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Experts caution against ‘safe passage’ to ultras
Overstaying PoK couple deported
Self-rule
Land Encroachment
CAG orders probe
BJP against relief to slain militants’ families
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3 die as cab rolls down gorge
Govt employee held for
More infiltrations follow
Seminar on emerging market trends
Bird flu: Poultry trade chickens out
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Private educational institutes should admit poor: Charak
Living in houses for decades, yet no ownership rights
Kranti Dal, Morcha ready
to oust BSP
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Experts caution against ‘safe passage’ to ultras
Jammu, February 4 During a recent meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, Mehbooba asked the Centre to “Facilitate the safe return of the youth and political leaders who had gone across during turmoil and were now eager to return back and live peacefully with their families”. She said, “Any relief to the youth who had gone across for arms training and are now eager to return back and live normal lives, should be extended to the non-combatants as well to those who had gone across during the turmoil, under whatever circumstances”. She observed, “It will be a significant goodwill gesture and a reconciliatory move of great essence on behalf of the Government of India.” The security experts questioned the very logic of extending “goodwill” to those who were never keen for it. They pointed out, “The security agencies have never been averse to the idea of militants giving up violence and joining the mainstream. But for that, the prime requirement is that militants should also be inclined towards that.” They also said that there was no logic in extending goodwill to a person who was not inclined or interested towards it. On the other hand, the PDP's latest goodwill gesture is being viewed in the backdrop of its preparation for the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. The PDP is known for adopting unconventional means and methods that have been viewed as soft towards secessionism. Be it the self-rule, the withdrawal of troops and now the safe passage to militants stuck in PoK and Pakistan. Security experts said militants had been forced to stay back across the LoC as security agencies had been maintaining constant vigil on the borders. They observed, “The PDP's latest demand is fraught with dangerous consequences particularly when viewed along with its demand for troop withdrawal.” “On the one hand the PDP is seeking troops withdrawal and now on the other hand it is seeking safe passage for militants, which if done would only leave the valley at their (militants') mercy”. The experts also pointed out that security forces had achieved phenomenal success during the past couple of years and results have been visible with a substantial decline in violence. They said militants were literally on the run. “By extending them an open invitation, we might undo all advantages gained over the years at the cost of so many precious lives of our jawans and officers”, a senior official observed. |
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Overstaying PoK couple deported
Rajouri, February 4 Sources said the couple, Jaman Ali and his wife Jana Bi, had crossed over to India on a travel permit through the Poonch-Rawlakote trans-LOC road to meet their relative Gous Ali Shah of Mendhar. They had to return on December 28 but did not report to the Indian authorities. The sources further stated that the authorities had picked up the couple from the house Gous Ali Shah. They said on the directions of the regional passport officer, the couple was deported back to PoK. |
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Self-rule
Jammu, February 4 According to general secretary of the PDP, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, “There is no hurry in releasing the self-rule document because it has direct link with the ultimate resolution of the Kashmir issue”. Asked whether the release of the document on self-rule would bring the fresh honeymoon between the PDP and the Congress under strain, Bhat said the alliance between the two major political parties was an internal political arrangement and the self-rule concept of the PDP should not cast any shadow on the relations it had with the Congress. He said the document would be released at an appropriate time. Asked whether the document would be released just a few months before the Assembly poll due in October 2008, Bhat said, “It will be released at an appropriate time.” He explained that the concept of self-rule had nothing to do with elections or electioneering adding, “It is an idea that could be experimented upon for settling the Kashmir issue.” Bhat said “We all know the main contours of the self-rule document and hence its release depends on the progress made in the India-Pakistan dialogue.” “Once we feel that Delhi and Islamabad were on the verge of breaking the ice we would release the document in order to strengthen the ongoing peace process and confidence-building measures,” he added. However, president of the state unit of the BJP, Ashok Khajuria and leader of the Panthers Party in the Assembly, Harsh Dev Singh, described both the self-rule slogan of the PDP and the autonomy demand of the National Conference as “hollow slogans aimed at mustering voters support.” Harsh Singh said, “When we already have self-government in Jammu and Kashmir what is the purpose of toying with new ideas.” |
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Land Encroachment CAG orders probe
Jammu, February 4 It also suggested strong measures to retrieve the encroached land. “About 9,483 kanals (1185.37 acre) of land, valued at about Rs 900.89 crore and in actual possession of the JDA, has been encroached upon illegally,” according to a CAG report. The state government had transferred 32,534 hectare (81,334 kanals) of land between 1973 to 2004 to the authority for all-round development of the city, it said. The report, which was tabled in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly during the recently concluded Budget session, said the authority had not been able to get the entire land transferred in its name or take physical possession. Besides this, the report also pointed out that due to non-maintenance of basic records by the state, audit could not ascertain the exact details of the land transferred, physically possessed, demarcated and developed. The authority had said in September 2007, that the encroached land could not be vacated due to non-cooperation from the Revenue Department, it said. "The argument is not tenable as the authority has neither maintained any records of land transferred by the state nor it was able to have the land demarcated and encroachments removed despite lapse of considerable time." Recommending a high-level probe into the matter and immediately removal of encroachments and fresh demarcation, the CAG said the Authority, which was established for planned development of the city, had failed to achieve its objectives. — PTI
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BJP against relief to slain militants’ families
Jammu, February 4 According to the party, the move will encourage terrorism and the militants will remain assured that their families would be compensated and taken care off by the government even if they are killed fighting against India. Addressing the state working committee meeting of the party here today, state president Ashok Khajuria said: “Such move on the part of the UPA, at the behest of the state government, should leave no one in any doubt that the Congress is soft towards elements which are responsible for the killings of innocent persons”. He said the people who actually deserve special packages are refugees of 1965 and 1971; unemployed educated youth; Kashmiri Hindus, who migrated from valley to escape their physical liquidation; members of SC and ST communities, and farmers; who get their crops damaged due to heavy rains or droughts. Khajuria announced that the party would organise a ‘parivartan sankalp’ rally at Jammu on March 23, which will be addressed by the party's Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishan Advani. Former union minister of state for defence Chaman Lal Gupta; member, national executive Manohar Lal; joint party in-charge for J&K R.P. Singh; former state BJP president Nirmal Singh; and party MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma also spoke on the occasion.
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3 die as cab rolls down gorge
Udhampur, February 4 This was second such incident in this mountainous belt where accidents have become a routine affair. According to the police, driver of the taxi, which was on its way to Kishtwar from Dul, lost control while negotiating a curve. The ill-fated vehicle, bearing registration number JK14A-8026, skidded off the road and rolled down into the gorge. Two families were travelling in the vehicle when the accident took place. Mehnaz, wife of Mohammed Irfan, her minor daughter and Shamima Begum, wife of Ghulam Ali, were killed on the spot. Senior superintendent of police (Kishtwar) Mumtaz Ahmed, along with his team, rushed to the spot and started a rescue operation. The injured where shifted to the Kishtwar hospital. They have been identified as Mohammed Irfan, Ashiq Hussain and Allah Rakha while as identity of the child was not yet asserted. The police has registered a case.
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Govt employee held for cheating
Jammu, February 4 Haji Abdul Salam, who worked as a field assistant in the Agriculture Department at Anantnag, was arrested from Doda along with fake appointment orders for which he had charged money from the unemployed youth, the officials said. Fake appointment orders for the posts of supervisors, field assistants and labourers were recovered from his possession, they said. Salam charged Rs 60,000 for appointment as supervisors, Rs 40,000 for field assistants and Rs 5,000 for labourers, the officials informed. During interrogation, Salam confessed that a Congress party member Farooq Ahmed Mir of Batote and a fire services employee Mohammad Amin Bhat of Chanderkoot were assisting him in the fraud, they said. — PTI |
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More infiltrations follow
Rajouri, February 4 Reliable Intelligence sources revealed that this morning a group of four to six infiltrators managed to successfully sneak into this side from the Keeri Battal area in Sunderbani sector here. They said after coming this side the militants were first spotted by the troops of JAK Rifles at 10.30 am near Beri Nullah, 15 km from Keeri Battal. They further said after spotting the infiltrators the troops opened fire; however, the militants had managed to escape in the dense forest after a brief encounter. Intelligences sources further revealed that additional troops were rushed to the spot and a police party from Sunderbani was dispatched to the spot for carrying out search operations. They said the troops spotted the militants at 12.30 pm near Sensar Nullah about 2 km from Beri Nullah resulting in the exchange of fire from both sides. They further said that the militants were hiding in a natural cave near Sensar Nullah and were intermittently firing at the troops. Meanwhile, at the time of filing this news report security forces were planning to blast off the cave. Jammu-based defence spokesperson Lt-Col S.D.Goswami said that some suspicious movement was noticed in Bindi Galla in Sunderbani sector today and the troops were sent to trace these persons. "It is probably some receding party of some infiltrators,” a spokesperson said.
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Seminar on emerging market trends
Jammu, February 4 Inaugurating the seminar, Prof R.S. Mishra, dean, SMVDU, said the emerging business environment is witness to the special-economic zones, mergers and acquisitions as major growth engines. Prof. R.L. Bhat, Department of Economics, University of Jammu, presented keynote address while Vivek Tyagi, human resource manager, Coca-Cola (India), emphasised on CSR practices of big corporate brands. The candidates from various parts of Jammu division, including Jammu University, Priyadarshani Institute of Management Sciences, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, ICFAI National College, Institute of Management Sciences etc. participated.
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Bird flu: Poultry trade chickens out
Jammu, February 4 Though the state government and the Animal Husbandry Department has increased vigil on the import of poultry from the neighbouring states, poultry dealers in the region said their business had been affected due to scare of the bird flu virus. “We have registered a remarkable drop in the sale of poultry products as people are scared of consuming poultry products after the news about the bird flu virus spread in India,” said Pankaj Kumar, a poultry shop owner in Jammu. Though the Animal Husbandry Department stated that no case of bird flu had so far been recorded in the region, people here don’t want to take any risk by consuming poultry products. “It is better to switch over to vegetables or mutton than to take the risk of consuming poultry. So for the time being we have given up consuming poultry products,” said Tirlochan Singh, a resident of Chatta in Jammu. The Department of Animal Husbandry has so far conducted tests on 4,000 samples from which the report of 3,800 shows no presence of bird flu virus in the state. “We had taken 4,000 samples for tests and so far have received the report of 3,800 samples and no case of the presence of bird flu virus has been detected,” said Dr S.P. Sharma, director, Animal Husbandry, Jammu. He said the department was constantly in touch with Punjab and Haryana from where poultry was imported in the state. Poultry dealers in the state are a worried lot as they say that the outbreak of the virus in other parts of the country has affected their business in Jammu and Kashmir. “For the past few days we have suffered huge losses and pray that the bird flu scare passes soon so that people start consuming poultry products as they used to earlier,” said Pankaj Kumar. |
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Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Srinagar, February 4 The main objectives of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan viz universal retention by 2010, focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on “education for life". According to an official spokesman, all children to complete zero to five years of primary schooling by 2007 have either been achieved fully or are nearing the set targets. The district is expected to be a forerunner for other neighbouring districts, which have yet to go a long mile to achieve the targets. In Pulwana, 3,078 children in the age group of six to 14 are presently out of school and efforts are on to mainstream this chunk of out of school children in the bridge course level-II which is to be initiated in the state very soon, the spokesman said. So far as the elementary stage is concerned the bridging of gender and social category gaps in the age group of eleven to 14 years, there are stout hopes that 100 per cent target may be achieved by the end of targeted year 2010. The spokesman said all the schools under SSA have been provided new buildings, drinking water, toilet facilities and renovation of existing buildings have also been taken into hand. Necessary training is being imparted to all the in-service teachers on regular basis. 120 schools have been opened in the district and more than 92 schools have been upgraded from primary schools to upper primary schools and 120 EGS centers have also been established so far.
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Private educational institutes should admit poor: Charak
Jammu, February 4 While addressing a function to celebrate the foundation day of Model Institute Of Education And Research in Jammu today, Charak said: “The private educational institutions play a pioneering role in the overall development of a child and they should widen their accessibility by relaxing their fee structure to accommodate students from the needy and unprivileged sections of the society.”
He stated that services rendered by the private sector in education could bear fruitful results only when its benefit reaches to the needy and poor. He said the goal could be achieved only by way of relaxing the fee structure and reserving a quota of seats for these classes.
He said to do this, managements of the private institutions would have to take a bold step for the betterment and welfare of the society.
Charak added that a meeting would be soon convened to discuss these issues and address the problems of private institutions running in the state. |
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Pahalgam remains cold,
Dras minus 20
Srinagar, February 4 People in Leh, Kargil and Dras, the second coldest place in the world after Siberia , were beleaguering by the severe cold as dry and clear weather continued during the night. Srinagar and its adjoining areas experienced fresh snowfall early this morning. However, weather became clear and a bit warm in the afternoon. People in the Kashmir valley have been facing the same weather since the past three days. The upper reaches of the Kashmir valley received heavy snowfall. Pahalgam, the most attractive tourist destination in south Kashmir and the base camp of Amarnath cave shrine, became coldest in the world after the minimum temperature was recorded at minus 4.4 degree Celsius. Kulgam, also in south Kashmir, recorded minus 3.5 degree this morning. Batote and Banihal on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway recorded minus 0.6 and minus 0.4 degree, respectively, this morning. The night temperature in Dras was recorded at minus 19.5, while the maximum was minus 5.5 degree. At Kargil the minimum was minus 14.5 and the maximum was minus 3.5 degree. The minimum at Leh was minus 20 degree, official sources said. —
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Living in houses for decades, yet no ownership rights
Jammu, February 4 Though more than two years have passed since the devastating earthquake that shook the region on October 8, 2005, more than 2000 families living in the old town locality of Jammu city haven’t been able to repair the damage caused to their residential and commercial buildings. There are around 2000 residential and commercial buildings in the old town locality of Jammu which fall under evacuee property, the properties that belong to the people who migrated from For the past more than 60 years we have been living in these buildings, but the government has been able to give us the ownership rights, said S.B. Mahay. Though the residents pay a minor rent to the department of custodian, Jammu, but to get a whitewash done they have to seek permission from various departments. “We cannot undertake any repair work at the house; we haven’t been able to repair the damage that was caused due to the October 8, 2005 earthquake as we haven’t been given the permission to undertake the repair work,” said Manoj Gupta, another resident who lives in one such evacuee property. Though after a lot of struggle the residents of these evacuee properties were given permission to carry out minute repair works, but the occupants of these evacuee properties are still awaiting the permission to carry out repair works by the damage caused due to the October 8 earthquake. “The upper slab of our house that developed major cracks by the earthquake is a threat to our lives as it can fall on us, but more than two years have passed since the earthquake and despite our repeated requests we haven’t got the permission to carry out the repair work,” said Kamla, another resident of one of the evacuee property. The people who live in such evacuee properties say that the successive state governments have failed to grant them the ownership rights. “Many of us also abandoned our properties when we left Pakistan and the people who now occupy them has the ownership rights, but in our state our government still considers them (those who shifted to Pakistan) as citizens of J&K and is not providing us the ownership rights of the property in which we have been living for the past 60 years,”said Prem Kumar. Repeated attempts to contact any official of the state custodian department turned futile. However, it is not known wheather those who migrated to Pakistan enjoy such rights or not.
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Kranti Dal, Morcha ready
to oust BSP
Udhampur, February 4 With the BSP desperately trying to woo “upper caste” leaders, both these political groups have come out openly to penetrate in the vote bank of the party. The Morcha and the Kranti Dal are especially targeting those areas which are considered a stronghold of the BSP. While the Kranti Dal was founded in the presence of radical Dalit leader and national chairman of the All India Confederation of SC-ST-OBC organisations, Udit Raj, on the other hand, the BSP was constituted by expelled BSP stalwart Dr Satpal, who played a dominant role in spreading the movement of weaker sections in the state. Udit Raj, who is known for his radical writings and organisational skills, especially came from New Delhi to bless leaders of the Kranti Dal when it was formed on October 27, 2007. During the past three months, the Kranti Dal has established its network in those areas which were considered a bastion of the BSP. Apart from Jammu district, Kranti Dal leaders have been visiting far-flung villages of Ramnagar and Chenani constituencies of Udhampur and Reasi constituency of Reasi district. Laba Ram Gandhi, a leader of the west Pakistani refugees has been leading the Kranti Dal with the support of some Dalit and “upper caste” leaders. “Except exploiting our emotions, these political parties have done nothing to solve our problems so we are forced to form our own party”, Laba Ram Gandhi told The Tribune and claimed that the Kranti Dal had got an over-whelming response from the masses in general and the weaker sections in particular. Similarly the only agenda of the Morcha is to penetrate in those areas where the BSP has a strong base. “The BSP is presently hijacked by power brokers”, alleged Dr Satpal, who was earlier president of the party in Jammu and Kashmir and later expelled from the BSP due to differences with some senior leaders. “Our agenda is not to dislodge the BSP but to serve the cause of the weaker sections as political parties have done nothing to mitigate woes of the marginalised and neglected lot of the society”, he said and minced no words in attacking BSP leaders for exploiting the weaker sections. While as the Morcha is concentrating on the Scheduled Caste and OBCs, the Kranti Dal is targeting west Pakistani refugees which comprise almost all castes. It is worthwhile to mention here that Dr Satpal is founder of the erstwhile DS4 in Jammu and Kashmir which was later converted into the BSP. He is also considered instrumental in spreading the Dalit movement. |
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Traffic mismanagement jams Jammu
Jammu, February 4 To compound it all, there are only 350 cops to manage the traffic. No wonder at most of the traffic crossings one can see people stuck in traffic jams for hours together. According to official estimates, there has been about 10-fold increase in the number of vehicles in Jammu city. No new roads have been constructed. Nor have there been any expansions of the existing roads, resulting in overcrowding. Jammu is considered as one of the high traffic density city of the country, but the authorities have not done anything to regulate the bulging traffic here. On one hand not a single traffic light has been installed at the crossings and on the other, there are not adequate traffic policemen to man the crossings. Official sources said the total strength of traffic cops in Jammu is about 350. The number remains the same as it was in 1982, when there were less than 30,000 vehicles against about 3.5 lakh today. The Traffic Department is learnt to have written to the Home Department to increase the strength of the traffic policemen to at least about 1,500. But the file is gathering dust somewhere in the corridors of the civil The shortage of the staff could be compensated with installation of traffic gadgets, which are also not too costly. Here again, the issue is caught amidst blame game. The Traffic Department argues that the municipal corporation maintains city roads and crossings. Even the traffic lights at crossings are to be installed by local bodies. With a limited number of personnel, the Traffic Department has to regulate traffic on the crossings, keep a check on the roads and traffic rules violators besides helping in the VIP movements. The situation becomes worse during the winter when the state capital moves here. A substantial number of traffic personnel are deployed around the civil secretariat, which does not leave enough for the rest of the city. As a result, hours of jams are becoming a routine. Even short distances within the city at times take more than an hour. |
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