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PDP, BJP legislators stage walkouts
Legislative Council
PDP, Panthers Party members protest against killings in Valley
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Six sentenced to death for Kathua man’s murder
Rajya Sainik Board Meeting
CRPF ready to deal with any situation: Special DG
Pak national nabbed
Death of woman
Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour
Class XII exams begin
with three-series question papers
Romeo Force celebrates Operationalisation Day
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PDP, BJP legislators stage walkouts
Assembly Session
Jammu, March 1 Enraged over the decision of the Speaker, the PDP members staged a walkout. As soon as the House assembled this morning, the PDP members asked the Speaker to suspend the business to hold a discussion on the prevailing situation in the Valley as the party had moved an adjournment motion in this regard. After the Speaker refused to suspend the business, the PDP members stood up and raised slogans against the government, saying it had failed on all fronts. They even tried to rush into the well of the House. While the PDP members were creating the ruckus, the Speaker asked other members to start the business. Amidst the din, the members started asking queries. Meanwhile, PDP member Javid Mustafa Mir clashed with the marshals, who tried to evict him from the House. However, the Speaker stopped them from doing so. Some PDP members also tried to rush into the well from the left side of the Speaker’s chair, but were not allowed to do so. In the melee, PDP member Choudhary Zulfikar Ali reportedly received a minor injury. The PDP MLAs tore papers relating to questions and clashed with the watch and ward staff. Later, they walked out of the House. Mehbooba had earlier given a notice to the Speaker to adjourn the House over the killings and alleged mass arrests in Kashmir last year. Talking to mediapersons outside the Assembly, Mehbooba charged the Speaker with behaving like a dictator. Earlier, BJP members staged a walkout over protests by unemployed educated youth. They also condemned the lathi-charge on agitating agriculture technocrats. The legislators of the Jammu State Morcha and the Panthers Party also raised the issue and asked the government to formulate a comprehensive policy for generating employment for trained and educated youth. Other members of the Legislative Assembly, after Question Hour, raised the issue of agriculture technocrats, physiotherapists and other unemployed youth, who had been protesting for the past some time. The members expressed concern about the use of force on unemployed youths protesting peacefully and demanded action against the erring policemen. They asked the government to formulate a policy for the absorption of these unemployed youths in permanent jobs. The legislators suggested to the government to hold talks with the agitating youths to resolve their problems at the earliest. Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, Mir Saifullah, Abdul Rashid, Abdul Gaffar Sofi, Harshdev Singh, Ashwani Sharma and Vikar Rasool raised the issue. Following the concern shown by the legislators, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mohammad Akbar Lone, directed the government to give a reply on the issue of protests by unemployed youth tomorrow. |
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Legislative Council
Jammu, March 1 In reply to a question of a Congress member, Abdul Gani Vakil,Rather accepted the fact that there was need to recover the tax dues and arrears from the defaulters. “It is hard to recover the dues.Still,we have recovered a total amount of Rs 75.6 crore from across the state in the past two years,” he said, adding that the government was taking a number of steps to recover the tax dues and arrears from the defaulters. Vakil asked if there was so much tax evasion,what action the state government had taken against the officials concerned. The Finance Minister replied that when the tax dues became arrears, the process of recovery was initiated through a collector under the J&K Vat Act and the J&K GST Act. He said in the past two years, there was an increase of about 22 per cent in the collection of arrears from the defaulters. “Last week, the Planning Commission of India wrote a letter to the Chief Minister for a good financial system in the state. We have also received appreciation letters from the Finance Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India for better financial system,” Rather added. |
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PDP, Panthers Party members protest against killings in Valley
Jammu, March 1 The three PDP legislators raised slogans and trooped into the well of the House, demanding action against the “killers”.The PDP legislators, Murtaza Ahmad Khan, Nizam-u-Din-Khatana and Syed Asgar Ali, were joined by M. Rafiq Shah, the lone member of the Panthers Party in the House. Urging the acting chairman of the Legislative Council, Arvinder Singh Micky, to allow a discussion on the issue, they demanded the suspension of the business of the House. But when Micky rejected their request, the three PDP members staged a walkout with M. Rafiq Shah of the Panthers Party following them. However, Rafiq returned to the House during Zero Hour. The PDP members did not take part in any discussion. Later, the scheduled business was conducted peacefully. |
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Six sentenced to death for Kathua man’s murder
Jammu, March 1 Bhola, 40, was brutally murdered in 1995. He was waylaid in Kathua, shot from a .12 bore gun and stabbed 18 times. He died on the spot. An advocate associated with the case said that part of the judgement read, “The six accused had disturbed the sleep of so many people. Hence, it is time that they also go to sleep so that others sleep without any worries.” The six convicts were Jasbir Singh, alias Jassi, Ram Nath Raina, alias Natha, Jagvinder Singh, alias Pappi, and Ajay Kumar, alias Kalu, all residents of Kathua town; Varinder Kumar, alias Monu, a resident of Nagri, and Gurdeep Singh, alias Kali, a resident of Sawan Chak in Kathua. The seventh accused, Sukhdev Singh, alias Sukha, another resident of Kathua town, who had allegedly stabbed Bhola the maximum time, died of a heart attack two years ago. About the motive behind the gruesome murder, the Judge said the convicts had a dispute over a royalty contract with Bhola, but the case file mentioned an “old rivalry”. Regarding the quantum of the sentence, the Judge referred to the Dhananjoy Chatterjee vs State of West Bengal case and observed that the Supreme Court had taken notice of the fact that a shockingly large number of criminals went unpunished, thereby, encouraging the criminals and ultimately making justice suffer by weakening the system’s credibility. A part of page 15 of the verdict reads, “From the discussion and the import of law, I am satisfied that this is the rarest of rare cases and is uncommon from the ordinary offence committed therein. The accused/convicts have been the members of the unlawful assembly right from the start of the offence till they eliminated the deceased and cut him into pieces.” “Accordingly, I am satisfied that there is no possibility of the accused/convicts being reformed and in case, they are permitted to remain on the earth, there is every likelihood that the people may lose faith in the courts for not punishing the accused as per the offence committed by them,” the Judge further observed. With these observations, he awarded the death sentence to the six convicts. |
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Rajya Sainik Board Meeting
Jammu, March 1 The Governor, chairing the meeting, suggested that ex-servicemen should be encouraged to run co-operative transport units in the state as it would keep them busy. To safeguard the interests of the ex-servicemen and their families, the Governor stressed the importance of adequate resources being mobilised. The Governor reviewed the progress made in regard to the construction of sainik bhawans at Srinagar and Jammu and sainik sarais at Rajouri, Kargil and Kupwara. Other issues that came up at the meeting included the employment of ex-servicemen in the state police and acquisition of land for Sainik Welfare Housing Colonies. Omar announced a one-time grant of Rs 20 lakh for providing financial assistance to the blind and paraplegic ex-servicemen of the state, who were residing in special institutes run by the Ministry of Defence. Later chairing the meeting of the State Managing Committee for Funds, the Governor, who is also the chairman of the committee, dwelt on the budgetary support being provided by the state government to the Department of Sainik Welfare, as also the contribution of the Kendriya Sainik Board to the J&K Rajya Sainik Board. He emphasised the need for evolving appropriate strategies to enhance the mobilisation and collection of funds at all levels for enhancing the welfare of ex-servicemen and their families. Those who attended the meeting included the Minister for Youth Services and Sports, RS Chib,the Minister for Revenue, Raman Bhalla, Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal, the Principal Secretary (Home), BR Sharma, the Army Commander, Northern Command, Lt-Gen KT Parnaik, the Chiefs of Staff, HQ, 9, 14, 15 and 16 Corps, the Principal Secretary to the Governor, RK Goyal, and Maj-Gen Pramod Behl,DG (R), New Delhi. |
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CRPF ready to deal with any situation: Special DG
Srinagar, March 1 He said the CRPF had acquired non-lethal weapons which would ensure that there was less “collateral damage” while dealing with mobs and stone throwers. “The CRPF is holding a joint training with the state police for better coordination between the two forces. We have purchased various non-lethal weapons to ensure less collateral damage while dealing with any situation,” Uppal said. He added that in the past few months, there had been a decline in militancy-related activities in the Valley. He also denied reports that militants were using CRPF uniforms to carry out their activities. He said the force was helping the youth adopt a constructive path and guiding them to make choices in various career options. “The aim of holding such career counselling programme for the youth of Kashmir is to show them that they have many job options to explore. The CRPF is doing this because we have a social responsibility ,” Uppal said. He said the CRPF had been holding such camps at various others places in the Valley. “The youths here are talented and we need to show them the way to channelise their potential,” the DG added.
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Pak national nabbed
Jammu, March 1 An Army spokesperson said during preliminary interrogation, Hira Lal claimed that he entered the Indian territory mistakenly. “Though he didn’t cross the fence, he moved close to it and was nabbed by our troops,” he said. An identity card bearing number 341011247082-9 issued by the Pakistan government, currency amounting to Rs 1,950, one slip with number 03446112405, one key, 28 women’s suits, one Casio wrist watch , one Vaseline chap stick and one licence for selling items on cart issued by the Municipal Committee of Secunderabad, Fatehpur, in the name of Mohammed Hafiz were recovered from his possessin, he added. The Army spokesperson said Hafiz in whose name the licence for selling items on cart had been issued, was staying with Hira Ali at Nikial in occupied Kashmir. Though nothing incriminating was recovered from the national, he was being interrogated, he added. |
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Death of woman
Jammu, March 1 The 22-year-old Sonam was married to Rakesh Sharma of Bhour Camp. Her family alleged that doctors with the help of the police were trying to “cover up” their “act” of provoking a clash outside the hospital. “There is a set procedure in the hospital for ambulance services for the transportation of a body. In our case, we had not even started the paper work when the hospital staff brought the body outside and put it in an ambulance without our consent,” said members of the bereaved family. “When we raised a hue and cry, the police roughed up the driver of the ambulance and forced him to take the vehicle out of the hospital,” they said. In another development, the police released five relatives of the deceased,who were detained yestyerday for clashing with the police and the hospital staff. Meanwhile, Dr Romesh Gupta, Medical Superintendent of SMGS Hospital, denied the allegations and said: “An inquiry has already been ordered by the government.” |
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Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour
Srinagar, March 1 Special prayers were offered in temples at various places. Special arrangements were made by the administration to provide power and water supply in the areas.There was also a supply of fish and walnut in the areas where a majority of the Pandits reside. The PDP patron, Mufti Mohammed
Sayeed, and the party president, Mehbooba Mufti, extended greetings to the people on the occasion. In a message, the PDP patron wished the people a happy Mahashivratri and prayed for peace, progress and prosperity in the state. In her massage, party president Mehbooba Mufti said the state had a rich tradition of celebrating festivals in amity, brotherhood and harmony. She said the Pandit community was an important component of the composite culture of Kashmir and hoped that the festival would strengthen brotherhood and bring harmony among various sections of society. |
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Class XII exams begin
with three-series question papers
Jammu, March 1 Minister for Education and Public Enterprises Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed also visited various examination centres to inspect the arrangements made by the authorities concerned for a smooth conduct of the exams. He interacted with the students and the staff at the centres and inquired about the arrangements made therein. Dr Shiekh Bashir Ahmed and Dr Renu Goswami, Secretary and Joint Secretary of the education board, respectively, GA Qureshi, Director Education, and other officers of the board and the School Education Department accompanied the minister. |
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Schools in Valley reopen after three months
Srinagar, March 1 The Director, School Eduction (Kashmir), Shagufta Parveen said: “All the government and private schools in Kashmir division reopened today after the winter
vacation. The schools falling in the Srinagar municipal limits shall function from 10.30 a.m to 3.30 p.m while those in the areas other than Srinagar city shall function from 11 a.m to 4 p.m till March 31,” the Director said, and added separate timings would be announced for the summer season. “Despite the unrest, which forced the students to lose more than four months of academics, the pass percentage in the matriculation examination was 65 per cent while it was 59 per cent in the higher secondary (part -II) examination,” said an official of the State Board of School
Education. |
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Protesting physiotherapists lathicharged
Jammu, March 1 The police arrested more than 50 protesters. However, they were released in the evening. The physiotherapists alleged that the government was apathetic towards their demands. The unemployed physiotherapists under the banner of the Jammu and Kashmir Physiotherapist Association have been staging a dharna at the Mubarak Mandi complex for the past 99 days. |
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Romeo Force celebrates Operationalisation Day
Jammu, March 1 This was followed by prayers at the
temple. Commensurate with the operational commitments of the troops in the counter-insurgency environment, other functions organised on the occasion included a special sainik sammelan and “Barakhana” for the troops. The Officiating General Officer Commanding, Romeo
Force, exhorted all ranks to rededicate themselves to the service of the country. |
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