Jammu, November 30
Former union minister and senior leader of the BJP Chaman Lal Gupta has expressed shock over the statement of former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah for absolving Pakistan for creating terror in Mumbai.

The authorities in that country stand answerable for the crime against humanity as the strong proofs suggest that the militants had come from Pakistan.

Inaugurating his election office at Bakshi Nagar in the Jammu west Assembly constituency, professor Gupta said mere resignation of home minister Shiv Raj Patil would not suffice as the entire ruling leadership and their mysteriously soft policies were responsible for the rise of terrorism in the country.

The BJP leader ridiculed the claims of progress and prosperity by former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi and other Congress leaders. He said, “The spate of agitation by the suffering people especially unemployed youth shows that the Congress-led coalition government was incompetent and irresponsible.”

Gupta regretted that Rs 1,470 crore earmarked for sewerage and Rs 580 crore allocated for improving drinking water supplies in package sent by the Prime Minister was not spent on these projects.

He also accused the Congress by saying, “There have been registered over 70,000 militants related cases during the past years in which more than 30,000 accused were hauled up but almost all of them were let off and there was not a single case in which any of the terrorist, including Pakistanis and other foreigners, were provided exemplary punishment.”

Jammu, November 30
NC president Omar Abdullah today promised that if voted to power he would remove inter-region and intra-region disparities so as to ensure an equitable distribution of resources among all regions and sub-regions of the state.

Addressing series of meetings at Gool-Arnas and Gulabgarh constituencies, Omar said the far-flung areas of the state had been neglected by the erstwhile PDP-Congress government and hence they needed special emphasis and focus for their integrated development.

Omar said the NC was committed to the welfare of the people of these areas and would continue to strive to improve their socio-economic conditions.

However, he felt that India and Pakistan must initiate substantive confidence building measures to ensure peace in the sub-continent.

While the NC will continue to work for better bilateral relations between India and Pakistan for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, the NC is committed to address the day-to-day issues of the common man in the state and find redressal to his grievances on immediate priority, he said.

He said if voted to power the NC would not only ensure employment avenues within the state but also get the PSUs, the Government of India undertakings and the paramilitary forces to launch a special recruitment drive for the people.

The party will re-start the process of recruitment of youth in the Police Department by sending the DGP to the remote areas as was being done in the previous NC government, he added.

He said the party would also lower the qualification bar for appointment of constables in the Police Department and Class IV category to middle pass and not matriculation, as had been the case during the erstwhile Congress-PDP government.

After coming to power we would also decentralise the process of governance to the panchayat level and would hold elections to all panchayats and fully support them to discharge their functions as envisaged in the Panchayati Raj Act, enacted by the National Conference Government in 1989, he asserted.

He said his party would empower the women folk by providing representation to them in panchayats and promised that the minimum wages would raised from Rs 70 to Rs 150 per day for the labourers so as to improve their living condition besides subsidising electricity tariff and LPG.

Meanwhile, addressing election rallies in Billawar for party candidate Romy Khajuria today, senior NC leader Kashmira Singh assured the people that the party was committed to empowering the fair sex and providing job avenues to the youth.

In a bid to woo voters he said after coming to power, the NC would enhance the old age pension, hike the wages of daily labourers, besides subsidising electricity tariff and LPG.

Addressing public meetings in the Chatha and Mishriwalla areas of the Gandhi Nagar and Raipur Domana assembly constituencies, Jammu province women wing president Bimla Luthra claimed that the party had conceived a vision document to do away with poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, backwardness, lack of infrastructure, unemployment, disease and other bottlenecks in the road to progress of the state.

Jammu, November 30
There is a widespread anxiety and anger among migrated Kashmir Pandit (KP) voters as the numbers of Kashmir Pandit migrant voters registered with the state election commission has drastically come down from 1,26,000 to 73,000 voters in the previous state Assembly elections.

Many voters have blamed the election commission for deliberately deleting their numbers. Vir Saraf, election in charge of the displaced Kashmir Pandit community, said: “My name has been deleted like scores of others from the voters’ list. It is a calculated plan to reduce the mandate of Kashmir Pandits.”

The deletion of names from voters’ list is not the only reason, but the cumbersome process of postal ballot is also responsible for a sizable cut down in the numbers.

Moti Kaul, vice-president of state BJP unit from Kashmir province said: “In other places where candidates concentrate on electioneering, here the candidates has to bother on many fronts to facilitate postal ballot to the displaced Kashmir Pandits living outstation where the facility of booth is not available.”

Kaul said he had to find out their addresses, send 12-C form, which was mandatory for postal ballot, to those voters. Once he received the filled forms, he then get them verified and attested from gazetted officer and then made sure if the candidates had been able to cast their votes or not.

He said: “We simply demanded a general voter-cum-identity card to be issued to the voters so that they can easily cast their vote.”

Not everyone bothered to check the facts from the state election office as this year many migrant Kashmiri Pandit voters remained confused till late if the mandatory Migrant form, popularly known as M form, was required or not to cast their vote, Sweety Kaul, a candidate from the Shangus constituency, said.

In country where only 50-60 per cent voters exercise their franchise despite all facilities, it is quite understandable that the numbers would further reduce if the process gets complicated, she added.

Refuting all allegations, Vinod Kaul, who is the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner and also handles the affairs of migrated Kashmiri Pandits, said: “Same names are deleted to prevent delicacy of the voters. But if it is done by mistake, then voters can reapply again through F-6 forms. Moreover, all forms are available on Internet.”

It is a rather strange situation here. Chenani Assembly segment - a part of Udhampur district that goes to poll during the fourth phase of polling in the state - has no local candidates.

Rarely does a candidate travel across the length and breadth of the constituency prior to the polls and the elected representative is almost in a self-imposed “banvas” after getting elected.

It is therefore not strange that the constituency has elected representatives from different parties from time to time. In fact, if the voters here were given an opportunity to caste a negative vote, there would be more votes against candidates than in their favour.

The only reserve constituency in Udhampur and Reasi districts, Chenani gained a constituency status after the 1977 delimitation and got reserved for SCs in 1996.

The seat was held by the Congress in 1977 and 1987, while an independent won from here in 1983, the BJP in 1996 and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panther’s Party (JKNPP) in 2002.

Since, sitting JKNPP MLA Faquir Nath too has hardly visited the constituency as he should have, a new face will be no surprise.

Located about 10 km from Udhampur and 15 km from Manwal on the Dhar road, Chenani cries for development.

The sitting MLA if from Jammu (Gho Manasha), BJP’s candidate Dina Nath Bhagat and Congress candidate Krishan Bhagat, BSP’s Master Bhagat are all from Udhampur.

“The MLA is not available, when we need him, why should we even vote for him again”, questions Vijay Kumar, local resident.

In the absence of any direct impact of terrorism in the area, much of which is in the Kandi belt of the Jammu region, inflation and development are the two main issues before the people.

Last time the seat was won by the JKNPP due to the influence of Ramnagar MLA Harshdev Singh in the area, but this time people are not really interested in listening to promises.

In fact the result of the poll here could be quite unexpected as none of the candidates is from Chenani and neither is a popular leader.

General-secretary of the BSP for Kashmir and Ladhak B.L Raina said his party was hoping to win this seat, as this reserve constituency would poll on the basis of caste and the BSP candidate tended to benefit from that.

Party supreme Mayawati is expected to address a rally in Udhampur this week to boost poll prospects of the candidates from Udhampur and Reasi districts, he said.

Chenani was in news recently after recruits from the Bihar police alleged sexual harassment at the BSF Training Centre located here.

The issue brought the area into national focus, but still there was no development and the hopes of the people dies along with the issue.

Most people at the Roundmail crossing in the heart of the constituency alleged negligence on the part of the sitting MLA with Ramesh Kumar alleging that the MLA was hardly ever seen in the constituency during the past five years.

Juda (Arnas), November 30
On the west side of the road connecting Reasi with Mahore is a small village called “Juda”, inhabited by the members of both Hindu and Muslim communities.

The most remarkable thing about this village is that members of both communities live together in harmony.

The village has 55 per cent Muslims and 45 per cent Hindus, it is an example of tolerance, communal harmony and secularism for the whole state.

After the eruption of militancy in this belt in the year 1998, terrorists made every possible attempt to execute massacre of the Hindu minority community here but at every crucial step their Muslim brethren came to their protection.

Juda is one of the few villages in the state where there is a mixed village defence committee (VDC) comprising more than 200 members.

In most of the other parts, only members of the minority Hindu community have constituted the VDCs, but in Juda, the Muslims picked up arms to protect each and every member of their village irrespective of religion or caste.

“After infamous Prankot massacre in April 1998, fear psychosis gripped the Hindus and they thought of migrating to safer places.

At that time Muslims came forward and took the responsibility of protecting their Hindu brethren”, recalls Ghulam Rasool, Sarpach of this village, adding that, “Our Hindu brothers were quite nervous and were feeling insecure after Prankot and Dhakikot killings but their fear psychosis was soon removed”.

Not only militants, even politicians tried to divide inhabitants of this village for their petty political gains but their nefarious designs were also frustrated by the villagers.

It was heartening to observe that youth of this village were discussing problems of drinking water, non-availability of adequate staff in schools and health centres, while their counterparts in other areas of this belt were only concerned about candidates of their own communities.

“Juda is an example as to how one should live in the face of terrorism and live in harmony,” Jagdish Raj said.

No doubt, inhabitants of this village are supporting different political parties but they never allow politicians to divide them on party lines.

“For us politics is secondary. Our one and foremost priority in development of our village and protection of every family here”, Mohammad Ishaq, a lecturer residing in this village said.

Like other villages of the neglected belt of Reasi district, this village too lacks basic amenities like schools and health facilities.

And most important of all, the inhabitants of this village have been confronting acute scarcity of drinking water, despite being the fact that it is located on the bank of the Chenab.

Udhampur, November 30
Lack of development in picturesque Bhaderwah town, native place of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, is becoming a big issue in the ongoing elections process.

Despite having a huge tourism potential, the area has been, so far, neglected by the successive state governments.

While Ghulam Nabi Azad has blamed his predecessors for neglecting Bhaderwah at the cost of the Kashmir valley, the opposition lambasted Azad for not paying attention towards his native place during his tenure as the Chief Minister.

NC candidate Mohammad Aslam Goni at his public meetings is blaming Azad for the negligence of the area. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has also assailed Azad for his failure to develop his hometown.

Sheikh Muhammad Shafi, SP candidate, Bhaderwah segment, said the former Chief Minister had failed to come up to the expectations of the general masses, especially living in the far-flung areas of Bhaderwah tehsil.

Sheikh said despite having highest literacy rate in the state, the unemployment had reached to an alarming stage in the tehsil.

Sheikh said Azad had failed to uplift the socio-economic condition of the people, who were still lacking the basic amenities of life.

“This time all such forces will get a befitting reply from the electorates”, he said adding that people would no more digest the false promises being made to them by Congress and NC leaders at the time of elections.

“These leaders appear at the elections time in Bhaderwah and then disappear for the entire six years, leaving people at the mercy of God,” he added.

He said the Congress and the PDP created a mess with their policies, most of which were against the interests of public and the state.

The unholy alliance, he alleged, had worsened the developmental scenario in the far-flung areas of the state.

He said the successive governments, which had worsened the developmental scenario in the area, had neglected the people of this constituency.

Kupwara, November 30
The calls of boycott had never struck a chord in backward and mountainous district of Kupwara in the past, but it appeared today that its five constituencies wanted to go one up on the previous turnout figures.

The only significant jarring note against the elections came from Trehgam, ancestral place of the state Liberation Front’s founding member Maqbool Butt, who was hanged in the Tihar jail in 1984, where security forces had to use force to disperse an anti-election crowd.

“We will never let down the sacrifice of Maqbool,” a middle-aged woman, Fatima, cried as a posse of people around her chanted “azaadi” slogans. But a vast swathes of the district largely resonated with polling fervour.

At Kulangam in Handwara, an unending stream of voters turned up and the scene was repeated at many places.

The difference between Kupwara, which at 53 per cent polled more than any district in Kashmir in the 2002 elections, and Bandipora and Ganderbal, two other districts in the valley having voted so far, was in the zest among voters.

While voters at many places in the previous two phases were discreet due to small but noisy bunch of separatists around, there was no such consideration in Kupwara.

The NC, which had virtually swept the district by winning four of the five seats last time round with one seat going to an independent, is facing a more determined opposition and at many places some previously hardcore NC voters were rallying for the PDP.

The candidature of Shabnam Lone, daughter of slain separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone and Supreme Court lawyer, helped in bringing out a large number of people with sympathies with separatist cause.

And it was evident that appeals of her two brothers- Bilal Lone and Sajad Lone- for boycott had not many takers, as separatists had found so far in Kashmir.

Kupwara, November 30
Politicians reneging on their promises after being elected do not deter a 113- year- old man from casting vote in every election, which has been held in the state.

Haji Ghulam Ahmad of Wudhpura village in this frontier district is hoping that one day a candidate will be elected from his constituency who will keep his promise.

“They (MLAs) cheat the public as they do not fulfil their promises made during the elections campaign. But I am voting in the hope that one day we will find a representative who will work for us, the people of the constituency and not just for himself,” said Ahmad after casting vote.

The centurion, who has been witness to many historic events in the state, said exercising the franchise was better than abstaining or boycotting the polls.

“Definitely, there are advantages of having an elected government. At least there
is some development work undertaken a year or two before the elections are due,”
he added.

He was not the only centurion to come out early for casting vote. In the Lolab constituency, 110-year-old Alam Din also exercised his franchise.

He is still fit and walked into the polling station and accepted the courtesy extended by other voters in allowing him to cast vote ahead of others.

Din said everyone should vote, as it was the only opportunity when an ordinary person’s choice can lead to a change. — PTI

“I voted two times today, many people here did it. We didn’t get money to vote, but it is the question of dignity,” says Shabnam, a teenager.

Srinagar, November 30
The Army has ordered an internal inquiry into the alleged custodial killing of Ghulam Hassan Malla in Shopian district, army sources said today.

Meanwhile, the police registered a case against some personnel of 62 Rashtriya Rifles unit for allegedly killing Malla in custody, the sources said.

The death of Malla, who was arrested by troops two days back, sparked violent protests in Shopian district yesterday, prompting the authorities to impose a curfew which was subsequently lifted in the evening.

Condemning the alleged custodial killing of a civilian in Shopian district, the state CPM has demanded action against "those responsible" for his death.

"We demand stern action against the security personnel responsible for the killing of an innocent youth yesterday," state unit secretary M.Y. Tarigami said in a statement here. — PTI

Jammu, November 30
The Sangarsh and Progressive Students Association (PSA) on Friday kicked off an “awareness campaign” against the alleged “irrelevant” elevation of director, Centre for Quality Assurance and Strategic Planning (CQASP), undermining the administrative and academic positions in Jammu University.

Activists of both organisations distributed pamphlets among students and discussed with them current issues.

Executive member of the Sangarsh Vikrant Sharma alleged that for the past six months, they were highlighting the defunct nature and anomalies in the functioning of the CQASP.

The pamphlets distributed by the organisations maintained that campus was overshadowed by academic disorder, inefficient examination evaluation system, rising level of corruption, back door appointments and lack of basic infrastructure.

It was also stated in the pamphlets that the Sangarsh had been demanding for judicial probe into the working of the CQASP since long against the backdrop of the mushrooming B.Ed Colleges in the region.

PSA president Rahul appealed to the student community of campus to join hands to weed out the ills prevailing in the varsity.

Both organisations have appealed to the Chancellor to immediately intervene and set up a judicial inquiry into the working of the CQASP and the Directorate of Colleges Development, besides immediate suspension of the new order that places the CQASP above the administrative and academic departments of the university.

Meanwhile, reports said both student leaders, Vikrant and Rahul, had been booked following a complained filed by the Dean Student Welfare.

The DSW has accused them of creating disturbance on the campus, Muddasir Latifi, SP South said.

Jammu, November 30
A Pakistani national, apparently under the influence of drugs, crossed over to India on his motorbike and was arrested by the BSF in RS Pura sector in Jammu region.

The man, who identified himself as 31-year-old Omar Farooq, was apprehended on Friday evening near Chenaz border outpost, a BSF spokesman said here yesterday.

Farooq told his interrogators that he was a resident of Bori Mohalla village in Sialkot district of Pakistan, the spokesman said.

Preliminary investigations showed that Farooq was under the influence of drugs and had inadvertently crossed over to India, the spokesman said.

The Pak national was later handed over to the police for further questioning. — PTI

Jammu, November 30
Officials of the paramilitary forces have expressed concern over the increasing cases of HIV/AIDS in the forces and said they were taking various steps to control the spread of the disease.

According to the official figures in the past few years, a tremendous increase in these cases has been noticed in the paramilitary forces, including the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

“We have taken various measures to check the spread of the disease amongst jawans of the BSF,” said inspector-general BSF A.K. Surollia.

He said though the disease had not been spread at an alarming proportion amongst the jawans posted in the state, various measures, including lectures and counselling sessions, were being taken to bring awareness amongst them.

However, on the condition of anonymity, a doctor of the AIDS Control Society said the rate of the disease was spreading at an alarming rate amongst the jawans of the paramilitary forces, who had been deployed in insurgency-hit areas and rarely got chance to visit their families. He

further said the jawans usually avail the service of sex workers, resulting in the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, officials of the CRPF also expressed concern over its increasing rate and to curb the disease are providing HIV testing kits to every unit of the CRPF.

A senior CRPF official said they had organised various medical camps last year to discuss the important health problems like stress management, hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks and HIV/AIDS.

Jammu, November 30
A local court here today acquitted a Pakistani national accused in the 1995 Jammu bomb blast, which left two dead and injured over 35 persons.

The additional sessions judge M.L Manhas, also directed the police to release him from the jail as the prosecution failed to frame charges against him in the case.

Snaullah, resident of Sialkote in Pakistan, was taken into custody after one Karam Chand, who was being investigated in a different case, indicated his involvement into the bomb-blast case which took place at the Shalimar road near Central Bank on July 26, 1995.

The prosecution contended that Snaullah had admitted his complicity in different explosions, including the one that took place on the Shalimar road, before the judicial magistrate on May 21, 1998.

However, the additional judge, after hearing both sides, observed that the prosecution witnesses have not been able to put forth in their evidence to inspire confidence in the court. — PTI

The order had been for awarding contracts to ‘A’ category contractors from lower limit of Rs 2 lakh to over Rs 40 lakh.