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Kashmir back to normal A Srinagar market bustles with life on Tuesday after an eight-day shutdown against the killing of two women in Shopian. Tribune photo: Amin War
Delay in Amarnath Yatra |
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Members of the Water Works Employees’ Union (PHE) protest in support of their demands in Jammu
on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Anand Sharma
Reach out to people, CM asks party MLAs
Azad woos rebels back to Cong
Three executive councillors resign
Timely supply of fertilisers sought
Students’ body appeals CM to fulfil promises
Cross-LoC trade resumed
Govt ‘failed’ to handle Shopian case
Students protest ‘biased’ reporting
SVO team visits Jammu varsity again
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Kashmir back to normal
Srinagar, June 9 Protests on the call of hard line separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani were held by students of various educational institutions here and in other major towns of the valley, including Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag, Handwara, today. Barring a few incidents of cane charging in Pulwama and Shopian to disperse the processions of students the situation remained peaceful. Syed Ali Geelani, who continues to be under preventive custody, had given the call for protests by boys today and by girl students tomorrow. He has also called for a protest by government employees on Thursday, “Pulwama chalo” on Friday and lawyers’ protest on Saturday. Geelani’s 12 party colleagues had been arrested, including four of them under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Moderate APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and several of his colleagues continue to be under house arrest, a spokesman for the APHC said. All shops and business establishments, various government offices, banks and educational institutions reopened today after remaining closed since May 30. Attendance in many other government offices was less throughout the past week. No long queues of people with applications were found outside the gate of the Civil Secretariat, where hundreds of people form a beeline to follow their pending cases in the corridors of power. Traffic on city routes and inter-district roads, which had been paralysed for the past eight days, was also resumed, relieving a large number of people from distant parts of the valley at different hospitals in the capital city. In view of the continued trouble and shutdown, the Kashmir University had to reschedule the examinations of various postgraduate and professional courses. Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed said here yesterday that like various other spheres of life, the education sector had also been affected during the last two decades. “We have a working season of three to four months in Kashmir, which has also being spoiled by these shutdowns,” said a shopkeeper here.
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Ultimatum to govt, shrine board
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 9 “If the annual pilgrimage doesn’t begins by June 15, then we would ask devotees and our activists from the VHP and the Bajrang Dal from all parts of the country to come to the state and undertake the pilgrimage on their own,” state VHP president Dr Ramakant Dubey said this while addressing mediapersons here today. The annual pilgrimage had to begin on June 7 but following accumulation of heavy snow on twin tracks of Pahalgam and Baltal leading to the Amarnath cave shrine, the SASB had deferred it to June 15. However, subsequent rains and snowfall made things worse and now on June 11 SASB chairman NN Vohra and CEO BB Vyas would again conduct an aerial survey to take a final decision. But Dubey described incessant rains and snowfall around the cave shrine as an excuse of the government and the SASB. The government and the SASB buckled under pressure from the PDP, which had always objected to the annual pilgrimage, alleged Dubey. He also claimed that only 100 odd persons had been pressed into services to clear the twin tracks. If the government and the SASB were serious on early resumption of the annual pilgrimage, then the tracks could have been easily cleared with the help of the Army and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), he added. He also demanded abolition of toll and other taxes on ration and other material being transported into the state for setting up langars.
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PHE workers protest against Taj
Jammu, June 9 Shouting slogans against Taj, agitated employees castigated him for ordering frequent transfers, that too at the lower level. Led by PHE Workers’ Welfare Association provincial president Bakshi Singh and general secretary Subhash Chander Verma, the employees alleged that the minister had been behaving in an autocratic way so as to divert their attention from basic issues. Verma said despite heavy odds pitted against 28,000 employees, including permanent and daily wage workers, the government had turned a Nelson’s eye toward their genuine demands like a hike in daily wages from Rs 70 to Rs 150, uniformity in wages of PHE employees of Kashmir and Jammu regions, regularisation of daily wage workers who had completed seven years of service, release of one-and-a-half day extra pay and the creation of posts with higher scales. “The new transfer policy of the PHE minister is nothing but a ploy to victimise poor employees,” he said. Our daily wage employees had not been paid wages for the past 14 to 15 months, he said. “We have been doing our work sincerely and honesty but if Taj really means business then he should start from the top to wipe out corruption instead of targeting employees at the lowest rung,” he added. However, Taj Mohi-ud-Din outrightly denied the allegations terming them false and fabricated. “I have nothing personal against anybody. But 22,000 permanent staff in the department simply does not perform their duties while 26,000 daily wage workers work,” he said. “They (permanent staff, including JEs, draftsman and clerks) had been sitting in same offices for the past 20 years to 30 years and someone had to take the initiative to streamline the department, which I did transferring them to other places,” he added. |
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Reach out to people, CM asks party MLAs
Srinagar, June 9 Addressing party legislators at a meeting here today, the Chief Minister asked them to carry forward the development message of the government to the people and apprise them of the steps the government was taking at various levels for the welfare of people, an official spokesman said. “You have to come up to the expectations of people and deliver effectively by raising public centric issues at all forums of the government, seeking speedy redress of grievances,” he told the legislators. Omar said the party legislators had a responsibility to identify and discuss the promises made during elections with the government for evolving a comprehensive strategy to fulfil these. Describing constant rapport with public as important for a legislator to get feedback and identify area specific demands, the Chief Minister asked them to give the highest priority to this aspect and remain available to people in their constituencies. “Your work should strengthen people’s confidence in you,” he said and told the legislators to work tirelessly for the public good. |
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Azad woos rebels back to Cong
Udhampur, June 9 General secretary of the Pradesh Youth Congress RS Pathania, who had contested the Assembly elections as an Independent from Ramnagar, former minister Babu Singh, Balban Singh, Shivdev Singh and Ashok Sharma are likely to rejoin the party during Azad’s visit. Sources close to these rebels said the decision to rejoin the party was taken at a meeting here as certain leaders in the high command had assured their proper rehabilitation. Sources in the party said that rebels were in constant touch with Azad. It was all due to the intervention of Azad that the party leadership had not taken action against them despite the fact that the defeated Congress candidates had blamed the dissidents for their debacle in the Assembly elections. R S Pathania admitted that Azad has pursuaded them to rejoin the Congress. As dissidents leaders had proved their popularity in the Assembly elections, the Congress leadership was hesitating to take action them. In most places rebels had secured more votes than the official Congress candidates and, in some segments, the latter even failed to save their deposits. |
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Three executive councillors resign
Leh, June 9 They are executive councillor for Agriculture and Education, Tsering Norboo, executive councillor for Health Dorjey Mutup and executive councillor for Consumer Affair and Public Distribution Stanzin Delik. Resignation of the executive councillors of the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) led the LAHDC is understood election sop for its election which is due in next year. Meanwhile, chief executive councillor Tsering Dorjey accepted their resignation and also inducted Tsering Angchuk, Dorjay Stanzin and Phunchok Stanzin and they are councillor of Panamik, Tangtse and Skurbuchan, respectively, for the post. |
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Timely supply of fertilisers sought
Jammu, June 9 Addressing mediapersons yesterday, president of the association Kulbushan Khajuria highlighted the burning issues of the farmers. He said the discriminatory attitude of the state government was creating hindrances in the growth of farmers of the Jammu region. Khajuria maintained that due to the non-availability of fertilisers, the cultivation of kharif crops was suffering as plantation was already underway for the past 10 days. Giving details, he said the total requirement of DAP was 13,268 MT, Urea 18,253 MT and MOP 3513 MT. “Against this the stock of DAP made available every year is 2,646 MT, Urea 3,441 MT and MOP nil. Therefore, only 30 per cent of the required fertilisers is made available to farmers for kharif crops in the Jammu region,” he added. Khajuria appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take necessary steps so that the required stock of fertilisers was provided to the farmers well in time. He threatened that farmers would take to the streets if their demand was not met. |
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Students’ body appeals CM to fulfil promises
Jammu, June 9 Addressing a press conference at Congress
Bahavan, Shahidi Chowk, state president, NSUI, Rashid Choudhary said stipend to the unemployed educated youth, post middle school scholarships for all students, one employment for every home, infrastructure and funds for all new colleges and university campuses were promised, but the government has not been able to make any significant start on any of the above
issues. Choudhary said: “The youth are supporting Omar as he is a young leader, but it is the time to come up with a concrete policy for the youth of the state.” Meanwhile, Choudhary appreciated and welcomed the recent decision of University of Jammu for introduction of the entrance-based admission system in PG and M.Phil
courses. |
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Cross-LoC trade resumed
Rajouri, June 9 Though the custom authorities in Poonch allowed these items, including coconut, kernil (naryal giri) and brown cardamom (moti ellaichi), from India today, but this is probably the last time that they will allow the same. Already India has banned the import of garlic from the PoK a few weeks ago. Traders from India sent trade items worth Rs 92 lakh to their counterparts in the PoK. The items included onion, banana, pomegranate, cinnamon and pineapple. From the PoK, traders exported items worth Rs 80 lakh to their counterparts in India. |
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Govt ‘failed’ to handle Shopian case
Jammu, June 9 Party secretary for political affairs Kanwarpal Singh said the inept handling of the situation by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had compelled the people to come on the streets to ‘cry’ for justice. Condemning the barbaric act, he said it was disgusting that the Chief Minister had failed to protect the honour and dignity of women in the state.
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Students protest ‘biased’ reporting
Srinagar, June 9 The police quickly dispersed the students who were raising slogans against the Srinagar-based reporter of the TV channel. Sensing trouble, the staff members of the channel locked the office and left for home. Meanwhile, the Kashmir High Court Bar Association asked the directors of the channel to initiate action against the reporter for his alleged “irresponsible, false and concocted report” on the incident in which the police has registered a rape case. Protests in connection with the airing of the report were also staged in University of Kashmir today. — PTI
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SVO team visits Jammu varsity again
Jammu, June 9 According to sources, the vigilance team reached the university in the afternoon and noted the names and telephone numbers of 12 officials of the examination wing. |
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Chargesheet against patwari
Jammu, June 9 |
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Normal life was restored in the Kashmir valley today after eight days of complete shutdown and protests against the killing of two women in Shopian district on May 30.
Jammu, June 9
