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BJP’s
yatra, separatists’ march foiled
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Attack
on minister’s CONVOY
Disrespect to state flag serious crime, says NC
Conferring Ownership
Rights
Omar pulls up bureaucrats for not checking graft
Hizbul ultra held with hawala money
500 villagers attend Army’s medical camp
Geelani calls for ‘peaceful’ protests today
DC lays stress on need to exercise voting right
Sofi appointed first CIC of state
Hard work, discipline key to success, says First Lady
Games for special children begin
NGO celebrates Republic Day
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BJP’s
yatra, separatists’ march foiled
Srinagar, January 27
The main Republic Day celebration was held at Bakshi Stadium here, while such functions were held at all 14 district headquarters in Kashmir division. Local BJP leaders and workers were detained prior to Republic Day. The authorities had also closed the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway to traffic for two days to ensure that the yatra did not reach Srinagar. The proposed march to Lal Chowk a call for which was given by JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik was also not allowed. Malik, who had gone into hiding to evade arrest, was held by the police from Budshah Chowk yesterday along with senior Hurriyat Conference executive members, Bilal Lone and Shahid-ul-Islam,when they tried to hold a procession from the nearby Maisuma locality to Lal Chowk. Earlier, a BJP worker,belonging to Haryana, was arrested from the nearby Regal Chowk when he sneaked into the area.Six other party activists were arrested near a prominent hotel here for violating the prohibitory orders. All routes to the City Centre were sealed and no movement was allowed throughout the day. Lal Chowk remained abuzz with hectic activity after many days of tension and security arrangements. All shops and business establishments were open.There was a heavy traffic on roads, leading to traffic jams at several places and prompting the traffic police to block intersections on the MA Road and the Residency Road. Braving the chill,a large number of shoppers visited markets. Attendance in government offices was also near-normal. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has said Kashmir was a political issue and the Central government had already taken initiatives by appointing interlocutors to evolve a lasting solution through dialogue. Addressing the main Republic Day function at the Bakshi Stadium here yesterday, the Finance Minister said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had been describing the Kashmir issue as a political one and stressed for a political solution. “We want India and Pakistan to come closer and solve all pending issues through a meaningful dialogue,” he said. Next month the talks between the Foreign Secretaries of both countries would take place, which was an encouraging sign, he added. The minister said the state was a backward state facing many problems. He urged people for joint efforts to put the state on the development path, for which peace was imperative. The first two years of the government were very peaceful, he added. Rather said the people faced tremendous difficulties during the recent months of unrest and it also affected the economy badly. Referring to the important role of government employees, he advised them to desist from confrontation because it only added to the problems of the people. Despite a financial crunch, the state government implemented the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations while the employees of many states were yet to get that benefits, he added. Referring to the problem of unemployment, Rather said more than 22,000 unemployed youths had been adjusted in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, SSB and the UPSC and the process was continuing. However, he asked the youth to come forward and avail of the benefits of the Sher-e-Kashmir job programme. Banks were giving loans to the unemployed youth on very low interest rates, he added. The Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, Rigzin Spalbar, hoisted the National Flag on the occasion of the 62nd Republic Day yesterday. |
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republic Day celebrations
Jammu, January 27 In his address after hoisting the National Flag at the state-level function at Maulana Azad Stadium here on 62nd Republic Day yesterday, the Governor emphasised that while being committed to resolving all issues through non-violent approaches,”we must not commit the mistake of thinking that all threats to peace have been eliminated”. He stressed that while carrying out anti-terrorist operations, the security forces must ensure strict adherence to the standard operating procedures as the state government remained committed to ensuring zero tolerance of human rights violations. Lauding the security forces for their devotion to duty, he said that “we are grateful to the officers and men of all security forces for their valiant devotion to duties in the most difficult circumstances, even at the cost of their lives”. The First Lady, Usha Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Speaker of the state Assembly Mohammad Akbar Lone, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Arvinder Singh, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, legislators, judges of the state High Court, senior civil, police and Army officers, political and social activists, prominent citizens, besides a large number of people were present on the occasion. Vohra said the last summer witnessed two singularly sad
happenings. First, the unfortunate incident of a cloudburst in Leh, which caused enormous loss of human lives and large-scale
devastation. He added the Prime Minister had visited Leh and announced a special package of Rs 125 crore under the PMNRF for the required relief and rehabilitation measures. The Chief Minister had also made several visits to the affected areas to review the progress of the relief work being done there. He said that it was gratifying to learn that there had been a fair progress in restoring and, where required, rebuilding the infrastructure which had been extensively destroyed by the flashflood. There were also reassuring reports that the affected population was steadily returning to normal existence, the Governor added. Referring to the second sad happening, he observed that the prolonged unrest in the Valley, virtually throughout the summer last year resulted in the loss of many innocent
lives, led to enormous economic losses, stopped the functioning on almost all fronts and resulted in irreparable disruption of the entire education system, which caused severe damage to the careers of the student community. Irrespective of the causes, which led to this turmoil, he said, the events of last summer had been most painful and saddening for everyone. The Governor said that some months ago, the government had announced a rehabilitation policy to enable the return of those who had crossed over to occupied Kashmir when the turmoil began and who now wished to relinquish violence and return home. “Under this policy, those who choose to give up the path of violence and destruction will be enabled to lead normal lives and contribute to the promotion of peace and prosperity in the state”, the Governor said. |
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Attack on minister’s CONVOY
Jammu, January 27 The BJYM activists allegedly attacked the convoy of the Finance Minister when it was passing in front of the office of the BJP. Enraged over the treatment meted out to central party leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar at the Jammu Airport on Monday, the BJP workers started hitting the vehicle and shouting slogans against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the National Conference for preventing the party leaders from hoisting the National Flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Some of the BJP workers threw shoes at the vehicle and removed the state’s flag from it, but they did not touch the National Flag. The police resorted to a lathicharge on the BJP workers to clear the minister’s vehicle. Rather, who was on his way to Raj Bhawan to attend “At Home” hosted by the Governor on Republic Day, said the attack was not intentional. Thirteen BJYM activists were arrested and booked under Sections 147, 148 and 353 of the RPC. They were identified as Narotam Sharma from Jammu, Rakesh Gupta from Doda, Sushil Kumar from Sunderbani, Sahil, Surinder Reddy, Abilesh, Vinay Kumar, Gozpal Singh, Ambedkar and Nandanam, all residents of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, and Kali Jain, Suresh Patial and Devi Lal from
Rajasthan. |
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Disrespect to state flag serious crime, says NC
Srinagar, January 27 Agitated BJYM workers gheraoed Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather’s cavalcade and took off the state flag from his vehicle yesterday. They also allegedly tried to tear the flag. “The disrespect to the state flag is a serious crime under the state constitution and the Indian constitution,” senior NC leader Mustafa Kamal said in a statement and demanded action against the BJYM activists. NC parliamentarians Mohammad Shafi Uri, Sharif-ud-din Shariq, Mehboob Beigh, state minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and Mubarak Gul also condemned the incident in another statement. “The state flag is our national symbol and the people of Kashmir have sacrificed themselves to uphold its sanctity,” the NC leaders said. The BJP has been advocating the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which grants a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, including a separate flag and a constitution.
— PTI |
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Conferring Ownership
Rights
Jammu, January 27 Addressing a press conference here, the forum thanked Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla for accepting their demand and deciding to set up a new price fixation committee. It, however, demanded that the committee to be set up should not only comprise officials but should also have representatives of parties, traders and the authorised occupants of land under regular lease. This would ensure a rational fixation of rates and avoid bickering and complaints by any section later, said forum chairman Inderjeet Khajuria. The forum demanded that while re-fixing the rates a distinction should be made between the allottees of the land through a regular lease deed executed between the authorities concerned and the allottees, who had paid premium on the same and were also paying ground rent, and the illegal occupants and encroachers of the land, he added. While the genuine allottees should be charged the rates on a par with the occupants of land in 15 colonies, which had been regularised by the JDA, the encroachers and unauthorised occupants could be charged higher rates, Khajuria said. He demanded that a distinction should be made between those who occupied the land before 1989, the cutoff date prescribed in the original Act passed by the National Conference government in 2001, and those who encroached upon the government land after 1989. He added that the forum had been agitating for the past over two years against the rates fixed by the revenue authorities arbitrarily, which were irrational and exorbitant. Most of the leaseholders of the land for the last 40-60 years were poor and could not pay the fixed rates to get the ownership rights of the land under their occupation for a long period, he added. The forum also demanded that in case of genuine occupants of land up to five marlas for residential purpose and one marla for commercial purpose, under proper lease, no price should be charged from them and they should be given the ownership rights free of cost, as had been done in case of the occupants of agricultural land. These people were too poor to pay any amount. |
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Omar pulls up bureaucrats for not checking graft
Jammu, January 27 “Today, we are at number two. In the fight against corruption, we are equally responsible,” he said. Omar regretted the fact that officials at the helm of affairs had turned a blind eye to corruption and nepotism around them. “Keeping your eyes, ears and mouths shut to corruption and nepotism will not help,” he said. Training his guns on the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) to check corruption, he said the organisation had not done enough in its fight against corruption. “Though it has been working to some extent, it remains an area of constant concern for me and a lot of personal dissatisfaction for me. We have not done enough,” he added. “It is not good enough trapping someone taking a bribe of Rs 5,000 when we cannot trap people taking in lakhs,” said Omar. From trucks lined up on the highways for minting money to ration cards, permanent resident’s certificate, and land mutations to illegal electricity connections, the corruption had eaten into the vitals of society, he said. The Chief Minister said efforts should be made to check corruption and that too from the top. He also felt the need of putting in place a transfer policy and implementing it stringently. Due to the institutional system, which had started functioning, transfers were done on grounds other than merit and it had failed the entire system, he said. He urged the honest people to break silence and contribute towards eradicating the menace and declared that vigilance officers from the Permanent Department would be deployed in every government office. “To begin with they will be deployed in the Power Development Department and the Public Works Department,” he added. |
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Hizbul ultra held with hawala money
Srinagar, January 27 The arrested ultra, Ali Mohammad Naik, is a resident of Amirabad in the Tral area of Pulwama district, the police said. A Chinese grenade, a stamp of the Hizbul Mujahideen and some receipts of distributed money were also recovered.
Naik had been coordinating different assignments of various modules of the Hizbul Mujahideen as well as providing financial and logistic support to it for the last two years, it said. He had been under surveillance for the past some time, it added. Acting on the tip-off that Naik was distributing money among Hizbul sympathisers in the Tral area, the police set up a naka in the area this morning. It was assisted by the 185 Bn CRPF and the 42 RR and a trap was laid on the Satura road near Tral and Naik was arrested with the hawala money. |
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500 villagers attend Army’s medical camp
Jammu, January 27 An Army release stated that the camp was organised in Government Middle School at Siyal by the Rashtriya Rifles, along with the 325 Field Hospital, under the aegis of the Tithwal Brigade on January 22 and 23. Around 500 persons attended the camp. Doctors from the Army, including a woman medical officer and a dental specialist, attended to the patients.The villagers were educated on various important issues, including family planning, causes of and preventive measures against STD/AIDS, and also on general health and hygiene. The remoteness of the area makes it difficult for government doctors to visit the villages. |
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Geelani calls for ‘peaceful’ protests today
Srinagar, January 27 The call for protests comes in the wake of the arrest of Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, in charge of the legal cell of the party, who was arrested from the Bemina area of Srinagar last Saturday. Geelani alleged that Bhat had been seriously injured due to the assault by policemen. He also condemned the alleged torture in custody of many other Hurriyat leaders, who were arrested recently and were not being released. He pointed out that the police beat up Bhat severely while being arrested and later during questioning. Bhat was shifted to the police hospital. |
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DC lays stress on need to exercise voting right
Udhampur, January 27 The Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer, Udhampur, Baseer Ahmed Khan, who was the chief guest on the occasion, highlighted the importance of the day. He said the objective of the day was to make the masses aware of the need to increase the enrolment of voters so that more and more people could exercise their right to franchise. SSP Surinder Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajinder Singh, Additional District Development Commissioner Ram Rattan Sharma, Chief Planning Officer HH Dutt, Assistant Commissioner, Revenue, Gurvinderjeet Singh, tehsildars, representatives of social organisations, NGOs and students, were present on the occasion. The district election officer handed over photo identity cards to those whose names appeared in the electoral rolls for the first time. The newly registered voters were also provided badges with the inscription, “Proud to be a Voter - Ready to Vote”. Later, an awareness rally by students of local colleges and schools was flagged off by the district election officer from the Deputy Commissioner’s office complex. The rally passed through the main locations of Udhampur. The district election officer also administered a pledge to all participants to uphold the dignity of elections and also vote in the elections without any fear, inducement or influence. |
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Sofi appointed first CIC of state
Jammu, January 27 Besides Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and Leader of the Opposition in the state legislative Assembly Mehbooba Mufti were the members of the three-member panel that appointed Sofi. However, the names of two information commissioners would be announced later, said sources. Meanwhile, the J&K RTI Movement has hailed the decision of the selection committee for appointing Sofi as the CIC. In a statement issued here the convener of the movement, Dr Muzaffar Bhat, thanked Omar and Mehbooba for appointing Sofi as the first CIC of the state. “We hope that the two information commissioners will also be appointed soon,” he added. |
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Hard work, discipline key to success, says First Lady
Jammu, January 27 Speaking on the occasion, she said it was a well-performed cultural programme. She complimented the Youth Services and Sports Department for providing an opportunity to women to demonstrate their talent. Usha Vohra said: “Those who have yet to forge ahead in life, I wish them high success, advising them that success demands hard work and discipline coupled with sincerity and truthfulness and they need to adopt this approach”.She gave away the prizes to various educational institutions, NGOs and other organisations for presenting a scintillating cultural programme based on the glorious composite cultural heritage of the state and the country. |
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Games for special children begin
Jammu, January 27 In the three-day event, as many as 250 special athletes and 90 coaches from different corners of the district are participating. The games are being organised by the Special Olympics Bharat, Paralympics Committee of India in association with the All India Sports Council of Deaf under the supervision of area director, Special Olympics Bharat, Mahesh Kinth. Also, present on the occasion were the director, information, Farooq Ahmed Renzoo, and the state president of the Special Olympics Bharat, Dr Ashvini Jojra, besides trainers, including Javid Bhatt, Mamata Malhotra, Kamaljeet Kaur, Akash Bharti, Sanjogta Kumari and Ravi Kumar. |
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NGO celebrates Republic Day
Jammu, January 27 After the flag hoisting ceremony, special children of the institute presented a cultural extravaganza. Founder president of the organisation Dr Ashvini Jojra in his keynote address said the institute had been rendering services to persons with disability, especially special children and those affected with cerebral palsy.
— TNS |
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