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It was conspiracy to oust me: Peerzada
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Bhaglihar Dam Dispute
Industrial Investments
Rs 29-cr project to save green cover
Campaign to create employment launched
146 BEd colleges; two-third students from outside state
Cong insensitive towards SCs: BJP
‘Public health grants not equally allocated’
Oppn demands Afzal’s resignation
Judicial conference may be held in Feb
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Govt presents no new taxes budget
Jammu, January 16 But finance minister Tariq Hameed Karra will make it too obvious by drawing straight comparisons with the six years rule of his predecessors, the National Conference, was something unexpected. Those made the annual financial statement look more like a political statement that not only listed its own achievements, but also the failures of the opponents. This is for the fourth consecutive year, the ruling Congress-People's Democratic Party alliance government presented a "zero deficit" budget in the state. Against the revenue receipts of Rs 18,443 crore there has been the revenue expenditure of Rs 18,443 crore only. The finance minister claimed, this had been possible with planned development, revenue generation and planned expenditure. He has not proposed any fresh taxes in the current year's budget as the state was financially sound and stable. At least what the budgetary estimates for the year 2008-2009 indicated. While the state would have an income of Rs 18,400 crore against an equal expenditure, Karra said the government would spend about Rs 87,000 crore on the development works in the state in this fiscal. Comparing the spending on development profile during last five years of the coalition government with previous decade, the finance minister said the expenditure by the end of next fiscal would be over Rs 87,000 crore and the raising to Rs 80,000 crore. Karra said, "Volume of annual budget had increased from Rs 9,000 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 18,400 crore in 2008-09.” The minister said, “The previous government during its tenure raised a debt (borrowings) of about Rs 5,300 crore to finance expenditure of Rs 43,000 crore.” It sounded more of an election speech than the financial statement and that too with adequate comparisons with the performance of the previous government led by the National Conference. So much so, Karra claimed that the coalition was set to form the next government as well. He said, “Even as this budget culminates the end of phase-a phase that has given the fiscal policy a macro economic direction-it heralds the beginning of another one, which will see the same coalition present another six budgets in
a succession.” He went on to add, "The seeds of our electoral success have been shown in our six budgets and those are now flowering across the state in the form of developmental woke done on ground.” Claiming that the coalition government had achieved in last five years what could not be achieved in last five decades, the finance minister claimed, "Each year of the last five yeas has packed a decade of performance in it.” Comparing the performance of his government with that of the National Conference, he claimed, "We would have spent around Rs 87,000 crore and raised approximately Rs 80,000 crore, more than what was spend and earned cumulatively in the decade preceding 2002-2003. In direct comparison with the previous government, he remarked, “The previous government spent about Rs 43,500 crore and earned around Rs 38,000 crore over a six year period-just about half of what our coalition government has done.” |
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Oppn ridicules, industry shows thumbs up
The opposition ridiculed the "zero deficit" budget presented by finance minister Tariq Hameed Karra in the state assembly here today. The leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Abdul Rahim Rather, termed it as anti-people devoid of any direction. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said it had not addressed the problems of the common man.
At the same time the industry hailed the budget. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry hailed the government for not imposing any fresh taxes besides providing several other concessions to the industry. Addressing a press conference after the presentation of the budget, Rather regretted that the finance minister had used the occasion of the presentation of the budget for the National Conference bashing. He said it was unprecedented in the history of the state that the finance minister had not presented the financial progress report of his own government but had unduly tried to draw unjust comparisons with the previous government. He said the budget had failed the expectations of the common man. Particularly there was nothing for the agriculture sector or the unemployed youth of the state. Moreover, he observed, there was nothing for the public sector units, which were lying sick. |
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It was conspiracy to oust me: Peerzada
Jammu, January 16 He, however, claimed that the party high command was informed of the matter and that he would come out clean. He also questioned the allegations that his wife had made threatening calls to Shoaib Lone's mother. Earlier, Shoaib Lone had levelled charges of corruption against the minister. Flanked by hundreds of supporters who had gathered at his residence, Peerzada also sought to clarify his position on the corruption charges levelled against him by an independent MLA, Shoaib Lone. He questioned that if Lone had been demanded Rs 40,000, why the matter was not brought to his notice. Peerzada said two Assembly sessions had passed since he had signed the file on June 20, 2007, but why was Lone levelling these allegations after seven months. He said the file remained with the minister of state for education for about eight days. “I cleared the file the same day when it came to me”, he said. About the driver, from whose phone it is alleged that threatening calls had been made to Shoaib's mother, Peerzada said, “He (driver) was never attached to him, but was instead attached with late Ghulam Nabi Lone, when he was minister of state for education for three years”. Peerzada said all these factors needed to be taken into consideration. He, however, refused to name the people within the party who were against him. He said this was not the first time that such allegations had been levelled against him. He said he was twice given a clean chit by the Accountability Commission and once by the State Vigilance. “This is not new for me and I have faced it in the past. I came out clean then and will come out clean again”, he asserted. Meanwhile, angry supporters shouted slogans against the government and warned the high command to expose the people who were bent upon undermining the credibility of the party loyalists. |
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Highway closed, 2 die in avalanche
Srinagar, January 16 Meanwhile, two persons were also feared dead in Anantnag district when they came under an avalanche. Authorities said it had hampered the Army's operation to retrieve the bodies of its men and porters who were buried in avalanches a few days back. While snow played hide-and-seek in the valley, Srinagar witnessed a continual but minuscule amount of snow and drizzle for the better part of the day. The Met department said higher altitude areas received more snow. A traffic official said the area around Jawahar tunnel, which linked the valley to Jammu, received a sizable amount of snow and they had stopped the traffic from both sides as a precautionary measure. Two persons, Mushtaq Ad Khan and Fareed Khan of Dardpora village in Anantnag, were buried when they came under an avalanche in Lachan Top forest area. “Both the persons are believed to have died but our search for their bodies is still on,” a police spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the cold wave has also reduced the survival chances of a missing Norwegian skier, Franciska Rogne (26). The authorities said the chances of finding her alive in the snowy mountains of Gulmarg are bleak. “If she lost her way in the Gulmarg hills, which is what we believe, then I have not much hope for her. The weather is extreme and we can only pray for some miracle,” a tourism official overseeing the rescue operation said. Meanwhile, the Norwegian embassy has also admitted that her survival chances are “slim”, a statement on its website said. Meanwhile, success eludes the rescue parties to recover bodies of soldiers and civilian porters, who were buried alive under huge avalanche of snow in Uri sector on January 8. Relatives of civilian porters, taken to an army post near the incident area, are still there as no fresh rescue operations could be taken because of fresh snowfall, they added. The defence authorities have announced Rs 1 lakh ex gratia while Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the state would pay Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of each porter. |
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Bhaglihar Dam Dispute
Jammu, January 16 Official sources said here today the project was initially estimated to cost about Rs 4,000 crore, but objections raised by Pakistan, from time to time, over the design of the project had swelled the cost to Rs 5,000 crore. The date of completion went on getting extended from 2005 to 2007. The government had made a commitment that the project would be commissioned in 2007, but further delay was caused when the stiff opposition to the technical design of the project by Pakistan resulted in the World Bank appointing a Swiss civil engineer, Raymond Lafitte, to arbitrate the Bhaglihar Dam dispute between both the countries. Islamabad had complained to the World Bank that the construction of the power project would block the flow of water from the Chenab to Pakistan. But the Indian side held that the project was being built not in violation of the Indus Water Treaty. Raymond Latfitte had recommended that the height of the dam
be lowered. Despite assurance from Delhi that it will not take any step which would violate the treaty, Pakistan has threatened to take the dam dispute case to the International Court of Justice. The sources said despite these threats, work on the project was going on smoothly and it was expected to be completed by June 2008. |
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Industrial Investments
Jammu, January 16 Despite being first state of the country to get industrial package from the Centre in 2002 besides offering its own incentives to attract industrialists, the state so far has managed a meager investment of Rs 4,500 crore as against Rs 80,000 crore and over Rs 1,00,000 crore in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, respectively. Not only this, the state continues to lose prospective ventures to Himachal and Uttaranchal-the states which got Centre’s package much later than J&K. Talking to The Tribune, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) president Ram Sahai said, “Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to be given Centre’s package. Despite having dual incentives, the state has managed a miniscule investment of just Rs 4,500 crore.” “We requested Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that this year assembly elections are going to be held in or before October, hence the government should take initiatives to increase total investments to at least Rs 10,000 crore by that time,” he said. Sahai further said, “Industries and commerce minister Nawang Rigjin Jora should put his efforts to make it possible.” “We also suggested the state government to send a high-powered committee to Himachal and Uttaranchal so as to see reasons of industrial boom in the two states,” he added. A senior official of the industries department said, “Of late the government has started bringing its act together.” He said, “Hitherto land acquisition for setting up industries was a limiting factor but the government now has allowed the interested entrepreneurs to directly buy lands routing their applications through SICOP and SIDCO.” However, he admitted that acquiring land still remains a problem for industrialists in the backdrop of Article 370, who subsequently drift away to Himachal and Uttaranchal. “Article 370 is a major bottleneck for the growth of industries here. We say that government should evolve a mechanism to remove roadblocks in the acquisition of land,” he added. Apart from land acquisition, poor power scenario in the state having a hydel potential of 20,000 mega watts also shoo away prospective industrialists. CCI president Sahai said, “Poor, erratic power supply marred by low voltage also affects our productivity.” “Being a constant irritant to us we recently met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh requesting that 390 mega watt Dul Hasti hydroelectric project be handed to the state.” |
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Rs 29-cr project to save green cover
Jammu, January 16 This was stated in the upper house of the state legislature by state forest minister Qazi Mohammed Afzal today. “The government has formulated a comprehensive project of Rs 29.5 crore to safeguard the green treasure of the state,” Qazi said. Adding, “The fire incidents that occurred during the dry spell in most of the forests of the state have been dealt with affectively.” The minister said there was a shortage of human resource with the department for protection of the forests effectively from the smugglers. The minister, however, agreed that there was a nexus between some of the officials of the Forest Department and the timber mafia, who are indulged in the smuggling of the timber from the state forests. “The matter is being examined at high level and the list of officials indulged in smuggling would be exposed and the officers involved would be shown the door,” he said. The minister said the department has so far confiscated 65,000 cubic feet timber from the timber smugglers and 7 people have been imprisoned in different cases of timber smuggling. Meanwhile, minister of state for forest G.M Saroori informed the upper house that a total of 297 incidents of forest fire covering an area of 978.25 hectares were reported in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in which 226 trees were burnt. |
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Campaign to create employment launched
Udhampur, January 16 The government has been utilising services of the Khadi and Village Industry Board (KVIB) of the state, which has been adjudged as best performing board in the country, to encourage rural youth in establishing their own units for creating more employment opportunities at the village level. Although the government has been giving a number of incentives to the investors to invest in the state, this policy has not yet achieved encouragement as far as generation of employment is concerned. Big industrial units being set up in cities, but most of the towns and semi-urban areas lack industrial development. The government has ultimately decided to involve the KVIB to fill this gap. “The KVIB has more than 36,000 units working in the state out of which around 6,950 units are under the REGP”, said R. C. Sharma, secretary of the KVIB, Jammu and Kashmir, adding that “Evaluation study of the REGP units reveals that 96.43 per cent are working and remaining 3.57 per cent are sick. Out of the total units, 44.53 per cent are in rural areas while as remaining are set up in the towns where population is less than 22,000.” Minister of industries and commerce Nawang Rigzin Jora and minister of state for industries Dr Ramesh Chander Sharma have launched this campaign in Udhampur. “As far as economic growth is concerned, we have achieved more than 8 per cent growth rate, but still people residing in rural areas are not getting benefit of this growth”, said Jora while giving reasons for launching this scheme. He said economic empowerment of whole society was main task of such campaign. With elections in their minds, both the ministers praised Chief Minister for bringing huge funds for the betterment of the people. “It is all due the efforts of the CM that the Centre has been liberally giving funds to Jammu and Kashmir for over all development of the state”, minister of state for industries said. Issue of unemployment is major challenge before the ruling coalition as job opportunities have been squeezed as number of unemployed youth has been increased manifold during the last six years. Fearing that unemployment would emerge as major issue in the next assembly elections, government has pinned its hopes on the KVIB which generates employment opportunities for 45,000 persons every year and these numbers of likely to be doubled in the next two years. “In order to encourage and boost cottage and village industries, state government and the KVIB have announced a number of incentives”, Sharma added. |
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Orphans embark on an educational journey
Srinagar, January 16 The group comprising boys and girls, accompanied by three teachers from Rahat Garh, the only centre in Kashmir for rehabilitation of widows and orphans of slain militants, left here yesterday for a two-week-long tour to Pune-Secunderabad and other places on the way. The tour has been organised by the Army under “Operation Sadhbhavana” to expose children to the rich cultural heritage of the country. Rahat Ghar, under the aegis of the Guild of Service headed by V. Mohini Giri, is distinctively the only such centre for militancy-hit widows and orphans’ rehabilitation in the trouble-torn Kashmir. It has about 100 members, including 30 widows and orphan boys and girls. The Army under Operation Sadhbhavana looks after the support and logistics to the centre. It has been working for the past seven years in Kashmir, where it opened its first centre in Kupwara district, and later shifted here. Those on board are provided with all basic facilities of boarding, lodging, education, vocational training and future career, said Zahida, a teacher. Though the state government has no exact details of the number of orphans or widows due to militancy in the state, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad last week suggested the conduct of a special census on the number of orphans and widows. According to official sources, there are around 6,000 beneficiaries, including widows, old age pension holders and students getting scholarships, under various social welfare schemes. More than Rs 6 crore were distributed among the beneficiaries during the past year in the state, officials said. They added that all orphans and widows affected due to militancy had been covered and there were about 1,500 such cases under
consideration. Apart from this, the Army has set up or extended support to eight orphanages in Kashmir under its Operation Sadbhavana in Srinagar and north Kashmir. “Muskan” is one of these orphanages and is working at the Tattoo Ground here with a group of 80 children. As of now it has 64 children, including 59 boys and five girls, in the age group of seven to 16 years. "The objective of Muskan is to provide them with a healthy environment, boarding, lodging, education and healthcare facilities to give them a good living,” said officials of the 5131ASC Battalion of the Army looking after Muskan. Another orphanage, Yateem Khana, run by the Muslim Welfare Society at Bemina here has 300 orphan boys. They are provided with all basic facilities, including education. It also provides assistance to 200 widows, 100 orphan girls and 100 physically challenged persons. “We receive and provide charities on humanitarian basis. Sponsor one orphan against Rs 1,000 per year. Construct one room in the name of your dears or pay Rs 1 lakh against it,” goes the message at the Yateem Khana for the welfare of the affected children. Earlier, there was no system to provide succour to widows and orphans, laments S.A. Bukhari, chairman of the Yateem Khana, which has been approached by at least 60 young widows during the past eight
months. |
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146 BEd colleges; two-third students from outside state
Jammu, January 16 Minister for higher education Gulchain Singh Charak said there were 146 BEd colleges in the state where except two, the rest were private colleges. About two-third of the students studying in these colleges were from outside the state, he added. A total number of 44,241 candidates were enrolled in private colleges which included 11,845 locals and 32,396 non-locals. He said if compared to BEd colleges, there were not even half the number of degree colleges (80 to be precise, including 18, recently set up institutions) in the state. The minister said there was a mad race for setting up of BEd colleges in the state in the mid 90’s as quite a number of students from outside the state, particularly from places like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh came rushing in for admissions. These colleges had hardly any infrastructure but got affiliations without any questions being raised. Charak said the decision to set up more BEd colleges in the state was taken in 1996 to cater to the needs of a large number of students opting for the same. After frequent representations, the government constituted a committee to examine the matter for opening up of more colleges in both capitals of the cities, however, after the matter was taken up in the high court, suitable criteria was fixed for setting up of new colleges, he said, He added, “The fee structure in these colleges is the same as it was in vogue in 2003 as per high court directions. The colleges violating the norms would be taken to task.” Replying to supplementary questions raised by R.S. Chib, Devender Singh Rana, T. S.Wazir, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, Bashir Ahmad Naz, Arvinder Singh, Sakina Ittoo and Mohammad Hussain, the minister told the House that there were at present 144 private colleges and two government colleges of education functioning in the state. The minister said these colleges were regularised and the department watched the fee structure and monitored the functioning. |
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LPG shortage
Udhampur, January 16 For the first time after so many years, members of both the communities jointly observed a strike on a common cause in the militancy-plagued Doda district infamous for communal division. Call of the strike was given by the Doda Welfare Association comprising members of both minority and majority communities. For the past one month residents of Doda have been facing shortage of LPG and kerosene. Miseries of the residents further compounded as unscheduled power curtailment has also become a routine affair in the area. In the recent snowfall, some towers and lines of the Power Development Department developed a technical snag. Even after passing one week, the authorities have failed to restore power supply in the town. Braving severe cold, a large number of residents came on streets shouting slogans against the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department andn the Power Development Department for their failure to streamline supply. Residents expressed their anguish over behaviour of officers of the CAPD who, according to the people, were non-serious towards solving their problems. Residents alleged that LPG and kerosene meant for Doda district being openly sold in black market under the nose of the officers of the
CAPD. |
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Cong insensitive towards SCs: BJP
Jammu, January 16 Addressing a day-long meeting of the state working committee of the BJP’s SC Morcha today, Khajuria said members of the SC community had been suffering since the past 60 years. Khajuria said the Congress had done nothing for the welfare and development of the community. He also castigated the Congress-led coalition government in the state for turning a blind eye to the community. “How serious the present coalition government is towards the SC community can be gauged from the fact that it brought SRO-294 aimed at reducing reservation in promotions from eight to four per cent,” he added. He demanded that the “draconian” SRO be withdrawn immediately. National secretary and pradesh prabhari Rajesh Bagga and state BJP general secretary Ajay Jamwal also spoke on the occasion. |
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Sikhs seek 10 pc quota
Jammu, January 16 The Sikh delegation demanded that the community actually being in minority should be given a minority status and 10 per cent reservation in all sectors. The delegation informed the Governor that the community was being deprived of their share and Sikh students were not being given scholarships under the ambit of the Minority Scholarship Schemes. The delegation also demanded that 10 per cent reservation should be given to Sikhs in government sectors, educational institutions, public and private sectors for the uplift of the community. |
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‘Public health grants not equally allocated’
Jammu, January 16 While four legislators Sharif-u-Din Shariq, Saif Ullah Mir, Qaiser Jamshed Lone and Qafil-u-Rehman stormed the well, their colleagues rose from their seats in their support. They alleged that the PHE minister, Mohammad Dilawar Mir, who was not in the house, while furnishing the details of all the constituencies for the funds for public health schemes had not mentioned the funds allocated to his own Rafiabad constituency. |
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Oppn demands Afzal’s resignation
Jammu, January 16 Trouble started when forest minister, while replying to a question by Murtaza Ahmed Khan, accepted that a large-scale of forest land had been encroached upon by the people and the forest department did not have powers vested with it to remove the encroachments. |
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Judicial conference may be held in Feb
Jammu, January 16 The meeting attended by principal secretary to Chief Minister Anil Goswami, commissioner secretary finance
B. B. Vyas, senior officers of the state high court, civil and police officers decided that the conference should be
held for three days from February 1 at Zorawar Singh Auditorium of Jammu University. About 160 delegates, including judges of the Supreme Court and
High Courts from across the country, are expected to attend the conference. Besides this, 40 judges from Jammu and Kashmir High Court shall also
participate. |
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