singh Jamwal said, “I had sought information of seniority list of teachers and vacancies sanctioned by the government for promotion of teachers to masters through departmental promotion committee. I moved two applications under the prescribed format of form ‘A’ to the director, School Education, AK Raina on July 19 this year but till date information has not been provided to me.”

He said, “In fact, lower rank officials keep higher officials in the dark so as to make money and favour their near and dear ones in the seniority list.”

Posted at Government High School Seri Panditan, Jamwal had not only moved the application in the right format but had also given his contact numbers and email address for the response from the concerned officer.

However, over five months have passed but he still awaits response from the concerned department.

“I am the first person from teaching fraternity, who wanted to have the information through the RTI Act but paradoxically even the legal wing of the Directorate of School Education didn’t know about the RTI provisions,” he added.

However, Raina maintained, “We publish the seniority list in various newspapers and even if this teacher has a grievance, he can come to me.”

“In fact he met me once and if his name does not falls in the previous list he can come to me for having the relevant information,” he said, adding, “We do maintain records.”

It may be recalled here that a few days back Central chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibbullah had not only advocated the need of bringing J&K RTI Act at par with the Central Act, but had also emphasised upon awareness to extract the information. 

Jammu, December 24
The recent statement of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Chief Minister’s conference on internal security, regarding the sanctioning of 15 police Battalions to replace the Army in the state, has not been taken well by security experts who feel replacing the Army with the police would be a threat to national security.

Security experts feel that the state police cannot substitute what the Army has been doing in the state for the past 17 years.

They say any such move could further worsen the situation in the valley.

“Already marred by the poor police-people ratio in the country, we cannot take the risk of replacing the Army by the police,” said a senior Army officer on the condition of anonymity.

He added, “The state police is not modernised enough to counter terrorisms alone, as the ongoing turmoil in the state is a proxy war and police can not fight war.”

Ex-director-general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, M.M. Khajuria, said, “The police cannot replace the Army and if you raise the police battalion for the sake of rising them, then that would serve no purpose and would only be a wastage of time and money.”

He added, “But if the Chief Minister has made a statement then he might have some concept behind it. The police battalions deployed for counter terrorism operations have to be specially trained and it has to be a special anti-terrorist force.”

Security experts also feel that 15 police Battalions would be insufficient to counter terrorism in the state, and any redeployment of troops from the valley would be a major blunder.

“When two-third of the 11 lakh strong Indian Army has been deployed in the state in 14, 15 and 16 Corps, then how only 20,000 men of 15 police Battalions can provide a better alternative for the security of the state and the country,” questioned an Army officer.

Experts say if the government decided to remove the Army from the valley, then the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be restored to the police.

“In south Kashmir, the Army is handling counter-terrorist operations in the Pir Panchal mountainous range and in north Kashmir, we operate in thick forests. The police cannot work in such harsh conditions as they are not trained for the purpose,” said an officer.

Army officials speaking to the Tribune on conditions of anonymity felt that though the Rashtriya Rifle Battalions operating in the interiors of the valley could be replaced by the specially trained counter-insurgency police, there was no question of removing the Army from the LoC (Line of Control).

“They can adapt the concept of raising a police force on the similar lines of Assam rifles in the North east, but that force has to be under the ministry of Home Affairs in the Centre,” said the officer.

Speaking to The Tribune, public relations officer of the Army, Lt Colonel S.D. Goswami said, “De-induction of troops from J&K is related to the restoration of normalcy. Proxy war parameters are being monitored constantly in order to formulate dynamic security response and an equally flexible philosophy. Any redeployment in J&K, however, would be based on the assessment of military situation obtained and the consequent reduction in violence level.”

He added, “Armed forces in J&K have a constitutional obligation of assisting the civil administration in dealing with serious internal threats. The primary role of the Armed forces in such a situation is to bring down violence to a manageable level.” 

Jammu , December 24
The police in a press statement issued here today said some mischievous elements were trying to disturb the peace and communal harmony in Jammu by indulging in various nefarious acts.

The release stated, “Today at around 11.30 am, a polythene bag with Jamat-E-Islami written on it, camouflaged in a khaki, containing meat was found outside the shop of Koushal Kumar, son of Suraj Prakash, near toll post Nagrota.

An FIR has been registered at the police station Nagrota and the raw meat has been sent to veterinary surgeons for expert opinion. This act has been done by some mischievous element apparently with vested interest to disturb the communal harmony in Jammu .

The public has been appealed to maintain calm and be careful of such un-scrupulous elements, who are hell bent on disturbing the communal harmony and peace in the area.