Srinagar, February 1
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that easing of security restrictions and making the police solely responsible for law and order situation in Srinagar city had been well-taken by the public and this would be extended to other areas in a phased manner.

He was speaking at a function organised to distribute relief among the militancy-affected families here. He said even on Republic Day this year people did not complain about any security-related problem.

The Chief Minister handed over the appointment letters to 18 persons of Srinagar district under SRO-43 and distributed relief cheques worth Rs 4 lakh each among 111 persons of the district in lieu of the appointments under the said SRO. He also handed over cheques amounting to Rs 1 lakh each to 13 persons as ex gratia while Rs 75,000 were provided to a person injured in a militancy-related incident.

The Chief Minister said by providing appointment or relief to the families, who have lost their dear ones to militancy, could not make the good of the precious loss of human lives but it may convey the government’s sense of sympathy and care towards the affected people.

The Chief Minister said the objective behind providing relief was to fulfil major promise of the government. 

Udhampur, February 1
As the police has gained upper hand against militants in the erstwhile Doda district, victims of terrorism are coming forward to lodge their complaints against those gunmen who have meted out atrocities on them.

The people have been providing information to the police about the presence of militants, and women, who bore maximum brunt of the terrorists, are also coming forward to narrate their tale of woes.

Some days ago, a victim, Fatima Begum came forward to break all relations with her husband with whom she was forcibly married by HuJI self-styled commander Sher Khan.

After killing of Sher Khan, she returned to her parents and refused to live with her husband.

Similarly, Shah Bano Begum, wife of Mohammad Shafi Gujjars, has lodged a complaint with the police that she was being exploited mentally and physically a group of Laskher-e-Toiba (LeT) militants active in Doda district.

She has registered a complaint at the Bhaderwah police station of Doda district yesterday alleging that for the last one year, she was being sexually exploited by some militants of the Lashkar outfit.

The victim has further alleged that the LeT militants, Imtiyaz, alias Abu Saad, along with his accomplices Ashiq, alias Abu Umair, Ashraf, alias Abu Jehadi, Muddasir Ahmad Butt of Upper Dandi and Abu Akasha, alias Khalid of Pakistan, used to visit her house in the absence of her husband and rape her.

Police sources said militants had physically exploited a number of women at gunpoint in erstwhile Doda district. A senior police officer, while pointing towards recent killings of some commanders of the terrorist outfits, said it was all due to the local support that the forces had eliminated these commanders.

Jammu, February 1
The influx of counterfeit currency notes in Jammu has the city residents as also the traders in a spot, as they are having a tough time identifying fake currency.

Even the bank employees managing cash counters also look at a currency note two or three times to verify its authenticity, particularly in the case of currency notes of a higher denomination like Rs 500 or Rs 1,000. "Surprisingly, not every bank staff member can identify fake currency. Recently when I deposited cash in a bank the woman on the counter gave a few Rs 500 notes to a colleague to check their genuineness," said Arun Gupta, a trader.

"The other day a person handed me over a fake Rs 100 note as the street on which I was selling vegetables was not properly lit," rued Subhash, a vegetable vendor in Nanak Nagar. "It has become quite common for a trader or a filling station attendant to look at a currency note with doubt before accepting it. Earlier, I would get irritated, but I have got used to it over the past few months," said Varinder Kumar, a private firm employee.

Associated Chamber of Traders Federation president Yashpal Gupta said the police should initiate strict measures in border areas like Nowshera and Rajouri to curb the inflow of fake currency notes as it was difficult to keep a check on fake currency once it entered the market.

Regarding measures the police is taking to curb the smuggling of fake currency, Jammu zone IGP K Rajindera said: " We have meetings with the RBI from time to time to identify channels and sources, besides ways to curb it.

" Apparently hinting at Pakistan, he said a lot of fake currency was coming from across the border. They are pumping in as much fake currency as they can to various militant tanzeems operating in the state. Also, there are unscrupulous elements here as well who are into this activity for different reasons. We have busted such groups on various occasions," he added.

He said certain banks were educating their customers about differentiating between genuine and fake currency by putting up posters. He, however, added that there had been cases where fake currency looked strikingly similar to the genuine one.

Only a few days ago the Jammu police arrested a youth with 21 fake Rs 100 notes. The police also seized from him a printer used to make counterfeit notes. In another case, the police yesterday nabbed three persons and seized fake currency notes worth Rs 16,000 at Handwara (Kupwara) in the Kashmir valley.

Udhampur, February 1
Buoyed over joining of some prominent leaders in the party, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has stepped up attacks on the NC-Congress coalition for befooling the gullible masses by making false promises.

Party leaders pointed out that joining of prominent political figures in the party was a clear indication that people had realised that only the PDP could protect wishes and aspirations of the people in the state.

Addressing a function, which was organised here today to felicitate newly elected MLAs of the party from Jammu region, the PDP leaders observed that the ruling coalition had made a scores of promises to the people during the elections, but after attaining the power, the new dispensation adopting delay tactics in fulfilling these promises.

PDP general secretary Daman Bhasin said both the NC and the Congress had promised to implement recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission if voted to power.

“Government employees are agitating on streets but the coalition regime is adopting oppressive measures to suppress the ongoing stir of the employees,” he regretted and warned the government that the PDP would not remain as mute spectator to the hardship being faced by the employees. He asked the ruling government to implement the pay commission recommendations as early as possible to mitigate hardship of the employees.

Ridiculing claims of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to bring radical change in the administration within 100 days, the PDP leader said: “Miseries of the common masses have compounded after the formation of the new dispensation.”

Party MLA from Darhal Choudhary Zulfikar pointed out that the NC had promised to provide stipend to all unemployed youth of the state but nothing concrete had been done so far.

PDP leader regretted that the new coalition regime in the state had so far failed to impress the common masses. “Instead of formulating policies for the people, both Congress and NC leaders are more concerned about grabbing political posts to rehabilitate their activists,” he added.

Exhorting the party workers to oppose anti-people policies of the ruling coalition, he asserted that the PDP had secured more votes than the NC in the valley and the party had enough strength to keep a check on the misdeeds of the new dispensation.

Srinagar, February 1
Security forces today gunned down three militants, unidentified so far but suspected to be from LeT, in a daylong encounter in the forests of Handwara.

Official sources said the successful encounter was a result of their ongoing meticulous combing operation in these mountainous and inhospitable areas as militants hiding in a natural cave fired upon an advancing party of 21 Rashtriya Rifles who were on a patrol.

The fist bullets were fired at around 7.30 am and the gunfight continued till evening as militants situated at an advantageous height managed to hold out for hours. Police officials, who later joined the fight, said at least two of the militants appear to be outsiders and were using the hideout, perched in a snowbound area at a height of 2700 metres in Wadarbala forest, for a long period. The police said they were all likely to be from LeT which has strong presence in the area.

Three AK rifles, nine magazines, eight hand grenades, one pistol and large amount of logistical items, including eatables, were recovered from the cave, an official spokesperson said.

Sources said they had often discovered packets of eatables items in the forest during their patrol and it was obvious that militants were putting up there off and on. “We had intensified our operations and finally met with success today,” an official said.

Only two days back, a Pakistani militant of LeT was killed in Handwara and the entire north Kashmir has seen a spurt in counter-militancy operations. Two militants, including a senior Jaish-e-Mohammad commander, were killed in Bandipore on January 28 while a LeT commander was killed in Sopore on the same day.

Meanwhile, another militant killed in Bandipore has been identified as a Sopore youth who had been missing for months. The police named him Afaque Ahmad Bhat who operated under the codename of Shakil. Upon identification, his body was exhumed and handed over to his family.

Jammu, February 1
Even as the state government want to bring the “flawed” J&K RTI Act, 2004, on a par with the central legislation, the civil society here felt that before taking up another amendment Bill in the state Cabinet and debating it in state legislature, the government should put it on its official website inviting suggestions so as to see a foolproof Act in place.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must ensure that before going ahead with another amendment Bill, he gets a wider public opinion from eminent lawyers, RTI crusaders, academicians, social activists and journalists, said Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat, convener of the J&K RTI movement.

The Bill with a deadline for inviting suggestions should be put on official website, viz, www.jkgad.nic.in so as to remove remaining lacunae and come up with an Act, which in turn ensured transparency and accountability in the system, he added.

“We saw it in January last year when previous coalition government amended the J&K RTI Act, 2004. Though amendment made the Act a bit stronger, it still remains weaker than the Central legislation,” he said.

Peeved over the “flawed” state RTI Act, Dr Bhat had filed an appeal in 2007 and the high court had treated it as a PIL.

The RTI Act is for the common people and they should be consulted. It would be a real example of e-governance and by such methods we can transform electoral democracy into participatory democracy, said Anirudh Sharma, a law student.

Former Education Minister and sitting Panthers Party legislator Harsh Dev Singh also sees nothing wrong in adhering to the practise.

If the government wants to fulfil its promise of providing transparent, accountable and efficient governance to the people than I see nothing wrong in putting up the amendments on official website, said Harsh.

Former Jammu Bar Association president Advocate BS Salathia while echoing similar views said though there had been no other extra constitutional authority than the state legislature to decide on laws, in a bid to seek wider public opinion the Bill could be put on official website.

Law Secretary AH Kochak said the suggestion could be considered.

Jammu, February 1
Unemployed educated youth of the region are hopeful that the newly elected government would keep its promise and provide employment to them.

“Now we will see how far the new Chief Minister and his government fulfil its promise of providing employment to the youth of the state. The unemployed youth is facing various hardships due to the menace of unemployment,” Pawan Kumar of Jammu said.

“A social stigma was attached with unemployment and people don’t see unemployed youth in good light,” Sandeep Singh, a local resident, said.

The unemployed youth here said after spending so much of money on their studies, they were forced to do petty jobs. They blame the successive state governments for their failure for devising a comprehensive plan to absorb them in various departments of the state governments.

“There are thousands of vacancies in various government departments of the state, however, the previous state governments failed to come with a resolve to fill those vacancies. Now with the coming of new government, we have kept our hopes high,” said Mandeep Kumar, a local resident.

Srinagar, February 1
Even as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has recently got Central sanction for opening 11 new colleges,40 others opened by the previous government have failed to serve the purpose owing to lack of infrastructure .

During his recent visit to New Delhi, the Chief Minister met Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh and obtained sanction for the new colleges in the educationally backward areas of the state. The Centre has also assured him of setting up of one central university and one Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the state. This followed the sanction for establishment of 18 new polytechnics.

The opening of the new degree colleges has been welcomed by the senior officials of the University of Kashmir here. “If it is along with the requisite infrastructure, it would be of great help to expand the educational scenario across the state,” said S Fayaz Ahmad, registrar, University of Kashmir.

He pointed out that the setting up of the colleges depended more on the facilities of physical and human resources infrastructure. The University of Kashmir has expanded the ambit of educational system across the valley and the Ladakh region over the past some years. It has opened post-graduate courses in different degree colleges in the valley, including SP College and Women’s College, MA Road in Srinagar, and Anantnag Degree College in the south and Baramulla Degree College in the north. There are also south and north campuses of the university at Anantnag and Baramulla to relieve the Kashmir University campus of the increasing number of students and also providing post-graduate courses at their doorsteps.

Though at least 40 new colleges were established in the state between 2003 and 2007 during the Cong-PDP coalition government, the PDP is not happy with the fresh sanction for eleven colleges. Sources here said out of 40 colleges set up earlier, the physical infrastructure was under completion for only 15 colleges. The PDP general secretary and MLA, Nizamuddin Bhat said the decision to open new colleges was “unimaginative expansion and populist politics.”

“This may ultimately deteriorate the educational fabric in the state,” he said and stressed the need for strengthening the present infrastructure in the educational institutions and raise academic standards. He advocated the need for providing adequate physical and human resources infrastructure and curricular expansion of thee existing colleges.

Jammu, February 1
Jammu, the town of conservative values, is now opening up for glamour. The youth here is showing inclination to own up fashion as a career, but side-by-side, they prefer to complete their studies first to fall back upon for lean times.

Seeing the craze of youth for fashion in the city, Kaushik Ghosh, a renowned choreographer and model trainer from Delhi, has come here again to hold training workshop for the wannabe models.

“The workshop which runs for a week work upon the communication skills, body language, dressing style and other parameters required to be a successful model. The youngsters of the city lack the grooming to make it big in fashion world, though they are blessed with good looks,” says Ghosh.

This third annual workshop, which is being organised by ‘Chitrelok’, a local event management agency, promises to give a platform to the aspirants but not placements. “The budding models have to fight their own battles, but yes we give them a solid platform where they get to know all about fashion world. Because of established people like us, the youth here can differentiate between the frauds who cheat and mislead people in name of fashion and us who guide them the proper way to make it in competitive fashion industry,” adds Ghosh.

Two of his trainee models from Jammu who passed out in last year’s batch, Ricky and Shiv Dhruv, too were sitting beside him.

Ricky who is also doing BCA in Jammu aspires to become a successful model. He also did one fashion show in Delhi and came to know the world of difference. “We youngsters in Jammu are far behind than our counterparts in Delhi and Mumbai. Besides their outlook, they are much more broadminded than us. Here parents exercise lot of control on their grown up children, and emphasise on studies only. They do not allow them to have the exposure of outside world,” Ricky says.

Both Ricky and Dhruv are all set to walk the ramp for the ‘Chitrelok Fashion Fete’ in the city later in the evening where a bevy of top models, including TV host and DJ Barkha Kaul, Femina Miss India Personality 2008 Sangeeta, Vogue model Priyanka, Gladrags finalist Shubhra, Gladrags winner Abhishek and winner of Grasim India Jatin, will also participate.

Rajouri, February 1
Though Chief Minister Omar Abdullah seeks to introduce e-governance in the state, he does not seem to be aware of the staff crunch at the lower level. Sources in the district administration told The Tribune that 12 of the 16 niabats in this border district were without their boss (naib tehsildar) for quite some time now.

Naib tehsildar looks after the administrative affairs of the niabat to provide effective administration in these smallest administrative units. Apart from this, he also plays a vital role in providing good governance to the people at their doorstep.

Sources added that people of Rajouri, Koteranka, Sunderbani and Nowshera niabats are lucky enough to have a naib tehsildar whereas people living in the rest of the niabats have to suffer.

“We have to go to Koteranka for even getting income certificate issued. Since we are poor people we cannot afford to spend Rs 40 as fare to reach Koteranka from here”, rued Maulana Fareed, a resident of Buddhal area here.

“The Chief Minister may be thinking of introducing e-governance in the state, but the fact of the matter is that we don’t even have officials at the niabats level in Rajouri district”, said a source in the district administration. “Now that the concerned recruitment agency for naib tehsildars has declared the examination dates for the vacant posts throughout the state, we are hoping that situation will be normal soon”.

Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Rafiq told The Tribune that the shortage of the naib tehsildars is the entire state. Since the Service Selection Board has advertised the examination dates for conducting examination for recruiting naib tehsildars, the district administration here is hoping that it will get the requisite staff, he added.

Buddhal (Rajouri), February 1
In the remote and backward area of Buddhal, the Rural Development Department (RDD) has issued BPL certificates to government employees who have a five-figure income.

Since the department concerned has issued BPL certificates to some government employees, they are availing the benefits of such document, including ration, at a cheaper price.

Reliable sources in the department here told The Tribune that the authorities here had issued BPL certificates to more than a dozen government employees mostly from the Education Department. They added that by issuing BPL certificates to government employees, the department has shifted the benefits of such certificates away from poor and deserving people.

Sources further disclosed that the RDD had issued such certificates to the government employees from Buddhal, Kewal, Samhote, and Gabbar area. They said the persons possessing such certificates had mainly managed such documents by bribing the RDD officials.

“The RDD has issued BPL certificates to some government employees in Buddhal area. The certificates are issued by the block development officer (BDO) concerned after verification report by the village-level worker (gram sewak) of the village concerned. In case of such certificates, the nexus between the RDD officials and the beneficiary government employees cannot be ruled out,” a senior officer in the district administration said.

Senior NC leader Abdul Rehmaan Bhat said on many occasions they had taken up the matter with the district administration, but the later had failed to do anything. The Rajouri Deputy Commissioner, while admitting that there may be discrepancies in the BPL list, promised that such list will be revised.

Jammu, February 1
Thirteen government employees of different departments were suspended after they were found absent from their duty in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district, official sources said here today.

''During a surprise visit yesterday, Mendhar SDM TK Bhat found 13 employees absent from their duty in several offices,'' sources said. The SDM placed all 13 employees under suspension, including a medical officer and a headmistress. Earlier, the SDM suspended 37 employees of the Education Department and one of the Health Department on January 29. –– UNI

Jammu, February 1
The Jammu Central Mahajan Sabha today paid tributes to first Prime Minister of J&K and former chief justice of Supreme Court of India Lala Hans Raj Mahajan on his birth anniversary.

General secretary of the sabha Sudesh Gupta in his inaugural address threw light on several projects being run by the sabha. Highlighting the financial constraints being faced with the sabha, he appealed the Mahajan community to liberally donate for the smooth functioning of the sabha.

President of the Jammu Central Mahajan Sabha, Romesh Chander, in his welcome address stressed upon simplifying marriage rites besides inculcating the spirit of solidarity.

Various members of the community who earned their name in various fields were honoured on the occasion.