Shahpur-LOC (Poonch), April 10
India and Pakistan may be preparing for the next round of peace talks, but for the villagers here peace will come only after the deadly ghost of mines are defused permanently.

Hundreds of the people living in the border villages including Shahpur along the Line of Control have lost their limbs and have been rendered handicapped because of mine blasts during the last about six decades of animosity between the two neighboring countries.

For Akhbar Din (75) who was working as porter with the Army, life will never be the same again. Few years back, after a mine blew up his right leg, it has become difficult for Akhbar and his son, Muhammad Khursheed, studying in eighth standard in the local government high school, to live a dignified life.

Though, Akhbar Din says he gets Rs 300 per month as pension from the state's Social Welfare Department for being handicapped and are passing their lives in this very meager amount, what scares him the most was that his son might fall prey to mines since the area on the outskirts of this village lying just close to LoC is heavily mined.

“Even though I lost my right leg in the mine blast while I was working as porter with the Army, they didn't compensate me in any way. However, the Social Welfare Department didn’t let me down,” said Akhbar.

“We are getting money from the state government, but I am scared of the fact that our area still remains heavily mined and am constantly worried for my son. He is my only motive for life,” he added.

“I hope that two countries will work for permanent peace in the region so that our villages are completely de-mined and people don’t fall prey to these deadly mines,” Akhbar hoped.

In this border village consisting about 100 families, more than half a dozen villagers have lost their limbs due to mine explosions. These handicapped persons, who lost their limbs to mine blast include brothers Muhammad Javed and Muhammad Aslam, farmer Fakir Muhammad, Qamar Din and many more.

In the neighboring border village of Kaiyaan lying just close to fence, the villagers who lost their limbs in the mine blasts include two sisters Noor Jehan and Sauleh Bi. In another border village of Gutriyaan many people have lost their limbs to mines.

Jammu, April 10
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today held that once the authorities have taken a decision to appoint a person on compassionate ground under SRO 43 
of 1994 then that appointment is to be made on permanent basis.

While allowing the petition filed by Shashi Bala Sharma, the high court directed the respondents to treat initial appointment of petitioner on compassionate ground on permanent basis with effect from January 21, 1991 along with consequential benefits including monetary seniority, and promotion.

The husband of petitioner, serving in the Heath Department as medical officer, died in a road accident on December 19, 1987 while he was on official tour. Shashi Bala Sharma applied for compassionate appointment against post of the Heath Educator but was found to be overage by two years five months and 15 days on January 1, 1988 as per her date of birth.

However, the Administrative Department accorded sanction to relaxation of upper age bar but offered her on adhoc appointment on compassionate ground.

Counsel for petitioner argued that since initial appointment of petitioner was made on compassionate ground and for all practical purposes the initial appointment is permanent and not temporary or adhoc. It was further argued that appointment of petitioner on compassionate ground be treated as on regular basis with effect from January 14, 1991.

Justice Nirmal Singh of the high court while allowing the petition observed that “Perusal of aforesaid SRO makes it clear that there is no provision in said SRO to appoint a person on compassionate ground on daily wage, temporary or adhoc basis. If appointment on compassionate ground is made on temporary basis, adhoc or daily wage basis then purpose of aforesaid SRO will be frustrated. Purpose of such appointment under SRO is to give immediate relief to the bereaved family whose bread earner died in harness.”

The high court further said, “An appointment under the Dying in Harness Rules has to be treated as a permanent appointment otherwise if such appointment is treated to be temporary appointment then it will follow that soon after the appointment the service can be terminated and this will nullify the very purpose of the Dying in Harness Rules because such appointment is intended to provide immediate relief to the family on sudden death of bread earner.”

Srinagar, April 10
One split group of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) today asked All Party Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq not to offer his planned prayers tomorrow for the missing persons presumed dead.

APDP president Parveena Ahangar said Mirwaiz, who is the imam of Jamia Masjid, should not be offering “fateha” because they still believe that many of the missing persons are alive and incarcerated.

Another faction of the APDP had gone to public with close to 1,000 unmarked graves claiming it could have many of these missing persons, prompting the APHC to decide to offer special prayers for these presumably deceased persons.

Ahangar met several women, whose husband or son or both in some cases have gone missing after being picked by the security forces during militancy. She demanded Parvez Imroz, who had come out with the details on the unmarked graves, should not use the APDP’s name.

Imroz had parted ways with Ahangar two years back and continues to use APDP’s name in his statements. “I'm a victim and all these women are victims. Others should not be allowed to use the organisation’s name,” she said. However, she said she supported call for a thorough probe into the unmarked graves to find out the truth.

Ahengar had featured among a number of women nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to get relief and justice for the families whose members had disappeared. Though, she could not make it to final list. “We will continue to fight the government, but on our own terms,” she said. 

Samba, April 10
Before the Indo-Pak ceasefire, empty industrial buildings in the J&K State Industrial Development Complex (SIDCO) at Samba provided a shelter to residents of nearby villages from shelling from across the border, saving many lives. Today after the shelling has stopped, allowing the chemical and pesticide industry to come up, the industry has become the biggest hazard that, villagers allege, is slowly poisoning their water and crops.

Situation is alarming in many villages that are in the periphery of SIDCO. The complex houses many units manufacturing herbicides, pesticides, chemicals and other hazardous material. Villagers allege that the several units are hoodwinking the state government and discharging the pollutants in air and the soil making the subsoil water unfit for drinking.

Banarsi Dass, a resident of Pangdour located barely 3 km from the international border with Pakistan in the Samba sector say that he spent nearly two years in the buildings of these units while these were being constructed to evade shelling and continuous fire. “While most of us escaped the Pakistani bullets and artillery shell, the pollution caused by the factories has hit our crop, fruit plants, most of it is shrivelling up due to toxins.”

The past few months have seen several protests by villagers, especially the vegetable growing farmers of Tanda, Burj, Chack, Sujman, Barian and Supwal. Residents of the area like Bikram Singh say that since these villages are low-lying the water here is barely 30 feet deep leading to its contamination. Lambardar of Pangdour village told The Tribune that during early morning and late evenings it became almost impossible to breath freely as the air carries a lot of smell and irritants that had led to respiratory and skin problems among the people.

Samba is perhaps one of the closest district headquarters to the international border with Pakistan (about 10 km away). Since the Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) surround it, Samba has not seen any act of terrorism despite full-blown militancy in other areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

SIDCO was developed as an industrial hub by providing many incentives to the industry by way of exemptions and waivers. While, people from nearby villages like Raipur, Kathlai, Bauli, Sordi, Banglar, Sinki, Chakla Camp, Fakira Chak, etc want the pollution to be controlled, there are many in Samba like Bishan Dass who want the J&K government to persuaded the center to extend tax exemptions. 

Jammu, April 10
Even as Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) top brass try to project an unflinching camaraderie, the coalition partners seem to be at loggerheads, thanks to “political compulsions” in election year.

If PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s proposal of dual power- sharing over Jammu and Kashmir in recent Pugwash conference has perturbed the Congress then latter’s reaction to troop cut and self-rule has added fuel to the fire.

Pradesh Congress Committee chief and union water resources minister Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz on April 8 had made clear the party stand subtly dissociating from the PDP on these two sensitive issues.

Furthermore, taking away credit of different developmental projects and ‘hijacking’ government functions has started giving heartaches to the PDP ministers.

Absence of PDP ministers and leaders from government functions amply convey that differences between ruling partners may cast their shadow in the upcoming assembly polls.

The other day when union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav flagged off a train here, none from the PDP, barring party MP TS Bajwa, attended the function. Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had to attend the function.

A second rung PDP leader on condition of anonymity said, “We did the spadework in first three years of PDP’s stint toiling to bring projects to the state and now the Congress has been reaping its fruit without giving credit to us.”

“Being election year the Congress has started sidelining PDP ministers in every government function and at times didn’t even invite us,” he said.

“In the election year the Congress led by Azad has been on a spree to show development to the people so as to garner their support and in the process has been annoying the PDP at the cost of coalition dharma,” he added. Sources in the Congress admitted that though PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and PCC president Prof Soz try to project perfect harmony among the two partners but differences among second- rung party leaders continue to haunt.

However, sources in the Congress said Azad had conveyed his displeasure to the party high command over Soz’s remarks on the PDP.

They said, Azad had requested the AICC president Sonia Gandhi to instruct party leaders and Congress ministers in the state to refrain from giving statements on PDP proposals.

Sources claimed that the state unit of Congress itself is a divided house, adding that Azad and Soz enjoy two parallel lobbies, who continue to work against each other.

Udhampur, April 10
Following the footsteps of the Health Department which achieved its target in administering pulse polio drops to all children, the Education Department in Doda district has launched a comprehensive door-to-door campaign, to persuade parents to get their wards admitted in schools for elementary education.

Launched for the first time in the district, the campaign aims at ensuring admission to all children above 5 years of age in schools to achieve the target of “universalisation of elementary education.” The campaign also aims at informing people about free education schemes launched by the government.

“Our volunteers have been conducting house-to-house survey and making lists of all children above 5 years of age to ensure admission to all children in the schools,” chief education officer (CEO), Doda, A.K. Sen told The Tribune. The CEO said the campaign was targetted at the marginalised and the deprived sections living in backward areas.

“During the initial survey, it came to our notice that children of BPL (below poverty line) families and other weaker sections are not getting admission in schools as their parents hesitate to get them enrolled in educational institutions due to their economic conditions,” the CEO said.

During their door-to door-campaign, volunteers target BPL families and educate them about the provision of free education. The Education Department has fixed the target of approaching each and every village of Doda district.

Although the government has launched many schemes to encourage poor people to get their wards admitted in schools, a majority of BPL families are ignorant of these measures.

Volunteers of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, who completed door-to-door campaign in Bhalla zone of Bhaderwah, informed the people that the government would provide free books and meals to their children in schools.

A majority of BPL families gave their nod to get their children admitted in schools after getting assurance that only a nominal fee would be charged from them besides, providing free books and mid-day meals.

Srinagar, April 10
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today cautioned people against political leaders who wanted the create an atmosphere of violence in the state.

The Chief Minister was addressing a public meeting after launching the Bharat Nirman Public Information campaign at Ganderbal here today. He termed such people as the enemies of development and asked the people to watch their activities.

The three-day awareness campaign is the third in the state after similar campaigns were earlier inaugurated by Azad at Budgam and at Kathua.

Azad appreciated holding of the awareness campaign and said this would help people know about schemes meant for them so that they could derive maximum benefit from them.

Azad said there were some political parties who did not want hospitals, schools, roads, colleges, universities and other public utility infrastructure to be constructed as development went against their agenda as they wanted violence and destruction to continue.

“The atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity makes their vocation of amassing wealth a brisk business,” he said.

Azad said the state was currently witnessing an unprecedented era of infrastructure building throughout the state.

He particularly talked about public utility sectors where his government, with liberal assistance from the Centre, was raising infrastructure on a massive-scale.

Poonch, April 10
She was forced to give birth to a girl on the hospital corridor and that too just five feet away from the labour room. Reason: The gynaecologist at the district hospital here didn’t attend to this pregnant woman.

Result: The baby girl died after her birth.

Noor Jahan (32), wife of Mehboob Hussain of Salani in Mendhar, was shifted to the district hospital here by her relatives at 12.00 pm yesterday night after the former complained of intense labour pains. Not finding the lady doctor (gynaecologist) in the hospital, the relatives went to her residence and made repeated appeals to admit Noor Jahan and urged the doctor to operate the lady.

According to an eyewitness, after repeated requests, the gynaecologist reached the hospital and asked the family to get the blood group of pregnant lady detected.

After the family got the blood group of the patient detected and even though the blood was available in the hospital, the gynaecologist asked the family to shift the patient and said she could not be "treated" in the hospital, the source added.

“The gynaecologist even didn't hear to our repeated pleas to admit the patient in the labour room and abused us. Since she didn’t admit the patient, we didn't move from the corridor just close to labour room hoping that she will take pity on our poor relative and admit her,” said Hajira Begum, cousin of the victim.

“After they didn’t admit Noor, she gave birth to a baby girl who died because of the intense cold on the corridor. This is shocking and this lady doctor is biggest curse on the doctor fraternity whose soul aim should be to save the lives of patients. She killed the new borne.”

The cousin sister of the patient said it was only after they called Block Medical Officer Dr Younus Chowdhary that he intervened and got their patient shifted to ward, which saved her life.

Even as the hospital authorities remained tight lipped over the matter, sources said that the medical superintendent of the hospital today called a meeting of the doctors and reportedly told them that strict action will be taken against the doctor if found guilty.

Poonch, April 10
Former chief minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has expressed hope that the proposed upcoming visits of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and external affairs minister Parnab Mukherjee to Pakistan would reinforce the resolve of the two democratic governments to reactivate and carry forward the sagging peace process.

“Not only the people of Jammu and Kashmir but the whole sub-continent are yearning for sustainable peace and progress and I hope the political leadership of the two countries would address the issues in good faith and with sincerity of purpose to realise the dream of a peaceful, prosperous and progressive South Asia,” Sayeed said at a public meeting in Mendhar today.

He said the peace process has become a necessity for the two countries and there is a reciprocal acceptance of its legitimacy at the people’s level. “While various CBMs have been initiated to make the peace process substantive, much more has to be done to realise the true potential of the confidence building process,” he said and added that this could be achieved by exploring new avenues of cross-border cooperation in the fields of trade, commerce, communication, travel and tourism.