Jammu, March 11
Minister of State for Cooperatives Manohar Lal Sharma said in the Legislative Council today that cooperative banks in the state were facing a financial crisis.

He admitted, “Without financial assistance from the Centre, it is impossible to revive these banks”.

Replying to a question by MY Taing on behalf of Abdul Gani Vakil, the minister said, “There were 44,971 defaulters and Rs 156.96 crore was recoverable”. Legislators asked a number of supplementary questions in this regard.

Taing asked, “Bad debts and default in loan repayment have gone up in the past few years, why no serious steps have been taken in this regard?”

Ajay Sadhotra asked a supplementary question, “Most of the defaulters have taken agriculture loans. Whether the government has any plan to waive their loans, because in the past the union government headed by HD Devegowda had waived the loans.”

Altaf Ahmad Wani said, “The government is suffering huge financial losses and immediate steps were needed to recover bad loans to improve the financial condition of these institutions.”

Murtaza Ahmad Khan asked, “Whether the government intends to waive the outstanding loans or how it will deal with the defaulters of loan?”

Manohar Lal said, “It will take some time to recover loans, but it does not mean that we are not taking it seriously. In this financial year alone, we have recovered Rs 18 crore”. He added, “Besides, the loans of a few people have been waived to some extent and a policy is being framed to recover bad loans”.

Speaking on the issue of embezzlement in the Shahoora Marketing Society, Niloora, the minister said, “Steps are being taken for recovering the embezzled Rs 6.5 lakh”. 

Jammu, March 11
As many as 80,000 people of the snow-bound areas in Kishtwar district have been cut off from the rest of the world due to the snapping of road links and communication facilities. A large number of people, including patients, were also trapped in the Gurez area of the Kashmir valley.

Legislators of Kishtwar and Gurez raised the issue during Zero Hour in the Legislative Assembly here today and asked the government to airlift patients and arrange medical facilities for those living in the inaccessible areas.

Terming the matter as serious, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Mohammad Akbar Lone directed the government to take note of the issues raised by the two MLAs. Gurez MLA Nazir Gurezi said for the past few days he had been asking the government to airlift patients from the snow-bound areas, but nothing had been done so far.

Meanwhile, Kishtwar MLA Sajjad Kichloo also joined the issue and drew the attention of the Speaker towards the plight of the residents of Warwan, Marwah, Paddar and Nagsani blocks, who had been cut off from the rest of the world.

“There is need to take emergent measures to save the residents of these areas,” he said. Later talking to The Tribune outside the Assembly, Kitchloo said he feared an epidemic may break out in the remote villages of Rikanwas and Sukhnai in the Warwan block.

“Due to the non-availability of communication, I could not contact people there,” Kichloo said. He added that he had been trying to establish contact with people in the snow-bound areas through the communication system of the security forces.

Kichloo said 80 per cent of Kishtwar district had been cut off for the past 15 days. “What to say of the inaccessible belts, even the motorable areas beyond Gulabgarh in the Paddar block have been cut off,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Officer, Kishtwar, Dr Ajay Gupta, said there was no communication link between Rikanwas and Sukhnai villages.

He added that, “I have directed the Block Medical Officer to gather information”.

Jammu, March 11
Minister for Revenue and Relief Raman Bhalla told the Legislative Council here today that over 16,000 families of Kashmiri migrants would get a health insurance cover during next year.

Replying to a question by Vijay Bakaya during Question Hour, Bhalla said, “The Finance Minister, while presenting the state Budget, announced a scheme for providing health cover to Kashmiri migrants, who are drawing relief, and a group insurance scheme has been worked out for 16,000 families”. He added, “As per the scheme, premium due will be paid equally by the government and the beneficiary”.

He said offers were invited from insurance companies for providing a group insurance cover to the migrant families registered under the relief category and Rs 7,062 had been worked out as the premium per family.

Jammu, March 11
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said today that the state government had approached the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to declare the historic Mughal Road as national highway. The road would be opened for public by December-end this year.

Replying to a question jointly asked by Murtaza Ahmad Khan of the PDP and Mohammad Rashid Qureshi of the NC in the Legislative Council here today, Sagar said, “The government is concerned about the completion of the Mughal Road, which would be opened for public after the completion of blacktopping by year-end”.

He added, “Though the completion of the road got delayed due to the Amarnath land agitation in year 2008, death of two women in Shopian in 2009, and the unrest in the Kashmir valley last year, Rs 421.75 crore had been spent on the stretch of the road between Poonch and Shopian”.

“The Chief Secretary of the state has approached the Centre seeking the national highway status for the historic road,” Sagar said.

However, Qureshi was not satisfied with the minister’s reply and asked a supplementary question. “The road was to be opened for public in 2009. Holding a motor expedition and the Chief Minister driving a car on the under-construction road will not convince the people. The government should better get its act together and complete this vital link at the earliest,” he said.

Sagar said, “We have approached the Central government keeping the maintenance of road in mind. As and when it gets the status of national highway, the Union government will maintain it”. Later, the minister said the Mughal Road project, including bridges, tunnels and allied works, should be completed by October 2012.

So far, there is only one road link, 312-km NH-1 (A), which connects Kashmir with the rest of the country. 

Jammu, March 11
The delay in the functioning of the Central University of Jammu rocked the Legislative Assembly here today as legislators of the BJP, the Panthers Party and the Jammu State Morcha (JSM) created an uproar over the issue and charged the government with discrimination against the people of Jammu.

Demanding some effective steps to make the university functional from the coming academic session, the legislators of the three parties staged a walkout from the Assembly later. “Fifteen central universities in other parts of the country have been functioning for the last two years, but the one sanctioned for Jammu is yet to start,” said Panthers Party MLA Harsh Dev Singh and blamed the apathetic and callous attitude of the state government towards Jammu for the delay. “Even the land identified for the proposed university is yet to be acquired, as the state government has not released Rs 50 crore to the Forest Department in this regard,” he said.

The legislators of the JSM and the BJP alleged that the state government was playing hide and seek over the issue and the delay was causing loss of studies to students and those aspiring to enrol themselves in the university. Though Higher Education Minister Abdul Gani Malik said the controversy that erupted in the wake of the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Jammu had stalled the institution from taking off. He said the Union government had been requested to expedite the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor so that the institution started functioning. He added that the land had already been made available for the university and other formalities completed.

Jammu, March 11
To check monkey menace in some parts of Udhampur and Kathua districts of the Jammu province, the state government today announced to send a team of officials of the Forest Department to Himachal Pradesh for learning techniques to address the problem.

The issue was raised by MLAs from Kathua, Udhampur and Ramban districts. Minister for Forest Mian Altaf said the problem was human created who feed monkeys in the inhabited areas in the name of religion. “As religious sentiments of the people are involved, we have to take some steps after considering all aspects,” he said.

He said, “Well-trained trappers are being deployed for trapping monkeys and trans-locating them to far off places”.

BJP legislator from Basholi Jagdish Sapolia said the government should take a lesson from Himachal Pradesh where the authorities had developed enclosed captivity areas for monkeys, where they were sterilised also.

“I will send a team of officers from my department to Himchal Pradesh to learn such techniques,” the Forest Minister said, adding that “My department is facing a financial crunch, so we will have to involve other departments also in the campaign”.

Earlier, Sapolia informed the House that the monkey menace had become a big problem in Basholi, Billawar and Udhampur areas. “Agricultural production has come down in many areas,” he said.

Panthers Party MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia said 90 per cent of fertile land in Jagano, Jib and adjoining localities had turned barren, as farmers had stopped cultivating crops due to the monkey menace.

Jammu, March 11
Minister for Industries and Commerce SS Slathia informed the Legislative Assembly today that a Common Facility Centre (CFC) was being constructed at Sethar in Anantnag at a cost of Rs.4.52 crore to promote the manufacturing of cricket bats in the state. It is likely to be commissioned in May.

Replying to a question by PDP legislator AR Veeri on the floor of the House, Slathia said the CFC would provide all facilities to cricket bat manufacturing units under one umbrella. Of the total cost, Rs 2.46 crore had directly been released to the PPDC, Meerut, by the Union Ministry of Small Scale Industries (SSI) for plant machinery to be installed at the CFC in the state.

Jammu, March 11
The Thathri Development Front, Doda district, yesterday appealed to all political parties to rise above political considerations to support the Bill on constituting a delimitation commission in the state during the ongoing Assembly session.

A meeting of the front was held under the chairmanship of Kuldip Kumar Rao here yesterday.

Rao maintained that an equitable development of all areas of the state was not possible without the delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the state. Delimitation alone could help bring all fragmented areas under different electoral constituencies.

There are some villages, which are divided into two Assembly constituencies. The villagers would benefit from the delimitation exercise. Rao called upon all MLAs of the Jammu region to rise above the party lines and support the Bill, which should not be misread as an act of promoting parochial concept of regionalism, he said.

Srinagar, March 11
With the beginning of the new academic year in the Kashmir valley, colleges and universities here are seeing a huge rush of students seeking admission.

As the Class XII results were declared a few days ago there had been a huge rush of students seeking admission to various colleges across the Valley.

“Thousands of students, who have passed the Class XII exams, came to seek admission to various courses offered by the college. In some courses the number of seats is limited, so every year we conduct entrance tests for students,” said a teacher at Government SP College Srinagar.

An official at Women’s College on the MA road here said, as the pass percentage of girl students this year was much higher than that of the male students, there was a huge rush of female students for admission to various courses in the college.

“After passing Class XII all students don’t opt for admission to colleges. Some students wait and prepare for the combined entrance test to secure admission to various medical and engineering colleges in the state,” said an official of the Education Department.

Meanwhile, University of Kashmir is also seeing a huge rush of students, seeking admission to postgraduate courses. “The University of Kashmir offers various courses and the admission to these courses is based on an entrance test,” said an official of the admission section of the university. He said the entire admission process was transparent and the results were posted online for easy access to all.

“The marks obtained by the candidate in the entrance test and his percentage in the undergraduate course are counted for admission to the university. The entire procedure of admission is transparent and we ensure that the best students get admission,” he said.

To ensure that they get admission, the students usually apply in more than two courses. Besides University of Kashmir, a huge rush of students could be seen outside the admission office of the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Awantipora.

Jammu, March 11
Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology Mian Altaf Ahmad today asked senior functionaries of the Forest Department to make all efforts to save environment and ecology from degradation, by implementing strictly afforestation programmes launched by the state government.

The minister was presiding over a meeting of officers of the Forest Department here today, convened to take stock of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and the National Afforestation Programme.

The minister was informed that during the current year Rs 21.01 crore was earmarked for the CAMPA works while Rs 13.54 crore had been spent till February 2011.

Sopore, March 11
The Sopore police today arrested Ghulam Hassan Mir, alias Chotta Geelani, the Baramulla president of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for having illicit relations with a woman.

“We have arrested Ghulam Hassan Mir, alias Chotta Geelani, the Baramulla president of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for having illicit relations with a local woman,” said SP, Sopore, Altaf Khan.

According to Altaf, Chotta Geelani played a major role in fomenting unrest during the summers of 2008 and 2010 and was responsible for instigating people to burn the railway station in Sopore last year.

“He was preaching the Koran to a local woman with whom he had illicit relations. We have recovered a CD in which we have the recording of his immoral talks with the girl,” the SP said. He added that the Hurriyat leader delivered sermons during the Friday prayers at major mosques across the north Kashmir.

“He misused his position as the Imam of the mosques and incited people to throw stones at the security forces,” the SP said. “He was wanted in many cases. He also used to teach people moral values. We have also arrested the woman and she confessed to having relations with him,” Altaf said.

He added that Chhota Geelani also actively involved in extorting money from local traders to fund the unrest in the Valley in 2008 and 2010.

“He along with his accomplice extorted around Rs 32 lakh from fruit traders and band saw owners to fund the unrest during summers in 2008 and 2010.” The SP said the arrest of Chhota Geelani would help to normalise the situation in Sopore.

Jammu, March 11
Seven persons were injured when a matador they were travelling in collided
with a stationary truck at Karara in Doda district this morning.

The matador was on its way to Thathri from Doda when the accident took place. Meanwhile, a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which was passing through the place of the accident, came to the rescue of the victims. The injured were identified as Sonika Devi (16), Puja Devi (20), Bittoo Kumari (32), Phool Devi (45), Sample Devi (35), Lata Devi (40) and Paramjeet Singh (27). They were admitted to the District Hospital, Doda.