Jammu, October 21
The BJP today opposed the appointment of Wajahat Habibullah as head of the State Information Commission (SIC) and asked the coalition government to fill the post by appointing some responsible citizen of the state with good credentials. BJP state president Ashok Khajuria stated this while expressing concern over the Habibullah’s appointment.

He said Habibullah’s past record had all along been doubtful as he suggested US mediation in the state in 2004. “Why the government cannot look through transparent lenses and find a person within the state among the populace of more than 1.20 crore?” Khajuria asked.

He said the role of Wajahat Habibullah was also exposed in the Working Group’s recommendations where in he had categorically favoured to divide the state into five zones entirely on communal lines. Khajuria said the BJP would take every effective and democratic step to thwart such move of the government and also ensure that such type of elements within the government were removed from the administration.

BJP state spokesperson Ramesh Arora also spoke about China’s role over the Kashmir issue and termed it unfortunate and unacceptable to India. “China should be warned in clear terms by the Centre that India will not part an inch of land of Jammu and Kashmir. Recently, China started stamping visa to the people of J&K on separate sheet instead of stamping on passport as per international laws,” he said.

Arora said: “Now in Tibet, they have distributed a map to mediapersons indicating Kashmir as independent, which is total interference in our internal affairs.” He endorsed the views of Army Chief Deepak Kapoor that India was ready to face any challenge.

Jammu, October 21
Ashok Khajuria, state president of the BJP, has urged upon the coalition government to immediately accept the “genuine demands” of the agitating doctors so that proper health services are resumed in government hospitals.

He said yesterday that even after 17 days of the continuous strike by doctors, the government had failed to break the impasse, which speaks how serious it was towards providing medical facilities to the poor and needy people. Khajuria assured that he would personally take up the matter with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and seek his intervention to ease the situation.

Khajuria said work in government hospitals was totally paralysed due to the ongoing strike and it was difficult for a poor person to afford costly treatment in private hospitals and nursing homes.

He said not only the doctors but also thousands of SRTC employees, home guard jawans and unemployed youths were on strike for months together but no one had cared to address their issues. The BJP chief said it was the duty of the government to ensure that essential services were made available to people and timely decisions were made.

Meanwhile, Harsh Dev Singh, legislative party leader of the Panthers Party, on Monday expressed concern over the crumbled health services in the state due to the ongoing doctors’ strike and the lack of seriousness on the part of the government to address their issues.

He regretted that hardened postures on both sides had led to a stalemate, thus adversely affecting the health services. He said poor patients were bearing the brunt of the doctors’ strike.

He said the doctors’ demand for a higher pay scale could not be considered unreasonable as those pursuing this important profession needed to be appropriately compensated for their efforts. He also asked doctors to resume their duties. 

Udhampur, October 21
Three militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen, including a divisional commander, were killed in a fierce encounter in the Mahore area of Reasi district today. The slain militant commander was one of the longest surviving militants in this belt.

According to the police, on specific information about the presence of some militants in the Mahore forest area, the police and the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) launched a joint operation. The militants, who were hiding in an abandoned dhok of nomads, resorted to indiscriminating firing when the security personnel reached near the hideout. Militants’ attack was effectively retaliated and in the ensuring gun battle, which lasted for two hours, three militants, including a self-styled divisional commander, were eliminated. The slain commander has been identified as Mohammed Rafiq of Chalath village in Mahore. He was one of the longest surviving militants active in the belt.

Police sources said Rafiq was involved in many militancy incidents in Mahore. He was responsible for the killing of members of a minority community in the belt. Recently, the police intercepted a message in which Rafiq was directed by his mentors to recruit teenagers into the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The sources further disclosed that besides conducting fresh recruitments, the militant commander had been desperately trying to extort money from contractors and local people. The militant groups active in Mahore and Gulabgarh areas had been facing a shortage of money after some hawala rackets were busted. 

Jammu, October 21
Getting to the job straightaway, Mohammed Akbar Ganai, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC)-cum magistrate, Srinagar, probing circumstances that led to the death of Rajnish Sharma in the Srinagar police custody, today recorded the statements of seven members of Rajnish’s family, including his young widow Anchal Sharma, aka Amina Yousuf.

Ganai reached here from Srinagar last evening. “I recorded the statements of seven members of Rajnish’s family, including Anchal’s,” Ganai told The Tribune. Rajnish had died in a lock-up on October 5 evening after he was picked up from the Rehari residence of his elder brother Pawan on September 29 on the charges of kidnapping Amina.

The magistrate may also visit the Rehari residence of Pawan Sharma. “I am here to ensure that justice prevails and hence they (family members) should not feel afraid of anyone,” he said. Ganai said the family also submitted documents pertaining to the couple’s marriage before a Jammu court on August 21 this year.

Confirming their meeting with the Srinagar ADC, Pawan said his sister-in-law Anchal, his mother Raj Kumari, son Paras Sharma, wife Shallu, sister Kiran Sharma and brother-in-law Koushal Sharma narrated police brutalities inflicted upon the entire family to him. “Yet again Anchal alleged the police tortured her husband to death in Srinagar and her father Mohammed Yousuf Mirazi, her two brothers Tariq and Javed connived with the police to eliminate Rajnish,” said Pawan. Despite notices served six days back on Anchal’s parents directing them to appear in person before the magistrate, her family, including father and brothers, did not turn up before him, he said.

The magistrate had no answers to our queries and we still insist upon a CBI probe because we simply had no faith in a magisterial or Crime Branch probe, said Anchal. Once again, she asked if an interfaith marriage was a crime, what about senior leaders of the state, who did the same?

Srinagar, October 21
Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah have emphasised the need for developing Kashmir and Jammu universities as centres of excellence to impart world class education to equip the youth of the state to successfully compete in national and international job markets. They said this while addressing the Kashmir University council meeting here today.

The Governor said the focus of introducing new academic courses should relate directly to the existing and emerging job markets. He emphasised the need for dynamic monitoring and evaluation of the content of the courses offered vis-à-vis the job opportunities available to those who qualified for such courses.

He asked the Vice-Chancellor to evolve a mechanism for securing optimum benefits from all specialised courses. Such an approach could help in making these courses optimally responsive to the job market requirements and enable our youth to find profitable placements, he added.

The Governor said the university would need to ensure high standards of teaching and research, and continuously improve and upgrade them to meet the present and emerging global requirements. This would ensure that the boys and girls of Kashmir were not left behind. He said building human resource would empower the students to successfully face the competitive world in the years to come.

The Chief Minister said the Planning Department of the state government would be the nodal department to identify the projects that could be entrusted to the universities in Jammu and Kashmir for undertaking required studies, as may be required by various state government agencies for formulating policies or preparing project proposals. He also underlined the need for introducing such courses, as have a high market demand, particularly under the self-financing schemes.

Vice-Chancellor Riyaz Punjabi, in his presentation, gave details of various achievements of the varsity and its future plan of action. These included laying of international benchmarks in the field of research, initiatives in e-governance under which networking of entire examination wing has been completed, computerisation of students’ records and establishing connectivity between the university and 40 colleges, in the first phase. He said the north campus of the university was ready for commissioning.

Abdul Gani Malik, Minister for Higher Education and Varun Sahni, Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University also attended the meeting. 

Srinagar, October 21
An ambitious project to crisscross the state with railway lines, which will go much beyond the much-publicised Jammu-Baramulla track, is on and a survey is being carried out by the Railways on the proposed Kathua-Basoli-Bhaderwah track.

Official sources said the survey was in progress in this 140 km route. However, what would delight the backward region of Poonch-Rajouri was that a survey to lay railway lines between Jammu and Poonch had already been completed. It would be 223-km long and cost Rs 10,458 crore, an official said.

A similar survey to connect Baramulla with the hilly region of Kupwara had already been done and it projected a cost Rs 359 crore to bridge a distance of 39 km.

Surveys were the preliminary exercise to assess the viability of the proposed railways lines and the official said it would be premature to say when the actual work would begin, more so when the railways had its hands full with 148-km long Katra-Qazigund stretch, which would connect the valley with the rest of the country.

Trains at present run up to Udhampur in the Jammu division while the work within the Kashmir division was completed this year and trains were running between Anantnag and Baramulla covering a distance of 101 km. The last phase of work connecting Qazigund to Anantnag covering a distance of 18 km was completed recently and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to flag off the first train in the coming weeks.

The official said the work to connect 25-km long Udhampur and Katra stations was projected to be completed by December 2011. “Our ambitious and exacting task is the completion of the Katra-Qazigund route,” he said.

Due to difficult topography and geographical matrix of this route, the work has often faced difficulties, stretching the deadline by many years. The work was stopped in July 2008 and a committee of experts was appointed to give its report. It gave its report to the Railways in June 2009 and the board accepted it in August this year, issuing due instructions to the Northern Railway, tasked with the job.

The official said the Railways had been encouraged by the overwhelming response to trains in Kashmir. He said the government was very keen on spreading the railway network across the state where road transports, which is the only means of conveyance for people in Kashmir, Doda and Poonch regions. The Railways had provided the direct employment to 7,000 people, mostly in Kashmir, while thousand had benefited in different ways. 

Jammu, October 21
Just a day after the Omar Abdullah led NC-Congress government announced holding of panchayat elections in the state, his brother-in-law and Union Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot announced satellite phone connectivity for 231 remote villages.

Sachin also announced jobs for 140 youths from the state in post offices across the state by the end of this year and another 70 by the end of the next year.

“These 231 villages do not have any landline or mobile phone connection,” Pilot said. “The private telecom services do not see profit in providing connectivity to the areas and it is the social responsibility of the BSNL to reach out to these masses,” he added.

Talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of BSNL, post and telegraph officials here this evening, Pilot said these villages would be connected via satellite phones. The BSNL had already initiated process of installing towers in these areas, he added.

“We would be installing 485 new mobile towers in remote areas. The BSNL already has 833 towers,” he said.

Notable among the new places would be the border villages, “The Centre has already approved installing towers in border areas. The Ministry of Defence gives clearance for each location. This would provide mobile connectivity to the villages in border areas,” he said.

At present, border villages either receive no mobile phone signal or the signal is very weak. On the other hand, signals of Pakistani mobile companies reach even the Jammu area. Sachin pilot said the government was trying to provide a mechanism to cut off Pakistan mobile signals.

He said the BSNL had 9 lakh consumers in the state and the department was aiming to add two lakh more by the next year. He said 1,000 post offices in the country had been given new look and feel. “Out of those, eleven are in Jammu and Kashmir. These post offices have been revamped and are now giving services using modern technologies,” he added.

In response to a query, Sachin exuded full confidence of Congress victory in Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh.

Srinagar, October 21
The meeting between representatives of protesting junior doctors and the committee constituted by the government remained inconclusive today.

Even as the committee headed by Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather asked the representatives of protesting doctors to resume work in view of the problems faced by poor patients, the representative impressed upon the government to fulfil their demands. The two sides are scheduled to meet again tomorrow to work out a strategy to end the strike that has adversely affected the health services in the state. The doctors in Kashmir valley have been on strike for the past two weeks in support of their demands, which includes hike in stipend and salaries.

Neeraj Sharma, a spokesman for the Doctors Joint Action Committee, said today’s meeting with the government was inconclusive. He claimed that it had nothing to offer to the doctors and instead their attitude was threatening.

“If the talks fail, the onus of responsibility will be on the government,” he said, adding that the government had failed to reciprocate. Sharma said the doctors were being forced to resume work before any talks, which would not be allowed.

An official spokesman said the Finance Minister after listening to their demands advised them to call off their strike in view of the problems being faced by the poor patients. He assured them that as per the decision already taken at a meting held on August 16, the government was committed to address their grievances before the Darbar move. Rather hoped that keeping in view their noble profession and their commitment to the ailing community, they would not waste their time by continuing their uncalled and unjustified strike.

Srinagar, October 21
Abid Hussain borrowed Rs 3,000 from his relatives outside LD Hospital, Kashmir’s top government maternity hospital, on Sunday and reluctantly took his wife Rubia, suffering from labour pains, to a well-known private hospital at Rajbagh, as advised by government doctors and his kin.

“God will bring his curse on these doctors. They all fight for themselves and never think about us,” the auto-driver from Budgam said in an emotional bout against striking doctors, which has completely paralysed government hospital services in the valley and even emergency care at some paces has come to a grinding halt.

It is poor people like Abid, who bring their sick family members to government hospitals for cheap care, who has been hit the hardest by the strike of junior doctors. The strike entered its 11th day today and there seems no immediate and durable compromise between the government and equally adamant doctors.

The statements made by Medical Education Minister RS Chib and the association of junior doctors have been confrontational with little regard for the sufferings of common masses. On the one hand the doctors accuse the government of betrayal and vow to teach it a lesson, on the other the minister has called their strike a drama and dared them to resign, if they were serious.

A resident doctor at the SMHS Hospital said they were forced to return many patients. The number of patients in the inpatient department has come down to almost 10 per cent of what it is during normal days. “Our OPDs see almost 6,500 patients everyday. Now it is not even 650,” he said.

In the medical community, there is a general sympathy for the striking doctors as even resident doctors believe that their stipend is too low and they require more recognition. While the official line is that the junior doctors also had to pay much less in the state than many other states.

The only people having a good time during the crisis are private practitioners, who include many government doctors. The once bustling LD Hospital seems comparatively deserted while many private hospitals in Rajbagh are seeing more and more patients, including those like Rubia whose husband had to borrow money for treatment and would never have come there in normal days.

Jammu, October 21
Eminent Dogri poet Yash Sharma would share his literary experiences with his admirers at a literary function - Meet the Writer - at the KL Sehgal Hall on Saturday. The function is being organised by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, to commemorate the writer.

In the scheduled function, the writer would recite some of his best compositions, besides answering to the queries of the audience. He will also throw light on Dogri renaissance period and contribution of a galaxy of eminent writers in its making before it got registered in the eight schedule of Indian constitution.

The premier literary organisation of the country recently awarded prestigious title of “writer in residency” to the octogenarian poet. Yash won Sahitya Akademi award in 1992 for his anthology of lyrics and poems: Jo Tere Man Chit Laggi Ja.

He is widely recognised as lyricist, scriptwriter and a playwright. Being a poet he has enriched Dogri poetry with deep-rooted emotions that get inspiration from native traditions of Dogra land.

He has been conferred the epithet of ‘Albela Geetkar’ by the critics because of his immense popularity among the masses as a master lyricist. His poetry covers a vast canvas from romanticism to nature with special infatuation with cultural richness of Basohli. His devotional songs are also rated highly.

During his illuminant career, Yash served at both stations of Radio Kashmir (Jammu and Srinagar) as scriptwriter, announcer and news reader. He also wrote lyrics for the first Dogri film, Gallan Hoian Bitiyan, and Dogri telefilm Tugi Meri Soh, besides acting in Hindi film Gun and Guard.

Srinagar, October 21
Demanding rehabilitation of nomad Gujjars of the state and establishment of tribal university in the north Kashmir, many Gujjars activists yesterday carried out demonstrations outside the District Development Commissioner (DDC), Kupwara.

The demonstration was organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Chapter of Gujjar Maha Sabha. Later, a memorandum was submitted to the Kupwara DDC.

Chowdhary Ishfaq ur-Rehman Poswal, state president of the Gujjar Maha Sabha, said the Gujjars of northern Kashmir were the worst sufferers of government policies.

“We feel marginalised with respect to basic amenities of life. We have been demanding establishment of a tribal university in north Kashmir since 2007,” Poswal said.

He said northern part of Kashmir was thickly populated by the Gujjars and needed special attention of the state and the Centre.

“The Gujjars of Kupwara, Baramulla and adjoining areas are facing difficulties and hardships. They feel ignored in every field and haven’t been rehabilitated till date.”

The Gujjars demanded inclusion of Gojri in the eighth schedule of Indian constitution, speedy implementation of developmental schemes, withdrawal of orders regarding restricting nomadic movement, establishment of shopping complexes at district and tehsil headquarters, proper representations in Rehber-e-Talim and other government schemes, introduction of cattle insurance schemes for Bakerwals, and relaxation of age bar in favour of Gujjar aspirants in police and other recruitments.

Srinagar, October 21
Emphasising on dispensing with cumbersome formalities and lending procedures, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has asked the bankers to adopt sensitive approach for ensuring full achievement of targets fixed under self-employment schemes.

Addressing the State-Level Banker’s Committee Meeting (SLBC) here, the Finance Minister said a free flow of credit was vitally needed to propel economic growth and generate gainful employment opportunities for the unemployed youth. He expressed concern over the dismal performance of banks under the government-sponsored schemes, especially in agriculture and horticulture sectors.

The minister also inaugurated two HDFC Bank branches at Barzulla and Karanngar here yesterday. While making round of the computerised sections of the twin bank branches, the Minister said these financial institutions would facilitate the public, especially the entrepreneurs in setting up their ventures.

Observing that the benefits of subsidy and support schemes of the Centre and state government had not reached to the targeted beneficiaries on a large scale, Rather stressed on forging perfect synergy among the concerned departments and agencies to improve the performance in future.

Commenting on the SLBC sub-committee recommendations for export promotion, the Minister said bank-wise and sector-wise analysis of lending to various sectors revealed dismal performance in agriculture and micro-credit.

“Only 37 per cent beneficiaries have been covered and a mere Rs 96.58 crore to 14,128 beneficiaries against the target of Rs 205.92 crore is reflective of lack of seriousness and commitment,” he said.

Rather also expressed disapproval over 33 per cent performance in the micro-credit sector during the last fiscal. He said against an annual target of Rs 438.56 crore to 18,568 beneficiaries only Rs 144 crore had been registered during 2008-09, affecting employment opportunities in this potential sector adversely. He, however, appreciated the performance in small industrial sector, retail trading and housing sector, and called for maintaining the momentum.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, while speaking at the banker’s meeting in the SKICC here, has underscored the need for making such meetings more vibrant, effective and result-oriented so that pragmatic decisions are taken to ensure benefits to the people seeking banker’s support under various centre and state-sponsored schemes.

Omar asked the committee to broaden their agenda and find out ways how the banks could positively contribute towards implementing the government-sponsored schemes to ensure benefits percolate to the beneficiaries.

He said realistic and vibrant approach was required from the bankers to help implement the schemes aimed at economic welfare and employment generation.

The Chief Minister asked the banks to realise their social obligations while dealing with the cases under employment generation and welfare schemes of the government. “There are two different viewpoints existing between the government departments and the banks. While the government’s objective is to ensure financial support and subsidies to the beneficiaries for self-employment and welfare needs, the banks view the lending even for welfare schemes only as means of money making,” he said, adding that this gap in the viewpoints has to be abridged and such meetings provide a right platform to deliberate upon this important aspect.

Chief secretary SS Kapur underlined the role of entrepreneurship development institution in identifying motivated youth to seek benefits of schemes sponsored by the government for self-employment. He asked the banks to come forward with a commitment and spirit to make the self-employment and economic activities generating schemes a success.