Jammu, March 9
The People’s Democratic Party, the coalition partner in the state government, today expelled one of its founder leader and sitting MLA Ghulam Hassan Mir from the basic membership of the party.

The reason behind his expulsion is stated to be his antiparty activities. A former minister Ghulam Hassan Mir represents the Tangmarg constituency of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district in the lower house of the state Assembly.

Speaking to The Tribune, Nizam-ud-din Bhat, PDP general secretary and the legislative party leader of the Upper House of the state Assembly said, “Yes, Ghulam Hassan Mir has been expelled from the basic membership of the party for his anti-party statements, which were detrimental to the party and was a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of party and its leadership.”

He said, “The disciplinary committee of the party held a meeting under the chairmanship of Abdul Aziz Zargar and the decision in this effect was taken to expel him from the party.”

Ghulam Hassan Mir, who was always criticised for his anti-party activities, had last week openly censored the PDP leadership for allegedly pursuing the policies incompatible with the democratic principles.

He had accused the party leadership of dictatorial attitude and family politics. He had also termed the passing of women’s state subject bill as against the interest of the people of the state.

Ghulam Hassan Mir said, “I knew it was to happen, but I tried my level best to bring the party back to its democratic setup that was the base for PDP’s formation, but the party had become a family run business, and I stood against the dictatorial attitude of the leadership of the party and hence I was expelled from it.”

Mir, who has been strongly advocating the formation of the third front in state, came into serious criticism of his party leadership when he had openly supported the independent candidate for the Sangrama constituency in the assembly by-elections in the year 2006 opposing the party candidate and nephew of the deputy chief minister of the state. When asked to comment on the formation of the Third Front, Mir told, “Third Front will definitely come up as it has become the need of the hour.”

Jammu, March 9
Tourism, considered as the backbone of the state economy has suffered a major blow due to the ongoing strike of the employees of the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), as tourists coming to the state are finding it difficult to get vehicles.

As the ongoing strike of the SRTC employees has completed more than one month, the private transporters are making a hay of the problems faced by the common commuters and the tourists coming to the state.

All the interstate government vehicles of the SRTC are off the roads and the passengers (tourists) coming from other states are facing numerous problems.

“I remained stranded at Pathankot bus stand for more than five hours as no vehicle from J&K was available there, I was helpless there and then I had to board a private cab that left me near Lakhanpur toll plaza from where I boarded a private vehicle to reach Jammu,” said Ajit Kumar, a resident of Palampur in Himachal Pradesh.

The employees of the corporation are on a protest strike for more than one month and are demanding release of salaries on time, COLA (cost of living allowance) and other allowances and verification of the General Provident Fund and Central Provident Fund which they have been depositing for many years.

“Our demands are genuine, while the employees of the transport corporations in other states get all such benefits then why are we being denied of our basic rights,” said an employee of the SRTC.

“Where has our money gone, we have been depositing our GPF and CPF but nobody is showing us the record as where is the money,” he added.

With the government vehicles remaining off the roads for more than one month, the private bus operators are making huge money by charging the commuters as per their wishes.

“The operators of the private passenger vehicle are making huge money, by charging as per their desire,” said Preetam Singh, a resident of Jammu city.

Meanwhile, minister for transport Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen has said that the government was open to purposeful dialogue with employees union to end the stalemate.

Jammu, March 9
President of the People’s Democratic Party and MP Mehbooba Mufti has called for devising a comprehensive social security scheme for the state’s women to improve the standard of their living not only in material terms but also in emotional and qualitative terms.

While addressing a day-long convention of the PDP women’s wing at Marh today, Mehbooba said at the time when the PDP was heading the government, the party took certain radical measures towards the political, economic and social empowerment of the women starting with reserving 33 per cent seats in the local bodies for them.

She said the involvement of the women in the political decision-making and developmental initiatives at the grassroots level has proved effective given their impressive performance on the ground. “I have no qualms in saying that the performance of our women local body members have turned out to be beyond our expectation,” she said and added that not only have the women councilors done their “job excellently”, but they remained in touch with people to address their developmental concerns.

She said the government under Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had even planned to hold panchayat elections in the state on the same pattern with 33 per cent reservation for women. “However, the move was scuttled by the opposition National Conference as they pleaded before the Governor for the deferment of the panchayat polls,” she said.

The PDP president said the women must draw their due from various welfare schemes in vogue to improve their lot. She said as the women are vulnerable to various social problems, they must get adequate economic security to prevent them from being exploited. 

Srinagar, March 9
Compared to the relative emancipation of their urban counterparts, lakhs of nomadic Gujjar women belonging to backward and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir are living in what could be called the dark ages, plagued by early marriages, illiteracy and extreme poverty, a study by the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation states.

Making a statement on the occasion of International Women's Day, Dr Javaid Rahi, national secretary of the foundation which works on Indian tribes with special focus on Gujjars, said out of 1,000 houses of nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwal tribes surveyed in Poonch, Rajouri, Baramulla and Kupwara districts, a total of 89 per cent Gujjar women between the age group of 10 to 65 years were illiterate.

They are being exploited and become victims of superstition. On the other hand, despite their excessive hard work they do not get due respect and position in the tribal society, the study said.

Because of early marriage and social bindings, only 12 per cent of the nomad Gujjar girls are in a position to get admission in primary school and circumstances compel them to give up their studies shortly. Because of limited sources of family income and lack of human resources, they are not in a position to get proper education and health facilities at an early age, the study said

According to the study, the worst condition was of the nomad girl children belonging to Ajjhari Gujjar (shepherd) and Manjhii Gujjar (buffalo keeper), 88 per cent of whom have not seen the doors of the school and only a few were getting education in religious institutes.

Three girls Gujjar hostels have been established in Jammu, Srinagar and Doda which are not sufficient for lakhs of Gujjar women. According to the study, the centrally-sponsored Balika Simridhi Yojna, Sawastiki and Indira Mahila Yojna have not been applied to Gujjar women at all, which has resulted in more and more backwardness in Gujjar women.

In a comparative angle of the study, it says that the life standard of nomad Gujjar women folk is worse than women belonging to 10 other groups like Beda, Bot, Balti, Garra, Mon, Brokpa, Purigipa, Gaddi and Sippis tribes of the state. About 400 mobile schools for educating the Gujjar tribe, established by the Department of Education, have been unsuccessful in bringing about a change in the educational scenario of the nomadic Gujjar women, the study says.

More than 10 lakh Gujjar women, constituting 10 per cent of the total population of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, are unaware of their rights and pace of progress in the modern world and it raises a question mark on the government and non-government organisations working for women, Dr Rahi said.

Nadiyaan (Rajouri), March 9
The coalition government may take pride for having upgraded thousands of government-run schools during the past about six years, but it has failed to provide adequate staff in schools upgraded during the previous National Conference (NC) regime.

Though the coalition government is to cash on schools upgraded by it and will try to secure votes, what may go against it is that not only has it failed provide adequate staff in schools upgraded by it but also by the previous NC regime.

In fact, residents say even after more than a decade of it being upgraded from middle to high school (school was reportedly upgraded to a higher-level in 1996), the government has failed to provide adequate staff to the government girls high school here. They complained that for the past 11 years, there was no science, maths and english teacher at the school.

Residents also alleged that since there was no science, maths and english teacher, more than 95 per cent of the students continued to fail every year in secondary school examinations and that, too, in these subjects.

“Since 1996, the government did not provide science, maths and english teachers in this school. The result is that every year more than 95 per cent girl students fail in secondary school examinations,” said Abdul Aziz, a retired forest officer. “It is after several representations to the district education officers that they deputed a maths teacher from the middle school Khori Wali, Darhal, to this school.”

“I fail to understand why they are giving so much hype to upgrading schools when they have failed to provide adequate staff in the schools which were upgraded during the previous NC regime,” Aziz questioned.

Contrary to the allegations of residents here, Muhammad Sharief, district education planning officer told The Tribune that there was no maths teacher in the school since November, 2007. 

Udhampur, March 9
Blacklisted by the United States as “global terrorist organisation”, a silent recruitment for Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI) outfit has been going on unabated in some remotest areas of Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Although the self-styled “commander in chief for operations in India” of HuJI, Bashir Ahmed Mir, was eliminated by the security forces some time back in Chatroo area, activists of HuJI have been actively indulged in inflowing counterfeit currency in different parts of the country, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir as this group still has presence in some parts of Kishtwar district.

Operating from Bangladesh, this blacklisted outfit suspected to be involved in bomb blast across the country with the connivance of some other global terrorist outfits.

Newly appointed deputy inspector general of police Doda range, Himmant Lohia, who has vast experience of fighting terrorism in the Kashmir valley, admitted that HuJI has presence in Chatroo area of Kishtwar district.

“My first priority as DIG of this mountainous belt is to completely wipe out terrorist outfits in general and HuJI in particular,” Lohia told The Tribune and added, “To ensure free and fair elections in this belt it is necessary to eliminate all terrorists operating in this belt.”

HuJI, designated at “global terrorist outfit by the United States on Friday, has strong network in Chatroo area of Kishtwar. Even the self-styled “commander-in-chief” of HuJI, Bashir Ahmed Mir alias Saba, who had masterminded terrorist attack across north and south east of India, including serial blasts at Uttar Pradesh, used to operate from Chatroo area of Kishtwar.

Mir was killed in an “Saba’s death was a sever blow to HuJI as he was a strong motivator involved in recruiting youth in the outfit” said the DIG and asserted that this outfit would be wiped from this mountainous belt very soon as security forces have been maintaining a strict vigil in these areas. He said all security agencies have been working with coordination to eliminate all active terrorists.

When his attention was drawn towards recent controversy between the CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police over “recovery” of explosive on the eve of the visit of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi last month, Lohia termed this incident as “minor”.

“It was a very minor issue which has been sorted out,” the DIG said, adding, “In this election year, the security forces have been working with coordination to ensure free and fair polls.” 

Jammu, March 9
The visit of Pakistan Human Rights Commission chairperson and UN rapporteur on freedom of religion and faith, Asma Jahangir, to the valley brought to the fore sharp ideological differences between the moderates and the hardliners in the Kashmiri separatist camp.

While the hawks among the separatists refused to meet Asma Jahangir on the plea that she was an “Indian agent,” the moderates had no qualms in interacting with her on various issues, including the Kashmir dispute and the human rights scenario in the valley.

Chief of Tehrik Hurriyat Conference, who is still in New Delhi for the last several months on medical advice, seemed to have been piqued by his political rivals, the APHC leaders’ long deliberations with Asma Jahangir that he went to the extent of describing her visit to Kashmir being more an Indian than the UN mission as she had never given vent to her ire against what he called human rights violations being committed by the security forces.

Another hardliner, Asiya Andrabi, chief of Dukhtaaran-e-Milat, too criticised the Asma who had come to Jammu and Kashmir to study freedom of religion in Kashmir and in other Indian states and not exchange view on the Kashmir issue and India-Pakistan relations.

However, moderate separatists, including senior APHC leaders, Abdul Gani Bhat and Shabir Ahmed Shah, defended their session with Asma Jehangir. “We have been talking to several Indian leaders, including the Prime Ministers, and does it mean we are Indian agents? We have met several Pakistan leaders and does it mean we are Pakistani agents?”

The question was posed by Bhat when asked to comment on the reaction of Geelani and Asiya Andrabi on Asma’s visit to Kashmir. He said, “As a human rights activist Asma has the right to talk to anyone whom she chooses to meet and we have every right to talk to anyone we wish to interact.”

“During our session with the Pakistani human rights commission chairperson we conveyed our views on the need for settling the Kashmir issue through sustained dialogue and on poor human rights record of the security forces,” said Bhat.