Jammu, March 3
The Opposition today accused the state government of turning Jammu and Kashmir into a “police state” and alleged that the rights of people were under attack.

During an adjournment motion in the Assembly, Leader of the Opposition Mehbooba Mufti alleged the police was harassing youths in Kashmir and those belonging to poor families were being victimised by the security forces. “Even minors are not safe at the hands of the police,” she said, and pointed out the reported case of a teenager being jailed under the PSA on a charge of stone throwing during a demonstration.

Mehbooba suspected that the security forces were using repressive measures without the knowledge of the government. “Youths of Kashmir are physically and mentally injured, but instead of reconciliation, the government is using harsh measures to suppress their discontent,” she said, and warned that “through coercive measures, the government cannot address the problems, as the anger of the youth can resurge with intensity at any time”.

CPM legislator MY Tarigami criticised the frequent lathi-charge on physiotherapists and agricultural technocrats, who had been protesting for the past few months in Jammu. “The government has lost its civil face and Jammu and Kashmir is fast becoming a police state,” he alleged. “Neither the Deputy Commissioner nor any commissioner of the departments concerned has felt it obligatory so far to visit the protesters in hospital,” he regretted.

Showing newspapers carrying photographs of policemen beating protesting women in Jammu, Panthers Party legislator Harsh Dev Singh condemned the government for treating people in an inhuman way for highlighting their grievances democratically. Another Panthers Party legislator, Balwant Singh Mankotia, said, “The government is not allowing protests in Jammu city and has closed all channels of communication with people. There is widespread discontent among people and the day is not far when the state will witness what is happening in Egypt and Libya.” Similarly, Chaman Lal Gupta,BJP MLA, said the party condemned police excesses and urged the government to focus on development to address the grievances of the people.

Jammu, March 3
Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly Mohammad Sartaj Madni, who belongs to the PDP, today resigned in protest against certain remarks made against him by Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone in an interview.

Although the Speaker is yet to decide on Madni’s resignation, the latter made it clear that his decision was final. “The Speaker had behaved in a partisan manner and his interview, in which he had passed some remarks against me, was a glaring example of a compromise with the dignity and decorum of an august forum like the Assembly,” Madni told The Tribune.

Earlier, when the Assembly assembled, Madni walked into the well of the House and raised the issue.Other PDP members also joined him and asked the Speaker to allow the Deputy Speaker to make his point.

The Speaker ignored Madni for a while, but later allowed him to make his point when some members, including Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and Panthers Party MLA Harsh Dev Singh, intervened. Madni clarified that he had not joined the protesting PDP members and was referring to the way the marshals handled the legislators.

During the second session of the Assembly, which began at 3 pm, Madni submitted his resignation to the Speaker. “You have indeed created a parliamentary history of your own in the last two years and one would not like to dwell on it. But in your interview, I think you have beaten even your own standards of functioning as Speaker. It is for the first time that the custodian of the House, as the Speaker is supposed to be anywhere in the democratic world, goes to town to launch a smear campaign against the Opposition,” Madni wrote to the Speaker. “You are obviously not following the established parliamentary practices and traditions to run the House, but following your party’s (NC) policy of beating everybody into submission,” he stated in his resignation.The PDP had boycotted the Assembly session in Srinagar last year. With the resignation of the Deputy Speaker, the Assembly is likely to witness a clash between the PDP and the NC, as the former has decided to take up the issue in the coming days. 

Jammu, March 3
The issue of ‘discrimination’ against the Jammu and Ladakh regions created an uproar in the Assembly today with members of pro-Jammu parties staging a walkout as they were not satisfied with the reply of the Finance Minister.

The leader of the BJP, Chaman Lal Gupta, raised a question about the terms and reference of the Finance Commission, constituted by the government.

Responding to the question, the Minister for Finance, AR Rather, said the Finance Commission had submitted its report on November 30, 2010, to the Chief Minister. He added that the voluminous report was being examined. He said a separate dissenting note had also been given by one of the members of the commission.

Not satisfied with the reply of the minister, the BJP member said that the two members of the Finance Commission, belonging to the Jammu and Ladakh regions, had given their notes of dissent.“The government is trying to hide the truth,” he said.

Harsh Dev Singh of the Panthers Party and Ashwini Sharma of the Jammu State Morcha also joined the BJP member in raising the issue of discrimination.They charged the government with adopting discriminatory policies against the Jammu and Ladakh regions. Harsh Dev termed the reply of the minister as incomplete and misleading.

The BJP member said that the commission was appointed on January 15, 2008 and its report was submitted in November last year, but nothing had been done, even though the commission was appointed to look into the regional discrimination regarding financial aspects of the state.

The BJP and Panthers Party members also raised slogans and along with the JSM member staged a walkout.

Udhampur, March 3
Abdul Majid Wani, MLA, Doda, expressed concern over dilly-dallying by government agencies in the implementation of crucial public utility projects in the region.

In a release issued here today, Wani said the Central and state governments took up major projects in the area during the past decade, but the negligence on part of the government functionaries delayed the development of the district.

He gave examples of the abandoned work for the construction of the Ganpat and Shiva Dal bridges across the Chenab. “The latter is being delayed on one pretext or the other,” Wani alleged.

The foundation stone of the bridge at Shiva Dal was laid by GM Saroori, the then Minister for the R&B, along with Wani in 2009.

However, the tender process got completed, but the allotment was not made only to accommodate some other agency, which earlier could not participate in the process, he said.

Due to procedural delays and red-tapism, the project failed to take off even one-and-a-half-year after its inauguration.

Wani said the bridge could benefit at least one lakh people of the Gundna block and the adjoining areas. Besides, it could serve the purpose of another alternative route between Kishtwar and Doda districts, he added.

The project of the Ganpat bridge, which was started in August 2006, met with a similar fate. It was promised to be completed before commissioning of the Baglihar Hydroelectric Project, as with the filling of the reservoir, the only bridge connecting Doda was to be submerged. But after more than four-and-a-half years, there had been no sign of the completion of the bridge, Wani said.

He added that the work on the proposed bridge stood abandoned and the government agency concerned seemed ‘non-serious’ about its completion.

Wani demanded that all government functionaries concerned should be held accountable for the delay and the state government should take time-bound steps to complete all such important projects for the benefit of the people of the area.

Jammu, March 3
The Upper House witnessed a heated debate over the post of the Leader of the Opposition during Question Hour today.

As soon as the proceedings started, Murtaza Ahmad Khan of the PDP raised the issue, saying he had never claimed himself to be the Leader of the Opposition and no one had the right to defame him.

Murtaza, backed by two other MLAs of the party, said he was the Leader of the PDP in the Legislative Council and nothing else. “Some members always try to disturb the proceedings of the House. So, I advise them to be liberal and forward looking, which will help their cause,” said Murtaza.

But Mohammad Rashid Qureshi of the NC, who had raised the issue in the House on March 1, said, “I have raised the issue about the post in the House, as no one has the right to stake a claim to the post of the Leader of the Opposition because no political party has the requisite strength of 10 legislators for it.”

Meanwhile, Syed Asgar Ali and Nizam-ud-Din-Khatana of the PDP also stood up and appealed to the acting chairman of the House, Arvinder Singh Micky, to intervene in the issue. “As I have said earlier, action would be taken with regard to the issue after consulting legal experts. I can only say that we have adopted a democratic system in the House in which the Opposition can help the ruling party correct its mistakes,” said Micky. He added, “We have not given any privilege to Murtaza Ahmad Khan and the House proceedings are being conducted as per the parliamentary system.”

Ajay Sadhotra, a legislator of the NC, said, “The Legislative Council has mentioned Murtaza as the Leader of the Opposition in its records, which is objectionable. The records should be corrected.” Sadhotra again raised the issue and demanded a discussion on it. However, the acting chairman declined his request.

There was normal business during Question Hour. However, after some time, the lone legislator of the Panthers Party, Mohammad Rafiq Shah, staged a walkout at 11:52 am, saying “every member asks two or three questions, but the acting chairman doesn’t allow me to raise any query. It is a clear case of discrimination.” He later returned to the House during Zero Hour.

During Zero Hour, when Rafiq raised the issue of “Islamic fundamentalism”, which was raised by the BJP in the Legislative Assembly on March 1, the acting chairman did not allow him to speak. Later, a discussion was held on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address, in which a number of legislators participated.

Jammu, March 3
Due to a technical snag in its main server at Chandigarh, the BSNL failed to send bills to several post-paid customers of CellOne for February across Jammu.

Several customers queued up outside BSNL collections centres in the winter capital today complaining about the non-receipt of either hard or soft copies of the post-paid bills.

Besides hard copies, the BSNL sends monthly bills of the rentals via emails and SMS to its customers.

“Till today, I haven’t received the bill for February. Once the due date is over, the BSNL doesn’t take much time to bar the outgoing and incoming calls,” said Amrik Singh, a corporate sector executive.

Echoing similar views, another customer at the BSNL’s Bahu Plaza office stated that she, too, had not received the bill for February.

“I have come to collect a duplicate bill, but now they are telling me that there is no outstanding amount against my account for the month of February. How is it possible?” she asked.

A senior BSNL official said several post-paid customers had not been provided with the bills because of the technical snag in the main server at Chandigarh.

“ The bills of several post-paid customers have not been generated this time because of the snag. We hope to get the snag rectified at the earliest as only after that the customers will get their bills,” he said.

However, the official said several officials and employees of the BSNL had also not received their bills.

The BSNL has now started maintaining a list of mobile numbers of the customers, who have not been provided with the bills.

Jammu, March 3
Many PoK refugees sustained injuries when the police lathicharged them during the “Jagti Chalo” march at Bikram Chowk this afternoon.

The police foiled their attempt to carry out a rally and took four members of SOS International, an organisation for the rights of refugees, including the chairman of the organisation, Rajiv Chuni, Sandeep Singh, Jaswant Singh and Vinod Sawhney, into preventive custody.

The organisation had given a call to forcibly occupy the flats for the PoK refugees, a day ahead of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Jagti Township for inaugurating residential flats for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

“The successive governments have not paid any attention to our demand for the rehabilitation of refugees living in filthy camps for more than 60 years now,” said a spokesperson of the organisation, Sohan Singh.“Today's police lathicharge on our rally was uncalled for”.

“The government has created categories among the displaced people and is openly discriminating one set of people against the other,” he said.

“We will keep highlighting the issues of PoK refugees in our struggle against injustice,” he added.

Srinagar, March 3
Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was detained by the police at the Srinagar airport and put under house arrest soon after his arrival from New Delhi here today. In the national capital, the chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference was questioned by the Delhi police in connection with a hawala case.

“He was detained at the airport and put under house arrest soon after his arrival from Delhi,” amalgam spokesman Ayaz Akbar said.

The Hurriyat leader was scheduled to return to Kashmir on Tuesday but was stopped by the police at the airport for questioning and recording his statement in a hawala case. — PTI 

Jammu, March 3
The Jammu and Kashmir Christian Dalit Association today condemned the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities, yesterday.

The association demanded severe punishment for the killers of Bhatti, the only Christian member of the Pakistan Ministry. A condolence meeting of the association held here today under the chairmanship of S. Peter expressed anguish over the targeting of minorities, particularly the Christians, in Pakistan. The association observed that it was intriguing that Bhatti had no security guard at the time of the attack in Islamabad.He had earlier received threats from fundamentalists for his views on blasphemy. The meeting also expressed concern about the security of members of the community in Pakistan.While the Christians were secure in Jammu and Kashmir and enjoyed equal rights,they had no religious freedom in Pakistan. — TNS

Srinagar, March 3
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today visited the family of an engineer, who was killed in a grenade attack by militants.

Omar met the bereaved family of Showkat Ali Khan, assistant executive engineer in the Roads and Buildings Department, to express condolences. Showkat died in a blast at Batamaloo in the city on Monday evening.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by Minister of State for Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani and Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Asgar Samoon.

Srinagar, March 3
A team of the British High Commission in New Delhi led by the First Secretary, Victoriya Whiteford, held meetings with separatist groups, including the Hurriyat Conference and the JKLF, here yesterday.

The team comprising Whiteford and Sushil A Aron met a moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation led by its acting chairman, Abdul Ghani Bhat, at the party headquarters here last evening.

Bhat sought international intervention in the killings allegedly at the hands of the security forces in the Valley, a spokesman said.

He added that Bhat had also informed the visiting delegation about the political, economic and psychological aspects of the Kashmir issue.

Bhat further told the delegation that the resolution of the Kashmir issue was necessary for a peaceful future in South Asia and the restoration of peace in Afghanistan as it was coming in the way of friendly relations between India and Pakistan.

He stressed the need for a comprehensive dialogue between India and Pakistan with the participation of the representatives from Jammu and Kashmir to find an amicable solution to the issue.

The visiting delegation also met JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Jammu, March 3
The state government said today that 39 bunkers had been removed so far this year from the civilian areas in the Kashmir valley.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said this in a written reply to a query of PDP leader Syed Basharat Bukhari in the Legislative Assembly.

Bukhari had sought details of the 8-point action plan announced by the Centre after the parliamentary delegation’s visit to the state.

Meetings of the Unified Command Headquarters (UCH) had been held to review the deployment of the security forces in the Valley and till now 39 bunkers had been removed from the civilian areas, he said.

Omar further said two committees had already been constituted - one in Jammu and one in Kashmir division - to look into the areas where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) could be withdrawn.

The committees had held their meetings and the deliberations were under consideration of the government, he said.

As per the 8-point action plan, the state government was requested to convey a meeting of the UCH and to review the deployment of the security forces in the Valley, especially Srinagar, with particular reference to reducing the number of bunkers and check-points in Srinagar and other towns. — PTI