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Bandh passes off peacefully
Shivalingam melts at Amarnath
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Azad to lead Cong in Assembly polls
Vohra embarks upon to set ‘house’ in order
Vohra for reviving Jammu’s heritage character
Col washed away in J&K
State places order for transformer
NC, Cong join hands: BJP
Mufti wants Indo-Pak talks to go ahead
Soz finds PDP wrong in withdrawing support
20 Gujjars hurt, 150 held
The state unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Gujjar Mahasabha protesting in support of its demands in Srinagar on Wednesday. — A Tribune photograph
IAS, KAS officers transferred
Shrine board’s functioning to be strengthened
Departments fight while lake shrinks
PDP may have erred in withdrawing support
Infiltrator held
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Bandh paralyses normal life
Jammu, July 16 However, except some sporadic incidents, the day passed off peacefully
in the region. Angry protesters damaged two SRTC buses at Satwari, two shops at Talab Tillo and a private bank at Bahu Plaza. Some private vehicles were also damaged after the bandh supporters resorted to stone pelting in Nagrota, Bari Brahmana, and Gangyal. Five persons were later arrested in Nagrota
in this regard. However, no major clash between the police and the protesters was reported in the city. The Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation, has termed these incidents as an attempt by some elements to sabotage their movement. The protesters also burnt the effigies of Governor N.N. Vohra, former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Muthi, Satwari, Nagrota, Jewel, Shalamar Chowk, Parade and
Canal Road. Around 3,000 protesters converged in Muthi to lodge their protest on the issue. The protesters were led by outfits like the BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Panun Kashmir, and Jammu and Kashmir Vichar Manch. The Shiv Sena (Hindustan) also took out a protest rally that culminated at Raghunath Bazar after passing through the main areas of the city. The outfit also staged a protest at the Purkhoo camp and burnt an effigy of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. Reports of protest rallies and demonstrations were also received from Bishnah, Vijaypur, Samba, Lakhanpur and Kathua areas
of the region. Most of the shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed and traffic was off the roads in response to the bandh call. Agitating outfits had been staging demonstrations for the past 10 days here until July 8, when the samiti declared that it was suspending the bandh for a week, serving a seven-day ultimatum to the Governor to restore land to the
shrine board. In a message on Tuesday, Vohra said the shrine board would continue to play its statutory role with dedication and there was no dilution in its authority or role. |
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Bandh passes off peacefully
Udhampur, July 16 Reasi and Udhampur observed a complete shut down, while in
Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah towns, members of the minority community observed a shut down. In
Udhampur, activists of the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti comprising representatives of some social, business, political and religious
organisations, took out a procession and shouted slogans against the government for hurting the sentiments of the people. Leaders of the samiti alleged that former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had cancelled the allotment of land to the
SASB, due to pressure from separatists and fundamentalist forces. The leaders regretted that instead of treating anti-national forces with an iron hand, this dispensation had been accepting their demands. At
Reasi, a large number of the activists of samiti took out a procession, which peacefully passed away through all bazaars and localities. The leaders urged the people to support the agitation to restore the dignity and honour of nationalist forces. In communally sensitive Bhaderwah town, additional forces were deployed to maintain peace. Activists of the samiti also took out a procession, which passed off peacefully. |
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Shivalingam melts at Amarnath
Srinagar, July 16 A CRPF official said the devotees believed that excessive flow of pilgrims to the cave had resulted in an increase in temperature leading to lingam’s melting. A committee had recommended that not more than 5,000 pilgrims from each route be allowed to go to the cave every day, but the advice has remained a piece of paper. During the initial rush when yatra started in mid-June, more than 30,000 pilgrims were recorded to have visited the cave against stipulated 10,000 pilgrims. Many devotees over the course of two-month long yatra have said the extension of yatra has only harmed the spiritual and religious
fervour. |
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Azad to lead Cong in Assembly polls
Jammu, July 16 In an interview to a local news channel, Azad has set at rest rumours that he was being rehabilitated in the Centre and the party high command by saying “I will not accept any Cabinet post or position of AICC general secretary as I have decided to stay in the state to lead the Congress to victory in the coming polls.” Party sources said the former Chief Minister had been encouraged by the responsive crowd that he attracted to his recent public rally in Akhnoor, 27 km west of Jammu. Azad has initiated a number of steps for infusing strength into the Congress, which was at the receiving end as demonstrators protested against the revocation of the land order by the Cabinet, which was headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad. It was after Azad’s successful comeback that former legislators and other party leaders have cast their lot with the former Chief Minister. When Jammu was gripped by violence for seven days over the order, majority of Congress legislators and leaders preferred to keep the former Chief Minister at an arms length. They did not want to associate themselves with him in public because they had started blaming Azad for having presided over the liquidation of the Congress by getting the order revoked. Another step taken by him pertains to his success in mending fences with the PCC president and Union minister for water resources Saif-ud-Din Soz. The two have been seen spending time together in galvanising the Congress. Party sources claimed that Azad had been able to win back the hearts of a sizable section of people in the Jammu region by the success he achieved in persuading Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to give one transformer on loan for the Gladini grid station. The damage to the transformers at the grid station had resulted in acute power crisis in Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri districts, where people had to suffer 15-hour power cuts during the last three weeks. According to the party sources, Azad has prepared his tour programme that would take him along with Soz to different areas of the state for mustering voters support for the Congress. His aim is to bring the Congress out of current state of inertia because in the Jammu region it has to face the challenge from the BJP, the Panthers Party and the National Conference, the PDP and the National Conference in the valley. |
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Vohra embarks upon to set ‘house’ in order
Jammu, July 16 Official sources told The Tribune, in run up to the next assembly elections due in October this year Vohra has embarked upon an exercise to set the 'house' in order. After a major shake-up in civil administration and police departments transferring nearly 150 top officials, instructions have been issued to the different departments to either withdraw or reduce the facilities, which were given to the ministers and legislators of the erstwhile coalition government. "As state assembly stands dissolved, circulars have been issued to the estates, state motor garage, police and other departments concerned to go by the rule book either withdrawing or reducing the facilities, which otherwise were meant for ministers and legislators," they said. Acting upon the instructions we have already requested former ministers and ex-legislators to vacate government accommodations. Similarly, the police department has also decided to cut considerably on security being provided to the former ministers and ex-legislators. On the condition of anonymity a police officer of the police intelligence wing said security given to former ministers, ex-legislators and other politicians was being reviewed and it would be reduced gradually but not at the cost of their safety. "Question doesn't arise at all of withdrawing the security but once the state assembly stands dissolved certainly rules have to be adhered," he said, adding that considering militants' threat to the life of certain politicians, their security would not be altered. State DGP Kuldeep Khoda maintained that security to politicians, including former ministers and ex-legislators, had always been provided depending upon threat perception to their lives. Khoda, however, refused to comment further saying threat perception had always been the parameter in case of security to former ministers and legislators. |
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Vohra for reviving Jammu’s heritage character
Jammu, July 16 During his two-day visit to the city, the Governor sanctioned Rs 1 crore out of the current year's plan for development of the famous Raghunath Bazar as a heritage market. The amount will be provided to the Tourism Department and will be utilised as per the Heritage Conservation Plan prepared for the market. The work will be supervised by the Task Force, constituted for the purpose, headed by the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu. The Governor directed the Divisional Administration to develop other areas of heritage importance, particularly the old markets dealing with traditional products. He also stressed the need for maintaining the tempo of development in the Mubarak Mandi complex and observed that the pristine glory of the city as a cultural and heritage centre must be restored. Vohra described Jammu as the gateway to pilgrim and tourist destinations, both in Jammu and the valley of Kashmir, and said that in view of the influx of large number of pilgrims and tourists, Jammu's infrastructure development needed time-bound focused attention. He said that the city's rapid growth called for exploring the possibilities of setting up of a multi-layered parking place on priority. This will decongest Jammu and make it a tourist-friendly city, he added. Earlier, a stream of delegations met the Governor and apprised him of their problems. |
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State places order for transformer
Jammu, July 16 Two transformers had been damaged here forcing the aurthorities to resort to 15-hour power during the day. Official sources said the order for the transformer had been placed with a manufacturing firm in Mumbai by the Haryana Government, after former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad had requested it to give one transformer
on loan. A senior engineer of the PDD said it might take another week for its officers to trans-ship the transforsmer to the
Gladini grid station. |
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NC, Cong join hands: BJP
Jammu, July 16 Addressing a press conference here, state BJP chief Ashok Khajuria today said “It is a matter of shame that the Jammu-based Congress and NC leaders are defending the land revocation order to show solidarity with Kashmiri fundamentalists”.
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Mufti wants Indo-Pak talks to go ahead
Srinagar, July 16 “The resolution process must now essentially gain momentum to tide over the fresh wave of disillusionment and alienation”, Mufti said in a statement from the US issued here today. “In the emerging scenario, the sub-continent’s security and stability would largely depend on how the leadership of India and Pakistan confronts the challenges ahead”, Mufti, who is currently in the US for a medical checkup, said. He said greater economic cooperation in the region could pave the way for the resolution of various problems and there could be no better place than starting it from Jammu and Kashmir, which had been the worst victim of the sub-continent's fragmentation. “The political aspect of the Kashmir problem will be much easier to resolve, if due economic space for Jammu and Kashmir is ensured in the SAARC paradigm”, he said. Expressing the hope that the proposed July 18 talks on cross-LoC CBMs would have a tangible positive outcome, Mufti said, while formalising the measures for increasing the frequency of Srinagar-Muzafarabad and Poonch-Rawalakote bus services and working out modalities for resumption of trade through these routes, both the countries must simultaneously revive movement of people and goods through the Suchetgarh-Sialkote and Kargil-Skardu roads. This would help people to share the booty of the new economic activity set to unfold in the region. “We have been time and again cautioning against dallying the peace process and brushing the issue under the carpet as we could visualise the consequences”, he said. Mufti said the latest events unfolding in the state had restated the inevitability of addressing both the external and internal dimensions of the Kashmir issue with a sense of urgency through a composite peace process. He said only this could offer a promising opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. Mufti said the PDP would continue to play a vital role in the reconciliation and resolution process. |
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Soz finds PDP wrong in withdrawing support
Srinagar, July 16 He explained to the people that it was wrong on the part of the PDP to withdraw support from the Congress-led coalition government. He said an elected government was always a better option as it reflected the urges and aspirations of common masses. He declared elections would be held on schedule and expressed the confidence that these would be held in a free and fair atmosphere. Soz was addressing a function after distributing 1800 solar lights among the inhabitants of 14 far-flung hamlets of Kupwara district at Shahnagri yesterday. He released Rs 10 lakh from his constituency development fund as the cost of these lights which would be provided free to the people. The union minister also released Rs 5 lakh each for the upgradation of schools at Drusso and Adoora
(Langate). He said a bore well had been sanctioned for Shahnagri and the adjoining areas to meet the water shortage and soon a team from water resources ministry would start the work. |
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20 Gujjars hurt, 150 held
Srinagar, July 16 Hundreds of Gujjars from different parts of the valley had assembled here and took out a procession towards Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum
to the Governor. The police swung into action and stopped them, and when they refused to disperse, the police resorted to batoncharge, a spokesman of the Gujjars said. He added that later, over 150 persons were held and lodged in Maisuma and other nearby police
stations here. Addressing the demonstrators, state president of the Akhil Bhartiya Gujjar Mahasabha Choudhary Ashfaq-ur-Rehman Poswal said the community had been given tribal status in 1991, but the wait for political reservation was still on. He urged the Governor to issue an ordinance in this regard without any further delay. He demanded that a minimum of 18 Assembly segments be reserved for the STs in the present 87-member Assembly. The Gujjars also demanded Minority Status in the state, raising of Gujjar Regiment in the Indian Army, allotment of land to rehabilitate nomadic Gujjars, including of Gojri in 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution, increase of seats for them in professional colleges and suitable market facilities for livestock and milk productions. |
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IAS, KAS officers transferred
Srinagar, July 16 Jeet Lal Gupta, commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Jammu, has been transferred and posted as director, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Jammu, relieving joint director (Administration) in the Directorate of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Jammu, of the additional charge of the post. Pandurang Kondabarao Pole, director, Economic Reconstruction Agency, Jammu, has been transferred and posted as vice-chairman, Jammu Development Authority, on a deputation basis. Vineeta Gupta, additional commissioner, Commercial Taxes (Tax Planning), Jammu, has been transferred and posted as director, Economic Reconstruction Agency, Jammu, on a deputation basis. Mehmood Rana, joint director (Administration), holding the additional charge of the post of director, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Jammu, has been attached to the General Administration Department, till further orders. Onkar Nath, deputy commissioner, Commercial Taxes (Vigilance and Inspection) has been transferred and posted as deputy commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Lakhanpur vice Inderjeet Singh, who would report to the divisional commissioner, Jammu, till further orders. Onkar Nath would also hold the additional charge of the post of deputy commissioner, Excise (Toll Post), Lakhanpur, in place of Masood Raja who will report to the divisional commissioner, Jammu, till further orders. Maharaj Krishen Raina, deputy director, Directorate of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Jammu, has been transferred and posted as project officer, Watershed Development, Rural Development Department, Jammu. Pardeep Kumar, deputy secretary, Home Department, has been transferred and posted as deputy director, Directorate of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Jammu. |
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Shrine board’s functioning to be strengthened
Jammu, July 16 Vohra said during his interaction with a cross-section of society in Jammu during the past two days, he had gained the impression that the sentiments of the people of the region have been hurt owing to certain misconceptions that need to be cleared by viewing the facts in the right
perspective. He said the board had come into being by an Act of the state legislature, by virtue of which its statutory role stands
well defined. “Therefore there cannot be any dilution of the assigned role of the board,” he added. He said the board had been providing various facilities to pilgrims and would continue to do so at an enhanced scale whenever necessary. He reiterated his resolve that the facilities would further be improved under the aegis of the board in the years to come. Making a fervent appeal to the people to view the issue in its right perspective, he observed that there were apprehensions about the future of the SASB in the public mind, and he would be very happy to discuss the same with those concerned. He hoped that the people would come forward for a dialogue to clear the air on this issue. |
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Departments fight while lake shrinks
Surinsar, July 16 After the directorate of tourism had spent Rs 1 crore in the past one year, the Wildlife Department has restricted the former from undertaking further developmental works. Consequently, the fresh water lake continues to shrink and its aquatic life faces threat of extinction. “Not only its area has shrunk considerably but its rich flora and fauna has also suffered a major loss over the years,” said Pawan Singh, a native of Surinsar. Leave aside a Public Health Engineering (PHE) station that continued to lift water from the lake, villagers were also responsible for its deteriorating condition, he said. The lackadaisical attitude of the villagers and a row between both departments has been responsible for the ill health of fresh water body. Official sources said, after taking up the lake under the Tourism Village Scheme of the Union government and spending a whopping sum of Rs 1 crore, the Wildlife Department had played spoilsport prohibiting the Tourism Department from further taking up further works. Though the directorate of tourism renovated a tourist bungalow, constructed shelter sheds, four wooden decks, installed plastic dustbins and electricity poles, the lake continued to die gradually, they added. The PHE pumping station definitely reduced the water level, said a senior official of the Tourism Department, who added that after repeated reminders the PHE authorities had started exploring other alternatives. However, it has been reliably learnt that the PHE Department from the last three years has been pondering over the much-awaited alternative. Talking to The Tribune, CEO of the Surinsar-Mansar Tourism Development Authority Soujanya Sharma said: “We have several plans up our sleeves to implement them in right earnest but the Wildlife Department had certain objections.” |
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PDP may have erred in withdrawing support
Srinagar, July 16 Political observers say the question is thought-provoking for its regional opponent, the National Conference (NC), which has been out of power for the past six years, and now seeks to garner majority support. The NC is deeply rooted in the state and will not have to strive hard for its return to the throne, but the PDP has to further build upon its earlier ground and exercise damage control to prevent any losses, following the recent developments on the Amarnath land transfer row. After five-long years of coalition, the PDP opted out over the issue of land transfer to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), though it had been party to the government order as a coalition partner. Gauging the public mood, the PDP blamed the Congress and the Governor, as also the SASB chairman, for the controversial order. The PDP’s decision to hastily pull out, two days earlier of its set deadline, clearly indicated its plans ahead to go alone in the next Assembly elections without the Congress. Over the past one year, there had been several instances of differences between the two main coalition partners, though the arrangement was not disturbed. But, the quick succession of events over the land transfer leading to pullout indicates that the decision had been well thought of by the PDP. This has also come at a time when the opposition NC was believed to be coming closer to the Congress for the two had shared power on several occasions in the past. After the Indira-Abdullah accord, the then Congress chief minister, Syed Mir Qasim stepped down to pave way for Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. However, the support was withdrawn early in 1977, clearing decks for the elections. Again in 1986, the two parties shared power before the elections, after which the two again formed an alliance government in April 1987. Presently the NC and the PDP have been placed in a precarious situation for their support to the Congress-led UPA government on the N-deal. The PDP, with its lone member, Mehbooba Mufti from the Anantnag constituency has already decided to favour the trust vote, while the NC also plans to do the same. The PDP’s recent decision to withdraw from the Congress, resulting in fall of the Azad-led government in the state and support to the Congress at the Centre has raised many an eyebrows. The row over the land transfer that led to the fall of the government, may not be the only issue to determine the future of mainstream political parties in the state. It would not only be Azad’s development tasks, the NC’s autonomy issue or the PDP’s Indo-Pak CBMs, but the larger issue of resolving the Kashmir dispute that would be the determining factor in the
elections ahead. |
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Infiltrator held
Jammu, July 16 Official sources said the BSF troops today morning observed some movement near a border outpost in Ramgarh, adding that they launched a search operation, which led to the arrest of a suspected infiltrator. The infiltrator identified as Rakesh, a native of Nepal, was being questioned by the BSF, the sources said adding that nothing incriminating was recovered from him.
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Srinagar, July 16
