Srinagar, September 29
Asserting that his government will continue to facilitate talks between the Centre and various shades of opinion in the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said it will act as bridge in improving the Indo-Pak relations.

Addressing a largely attended Rural Gram Sabha in his home constituency of Ganderbal, near here, today, the Chief Minister said his government would continue to act as a catalyst in the peace process. “Let us be responsibile towards society and the state and shun the tactics of disturbing peace and marring education and economy of the state,” he said. The Chief Minister called for taking a peaceful political course through a dialogue process to ventilate political opinions and grievances.

Welcoming the eight-point package announced by the Centre to address the state issues, the Chief Minister expressed the confidence that the group of interlocutors for a political dialogue would interact with all shades of opinion so that a “unique” solution was sought for the situation in the Valley.

Omar held that he had been continuously and categorically advocating a political approach towards political issues of the state. “I also campaigned vigorously for restoring the internal and external dialogue channels to find out a lasting solution to all issues as per the aspirations of the people”, he added.

The Chief Minister said he had sought a public mandate in the 2008 Assembly Elections on development issues and never made any promise about the resolution of the Kashmir issue. “However, I am the first Chief Minister who strongly campaigned for addressing the political issues of the state politically, taking all shades of opinion on board”, he said. Omar said he had voiced the importance of this aspect at various forums in Delhi and also in the state before the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson.

Omar Abdullah said his government would continue to work positively in this direction so that the issues were settled once for all.

The Chief Minister said his persistent advocacy and campaign for a gradual reduction of the footprints of forces in the state and softening of the ASFPA provisions had started yielding results, but the law and order situation created by certain elements in the Valley during the last over three months had given a considerable setback to his endeavours in this regard. “However, I will continue to work in this direction despite all odds”, he said.

Srinagar, September 29
While the curfew was lifted from major towns of the Kashmir Valley, attendance in government and private schools improved even as students faced difficulties due to the curfew in Srinagar today.

Many parents, accompanying their wards, couldn’t move freely in certain areas of the city as they were prevented by the police and the CRPF in view of the restrictions. Students of Delhi Public School (DPS) were asked to board the buses at some specified spots around the city, but not many could do so as they were prevented by police personnel.

Anantnag district recorded the highest 90 per cent turnout of students today, while the lowest 50 per cent was registered in nearby Kulgam district, official sources said, adding that there was 26 per cent higher attendance in schools in the Valley.

Srinagar, which witnessed a dismal 16 per cent of turnout of the students yesterday, registered manifold increase to 62 per cent. Pulwama recorded a healthy student attendance of 85 per cent followed by Shopian (80 per cent), Bandipora (66 per cent), Kupwara (65 per cent), Budgam (60 per cent) and Ganderbal (55 per cent), the sources said.

Earlier the hardline APHC chairman, Syed Ali Geelani, said the police and the CRPF were preventing students from going to teducational institutions in towns and villages.

Srinagar, September 29
With gradual improvement in the situation in the past few days, the curfew was lifted from major towns of the Kashmir valley while it was relaxed in phases in various parts of Srinagar today.

The police said there were no reports of any violence from any part of the Valley since last night and the situation was under control.

As per the protest calendar of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Shah Geelani, there was no call for a strike today. However, it called for a shutdown tomorrow as part of the 10-day programme from September 27. As part of the counter-strategy formulated by the government, the authorities imposed curfew yesterday and later gave relaxation in phases. In view of the improvement in the situation and public pressure, the authorities relaxed the restrictions in different parts here today. In Baramulla, the authorities relaxed the curfew when students, employees and others went to work.

A police spokesman said that the curfew was lifted from Budgam, Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Kupwara, and Bandipora districts. The restrictions were also lifted from the Kangan, Awantipora, Sopore, Ganderbal and Handwara areas.

While the restrictions continued in the civil lines area here, these were relaxed from 8 am to 10 am and later extended indefinitely in view of the normal situation. The police said the restrictions were relaxed from the east, west and south zones of Srinagar city early this morning from 8 a.m to 10 a.m, which were further extended onwards. In the North and Hazratbal zones, the restrictions were relaxed from 1 p.m onwards, the spokesman added.

Jammu, September 29
Looking at the large number of abandoned people with psychological disorders in almost every nook and cranny of the city, one gets to know about the kind of indifference that is generally shown towards them.

Such mentally retarded people in rags, who feed on the left over food in the heaps of garbage and sleep along the roadside, are a telltale of the inhuman conditions in which they live in the absence of any proper rehabilitation programme in the state.

However, there are Good Samaritans and social organisations who are taking care of such people.

A student of BCA II and resident of the Canal head area, Shivam Khajuria, saved the life of a mentally retarded child in distress whom he spotted yesterday. He contacted the Childline, a project of the Ministry for Women and Child Development, Government of India, and looked after him till the Childline claimed the custody of the child today. The child is in safe hands now and is undergoing treatment.

“When I saw him (the child) he was not wearing any cloth. He was draped in a shabby towel and I gave him a pair of pants and a shirt,” said Shivam. He added, “The sabziwalla (vendor) in the vicinity of my home told me that he had been wandering in the area for the last four days.” My mother, who is a teacher, had recently attended an awareness programme of the Childline in her school. So she advised me to contact the Childline on its toll free number 1098 and inform it about the child in distress,” he added.

“It was in the evening that I called up the Childline. I was advised to take him to the nearby police chowki. However, the child went missing from the chowki in the morning. I again traced him and handed him over to the officials of the Childline and the police this morning,” he added.

The child, who calls himself Sandeep, aged between 13-14 years, was formally handed over to the Rotary Inner Wheels Home for Mentally Retarded Children, Channi Rama, by the Childline with the help of the police this afternoon.

“We always get cooperation from the home,” said the coordinator of the project, OP Gupta. He added that the Childline had handed over about six mentally retarded children to the home in the past two-three years. All of them are being looked after well.”

“The employees at the home have named them Shallu, Neha, Raju, Chottu, Munna and Sandeep,” Gupta said. He added, “Their parents could not be traced for want of inputs regarding their whereabouts.”

The home that was started in the year 1979 now had 34 inmates. “The newcomer can listen but cannot speak clearly. Now, he will be under the supervision of our doctors and psychiatrists,” principal of the home GL Koul said.

The home that is largely dependent on philanthropists has nearly 14 employees to look after the needs of the special children, mostly abandoned by their families.

Srinagar, September 29
A day before the commencement of the Assembly session, the BJP has submitted a notice for a no-confidence motion against the Omar Abdullah government, accusing it of failing on all fronts. The notice was given by leader of the BJP in the state Assembly Chaman Lal Gupta.

“This government is a total failure and has been absent and invisible over the past four months. So we have given a no-confidence motion against it,” Gupta, a former Union minister, said.

He said the Omar Abdullah government had lost the confidence of people and should have resigned on its own. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Arvinder Singh Micky today sought the cooperation of mediapersons for the Assembly session beginning tomorrow and hoped that the session would run smoothly.

Jammu, September 29
Resentment is brewing in the Pradesh Youth Congress (PYC) as its activists from the Jammu region have taken a serious note of the memorandum given by a PYC team to the all-party delegation during its visit in Srinagar. The memorandum has created a regional divide in the party wing as Jammu-based Youth Congress leaders alleged that the wishes of the people of the Jammu region were not incorporated in the memorandum.

Angry over what they called the pro-Hurriyat stand taken by the newly appointed PYC chief Shoaib Nabi Lone, the PYC activists from the Jammu region heckled him during a meeting held to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

As soon as Lone started his address, some PYC activists interrupted him and sought a clarification regarding the memorandum given to the all-party delegation. PYC senior vice-president RS Pathania tried to pacify the agitated workers, but he was also taken to task by the angry activists. They lambasted Pathania for maintaining silence over the whole episode. Pathania also faced the anger of the workers for his “failure” to rightly project the aspirations of the people of the region.

Sources said during the last one week this was the second time Lone was taunted by the PYC workers for taking a pro-Hurriyat stand with the all-party delegation. The Jammu-based PYC workers have taken exception to the memorandum in which the demand for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was endorsed.

The sources said the PYC chief did not take other wing leaders from Jammu into confidence while drafting the memorandum in which some demands of the Hurriyat Conference were allegedly endorsed. The Jammu-based PYC leaders were of the view that the stand taken by the Youth Congress before the delegation would prove disastrous for them as the BJP had already taken up the issue publicly.

Besides endorsing the demand for the revocation of the AFSPA, the PYC delegation had also demanded that political aspirations of the people of Kashmir should be taken into consideration while formulating any solution to the crisis.

These leaders opined that their leadership should have accommodated the demands of all three regions, namely Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, in the memorandum rather than pursuing the cause of only one region.

Jammu, September 29
The “carrot-and-stick” and “seek-and-destroy” policies of the Army have been proving very useful in its fight against militancy. Another terrorist after realising the futility of the gun surrendered before the security forces in the Thannamandi area of Rajouri.

Misguided by anti-social elements and lured by quick money offered to him, the young man from the Koteranka area of Rajouri had succumbed to the temptations and had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) outfit in June this year, said Jammu-based Defence PRO Lt-Col Biplab Nath.

Belonging to Hubi village in Koteranka, 26-year-old Taj Mohammed, a school dropout, was imparted rigorous training to become a terrorist, which included handling and firing of weapons, explosives and IEDs, besides intensive indoctrination.

After completing the training, he was handed an AK-47 rifle, ammunition, hand grenades, explosives and detonators. However, three months into the life of a terrorist, always on the run and fearing death in an encounter with the security forces coupled with the realisation of implications of taking innocent lives had a deep impact on Taj’s psyche, said Nath.

A married man having a wife, a three-year-old son and a daughter, who is just a few days old, Taj had a change of heart and decided to give up terrorism.

Eventually, he made up his mind to surrender but harboured fears that terrorists and their handlers might kill him and his family.

The Rashtriya Rifles, under the aegis of the CounterInsurgency Force (Romeo) which has set an example of people-friendly operations by motivating and assisting misguided youths to give up arms and return to the mainstream, contacted Taj Mohammed and assured him an honourable and safe return to the mainstream, said the Lt-Col Biplab Nath.

Persistent efforts were made to motivate him to surrender his arms and ammunition. Finally, he surrendered at the Sector Headquarters today.

In presence of the police and officials of the civil administration, Taj handed over one AK-47 Rifle, one magazine with 30 rounds of AK-47, one hand grenade and 22 detonators to the officers.

Taj Mohammed has now avowed to remain a law-abiding citizen for the rest of his life and hoped that other misguided youths of the state in general and Rajouri in particular will follow his example, shun violence, return to mainstream and work for a better future.

Udhampur, September 29
All banks in Udhampur district have been advised not to reject cases related to poverty alleviation schemes sponsored by different government departments under the Annual Credit Plan.

The instructions to this effect were given at the meeting of the District Consultative Committee (DCC) and the District Level Review Committee held today under the chairmanship of District Development Commissioner Baseer Ahmed Khan. Several banks in the district had reportedly been rejecting such cases on flimsy grounds.

It was decided in the meeting that in case of rejection the bank concerned would have to furnish the cause of rejection to the office of the lead bank every month. The DDC directed that the Additional Development Commissioner, Udhampur, would review the month-wise details of all sanctioned cases.

The Lead District Manager, SBI, Parvinder Bharti, told the meeting that the total advances by all banks in the district in the first quarter amounted to Rs 23.83 crore against the annual target of Rs 97.42 crore as on June 30, 2010. This amount was disbursed to 1,385 beneficiaries. The banks also disbursed Rs 20.90 crore to 714 beneficiaries from the industry and services sector.

Expressing concern over the below par rate of sponsored cases, especially in the agricultural sector, the DDC exhorted all departments to speed up the process of sponsoring cases, especially related to the Kisan Credit Card to banks to ensure a timely release of credit to farmers as well for the optimum achievement of targets set for the current financial year.

He asked the Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies, to reactivate agricultural societies so that these could be linked to banks for a better flow of credit to farmers.

Jammu, September 29
Describing power development as the nerve line in sustained economic development and industrialisation, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today that his government had flagged the sector as one of the most important concerns.

Jointly inaugurating the 120 MW SEWA hydroelectric project with Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde at Mashka village in Kathua district, Omar said the multi-faceted approach had been introduced to harness the hydroelectric potential of the state.

The Chief Minister said God had bestowed upon the state a plenty of natural beauty and water resources. “The economic prosperity of the state lies in the development of power and tourism sectors,” he said. He added that these sectors were receiving concerted attention of the government.

Omar said besides setting up new power projects, the government was also upgrading and improving the distribution and transmission system.

He said various power projects with the generation capacity of about 4,000 MW had been conceived by the State Power Development Corporation and these projects were at various stages of execution.

“Our endeavour is to generate sufficient energy for industrial development and commercial use, besides household utilisation,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Shinde said, “NHPC is already constructing various projects in the state and we will like to extend our cooperation in the future too,” he said.

Jammu, September 29
Keeping in view the recent violence in the border towns of Mendhar and Poonch in the Jammu region, the security forces want to ensure foolproof security arrangements for tomorrow when the Allahabad High Court is scheduled to deliver verdict in the Ayodhya Ram Janambhoomi case and the BJP has given a Jammu bandh call against the eight-point initiative of the Centre.

Amid apprehensions of breach of peace, the administration has made all arrangements to deal with notorious elements in the state. The SSPs of all districts have been directed to keep strict vigil in their areas.

All senior police officers and top bureaucrats today remained busy in meetings to chalk out plans to deal with any untoward incident.

A senior bureaucrat told this correspondent that the CRPF and the paramilitary forces would also be deployed in some parts of the region to avoid any untoward incident. Meanwhile, security was also beefed up near all religious places.

In border districts, especially Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah, the administration has made strict security arrangements, as these towns are infamous for communal clashes. While Section 144 of CrPC has already been imposed in Mendhar, where government offices have started functioning after 12 days of curfew.

Pawan Kotwal, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, said, “No untoward incident will be tolerated and we have already told all political parties to welcome the decision of the Allahabad High Court on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid case.”

He further appealed to people to maintain equanimity and tranquillity after the judgement is pronounced.

Kotwal said the BJP, which had given the Jammu bandh call, had also been told to ensure that peace was not disturbed. IG, Jammu zone, Ashok Kumar Gupta was busy in a meeting when this correspondent asked him for his comments.

Jammu, September 29
Various social, political and business organisations have supported the bandh call given by the state unit of the BJP against the eight-point initiative of the Centre to restore peace in the Kashmir valley.

Besides the Sangh Parivar, other political groups have also offered full support and appealed to people to make Jammu bandh a grand success by opposing “pro-separatist polices” of the state as well as the central government’s.

Panthers Party chairman Bhim Singh has appealed to people, particularly to the youth and students, to take active part in tomorrow’s bandh to oppose and expose the “inefficient and anti-people” government.

A meeting of various Sikh organisations was held today under the leadership of Harjeet Singh in which a decision was taken to support the bandh call. The organisations which participated in the meeting included the Nirbhao Nirvair Organisation, the Jammu United Secular forum, the All-India Sikh Student Federation, the Sikh Noujwan Sabha, the Youth Akali Dal and the Ishtri Sudhar Sabha.

Supporting the Jammu bandh call, the meeting criticised the state and the Central government for neglecting the Jammu region while announcing the compensation. It pointed out that the government had promised to compensate the losses due to the Amarnath land row but not even a single step was taken in this regard. The National Sikh Front and the Shiv Sena (United) have also supported the bandh call given by the BJP.

The Panun Kashmir, the All-State Kashmiri Pandit Conference, the Non-Camp Migrant Coordination Committee, the Intra-Jammu and Kashmir LoC Traders Association and Jammu travel agents have already offered their support to the bandh call.

Jammu, September 29
Pakistan troops targeted four Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) with rockets, mortars and heavy machine gun fire in the Krishna Ghati (KG) sector of Mendhar tehsil in Poonch district today.

“ The Pakistan troops violated the ceasefire thrice and targeted our posts with rockets, mortars and heavy fire in the past 20 hours”, Brigadier-General Staff of 16 Corps, Brig Satish Dua, told The Tribune.

“This morning, they ( the Pak troops) opened unprovoked fire from 5 a.m to 6.30 a.m”,said Dua, and added that a flag meeting was held today wherein India lodged its strong protest with the Pakistan side against the unprovoked and unwarranted action.

Though he denied that any soldier suffered injuries, official sources said Lance Naik Kamlesh Kumar sustained superficial injuries when a mortar hit a rock and the rock’s splinter hit him.

Unconfirmed reports also stated that another soldier identified as Sepoy Lal Chand sustained injuries in the exchange of fire in the KG sector early today.

The sources said the troops started firing heavily on four forward Indian posts last night in the KG sector

“Around 8.40 p.m last night, the Pak troops opened heavy fire, targeting Kirpan, Kranti, Deep Complex and Nengi Tekri posts from their Daku, Yellow Bump, Roza, Pimple and Battal posts”,they said.

The firing continued till 10.30 p.m and both sides traded fire before the guns fell silent.

“We had inputs that Pakistan troops might resort to unwarranted fire in a bid to push two groups of Al-Badr and LeT militants”, added sources.

Srinagar, September 29
The state government has decided to start three new treasuries, one each at Dachhan in Kishtwar, Mandi in Poonch and Paisuru in Kargil district. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here last evening, an official spokesman said. Some other decisions like exemption in the toll tax of trucks to facilitate fruit growers were also taken.

The Cabinet also enhanced the payment for damage to movable and immovable property from the existing Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Any person suffering losses or damage to movable and immovable property during any counter- terrorism operation would be entitled to a maximum compensation that had been enhanced from the existing Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Accordingly, a decision had been taken that the ceiling of Rs 1 lakh or 50 per cent of the total loss, whichever was less, had been enhanced to the maximum of Rs 7 lakh.

Jammu, September 29
The Hindi Pakhwada celebrations concluded yesterday at the Air force Station here.

During the fortnight-long celebrations, various competitions were organised wherein a large number of air warriors participated.

The main events included essay writing, debate and poetry recitation.

In addition, Hindi banners were put up at vantage points and distribution of literature like hand-outs, charts, pamphlets, etc. were undertaken to propagate the use of Hindi. The participating air warriors were in two categories - Hindi speaking and non-Hindi speaking.

The participants showed involvement and commitment during various competitions.

The poetry recitation was held yesterday wherein wit, humour, zeal and patriotic fervor expressed by the participants through their poems enthralled the audience.

Group Captain Ghar Singh, Station Commander of the Air Force Station, Jammu, gave away the prizes to the winners.

In his concluding address, he congratulated the prize winners and lauded the efforts put in by the Station Education Flight in making the “Hindi Fortnight” a success.

He also exhorted all commanding officers, branch heads, squadron/flight commanders and the gathering present to contribute in every possible way to promote the Hindi language in the station.