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Jammu parties give thumbs down to Centre’s initiative
Even PoK refugees unhappy, feel ignored
Oppn gears up to take on govt in
Assembly
Exam date sheets out; Valley students jittery as syllabus incomplete
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Don’t send wards to schools: Geelani
‘CRPF exercises utmost restraint to disperse mob’
Gujjar body appeals to restore historic monuments
Minister reviews anti-erosion work in Katra
A scene from the play, ‘Kahani Ek Kuttey Ki’ presented in Natrang’s Sunday Theatre in Jammu. A Tribune photograph
Programme on Dogri art, culture held
Panels formed to speed up construction work in ravaged Leh
CPM for sustained talks with all
ATM doors damaged
NC’s farcical steps proved disastrous for state: PDP
Dental college students refuse to relent
Militant sympathiser
nabbed, hideout busted
Health camp held
Liquor smuggling bid foiled, one held
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Jammu parties give thumbs down to Centre’s initiative
Jammu, September 26 These groups have decided to convene a meeting of different political, social and religious organisations of Jammu tomorrow to devise a fresh strategy to launch a joint movement against the Centre’s move to succumb before the separatists of Kashmir Valley. While the Jammu-based Congress leaders have maintained a guarded silence on the Centre’s initiatives, the opposition parties, namely, the BJP and the Panthers Party, have asserted to come on the streets against the “Kashmir-centric” formula announced by the Centre by succumbing before the separatists. Privately the Jammu-based Congress leaders have expressed their resentment on the formula, but they are hesitating to come out publicly. “The Centre has once again bowed before the separatists and anti-national elements and continues on its appeasing policy towards Kashmir, while ignoring Jammu and
Ladakh,” pointed out state BJP president Shamsher Singh Manhas, who observed that the eight-point formula was nothing, but aimed at benefitting the Kashmir only and it has nothing for Ladakh and Jammu, which again speaks of the preferential treatment to the Valley by the Union Government. Condemning the Centre's decision to release all stone throwers and withdrawal of all cases against those who were indulged in agitational terrorism, the BJP state president questioned, "What message the Centre and the state government want to give to the nation by according leniency to those who break the law?” The
BJP, however, warned that his party would not allow the Centre to fulfill nefarious designs of the separatists. “We have decided to launch an agitation against the Centre’s move,” he said and appealed to all “nationalist” parties of the state to come on a single platform to oppose such a move of the government. “We have already made it clear that entire exercise was aimed at protecting failed Omar Abdullah,” said president of the Panthers Party Balwant Singh
Mankotia, while rejecting the eight-point formula. “Instead of accommodating aspirations and wishes of the people of different regions, the Centre has addressed only the agenda of the ruling NC,” he said. |
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Even PoK refugees unhappy, feel ignored
Jammu, September 26 While they reportedly have not got any relief after their displacement from the areas under Pakistani occupation in 1947, they claim to be the first victim of the conflict that engulfed the state after the partition of the country. “We are feeling disappointed again. During meeting with all-party delegation at Jammu, I was asked to submit the memorandum,” said president of West Pakistani Refugees Action Committee 1947 Labba Ram Gandhi and added, “So I will visit every delegate at his residence in Delhi next week and present them a CD and a book ‘Azad Desh Ke Ghulam Log’, so that they know about us.” “Our demands for citizenship rights, special package for rehabilitation, right to vote in the State Assembly elections, special recruitment and state subject certificate remain unfulfilled,” he said and added, “Now, even the Central Government departments have been asking for state subject certificate with application forms. Due to this our youth is not getting jobs.” SOS International, an organisation of POK refugees, has termed the eight-point agenda to deal with raging issues in the state, as “expected” and “Kashmir centric.” Though chairman of the organisation Rajiv Chuni welcomed the humane concern of the Central Government towards Kashmir, at the same time he criticised the government’s “continuous” apathetic attitude towards the refugees. “In the past also, we saw constitution of the PM’s working groups on Kashmir, round table conference and now all-party parliamentary delegation’s visiting the state. At every step justice has been denied to us,” he said. “Our first and foremost demand is resolution of POK issue, according to aspirations of the refugees. The parliamentary delegation made it a point to visit separatist leaders, but the delegation did not bother to meet the POK refugees whose issues have not been redressed since 1947,” he regretted. “Our people were brutally
lathi-charged and arrested when they wanted to meet all-party parliamentary delegation at Jammu,” he said and questioned, “Don’t we have any human rights or natural rights,” he said. “While CCS’s agenda shows humane face towards
Kashmiris, why is there a criminal silence over the issues of the refugees?” he said and added, “At least 17,000 people had lost their lives when a part of the state (now under the occupation of Pakistan) came under attack of Kabaili backed by the Pakistani forces.” “Still, we welcome the constitution of a separate committee for the settlement of issues facing Jammu and hope it will deliver up to the expectations of the people. But we appeal that the person appointed for chairing the committee do not have any political affiliations," he said. |
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Oppn gears up to take on govt in
Assembly
Srinagar, September 26 While sources in the PDP say that the party is yet to decide whether to attend the session or boycott it in view of the unrest in the Valley in which 107 persons have lost their lives so far, any decision in this regard will be taken after the meeting of the party leadership before the session. The party leadership also admit that they are yet to take a decision in this regard. Speaking to The Tribune, senior party leader and MLA Nizam-ud-din Bhat said, “We have not taken any decision as how to go about it (Assembly session) in the backdrop of the current unrest. This is a major decision and the party will thoroughly deliberate on it in the coming days.” The sources say that the party is in a fix if it attends the session it will send a signal to the people that it too is a part of the system and will get alienated. If it does not attends the session it will miss an opportunity to pull up the Omar Abdullah government for the ongoing unrest in the Valley. The Panthers Party too has up its ante against the government as the party says it will raise the issues of ‘non-governance and law and order’ during the session. “The government does not exist. The issues of non-governance, non-performance, collapse of the administration, constitutional failure, failure on development front and unprecedented corruption are some of the issues that will be taken up in the session,” leader of the Panthers Legislature Party Harsh Dev Singh told The Tribune. He said the issue of law and order would also dominate the session. “We will oppose any move towards autonomy or self-rule and will also oppose any move to dilute or revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, as the state is facing an extraordinary situation and needs extraordinary laws to deal with it,” Harsh Dev said. The BJP with 11 members in the Assembly will also demand the resignation of the Chief Minister and oppose any move towards autonomy, self-rule or the revocation of the AFSPA. “We have made our stand clear. The Omar Abdullah government has totally failed. Jammu and Kashmir is in a state of chaos. We will oppose any move on the issues of autonomy, self-rule or repeal of the AFSPA, as our security forces need these laws to fight terrorism sponsored from across the border,” said a senior BJP leader. Political experts in Kashmir say that the session will be stormy as much of the heat will be directed towards the government. |
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Exam date sheets out; Valley students jittery as syllabus incomplete
Srinagar, September 26 Kashmir University and the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education today issued examination date sheets for various classes. The date sheets have come out days after the government announced that the normal classes would resume from September 27. The Kashmir University today issued date sheets for various colleges to hold the examination of the undergraduate students and the postgraduate students and the exams are scheduled to start from September 30. “While date sheets for the third semester of postgraduate courses has been declared, the head of the respective departments have been asked to arrange the date sheets for the first semesters,” Showkat Shafi, a PRO of Kashmir University said. “We have already wasted four months of time, students were likely to loose one academic year and we hope that the students their parents and all-section of people would cooperate and would not let the academic year of the students go waste,” Shafi said. The Jammu and Kashmir State Board too has issued the date sheet for the examination of the 9, 10, 11 and 12 standards. The examination of the ninth standard would start from October 14, the 10th standard would have
their exams from October 25, the 11 standard from November 1 and the 12 standard from November 2. But the students of various classes say owing to the unrest in the entire Valley they haven’t been able to attend a single class for the past four months and even their academic syllabus is incomplete, they have asked the people concerned to see the amount of syllabus covered before setting the question papers. “Since there was no class for the past four months we have only been able to complete 50 per cent of the syllabus and we hope that the examination is conducted out of the syllabus that we have covered,” said Farah a student of Mallinson School who has to appear for the examination of Class X. The government says they would hold regular classes from September 26 and instructions have been issued to all concerned to help
hold the classes, the government says that it is hopeful to cover the maximum portion of the syllabus before
the examinations are held. |
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Don’t send wards to schools: Geelani
Srinagar, September 26 In a statement issued here today, Geelani appealed to parents, teaching and non-teaching staff to boycott schools on September 27. “We appeal to parents not to send their children to schools. We also appeal to the teaching and non-teaching staff to desist from going to schools,” Geelani said. He said the opening of schools was a ploy of the state and the Central governments to sabotage the ongoing “struggle” of the people of Kashmir.
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‘CRPF exercises utmost restraint to disperse mob’
Jammu, September 26 “It is also presumed in some sections that the CRPF uses force at the first sight of violence. Nothing could be farther from truth than this,” he said. The track record of the CRPF in the recent times had been to maintain a self-imposed restraint even in the face of grave provocation, he said. More than 50 times, CRPF camps had been attacked by frenzied mobs and over 1,400 CRPF personnel had been injured in the past three months, Tripathi said. He maintained that at first instance all non-lethal methods were used to disperse the mob and firing was only resorted when there was an imminent threat to life and property. He stated that CRPF troopers were undergoing great physical and psychological stress. They had to work hard for long hours, adding that in spite of the demanding situation, their morale was high. The CRPF personnel who were injured in maintaining law and order were being given Rs 2,500 as reward and those who received grievous injuries were rewarded Rs 7, 500. “This is not a compensation for their injuries, but a reward for maintaining restraint in spite of getting injured,” he added. |
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Gujjar body appeals to restore historic monuments
Jammu, September 26 The cultural organisation expressed shock over deteriorating condition of various world-class architectures and artifacts, including buildings, forts, sculptures, temples, coins and other things related to ‘Gujjar Pratihara’ kings. Secretary of the foundation Dr Javaid Rahi said in a statement that hundreds of prestigious monuments of Gujjar period were facing a extinction threat in different states of the northern India. He appealed the community members, government and non-government organisations to join hands to restore old memorials of their ancestors that are endangered. “The main king of Gujjar clan Raja Mihir Bhoj was the most outstanding rulers of the dynasty, who built a number of forts, buildings, temples in India, which are presently at the verge of extinction,” he said. “Beautiful carved panels are also seen painted on the walls of temples standing at Osian, Abhaneri and Kotah and the female figure named as Sursundari exhibited in Gwalior Museum is one of the most charming sculptures of the Gurjara-Pratihara Art,” he added. He said communications in this regard were also sent to CMs of Rajasthan, Madhiya Pardesh, Gujrat and other states with a plea to start restoration of all historic buildings of the Gujjar period. He stressed that community initiative was also required to rebuild some of the historic buildings, which are on the verge of extinction. He said, “We also wrote to Union Minister of Culture to declare the main forts, temples, coins and other heritage belonging to ‘Gurjara Pratihara’ kings as protected monuments of India.” |
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Minister reviews anti-erosion work in Katra
Udhampur, September 26 Carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 11.39 crore, the anti-erosion work at Balni has been approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC). The work has been allotted to the executing agency as per proposals approved by the CWC and is expected to be complete by the end of next year. After completion, the project would help protect 18 shops and 20 acres of land in major and medium flood along the site. The water treatment plant at Salmay near Udhampur is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 28.82 crore. When operational, its capacity would be adding 32 lakh gallons of drinking water to the existing supply to the inhabitants of Udhampur town. Over 91,000 people will benefit from it. While inspecting the work, the minister instructed the engineers to be careful about the upkeep and management of this plant. He informed that the first phase of the Udhampur water supply scheme at Salmay had been completed, tested and commissioned, adding that the second stage of the project was under testing and was likely to be commissioned shortly which would add 16 lakh gallons of water to the existing system. Issuing instructions to the engineers at construction site of protection work at Balni, he said the work should be executed in such a way that natural beauty of Ban Ganga, a small rivulet emerging from the foot hills of Trikuta Hills on the North Eastern side of Katra town, was not disturbed.
— TNS |
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Satire on socio-political system staged
Jammu, September 26 The play is based on a Russian short story by Anton
Chekhov. It is a satire on the present socio-political system. The adaptation of the play was deeply rooted in the soil of Jammu. The story of play revolves around corrupt police officers, who change colours like a proverbial chameleon every time the situation demands, irrespective of right or wrong. The stage action starts when a pickpocket, bitten by a dog, approaches the officers to help him to roundup the owner, but in vain. Meanwhile, a passerby hints that the dog belongs to a local minister as he saw a similar dog in his bungalow. On getting the clue, the officer starts beating the pickpocket for teasing a dog belonging to the “elite” class. The officer is under the impression that a minister's dog cannot bite someone unless and until it was forced into doing so. While all this was going on, another man from the crowd observes that the local minister cannot keep such a dog and it must be of someone else. On this, the dog is thrashed and search continues for the owner of the dog to enable the pickpocket to claim the compensation. However, the beating of the dog continues until a servant of the minister appears on the scene and escorts the dog back home with full official
protocol. Mohit Sharma as the police officer aesthetically portrays swift colour changes of the central character and is equally supported by Rohit Verma as his true subordinate. Amarpret Kandhari as the senior officer successfully exhibits the complexities of the senior bureaucrats. Among others who gave impressive performances included Rahul Singh as thief, Pankush Verma as minister’s servant and Sachin Saini as dog.
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Programme on Dogri art, culture held
Jammu, September 26 Social activist Prof Ved Ghai was the chief guest on the occasion whereas former director school education Drshan Darshi presided over the function. The second session was inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand. Manohar Lal, Minister for Co-operatives, presided over the function. Prominent cultural troupes, including Ram Ditta, Prithvi Raj and party, Preeto Devi and party, Mohan Lal and party, Rakesh Kumar and party, CD Magotra and party, VD Shrusheta and party, besides artists like Satinder Sharma, Sapna Bali, Nirmal Koul, Nisha Kumari and Indu Bala, performed there. On the occasion, people from various fields were felicitated for their service to society. They included SP Mohan Lal; SP Pawan Parihar, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Jammu; Satish Chander Sahaney, chief education officer, Jammu; Natha Ram Dhingra, district social welfare officer, Doda; Rakesh Kumar Bhagat, assistant director (scheme), Social Welfare; Ansuyia Jamwal, HOD, Blood Bank; TR Raina, assistant professor, ENT; Sunil Kotwal, DSP; Shiv Kumar Chouhan, block development officer; and journalists, Krishan Kumar and Satinder
Shanu. |
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Panels formed to speed up construction work in ravaged Leh
Leh, September 26 The chief secretary, along with the high-level empowered committee members recently visited the relief camp at Solar Colony in Leh, where the displaced person of the town will be rehabilitated. The committees have been asked to report about the daily progress of the construction of shelters in the affected areas to the Leh Deputy Commissioner. Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) Tsewang Dolma, who has been entrusted to monitor committee work and timely completion, said, “The committee headed by PWD superintending engineer will monitor the Solar Colony, Police Colony Gafaling and Tashi Gatsal, while Phyang, Taru, Umla, Spithuk and Leh villages will be monitored by the executive engineer of the Road and Building Division, Leh. The villages of Basgo, Ney, Nimoo and Sku-markha will be monitored by executive engineer of the Leh Development Authority.” She also said the sub-division magistrate of Nubra, Khalsti and Nyoma will monitor in their respective areas. |
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CPM for sustained talks with all
Srinagar, September 26 “We suggest a panel of senior parliamentarians to be constituted for a sustained dialogue with all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir primarily with those holding a voice of dissent” Tarigami
said. Tarigami said keeping in view the trust deficit between the people of the state and the
Centre, which has unfortunately been coupled in the last four months of the unrest, concrete steps should be taken, besides implementation of the fresh measures in letter and spirit. “Let there be a firm resolve to implement the promise made by the Prime Minister regarding zero tolerance to human rights violations. Besides, immediate steps must be taken to probe the crimes committed during this period and violators of human rights be identified and brought to book”, he added. Meanwhile, the All-Parties Sikh Coordination Committee has expressed its contentment on recent development and the decision taken under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. |
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ATM doors damaged
Jammu, September 26 The police said the doors of the ATMs - J&K Bank and Punjab National Bank were damaged in the wee hours. The bike-borne miscreants, however, managed to flee the spot. A guard was manning the J&K Bank’s ATM, but he was napping inside when the incident happened and failed to see the registration number of the motorcycle, the police said. The Punjab National Bank’s ATM, situated on the National Highway, though was unmanned. Sachinderpal Singh, in-charge, Sainik Colony Police Post, said, “We are putting maximum efforts to trace the miscreants who tried to create panic in the city”. He said he had also advised the senior officials of the two banks to appoint and alert their guards to avoid any further mishap.
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NC’s farcical steps proved disastrous for state: PDP
Jammu, September 26 Addressing a public meeting at Hiranagar in Kathua district, PDP general secretary Balbir Singh regretted that since its formation, the Omar Abdullah government has not taken even a single step to address aspirations of the people. In a handout issued here today, the PDP leader observed that it was all due to the immaturity of Omar Abdullah that there was a total anarchy and chaos in the state for the last one year. “Instead of identifying with the common masses, the National Conference government has increased alienation among the people through its policies and programmes,” he alleged.
— TNS |
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Dental college students refuse to relent
Jammu, September 26 Out of four agitating students, Pawan Singh Jasrotia, Asif Iqbal and Jahangir Ahmed, continued with their indefinite fast today. However, Ghulshan Kumar had to be rushed to hospital yesterday evening after his condition deteriorated. “All students at the college have decided to sit on a 15-hour fast at the college premises tomorrow in favour of our demands,” said Pushkar Kumar, an agitating student, adding that the agitation would be intensified if their demands were not fulfilled by the state government. They demanded appointment of faculty and required infrastructure as recommended by the MCI.
— TNS |
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Militant sympathiser
nabbed, hideout busted
Jammu, September 26 Official sources stated that a joint team of the Army and the police apprehended one militant sympathiser from Batota Gali area in Ramban around 7 pm yesterday. The suspected worker was identified as Mohammed Amin of Sumbar village. However, in another incident, troops busted a hideout in Ramban district and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition. On a tip off, troops launched an operation in Gehru area of the district and came across a hideout. Sources
stated that one 12-bore gun, one pistol, one magazine, one AK-47 rifle
magazine and seven rounds were recovered, adding that the militants had
escaped from the area ahead of the raids.
— TNS |
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Health camp held
Jammu, September 26 The main objective of the camp was to sensitise the students at the Bal Niketan about the health and hygiene. The medical check up camp was organised under the supervision of Dr Ritesh Gupta, who is co-ordinator of the medical wing of the ‘Sangarsh’. The doctors educated the students about good food habits, hygiene and other health-related problems that occur in absence of proper diet and physical exercise.
— TNS |
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Liquor smuggling bid foiled, one held
Jammu, September 26 It further said Romi Kharyal, a resident of the same area was arrested late last night, when he was ferrying the consignment in his car. A case has been registered under the Excise Act and the police is investigating the matter. The car has also been seized. |
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Examinations will be held in time. But, in case any student is not able to appear on the given date due to disturbance or violence, a reexamination will be held at a later date.
— Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed, Minister for Education
There is a perception among some people that the CRPF is firing on the riotous mobs in the state at the first instance without using the alternate methods.
— NK Tripathi, Special DG, CRPF
