Jammu, April 5
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticised the state government for systemic deficiencies that resulted in the under-recovery of Rs 1,211 crore worth of tax money due to inadequate planning and non-compliance with the extant procedures and rules. The arrears of tax included VAT, state excise tax, motor spirit tax, passenger tax, entertainment tax and toll tax.

“The arrears as on March 31, 2009, in respect of some principal heads of revenue as by the department (Finance Department) was Rs 1,211.70 crore,” the CAG revealed in its report for the year ended March 31, 2010.

Ticking off the state government, the report said out of the total tax arrears, Rs 650.52 crore had been outstanding for more than five years. The CAG report, which was tabled in the state Assembly during the Budget session recently, stated that out of the total tax arrears, Rs 1,153.66 crore was outstanding against businessmen, traders and various other organisations on account of sales tax and VAT.

Similarly, Rs 4.77 crore was outstanding on account of state excise tax, Rs 28.06 crore as passenger tax, Rs 24.25 as toll tax, Rs 21 lakh as entertainment tax and Rs 75 lakh as motor spirit tax, it said.

The CAG, in the report, expressed surprise over the observation of the government that specific action with respect to Rs 657.88 crore of sales tax arrears had not been initiated by the Finance Department as of October, 2009.

Of the total Rs 735.07 crore of sales tax arrears on March 31, 2009, the recovery of Rs 76.78 crore was stayed by courts/appellate authority, the report stated. It said the tax collection was not smooth and suffered from deficiencies like inadequate planning, non-reorganisation of the administrative machinery, shortage of staff and non-computerisation.

There were systemic deficiencies that affected the efficiency and effectiveness of the assessment and collection of toll tax, it said, adding that there was very poor internal control and it was not satisfactory.

The CAG recommended a speedy recovery drive and direction to Jammu and Kashmir Bank for the timely remittance of revenue to the government account. In case of delays, it called for charging interest from the bank in lieu of the late remittance. It also recommended the monitoring and identification of dealers and business houses that had failed to pay taxes and cancellation of their registration in case they failed to pay the arrears too.

The report also pointed towards the low percentage of disposal of tax assessment cases. It said of the 24,142 sales tax arrear assessment cases, only 15,647 cases were disposed of during year 2009-10. “It is a clear indication that the percentage of disposal of tax assessment cases was very low. The government may consider issuing directions to the department concerned for taking immediate steps to complete the pending assessments in a time-bound manner,” it recommended. 

Jammu, April 5
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report for the year ended March 31, 2010 has indicted the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), which has an area of 112 sq km, for failing to carry out a study to explore the possibility of more parking lots in the city.

The CAG report stated, “No study has ever been carried out by the JMC to ascertain the parking requirements so as to solve the prevailing parking problem”. So far, the city, having a population of over 12 lakh, has three parking lots.

Terming parking as a key issue, the CAG report stated that it required the attention of the JMC, as the parking problem was assuming an alarming proportion with a rapid increase in the number of vehicles. However, the JMC, in its reply to the CAG, stated that for the creation of parking lots it would take steps after consulting the Traffic Department and the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) for conducting surveys.

The report also highlighted another important issue of encroachments upon footpaths.

It said, “The Audit did not find any evidence of records showing the total length and breadth of footpaths on roads within the municipal limits and action taken to remove temporary and permanent encroachments upon footpaths so that these could be used by pedestrians unobstructed”.

The CAG report also stated that no inspection reports were ever prepared or submitted to any authority by the anti-encroachment wing of the JMC. On the issue, the JMC replied to the CAG that though drives for the removal of encroachments were being conducted, shopkeepers were again encroaching upon footpaths.

Following this reply of the JMC, the CAG reported that this was indicative of the fact that action taken by the corporation was ineffective.

Jammu, April 5
After grilling the state government during the month-long Budget session of the Legislative Assembly, the PDP has started an aggressive campaign to ‘expose’ the misdeeds of the Omar Abdullah-led regime.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti welcomes Imtiyaz Ahmed Shan, a social activist from the Gul area, into the PDP in Jammu on Tuesday. Photo: Inderjeet Singh

Addressing a function here today to welcome a large number of youth, who joined the party under the leadership of Imtiyaz Ahmed Shan, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti minced no words in attacking the NC-led government. However, Mehbooba avoided attacking the Congress, NC’s coalition partner in the government.

“This government is functioning without any control,” Mehbooba said and pointed out that ministers were taking important policy decisions on their own. “As far as the government is concerned, there is neither transparency nor accountability,” she said. She regretted that ministers had been releasing development funds at their sweet will to please their favourites.

The PDP chief regretted that the present government did not learn any lesson from its mistakes and was continuing with its policy of stifling the voice of the people through oppressive means. “It is the result of this suppressive policy of the government that a large number of youths from Kashmir have been languishing in different jails,” she said.

Criticising the government for not treating all regions equally, Mehbooba pointed towards the alleged discriminatory policies being adopted in sanctioning of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and upgrading of schools. “While deserving areas are being neglected, the ministers are brazenly adopting a pick and choose policy in sanctioning PHCs or releasing development funds,” she said. She added that 19 projects were sanctioned in the constituency of a minister under NABARD, which was a glaring example of an unequal distribution of development funds in the state.

She urged the people to compare the present government with the previous PDP-Congress regime, which, according to her, had brought visible revolutionary changes. “The PDP-Congress government had brought transparency and accountability in governance,” she said. She reminded the people that it was all due to the policies of the previous government that peace was restored in the state to a large extent.

Mehbooba recalled the historic rally of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpyee in Srinagar, from where he (Vajpayee) had extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan. “It was all due to our credibility that successive governments at the Centre have endorsed our stand for restoring peace in the region,” she said.

Udhampur, April 5
Kishtwar today witnessed a peaceful bandh in areas dominated by the majority community. The bandh was organised in protest against the alleged act of sacrilege in the USA as well as the alleged closure of a mosque in Jammu recently. Life, however, was not affected and government offices and other institutions functioned normally.

Interestingly, no particular organisation was behind the bandh call, which was given from mosques in Kishtwar last evening and this morning. Eyewitnesses said the protesters comprised mainly youths and there was no incident of stone throwing or forcible closure of commercial establishments and offices. The police and paramilitary forces were deployed in large numbers in the town to prevent any untoward incident.

A complete bandh was witnessed in Bus Stand, Malik Market, Jamia Market and Gudhali Chowk areas. The protesters organised demonstrations at the Bus Stand and the Mini-Bus Stand.

They also burnt tyres and blocked the highway leading to Kishtwar and roads to the Bus Stand and the Mini-Bus Stand. Some private schools also remained closed in response to the bandh call.

Local residents said it was the first bandh this year. Demonstrations were held despite continuous rain for the last three days. 

Udhampur, April 5
To inculcate gender sensitivity among public servants for formulating policies and programmes of various government departments, a two-day workshop-cum-training programme on Gender Budgeting started here today. It is being organised by the J&K State Commission for Women (JKSCW) and sponsored by the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development.

Advocate Shamim Firdous, chairperson of the J&K State Commission for Women, was the chief guest while Baseer Ahmed Khan, District Development Commissioner (DDC), Udhampur, presided over the inaugural session.

Firdous said gender budgeting was needed to address the needs of women who had remained neglected in society for long. It also aimed at empowering women which was the need of the hour for the overall socio-economic development, she added.

Firdous highlighted the initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of women that were needed to be implemented at the grass-roots level.

She called upon women to come forward and avail of the maximum benefits of the schemes designed especially to improve their socio-economic status.

The DDC lauded the efforts of the JKSCW for holding the workshop. He said the issue of empowering women had already been taken up by various departments, including Social Welfare, Rural Development, Health and Medical Education, at the district level.

Those present on the occasion included Dr Ritu Dewan from the University of Mumbai, Dr Gouri Srivastava, Head of Women Studies, NCERT, New Delhi, and Prof Asha Hans from Bhubaneswar.

Srinagar/Leh, April 5
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed to vehicular traffic since this morning due to snowfall and slippery conditions around the Jawahar Tunnel and rain in other areas along the highway between Banihal and Patni Top since yesterday.

Moderate to heavy rain in the Kashmir valley and snowfall on the upper reaches brought down the day and night temperatures over the past few days. Snowfall around the Jawahar Tunnel and parts of Patni Top caused slippery conditions on the road, Traffic Police officials said.

The rain also triggered landslides and mudslides, disrupting the movement of traffic on the highway, the only surface link connecting the Valley with the rest of the country.

No traffic was allowed between Srinagar and Jammu today while several passenger vehicles and truckloads of essential commodities heading towards the Valley were stranded between Banihal and Ramban. The highway might remain closed to traffic tomorrow as well, the officials said.

The Met Department has forecast light to moderate rain and snowfall at various places in the Valley in the next 24 hours. The maximum temperature here today was 7.6°C while the minimum temperature was 3.2°C. Qazigund, where the highway opens into the Valley, recorded the maximum rainfall of 25.6 mm during the past 12 hours. 

Jammu, April 5
Even as the government failed to evolve consensus in the Legislative Assembly on a Bill moved to prohibit the conversion of agriculture land for commercial purposes, it has started a campaign to create awareness among the farmers against the sale of their farmlands.

Addressing a meeting of the farmers here today, Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Raman Bhalla asked farmers not to sell their lands for commercial purposes.

He said every agriculturist should contribute positively to restricting the tendency of using agriculture land for non-agriculture activities.

Bhalla said the Land Reforms Act was enacted to give an impetus to the agriculture activities and ensuring welfare of the farmers. He urged for reversing the non-agriculture trend and encouraging farm activities on agriculture land.

Jammu, April 5
Senior BJP leader and MLA from Jammu West Chaman Lal Gupta said today that residents of urban areas, especially Jammu city, were facing problems due to the poor functioning of civic bodies. He alleged that the National Conference-Congress government in the state had made a mockery of the civic bodies. He added that the leaders of the Congress and the NC were responsible for this sorry state of affairs.

Gupta, who had a tour of slums and other areas of his constituency, said the people in some areas were facing awful conditions of sanitation and other problems because of the poor functioning of the civic bodies. He added that these bodies had been “subjected to the undemocratic will of diseased minds, which were interested in distancing the state from the rest of the country, but at the same time were eager to garner more and more funds from the Centre”.

The BJP leader pointed out that the civic bodies and other grass-roots level democratic institutions in the state were toothless bodies. Timely elections to these basic democratic institutions were never held and the functioning of such institutions had been at the mercy of the ruling junta, he added.

Condemning the coalition government for not extending the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution to the state for empowering panchayats and local bodies, Gupta alleged that the NC, guided by separatism, was having its way and the Congress was playing the second fiddle and were ignoring the promises made by its leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the party’s election manifesto.

Srinagar, April 5
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has expressed satisfaction over the renewed progress on dialogue with Pakistan that was stalled after the Mumbai attacks. He said the thaw in relations between the two countries was evident even during the Cricket World Cup match at Mohali that the two Prime Ministers watched together 

The Chief Minister said this while interacting with representatives of different sections of society for seven hours at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) here today.

“Society has an important role to play to ensure continuous congenial atmosphere during summer so that lakhs of people associated with tourism, trade and allied activities are not deprived of their livelihood and are not made to suffer the same way as they did during last three summers,” Omar said.

He reiterated that the fundamental issue of Jammu and Kashmir was of political nature and required a political solution. He said he had conveyed this view even to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when a train service was inaugurated in Anantnag.

Omar reminded people that the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, himself stood in Parliament to say that the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India was unique and needed a unique solution. He said it was surprising that the separatists, who did not feel shy in talking to Members of Parliament, were not ready to talk to the interlocutors appointed by the Centre.

Omar said 62-year-old problem could not be solved in a short time. He added that the Prime Minister was keen on improving relationship with Pakistan. He said any solution that was acceptable to all shall be the better solution.

The meeting was attended by ministers Ali Mohammad Sagar, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Sakina Ittoo; Ministers of State Nasir Aslam Wani, Javaid Ahmad Dar, adviser to Chief Minister Mubarak Gul, political adviser to Chief Minister Devendra Rana and senior officers. 

Jammu, April 5
After grilling the state government during the month-long Budget session of the Legislative Assembly, the PDP has started an aggressive campaign to ‘expose’ the misdeeds of the Omar Abdullah-led regime. 

Addressing a function here today to welcome a large number of youth, who joined the party under the leadership of Imtiyaz Ahmed Shan, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti minced no words in attacking the NC-led government. However, she avoided attacking the Congress, NC’s coalition partner in the government.

“This government is functioning without any control,” Mehbooba said and pointed out that ministers were taking important policy decisions on their own. “As far as the government is concerned, there is neither transparency nor accountability,” she said. She regretted that ministers had been releasing development funds at their sweet will to please their favourites. 

Srinagar, April 5
A self-styled divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen and two security personnel were killed in a gunfight in the Tral area of Pulwama district today.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of militants, the police and troops of the 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) launched a joint search operation in the Dadsar area of Tral this afternoon, the police said.

“During search operations, the police team faced a volley of bullets fired by the militants. An encounter started and a militant was killed in the return fire by the security forces,” it said.

However, search operations were in progress when the reports last came in.

The militant killed in the encounter has been identified as Sajad Ahmad, alias Bale Bale, a self-styled divisional commander of the Hizbul-Mujahideen, who was also involved in a number of criminal activities. Sajad was also involved in the killing of a National Conference block president, Ghulam Mohiuddin Bhat, in the Tral area on March 30. Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the site of the encounter, the police said.

Sub-Inspector Stazin Norboo and an Army Jawan of the 42 RR were also killed in the encounter. Stazin Norboo (35) joined the police in 2000 and was at present posted at Awantipur police station. 

Jammu, April 5
The dismembered body of a youth, which was recovered from the forest area at Roop Nagar near Nagrota yesterday, remained unclaimed at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here today. The police was yet to establish the identity of the youth.

The dismembered body was also badly mutilated by animals. The matter was brought to the notice of the police by a nomad, who spotted the body while he was collecting firewood. It was sent to the mortuary of the GMCH for post-mortem. The investigating team of the police and forensic experts maintained that the murdered youth was aged between 25 and 30 years. They apprehended that the youth, who was wearing a track suit, was murdered by criminals about a week ago.

A case has been registered at Janipur police station and the police was trying to establish the identity of the murdered youth and his killers. — TNS