New Delhi, March 2
A group of experts headed by former RBI Governor C Rangarajan for formulating a comprehensive job plan for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir will submit its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow.

The report will be presented to the Prime Minister ahead of his two-day visit from tomorrow to Jammu where he is expected to announce a special employment package for the state’s youth and also a Central assistance for basmati rice farmers.

The Prime Minister will participate in the convocation of the Sher-e-Kashmir Agriculture University, besides handing over nearly 800 houses to Kashmiri migrants.

This is Manmohan Singh’s first visit to Jammu during his second term as Prime Minister.

Manmohan Singh had earlier said the Centre would do everything to strengthen the hands of the Jammu and Kashmir Government for providing a fair deal to the youth of the state to generate avenues for gainful employment.

Replying to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address to both Houses of Parliament, he had said the Rangarajan panel would work out a plan for providing between 50,000 and 1 lakh jobs to the Kashmiri youth.

“I hope that once we start implementing these precise proposals, regarding which the Indian industry commits itself to employing the Kashmiri youth, and if we can create jobs for one lakh students from the Valley and other parts of Kashmir, I daresay it will change the mindset of the Kashmiri people,” he had said.

The six-member panel was constituted by the Prime Minister in August last year in an effort to enhance employment opportunities in the state and formulate a job plan involving both public and private sectors.

Rangarajan, at present the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, and other members of the group had held extensive interactions with various associations and representatives of trade and industry.

The group had interacted with the National Skill Development Coordination Board and the National Skill Development Corporation with a view to exploring the possibilities of creating jobs in the state. Other members of the panel are NR Narayana Murthy, Tarun Das, T Nanda Kumar, Shakeel Qalander and Bharat Vyas. Principal Secretary (Planning), J&K government, is the Member Secretary. — PTI

Jammu, March 2
Condemning police brutality on agitating physiotherapists, the All-India Students’ Federation (AISF) has announced to take up the struggle at the national level to expose anti-youth policies of the state government.

Addressing a press conference here today along with the agitating physiotherapists, who were injured in yesterday’s police lathicharge, Victor Dhissa, national vice-president of the AISF, said their organisation had decided to create awareness all over the country about the agitation.

He added that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was taking measures to suppress the genuine cause of the unemployed youth.

Condemning the lathicharge, he said a large number of physiotherapists, including women, were injured in the action.

“This action speaks about the attitude of the government,” he said, and added that such measures by the government to suppress the voice of the people would prove counterproductive.

He said it was the responsibility of the government to provide jobs to the educated unemployed youth.

Meanwhile, the agitating physiotherapists’ dharna entered its 100th day today.

RS Pura, March 2
Farmers in the border belt of the Jammu region are a harried lot because yellow rust, a fungal disease, has affected more than 60 per cent of their wheat crop.

Farmers in the RS Pura, Samba, Hiranagar and Kathua areas now fear that they may lose the entire crop, if the Agriculture Department does not take timely action.

Though yellow rust had damaged the crop earlier also, the authorities do not seem to be concerned about it.The farmers alleged that they had not been provided with fungicides to save their crops. “Yellow rust affected our crops last year, causing monetary losses, but the Agriculture Department did not do enough to create awareness among the farmers and at the same time not initiated enough measures to provide fungicides,” alleged Harinder Singh, a farmer of Kullian village.

He added, “The department should take steps to save the farmers.Otherwise, they and their families will face a tough time.”

A number of farmers said ministers and senior bureaucrats visited their villages a few days ago, but did not announce any compensation. “Minister for Revenue and Relief Raman Bhalla inspected our fields and assured us of compensation. But no announcement had been made by the government so far,” said Manjeet Singh, a farmer of Suchetgarh village. He added that they were worried that if inclement weather continued in the coming days, the remaining crop would also be damaged.

An agriculture expert at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) said, “The disease grows under low temperature conditions, especially in the sub-mountainous areas. It can be easily recognised from the appearance of yellow powdery stripes on the leaves of the wheat crop.”

About saving the crop from the fungal disease, he added, “The farmers should monitor the crop at regular intervals. If the symptoms of the disease are noticed, they should use fungicides. Otherwise, it will damage the whole crop.”

Jammu, March 2
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit to Jammu tomorrow, Gujjars of the state today sought his intervention in resolving issues of the Scheduled Tribes.

In a statement issued here today, the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation sought the resolution of five issues pending with the Centre. The issues comprised the raising of a Gujjar regiment in the Army, a tribal university in the state, the inclusion of Gojri in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, providing a slot to Gojri on radio and DD channels and a special census of nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwals.

Dr Javaid Rahi, national secretary of the foundation, said the five demands of the Gujjars had not been addressed by the Centre for a long time.

Rahi said the Gujjars had been demanding a full-fledged Gujjar regiment in the Army on the pattern of the Jat, Raput and Dogra regiments since 1947. On the demand of a tribal university, he hoped that the Prime Minister would make some announcement. If established, the university would promote studies and research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, custom, medicinal systems, forest-based economic activities, including special studies in the flora and fauna, and advancements in technologies related to natural resources of the tribal areas of the state, he added.

Srinagar, March 2
A Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant was killed while an Army jawan was injured in an encounter in the Dadsar area of Pulwama district today. At the time of the filing of the report, the gunfight was still on. A house, where two heavily armed militants were reportedly hiding, was also damaged in the encounter.

According to sources, a search operation was jointly launched by the police and the 42 RR on getting information about the militants. “The ultras fired on the search party, triggering an encounter that was still on when reports last came in,” the police here said.

The killed militant was identified as Shabir Qureshi, a resident of Tral area.

Jammu, March 2
The Tehreek-e-Insaf Movement has announced that it will observe a chakka jam during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled two-day visit to Jammu.

Addressing a press conference here today,leaders of the movement said this was to lodge a protest against the failure of the Central and state governments to provide adequate compensation to militancy-affected people in the region.

They said except promises, nothing concrete had been done by the government to mitigate the woes of the militancy-affected people.

They said they had also decided to hold demonstrations at all district headquarters during the Prime Minister’s visit to draw the attention of the government towards their problems. The leaders announced that they would gherao the Civil Secretariat on March 21 against the discriminatory policies of the coalition government.

“We would like to know why the state and the central governments were not implementing the Supreme Court's order to bring the migrants of Jammu on a par with the Kashmiri migrants,” they said. Former MLA Mohammad Farooq Mir, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Mir and Ravinder Raina addressed the press conference.

Jammu, March 2
Five persons were injured when their car collided with a truck while negotiating a curve,near Nandini,today.

The injured were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital, where their condition was stated to be stable. The car was going to Katra when the accident took place.

Jammu, March 2
Following the surfacing of a fake salary bill scam in Kishtwar district in which some officials swindled crores of rupees, the Education Department has handed over the case to the State Vigilance Organisation.

“Although we have formed a three-member committee to probe the scam, we are finding it difficult to get some documents. So, we have requested the Deputy Commissioner and the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kishtwar to help our staff get the required documents,” the Director, School Education, Jammu, Gulzar Ahmed Qureshi told The Tribune.

He, however, said the main accused in the scam had already been suspended and the account from which the fake salaries were withdrawn had also been frozen. “Keeping in view the seriousness of the case, we have handed over the case to the State Vigilance Organisation,” Qureshi said.

The scam was detected in an educational zone of Kishtwar district,where not only fake salary bills were made, but also a huge amount was allegedly embezzled in the name of creating school infrastructure, mid-day meal schemes and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Meanwhile, the PDP and the BJP today alleged that the main accused in the scam enjoyed the patronage of the ruling party.

The state secretary of the BJP, Sunil Sharma,while addressing a press conference here, demanded a high-level probe into the scam. Echoing similar views, the PDP district president, Kishtwar, Shakir Sadicqui accused the ruling National Conference of shielding the main accused. “NC leaders have been protecting those involved in the fake salary bill scam,” he alleged.

Jammu, March 2
Even as the stalemate over the appointment of the Secretary of the Legislative Council ended, a fresh controversy erupted yesterday when a legislator of the National Conference (NC) objected to Murtaza Ahmad Khan of the PDP being addressed as the Leader of the Opposition.

Mohammad Rashid Qureshi of the NC, while participating in a discussion on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s Address, said Khan could not be called the Leader of the Opposition as the PDP did not have sufficient numbers in the Upper House. He also urged acting chairman of the Legislative Council, Arvinder Singh Micky, to take action in this regard.

When Qureshi raised the objection, no PDP member was present in the House. Micky told Qureshi: “You have raised the issue and I will definitely give you a reply soon.” He added that he would consult legal experts before taking any decision.

Meanwhile, AG Vakil of the Congress and Khalid Najeeb Suharawardy of the NC also raised the issue. As per the law, a party must have at least 10 members in the Legislative Council, which has a total strength of 36, to stake claim to the post of the Leader of the Opposition. Neither the PDP nor the Panthers Party has the numbers at present.

Jammu, March 2
Governor NN Vohra honoured fencing and cricket teams of University of Jammu for their outstanding performance in the last two years consecutively, at a function at Raj Bhavan here this evening

The Governor congratulated the university’s fencing team on winning the All-India Inter-University Fencing Championship (men’s category) held at the university last year and in Chandigarh in 2009.

He lauded the Jammu University non-teaching employees cricket team for lifting the All-India Vice-Chancellors’ T-20 Cricket Cup during 2008-09 in Mumbai and retaining the championship last year in Srinagar.

He presented gifts to the players of both teams.

While interacting with the players, the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, observed that efforts were needed to set up teams in various sports disciplines by selecting players from all state universities as well as colleges for ensuring competitiveness at the national championships.

Earlier, Vice-Chancellor, Jammu University, Prof Varun Sahni, introduced the university’s fencing and cricket teams to the Governor.

The Principal Secretary to the Governor, RK Goyal, and the Director, Sports and Physical Education, Jammu University, Prof Dhian Singh Bhau, were present on the occasion.

Jammu, March 2
The 59th All-India Police Wrestling Cluster (AIPWC), Jammu, was inaugurated here today.

Minister for Medical Education and Sports R.S.Chib inaugurated the five-day event,while the chairman of the AIPWC,Kuldeep Khoda,DGP, gave the address of welcome.The athletes also took the ceremonial oath.

In his keynote address, Chib said it was appreciable that besides maintaining the law and order and fighting militancy in the state,the police was organising sports activities.

The DGP said at least 1,550 participants from 31 states and Central Police Organisations were participating in the event which would conclude on March 6.

“We keep on organising such inter-state and inter-battalion competitions to give a platform to budding sportspersons,” he said.

Those present on the occasion included Additional DGP K Rajendra, MLC Jhangir Meer and other senior police officers.

Jammu, March 2
Growers of basmati in the RS Pura area today urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to announce the setting up of a national basmati mission during his two-day visit to Jammu beginning tomorrow.

Addressing a press conference, the growers said it would benefit over 2.5 lakh farmers in the Jammu region.

“The agricultural scenario of Jammu and Kashmir will be changed, if the Prime Minister announces the setting up of the mission. There are no marketing facilities for us and we face a number of problems in selling our produce in the market,” said Chaudhary Dev Raj, president, R S Pura Rice Growers Association.

He also demanded that the government should establish ‘mandis’ at the district and block levels to enable the farmers to sell their produce.