Srinagar, September 24
People protested in Maisuma and downtown against the grenade attack on the Lal Bazar house of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadees Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah.

Commercial establishments in these areas, especially in Maisuma where the office of this puritanical Islamic sect is located, remained closed. Police use batons to disperse protesters in Srinagar.

(According to PTI, the police used batons and fired tear gas shells to disperse violent demonstraters "A group of youth pelted stones at security personnel in Maisuma locality around 11. a.m. The forces retaliated with a baton charge and fired tear gas shells to chase away the protesters," official sources said.)

JKLF chairman Yaseen Malik reacted angrily to the grenade attack on the Maulana's house last evening, more so as the militant outfit, which claimed responsibility for the explosion, blamed the Maulana’s proximity to Malik and his peaceful Gandhian ideas for the attack. If they have the guts they should come out in open, Malik told reporters.

A little-known outfit, Hizbul Muslimeen (army of Muslims), told a news agency after the blast that there was no place for "preachers of Gandhian philosophy and supporters of Yaseen Malik" in Kashmir. The Maulana is a leading member of the separatist coordination committee, which is rife with conflicting ideological differences among different groups.

Malik termed the act cowardly and said he knew the people behind such mysterious attacks in the valley happening right from 1990 and could expose them but chose to keep quiet in the larger interest of separatist struggle.

Making a sarcastic comment about the group's identity, Malik said it should change its name from Hizbul Muslimeen to Hizbul Munafiqeen (hypocrites).

Though there was no serious damage in the blast, which broke glasses and windowpanes, it has brought to the fore the internal feud among separatists and personal distaste that they nurse for each other. Their oral and other duels go mostly unreported and uncommented in a loyal local media.

Protesters clashed with the security forces in some localities but were chased away. Some separatists have blamed government agencies for the attack. "They want to create fear and distrust among us," a leader said.

Jammu, September 24
In the wake of the Delhi serial blasts, the Jammu and Kashmir police has decided to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at several vital installations in Srinagar and Jammu to keep a watch on the movement of suspected persons.

"Now Srinagar and Jammu, the twin capitals of J&K, would have wireless-based CCTV cameras to keep an eye on the movement of suspected persons and militants. Besides, they would also be installed at sensitive and vital installations in the state," police officials said.

"A full-fledged exercise was carried out by the police recently after the Delhi blasts that killed 24 persons. It was decided to install wireless CCTVs to keep an eye on sensitive and VVIP areas, vital points and roads in J&K," they said.

The CCTV cameras will also be installed at the pilgrim centres of Mata Vaishno Devi, Ragunath temple complex, railway stations, bus stands, malls, buzzing public and market places there, they added.

Some old cable CCTVs had been in use in Srinagar and Jammu since 2006 but they had become faulty and were not working, the police officials said, adding that tenders for the purchase of new wirelss CCTV surveillance equipments had been floated.

The cameras would be installed in open places at cross-roads and high-traffic intensity roads, the tender document released by the police on September 19 said. — PTI 

Srinagar, September 24
Governor N.N. Vohra has assured the fruit growers of Kashmir that the proposal to bring horticulture produce under the insurance cover will be examined urgently and all possibilities would be explored to establish a viable venture for manufacturing juice out of fallen and culled fruit.

In a meeting with representatives of the fruit growers and forwarding agents of the valley here today, the Governor suggested formation of cooperative societies, comprising all those associated with the horticulture industry, especially the small and marginal fruit growers, for setting up of mini and mega juice plants in the private sector, an official spokesman said.

Vohra said the state government would consider incentives for such juice plants as these could be a viable answer for treating the culled and fallen apple. He observed that successful approaches followed in Himachal Pradesh, which has emerged as one of the leading apple producing states in the country, must be studied.

The Governor was informed that the valley had a 10,000 MT-capacity apple and juice plant at Duabgah, near Sopore, and 13 other small plants, having 300-400 MT capacity. The existing capacity is grossly inadequate to cater to the needs of the orchardists.

Referring to the demands for expeditious completion of fruit mandis and cold storages, currently under execution across the valley, the Governor said he would soon be reviewing their status, and wherever need be, additional funds would be released.

To start public hearing

Governor N.N. Vohra will be holding public hearing on weekly basis to hear the problems and grievances of people. The first three Wednesdays of October have been fixed for this purpose.

According to a Raj Bhavan spokesperson, the Governor, who has been meeting individuals and deputations, felt that visits to Raj Bhavan might not be always convenient for those who seek to meet him. He has accordingly directed that the hearing be held in the Civil Secretariat.

Srinagar, September 24
Governor N.N. Vohra has announced a host of measures to mitigate the problems of people of the remote area of Gurez in Bandipore district and indicated a special recruitment drive by the police after Eid.

During his extensive tour of Gurez and interaction with the locals and the officers at Dawar in Gurez area yesterday, the Governor directed that the winter stocking of rations and diesel for operating generators in the sub-division, which remains land-locked for better part of the year, must be completed by October 5, an official spokesman said.

Reviewing the pace of progress on various developmental projects in a meeting with all the district and senior level officers, Vohra sanctioned, on-the-spot, Rs 1 crore for the new dak bungalow; Rs 65 lakh for construction of the Wanpora Bridge and an additional amount of Rs 30 lakh for the hospital complex, currently under execution.

He asked the engineers of the PDD to sort-out the problems with regard to the early completion of the hydel project within a week.

Keeping in view the vast tourism potential of the area, the Governor observed that an amount of Rs 3 crore had already been sanctioned for the tourism infrastructure development and said that efforts would be made to keep the scenic Gurez valley, known for its Habakhatoon Hill, open for tourist traffic.

He said the matter regarding keeping Gurez-Tilail road open for longer duration would be taken up with the Project Beacon authorities.

The Governor also responded to the local problems of the area and assured the locals that adequate measures were being made to provide all the requisite facilities in various sectors including health.

Srinagar, September 24
The government has ordered transfers in the education department with immediate effect.

An official spokesman said the orders of placement of 14 principals of various higher secondary schools and district institutes of education in Jammu and Kashmir divisions were also issued.

Consequent upon these transfers, the government has also ordered transfers and adjustments of the in charge joint directors and equivalent and in charge chief education officers.

Narinder Kumar has been posted as in charge joint director, SSA, Kashmir, against an available vacancy and A.K. Sen has been posted as in charge principal, SIE, Srinagar against an available vacancy. Ghulam Rasool Ganai has been posted as ICEO, Doda, against an available vacancy, while Varinder Kumar has been posted as in charge principal, DIET, Jammu, vice Kuldeep Raj Sharma.

Kuldeep Raj Sharma, has been posted as state coordinator, SSA and Ram Krishan as in charge, field advisor, SIE, Jammu, against an available vacancy.

Sneh Lata Gupta, has been posted as in charge, field advisor, SIE, Jammu vice Ramesh Kant Gupta.

Srinagar, September 24
The final touches are being given to the arrangements and creation of infrastructural facilities for cross-LoC trade on the Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkote routes.

Governor N.N. Vohra said holding a review meeting here last evening that the arrangements would be ready on the Uri-Muzaffarabad route by October 15 and on the Poonch-Rawalakote route by October-end. The meeting also reviewed various other important issues, including cases under the Public Safety Act.

While reviewing the arrangements for this year’s Haj pilgrimage, it was decided that the clearance of applications would not be withheld merely on the ground that a relative of the applicant was involved in militant activities. — TNS

Jammu, September 24
Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh has smelt foul play behind the deletion of nearly one lakh voters of Jammu district.

"Authenticity of data needs to be re-verified before the election authorities compile final figures," Harsh Dev Singh told mediapersons here today.

He said the Kashmir valley had 46 assembly constituencies compared to 37 in Jammu despite the fact that the latter has a bigger area and a larger population.

In the 2002 elections Jammu had 31 lakh voters and Kashmir 28.84 lakh voters, he said. However, six years on the number of voters should have gone up, but the election authorities deleted 94,000 voters from Jammu alone, he said.

“How is it possible that voters in Jammu have gone down in the past six years?” he asked.

Figures were being fudged with an ulterior motive to sabotage Jammu's long-standing demand for delimiting assembly constituencies, he added.

It may be recalled here that Jammu had 2.25 lakh more voters than those in the Kashmir valley in the 2001 Census.

Harsh Dev Singh also accused Governor N.N. Vohra of doling out sops to the Kashmir valley at the expense of the Jammu region.

"All 10 bridges for which funds have been released by the Governor fall in the Kashmir valley," he said, adding that similarly the roads, health and education sectors in Jammu had been given a raw deal.

Alleging administrative inertia and red tape the Panthers Party leader urged the Governor to convene a meeting of political parties to review developmental schemes and take the feedback about the functioning of the bureaucratic set-up.

Phagwari-Mandi (Poonch), September 24
At a time when the state government thinks big of introducing information technology in higher secondary schools, it is not able to reconstruct even a school building, which collapsed two years back.

Heavy snowfall and winds damaged the building of Government Primary School, Phagwari, in 2006 and since then the students have been studying in houses of villagers.

One of the two teachers of the school, asking not to be named, confirmed the apathetic attitude of the authorities.

Besides studies, the school records and infrastructure, including furniture, have been housed in the houses, the teacher added.

“We urged the state government to reconstruct the building but nothing happened. The students suffer especially during rainy season and snowfall,” he said.

“When the government didn’t pay any attention, we requested the locals to allow us to run classes in their houses and house our record and furniture. To which they allowed us access and that too free of cost,” the teacher said.

Few months back, the government on its part gave a tent to run the school. “But it is not possible to run the classes in a single tent,” the teacher said.

Village sarpanch Ghulam Muhammad said they had raised the matter during the visit of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to the area by putting up banners, demanding reconstruction of school building, but without success.

“We raised the issue with the Education Department and district administration many a times but they say that they will get the building reconstructed only after they get funds,” the sarpanch said.

Paramjit Singh, chief education officer, Poonch, confirmed that the school building collapsed in 2006-2007 and was not reconstructed since then.

“We don’t have funds to reconstruct the school building. As soon as we get funds we will reconstruct the building,” the CEO claimed. But the department has given a tent to the school.

Jammu, September 24
As the third and the final cut-off list for various post graduation courses by Jammu University (JU) was displayed on Tuesday, students who did not make it turned to the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for pursuing further studies.

Even though the DDE does not have extensive range of courses, students are going by the old adage — ‘something is better than nothing’.

“Against all hopes, my 50 per cent marks could not secure my name in any of the lists. So I am weighing options available with the DDE or IGNOU,” said graduate Ankit Mahajan.

“The biggest plus with the DDE and IGNOU is that one can continue studies and simultaneously do part time job. Both the institutions provide study material which is another boon for the students,”  he added.

The DDE is providing two-year post graduation courses in English, Hindi, Urdu, sociology, LLB academics, MCom and three-year course in MSc fishery. Also, it is offering several short-term courses like post graduation course in business management, English Improvement Certificate Course and Certificate Course in Urdu besides B.Ed and M.Ed.

“The dates for admission have been set in such a way that students may get ample time to get enrolled with the DDE provided they don’t get admission in JU or any of its associated campus,” said DDE director, Rajeev Gupta.

“Admission process commenced on September 17 and would last till October 4. But aspiring students can submit their forms till October 10 with nominal late fee of Rs 50,” he added.

Responding to thin choice over range of subjects, Gupta said they have been imparting education in various graduation level courses also which mounts pressure on existing facilities with the institution.

“Being the only subject in social sciences, as many as 2,100 students pursuing their post graduation in sociology through the DDE,” Gupta disclosed and maintained that subjects would be added in the existing list in a phased manner.

“Next year we are going to introduce Dogri as part of programme consolidation,” he stated.

“At present IGNOU is offering 17 post graduation courses in different subjects,” said Regional Director, KK Bhat, and added that the institution is also holding various professional courses like MBA with specialisation courses and Masters in Tourism Management (MTM) besides various other specialisation courses.

“We hold admission twice in a year. The admission for January session started on September 1 and would last till October 31,” he informed.

Udhampur, September 24
Following complaints of people, Deputy commissioner Ramban A.D. Shanas accompanied by senior officers today conducted surprise checking of various government officers at Banihal and issued show-cause notices of half a dozen officers who were found absent.

During his tour, the deputy commissioner conducted surprise checking of Government School Hali Maidan, Banihal, which was found locked at 11:30 am. Though a large number of students were roaming on the premises of the institution, office of the school was locked. The deputy commissioner directed Banihal tehsildar Jatinder Mishra to take appropriate action against the absentee teachers and other staff members.

As there were reports of large-scale bungling and mismanagement in Emergency Hospital, Banihal, the deputy commissioner also inspected the hospital and recommended action against the staff, which was not present on their duty. He also inspected wards and directed the authorities to take some effective steps to provide better medical facilities to the people.

Shanas also conducted surprise inspection of Government Degree College, Banihal, Government Higher Secondary School, CDPO office, BDO office, ZEO office and office of Tehsil Social Welfare Officer, Banihal.

During the inspection, in charge principal of Government Degree College, Banihal, and CDPO, Banihal, were found absent. Later, it was found that the officers had gone on some official assignment, but no movement register was there to show their tour programme.

The DC directed the Banihal tehsildar to conduct proper inquiry into the matter and furnish report about the whereabouts of the officers.

Udhampur, September 24
Although the PDP has publicly declared that the situation is not conducive for holding the assembly elections in time, its leaders have silently started campaign in hill areas of Jammu province. After touring the border district of Rajouri, PDP leaders have kicked off campaign in the mountainous belt of Kishtwar and Doda districts.

Former ministers Mohammad Dilawar Mir, Peer Mohammad Hussain, accompanied by MLC Ved Mahajan, addressed meetings of party workers at Kishtwar and exhorted them to spread policies and programmes of the party at the grassroot level to frustrate "vicious" propaganda of adversaries.

After the Jammu agitation, this was the first tour of PDP leaders in this belt which witnessed communal clashes during the stir. Being at the centre of the Amarnath land controversy, the PDP continued to face criticism over its role on the issue.

While addressing the meeting party leaders sought to remove misconception from the minds of the people. Instead of touching the emotive issues, PDP leaders highlighted the achievements of three-year rule of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Party leaders urged the Union Government to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir to address the internal and external dimensions of the problem. Highlighting the problems being faced by the inhabitants of these hill areas, they reminded the people that many revolutionary steps were taken by the Mufti government for their uplift.

PDP leaders have reasons to start the election campaign from the hill areas of Jammu division as the party has devised a strategy to concentrate only on the Muslim majority constituency of this region.

Keeping in view the anger of the people, the party has decided to utilise all its energy on the seats won by the National Conference in the 2002 assembly elections in the Jammu region.

The party leadership has realised that as winning seats from Jammu, Samba, Udhampur and Kathua districts is very difficult, it has been utilising its energy on Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts.

Party leaders are aware that to keep the NC away from power, it is necessary to snatch maximum seats from the NC in the Jammu region. Before the eruption of the turmoil over land row, the party had chalked out a strategy with its erstwhile coalition partner, Congress, to win maximum seats in Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Ramban and Doda districts. 

Jammu, September 24
Despite the Migrant Immovable Properties (preservation, protection and restriction on distress sales) Act, 1997, various leaders of Pandit organisations have alleged that during the past over 10 years, the government had neither checked displaced families going in for distress sale of their immovable property nor unauthorised occupation of their land and houses nor forcible grabbing.

Panun Kashmir leaders, including Kuldeep Raina, said temple land belonging to them had been encroached upon. In support of his contention, Raina referred to the Gori Shankar temple land in Srinagar and another in Safapora in north Kashmir. He said big chunks of these temple land had been allegedly grabbed by a land mafia, active in Kashmir.

While referring to the temple land at Safapora, Raina said years before migration, two kanals was given by the government for building a temple. He said a portion of the temple land had been grabbed by some anti-social elements.

Srinagar, September 24
CPM’s state secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has said due to scarcity of essentials in remote and hilly areas, consumers have been put to great inconvenience and hardships. He said in these areas, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) retail outlets were dry that had created havoc and panic among the consumers.

Tarigami has urged the government to make necessary arrangements for dispatching the essential commodities in all remote areas. He said the CAPD Department should be activated with its men and machinery put to practice for rushing the essentials in the areas wherever needed.