Jammu, April 7
After invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on government employees, the police has started cracking down on the strikers.

The police today took nearly 30 striking employees into preventive custody. However, no senior leader had been arrested till now, sources said.

After invoking ESMA, the police was conducting raids on the houses and hideouts of the employees.

All government employee unions have gone on strike and the functioning of all government departments has been paralysed. Earlier, the employees were staging demonstrations in their offices.After the invoking of the Act, strikes have been declared illegal and the police is trying to nab the agitating employees.

The police said 15 employees were taken into preventive custody from Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), five from near the Press Club, three from Gandhinagar Hospital and others were arrested from Kachi Chawni area.

Various employees unions, including the Civil Secretariat Employees (Non-Gazetted) Union, the J&K Government Employees Joint Consultative Committee and the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) have extended their strike till April 13, 11 and 12 respectively, which can be extended further.

A police officer said, “We are taking the striking employees in preventive custody since after the invoking of ESMA, it has become illegal to take part in strikes.”

Jammu, April 7
The Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC), which is spearheading the employees’ stir, has drawn a second line of defence to take the agitation to its logical conclusion.

Behind the curtains, the EJAC has geared up its second rung leadership to counter the government moves.

“The question of surrendering before repressive measures of the government does not arise at all. Now, it is a final battle and there is no looking back,” EJAC leader Mohammed Gafoor Dar told The Tribune.

“Though the government is trying hard to sabotage our movement and attempts are being made to arrest the top leadership of the EJAC, we will not let our agitation fizzle out this time,” Dar said.

“Top 20 leaders of the EJAC are safe and even if we get arrested, the strike would continue,” he said, adding that battle lines have been drawn for the purpose.

“The second rung leadership will then take over the agitation to its conclusion. It has already been geared up,” he said. “We also believe in dialogue, but this autocratic government has just exhibited its frustration by invoking ESMA on striking employees,” Dar said.

“I have just heard that senior leader Abdul Qayoom Wani has been arrested in Kashmir, but such repressive measures would only flare up the situation,” he added. The government on April 5 had invoked ESMA against the striking employees.

Meanwhile, addressing mediapersons here today, the EJAC leaders strongly castigated the government for what they claimed applying all possible means to sabotage their strike.

“The government knows that the employees are fighting for their rights and calling our attitude confrontational is another move of the government to mislead the people at large,” Yashpal Sharma, a senior EJAC leader, said. “Instead of fulfilling its promise, the government is now trying to suppress the voice of employees, which will only worsen the scenario,” he added.

“When it comes to employees, the government shows us empty coffers, but then how it decided to double the salaries of its legislators,” Darshan Magotra, another EJAC leader, said. The government should realise the gravity of situation and adopt corrective measures to soothe frayed nerves of the agitating employees, he added.

Jammu, April 7
Even as the NC - Congress coalition has decided to amend some clauses of the controversial Bill on inter-district recruitment, the BJP has given a call for Jammu bandh on April 9 against the move of the government to “snatch” the constitutional rights of reserved categories, especially the Scheduled Castes (SCs),the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Various organisations have also offered support to the bandh call given by the BJP on this controversial issue. The Bill to ban-inter district recruitment has already been tabled in the Assembly on April 5 for consideration and the government has decided to pass it on April 9 with some amendments, especially to make a provision of reservation for SCs.

Sources said keeping in view the pressure of its coalition partner,the Congress, the ruling NC had decided to make some amendments to Clause 6 and 7 of the Bill to placate the agitating SC community.

Interestingly, the pro-SCs and STs amendments to the proposed Bill have been given by Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh, and if these amendments were incorporated, the credit would go in his favour.

“We have no faith in this government because this regime has been trying to snatch the constitutional rights of weaker sections by introducing this biased Bill,” observed Bali Bhagat, vice-president of the BJP and convener of the Anusuchit Jaati Aarakshan Bachao Manch. He strongly defended the decision of the party to give a call for bandh on April 9 when this “discriminatory” Bill would be enacted as law. Bhagat said various social, political and religious organisations had offered full support to the strike call. He said by banning the inter-district recruitment, the state government had been trying to divide Jammu and Kashmir into 22 parts because this state had same number of districts.

Meanwhile, interacting with mediapersons, BJP president Shamsher Singh Manhas said the party had decided to protest against this discriminatory decision of the government against various underprivileged sections of society like SCs and STs in the state and it had given a bandh call on April 9. Manhas said all 11 legislators of the party would also oppose this Bill in the House.

Meanwhile, protest demonstrations were organised by the members of ST community in Rajouri, in which leaders condemned the government’s attempt to jeopardise interest of weaker sections.

Jammu, April 7
The government yesterday reaffirmed its endeavour to expand a good network of basic amenities to every area, especially remote and rural habitations.

Minister for Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmad said this while addressing a public meeting at Bajalta in Jammu. He sought cooperation of all sections of society to ensure effective and efficient implementation of state as well as centrally-sponsored development programmes.

Mian Altaf said numerous developmental works had been started during the past 15 months, besides ensuring the completion of several delayed projects. He said the state had been witnessing a significant transformation on economic, social and political fronts, which was quite visible from the achievements registered in almost every development field.

The minister also praised the Central government for providing required funds for the progress and prosperity of the state. He said the uplift of the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities and other weaker sections was the priority of the government.

Later, the minister had a detailed review meeting of proposed projects under the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) with the officers of the Wildlife Department.

The meeting discussed threadbare the handling of man-wild animal conflict situations, management plans for such conflicts, eco-development projects and other important issues

The minister directed the officers concerned to speed up the pace of all ongoing development projects for their timely completion. He also asked them to start work on recently sanctioned schemes under the CAMPA. He also asked them to install solar lights in unelectrified habitations of hilly areas and construct community halls under the programme.

Referring to man-wild animal conflicts, Mian Altaf asked the authorities to provide communication network and vehicles at all sensitive points to deal with such incidents.

Jammu, April 7
The State Board of School Education (BOSE) has decided to compensate students of Class XII by granting them grace marks in English paper(B), which was full of grammatical errors. The paper was conducted again on April 4 as it was cancelled on March 19 after it was leaked.

Though the board re-conducted the examination, the paper was full of grammatical errors, which were highlighted by The Tribune in its report.

Talking to The Tribune, Professor Desh Bandu Gupta, chairman of the BOSE, assured that the students would be compensated according to the damage assessed by the experts, to whom the question paper was sent immediately after the issue came to light.

Meanwhile, the BOSE chairman said the students who were interested in re-appearing in the re-examination of chemistry paper(B) should submit their application forms till April 10.

Keeping in view the paper leak incidents and to impart justice to all students, the state board had given four options to the students - the students should take proportionate marks which they will achieve in paper (A); they should go for re-evaluation; they should take new examination and those who think that they had done good in previous (old) paper could also go for re-evaluation of that paper as well.

In order to minimise the confusion prevailing among students that whether they should go for various entrance examinations which are scheduled during this month or for re-examination of chemistry paper(B), Prof Gupta said the board would re-conduct the examination of the same paper only after the competition of various entrance exams as the board did not want to disturb the students.

Jammu, April 7
The Miran Sahib block of RS Pura has become a hub of activities involving the use of unfair means in exams being conducted by the Board of School Education.

After 21 students were caught cheating using cellphones in an examination centre in Miran Sahib town in March, the police now claims that three papers of Class XII and one of Class X were also leaked in the town. The police said a case was registered against six persons, including government schoolteacher Gurdev Singh, late last night for their alleged involvement in paper leak.

Ajay Bharti, Ajay Sharma and Pardeep Sharma, all from the Miran Sahib block, were arrested for paper leak yesterday. They are employed either as teachers or lab assistants in private schools. Two students, who had bought the papers for Rs 10,000 each, were also apprehended. Besides kingpin Gurdev Singh, his two accomplices Suraj Kumar and Manjit Singh are absconding.

The police further said Gurdev, who was deputed at an exam centre in Miran Sahib, owns a posh house in Simbal village, suggesting his lavish lifestyle.

The question papers of English, math and science-I of Class X and one paper of English of Class XII were leaked recently.

Prof Desh Bandhu Gupta, chairman, Board of School Education, said, “I am shocked that a government teacher is accused of being involved in the paper leak scam. It is for the first time the board has lodged an FIR in the case. We will go to the bottom of the scandal and take strict action against the guilty.”

DSP (probationary) Javed Iqbal Tantrey, Miran Sahib police station, said, “We are conducting raids to arrest the three absconding accused.”

On March 13, as many as 21 students were caught using cellphones and blue-tooth earphones for cheating during exam in Miran Sahib.

Jammu, April 7
The state government’s decision to postpone the local body elections for six months has evoked resentment among corporators.

Most of the corporators who had started mobilising their constituencies, were disheartened with the government move. Opposition parties, particularly the BJP, have described the government’s decision as a move to save the ruling alliance from humiliating defeat as all sections of society are annoyed with the government at present. The local body elections were scheduled for May this year.

While talking to The Tribune, former Mayor Kavinder Bhushan Gupta, who belongs to the BJP, said the decision of the government had once again demonstrated that the coalition government was not sincere in empowering the people through local body elections in the state.

The former Mayor alleged that by taking this decision, the coalition government had made it clear that they were not in favour of conducting fair elections.

Sheela Handoo, a BJP candidate and former corporator of ward no 64, said she had initiated election campaign in her ward three months ago.

Sheela said: “The government know it very well that if they conduct the elections this time, they will not be able to win as all government employees, PoK refugees and other refugees are angry with them,” Handoo alleged.

Former corporator of ward no 32 and former Deputy Mayor Dharamvir Singh Jamwal, who belongs to the NC, hailed the government move.

He said by deferring the elections, the government had shut the mouth of those people who were alleging that it did not want to conduct fair elections as voter lists were full of discrepancies.

Dewarka Nath Choudary, former corporator of ward no 46, who belong to the Congress, also hailed the government decision.

Meanwhile, hundreds of BJP activists held a protest against the government for its decision to postpone the elections. They burnt the effigy of the NC-Congress coalition at Kachi Chawni Chowk.

While addressing the gathering, Rajesh Gupta, district president, said it was a move to murder the democracy at the lower levels.

Jammu, April 7
The PDP has flayed the NC-Congress coalition for invoking the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) on the agitating government employees.

The PDP regretted that instead of initiating a dialogue with the striking employees, the government had been adopting a confrontationist attitude to deal with the situation.

In a joint statement issued here, former Rajya Sabha member Trilok Singh and PDP MLA from Darhal Choudhary Zulfikar expressed surprise that the government had been trying to crush agitation of the employees with oppressive measures.

They suggested the government that such measures could prove counter-productive and the prevailing situation would worsen by such steps. The PDP termed ESMA like acts as draconian and asked the government to start a dialogue with the employees to solve the issue.

PDP leaders reminded that the government itself had promised in February 2009 to give arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission to the employees. “Now, the government is backtracking from its own commitment,” they said and warned that being the main opposition party, the PDP would not remain a mute spectator to the oppressive policies of the coalition government.

Jammu, April 7
Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) and Transport Qamer Ali Akhoon yesterday informed the Legislative Council that 12,894 commercial and passenger vehicles, which were 25-year- old, had been phased out in the state.

He said that no-objection certificates (NOCs) to 2009 commercial and passenger vehicles had also been issued for registration in other states.

Replying to a question by Altaf Ahmad Wani, the minister said the traffic police was the primary enforcement agency to check the documents of the vehicles plying on the public roads.

“The police is responsible for checking of such vehicles that ply without valid fitness certificates. However, the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) has also constituted traffic mobile squads for checking documents in respect of commercial vehicles, which are presently plying without valid documents,” he said, adding that an amount of Rs 88 lakh, on account of compounding of offences from the violators, have been recovered during the last financial year.

The minister further said the Board of Inspections of Regional Transport Authorities under the administrative control of Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) and Assistant RTOs (ARTOs) were charging late fees for delayed inspections for fitness of vehicles.

The minister said 72,3655 vehicles were plying in the state, of which 1,25,109 vehicles were commercial and 5,92,838 non-commercial. He told the House that the Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department planned to widen various roads, which would ease out problems. He said various roads were being widened in Srinagar city to ease traffic movement. In reply to another question by Mohammad Rashid Qureshi, the minister said adequate buffer stocks of food grains were being maintained to provide ration to the consumers.

Replying to a query about the measures taken by the state government to control the price escalation of essential commodities, the minister said due to failure of monsoon and drought in several parts of the country, the price rise for essential commodities was a national phenomenon and depended upon the market trend about demand and supply.

Jammu, April 7
A day after a Railway Police constable, Amarjeet Singh, was murdered, the local police is still groping in the dark.

The police said so far there was no clue to link the murder with the seizure of Rs 54 lakh of alleged black money from a delhi businessman from the railway station on Monday.

Amarjeet, who worked as a driver with the DSP, Railways, was killed by some persons using some sharp-edged weapons at Sainik Colony late last night.

The body of the constable was found lying a few metres away from his motorcycle on the road. He was returning to his house in Kunjawani after attending duty in the GRP Lines at Jammu Tawi Railway Station.

The police said some locals informed it about the incident around 9:30 pm and on getting information a police party and experts of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) were rushed to the incident site to collect samples.

Razzak Khan, SP (South), said, “We have been trying hard to get any clue in the incident but nothing has come out so far.” He added, “ No weapon has been found. At this point, nothing can be revealed about the investigations.” A case under Section 302 of the RPC has been registered in the incident.

Vijay Kumar, SSP, Railway Police, said, “Some people are relating the incident with the arrest of a Delhi-based businessman, who was arrested with about Rs 54 lakh from the railway station on Monday.” The SSP, however, said Amarjeet was not part of the team that arrested the businessman. The last rites of the deceased were performed this afternoon and senior police officers were present on the occasion.