Jammu, May 7
The BJP high command has deputed RP Singh, national secretary of the party, to counter an aggressive campaign launched by seven suspended MLAs against the party leadership for adopting a “discriminatory” approach to single them out for their alleged involvement in cross-voting in the Legislative Council elections.

RP Singh today convened a close-door meeting of senior party leaders at Sarore, on the outskirts of Jammu city, as there was an apprehension that a few supporters of the suspended MLAs would join the meeting to ask questions about the parameters adopted by the party in identifying the MLAs guilty of cross-voting.

In the day-long meeting, the leaders tried to devise a strategy to counter the campaign launched by the suspended MLAs, but to no avail, as there was no consensus.

Sources in the party said the supporters of the suspended MLAs were not invited to the meeting, but a few “neutral” leaders asked some questions and tried to corner the national secretary for not adopting a judicious approach in singling out the “guilty”.

Although the agenda of the meeting was to discuss the situation arising after the government decision to revoke the Dogra certificate order, the cross-voting episode dominated the proceedings. The four MLAs, who were given clean chit by the party high command, were also present at the meeting, and in their presence some members asked questions about the parameters adopted by the party high command to identify the culprits of cross-voting.

The sources said the campaign launched by the suspended MLAs had created ripples in the BJP, as the party was finding it difficult to reply to some of their questions about the role of the chief whip of the party, Ashok Khajuria, who, according to them, was the main culprit of the cross-voting episode.

The suspended legislators have repeatedly been asking the party leadership that why Khajuria did not issue a whip to the party MLAs to abstain from voting, if there was an apprehension of cross-voting.

However, the BJP leadership has reason to take a serious note of the campaign of the suspended MLAs, as they (suspended MLAs) have been repeatedly claiming that they were the real BJP and those who had been given clean chit by the high command were playing into the hands of the ruling party, especially the NC, to weaken the party in the state.

The suspended MLAs had already given hints that if they were expelled from the party, they would aggressively try to grab the vote bank of the BJP. 

Jammu, May 7
An unsavoury controversy is on once again regarding the annual Amarnath yatra. This time, some organisations are protesting against what they term as the curtailing of the pilgrimage period to the holy cave shrine for the darshan of the ice lingam.

As per the schedule released by the Amarnath Shrine Board, the yatra will commence from June 29 and culminate on Raksha Bandhan, August 13. This means 46 days of pilgrimage. Those protesting the schedule are demanding the yatra should be for 60 days at least.

Jammu and Kashmir is a highly sensitive state. Any move or order of the government is viewed with suspicion by one or other region or community or section of society. More than often, the decision are based on some logic taking into account historical and religious as well as scientific reasoning.

But as emotions run high, and every decision is taken as agenda to work against a group or to support another, bitter rows develop with some of them leading to the Amarnath land row agitation, which almost divided the state.

Before the present controversy runs out of control, it will be apt to put forward the reasons under which the shrine board had to take this decision. Besides Governor NN Vohra, The board comprises acclaimed personalities like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, environmentalist Sunita Narain, art scholar Dr Kapila Vatsayan, legendary santoor maestro Pandit Bhajan Sopori, renowned Justice GD sharma, Sanskrit scholar Dr Ved Ghai and noted intellectual Vijay Dhar.

Inquiries have revealed that the yatra time has always depended on the prevailing weather conditions and has been decided as per the Lunar calendar. What does not seem to be known to the public is that the process of scheduling of the yatra this year actually began when Dipinder Giri, the Mahant who leads the Charri Mubarak yatra to the holy cave, shot off a protest letter to President Pratibha Patil, asking how the yatra was being organised for days exceeding a lunar month, which is about 28 days or at the most can be allowed for 30 days.

The Mahant argued that the auspicious yatra days were within the lunar month that began with Guru Purnima and ended with Shravan Purnima, on which day Raksha Bandhan also falls. The trek to Amarnath was mostly held in the month of Sharavan (July-August) when the image of Shiva, in the form of a Lingam, is formed naturally of an ice stalagmite, which waxes and wanes with the moon’s cycle.

The Mahant, whose family leads the Charri (mace) yatra, demanded that the tradition schedule should be restored. The President asked the shrine board to look into the matter. It was argued that due to heavy snow last winter the yatra may have to be delayed to avoid casualties. The schedule as per the lunar calendar was also important.

The Amarnath yatra is not the only one which is scheduled this way since the time memorial. At Pushkar in Rajasthan, about 13 days in November are considered auspicious. Similarly, weather and religious factors restrict pilgrimage to other Hindu pilgrimage sites like Badrinath, Kailash Mansarovar.

But as is akin with the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir, the decision raised many eyebrows. Some of the protesters believe that the board had caved under the pressure or threat of separatist leaders like Geelani or others. As the issue is of high sensitivity, a look at the history of previous yatras can throw some light.

The cave shrine is situated at a height of 13,500 feet, involving a long and treacherous travel on foot past slippery tracks, glaciers and hostile weather conditions.

The yatra was till 2011 conducted by the state government after which the shrine board took over its responsibility. This was done to ensure a round-the-year focused planning on safe journey dotted with modern facilities. Before the shrine board, the yatra period presents interesting figures. From 1995 to 2001, the maximum period was of 40 days (year 1999) while the minimum was of 15 days (1996). The maximum number of pilgrims visiting the cave shrine was 1.73 lakh in 2000 while the minimum was 60,000 in 1995. (see box)

However, ever since the board took over the management of the yatra the number of pilgrims making it to the shrine have gone up to 5.33 lakh in 2008 with the minimum of 1.20 lakh in 2002. Interestingly, stone throwing incidents in the Valley, which targeted the yatra as well, could make little impact as close to 4.52 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance before the Ice-Lingam. The yatra days as per the figures provided by the shrine board were a minimum of 30 days in year 2002 and 2003 and a maximum of 60 days in other years. However, due to bad weather conditions, the yatra was rarely held for 60 days.

The hostile terrain climatic conditions had taken a toll on pilgrims in the past. This has made the authorities cautious. During the 1996 yatra as many as 243 pilgrims lost their lives on the tracks to the shrine due to harsh weather and climatic conditions. The Nitish Sen Gupta Enquiry Committee formed to ascertain the causes recommended that the yatra should be for 30 days. It was after this that the shrine board was formed.

PERIOD OF AMARNATH YATRA

Jammu, May 7
A majority of cellphone users in the Jammu region are facing a lot of problems these days, as the major service providers, both private or public, are having a signal problem.

The network having remained down for the last few days has not only caused losses to the business community but also to the commoners, as there has hardly been any signal. Even the short message service (SMS), which was started in the state recently, is not working properly, as the messages from one network to the other are not being delivered on time. And if the messages reach the cellphone users, they are delivered at least 10-12 times.

Sources say the network problem is the result of the number portability, which was launched by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) across the country recently. “The network providers here are having more load than their existing infrastructure, which is causing the network problem, causing service disturbances to the customers,” said the sources. They added that the problem peaked during daytime when the network load was the maximum, and also resulted into dropping of calls.

However, the officials of the mobile phone companies claimed that there was no network problem and the signal problem was all due to the recent orders of the state government. A customer care executive of Bharti Airtel told The Tribune that the government had banned the minter-network SMS facility. “The SMS facility is available at Airtel, but both receiver and sender must have its connections,” she said.

On the other hand, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) claimed that there was no network problem and they had not received any information about the ban on the inter-network SMS facility from the state or Central governments.

S Sawarkar, General Manager, BSNL, said, “There is no network problem, as we have not received any such complaint. If there is a connectivity problem regarding BSNL, we assure the users that the problem will be resolved at the earliest”.

He added that, “The government has not issued any circular to ban the inter-network message service. If there is any such problem, it might have been for a short period. But we will have to check it, as we have not received any such complaint”.

However, the mobile phone users lamented that their network providers were not providing them adequate information in this regard. “It is not confirmed whether the message is being delivered to other network users or not. The mobile phone companies are not giving any authentic information to their users. There is total confusion,” said Anand Kumar, a BSNL cellphone user. 

Jammu, May 7
Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Raman Bhalla said today that the government had taken various measures for improving the living standard of the people, especially those residing in the periphery of the state.

The minister was interacting with the locals at Nanak Nagar after launching a development work.

He added that fulfilling the aspirations of the people and development was the top agenda of the coalition government.

Bhalla said there was no constraint of funds in providing adequate basic amenities to the people of the three regions. He added that the government was determined to provide better civic amenities to the people, adding that for the purpose, the government had introduced various modern projects across the state.

The minister said crores of rupees had been earmarked for the construction of new flyovers, tube wells, receiving stations, hospitals, schools and roads across Jammu city and its periphery.

He directed the engineers concerned to use quality material in the execution of works, as the objective of the government was to build a durable basic infrastructure.

Bhalla said peace was a pre-requisite for making Jammu and Kashmir a model state. He urged the people to extend whole-hearted cooperation to the government for maintaining peace and prosperity.

Jammu, May 7
The women wing of the Panthers Party, under the leadership of Anita Thakur, today held demonstrations against the decision of the state government to revoke the order regarding the issuance of Dogra certificates.

Addressing a gathering, Thakur said the government decision was an insult to the Dogras. She added that the ministers belonging to the Congress were elected by the people of the Jammu region, but they had maintained a criminal silence over the government decision to revoke the Dogra certificate order.

She regretted that the ministers belonging to the Congress had succumbed to the pressure of the NC leaders.

Jammu, May 7
Providing high-tech banking service to its customers has always been and shall remain the core policy of Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

This was stated by AK Mehta, executive director of the bank, while dedicating six ATMs to the people of Jammu here today. Three ATMs were opened at Bathindi, Phinter and Kootah, while three more ATMs were inaugurated at New University Campus, RS Pura and Talab Tillo.

Mehta said the vision of the bank was to empower the people and develop the economy of the state which in turn would trigger growth and prosperity of the bank.

He added that in line with the strategy outlined by Mushtaq Ahmad, chairman and CEO of the bank, the bank would play a pivotal role in the economic development of the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Tafazal Hussain, president of the bank, said J&K Bank was committed to the development of the state. 

Jammu, May 7
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) lodged a protest against the functioning of the J&K State Board of School Education (BoSE) and gheraoed the office of its chairman here today.

A large number of protesters, under the leadership of NSUI’s state general secretary Raj Kamal Arya, also burnt the effigy of the Secretary of the board. They raised slogans against the alleged malpractices in the board.

Meanwhile, the NSUI also demanded proper educational facilities in government schools. In a press note issued today, its senior leader Arjun Singh Pathania said the government schools across the state lacked proper facilities like electricity, clean water and adequate staff, which was affecting education standards. “The government should devise a policy for the elementary education of students, especially in rural areas, so that the future of these children could be saved,” said Pathania.