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Major reshuffle in police,
bureaucracy
Throwing of shoe at CM
2 hurt in clashes, curfew continues in Srinagar
Governor visits relief camps in Leh
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Property worth Rs 80 cr damaged
in Kargil floods
Ensure round-the-clock power supply, says Omar
Oil tanker owners suspend strike partially
CET Impersonation Case
Get selection lists of 10 years probed by CBI: Mankotia
Infighting in BJP comes to the fore
Rain hits rail bridge repair work
Militant who is a headache
for security forces
Sympathiser of militants held
Gujjars object to Geelani’s remarks
Maha Gram Sabha held in Doda
Two Vaishno Devi pilgrims die of heart attack
Traders’ body to fight for displaced businessmen
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Major reshuffle in police, bureaucracy
Srinagar, August 26 According to an official spokesman, Samuel Verghese, Financial Commissioner, Home (Home Secretary), has been transferred and posted as Chairman, J&K Special Tribunal, while Khushid A. Ganai, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, has been transferred as Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department. Bharat Bhushan Vyas, Commissioner/Secretary, Planning and Development Department, has been posted as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister. K. Rajendra, ADGP, CID, has been transferred as ADGP, Armed and Law and Order. In respect of law and order matters, the two Zonal IGs of Kashmir and Jammu will report to the ADGP Armed/Law and Order under the overall command and control of the DGP, the spokesman said. SM Sahai, OSD in the Resident Commissioner’s Office, New Delhi, has been transferred and posted as IG, Kashmir. Dilbag Singh, IG, Armed, has been posted as Director, SKPTA, Udhampur. Naveen Agrarwal, Director, SKPTA, Udhampur, has been transferred as IG, Railways. Arun Chowdhary has been posted as IG, Technical Service, PHQ. Mrs DR Doley, IG, CID, has been transferred as IG, Headquarters. Farooq Ahmed, IG, Kashmir, has been transferred as IG, Security, while B Srinivas, IG, Headquarters, has been posted as IG, CID. In the civil administration, BR Sharma, Principal Secretary, PDD, has been transferred as Principal Secretary, Home. KB Aggarwal, Chairman, Special Tribunal, has been transferred and posted as Commissioner/Secretary PWD (R&B). Basharat Ahmed Dhar, Commissioner/Secretary, GAD, has been transferred as Commissioner/Secretary, PDD. Mehboob Iqbal, Commissioner/Secretary, PWD (R&B), has been transferred and asked to report to the GAD for further posting. Naseema Lankar, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, has been transferred as Commissioner/ Secretary, School Education. Asgar Hassan Samoon, Commissioner/Secretary, CAPD/Transport, has been posted as Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir. GA Peer, Secretary Education, has been transferred as Excise Commissioner.
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Throwing of shoe at CM
Srinagar, August 26 Inspector General (Security) Ram Lubhaiya, an IPS officer of 1985 batch and SSP Srinagar Rafeeq Ul Hassan have been attached to police headquarters till further notice, an official spokesman said. Fifteen policemen have already been suspended by the state government in connection with the incident. Official sources said the policemen, four of whom who were of sub-inspector rank, faced the action pending an inquiry for lax security arrangements. —
PTI
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2 hurt in clashes, curfew continues in Srinagar
Srinagar, August 26 While the situation remained peaceful, two persons were injured in clashes in the Soura area of the city where a youth died yesterday. The youth had been admitted to the SKIMS, Soura, and he died after three days leading to protests in the area. The police here said a mob threw stones at the police at Anchar in Soura. Though it exercised restraint, it had to resort to a lathi-charge and fire tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters. Two persons, Irfan Bhat and Zahoor Ahmed, were injured in the clashes and were shifted to hospital. The curfew was also imposed in Bemina, Qamarwari, Nowhatta, Khanyar, MR Gunj, Safakadal and Maisuma police stations of the city today, while the restrictions were lifted from the areas under four police stations. The restrictions on the movement, however, remained in Batamaloo and parts of Kothibagh police stations. Elsewhere in the Valley, restrictions were imposed in Beijbehara and Anantnag and in Budgam town.
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Governor visits relief camps in Leh
Srinagar, August 26 The Governor was briefed by Chhering Dorje, Chief Executive Councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, T. Angchok, Deputy Commissioner, Leh, and other officers of the administration about the loss of life and property. Vohra visited with the flood-affected families putting up in relief camps and enquired about the facilities provided to them. He examined the functioning of the Water Purification System at Tashi Gatsal. He also visited the upcoming solar colony and had a appraisal of the site proposed for the rehabilitation of the flood-hit families. The Deputy Commissioner informed him that the families were being provided plots of seven marla each in the colony for constructing houses.
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Property worth Rs 80 cr damaged
in Kargil floods
Srinagar, August 26 The Minister during his tour visited all the flood-hit areas of Shakar Chiktan, Shargole, Silmo-Btalik blocks and Kargil town where the properties and crops have been damaged. He gave instruction to the officers for early reconstruction of the infrastructure in the flood-hit areas. A threadbare discussion was held on important issues for providing facilities to the affected people, including restoration of water supply, provision of free ration and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure. An official spokesman said during the meeting it was decided that a relief of Rs 2 lakh would be given to those whose houses were totally damaged, while those whose houses had been partially damaged would get Rs 1 lakh for repair. Also, 20 tin sheets would be provided for totally damaged houses and 10 sheets for partially damaged. The meeting also decided that locals should be engaged in reconstruction of infrastructure for which they should be paid Rs 110 per day. It was also decided that the Rural Development Department would help construct a community hall and a private school at Hignus. Akhoon stressed upon the officers to put in all efforts in restoration of damaged infrastructure in the district so that the people of affected areas did not suffer any more. He also asked them to ensure the completion of work before the onset of the winter.
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Ensure round-the-clock power supply, says Omar
Srinagar, August 26 Addressing a meeting to discuss issues pertaining to the supply of electricity and collection of revenue here today, Omar Abdullah directed the Power Development Department (PDD) to put in all efforts for ensuring 100 per cent revenue collection instead of mooting curtailment programmes. He said failure to collect the revenue called for curtailment of electric supply to the people and it had been observed that the PDD went for the curtailment option rather than making efforts to realise the revenue. Omar also directed the PDD to move a proposal for providing benefits of SRO-43 to the daily wagers of the department so that their families received necessary succour in case of untoward incidents to them while performing the duties. Omar directed for holding monthly meetings to review the status of power supply and revenue collection under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister, adding he would himself chair such meetings quarterly. He directed for opening revenue collection centres in the areas where bills were not collected through banks. Principal Secretary, PDD, BR Sharma presented a status report on power supply and revenue collection in the state during the last five years and the first quarter of the current fiscal. He also explained various measures being introduced to reform the power distribution and tariff collection. He said two grid stations of 220 KV capacities would be commissioned shortly, adding over 1000 substations would be computerised to make billing process convenient. He said the PDD also intended to put in place an automation, networking web self-service under R-APDRP in the state to read 11 KV and 33 KV feeders. He said there had been over 12 per cent growth in the consumption of power in the state in 2009-10 as compared to the previous year. He said the net consumption in the last year was of the order of 10303.436 million units as compared to 9147.217 million units in 2008-09.
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Oil tanker owners suspend strike partially
Jammu, August 26 However, according to a handout issued by the Divisional Commissioner, the oil tanker owners have called off the strike with immediate effect. The fuel would be available at all petrol stations from late tonight, added the handout. The association hasn’t rolled back its strike in the Kashmir valley where more than 35 drivers and over 200 tankers have been attacked by mobs in the past over two months. “After holding a meeting with the Divisional Commissioner, we partially suspended our strike in the Jammu province, resuming the supplies to at least 15 filling stations, five of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation and 10 of the Indian Oil Corporation in the city,” said president of the association Anand Sharma. While from tomorrow normal supply would be resumed across Jammu, supply to the troubled Valley would be resumed only after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah personally gave them a guarantee of protecting tankers and drivers from mob attacks, he added. “A delegation will meet the Chief Minister in Srinagar tomorrow at 2 pm wherein he would be apprised about problems faced by us,” said Sharma. “Under prevailing circumstances of uncertainty and incidents of assault, it would be impossible for us to resume the fuel supply to the Valley”, he added. The association president further said if the state government failed to provide security to them, they would be forced to approach the Centre. On an average, the association daily dispatches 24 lakh litres of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and even ATF to the Valley alone through a fleet of 200 tankers. Following an attack on two drivers at Bijbehara in the Valley on August 21, the association had stopped ferrying fuel to various oil depots across the state, including the Jammu region. While the association had stopped fuel supply to the Valley thrice in the last one month, this time it went on a statewide strike, including Jammu. The All-J&K Transporters Joint Action Committee has also expressed serious concern over the incidents of assault on their drivers, who ferry essential items to the Valley. It has also threatened to stop supply to the Valley if the government failed to check the unhealthy trend. Over 400 to 450 oil tankers supply kerosene oil, petrol, diesel and even ATF to depots in the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh region on a daily basis.
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CET Impersonation Case
Jammu, August 26 Confirming this, SDPO, Jammu South, ML Kaith said, “We have completed the case file after receiving the orders from senior officers to hand over it to the CBI.” He added, “So far, the CBI has not taken over the case and we are waiting for it. That’s why none of the aspirants has been arrested as yet.” On being asked, if the aspirants managed to flee before the CBI took over the case, the officer replied, “We can’t further investigate the case, as we have received orders from the higher ups.” Though the police has arrested seven impersonators, it is yet to initiate action against the aspirants, who had hired their services to qualify the MBBS and BDS exams on their behalf. The police along with the officials of Jammu University had unearthed the racket on August 21, with the arrest of seven,including two girls, all from other states. After that the police booked all the aspirants on the evening of August 23, including Huma Tabassum, Lovish Bharat and five others, namely, Areeshi Kiran, Sneh, Takshay, Mohhammad Sadiq and Rajiv Kumar. A case has been registered in this regard at the Nehru Market police post here. The accused arrested in the scam had already been sent to the police remand for nine days on August 22. SP (South) Rajeshwar Singh also confirmed that all the aspirants were still at large, as none had been arrested. He said, “The CBI can take over the case anytime.”
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Get selection lists of 10 years probed by CBI: Mankotia
Jammu, August 26 Addressing a press conference here, Panthers Party president and MLA from Udhampur Balwant Singh Mankotia said there was no scope for a further inquiry into the CET impersonation case as the involvement of a Congress minister had almost been established. “Instead of adopting delaying tactics in the case, the government should take legal action against all culprits immediately irrespective of their positions,” he said. Mankotia, however, pointed out that there was a need for a CBI probe into the selection lists of medical institutes in the state for the last 10 years. “Kin of politicians and other powerful persons have managed seats in medial colleges and there is a need to probe all previous lists,” he said. The Panthers Party leader attacked the Congress leadership for patronising corruption in the state. “Except encouraging corruption in the state, the government has done nothing,” he said. Pointing towards the failure of the Congress leadership to fulfil its promise of constituting a Delimitation Commission, Mankotia reminded that in two successive Assembly elections in years 2002 and 2008, the Congress had promised to constitute a Delimitation Commission but no action had been taken so far.
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Infighting in BJP comes to the fore
Kathua, August 26 Differences in the BJP came out in the open when former state BJP president and national executive committee member Nirmal Singh boycotted a public meeting that was convened in the Basholi area of Kathua district to mobilise the masses against the proposal of granting autonomy to Kashmir. Interestingly, the ‘nationalist’ BJP has been trying to mobilise public opinion against the autonomy proposal, but it even failed to keep its flock together. Nirmal Singh, who had boycotted the meeting at Basholi, was irked over the decision of the party leadership to send a junior leader in the important meeting. Sources in the party said Manhas, Legislature Party leader Chaman Lal Gupta and Nirmal Singh were scheduled to address the meeting but at the eleventh hour the party leadership changed the schedule and sent Anil Gupta to address the meeting with Nirmal Singh. Although Anil Gupta is the vice-president of the party, his presence in the meeting irked Nirmal Singh, as the latter considered him as his rival in the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat. Nirmal Singh had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha election from the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, but his rivals had been projecting Gupta as the potential candidate from the constituency. Gupta had also staked his claim on the seat as his father Chaman Lal Gupta had won from this segment for three successive terms. The sources said Manhas had been gradually projecting new leaders in those areas where his rivals had stakes. He had been especially targeting the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha segment where his rival Nirmal Singh had high stakes. Nirmal Singh is the leader of that faction of the party which is close to the RSS and other organisations of the Sangh Parivar. This faction has already lodged its protest against the autocratic style of functioning of Manhas. The pro-Sangh Parivar leaders complain that Manhas had even ignored them while participating in the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the Kashmir situation.
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Rain hits rail bridge repair work
Jammu, August 26 After August 17 when a 100-feet wide crack appeared, the repair work on 11 pillars of the bridge was being carried out. Hardly a day passes when the traffic is normal. G S Singh, Divisional Traffic Manager (DTM), Jammu Tawi railway station, said: “To avoid any mishap, the same track, which has been closed a number of times till now, was closed to traffic in the morning. The water level in the nullah increased and playing safe, the engineers decided to stop the traffic.” On being asked about the affect of rain on the repair work, he replied: “We have to asses the damage caused by the rain, but the repair work is still continuing and it will take two to three more days.” However, sources claimed the pace was slow and if it remained the same in the coming days, the bridge would collapse.The foundations had been washed away and if the rain continued in coming days, it would lead to disaster, sources added.
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Militant who is a headache
for security forces
Jammu, August 26 Charged with the killing of two civilians, two Army jawans and a police constable, the “A” category militant comes from a poor family, a senior police officer told The Tribune. Aged 25,Subhash Kumar, who belongs to Razna in the Palmar area of Kishtwar and is the eldest among four siblings, had a fight with his schoolmates over a trivial issue in 2003 when he was a student. Nursing a grudge, Subhash, along with his friend, Haroon Rashid of Patimahal, came in contact with Showkat Ahmed, the then Divisional Commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen.He joined the outfit on July 19, 2003 after converting to Islam, Rechristened as Wafif, alias Qamran, he made rapid strides and was soon made the tehsil commander of the Dachhan and Chatroo areas.”His father, Jeevan Lal, is a selection grade constable in IRP’s 15 Battalion and he has two younger brothers, Sandeep Kumar and Makhan Lal and a sister”,said the officer. “Now, he is the second-in-command to the commander and both have been trying to revive the outfit in the Chicha, Chatroo, Marwah and Dachhan areas”, the officer added.Besides,he had also been indulging in extortion. The police tried to convince his family and village elders to bring him back into the mainstream,but his family disowned Subhash. It is also learnt that almost a month ago, he married a Muslim girl from Sigdi Bhatta, who now moves with him in the Marwah area. “Money and power quotient apart, we could see two initiating factors for a school dropout Hindu boy to join militancy. First, his fight with his schoolmates in 2003 and secondly, his proximity with Haroon Rashid and other friends who had close ties with Hizbul Mujahideen militants in the area”, said the police officer, and added Subhash,alias Wafif had now become a headache for the security forces. |
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Sympathiser of militants held
Jammu, August 26 Acting upon intelligence inputs, the police arrested Irshad Ahmed of Goni Patnazi in Kishtwar, who had provided a SIM card to the arrested LeT militant, Nazir Ahmed Gorsi, alias Saqib, of Budhar Patnzai. During the investigation, it was found that the SIM recovered from Gorsi was actually drawn by Irshad Ahmed on his name and was passed on to the LeT militant. Since then the police was in search of Ahmed. Further investigation into the matter was on and more arrests and recoveries were expected in the coming days. In its effort to nab such elements, the police in the past one month has arrested three persons - Irshad Ahmed of Goni Patnazi, Mohammed Abass Malik of Tilogra Gundoh in Doda and Mohammed of Tipri Bonjwah - who, after procuring SIM cards, had been handing them to the militants. During recent encounters and arrest of various militants in Kishtwar, it had surfaced that there was some nexus between different mobile phone dealers and militant sympathisers, who were continuously providing SIM cards to these terrorists.
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Gujjars object to Geelani’s remarks
Jammu, August 26 Addressing a press conference, Choudhary Nazakat Khattana, leader of the Gujjar Front, said Geelani, who had passed some ‘derogatory’ remarks against Gujjars, was responsible for the killing of hundreds of youths in the state. “Geelani has been instigating children of other people to join jehad while his own children have been enjoying luxuries and living outside the state,” Khattana said. He said the Gujjars being nationalists had always opposed the secessionists and the anti-national policies of the Hurriyat leaders and that was the reason leaders like Geelani had been passing unsavoury remarks against them. The Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, a frontal organisation of Gujjars, reacted sharply to Geelani’s statement describing the Gujjars as different from Muslims. Javaid Rahi, secretary of the foundation, said Geelani should correct himself and should talk carefully about the issues which were sensitive in nature and could affect the religious sentiments of Gujjars.
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Maha Gram Sabha held in Doda
Jammu, August 26 Sagar was speaking after inaugurating the Maha Gram Sabha organised by the Department of Rural Development at Doda today. It was attended by representatives of various villages of Doda district.MLCs Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy and Ravinder Shrama, Director, Rural Development, Jammu, District Development Commissioner, Doda, and other senior officers of the district administration. Asking the separatists to shun the policy of holding people hostage by resorting to strikes, Sagar said they should adopt a pragmatic approach and come forward so that the vexed issue could be resolved. “Every sphere of life has got affected due to the strike calls by the separatists and they should understand that by adopting these tactics, the education sector, tourism and the economy as a whole are getting disturbed and it will take decades to compensate the losses on account of these”, he maintained. Sagar said peace was imperative for overall development of the state and hoped that it would prevail so that the developmental works undertaken by the government were completed within the stipulated time. Highlighting the tremendous potential of MGNREGA in providing employment and changing the rural landscape of the areas, the minister said that about 14000 youths would be employed to provide the necessary human resource to the scheme and other schemes of the department. He said that flood protection works across the state would also be undertaken under the scheme. It is pertinent to mention that an amount of Rs 59 crore has been earmarked for the district and 49095 job cards have been issued and 8863 works have been undertaken under the scheme in the district.
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Army holds flight safety conference
Jammu, August 26 The conference was attended by Major General PK Bharali, Additional Director General, Army Aviation, General Managers from Hindustan Aeronautic Limited, Bangalore and Barrackpore and other dignitaries from the Army headquarters. The meeting addressed issues connected with operations, maintenance and flight safety of the Army aviation in the Northern Command, wherein it has its largest fleet of helicopters active in counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations in the country. On the occasion, Lt-Gen BS Jaswal, General Officer Commanding in Chief, presented the Flight Safety Trophy to Lt-Col SS Saini, Flight Commander, 2022 Utility Helicopters Flight. |
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Two Vaishno Devi pilgrims die of heart attack
Jammu, August 26 Meanwhile, in another incident Lasha Devi, a resident of Bihar, died of cardiac arrest near the bhawan last night, the police said. Later, the bodies of the pilgrims were handed over to their family members.
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Traders’ body to fight for displaced businessmen
Jammu, August 26 The association said no infrastructure had been provided to the displaced businessmen to run their business smoothly. It demanded that the one-room tenements (ORT) be turned into economic zones. |
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Srinagar, August 26
Srinagar, August 26
Torrential rain has affected repair work on the Balole railway bridge in Bari Brahmana in Samba district.Due to heavy rain yesterday, rail traffic was once again partially affected as only a single track was functional.
