Srinagar, May 24
Even as the Army is trying hard to check infiltration, at least two or three attempts were made by terrorists from across the border in the recent past and more than 12 militants are believed to have sneaked into the higher reaches of the valley.

While some militants sneaked into the periphery of Srinagar city like Ganderbal, a majority of them were holed up in the higher reaches of Lolab and Bandipore in north Kashmir, sources in the state Home Department said.

Recently three infiltration bids were made -- one each in Keran and Karnah in Kupwara sector and another in Gurez of Baramulla district. As many as three terrorists were killed by the Army while about 12 are believed to have infiltrated into the valley, the sources said.

With the fresh infiltrations, the number of militants sneaking into the valley has crossed 225, the sources said.

However, the Army maintained that only 56 militants tried to infiltrate out of which 29 were killed and three arrested.

Contrary to the claims of the Army that the first infiltration bid was made on March 20, sources in the central security agencies and the state police claimed on the basis of technical and human intelligence that the first group of nine militants had entered through the Leepa valley on March 9 and 10.

The Army maintained that 32 militants were killed but admitted that some had infiltrated into areas like Pattan, 27 km from here, and Bandipore, adjacent to Mansabal lake, where they were killed in encounters.

About the infiltration in the Gurez sector, intercepts suggested that a group led by Akbar Bhai had managed to cross over and was well-entrenched in Bandipore heights.

The terrorist groups which comprised Lashker-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen cadres mainly travelled through the Leepa valley, Sadhna Top, Bungus valley and later to Rajwar forests and Authmuqam, Rotagali and Godagap in Handwara district of north Kashmir. The terrorist groups were also using the Fallmarg-Huchmarg -Hafrada and Handwara routes, the sources said.

Among other routes used were Ratipani in POK to Sonapindi-Ringthatop, Kalrooch and Lolab in north Kashmir, Tejyan-Muthalgali and later to Nawanggali and Warnowtop for shifting to Bandipora, they said. — PTI 

Jammu, May 24
The Shiv Sena today carried out a protest rally over the findings of the report submitted by the Divisional Commissioner to the government in the Belicharana incident.

The protest rally started from the Rani Park and culminated at the city chowk. The protesters shouted slogans against the government and the Forest Minister for their alleged empathy with the encroachers of a particular religion.

Addressing the protesters, president of the organisation Ashok Gupta denounced the Forest Minister for his comments, seeking apology from the Gujjars residing in the forest land after their settlement was demolished by the police recently.

“We seek resignation from the Forest Minister as he sympathised with the encroachers,” he said, adding that the government land should be vacated without any further delay from the encroachers and land mafia.

Jammu, May 24
Government officers, who allegedly remained out of station most of the time on the pretext of meetings or visits, will have to take permission from the chief secretary or the minister concerned before leaving the station now.

The state government in order to check furlough, TA, DA bills and absenteeism has issued orders requiring all officers, from under secretary and above ranks, to take permission now on. Even the movement of various head of the departments would also be under check.

Government sources said it was found that many officers after the move of darbar to Srinagar were staying less in the city because of meetings in other cities or making on the spot verification.

Many officers were scheduling their meeting or official tour close to their native place due to which valuable-working hours were lost. Also, visits to their homes at weekends was converted into official tours, thus, putting pressure on the public exchequer.

A senior bureaucrat said: “The orders will remain in place when the darbar moves to Jammu later this year.” He said there were a lot of complaints that important work was delayed as the official concerned was “out of station”.

The sources said officers were leaving early on Friday or even on Thursday and returned late on Monday. The official work was reduced to four days only.

Jammu, May 24
Jammu district has attained the dubious distinction of having 2,800 female foeticide cases every year. But what may shock many further is that Jammu has an industry of Rs 5 crore per annum that thrives on female foeticide alone, ostensibly involving some gynaecologists and radiologists.

The scenario could be gauged from the fact that against one lakh estimated births in the Jammu province in a year at least 7,800 baby girls are killed in mother’s womb.

These startling revelations were made by Dr Sabu George from Thrivananthapuram, who is fighting against female foeticide, during a workshop organised at Government Medical College here yesterday to sensitise the media toward the PNDT Act 2004 vis-à-vis female foeticide.

“We are dealing with genocide, but unfortunately Jammu and Kashmir initially remained non-committal to taking the bull by horns,” said George, adding that “in 2001, the state promised the Supreme Court to have its own PNDT Act, which eventually was enacted in 2002”.

However, rules to the Act were framed in 2007, but there had been no serious effort to implement the law.

Giving a breakup of the dismal scenario, he said Sunderbani in Jammu today had a ratio of 765 girls per 1,000 boys, while Hiranagar in Kathua had 764 and Kathua 800 girls per 1,000 boys.

He rued that the situation was worsening in Jammu and Kathua districts and if the trend continued the areas may witness a sex ratio of 400 to 500 girls per 1,000 boys.

Dr Jitender Singh from the department of medicines, who described female foeticide as “intra-uterine terrorism”, felt that reconciliatory measures should be adopted on a war-footing to reverse the trend.

Head of the radio-diagnosis department, Dr Ghanshyam, senior radiologist Dr Kulbhushan and Dr Arshad Bhat also aired their views and felt that stakeholders like society, NGOs, media, medical practitioners and law enforcing agencies should contribute their bit to check the menace.

Jammu, May 24
The Gujjar Bakerwal tribe of the state today urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to intervene as chairman to improve working of the Jammu and Kashmir State Advisory Board for development of the Gujjars and Bakerwals or wind up the same as the organisation has miserably failed to serve the community.

Demanding the removal of non-Gujjar staff from the board, the Gujjar leaders under the banner of “joint forum” in a joint statement issued here alleged that the bureaucratic, biased and communal approach of non-Gujjar secretary and other staff members of the State Gujjar Board in the civil secretariat, pushed the tribe to the wall, which was painful and intolerable.

Terming this as an awful example of social injustice, Haji Shamsher Ali Boken, state president of Jammu and Kashmir Gujjar Bakerwal Joint Forum, said plight of the Gujjars in the state could be perceived from their existence in the Gujjar board, which is the only government department working for the Gujjars’ affairs in the civil secretariat.

The board has 16 staff members from vice-chairman to orderlies and there was only one orderly from the Gujjar community adding that “continuation of non-Gujjar secretary and other staff in the Gujjar board is a conspiracy against us in order to the sidelines the community.”

“The non-Gujjar staff is humiliating and harassing Gujjars in their own board meant for we people,” said Mohammad Din Dhakar, adding that the Governor should intervene and change the staff, including the secretary and appoint the staff belongs to the Gujjar community in the board.

Further, the forum accused the present government of adopting a calculated attitude to victimised the Gujjar officers and employees working in the state government by ignoring them postings in the important departments and not providing promotional avenues available under the reservation laws and pursuing unlawful neglect of the Gujjars and Bakerwals, the third largest ethnic group of the state, in each and every field of life.

Srinagar, May 24
Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma has admitted that the medical infrastructure is in a poor condition and a lot needs to be done to improve the infrastructure and manpower, especially in rural areas.

He was addressing the concluding session of the two-day consultative workshop on the public-private partnership (PPP) in the health sector organised by the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here.

Sharma said they did not have enough number of super-specialist doctors, and the available professionals were reluctant to serve in the rural areas, which further exacerbate the situation.

“We are working on a long-term policy to ensure quality-healthcare services for the people of the state,” he said. He said private investment in the health sector was needed as the state required access to newer technologies and super-specialist doctors.

A good healthcare system was a fundamental right of the people and they would work to provide it, he said.

Underlying the need for an attitudinal change in the mindset of the doctors and the paramedics, Sharma said a “missionary zeal was required” to help improve the healthcare system.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has stressed the need for specialised medicare facilities at the tertiary, secondary and primary-levels and called for reversal of brain drain in the health sector.

Addressing a two-day consultative workshop yesterday at the SKICC, Omar said it could be utilised to motivate doctors from the state serving outside to return and help improve medical facilities here.

Referring to the expansion of the health sector in the state, Omar said a well-conceived consolidation programme was needed to provide modern facilities to the people across the state.

The Chief Minister said it had been observed that doctors and specialists in the state were reluctant to serve in remote and far-off areas like Gurez, Dachhan, Marwah, Warwan and Telil. He said the workshop should also discuss this aspect and come up with concrete suggestions.

Jammu, May 24
Commercial Taxes (Vigilance and Inspection) sleuths foiled tax evasion bids confiscating jewelry worth Rs 1 crore, cigarettes to the tune of Rs 1.75 lakh and six commercial vehicles carrying taxable goods.

A press release issued here stated that a team impounded six commercial vehicles of transport companies, viz, New Jehlum Roadways, Nitco Roadways, Chinar Transport and Green Contractors.

These vehicles were carrying taxable goods in a concealed manner but had declared them as non-taxable items at the Commercial Taxes Check Post.

These vehicles were put to physical check and a penalty of Rs 2,80,050 was imposed upon the defaulters.

The team during routine inspection at Transport Nagar here also confiscated 20 boxes of cigarettes (of Flame and Rivulet brands) worth Rs 1,77,600.

Meanwhile, a man had been nabbed along with 1.5 kg of jewelry worth Rs 1 crore near railway station a couple of days back, has been identified as Jignesh Bhalal.

He had brought diamond-studded jewelry from New Delhi and was about to board an auto-rickshaw without remitting the tax when a team nabbed him.

Srinagar, May 24
The Centre has released over Rs 112 crore under the National Rural Water Supply Programme (NRWSP) to help the state meet the growing demand for potable water.

"The Centre has released Rs 112.61 crore under the centrally sponsored NRWSP scheme which needs to be expended by the executing agencies on a war footing for augmenting water supply, particularly drinking water, in the state," Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE) Taj Mohiuddin said here.

Mohiuddin asked the authorities concerned to submit detailed information on all completed and under-execution water supply schemes in Kashmir by May 27.

" The Rangil water supply scheme (phase-11), having a capacity of 10 MGD, would be completed at a cost of Rs 37.46 crore out of which Rs 13.36 crore had already been incurred, he said.— PTI 

Jammu, May 24
The Sikhs in Jammu have demanded that the elections of the Jammu and Kashmir Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee should be held as early as possible as the term of the previous committee had expired in October.

Addressing a press conference chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir National Sikh Front Varinderjeet Singh said the government had not made required amendments in the Gurdwara Act of 1971 as it had promised earlier.

While demanding reservation for the Sikhs in the country he said, “Muslims, who form 20 per cent of the total population of the country, get reservation whereas Sikhs, who are only 2 per cent, don’t have any reservation.” He said the government had started giving reservation in education by giving scholarships, but the Sikhs had to face a lot of discrimination.

“In India minority scholarships are given by the Minority Commission while in our state the scholarships are given by the Social Welfare Department, but it does not give any information about the scholarships given to the Sikhs in the state,” Varinderjeet said.

He said he had written to the Prime Minister and the Human Resource Department Minister in this connection. “Sikhs in Punjab don’t get reservation as they belong to the majority community whereas in Jammu and Kashmir where the Muslims are in majority get these benefits,” he said.

He said the number of wards in Jammu city had gone up from 23 to 71 but Sikh colonies like Bandhu Rakh, Gol Gujral, Gadigarh, Chatha were not included in these wards.

Srinagar, May 24
The unpredictable weather in the valley took an ugly turn today when high-speed wind picked up in the evening, coupled with light rain, capsizing several shikaras and, even, a few houseboats.

Police officials said as many as 25 tourists had a close shave as shikaras carrying them flailed around under the influence of wind. “Our parties scurried across the lake, rescuing these tourists and 10 locals. We have no reports of any casualty,” a police official said.

As the shikaras threatened to topple, a panic set in and a large number of people, including many family members and friends of those tourists stranded in the lake, assembled on the bank, fearing for the worst.

When we went for boating, it was very tranquil, but weather changed in a matter of minutes. The government should patrol the lake with more high-speed boats as tourist season has arrived, Haji Usman, a shikara owner, said.

Jammu, May 24
In an effort to put tourism back on the rails, the state government is preparing a 20-year-master plan for the sector, hit by militancy.

"A 20-year master plan on tourism in Jammu and Kashmir is on the anvil," senior Tourism Ministry officials said.

Recognising the vast tourism potential of the Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh regions, they said the industry could make major contributions to the economic growth of the state.

In this direction, the government recently floated tenders asking tourism experts across the world to prepare the master plan and a vision document, they said.

While over 40,000 foreign tourists visit Ladakh annually, over two lakh foreign and domestic tourists come to Kashmir every year. Besides, 80 lakh pilgrims visit the holy cave shrines of Mata Vaishnodevi and Shri Amarnath annually.

Earlier, around eight lakh tourists used to visit the state every year but militancy in the valley reduced the tourism industry to a shambles. — PTI

Jammu, May 24
State Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said today that the budget session of the state Assembly would be held in July.

The state was meeting its financial commitments from the vote-on-account that was passed in the first session of the new Assembly that came into existence after last year’s Assembly elections in the state.

The full budget had to be postponed following the implementation of the model code of conduct that had come in place after the parliamentary elections were announced.

“The budget will be presented and passed in the July session of the state legislature,” Rather told mediapersons in Jammu.

Rather said the state’s economy was going through a bad phase as the income was less than the expenditure. “The revenue is less and the demands are high, especially on the count of generating jobs for the unemployed. Much of the money goes on import of power,” he said.

The minister expressed hope that the central government would help the ailing state improve its economic condition.