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Milk Powder Scam
Confed staff told to accept lower posts
Not paid salary for 3 years
MJ Khabri with his family in Chandigarh. A Tribune photograph |
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Legislative Council Elections
RBI staff go on mass leave
RTI Act
Here they get ration as per 1991 Census
PoK man buried in ancestral graveyard
Plan to develop
Gharana wetland
Panchayat poll after
LS elections: CM
BJP hails release of
Dinesh Bharti
Mayor’s election on
March 5
A cop takes cover behind a vehicle as protesters throw stones during a demonstration in Srinagar on Friday. Tribune photo: Amin War
Quake jolts Kashmir
RS
Elections
Hideout unearthed,
arms seized
Mercury much above
normal
Tribune
Impact
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CBI books Major, other farm staff
Jammu, February 20 The Jammu military farm was required to dispatch skimmed milk powder to Ferozpur, Ambala and Jalandhar farms during 2002 and 2003 as per the direction of the Western Command. However, Major Kuldeep Singh and Milkhi Ram allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with other officials of Ferozpur, Ambala and Jalandhar farms to misuse their positions, the agency said. They allegedly manipulated records to show false dispatch of the milk powder to Ferozpur, Ambala and Jalandhar farms, thereby misappropriating the product and causing wrongful loss to the government, it said. The CBI also accused them of preparing fake documents showing transport of 105 MT of skimmed milk powder worth Rs 67.43 lakh from the Jammu military farm to the three farms during the period. It also said 19 MT of skimmed milk powder had been shown dispatched from the Jammu farm to Ferozpur in vehicles bearing registration No. JK02G-7385 and JKR-9313, which turned out to be that of a motorcycle and a scooter. — PTI
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Confed staff told to accept lower posts
Srinagar, February 20 In September 2006, the high court had issued orders for the adjustment of Confed employees, but nothing had been done till now. Adding insult to injury, the employees had been asked to accept lower posts through letter No:
JRS/K/174-274, dated January 31, 2009, issued by the liquidator Confed (joint registrar special), Cooperatives Societies, Kashmir. The contents of the letter read: “Furnish an affidavit duly attested by the first class judicial magistrate to the effect that you are ready to accept the lower post, which is an offer to you as an alternative to retrenchment upon the winding up of
Confed. And you will not claim the protection of pay after your absorption and you will remain at the bottom in the relevant seniority list and will not claim any superior position in the government.” Earlier, another letter No.
JRS/K/378-79, dated January 3, 2009, was issued asking the employees to furnish in the affidavit that they would not claim idle wages with effect from 1999 till their absorption. The story about the pathetic condition of the Confed employees dates back to December 15, 1999, when under order No. 109/12 the state government decided to wind up Confed and offered golden handshake to its employees. But from day one, the employees had been pleading to be adjusted in other departments, in case Confed winds up. After six years, the Confed employees approached the court. In September 2006, the court directed the government to adjust the employees (116 in number) in other departments. The employees are perplexed and are somewhat amused about the new order. “If our 10 colleagues have been given equivalent posts, why are we being asked to work on lower ranks?" said a group of employees while speaking to The Tribune. They, while pointing to a person wandering on the main road in Lal
Chowk, said he was one of our colleagues and had turned insane due to the ill-treatment by the government. “Some could not bear the torture and died”. Joint Registrar Special, Cooperative Societies, Kashmir, Hakeem Mohammad Rafi said 98 employees of Confed would get relief within some time, without specifying the same. He said 10 employees were adjusted as per the court orders, while some others opted for the golden handshake. |
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Not paid salary for 3 years
Chandigarh, February 21 Khabri claims that he has not got a single penny as salary or any medical reimbursement from the government for the past three years. Camping with his family for several months here, Khabri is distraught and disappointed over the way his government has treated him. “I am working as a senior assistant in the secretariat. Since 1990, I have been on life saving drugs for a heart problem. In December 2005, I met with an accident and was bedridden for months. After suffering for over two years, I had to undergo a hip replacement surgery at the PGI in 2008,” he relates. “Due to my illness, I could not attend the office regularly. My salary along with the monthly reimbursement of medicines was stopped from December 2006. And till date, the government has not given me a single penny,” he says. Instead of helping the hapless man, the government in May 2005 suspended Khabri for being absent from duty. However, the inquiry officer gave Khabri clean chit in December 2007, recommending that he be given salary. The government also wanted to know if Khabri really needed the life saving medicines that he was taking every month. In August 2007, the medical board also stated that Khabri required the medicines he was taking. Despite all this, the government neither started paying him salary nor reimbursed his monthly medical bills. Following surgery, Khabri joined office in April 2008. “I attended the office regularly. I asked for salary and the monthly medical reimbursement, but was refused. I requested every officer and met the then Governor, Chief Secretary, principal secretary, commissioner secretary, and several other officers. I was told that my salary would be given in a day or two, but nothing happened,” he said. In January this year, Khabri had to come to the PGI as instructed by the doctors. “I took leave and came here for medical advice,” he said, showing certificates from senior and well-known doctors at the PGI. Khabri has for the past three years been surviving on charity and is living in a rented accommodation here. Enquired about Khabri, commissioner secretary, general administration, Estates Department (J&K), Basharat Dhar said the government would help him. “There are some inquires against him. But we are ready to help him. Ask him to join back first,” he said. Khabri, however, pointed out that there were no inquires pending against him and some bureaucrats in the administration were harassing him. “I may end my life and the J&K government will be responsible for it,” he said. Principal secretary to Governor BB Vyass said he would look into the matter. |
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Ruling coalition set to bag majority of seats Will BJP, Panthers join hands? Tribune News Service
Jammu, February 20 Notwithstanding their common poll plank of "discrimination against Jammu" the BJP and the Panthers Party had failed to unite for the Rajya Sabha elections in which the former supported AV Gupta, an Independent. However, the BJP has not lost hope and feels that the Panthers would extend support to it in the Legislative Council poll. BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta said: "We always stand for unity of Jammu. However, you saw what the Panthers did in the Rajya Sabha elections. Their two MLA voted for the PDP and one for the NC." He said they would still approach the Panthers to seek their support. "Victory or defeat is a separate issue, what matters is that Jammu's vote should stay united. We are also open to talks on a consensus candidate," he averred. Panthers Party chairman Bhim Singh said: "Nobody is untouchable for us. We would not have any objection in extending support to the BJP if a mutually acceptable candidate is fielded in the Legislative Council poll." On his party supporting the PDP in the RS poll, he said the BJP-supported candidate could not have won even if his party had voted for him and hence they opted for the PDP, which has 21 MLAs, to defeat the ruling alliance's candidate. On the other hand, the ruling coalition is in a comfortable position. Though the ruling alliance's strength in the Assembly has gone down by two MLAs as NC president Farooq Abdullah, who contested two seats, and former CM Ghulam Nabi Azad have got elected to the Rajya Sabha, it has already made up the loss by getting nominated two women MLAs in the form of NC's Bimla Luthra and Congress' Indu Pawar, both of whom would have the voting right. The alliance would thus have 44 MLAs apart from the support of three other MLAs - one each from the CPM, JKDP and PDF. The coalition is likely to win unopposed the three seats witnessing byelections due to victory of NC's Sakina Itoo and PDP's Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari in the recent Assembly poll and disqualification of Congress MLC Ashok Sharma. Three separate notifications have been issued for the elections to these three seats. The coalition also has the numbers to bag four other seats - one each reserved for Leh and Kargil and two for Kashmir division as separate elections will be held for these seats as well. It will have an upper hand in the remaining four seats going to the polls from Jammu division while the PDP can also emerge victorious in one of the seats.
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RBI staff go on mass leave
Jammu, February 20 The bank had introduced the scheme from November 1, 2002, but withdrawn it recently at the behest of the Union Finance Ministry, causing reduction in the pension of 4,000 odd bank retirees between Rs 1,000 and Rs 6,000 per month. All employees took mass casual leave and assembled at the gate of the RBI office building at Rail Head Complex here today and shouted slogans against the discriminatory policies of the Ministry of Finance and the top management of the RBI. “This for the second time in the recent past that the RBI staff has gone on mass casual leave. Earlier, they went on leave over the same issue on October 21, 2008,” said Suepn Kumar, chief secretary, RBI Workers Union. Speakers on the occasion castigated the Union Finance Ministry for denying the benefit of pension updating to the RBI staff though they were themselves enjoying the benefit. “When four million Central government pensioners and a larger number of state government pensioners were getting their pension revised upwardly periodically, it was gross injustice to deny the same to the RBI retirees,” said UC Lohani, convener of the union. The speakers hoped that good sense would prevail on the Central government and the RBI management and they would come forward for the satisfactory settlement of the issue. Those who spoke on the occasion included Supen Kumar, chief secretary of the Reserve Bank Workers Union, Ravi Kant Sharma, secretary of the Reserve Bank Employees Association, UC Lohani and RK Meena, president and secretary of the Reserve Bank of India Officers Association, respectively, and Ravinder Kaul and KK Sharma, president and secretary of the All India Reserve Bank Officers Association, respectively. |
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Draft Bill put on official website
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria Tribune News Service
Jammu, February 20 The present J&K RTI Act, amended by the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2008, is proposed to be repealed and replaced by a comprehensive legislation on a par with the Central RTI Act. A Bill to that effect has been prepared and is available on the website of the General Administration Department - www.jkgad.nic.in. According to an official communication issued by the Law Department here today, people have been requested to peruse the draft legislation. “Suggestions to make the proposed legislation more effective, more transparent and people-friendly will be welcomed and may be furnished to the law department for consideration of the government within a period of seven days, beginning from today,” stated the official communication. The suggestions should be sent on the address of Mohammad Ashraf, additional secretary, law, Room No.17, ground floor, Civil Secretariat, Jammu, phone No.0191-2520478, fax 0191-2546753, e-mail: ashraf66240@gmail.com. The state Cabinet had yesterday decided that to bring the state RTI law on a par with the Central Act, the revised draft Bill on Right to Information Act would be posted on the website of the General Administration Department for soliciting public opinion. The Cabinet would discuss the draft bill after receiving opinion. On February 1, state law secretary AH Kochak had told The Tribune that the suggestion of civil society to post the draft amendment Bill on the official website of the state could be considered.
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Here they get ration as per 1991 Census
Buddhal (Rajouri), February 20 Here in this backward and poverty ridden area, majority of people are getting ration as per the census report of 1991 instead of 2001. Residents said even as the Centre might get the population census conducted in 2011, the state government had failed to implement the population statistics for this backward and far-flung area where people were predominantly poor. They said with the state government providing them ration as per the census of 1991, half of their family members were not entitled for government ration. “I am getting ration as per the census of 1991 and six of my family members, who were born after 1991, are not included in the ration card. So, we are not getting ration for six of our family members,” Abdul Rasheed, a farmer of Gabbar area, said. “Ration sold in market is available at higher prices as compared to government ration. But since the government is providing us ration as per the 1991 census report, we are facing lot of problems. The government should immediately revise the ration cards as per the 2001 census,” he said. A ration dealer of the area told The Tribune that they were supplying ration to the beneficiaries as per the census findings of 1991. “We are getting supply of ration as per the 1991 census report even as size of a family may have increased after 1991. However, we cannot do much as the ration supply has to be increased by the government as per the present size of the family,” the ration dealer said. Rajouri deputy commissioner Sheikh Rafiq though there were discrepancies in the number of members in a family mentioned in ration cards in Buddhal area we are revising the ration cards as per the latest figures. |
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PoK man buried in ancestral graveyard
Jammu, February 20 Qazi Jamal Din, 83, who died yesterday, was buried at his ancestral graveyard in the Mandi belt of Poonch district in the presence of the police here today, police officials said. “We got permission to bury him here and accordingly he was laid down in his ancestral graveyard,” they said. Qazi had come to the Indian side via Poonch-Rawalkote bus service from the Rawalote area of the PoK on September 8, 2008, to meet his brother Abdul Salam’s family. He was granted extension for staying with the family at his ancestral place, where he died yesterday, they said. They added his wish was to get buried beside his father and grand parents’ graves here. Nimazi Jinaza was offered by people at Mandi at the graveyard ground where the body was kept for burial. Jamal Din, son of Qazi Chirag Din, had left Mandi village in 1947 and went to the PoK. — PTI
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Plan to develop
Gharana wetland
Jammu, February 20The Union government has approved a proposal for
the development of the Gharana wetland in RS Pura, home to thousands of
migratory birds during winter season.
Talking to mediapersons here
today on the sidelines of the inaugural function of a photo exhibition
on migratory birds that visit Gharana, Minister for Forests, Ecology,
and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmed said a proposal had been sanctioned
under the wetland development scheme, envisaging the conservation of the
wetland and eviction of encroachments, with expansion and awareness as
its salient features. Replying to queries about the complaints of
damage being caused by the birds to crops in the area, Altaf said
besides the conservation of the habitat, the package also contained
compensation to the affected population. He said a special plan had
already been formulated for the development of Gharana as a model
village. For the last one decade, the wetland has emerged as a major
winter home for thousands of birds that include bar-headed goose,
mallard, black stock, purple haron and common teal. |
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Panchayat poll after
LS elections: CM
Rajouri, February 20 Addressing public meetings
at Sunderbani, Nowshera and Kalakote on the first leg of his three-day
tour of Rajouri and Poonch districts, Omar Abdullah said that coalition
partners in the government had always nurtured harmony, brotherhood and
secular traits. The Chief Minister said the government would carry
forward its agenda of "integrated and balanced development" of
every area. Omar said he had preferred to visit Rajouri and Poonch
districts by road to meet people and hear them. The Chief Minister
said the government was committed to giving justice to every citizen and
providing a strong edifice for a sustainable economy. He said
accelerated progress pace would be the benchmark of governance and
generation of jobs for youth, particularly in the field of
self-employment and the private sector, would be top priority. The
Chief Minister said he would ask the Tourism Department to take steps
for showcasing and developing places of tourist interest in this area. |
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BJP hails release of
Dinesh Bharti
Jammu, February 20 Arora asked the government to publish the detailed information about the charges framed against those who were released earlier, as he felt that the government was following the old policy of favouring anti-national elements. He urged the government to cancel cases against “innocents people”. The spokesperson said, “Till date, no compensation has been paid to the families of those who died during the 63-day Amarnath land agitation. No one was given a job, contrary to the promise by the government on numerous occasions.” Arora said the lifting of the PSA was a victory for nationalist forces because the PSA was forcibly imposed on Dinesh Bharti. He was never accused of giving provocative speeches, but still he was harassed and jailed on these frivilous charges. He warned the government not to implicate Jammu people on the pretext of countering anti-national elements in Kashmir. He demanded action against Mehbooba Mufti and others who favoured a debate in the state assembly over accession. “They have been elected under the Constitution of India and that of Jammu and Kashmir. Their irresponsible statements could create communal hatred and enmity among communities and regions, which need to be dealt with strongly under law. Act like the PSA is not meant for a saint like Dinesh Bharti, but for irresponsible politician like Mehbooba Mufti.”
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Mayor’s election on
March 5
Jammu, February 20 The JMC today
issued an official notification giving its nod to the annual elections.
It may be stated here that these elections would be conducted for the
fifth and last term of the existing body. Voting to elect Mayor and
Deputy Mayor would be held on March 5 at the Conference Hall of the
corporation at around 11:00 am. The aspiring candidates can file their
nomination papers on or before February 28, the last date of filing the
nomination papers while the counting would be held immediately after the
polling and the results would be declared at 2:00 pm the same day. The
71-member House has 27 corporators of the Congress, 25 of the BJP, six
of the NC, nine independents, two of the PDP and one each from the BSP)
and the Shiv Sena.
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9 hurt in Srinagar
clashes
Srinagar, February 20 Supporters of Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and another Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah, who is in jail, assembled in large numbers after Friday prayers and chanted Islamic and separatist slogans while carrying placards of their demands. They sought Shabir Shah's release and the whereabouts of people gone missing in the two decades of militancy in the valley. They had collected in areas of Nowhatta, Rajouri Kadal, among others, and were prevented by security personnel from taking out a march. Police officials said they started throwing stones at them, almost a routine in this part of Srinagar on every Friday, and they, in turn, fired tear gas shells at the crowd. The police also canecharged the violent crowd to disperse it.
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Quake jolts Kashmir
Srinagar, February 20 The epicentre of the quake was around 80 km to the west
of the summer capital. Reports said its intensity was more in north
Kashmir and some houses were damaged and two persons injured in Karnah
in Kupwara district. Many people in Srinagar came out of their houses
in panic but there were no reports of serious damages. The entire
valley falls in the most sensitive seismic zone. Minor earthquakes are
routinely felt in Kashmir whose northern part was devastated in a major
jolt in October,2005, in which over 80,000 persons, a majority in
Pak-occupied-Kashmir, were killed. Incidentally, the disaster
management is organising a workshop in which masons would be taught the
skills to construct earthquake-resistant houses. |
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Bhim Singh to move HC
Tribune News Service
Jammu, February 20 In a statement issued here today Bhim Singh said the Election Commission and the ruling NC-Congress coalition government were guilty of committing an electoral fraud to grab all four seats of the Rajya Sabha from the state. Legal experts in the party, the Panthers’ leader said, had advised him to file a petition in the High Court for quashing the election of the four Rajya Sabha members on various grounds, he said in the statement. In consultation with senior party leaders Bhim Singh has decided to file a writ petition in the High Court, challenging validity of the Rajya Sabha elections from the state.
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Hideout unearthed,
arms seized
Jammu, February 20 On a
tip-off, a joint operation was launched by the Rashtriya Rifle troops
and the police in the Dudu Basantgarh area of Udhampur district
yesterday, they said. The sources added a hideout, where militants had
dumped arms and ammunition, was busted. The seizures from the hideout
included two AK-47 rifles, one 303 rifle along with 29 rounds and a hand
grenade, they said. Search operations were on in the area to track down
the militants, the sources said.
— PTI
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Mercury much above
normal
Srinagar, February 20 The
weather has been comfortable but experts termed it unusual for a time
when winter generally remains severe. The Met Department measured the
rainfall in the past 24 hours at 1.8 mm and has predicted a mix of rain
and snow for the next 48 hours. The maximum temperature in Srinagar was
6°C above normal while the minimum was 4°C more than normal. |
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Assures action on BPL
list
Admitting that there were cases wherein genuine beneficiaries were left out of the BPL scheme, Omar Abdullah said addressing a public meeting at Kalakote that he would see that genuine beneficiaries were not left out of its ambit. The Tribune carried a news item "Ineligible govt staff on BPL list" on February 2, saying that the Rural Development Department (RDD) has issued BPL certificates to government employees with a five-figure income in the remote and backward area of Buddhal. Reliable sources said that the authorities had issued BPL certificates to more than 12 government employees, mostly from the Education Department.
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An employee of the Jammu and Kashmir government, MJ Khabri is suffering from a debilitating disease and undergoing treatment at the PGI here.
