Jammu, April 19
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held a series of meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi today to take stock of the political and law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Omar apprised him about the steps being taken by the state government for socio-economic development, maintenance of peace and tranquillity, holding of panchayat elections, recently-concluded elections to the state Legislative Council and the prevailing politico-economic scenario in the state.

Omar also underlined the need for enhancing the current year’s plan allocations for the state to ensure an equitable and holistic development of all regions and sub-regions in the state and stressed on the early implementation of C Rangarajan Committee report to help address the unemployment problem.

The status and progress of the dialogue process between the interlocutors on Kashmir and various shades of public opinion in the state was also discussed in the meeting. Highlighting an early resolution of Kashmir’s political issues, Omar thanked the Prime Minister for his keen interest in the resolution of “political issues in a political manner” and the development of Jammu and Kashmir on fast-track.

The Prime Minister assured full support to Omar in latter’s peace and development initiatives, a state government spokesman said.

Omar briefed the Prime Minister about the headway made by the police in identifying the killers of religious leader Moulana Showkat Ahmad Shah.

During his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Omar discussed various issues relating to the political affairs and economic development. The two leaders reviewed the functioning of the coalition and expressed satisfaction over cohesion and coordination between the National Conference and the Congress in dealing with the matters of public interests and ensuring good governance to the people.

The understanding and political harmony depicted by the coalition partners during the Legislative Council elections, resulting in the victory of all coalition candidates, was viewed with appreciation. Omar also briefed Sonia about the holding of the panchayat elections in the state on a non-party basis with a view to transferring power to the public representatives at the grass-roots level and the devolution of authority.

In a separate meeting, Omar met Chidambaram and discussed matters relating to the state’s security scenario and political developments with him. The two leaders deliberated upon the issues pertaining to the measures aimed at the maintenance of law and order and peace in the state. The status and progress of the dialogue process between the interlocutors and various shades of opinion in the state also came up for discussion in the meeting.

New Delhi, April 19
Seven BJP MLAs from the state, who voted against the party candidates in the recently held Legislative Council elections, were likely to be suspended, said BJP sources.

All 11 MLAs, who were summoned by BJP president Nitin Gadkari today, had already handed over their resignation letters addressed to the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, to the in charge of party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir, OP Kohli, offering to quit if the party felt they had committed a grave offence.

However, BJP sources said the party was facing a serious dilemma. This is the first time that the BJP has so many MLAs from the state. Its current strength has given it a profile it has never enjoyed earlier in the state and it wants to further consolidate its strength to emerge as the main opposition party in the state.

Therefore, sacking the MLAs is not an easy option for the party leadership. Besides, the sources said a large section of the party was unhappy with state BJP president Shamsher Singh Manhas and the action of the MLAs constituted a kind of protest or dissidence against Manhas.

On the other hand, party insiders said this was the third time that the BJP legislators had resorted to cross-voting in favour of the NC-Congress candidates. When Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sought a vote of confidence after the 2009 elections, he won it with the support of some BJP MLAs. Then they rallied behind the ruling alliance to ensure the election of Farooq Abdullah to the Rajya Sabha. This was the third time that the party MLAs broke rank and disobeyed the party whip. Technically, the party ought to seek their disqualification by the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and in this case, unhesitatingly forwarded their resignation letters.

However, Manhas had asked the central leadership to either proceed against them or look for his replacement.

But the party appeared disinclined to adopt either course. Kohli told The Tribune, “I have handed over the letters to the party president and have nothing more to do with the issue”. Other party leaders also tried to avoid commenting on the development.

Even though the MLAs have been summoned to Delhi, the party is not keen to rush to any situation, which may lead to a fresh crisis in the state. One option being discussed was to suspend the party membership of the 11 MLAs, giving them an opportunity to make amends and then at an appropriate time either revoke their suspensions, if the leadership was satisfied with their conduct, or expel them from the party later.

Besides, the members were still covered by the party whip and, therefore, they would not be free to cross over to another party either, said the sources.

Jammu, April 19
Even as all 11 BJP legislators have reached New Delhi to appear before party’s national president Nitin Gadkari in the cross-voting episode, the party leadership has been trying to shield legislators having the RSS background.

The party has been giving the argument that their “dedicated” men can never vote in favour of the Congress or NC candidates. As a face-saving exercise, the BJP leadership has been trying to give a message to the people that the MLAs with the RSS background were not involved in the cross-voting.

Bharat Bhushan, BJP legislator from Raipur-Domana, who is not close to the RSS, said before the start of the Legislative Council elections, they had asked the chief whip of the party to issue a fresh whip to all legislators to abstain from voting, as there was an apprehension that the party MLAs would indulge in cross-voting. “Despite the apprehension of cross-voting, our chief whip did not issue any direction and asked all legislators to cast votes, which created suspicion among the MLAs,” Bhushan told The Tribune.

Sources in the party said some senior leaders of the BJP as well as from other organisations belonging to the Sangh Parivar had been working overtime to create an impression that their “dedicated” MLAs, who were committed to the Hindutava ideology, could not even think of casting votes in favour of the Congress or the NC.

These leaders at the behest of BJP stalwarts had been trying to shift all blame on ‘outsider’ MLAs for the cross-voting, as according to them, these ‘outsiders’ were not committed to the Hindutava ideology, though they had won elections on the BJP ticket, the sources said.

They added that some ‘outsider’ MLAs were likely to be made scapegoats, as the party wanted to shield its legislators to give a message to the public that those with the Sangh background were not involved in the cross-voting.

The MLAs, who were not close to the RSS, had also given a veiled warning to their seniors that if action was taken only against them, they would not waste time to expose the dubious role of the “ideologically-committed” party MLAs in the cross-voting, the sources said. 

Jammu, April 19
The postponement of the first year examinations of the Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) course by the J&K State Board of School Education seems to have landed the board officials in soup, as various students’ organisations and bodies of private ETT institutes have opened a front against the alleged bungling and nepotism in the functioning of the board.

These associations have asked the board authorities to immediately change joint secretary of the board Sheikh Bashir Ahmed and appoint a suitable person as the chairman of the board, as the post has been lying vacant for the last six months. To prove their charge about bungling in the board, the organisations have also produced some documents as “authentic” evidences.

These associations comprising the Jammu Private Schools and ETT Institutes Association, the National Secular Forum (NSF) and the Jammu Youth Forum (JYF) have alleged that the examinations were delayed to adjust the students of some private institutes.

Showing a document, Deep Singh, president of the Jammu Private Schools and ETT Institutes Association, said, “At a meeting between the Education Minister, the then Chairman of the school education board and the Secretary of the board in 2009, it was decided that the ETT first year exams would be held in October 2010, which were delayed without any reason and had not been conducted as yet”.

He added that, “It was also decided that no new institution would be given permission to enrol students before the completion of the academic session. Still the board officials violated the norm and allowed nearly 6,000 more students of some private colleges to appear in the ETT exams and that too a few days before the start of the exams”.

Deep Singh said it was also decided at the meeting that the admission process would be centralised without involving agents, but nothing had been done so far. “If the education board or the state government does not take any action in this regard within one week, we will go on a relay fast outside Raj Bhawan from April 25,” he added.

Similarly, the NSF has appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to look into the functioning of the education board and also burnt the effigy of Sheikh Bashir at the University of Jammu here today. “The board officials have brought a bad name to the state, as most of the ETT students belong to other states and the education board has delayed the exams without giving any reason. A large number of ETT institutes are functioning illegally in the state and are fleecing innocent students. This will not be tolerated anymore,” said Vikas Sharma, state president of the NSF.

Jammu, April 19
Governor NN Vohra has stressed the importance of implementing the reservation policy effectively and the timely execution of all development and welfare schemes for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other underprivileged sections of society for their speedy empowerment.

The Governor was interacting with a delegation of the All J&K Scheduled Caste Welfare Association that called on him at Raj Bhawan here last evening. The Governor noted that there was need for creating greater awareness about various Central and state government schemes for the socio-economic transformation of the neglected segments of society so that they could optimally benefit from these.

He inquired from the deputation about the activities of the association and gave it a cheque for Rs 50,000 for carrying out its activities. The 11-member deputation led by the president of the association, BR Kundal, presented a memorandum of demands to the Governor. The demands included the strict implementation of the reservation policy in favour of SC candidates, earmarking of funds for the development of the Scheduled Castes in proportion to their population and a fresh survey of BPL families in the state.

Jammu, April 19
The state government has finally directed 321 ‘influential’ employees of the Health Department, including some doctors and members of paramedical staff, to join duty at their original places of posting.

These ‘influential’ employees, who were originally posted in rural areas, have got them attached to towns and cities due to their political clouts. The attachment of such a large number of employees to towns had badly affected the functioning of the Health Department. A majority of these attached employees are doctors and members of the paramedial staff.

Minister for Health Sham Lal Sharma told The Tribune that during the last Assembly session some MLAs had asked questions about the attachment of some ‘influential’ employees. “I have directed my officers to relieve all attached employees in one go so as to make the health centres in rural areas functional,” he said and exuded confidence that with the detachment of such a large number of employees the shortage of doctors and paramedical staff in rural areas would be solved.

The minister said already he had taken a number of steps to streamline the functioning of the Health Department, especially for providing health facilities to people in rural areas on their doorsteps. Recently, the government created posts of more than 300 super-specialist doctor in Jammu and Kashmir provinces so as to provide advanced medical facilities to the people.

While creating posts of specialist doctor, far-flung areas have given priority. Nineteen posts of specialist doctors have been created in Poonch district, 12 in Bhaderwah, 10 in Kishtwar, 15 each in trauma hospitals at Ghagwal and Chowki Choura on the Jammu-Srinagar and Jammu-Poonch national highways, 11 in Akhnoor, 10 in trauma hospital at Mahanpur and 11 posts of specialist doctors in Sunderbani.

Similarly, remotest areas of Kashmir province have also been identified for creating posts of specialist doctor.

Besides directing all influential doctors to join duty at their original places of posting, the minister announced that the government was seriously contemplating to launch an audit of prescriptions given by the doctors to the patients to ensure proper diagnosis and appropriate medicines to the patients. With this decision, the government would keep a check on doctors, who usually prescribed costly medicines to the patients in lieu of commission for the companies. 

New Delhi, April 19
A member of the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee, Shanti Bhushan, today joined BJP’s Ram Jethmalani to launch a parallel “civil society initiative” for the resolution of the Kashmir issue at a time when the government-appointed interlocutors on Kashmir are about to submit their report. The legal luminaries were recently seen together during Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.

Today, the two came together to revive the erstwhile Kashmir Committee, which was widely believed to have aided the 2004 dialogue between the then NDA government and the separatists. Announcing the reactivation of the committee, Jethmalani said today that they had no political leanings and were only interested in peace with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir Committee from May 5 will start meeting different sections of Kashmir people, including separatists, who had earlier refused to meet the Centre’s interlocutors. The committee members said it was sad that the interlocutors failed to get the separatists on board.

Madhu Kishwar, the panel convener, told The Tribune that their group already had meeting confirmations from Hurriyat leaders like Abdul Ghani Bhat and Naeem Khan and Democratic Freedom Party chairman Shabir Shah.

However, it was interesting to see the committee hail the PDP’s self-rule document as a good starting point for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. The committee members will be in Kashmir for meetings between May 5 and 9.

Asked why they were trying to duplicate the work of the interlocutors, Jethmalani said the committee was in no conflict with the interlocutors. Also on the committee are former Foreign Secretary VK Grover and journalist MJ Akbar.

Jammu, April 19
Appealing to the Gujjars to celebrate April 19 as Gujjars’ Day in future, as on this day in 1991 they got the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status in the state, the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation started a statewide campaign for ensuring tribal rights to the community as were available to other ST communities in the country.

At a special gathering of the Gujjar community organised here by the foundation to celebrate the “20 years of reservation”, the speakers said the community should unite under one banner and start a crusade for the recognition of their separate identity and ideology in the state.

They said the Gujjars were being suppressed by some anti-tribal forces in the state since 1947 and were being denied an equal opportunity in society to grow educationally. However, this would not be allowed to happen any longer.

They said even after 20 years of the grant of reservation, the Gujjars were still struggling to get political reservation, forest rights, rehabilitation of nomads, right to vote and other rights available to the tribals in other parts of the country.

They added that, “We respect the special status of the state, but Article 370 should not be used to deny tribal rights to Gujjars”.

Dr Javaid Rahi, secretary of the foundation, said some forces in the state believed that the reservation granted to the Gujjars and the Bakerwals was an act of charity, but they should know that “we got it as it a matter of right”.

Jammu, April 19
Minister for Medical Education, Youth Services and Sports RS Chib has said people are the fountainheads of power in democratic set-ups. He urged people to support the newly-elected sarpanches and panches to ensure the proper and timely implementation of development plans in their respective areas.

The minister was interacting with a group of newly-elected sarpanches and panches of the RS Pura block here today.

Chib said the devolution of powers to the people at the grass-roots level was the priority of the coalition government, as the elections had opened opportunities for them to frame development plans for their own areas.

The minister said the participation of women in the panchayat elections was quite encouraging and hoped that they would get an opportunity to project their demands in a big way at the public forum.

He added that in the present era, women had a pivotal role in politics as well as administration and asked them to shoulder responsibilities with their male counterparts.

Chib appealed to the people to extend support to their representatives so that the development plans devised by the government at various levels were implemented and completed in time.

He said the participation of sarpanches and panches in decision making would be equally important. He added that they would get every possible support from the government in launching development programmes in their respective areas.

“The government will extend full support to the public representatives in taking forward the development process in the RS Pura area,” the minister said. “The holding of the panchayat elections on a non-party basis was a prudent decision of the government,” he added. 

Jammu, April 19
The VHP today cautioned the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) authorities that it would launch a nationwide agitation if the latter failed to revoke its decision to curtail the Amarnath pilgrimage by 15 days this year.

Citing the safety and security of the pilgrims and organisers of community kitchens en route the twin track of the cave shrine as the reason, the SASB has decided to restrict the annual pilgrimage to 46 days from 60 days. The board has decided to start the pilgrimage from June 29 instead of June 15 this year.

Addressing mediapersons here today, national spokesperson for the VHP Prakash Sharma said if the SASB authorities failed to meet the aspirations of the people, the VHP would launch the pilgrimage on its own from June 15.

The annual pilgrimage traditionally commenced on June 15 and culminated on the day of Raksha Bandhan, he said. He added that the SASB’s decision had not gone down well with the Hindu community.

The VHP leader said that the decision of the SASB had got all ingredients of triggering an agitation. “We request the SASB authorities to reconsider their decision without further delay. Otherwise, we will launch an agitation across the country before starting the yatra on our own,” he said.

Sharma said the Baba Amarnath and Baba Buda Amarnath Yatri Niyas had planned a march from Mubarak Mandi to the Governor’s House here tomorrow and awaited the response of the SASB authorities by April 22.

Jammu, April 19
Following the completion of a week-long signature campaign, the Baba Amarnath and Baba Buda Amarnath Yatri Niyas yesterday decided to hold a rally here on April 20 to convince Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) authorities to revisit their decision to reduce the duration of the forthcoming Amarnath pilgrimage from 60 days to 46 days.

“From April 12 to 18, the niyas conducted a signature campaign at over 1,000 places in the Jammu region, wherein more than one lakh people participated,” the niyas president, Surinder Mohan Aggarwal, told mediapersons here.

Tomorrow, the niyas, an amalgam of social and religious organisations, would hold a rally from the historic Mubarak Mandi to Raj Bhawan. A deputation would submit a memorandum to Governor NN Vohra and urge him to review the decision, added Aggarwal.

“Thereafter, we will wait for two days to see the response of the SASB authorities and, if needed, on April 23 the niyas will hold a full house meeting to decide the further course of action,” he said.

During the signature campaign, the niyas collected thousands of signatures, which signified that people wanted the duration of the annual yatra to be extended to 60 days, Aggarwal said. The yatra would start on June 29 this year. Citing the safety and security of pilgrims and organisers of the community kitchens en route the twin tracks to the cave shrine as the reason, the SASB had decided to restrict the pilgrimage to 46 days this year.

Udhampur, April 19
The J&K Police wrestler, Benia, a native of Basantgarh in Udhampur district, today won the 49th Annual Late Pujari Amar Nath Memorial Maha Dangal -2011 beating wrestler Sukha of Rajasthan in the main bout that lasted 21 minutes at the Sports Stadium at Subash Nagar here last evening.

The dangal was organised by the Amar Nath Dangal Samiti, Udhampur, Mukti Youth Club, Udhampur, under the aegis of the J&K Indian Style Wrestling Association. Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur,k Baseer Ahmad Khan was the chief guest on the occasion. Shiv Kumar Sharma, a member of the J&K State Sports Council as well as treasurer of the Indian Style Wrestling Association of India, presided over the prize distribution function that was attended by a large number of enthusiastic spectators from Udhampur and adjoining areas.

Benia received a cash prize of Rs 4,500 in addition to the Silver Gurj (Gadda) and a Patta while runners-up wrestler Sukha got Rs 3,000 as reward. In all, 37 bouts were played in the prestigious event.

In the second main bout, Kalu from the Shiv Mandir Akhara, Jammu,l beat Raju of Kapurthala, Punjab, while Bobari of Jammu won the third bout defeating Veera of Kapurthala. The fourth bout was won by Kaka of Nawanshahar. Rajesh Sharma of the J&K Police won the fifth bout piping Namam of Delhi. The bouts between Ajay and Yasheen, Bunty and Tirhtu, Gopal and Jaswant, Vijay and Deepu ended in a draw.

In other bouts, Shesh Kumar beat Ali, Yasheen beat Devinder, Jamat Ali defeated Gurdev Singh, Makhan Din beat Billu, Subash Chander beat Kewal Krishan, Sat Paul defeated Majeed, Sonu beat Ramesh Kumar, Devinder beat Kaka, Krishan beat Billu, Baboo beat Mangha, Prabhat Singh beat Sonu, Babu Din beat Vijay, Ajay beat Vijay and Dillar Khan defeated Farooq.