Jammu, March 9
A piquant situation arose in the Legislative Assembly today when BJP legislator from Basholi Jagdish Raj Sapolia handed over a compact disc (CD) and Rs 20,000 to the Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone, to authenticate his allegation about rampant corruption in the state Transport Department.

Sapolia alleged that despite directions from a court of law not to allow commercial vehicles that were 20 years old to ply on roads, officials of the Transport Department in Doda district had been giving fitness certificates to such vehicles in lieu of bribes. He said the CD provided to the Speaker was the recording of a customer giving a bribe to the officials concerned to get a fitness certificate for his unfit vehicle.

Sapolia said frequent road accidents in Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts were the result of rampant corruption in the Transport Department. He said the authorities concerned had been allowing condemned commercial vehicles to ply on roads by taking bribes.

Taking a serious note of the allegation levelled by a legislator on the floor of the House, the Speaker directed Transport Minister Qamar Ali Akhoon to probe the charge. BJP leader Chaman Lal Gupta supported his colleague and asked the Speaker to conduct the inquiry himself. “The member has handed over a CD, which itself testifies his allegation. So you should conduct an inquiry yourself by viewing the CD,” Gupta asked the Speaker, but his request was declined.

“I have full faith in my minister, who is competent enough to probe such allegations,” the Speaker said and handed over the CD to Akhoon. The minister, while responding to the allegation, assured the House that he would conduct the inquiry himself and if any person was found involved in corrupt practices, strict action would be taken against him. “Anybody found involved will not be spared. I will even take the concerned member into confidence during the probe”, he said.

Jammu, March 9
Mohammad Akbar Lone, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, once again asked the Deputy Speaker, Sartaj Madni, to reconsider his decision to resign from the post. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar also joined the Speaker and urged Madni not to resign and resume work.

During the debate on the Budget here today, the Speaker said, “I once again appeal to my friend Madni to resume his chair as Deputy Speaker and participate in the proceedings of the House”. He said the Deputy Speaker should not press for his resignation.

Ali Mohammad Sagar also made a similar appeal to the Deputy Speaker. “Madani is a senior and respectable member of the House and he should reconsider his decision to resign. He should not take things so seriously as such incidents usually happen during the proceedings of the Assembly,” he said. Sagar said the Speaker had also served the House as Deputy Speaker during the PDP-Congress regime.

Madni was present in the complex of the Legislative Council but he did not attend the proceeding of the House. Asked about the appeal of the Speaker, he said, “I was neither present in the Assembly nor aware of what the Speaker said”. “Today, I wrote another letter to the Speaker to allot me a seat in the House as I am an elected representative and have to raise issues concerning people,” he said.

He added, “I have not yet changed my decision and it is my humble submission to the Speaker to consider my request”.

Jammu, March 9
Facing criticism over the prevailing traffic situation in the state, Law Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar told DGP Kuldeep Khoda in the Legislative Council that had he got stuck in traffic jam, he would have known the ground reality. Khoda was sitting in the officers’ gallery.

Replying to a question jointly raised by Trilochan Singh Wazir, BA Magrey and Vijay Bakaya, the minister said the problem of traffic chaos prevailed mostly in Jammu and Srinagar. Sagar said, “Yes, the problem persists. Though the government has taken a number of steps to streamline traffic, a traffic policy is required to make the roads safer”.

He added, “There have been some mistakes on the part of the government too, as no one bothers about the violation of traffic rules. The traffic police is also reluctant to check violation of rules”.

The minister also told the House that the government was keen to resolve the traffic mess. “The Chief Minister has chaired two meetings in this regard. The government has adopted short and long measures, under which over-bridges, road widening and bypasses will be constructed at select places,” he added.

However, not satisfied with the minister’s reply, Bakaya said, “Though the government has been taking steps to streamline traffic, the long-term steps are proving too long, as the work on a number of projects was yet to start.”

“The minister has not said even a single word about the need to construct parking lots, which are urgently required to resolve the issue and save human lives from being lost every year in road mishaps,” Wazir added.

The number of people killed in road mishaps is more than the people killed in militancy-related incidents across the state every year. In 2010, a total of 1,080 persons were killed in road mishaps across the state. 

Jammu, March 9
The vital health sector in the state has been ailing due to the non-serious approach of successive governments to streamline the functioning of the Health Department. Health centres were opened irrationally in different regions on political considerations without proper infrastructure and without creating posts for them, Minister for Health Sham Lal Sharma admitted this in the Legislative Assembly today while replying to the queries of legislators.

“More than 400 health centres in the state, especially in rural areas, have been functioning on the internal adjustment basis,” Sharma told the House and admitted that due to this policy the functioning of a large number of centres had been badly affected.

He said due to the non-availability of posts for these newly-created centres the department had to post doctors and paramedical staff from other areas to make them functional. “The department has virtually become handicapped as neither infrastructure nor staff is available to meet the requirements of the health centres in different parts of the state,” the minister said. He added that “ad hocism in the department can be gauged from the fact that 80 per cent of the health centres have been functioning from rented accommodation”.

When the agitating members repeatedly asked the minister why such a large number of health centres were opened without creating infrastructure, Sharma said a majority of these were opened during the election year 2008. He added that even hospitals were opened in some parts of the state without creating infrastructure for them. The minister said keeping in view the pitiable condition of the health sector, the Central government had sanctioned funds generously. “The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 400 crore for creating infrastructure in primary health centres,” he said, adding that the state government had formulated a project worth Rs 2,600 crore to be forwarded to the Union government. “The meeting in this regard will be held in New Delhi on March 18 to discuss the project,” he said. Earlier Congress legislator GA Mir, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Abdul Rehman Veeri of the PDP, Harsh Dev Singh of the Panthers Party and other legislators participated in the debate that generated a lot of heat in the House.

The minister said it was all due to the allegations levelled by the legislators that he had accepted the demand of constituting a House committee to probe into the allegations of discrimination in the allocation of funds to health centres.

Srinagar, March 9
Though 90 houses were destroyed, the Army saved the lives of a large number of villagers, who were caught in a fire in Baraub village in the Gurez sector yesterday.

According to reports, Army troops located at Baraub in the Gurez Sector helped in the rescue operation when the entire village was engulfed by the fire late last night. “The Army unit reached the village when almost 90 houses in the village were ablaze. All efforts initially were concentrated on evacuating the trapped villagers, especially women and children,” an Army spokesman said. While the villagers were busy retrieving their belongings from the burning houses, the Army continued its relief operations throughout the night till the fire was doused completely.

Jammu, March 9
A group of 20 moulvis from various areas of Baramulla district met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhavan yesterday and shared with him their experiences of their visit to different religious and historical places in Rajasthan.

The tour was organised by the 52 RR of the Army.

At Ajmer, the moulvis paid obeisance at the shrine of Khwaja Moin-ud-Din Chisti and visited other landmarks in the city. In Jaipur, they visited the Amer Fort, Jaigarh Palace, Vidhan Sabha and other places of historical importance.

Interacting with the group, the Governor inquired from them about their impressions of the places they had visited, the people they had interacted with and their experiences. The Governor urged the moulvis to work devotedly for the restoration of sustained peace and normalcy in the state. The moulvis presented a memento to the Governor.

Major Umesh Swami and some Army personnel accompanied the touring group. Meanwhile, Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifullah, a Judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, met the Governor yesterday.

This was Justice Kalifullah’s first meeting with the Governor after he took over as the Judge of the state High Court recently. The Governor wished him a very successful tenure in Jammu and kashmir.

Jammu, March 9
The Romeo force of the Army has upgraded infrastructure at the Nari Niketan in the Mendhar area to overcome the paucity of space. The Nari Niketan was built in 2006-07 for the girls orphaned due to militancy.

According to an official note issued here today, the existing accommodation had been inadequate to house all inmates and hence to overcome the paucity of accommodation, an additional room and a bathroom has been constructed by the Rashtriya Rifles under operation Sadbhavana.

Devraj Sharma, Tehsildar, Mendhar, inaugurated the project in presence of the Commander Sector Rashtriya Rifles, Army officers and local people.

Jammu, March 9
Activists of the National Secular Forum (NSF) locked the main door of the Central Library in University of Jammu and gheraoed Mohammed Shoaib, in charge librarian, for about an hour today.

Vikas Sharma, state president of the NSF, while leading a large number of students and scholars, criticised the university authorities for the alleged corruption in the administration.

Alleging that some persons had been appointed illegally in the library, Sharma demanded a probe into the matter. 

Srinagar, March 9
Lawyers in Kashmir have announced to suspend their strike, which they had earlier called to demand the release of Kashmir Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom and general secretary GN Shaheen. The two were arrested under the Public Safety Act during the unrest last year.

According to a statement issued here on Wednesday, meeting of the the Bar association was held at the Saddar Court complex and it was decided that the previously elected office-bearers Mian Abdul Qayoom, president, Aijaz Bedar vice-president, GN Shaheen, general secretary, and Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, treasurer, shall continue to hold the office till Qayoom and Shaheen were released. 

Srinagar, March 9
Even as the Srinagar Jammu national highway has opened to vehicular traffic and the weather in Kashmir has improved in the past few days, the Valley continues to face a shortage of some essential commodities. There is a shortage of cooking gas in the Valley and the dealers here blame it on the closure of the national highway.

“The highway remained closed for almost two weeks and due to which there was a shortage of cooking gas to the extent of 60 per cent. Even the bottling plant in Kashmir faced a shortage,” said a gas dealer in Srinagar.

He said during winter the consumption of the cooking gas doubled in the Valley. “In winter people use cooking gas for the heating purpose, so there remains a mismatch between the demand and supply,” he said. The closure of the national highway has also affected the supply of packed milk and milk products in the Valley. “The packed milk supply was affected due to the closure of the highway and now we are hopeful that the supply will normalise,” said a milk dealer in Srinagar.

Jammu, March 9
The BSF killed a narcotic smuggler and injured his accomplice, suspected to be Pakistan nationals, after they tried to sneak into the Indian territory via the Nikki Tawi area between RS Pura and Kanachak sectors.

Five kg of cocaine valued between Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore in the international market and arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain smuggler.

A BSF spokesperson said, “Since the international border has been fenced, the two smugglers chose the Nikki Tawi river to sneak into RS Pura in the Jammu region”.

“Around 10 pm our jawans at the Allah Mai Da Kotha post observed some suspicious movement on the left bank of the Nikki Tawi river,” he said. The two smugglers were challenged by the BSF troopers. While one smuggler was killed in the firing by the troops, his accomplice, who was injured, managed to escape, he said.

“Our troops also recovered one AK-56 assault rifle, two AK magazines, 40 AK rounds, two Nokia cellphones, Rs 170 of Pakistan currency and one wrist watch from the slain ultra,” said the officer.

“It seems that smugglers from Pakistan are now using rivers and rivulets instead of land to avoid being noticed, he said.

The BSF held a flag meeting with the Pakistan Rangers this morning where the latter refused to accept the body of the slain smuggler and feigned ignorance about the injured person.

“Later, we handed over the body to the RS Pura police while the cocaine was handed over to the officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau,” he added.

Jammu, March 9
Following the visit of a three-member delegation from Pakistan to inspect the Tawi barrage here on February 20, the Central Water Commission (CWC) has asked the state government to get the designs of the artificial lake vetted from any of the IITs in the country. The 2-km artificial lake with a boat club and three parks spanning over 400 kanals has to come up in the Tawi at a cost of Rs 110 crore.

“Since the designs of the lake has to be vetted by the CWC, we approached it, which in turn asked us to get the job done by any of the IITs in the country,” PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din told The Tribune. Being overworked, the CWC asked us to approach the IITs, he added.

In this context, we moved a proposal in the state Cabinet yesterday because we could not afford to break the continuity of the project and at the same time had to keep our house in order, he said.

The Pakistan delegation had expressed apprehensions about the violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 and hence had visited the site last month.

Asked whether the state government had decided to change the designs of the project, the minister said there would be no change in the designs. “As far as the use of water for irrigation is concerned, once the Irrigated Crop Area (ICA) is settled within the ambit of the Indus Water Treaty, irrigation will also be done,” he said.

The minister added that the ICA was duly allowed under the treaty. We wanted to complete the paperwork in time to put it on record that we were well within the limits of the treaty.

Once the project was complete, water from the artificial lake would be used for irrigation within the parameters of the treaty. The World Bank had brokered the treaty between India and Pakistan in 1960 giving powers to the latter to monitor the water usage of the three rivers--Indus, Jehlum and Chenab -- flowing from Jammu and Kashmir into Pakistan.

The Tawi, largely a rain-fed river, is a tributary of the Chenab and hence falls under the ambit of the Indus Water Treaty.