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BJP plans no confidence motion against MC chief
Unemployment Woes
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Oppn terms Sonia’s visit as political drama
Call to resume separatist-PM talks
Separatists leaders hail Kosovo’s independence
Hurriyat plans to strengthen cadre base
Looping wires, continuous tension for residents
Peerzada launches damage control exercise
Hizbul militant held, hideouts busted
Historic Khalsa School destroyed in fire
2 years after quake, library books still in debris
Valley continues to shiver
Crime-related Deaths
BJP bats for doctors’ rights, safety
Excise and Taxation Exam
Vienna varsity’s nomination for Dr Punjabi
Tulip fest for tourists in April
Demand for car not met, groom refuses to marry
Forest official, student in police net
Illegal entry into flat puts NC leader in trouble
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BJP plans no confidence motion against MC chief
Udhampur, February 24 The BJP councilors staged boycott during the monthly general body meeting of council and labeled serious charges of corruption and nepotism on present body headed by the Congress. The BJP has been trying to woo those dissident Congress members, who have repeatedly expressed their anguish over failure of the present body to solve civic problems of the town. In the present council, the BJP and Congress have seven members followed by two Panthers Party councilors and one independent. With the eye on dissident Congress members, the BJP is seriously thinking to move no confidence motion against present chairman Ashok Gupta. Former chairman of Udhampur Municipal Council and BJP member Pawan Khajuria said that all councilors, irrespective of their party affiliations, were not happy with the performance of present body headed by the
Congress. He alleged that due to prevailing nepotism and corruption majority of the members have assured their support to remove the present president. Although two Panthers Party members and one independent have not opened their cards, the BJP appeared to be confident of getting their support. “What to say of Panthers Party and independent, we are hopeful of getting support of even some Congress members,” claimed Pawan Khajuria, adding, “every elected representative is accountable to people. They want development of their respective areas which is impossible under present dispensation.” |
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Unemployment Woes
Jammu, February 24 Mehbooba, who was addressing a daylong convention of the party workers at Sarwal in Jammu today, said, “To cope up with the unemployment problem in the state a transparent fast-track mechanism has to be formed by the government.” She added, “The massive infrastructural upgrade that has taken place in various sectors during the past five years needs to be supplemented with adequate manpower and the government must now address the issue on priority.” She said thousands of posts were lying vacant in education, health and engineering, social welfare, agriculture and police departments and the manpower shortage was severely affecting the functioning of these sectors. “While on one hand, the educated unemployed youth are dying for jobs, on the other the government departments are suffering because of the manpower deficiency,” she said. Expressing concern over the plight of thousands of adhoc and contractual appointees, she said the fate of such appointees was hanging in balance and most of them have now even crossed the age limit for government appointment. “The government must consider regularisation of all such adhoc and contractual appointees as they have been performing their duties in difficult circumstances and can’t be left in the lurch,” she said. |
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Oppn terms Sonia’s visit as political drama
Udhampur, February 24 Mincing no words in attacking Congress for, what he called, cheating the helpless people, senior National Conference leader Aslam Goni said visit was intentionally planned to divert attention of people towards failure of administration in rendering help to the common masses at the time crises. Goni, who had contested 2002 Assembly elections from Bhaderwah, regretted that miseries of snow-hit people have been compounding with every passing day but the Congress seemed to be more concerned about taking political mileage from natural calamities. While taking strong note of politicisation of the visit of VVIPs, the BJP leader from Bhaderwah, Koushal Kotwal, who had fought election against Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2005 by-poll, alleged that instead of meeting with genuine victims, the Congress president and Union home minister interacted with “sponsored” people as only some selected persons were permitted to enter the venue. A meeting of Bhaderwah unit of the BJP was held today and it was decided in the meeting to hold protest against, what they perceived, “hijacking” of visit of the Union ministers by the Congress workers and “touts” of the government. The BJP workers have also decided to convey their anger to Union home minister through a memorandum to be submitted to the deputy commissioner Doda on Monday. “The Union home minister was in our town but representative of all political parties except the Congress were denied permission to meet him,” rued Koushal Kotwal and added that people of Bhaderwah wanted to brief the Home Minister on the situation in this militancy-plagued hilly region but were not allowed to do so.
The BJP leader said residents of this mountainous region have been confronting with a number of problems, which should be brought to the notice of the visiting team of ministers and officers of the Union government. |
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Call to resume separatist-PM talks
Jammu, February 24 Leader of the Panthers Party in the state Assembly, Harsh Dev Singh, said here today, “It is intriguing as on one hand the APHC leaders continue to favour resumption of dialogue but on the other they have not received any invitation from the Prime Minister during the last over two years.” He said despite the fact that the Prime Minister has announced that he was willing to hold talks with any separatist leader parleys between the two sides cannot be resumed unless the separatists receive a proper invitation from the Centre. The Panthers Party leader said since the Prime Minister remains engaged in various
activities it would not be an easy process for the Hurriyat leaders to meet Dr Manmohan Singh whenever it suited them. Referring to the process of dialogue, which the Government of India started with the separatists, Harsh Dev Singh said these separatists had met Atal Behari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister and Dr Manmohan Singh only after they received invitations from the Centre. Commenting on the delay in the resumption of the dialogue, senior APHC leader Abdul Gani Bhat said, “We have always been in favour of talks, sustained dialogue. But it is the Government of India that has shut the doors of dialogue.” Bhat said, “We have conveyed our desire to the Prime Minister for holding another round of talks but there has been no response from the Centre. Even if we seek an appointment with the Prime Minister we may not get it for months and years because of his busy schedule.” He said after returning from Pakistan “we had requested for a meeting with the Prime Minister so that we could convey to him what transpired between the Hurriyat leaders and Gen (retd) Parvez Musharraf. But our request was ignored.” It is in this context that Harsh Dev Singh stated chance could be given to the separatists to return to the national mainstream politics so that they too participated in the election process. He said it is the Government of India that alone can motivate the separatists to stop providing moral assistance to militants. He said it was for the state government to persuade the Centre to resume talks with separatist leaders in order to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed peace and progress. |
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Separatists leaders hail Kosovo’s independence
Srinagar, February 24 A senior separatist leader based in Pakistan, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, convener, the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (PoK) chapter and chairman, J&K Peoples Freedom League, has welcomed the declaration of independence of Kosovo from Serbia. In a statement Rehmani termed the announcement as a step in the right direction to undo the wrongs done in the previous century after the fall of Turks in Europe. He said the principle of the right of self-determination as recommended by the United Nations (UN) in respect to Jammu and Kashmir must not be delayed further. He said this would bring lasting peace in south-Asia. “There should be no double standard with regard to the application of the right of self-determination to Kashmir and the UN should play its role,” he remarked. He said Kashmiris had every “right to seek freedom and the right to self-determination to shape their political destiny independently” in accordance with their free will. “We salute the freedom fighters of Kosovo and firmly believe that if freedom is granted to Kashmir, heavens will not fall on earth”, he stated. The Kosovo issue did not miss a mention even in a debate in Washington held by the Kashmir Centre of Kashmir American Council the other day. The debate on “Peace Process between India and Pakistan: The Role of Kashmiri Leadership” was also attended by separatist Hurriyat Conference chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. In his address, chairman of the council, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai said, “Today we are celebrating the birth of a new nation, Kosovo, which became a reality through the support, understanding and engagement of the United States”. The separatist leaders have been demanding resolution of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN resolutions, and the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Hurriyat plans to strengthen cadre base
Srinagar, February 24 While Shah and three other leaders, including Sheikh Abdul Aziz, Azam Inquillabi and Javed Mir have already joined the separatist conglomerate, the hardline Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani shot back with a five-point rider to his unity formula. Geelani at the head of an 11-member conglomeration of the Hurriyat Conference and JKLF chairman, Mohammad Yasin Malik are out of the unity fold. A meeting of Hurriyat Conference leaders presided over by the senior executive member, Shabir Ahmad Shah here yesterday announced to constitute provincial committees for Jammu and Ladakh regions to "strengthen its cadres" in these regions. "Several decisions were taken to strengthen the Hurriyat cadres at the peoples level and ground level", a spokesman of the APHC stated. He added that the meeting also nominated provincial and district observers for constituting the committees. Accordingly a nine-member committee headed by Shabir Shah would supervise the constitution of provincial committees for Jammu and Ladakh regions. Seven other members were nominated to overlook the district committees of seven districts in Kashmir, except for the central Sringar district, the spokesman said. |
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Looping wires, continuous tension for residents
Jammu, February 24 However, if the onus of the constant threat to the life of such a big population lies on the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), which years back remained a mute spectator to illegal constructions on large scale, then the Power Development Department (PDD) too cannot shirk its responsibility. Though the PDD last year did some salvage work in Jawahar Nagar providing succour to around dozen families, the belated effort proved to be too little. When illegal constructions literally beneath HT towers and wires had been coming up in New Plots, Janipur, Prem Nagar, Jawahar Nagar, Doordarshan Kendra Colony and Talli Morh, JMC’s “ever-efficient” inspectors for obvious reasons had turned a blind eye. The JMC’s dubious role today has put lives of thousands of inhabitants in jeopardy. Only last evening, a father of three minor children was electrocuted at Bagh-e-Bahu because of a dangerously looping HT wire. Under prescribed rules, buildings, including residential houses, should maintain a minimum (horizontal and vertical) distance of 12 feet from 11KV high tension wires and 16 to 17 feet from 33 KV supply line. However, the distance in some of the localities of Jammu west Assembly constituency is not more than a couple of feet. Talking to The Tribune, a local leader Sunil Dimple said, “A constant threat of death looms large over residents in these localities and the problem gains dangerous proportions during monsoons.” “However, last year in September the PDD had partially diverted HT lines, but it helped only about dozen families of Jawahar Nagar and 90 per cent people are still facing the life threatening problem,” he added. He further said, “Similarly, the PDD had installed a big transformer right in the premises of Government Middle School, New Plots, posing serious risk to the life of small children coming to the school. Despite repeated requests, it has not been shifted as yet.” Talking to The Tribune, a senior PDD official said, “Only an insane person could think of constructing a house beneath HT towers and wires. The department had served them notice apprising them about grave danger, but we aren’t a law enforcing authority,” he said adding, “Besides, it requires huge financial implications to shift the towers and the fiscal health of the department is an open secret.” It may be mentioned here that residents of Bhagwati Nagar, Trikuta Nagar and several other localities face similar problem. |
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Peerzada launches damage control exercise
Udhampur, February 24 During the last two days Sayeed, who had to resign as the education minister as well as the PCC chief following allegations of corruption against him by independent MLA Shoaib Lone, addressed a series of political meetings with his supporters in different areas of Reasi and Udhampur districts. Under this mass contact programme, which was started yesterday with the holding of a public meeting at Talwara at Reasi , Peerzada today visited Chichain area of Udhampur district and addressed a gathering of Gujjars and Bakerwals who were gathered there in large number to listen to their leader. “I have started an aggressive campaign to contact Congress workers at grass root level as we have to strengthen the part in view of next Assembly elections,” Peerzada told The Tribune and added that in the coming days he will address meetings of his supporters and party workers parts of the state. While addressing his supporters at Chichain village, Peerzada dropped much hints about showing power to those who have trapped him in a political conspiracy. He struck an emotional chord with nomads of his home constituency who have been migrated to this village in winter. Peerzada’s campaign was not confined to winter capital only. He also has chalked a programme to show his strengthen in the Kashmir valley also. As per schedule of the mass contact programme, Peerzada will also address his supporters at Srinagar on March 1 after which he would hold a mass rally at his home constituency Kokernag on March 3. Though Peerzada claims that his mass contact programme is aimed to strengthen Congress at grass root level in the state ahead of forthcoming Assembly polls, political observers feel that the whole exercise by the discarded leader is an attempt to regain strength in the party in which he is being ignored completely following his ouster as the PCC chief. Only on last Friday, he was not even allowed to meet Sonia Gandhi during her visit to the State for taking stock of the situation in snow hit areas. Whether Peerzada would succeed in his attempt or not is uncertain but his programme has of course worried a section of Congressmen, including supporters of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Sources in the Congress disclosed that Peerzada was very annoyed over the “humiliating” treatment meted out to him at Udhampur when he was not allowed to enter airbase to receive UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. He had reportedly told his supporters that he would show his power to those who had hatched the conspiracy. |
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Traffic jams rule road shows here
Jammu, February 24 Already marred by traffic congestion all the times, roads leading to various localities in the area have become virtually inaccessible due to rampant traffic jams. “There has been a tremendous increase in the vehicular traffic in the city, almost everyone posses a car now, but the roads in the city haven’t been widened for the past more than three decades,” said a resident of posh Gandhi Nagar locality of Jammu city. Though the Roads and Building Department look after the roads in the city, the officials rue unplanned construction in the area responsible for the mess. “Despite the presence of a full-fledged municipal corporation in the city, unplanned construction is going on unchecked,” said an officer of the state R&B Department requesting anonymity. He said, “The main culprit for such traffic congestions is the unplanned construction around the roads.” According to R&B officials, people who had undertaken such constructions have not left space for extending the roads in the area, resulting in lack of space to widen these roads. Adding to the problem is the fact that people had also encroached upon a large chunk of government land on which widening of roads could have been done. “Even the drains haven’t been spared and they too have been encroached upon, many a times we approached the MC, to help remove the encroachments, but no steps were taken by them in this regard. The MC blames the Revenue Department for not cooperating with them,” said the officer. Though National Highway Authority of India has undertaken the widening of the national highway in Jammu, no measures have been taken to widen other major roads in the city. According to official records roads in Jammu city were last widened in the year 1982, since then the city has seen a tremendous rise in the population and the vehicular traffic in the city has increased manifolds; however the vital roads in the area stand neglected. According to traffic department, there are around four lakh vehicles in the Jammu city alone. “I have been living in the area for the past 40 years, and this road used to connect our area with the national highway, as now the government has diverted the vehicles going towards railways station from this road, since then there are always traffic jams in the area,” said Bhushan Mangotra a resident of Green Belt locality of Gandhi Nagar. He said, “Though the traffic on this road has increased by many times, but no steps to widen this stretch have been taken so far.” |
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Hizbul militant held, hideouts busted
Srinagar, February 24 In a joint operation of the police and CRPF, Javid Ahmad Sheikh alias Rizwan was arrested in Pulwama yesterday, a police spokesman said. Two hand grenades were recovered from his possession. Rizwan was active in Pulwama district since 2001 and was wanted by the police in many militancy related cases, the spokesman said. The police has registered a case and was questioning him. Security forces have busted two militant hideouts and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in separate incidents in Ganderbal and Baramulla districts today, a defence spokesman said. In a joint operation, troops of 13 Rashtriya Rifles and 162 Infantry Battalion launched a search operation in Talarzu area of Ganderbal district. A Chinese pistol, two magazines, three hand grenades, one under barrel grenade launcher, three AK magazines and 129 rounds of AK ammunition were recovered from there, the spokesman said. In another incident, troops of 2 Rashtriya Rifles and 163 Infantry Battalion recovered one AK rifle
along with its four magazines and 60 rounds, six hand grenades and a radio set from a militant hideout
during a search operation in Khor area of Baramulla district. — PTI |
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Historic Khalsa School destroyed in fire
Srinagar, February 24 Established in early forties by members of the minority Sikh community, under Khalsa Educational Society (KES), has produced doctors, engineers, politicians, and other professionals. It was one of the few premier institutions, set up in the valley before independence, which remained open for students of all faiths, a spokesman of the KES told UNI. He said students from different parts of the valley, belonging to Muslim, Pandit, Sikh and other communities were studying in the school. The spokesman said despite a 17-year-long turmoil, the school was functioning normally and students from all religions were studying. However, the roll of students has come down to below 500 at present, he said. He said the next session of the school was to start after winter vacation next month. But the building had suffered more than 85 per cent damage besides the record of the office has also been damaged, he said. Nothing can be said on the cause of the accident, he said adding that wood was largely used in the construction of the building. The building suffered extensive damage in the fire, sources added. A spokesman of the Fire Services said more than a dozen fire tenders from different city stations were rushed to the area to control the leaping flames.
— UNI |
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2 years after quake, library books still in debris
Poonch, February 24 “The books are stolen by the people. Even a writer who claims to write the only history on Poonch and Rajouri regions also managed to steal most of the local original sources on it,” said Shoket Mir, local youth leader and social activist. “However, what pains us the most is that some of the invaluable books are still buried under the debris and the department of libraries don’t bother to recover them,” he added. He further said while the department has shifted the books to two rooms in the district industries centre, only few readers know about its changed location. Visitors to this library said it had a good collection of books, including the ones on art, culture, literature, science, and the local and international history. The prominent writers whose books were housed here included famous Urdu writers Krishan Chander, Charag Hassan Hasrat (contemporary of world famous Urdu poet Allam Muhammad Iqbal), historian Muhammad Din Fok and Sufi writers Baba Fareed and Baba Bulle Shah. Every effort to get the director libraries to respond to the allegations did not materialise, however, a junior officer of the libraries department told The Tribune that the department has asked the district administration to identify the land for construction of new library. He further claimed that department is in the process of providing new books to the library. |
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Valley continues to shiver
Srinagar, February 24 Icy winds sweeping parts of the state due to snowfall in mountain ranges since yesterday dipped minimum temperatures in the valley to -0.2° C to -2.7° C. Official reports said there was no let up in the snowfall in upper reaches of Gulmarg, Khilangmarg, Yousmarg and Pahalgam while torrential rains lashed Kupwara and Kokernag in north and south Kashmir, respectively. Health resorts of Kokernag and Pahalgam in south Kashmir witnessed cold nights with low temperature of -2.7° C and -1.5° C while Qazigund recorded -0.2° C, Met department said today. Srinagar recorded a minimum of 1.7° C. Border district of Kupwara recorded highest rainfall of 18.0 mm, the Met office said.
— PTI |
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Crime-related Deaths
Anantnag, February 24 The plea has placed police officials dealing with the case in a difficult situation as it might come in the way of investigations. “This is a social problem being observed across Kashmir valley,” said SSP, Anantnag, Abdul Ghani Mir. In many cases, bodies had to be exhumed for further investigations at a later stage, the SSP said. He added that recently, the police exhumed a body after many weeks, even when investigations were still underway. The postmortem of Javed’s body was not conducted after his relatives gave in writing and made a video-recorded plea before the police not to do so. His body was recovered from the bank of Arpath nullah at Brakpora. He died of severe cold after he slipped into freezing water, the police said. There have not been many crime-related deaths in this area of south Kashmir, though “white collar crimes” do take place under the garb of militancy. On the militancy front, the SSP said the area witnessed the least number of incidents, particularly during the past one year, except for two incidents, the police claimed. There have been no encounters between militants and the security forces in the area for quite sometime, the SSP opined. This reflects upon the least presence of militants in this area of south Kashmir. The presence of militants could be in the peripheral areas as they continue to be on the run. Infiltration is also reported from parts of Doda district of Jammu region, separated from Anantnag district of the Kashmir valley, he added. |
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BJP bats for doctors’ rights, safety
Jammu, February 24 Addressing a press conference here recently after participating in the seminar, Manoj Sharma and Yog Raj Padha said, the meet also emphasised the need for healthy public-private participation in the health sector. A resolution was passed seeking a law to protect the life and property of doctors and charging the culprits with a non-bailable offence for assaulting a doctor or medical personnel performing their duty. About the arrest of a doctor, another resolution referred to a Supreme Court Bench order presided over by the then Chief Justice of India Justice R.C. Lahoti, which ruled in August 2005 “that a doctor should not be arrested on the basis of a private complaint.” The doctor's cell demanded that in case of major injury or death of a patient, initial enquiry must be done by a class I police officer and the report should be forwarded to a Board comprising of the superintendent of police, the CMHO and a specialist concerned with the type of case. If the board is satisfied, the case merits charges, only then should a case be registered against a qualified doctor. |
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Excise and Taxation Exam
Jammu, February 24 A deputation of such candidates, who have not received their admit card for the examination had approached The Tribune saying they had no formal communication from the commission about the issue. When contacted, JKSPSC chairman Mohammed Shafi Pandit told The Tribune, “There were some technical reasons why all the candidates who had applied to sit in the examination could not get their admit cards. Many such candidates do not fulfil the eligibility criteria to sit in for the said examination.” He added, “Though some candidates had filed a writ petition and the honourable court had issued some provisional guidelines to allow all such candidates to appear for the examination, we would be allowing them to sit for the same on provisional basis, till any further guidelines come from the court.” However, he said the commission is defending the writ petition in the court, as the candidates who had filed the petition do not fall in the eligibility criteria for the examination. He said the dates and venues for the examinations stand unchanged. |
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Vienna varsity’s nomination for Dr Punjabi
Srinagar, February 24 “The decision of nominating Dr Punjabi symbolises the highest degree of international recommendation of achievements in professional activities,” the press release of Europe Business Assembly said. The vice-chancellor, according to the Kashmir University spokesman, has been invited to attend International Socrates Award Ceremony from March 16 to 18 at Oxford. The title would be awarded to Dr Punjabi in XLII gala award ceremony on March 17. |
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Tulip fest for tourists in April
Srinagar, February 24 As many as 12 lakh tulip bulbs would be ready by the first week of April in the garden, which would be one of the major attractions for the tourists in the summer capital. The authorities have plans to develop it as an all season garden. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the garden for the second time in less than a week, directed the authorities for levelling various sections of the tulip garden and maintaining the ornamental trees. An official handout issued here said Azad, during the visit, asked for completing the work within one month before the garden is thrown open for visitors. He also suggested for preparing sitting place in the centre of the garden for the entertainment of the visitors, which would add another attraction for them.
— UNI |
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Demand for car not met, groom refuses to marry
Jammu, February 24 “We came here for the wedding ceremony of our daughter and staying with one of our relatives,” girl’s father Roop Krishan told newspersons. He said his daughter had met Ajay Razdan, resident of Janipur area here, in Delhi. “At the eleventh hour, the groom demanded a car in dowry and refused to marry unless his demand was met,” Krishan said.
— UNI |
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Forest official, student in police net
Srinagar, February 24 A Crime Branch spokesman said they received information that a cashier of SFC Syed Abid Hussain Qadiri has indulged in corrupt practices by using his official position. He said in another chargesheet, a girl student Shagufta has submitted a fake class 11th certificate for getting admission to 12th class. During the investigation it was revealed that the certificate produced was fake, he added.
— UNI |
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Illegal entry into flat puts NC leader in trouble
Jammu, February 24 Naaz had not paid rent of a municipal quarter allotted in his name in Jammu for past several years and had failed to clear the huge arrears pending against him despite being served seven notices by the Jammu Municipal Corporation, in past six months, officials said, adding the quarter was sealed. JMC commissioner Vinod Sharma had lodged a complaint with the police against Naaz.
— PTI |
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