Doda, May 21
Unprecedented security arrangements have been made at Bhaderwah town where President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to visit on May 26 to inaugurate the Jammu University campus.

To frustrate the designs of anti-national elements, a four-tier security circle has been put into place to provide adequate security to the President during her visit.

Stringent measures have been taken as it is for the first time that the President is visiting Bhaderwah, which is popularly known as “Chotta Kashmir,” due to its scenic beauty.

Senior security officers today described the security arrangements as adequate and multi-layered to thwart the nefarious designs of militants or anti-national elements. “For the past one week forces are on job of sanitisation and combing to clear the whole area”, Hemant Kumar Lohia, DIG, Doda, told The Tribune.

Lohia who was himself supervising security arrangements said the combing and area domination operations had been completed and more police force had been at other sensitive areas.

The DIG said four-tier security arrangements had been made to provide security to the President. Apart from this security circle, the Army had also made additional deployment on hilltops to plug all routes. The four-tier security consists of the Army, CRPF, local police and Intelligence agencies. The DIG also informed that a helipad had been built and the Army had taken up positions in Bhaderwah, where the President would dedicate a tulip garden besides, the Jammu University campus to the nation.

The venue has also been sealed for general public after the sanitisation operation.

Additional armed police and CRPF companies had been deployed in the town and a team of the special protection group (SPG) had arrived from New Delhi to review the security arrangements, he added.

President Pratibha Patil would inaugurate the Bhaderwah Campus which is aesthetic, user-friendly and spacious.

Jammu, May 21
Stressing upon a ‘ceasefire’ within the state Congress, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today asked party leaders and workers to better highlight achievements of the party so as to win upcoming assembly polls.

Addressing a gathering after paying tributes to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 17th death anniversary here, Azad felt that party leaders should highlight achievements made by the Congress-led coalition government in the past over two years and a half than resorting to infighting.

The party can win upcoming elections provided we get united and highlight achievements of the Congress before the people, he said.

He used the podium asking party leaders to resort to “ceasefire within the party” and subsequently flaunted the Congress achievements.

“For the past two and a half years, development projects have been taken up on fast track across the state,” he said.

Referring to the Roshni Scheme, he said only yesterday the state cabinet, among other things, decided to give free ownership rights to the state land occupants up to three marlas in urban area used for residential purposes.

He also referred to the cabinet decision of regularising the services of thousands of ad hoc employees.

Azad also paid homage to the two leaders Moulvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, who too were assassinated by militants on the same day.

He said they believed in a dialogue to address the issues, which was not to the liking of their assassins.

Later, responding to media queries, Azad expressed grave concern over recent infiltration bids and ceasefire violations and by Pak troops.

“Certainly it was a matter of grave concern in the backdrop of peace process, which had been going on for the past three years,” he said.

There has been sharp increase in the infiltration bids in the last one month and a half, he said, adding that Pakistan had assured India that terrorists would not be allowed to use its land.

Since External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary are in Islamabad, I hope the issue would be taken up with Pakistan and the neighbouring country takes reconciliatory steps, he said.

Earlier, PCC president and Union Minister for Water Resources Saif-ud-Din Soz and Health Minister Mangat Ram Sharma also emphasized on the need for unity in the Congress.

Soz in his address asked party workers and leaders to work in perfect harmony like he and Azad had been doing.

Srinagar, May 21
Seeking the involvement of Kashmiris in the dialogue process, chairman of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, today asked the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to hold talks to resolve the Kashmir issue.

He also appreciated US President George W. Bush’s recent statement on the issue and urged the international community to play its role to resolve the issue.

While the APHC has already held several rounds of talks with the Indian and Pakistan leadership over the past four years, the chairman favoured subsequent rounds of parleys in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.

He was addressing a large public gathering at Eidgah on the occasion of the 18th death anniversary of his father, Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq and sixth death anniversary of former APHC leader, Abdul Ghani Lone.

With this the week-long programme to commemorate the former leaders chalked out by the Hurriyat Conference concluded today.

Umar Farooq also invited JKLF chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Sajad Ghani Lone to join the Hurriyat fold. “We want to talk to India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir issue. We will be soon going to Pakistan for talks”, Mirwaiz said.

He asked Geelani, Malik and Sajad Lone to join hands with the Hurriyat and visit Pakistan to hold talks with the new leadership there.

Welcoming the resumed Indo-Pak foreign minister’s talks currently going on in Islamabad, Mirwaiz said, “We want them to sit and think over Kashmir”.

He also rejected the electoral process saying these were no solution to the problem. Mirwaiz also referred to the opening of the Hurriyat Conference at the district-level which was being extended to the tehsil and block levels and said it was to “institutionalize” the Hurriyat at all levels.

“We will adequately represent the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the talks”, he added.

Referring to the forthcoming visit of President Pratibha Patil, Mirwaiz has sought the President’s attention towards the alleged human rights violations at the hands of security forces in the valley.

He said that there were 350 camps of security forces across the state wherein over 10, 000 people were missing and the issue of 940 unmarked graves in north Kashmir was alarming.

Jammu, May 21
With a hung house looking imminent in the upcoming Assembly elections, the mainstream political parties like the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) face a litmus test and only time will tell who the Congress would ally with.

The Congress and the NC, it may be mentioned here, had formed coalition government on two previous occasions in 1975 and 1986.

Yet again anticipating a fractured mandate for the 87 state legislative Assembly, the NC, the PDP and the Congress have already embarked upon a“back-channel diplomacy”.

A Congress leader said, “This time around we are confident of doing exceedingly well, but even if people give a fractured mandate, then also the Congress would be in power.”

Ultimately the PDP and the NC would have to beat each other so as to form an alliance with us, he added.

“President of the NC, Omar Abdullah, PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Pradesh Congress Committee president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz had given ample indications in the recent past of going alone into the Assembly polls. But Omar stated that there were no permanent friends and foes in politics. So what shape things would take could be known only during elections,” he said.

If the PDP wants to have a tacit understanding with the Awami National Conference (ANC), it won’t mar our prospects, the Congress leader said.

After a disappearance of two decades from the political scenario, the ANC headed by G.M. Shah, estranged brother-in-law of NC patron Farooq Abdullah, has no major stakes in the coming elections, he claimed.

Sources in the PDP said even though the Congress and the PDP had almost completed six years, going by the party ideologies, the latter had decided to bid adieu to the ruling partner. But at the same time it has to find another party so as to keep arch-rival, the NC “grounded.”

On the other hand, Omar, who on numerous occasions had discarded any pre-poll alliance with the Congress, still has a “soft corner” for the Congress, sources in the NC said.

Sources said the NC, which in the past over five years had been predicting fall of the coalition government, had decided to corner coalition partners on the “anti-incumbency factor,” but the rapid infrastructure building undertaken by the Congress has left it in a fix.

As of today, the Congress has 22 seats, excluding support of associate members, the NC has 25, PDP 16, Panthers Party 4, CPM 3, BJP 1 and 15 Independents. The BSP had one seat, which went to the PDP after party candidate Manjeet Singh changed his loyalty.

Jammu, May 21
Senior police officers feel dismayed over the way the state cabinet, in a meeting in Srinagar on Tuesday, favoured those officers belonging to the IAS and KAS cadre and gave sanction for their elevation.

At least, names of four police officers of the rank of DIGs had been recommended to the cabinet for promotion to the rank of inspector general of police. Names of two other IGPs, K. Rajendra and P.L. Gupta, had been recommended for promotion to the rank of additional director general of police. Three days prior to the cabinet meeting the agenda got leaked out. The police officers, who were on the promotion list, received calls from their friends and colleagues and were congratulated in advance.

The police circles felt upset when the cases of four DIGs, B. Srinivas, M. A. Anjum, Ravinder Kotwal and Farooq Ahmed and the two IGs were not taken up by the cabinet for consideration. A senior police officer today said delay in elevating four DIGs and two IGs to higher ranks had delayed promotion to other officers, who were scheduled to fill the vacant posts.

The police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said the successive state governments have shown pro-IAS and KAS bias. Invariably either the promotions are delayed or they are kept in abeyance for years together.

In support of his contention, he said at one stage 52 DSPs were due for promotion to the next rank but their promotion cases were cleared after two years. Another officer said even after these DSPs were promoted to SPs rank they were not adjusted and most of them had to work as DSPs in their areas. He said during the last 18 years the overall strength in the police has gone up from 30,000 to over one lakh and as such even a marginal delay could squeeze promotion avenues for ranks from IGs down to sub-inspectors.

Thirteen officers in the civil services were promoted to higher ranks and some of them were given special grades and released principal’s grade in favour of Dr Rajinder Singh with retrospective effect.

By segregating the list of officers in civil services and those in the police, the IAS lobby seems to have played the trick, which the members of the cabinet have been unable to detect. The police officers wanted Chief Minister Azad to convene a special cabinet meeting only for clearing cases of promotion of senior police officers.

Jammu, May 21
Fed up with the politicisation of the issue, the kin of disappeared persons in the state have now pinned their hopes on the Centre.

Talking to The Tribune, the legal advisor of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), Mir Hafeezullah, said there has been a lot of confusion over the issue for the past 15 years.

“While the government is putting the number of disappeared persons on a lower side, the separatist outfits and NGOs are exaggerating the figure. No sincere effort has been made by the successive state governments to ascertain the exact number of persons who disappeared after eruption of militancy in the state,” he lamented. He said they took the initiative in this direction and disbursed detailed forms and 150 of them had already been submitted to them. The association has also started a survey to find out the exact number of disappeared persons.

He said the families of disappeared persons had been living under constant trauma. “While half widows (the women whose husband have been missing for long) could not remarry for seven years under the Muslim Personal Law, their children had been admitted in various orphanages. Their families are finding it hard to survive after losing their sole breadwinners,” he averred.

Hafeezullah said the Centre must step in to address the problem, as the kin of disappeared persons have lost faith in the state regimes, adding that all the political parties indulge in blame game instead of taking some positive measures on the issue.

“An inquiry commission should be set up to ascertain the number of disappeared persons in the state. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act should also be revoked, as it has already achieved its purpose in 1990s,” he said.

Srinagar, May 21
Reiterating that the political parties in government ought to maintain a balance between political and economic development, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has said her party had achieved success on this front.

Addressing various public meetings in Dooru area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir today, Mehbooba observed that for peace and prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir it was inevitable to achieve success and maintain balance between the political and economic development.

She held that there were tough challenges before her party the day it assumed power in the financially and politically ruined state where a decade old insurgency had destroyed much of Kashmir’s economy.

The PDP played a vital role in breaking the ice over the resolution of Kashmir issue changing the status quo without challenging the sovereignty of India and Pakistan, she said.

She added the PDP heralded unforeseen amendments to the existing political climate of Kashmir initiating a new era of bonhomie and a cessation to hostilities.

She said people of Jammu and Kashmir could not be held hostage to vested interests across the border and her party had proved that addressing genuine aspirations of people was the only way forward if peace and tranquility was to prevail in the entire subcontinent.

According to a spokesman, she said PDP’s proposals, be it opening of the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad road, reduction of troops, repealing of draconian laws including AFSPA, rehabilitation of families of militants, return of Kashmiri youth from across the border, free movement of people and goods and compensation to state government for the lost caused by the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) by transferring powers projects to the state, were objected tooth and nail and the parties irrespective of their political affiliations always labeled PDP’s policies with different accusations.

“But we never mind it and went ahead with bold decisions which were fruitful for the whole of Jammu and Kashmir,” Mufti added.

Srinagar, May 21
The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to pay Rs one lakh to the next of kin of those killed in road mishaps in the state.

The decision to pay ex-gratia relief of Rs one lakh to the next of kin of those killed in road accidents was taken at a cabinet meeting, which met here last evening, chief secretary B.R. Kundal told reporters here today.

He said those critically wounded in the accidents would be paid Rs 50,000. The corpus for such welfare measure would be raised by imposing a monthly tax of Rs 100 on commercial heavy vehicles, Rs 50 for medium sized and Rs 20 per taxi, Kundal said, adding three-wheelers have been exempted.

He said the proposed tax would also be imposed on the State Road Transport Corporation buses.

The state cabinet also approved monetary benefits to its employees. However, it did not take any decision on transfers and postings of senior officers.

The cabinet, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, transferred 92.5 kanals of state land to the Public Works Department for the rehabilitation of those families who houses are likely to be acquired for the beautification of Hazratbal Shrine surroundings.

An official spokesman said here the cabinet also approved allotment of 8.14 kanals of state land in favour of 58 stone chiselers, who likely to be affected by the construction of Bus Stand at Panthchowk.