Jammu, December 1
Even as the Sangh Parivar has cautioned the BJP leadership against the “dangerous game plan” of the ruling National Conference (NC) to appease secessionists, the party has decided to strongly take up the Kashmir issue at the national level to force the UPA Government to prevent Omar Abdullah from “crossing the limits”.

Top BJP leadership, including national president Nitin Gadkari, LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states along with all national office-bearers of the party, will reach Jammu on December 23 and will deliberate upon issues confronting the state, especially the controversial statements of Omar Abdullah and the surrender policy.

For the first time during the past two decades, the entire top BJP leadership is reaching Jammu to devise a strategy to counter the pro-secessionist policy of the state government.

Earlier, all senior party leaders had come to Jammu to participate in the Save Doda campaign five years ago, but they came separately during the month-long stir.

Sources in the BJP told The Tribune that it was due to the pressure of the Sangh Parivar, especially the RSS, that the BJP had decided to make the Kashmir issue the centrestage of its politics.

The RSS has taken a serious note of the on-going developments in the state, especially after the recent statements of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on accession. The RSS in its recently held national executive committee meeting at Maharastra passed an exclusive resolution on Kashmir.

Earlier, the BJP had decided to convene a meeting of its national executive at Jammu but the proposal was later postponed due to developments at the national level.

During the two-day meeting at Jammu on December 23 and 24, the BJP leadership would devise a strategy to launch a decisive agitation on Kashmir at the national level to corner the Congress all over the country.

The BJP will try to corner its arch rival, the Congress, at the national level. “Recent attacks on Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in different parts of the country are part of the new strategy to expose the Congress for adopting a soft attitude towards those who have been preaching secessionism,” a senior BJP leader said.

BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas said a rally would be held at Jammu on December 24 and all senior leaders of the party were likely to address it.

He said the party leadership would deliberate upon the political and security situation in the state and the role of both state and UPA governments in meeting the challenges. 

Jammu, December 1
The BJP today launched the second phase of its agitation against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his controversial remarks regarding the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India and the surrender policy approved by the state government.

The second phase was launched by holding a demonstration at Janipur in the Jammu West assembly segment. Addressing party workers, Leader of the BJP Legislature Party and MLA, Jammu West, Chaman Lal Gupta regretted that though the present state government had become a “risk for the unity of the country”, the Congress-led UPA leadership was continuing support to it.

He regretted that despite highly objectionable statements of the Chief Minister, the UPA Government had been endorsing his stand for the sake of sharing power.

Gupta said even after taking the oath of the Constitution in which Jammu and Kashmir was clearly mentioned as an integral part of India, Omar had termed the state as disputed and asserted that its accession to India was conditional.

Gupta termed the surrender policy for youth who had crossed over to the PoK for arms training as dangerous, especially when there was no let-up in Pakistan’s proxy war against India.

The BJP leader regretted that instead of attending to people’s problems and rectifying the policy of regional discrimination against Jammu and Ladakh, the Congress-NC government had been giving statements and resorting to moves prejudicial to the security and integrity of the country.

Jammu, December 1
Even the Right to Information (RTI) Act has not been able to inform villagers of Mahra in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district about the reason for the stalling of the construction work on the proposed building for a health centre for the past 17 years.

The villagers said the Department of Rural Development started the work at the site in 1993, but only walls were built. Thereafter, the construction was stalled due to unknown reasons.The walls have also collapsed now.

Ayaz Mughal filed an RTI application on behalf of the villagers with the District Development Commissioner (DDC) on September 18 this year. The DDC marked the application to the Chief Medical Officer, Poonch, who forwarded it to the Assistant Commissioner Development, Poonch.

After a month, Mughal started visiting different offices, but could not get the required information. Instead, he had to allegedly face “disgraceful behaviour” at the hand of various officials. “Villagers smell corruption in the Department of Rural Development. We have come to know that the department has drawn money from the state exchequer, but it has not been used for the purpose,” said Mughal.

He claimed that he submitted the application under the RTI Act after filing a complaint in this regard in the Chief Minister’s Grievances Cell. “I lodged a complaint in the Grievances Cell in March. I did not get any response despite sending more than 20 reminders,” he alleged.

In the RTI application, Mughal on behalf of the villagers had sought details of the tender process, the construction work and the funds released for the project, besides the reasons for stopping the work.

“The Block Medical Officer (BMO), Surankote, visited the site after we brought the issue to his notice. Subsequently, the CMO, Poonch, wrote to the DDC, Poonch, and the Director, Health Services,” Mughal said, showing the official correspondence of the CMO with the DDC, Poonch.

Mughal demanded that accountability should be fixed and officials concerned must be held responsible for the delay.

When contacted, DDC, Poonch, KL Khajuria said: “The applicant must come to me for information. There is nothing to hide.The area had been militancy-prone for a long time, so the work had to be stalled. There is no dearth of funds and the construction work would be started again shortly,” he added. 

Jammu, December 1
Following a nationwide call, over 2,000 employees of the BSNL today went on a three-day strike in the state.

In Jammu, around 15 billing centres, call centres, customer care centres and commercial centres of the BSNL were closed. The striking employees, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee of the Associations and Public Unions of BSNL Executives and Non-Executives, assembled at Kachi Chowni and Bahu Plaza offices here. Shouting slogans against the Central Government, the protesters flayed the Centre for its anti-BSNL policies.

Though the strike would continue for the next two days, there would be no disruption in the mobile and landline telecom services.

Talking to The Tribune, the circle secretary of the Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association (SNEA) and member of the Joint Action Committee, TB Gadoo, accused the Union Government of grabbing BSNL money.

“We want the refund of Rs 18,500 crore that the BSNL had paid towards 3G and BWA spectrum charges to the Centre,” he said.

While the government had grabbed this money, the BSNL had to borrow money from other sources to pay salaries to the employees, he added.

The strikers are demanding 78.2 per cent IDA merger for a wage revision with effect from January 1, 2007, immediate settlement of ITS group A absorption issue, no disinvestment of BSNL, no VRS for employees, requisite mobile phone equipment and the implementation of the government commitment on financial viability of the BSNL at the time of converting it to a corporation by continuing licence fee exemption.

“The top brass of the BSNL does not belong to it. They are IAS officers who despite the Prime Minister’s order have refused to join it. In such a scenario, when the top management does not belong to the BSNL, how can one expect improvement in the functioning of one of the country’s largest PSUs,” asked Gadoo.

“Being one of the vital PSUs, we don’t want to share our infrastructure with private operators, but the government has been insisting us to do so,” he said. 

Satarayan (RS Pura), December 1
The promise of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, Saif- ud-Din Soz, to solve the citizenship issue of West Pakistan refugees has failed to revive any hope among them because they are fed up with such assurances of politicians.

Soz, while addressing a function at Satarayan village, had promised to solve the citizenship issue of the displaced refugees. He had termed the problem as a human issue.“ We are fed up with such assurances which politicians have been giving to us for the past 60 years”, said Jeet Lal, a refugee leader of R S Pura, and added, “ as promises of politicians are confined only to rallies these days, we are not giving a serious thought to such statements”.

Lal reminded that Soz had promised a year ago to take the “human” issue with the Central government, but nothing had been done. “As the Congress is a partner in the state government and the party is also running the government at the Centre, it is an appropriate opportunity to solve our issues once for all”, he observed, but hastened to add that like other parties, the Congress was also not taking their problem seriously.

Thousands of displaced families, who had migrated from Sialkote and the adjoining areas of Pakistan in 1947, have been denied permanent resident certificate(PRC) despite the fact that the families have been living in different areas of the Jammu region for the last 63 years. The refugees had entered the state from a territory which was not part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.So, they have been denied the PRC.

The refugees have been agitating to get citizenship rights. Expect promises, nothing concrete has been done so far to solve their problems.

Interestingly, these refugees are citizens of India, but are being denied citizenship of Jammu and Kashmir because they are not entitled to get the PRC. As they have been denied the PRC, they can neither buy property nor get employment in the state. They are also denied the right to vote in the Legislative Assembly and are not entitled to other privileges being given to other state residents.The refugees have been demanding that before solving their problem, the government should at least issue domicile certificates to them so that they can apply for central government jobs and their children can continue their study.

Jammu, December 1
To cope with the shortage of drinking water during the summer, the state government has formulated a comprehensive plan of Rs 300 crore to solve the problem in the areas on the outskirts of Jammu city, especially in the Gandhi Nagar Assembly segment.

Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Raman Bhalla, who represents the segment, told The Tribune that a plan in this regard had already been prepared by the state government and would be sent for approval to departments concerned.Bhalla was hopeful that it would be approved and with its implementation, the problem of water scarcity would be solved.He said besides enhancing the capacity of the existing water tanks, six new tubewells would be dug in the areas facing the shortage, especially during the summer.

He informed that besides this, another plan had also been formulated to cover various nullahs passing through the area.

Later,Bhalla laid the foundation stone of the Rs 1.92 crore tubewell at Old Satwari.

He asked the people to use water judiciously and added that due to global warming and a dry spell, the water level was decreasing . 

Jammu, December 1
The state government has submitted a project plan of Rs 15.15 crore to the Centre for the development of potential tourist destinations across the border district of Poonch, which also envisages conservation and restoration plan for the historical Poonch Fort.

This was stated by the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora, while reviewing the financial achievements of the Poonch Development Authority (PDA) here today.

Giving details of the project, Jora said sufficient infrastructure would be created at potential tourist spots to attract tourists.

He said a detailed project report of Rs 15.15 crore had been sent to the Centre for approval, which included conservation and restoration plan for Poonch Fort at the cost of Rs 7.97 crore.

He said under the project, Rs 7.18 crore would be incurred on construction of three tourist arrival centres in Poonch and Mandi, besides the development of a park at Chakkan-Da-Bagh.

He said these would facilitate more arrivals of pilgrim tourists to local shrines like Ziarat Sain Miran Sahib, Gurudwara Nangali Sahib and Shri Buddha Amarnath Yatris.

Asserting that tourism played a pivotal role in the economic development of the state, he said the government paid focused attention on the development of tourist destinations and creation of infrastructure facilities in all regions of the state.

He said the establishment of 22 Tourism Development Authorities was a major step ahead to promote this lucrative industry.

He said projects worth Rs 240 crore were being implemented for the creation of quality tourism infrastructure through various Tourism Development Authorities in the state.

Member Legislative Assembly, Surankote, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam; Commissioner/Secretary, Tourism and Culture Atal Duloo; Special Secretary, Tourism, Altaf Hussain; Chief Executive Officer, Poonch Development Authority, Ajaz-ul-Hassan Bandey; Director, Tourism, Jammu, RK Verma; Joint Director Planning-Tourism Department, Parvez Handoo; and Chief Town Planner, Jammu, attended the meeting.

Srinagar, December 1
The chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference , Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, today blamed certain elements for recent attacks on him and senior executive member Bilal Lone in Chandigarh, Kolkata and New Delhi and lamented the silence of various parties and people over the issue.

He said Kashmiri Pandits were part of “our society” and regretted that certain elements were trying to create “divisions” between Kashmiris.

Addressing a press conference here on his return from New Delhi, Mirwaiz said the parties and the civil society maintained a silence over the attacks on him and Bilal Lone.

The Mirwaiz pointed out that their mission was to create awareness among the people outside the state about the ground situation, as parties had been projecting the Kashmir issue in a wrong way.

“We will continue our efforts. There can be a difference of opinion, but we can sit together and talk. We have an agenda and programme and we tell the people of India that you are also a part of the process of resolution,” the Mirwaiz said.

The people of the state “pursuing the Kashmir struggle” for finding a solution were being projected as having links either with Maoists, the Al-Qaida or being branded as terrorists, the Mirwaiz lamented.

“This is not a communal, but a political issue, which can be solved only through interactions at different levels,” he said, and pointed out that the Hurriyat Conference had also participated in the dialogue process at different levels in the past.

“We talk peacefully at different levels like when they (Central government) send interlocutors or other representatives of the civil society”, the Mirwaiz said.

“Political parties in India are indulging in petty politics… we are really disappointed by the parties that watched the situation silently,” the Mirwaiz said.

Jammu, December 1
Around 234 HIV cases had been detected in the state this year, Minister for Health, Horticulture and Floriculture Sham Lal Sharma said here today. He said the state was at the 18th position among AIDS-affected states of the country.

“Although we are at the lowest level in the list, yet we have to work more effectively to curb this disease,” he said.

He added that the state had jumped down from the 16th position to the 18th position in the list during the past two years.

Sharma said with a view to control the spread of this disease, the Health Department had conducted mass awareness drives at district and block level in the state.

“We are spreading mass awareness about methods of prevention and treatment of AIDS by conducting seminars and rallies and through print and electronic media,” said the minister.

“AIDS is not a genetic disease. Although medical science is doing research on how to control and cure AIDS, still there is no such treatment available for its complete cure so far,” he said.

Meanwhile, Waseem Qureshi, Project Director, Jammu and Kashmir State AIDS Control Society (JKSACS) said they had constituted Red Ribbon Clubs in almost all government and private colleges of the state.

“We conduct awareness programmes in government and private schools of the state as well,” said Qureshi. He added that the JKSACS observed World AIDS Day every year with a view to give human rights of AIDS-affected persons in the society, who otherwise were isolated from society.

Jammu, December 1
The Jammu and Kashmir State AIDS Prevention and Control Society in collaboration with Government College for Women (GCW), Gandhi Nagar, organised a function to observe World AIDS Day here today.

The function started with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Health, Horticulture and Floriculture. It was followed by Saraswati Vandana by the students of the college.

The main attraction of the programme was the poetry of Vikrant Sharma, mimicry by Priya Raina from BIG FM 92.7 and a skit on AIDS awareness by Nav Dugra, an NGO.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister, who was the chief guest, laid emphasis on women empowerment and education for eradicating diseases like AIDS.

He mentioned the depleting cultural values and lack of patience among the youth as the major cause of concern in dealing with issues related to their health and well being. He also stressed on improving both mental and physical health of the youth so that they could contribute fully to the well being of society.

Dr Waseem Qureshi, Project Director of the AIDS control society, highlighted the significance of the AIDS awareness programme for the masses in general and the students in particular. He spoke in detail about HIV/AIDS, its origin, how it spreads and how it could be prevented.

He said his department was making all-out efforts in combating AIDS and taking all-possible steps to reach out to people through its ICTC, ART and Community Care centres and spreading of messages on AIDS awareness through media.

Qureshi appealed to the youth to actively participate in the noble mission of educating the masses about AIDS by acting as the ambassadors of the AIDS control society. He also stressed the need for voluntary blood donation. At the end of the function, mementos were presented to the chief guest and other dignitaries.

Meanwhile, the Red Ribbon Club of Government College for Women (GCW), Parade, in collaboration with the AIDS control society held a students’ rally on World AIDS Day today. The rally was flagged off by Tanveer Jaan, Commissioner/ Secretary, Higher Education Department.

The rally started from the college, passed through Panjthirthi, Mubarak Mandi, Pakka Danga and culminated back at the college.

The students on the way distributed red ribbons and information about HIV/AIDS through pamphlets to spread awareness in the masses.

Prof Sham Lal Gupta, Director Colleges, Higher Education Department, and Dr Kiran Bakshi, Principal of GCW, Parade, were also present on the occasion.

A candlelight visual was hosted on the college premises and homage was paid to those who died of AIDS by observing a two-minute silence, besides red balloons were also released.

Jammu, December 1
A woman in her mid-twenties, who had been married for the last two years, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her house, near Bikram Chowk here today, the police said.

Monika, a resident of the Warehouse area, was found hanging from the fan in a room on the ground floor of her in-laws’ house around 8:45 am. “Her in-laws informed us”, said Sub-Inspector Wasim Raza, in charge of the Nehru Market police post.

Raza added, “On being informed about the incident, we rushed to the spot and found the girl hanging there. The body was brought down and sent to hospital for a post-mortem.”

Meanwhile, the body was handed over to the in-laws after the post-mortem, as the parents of the girl did not file any complaint against anyone about their daughter’s death.

Raza said, “It does not appear to be a dowry death case, as the father of the girl told us that his daughter was happy when she along with her husband visited them two days ago. The parents of the girl reside in Bhagwati Nagar here.”

The police has recorded the statement of Monika’s husband, who stated that he went to the Tawi in the morning and when he returned later he found his wife hanging from a fan.