|
|
|
|
|
High drama in Assembly as three youths disrupt session
BJP for 73rd Amendment, Congress softens stance
One more CRPF unit to shift out of J-K
|
|
|
Jobless youth count in state: Over six lakh
Geelani’s new book claims he was offered J&K PM’s post in 1991
Air Force Day celebrated in Jammu
2010 civilian killings
Renovation of royal complex moves at snail’s pace
Efforts on to increase mutton production in Kashmir
|
|
High drama in Assembly as three youths disrupt session
Srinagar, October 8 Three youths — one of whom was waving a flag — suddenly stood up from the visitors’ gallery and shouted slogans demanding implementation of the employment policy. “Employment policy lagoo karo,” they shouted as one of them tried to storm into the well of the House. However, the protesting youths were marshalled out and placed in police custody. Later, Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone ordered proceedings against the act and identified the youths as Manish Khajuria, Sunny Malhotra and Ambedkar Gupta who claimed allegiance to the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front. Reports said the youths had entered the Assembly after being recommended passes by MLA Jagdish Sapolia, who has been expelled from the BJP. Terming the act as “contempt” of the House, the Speaker said: “Involvement of abetter has been proved beyond doubt... the (Assembly) members have to give a certificate and take full responsibility.” Lone said it was up to the “wisdom” of the House to “suggest punishment”. He said the House would decide its action on October 10. The Speaker also passed direction to the Superintendent of Police, Security, Civil Secretariat, to take the offenders into custody till October 10. Ruling National Conference MLA Choudhary Ramzan claimed that the three youths were residing in the MLA hostel here. The Speaker said he also had information that the youths had come in Jagdish Sapolia's Gypsy. Even as Sapolia was disallowed to speak in the House, the Speaker directed him to meet him at his office later. Talking to reporters, Sapolia said he had only recommended passes for the youths but was “unaware where the flag (of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front) came from”. He also said he was ready to apologise for the incident and would not have recommended them for issuance of passes if he knew they would stage a protest in the Assembly. However, he said they belonged to the BJP. Sapolia was expelled from the party after being involved in the cross-voting row. |
||
|
BJP for 73rd Amendment, Congress softens stance
Srinagar, October 8 As the contentious issue of the 73rd Amendment came up during “short duration discussion” in the House, the Congress legislators apparently softened their stance as the party had earlier been demanding its implementation vociferously. "We are not saying that the 73rd Amendment should be adopted as it is... we did not say implement Central laws,” Congress legislator G A Mir said. However, he said the Congress was demanding implementation of the 73rd Amendment due to "lacuna" in the state's Panchayati Raj Act. “As per the 73rd Amendment, panchayats cannot be dismissed for five years and there are provisions for reservations... the truth is that the panchayat members (in J-K) are being reprimanded by the public as they cannot live up to their expectations due to lack of powers,” Mir added. He said other parties were free to move resolutions so that the spirit of the 73rd Amendment was incorporated in the state's Panchayati Raj Act. Mir also said there was “no sense” in apprehensions that the 73rd Amendment would erode the state’s special status. However, BJP MLA Jugal Kishore said they were in favour of the 73rd Amendment while accusing the Congress of having double standards. He said the Congress was staging a “drama” outside the House while it supported its coalition partner National Conference inside the Assembly. Panthers Party MLA Harsh Dev Singh said the 73rd Amendment was not a "panacea". However, he said a few provisions of the Act could be incorporated by the House. Singh regretted that powers had not been transferred to panchayats as the Panchayat Advisory Committed had not been formed yet. He also dared the Congress to move the Bill for panchayat empowerment or withdraw support to the government. Singh demanded reservation for SCs and women in the upcoming block development council elections. PDP MLA Muzaffar Beigh said the successful conduct of panchayat elections in the state were not a “result” of the 73rd Amendment. He said transfer of powers to the panchayats was possible only after the formation of BDCs and district development boards (DDBs). “Panches have to be guided by the BDCs and DDBs,” Beigh said while questioning the delay in the conduct of the BDC elections that are scheduled next month. CPM legislator M Y Tarigami said there was no need to implement the 73rd Amendment “in toto” while demanding that the details of the persons who were involved in the killings of panchayat members be disclosed in the House. NC legislator Choudhary Ramzan claimed that the state's Panchayati Raj Act was “more progressive” than the 73rd Amendment. He also said it was not possible to implement the 73rd Amendment when the state's own Act was in place. PDP MLA Nizamuddin Bhat said there was “ambiguity” in the demand for the 73rd Amendment as the NC and Congress had made it a issue of prestige. Panchayat Raj Minister A M Sagar is scheduled to address the House tomorrow to state the government’s reply to the discussion on
panchayats. |
||
|
One more CRPF unit to shift out of J-K
Jammu, October 8 The CRPF has already shifted two of its battalions from the state to Kokrajhar in Assam. “A few days ago, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order to the CRPF asking it to identify one more battalion from Kashmir which would be pulled out in due course of time,” said a senior CRPF officer. While 129 Battalion of the CRPF has already been shifted to Kokrajhar, two companies of the Jammu-based 152 Battalion have also reached Kokrajhar. In the next few days, the rest of this battalion will also move to Kokrajhar, he said. “Apart from these two battalions, the Home Ministry in a fresh order has asked us to identify one more battalion, which has to be shifted out of J&K,” he said. “The third battalion, which has to be pulled out of Kashmir, has not been identified as yet but it has to be shifted out of the state soon,” said the officer. After the third battalion moves out, the state will be left with a total of 64 CRPF battalions. Earlier, the CRPF had 52 battalions in the Valley and 15 in the Jammu region. One battalion comprises 1,151 personnel. The officer admitted that thinning of the CRPF personnel in the state had started. On July 28, Antony had stressed reduction in the visibility of armed forces in the state. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also wants withdrawal of paramilitary personnel from the state but to realise his goal the state will need 50 battalions of the Indian Reserve Police. On September 28, the then CRPF DG, K Vijay Kumar, had told the media in Delhi that the CRPF was gradually reducing its footprints in Jammu and Kashmir. As a part of confidence-building measures, the Union Home Ministry in tandem with the state government has been planning de-induction of CRPF personnel, who at present perform an array of security duties in the state. |
||
|
Jobless youth count in state: Over six lakh
Srinagar, October 8 A total of 6,02,979 unemployed youth were registered in the district employment and counseling centres in the state till December 2011, Minister Incharge of Labour and Employment Abdul Gani Malik stated in a reply to a question in the Legislative Council here. Out of the total number of jobs created in the last three years, the Industries and Commerce Department had generated the highest number of jobs, 31,033, followed by 25,836 jobs created under the Jammu and Kashmir Self Employment Scheme (JKSES). Besides, over 10 thousand jobs had been generated under the Seed Capital Fund scheme. The minister said 9,599 jobs had been generated in the Animal and Husbandry Department and 4,569 jobs had been up for grabs in the Women Development Corporation in the last three years. Malik said 1,716 youth had been employed under the Himayat scheme and 40 others had been offered jobs under the UDAAN scheme. |
||
|
Geelani’s new book claims he was offered J&K PM’s post in 1991
Srinagar, October 8 The declaration was made in the second volume of his autobiography, ‘Wullar Kinarey’ (On the banks of the Wullar Lake), which is set to be released on Wednesday. The 82-year-old was born in Zoori Munz village nestled on the banks of the Wullar lake at Bandipora district in north Kashmir, which inspires the title of the memoir. The peep into the 686-paged-autobiography was facilitated by a statement issued by Geelani’s hardline faction. A spokesman for the Hurriyat faction, Ayaz Akbar, said, “The offer was made in 1991 when militancy was at its peak. Geelani sahib was arrested and taken to Jammu. He was severely tortured there, during which he even lost some of his teeth. But when his interrogators found him to be unrelenting, they offered him the position of the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.” He said the offer was made by a high-level delegation of “two to four men from the (Union) Home Ministry”. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s grandfather Shiekh Mohammad Abdullah was one among four others who held the post of the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, before it was abolished. The spokesman said the offer was made when Geelani was the head of the political wing of Islamist political group Jamaat-e-Islami. Hurriyat Conference, the hardline faction which is headed by Geelani, was not formed till 1994. The new volume of the autobiography will touch upon the most turbulent times of Kashmir’s recent history when the political separatist movement headed by an amalgam of several Islamist and non-Islamist parties under the banner ‘Mutahidda Muslim Mahaz’ (United Muslim Front) opted for an “armed resistance” after the 1987 elections, which are believed to have been “rigged” against them. |
||
|
Air Force Day celebrated in Jammu
Jammu, October 8 The celebrations began with a wreath-laying ceremony at the station memorial, wherein Air Commodore Prashanth Eknath Patange, the AOC, Air Force Station, Jammu, and other officials paid homage to the Indian Air Force (IAF) martyrs. An oath-taking ceremony was held thereafter, wherein the Air Warriors and other personnel pledged to continue to serve the country and the Air Force, to the best of their ability, at all times. Various other activities were organised as part of the week-long celebrations which included a static display of aircraft and equipment for students of various schools in the city and their parents and a flight-safety poster competition to inculcate awareness on flight safety. The Air Force Wives Welfare Association AFWWA (local), under the chairmanship of Mamta Patange, held a ‘healthy-baby show’ for the infants of the Air Warriors of the station and an entertainment evening programme in which the AFWWA Sanginis presented a variety of cultural performances to showcase their talent. Later, a traditional `barakhana’ was organised at the station Air Warriors Mess. Seventy-nine years ago, on this day, a very small band of Indian pilots and airmen set out, against many odds, to learn to fly and maintain aeroplanes and form an Air Force. The IAF came into existence on October 8, 1932. The Jammu station has a rich history and heritage. It is one of the oldest air bases of the IAF. The No. 1 Wing was formed here on March 10, 1948. Helicopters have been the main strength of the station. Initially, Mi-4 helicopters, thereafter, Chetaks and now, Mi-17 helicopters of the 130 Helicopter Unit operate in the most challenging environment of the state, where one of major tasks is round-the-year ‘air maintenance’ of the Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield in the world. |
||
|
2010 civilian killings
Srinagar, October 8 It also directed for substituting JKLF chairman Yasin Malik as the original petitioner in the PIL by another person after the government had objected to his name. The PIL, seeking investigation into civilian killings in 2010, was filed by chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yasin Malik in the High Court on January 10, 2011, and was listed today before a double bench of Chief Justice The orders of the High Court came following submissions by the government in its status report that earlier members of the probe panel, Justice (retired) Bashir-ud-Din and Justice (retired) YP Nargotra have demitted office as members of the Inquiry Commission and the process for finding their replacement was on. The status report was submitted by the government on October 3 in response to a PIL seeking investigation into civilian killings in the summer of 2010. “Justice (retired) Syed Bashir-ud-Din demitted his office on June 24, 2011. Justice YP Nargotra also tendered his resignation as member of the said Commission of Inquiry with effect from August 21, 2011, in view of his appointment as chairman in the J&K Accountability Commission,” Advocate General M Ishaq Qadri submitted to the High Court today while referring to the status report of
State Home Commissioner BR Sharma. He further submitted that the Home Department already had identified three retired High Court judges in place of the earlier members of the Commission. He said the orders in this regard should be issued so that the Commission of Inquiry could start the case from the stage at which the former Commission of Inquiry had left it. After going through the status reports submitted by the state government and the police and hearing both sides, the High Court today directed the state government to finalise its orders about the appointment of the new members of the Inquiry Commission. The court also directed the authorities to furnish the list of the kin who had been provided ex gratia, said advocate Zaffar Shah, who represented the litigants in the case. It also directed for substituting JKLF’s Yasin Malik, the original petitioner of the PIL, by advocate M. Imtiyaz Sofi. However, while substituting Malik by Sofi as the petitioner,
the bench observed that the PIL would continue to be heard by the courts in view of the larger public interest involved. The government had sought the dismissal of the PIL on the ground that Yasin Malik himself was facing a trial in a number of criminal cases. Time line
|
||
|
Renovation of royal complex moves at snail’s pace
Jammu, October 8 The Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society (MMHS), which is supervising the project, provided this information to activist Raman Sharma, who had filed an application under the RTI Act to know the amount spent on the restoration work till date. The official data revealed that the estimated cost of the project was Rs 300 crore out of which only one per cent (nearly Rs 3 crore) had been spent since the start of the renovation work. Interestingly, no time limit had been fixed for its completion. “Till date, an amount of Rs 3.52 crore has been utilised for the restoration of the erstwhile Army headquarters (foreign office) in the building. The Government of India had sanctioned Rs 4.37 crore for the renovation of this office and Rs 8.51 crore under the 13th Finance Commission stands received for buildings including the Raja Amar Singh Palace, Dogra Art Museum, Badi Deodi, Royal Court and Gadvai Khana and the Mahal The society said the work on the erstwhile Army headquarters was started by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in October, 2008, and the building had been restored at a cost of Rs 3.52 crore. “The unspent amount of Rs 4.29 lakh is yet to
be returned by the ASI director general to the executive director of the society,” it stated. Responding to the query if the society had fixed any deadline for the project,
the MMHS candidly divulged that no time limit had been fixed. “Till date, four governing body meetings held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is the ex-officio chairman of the society, and 20 meetings of the executive committee had taken place. Members of the governing body and the executive committee have often visited the complex for inspection over the years,” the MMHS said. The heritage complex, spread over 14 acres of prime land in the heart of Old Jammu City, is 188 years old. The oldest building in the palace complex dates back to as long as 1824. The MMHS was formed on December 28, 2006, under the Societies Act to restore the crumbling Mubarak Mandi complex to its original shape. |
||
|
Efforts on to increase mutton production in Kashmir
Srinagar, October 8 Concerned over the high dependency for meat on other states, mostly Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan, the state government claims that many measures have taken up to make the Valley self-sufficient in the mutton production. “Out of 25,388 tonnes of mutton, nearly 11,000 tonnes is produced locally,” the state government recently revealed in the Upper House of Legislature. Officials said half of the total consumption of mutton in the Valley was at marriages, where the traditional Kashmiri cuisine, ‘wazwan’, is served to the guests. Almost all the dishes of wazwan, which is a multi-course meal prepared by special chefs, are meat-based. “Almost every middle class family requires 400-500 kg meat for dishes which are served to guests at marriage functions in Kashmir,” an official said. Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Qamar Ali Akhoon told the Legislative House that the state government was taking many initiatives to overcome the deficiency of mutton in the state. “Elite rams are being provided for the upgradation of the indigenous sheep population of the state. Besides, projects such as the Embryo Transfer Technology are being started to enhance the mutton production,” he said. The minister said the employment generation programmes such as the establishment of mini sheep farms and the Integrated Development of Small Ruminants and Rabbits (IDSRR) have been launched to encourage unemployed educated youth to establish units under these schemes. “These schemes will not only help generate employment but also increase the production of mutton,” he
said. |
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Jammu, October 8
