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Polling peaceful in all 12 districts of Kashmir valley
A quiet affair in Srinagar with no long queues
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Women voters show enthusiasm
Cop kills wife, mother-in-law before shooting himself
BJP draws flak from Jammu-based parties
Chief patron of the National Panthers Party Bhim Singh recently addressing the media in Jammu. A Tribune photograph
Don’t talk of peaceful struggle, Hizb chief tells separatists
Court notice to EC on Sajjad Lone’s plea
Saffron growers form cooperative to ensure quality, eliminate middlemen
MLA alleges misbehaviour by official
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Polling peaceful in all 12 districts of Kashmir valley
Srinagar, December 3 The polling was held at the respective block headquarters amid tight security. There were no reports of any untoward incidents from any part of the Valley. While Srinagar recorded the highest number of votes, Leh and Kargil districts in the Ladakh region recorded the lowest. Panchayat members travelled long distances to exercise their franchise, cutting across party affiliations. In many cases, panchayat members reached the polling stations in groups. The elections were held under tight security amid a boycott call by the hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani. Braving the morning chill and the boycott call, the panchayat members, who were elected on a non-party basis early in 2011, converged on the polling stations in each of the blocks across the 12 districts, including 10 districts of the Kashmir valley and two districts of Leh and Kargil in the Ladakh region. “We have realised that this is the only chance we are going to get for the empowerment of the Panchayati Raj and that’s why we decided not to waste our votes,” said sarpanch Muhammad Ashraf Wani from the Dialgam area of Anantnag district. Some other panchayat members said they were hopeful that these elections would change things for the better. “Hopefully, we are going to have a say in the issues related to governance at the grass-roots level and that is the reason for the high voter turnout,” said panchayat member Farooq Ahmad Bhat. (With inputs from
Suhail A Shah in Anantnag) |
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A quiet affair in Srinagar with no long queues
Srinagar, December 3 The rural areas of Kashmir had over the past few weeks witnessed heavy campaigning for two seats from the panchayat quota. Panchayat members from a few villages on the outskirts of Srinagar came to cast their votes at Lal Mandi polling booth here. With every electoral process in Srinagar being a low-key affair as compared to other areas ever since the eruption of militancy in the state, not many city residents were aware that a polling booth had been set up today in the heart of the city for the summer capital's rural block. “What booth? What has Srinagar got to do with these elections?” a shopkeeper at Lal Mandi said when asked about the actual location of the polling booth as elections were being held amid a boycott call of the Hurriyat faction led by Syed Ali Geelani. In the 2008 Assembly elections when the state had recorded an overall voter turnout of around 62 per cent, Srinagar had only seen around 20 per cent turnout. Some constituencies of the city like that of Habba Kadal had witnessed only 11.28 per cent turnout. Polling at the Lal Mandi booth went on smoothly, said a police officer on duty there. “They (voters) have been coming here in small groups since the morning... everything is going smooth,” he said. With only 89 expected voters, there were obviously no queues outside the booth. Moreover, the panchayat members were seen leaving quickly after casting their votes. An elderly voter just smiled and nodded when asked if he had cast his vote. He preferred not to talk further and left. Another group of voters too was reluctant to talk after coming out of the booth. “They won't talk... they talked to nobody,” said another police official outside the booth. Around noon, an official said 83 panchayat members had voted. “Only six are yet to arrive to vote, 24 women and 59 men have cast their votes,” he said. |
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Women voters show enthusiasm
Dansal (Nagrota), December 3 Women panches and sarpanches number 9,452 across the state. Some of them even covered a distance of 80 km to exercise their franchise. At the Dansal block headquarters, 38 km from here, the high turnout of women voters at polling stations number 15 and 16 was a testimony to the political awakening among the fairer sex in the troubled state. Both polling stations (one for J-1 seat and other for J-2 seat) recorded 100 per cent voting with all 78 women panches turning up to vote. Out of 28,248 panches elected in the state, 9,424 are women. Out of 4,113 sarpanch posts in 22 districts of the state, only 28 women had won the panchayat elections in 2011. There was no reservation for women for the post of sarpanch while 33 per cent reservation was given to women in the panch segment. “We hired a mini-bus which developed a technical snag at three places en route to the polling station here. We have covered a distance of nearly 70 km to cast our vote despite the fact that the political leadership had done nothing for us since the panchayat elections in the state,” said Vaishno Devi, 80, a panch of Surinsar Panchayat halqa. She said she and other panches didn’t have any expectations from the political leadership but they were casting their vote because it was their duty and a fundamental right. “We have no financial powers to carry out development activities in our wards and we are totally dependent on legislators and ministers. We are still hopeful that our elected people would strengthen our voice at a higher level,” Devi said. Meena Rajput, 38, a panch of ward number 5 in Sagoon Panchayat halqa, remarked: “Leave aside the people who voted for us during panchayat elections, sometimes our family members also mock at us for not carrying out development works. The panchayats are defunct and we don’t find any difference between us and our predecessors.” Women count |
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Cop kills wife, mother-in-law before shooting himself
Jammu, December 3 While his estranged wife and mother-in-law died instantly, the SPO’s father-in-law is struggling for life in a hospital. The SPO, who pumped several bullets in his head, has been shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, for specialised treatment. Doda-Ramban-Kishtwar Range DIG Garib Dass said, “SPO Pawan Kumar, who is a follower with the police department, had been deputed to Gandoh tehsil of Doda district for poll duty and had been given an AK-47 rifle.” “Though he had been serving the police in Bhaderwah, we had deputed him to Gandoh for election duty,” said Dass. He further said last evening the SPO, Pawan Kumar, who had reached Gandoh for poll duty, told his seniors that he wanted to stay for the night at his in-laws house in Kandolo village near Gandoh. “Oblivious of his intentions, his seniors allowed him to stay and told
him to be present at the polling block next morning. Kumar went on a shooting spree around 7:45 pm, killing his wife Champa Devi, mother-in-law Sumitra Devi and critically injuring his father-in-law Des Raj before turning the barrel on himself,” said the DIG. “Soon after the incident, we rushed a police party to the village, which immediately shifted Pawan Kumar and his father-in-law Des Raj to a hospital,” he said. The police recovered over seven empties of the AK-47, AK magazines and a AK-47 rifle from the scene, he said. The DIG said the exact reason why the SPO took the extreme step was not known. “There must be some past grudges. We are trying to know the reason that drove this man to such a ghastly act,” he said. Doda SP Mohammed Arif Reshu said the police
had registered a case under Section 302 of the RPC and had initiated the
investigations. |
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BJP draws flak from Jammu-based parties
Jammu, December 3 These MLAs did not offer any support to the National Conference in the Legislative Council elections but their meeting with the Chief Minister has hit the credibility of the party. Although the BJP expelled these rebel MLAs from the party after the April 2011 cross-voting episode of the Legislative Council elections, Jammu-based parties have intensified attack on BJP leaders, including “loyalists and rebels” for bartering the interests of Jammu people for their “petty personal gains”. “It is a historical fact that BJP leaders have always betrayed people of the Jammu region for their petty personal gains. They brazenly sold aspirations and wishes of people just to further their personal interests,” said Bhim Singh, chief patron of the National Panthers Party (NPP). “BJP leaders of Jammu had signed a midnight secret agreement in 2008 with the government withdrawing the people’s movement in connection with the Amarnath land row. The so-called agreement was never implemented leaving hundreds of sufferers on the road,” he said. Echoing similar sentiments, Varinder Gupta, convener of the Jammu State Morcha (JSM) said local BJP leaders, be they loyalists or rebels, had always compromised with the successive state governments just to further their own petty interests. History bears testimony to the fact that BJP leaders had always sacrificed people’s aspirations to keep the National Conference leadership in good humour, he alleged. Ashok Gupta, president of the state unit of the Shiv Sena and coordinator of the Dogra Front, suggested that the state unit of the BJP should be merged with the National Conference because the BJP already had an undeclared agreement with the ruling party. “In the Rajya Sabha elections four years back, it was all due to the support of one BJP vote that a National Conference candidate emerged victorious,” he alleged and added that the alliance between the BJP and the National Conference in the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) was a clear indication of the understanding between the two parties. The BJP on the one hand failed to get seven rebel MLAs disqualified while on the other hand, it has failed to earn the faith and trust of the people after the April 13, 2011, cross-voting episode. Although out of 11 party MLAs, seven had indulged in cross-voting yet there is feeling among people of the Jammu region that all MLAs were hand in glove with the National Conference. |
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Don’t talk of peaceful struggle, Hizb chief tells separatists
Srinagar, December 3 Salahuddin, who is the chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, told separatists to resist from stressing peaceful struggle more than was needed. “With all humility, I request the (separatist) leadership to stop repeating the mantra of peaceful struggle,” Salahuddin said in a telephonic interview with a local news agency here. “They (separatist leaders) know it more than us that military occupations have never ended with peaceful struggles nor does it seem to end like that in future.” Salahuddin’s advisory to the separatists comes at a time when both the camps --- moderates led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and hardliners led by Syed Ali Geelani ---- have for years spoken in favour of a “peaceful struggle” as a solution to the Kashmir issue. Militancy in the region has declined in the recent years as many top militant commanders have been eliminated, denting the capacity of remnant militants to carry out major strikes. Salahuddin, who in 1987 was a candidate for the state Legislative Assembly elections, which are believed to have been rigged, triggering an armed insurgency, said the separatists leaders should keep the peaceful struggle limited to “political and diplomatic fronts” and not give an impression to the people and youth that it is not the time for an armed struggle. He said military occupation, the term used by the separatists, referring to the Army’s presence in the state, would not merely end by “political movements, seminars and conferences”. He cited the examples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam, saying Americans left these place because of armed struggles. Salahuddin, whose renewed militant tenor seemed to have been heavily influenced by the war in Afghanistan where American troops are winding up operations in 2014 after more than a decade-long presence, has for the first time in the recent years spoken so vividly against the policies and modus-operandi of the separatist leaders. |
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Court notice to EC on Sajjad Lone’s plea
Srinagar, December 3 The high court has directed the EC to file the objections within four weeks. These directions were passed by a single bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir Sajjad today after a writ petition was filed by Sajjad Lone on November 15 against the EC decision. Sajjad Lone is the younger son of the late Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone and currently heads a faction of the JKPC. The EC had de-recognised the JKPC as a state political party and de-reserved its lion symbol by passing an order on July 30, 1997. “Today the court issued a notice to the respondents, returnable within four weeks. Besides, while disposing of a common miscellaneous petition (CMP), the high court also directed the Election Commission to consider the representation of Sajjad Lone within four weeks,” said the counsel representing Sajjad Lone in the petition. In his representation before the Commission, Lone had questioned EC’s decision to de-reserve
the party's election symbol “lion”. “In the present proceedings, the petitioner calls in question the decision of the Election Commission to de-recognise the JKPC as a political party and de-reserve its symbol ‘lion’, which is clearly in contravention of law and in violation of rules of natural justice,” Sajjad had argued in the petition filed in the high court through his counsel G A Lone. Before the eruption of militancy in the state in 1989, the JKPC was one of the main political parties in J-K and had participated in many elections, including 1987 Assembly elections, which are said to be the genesis of militancy
in Kashmir. In 1987 elections, the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC) was part of the Muslim United Front (MUF), which had then emerged as the main opposition political force in J&K. But after 1989, the JKPC, headed by its founding leader Abdul Gani Lone, became part of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and supported secession of Kashmir from the Union of India. However after the assassination of Gani Lone in 2002, his son Sajjad Lone parted ways from the Hurriyat and fought parliamentary elections as an Independent candidate from Baramulla in 2009. JKPC de-recognised in 1997 |
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Saffron growers form cooperative to ensure quality, eliminate middlemen
Chandigarh, December 3 A handful of saffron growers in Pampore (which produces 80 per cent of Kashmiri saffron), Kishtwar, Pulwama and Budgam, have now eliminated the role of middlemen by joining hands as a cooperative, to ensure that the quality of Kashmiri saffron is maintained. After being benefited from the National Saffron Mission, these growers have now increased the area under saffron cultivation by 12,000 kanals and also increased the yield from 900 gm to 5 kg per acre. In town to participate in the CII AGRO Tech 2012, these farmers under the aegis of the All J&K Saffron Growers Development and Marketing Cooperative Association, said through technological intervention received as part of the National Mission on Saffron, they had been able to get more area under saffron cultivation. Abdul Majid Wani, a progressive saffron grower from Pampore, said the area under saffron had been on a decline for the last many years. “In the past two years, the area under saffron cultivation has increased from 60,000 to 72,000 kanals. With the help of technologists, we have learnt to grow saffron with special spacing, which has also increased its production substantially,” Wani said. He said with new technology, they needed to sow saffron just once, which would give them three successive crops. Blaming the middlemen for downgrading the Kashmiri saffron by adulterating it with cheaper Iranian saffron, Abdul Sattar, a saffron farmer, said as against the cost of Rs 200 per gram, the Iranian saffron was available for Rs 80 per gram. “Traders would adulterate the Kashmiri saffron and then sell it to unsuspecting customers as Kashmiri saffron. Also, the traders were taking a 100 per cent profit margin on the saffron. By eliminating the role of these middlemen, we have managed to ensure that the saffron growers get a good price for their produce. Farmers are now getting Rs 120 to Rs 150 per gram, as against Rs 80 to Rs 100 per gram from the middlemen,” he said. |
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MLA alleges misbehaviour by official
Pulwama, December 3 The MLA, Abdul Razzak Zawoora, alleged that the DC used foul language against him after he entered the premises of a polling booth in the Shadimarg area of Pulwama district. “I was looking for my polling agent and had just set my foot on the premises of the polling booth when the officer started using foul language,” alleged the MLA. He said the DC told policemen to drag him (MLA) out of the premises. “I know I was not allowed to the polling booth but I was on the premises when the officer misbehaved with me,” said Zawoora. The MLA called the incident as unfortunate and said he did not expect an officer of this rank to use such language. The DC, however, refuted the allegations of misbehaviour with the MLA. “I just told him that he is not allowed to enter the polling booth. I did not misbehave with him,” said DC Shafaat
Noor. |
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Jammu-based parties have stepped up attack on the BJP after six of the seven MLAs expelled from the party met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on November 27 and reportedly appreciated the style of functioning of the government headed by the National Conference.
