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Protesters bring Qazigund-Banihal railway trial run to a halt
Peace remains fragile as public discontent come to the fore
Promotion norms relaxed for medical college teachers
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Speaker reviews functioning of Assembly panels
Farmers told to switch over to biofertilisers
Winter months challenging for BSF: IG Hideout busted
Met warns of fresh snow spell in Valley
Faction-ridden Cong presents united face
PDP exploiting sentiments of people, says minister
Political parties extend support to ReT teachers
Hurriyat leaders back from Pakistan
Nine hurt in road mishap
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Protesters bring Qazigund-Banihal railway trial run to a halt
Srinagar/Anatnag,
December 27 The trial was stopped mid-way by protesting locals, demanding fulfilment of the promises made to them. Locals halted the trial run at Humu village, some 5 km ahead of Qazigund railway station, alleging that they were not provided the jobs promised to them by the railway authorities at the time of land acquisition. “We were promised jobs in the Railways besides compensation for the land we provided. But nobody has got a job so far,” said a protester. The protesters also demanded a railway station in their village. “The railway authorities had assured us that the train will have a stoppage at our village. Now they are conducting a trial without bothering to give us what was promised,” another protester said. The protesting locals blocked the railway track and threatened that unless their demands were fulfilled, they would not let the railway authorities run the service. The Chief Controller of the Railways, Nand Lal, said jobs had already been given to the people of the area and they were only protesting for a stoppage at their village. “We will take up the matter with the higher-ups and only then any decision for a re-run will be taken,” said the Chief Controller. The 17.5-km railway line from Qazigund to Banihal also includes an 11-km-long tunnel. Railway officials had been ready for the engine trial for the last one week. “We are holding talks with villagers and it is hoped the engine trial will be done shortly,” said another railway official. “After the trial run, an inspection will be conducted by Railway Safety Board officials, who will decide when the train will actually ply between Qazigund and Banihal,” he added.
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Peace remains fragile as public discontent come to the fore
Srinagar, December 27 Kashmir witnessed a relatively peaceful summer for the second consecutive year after 2010. Several steps taken by the state and Central governments and separatist leadership are being seen as “new experiments” even as the National Conference-led government continued its efforts to maintain “fragile peace” in the Valley. Any incident involving security agencies, in the light of past practice, would lead to an unending public uprising, which had been observed during the three consecutive summers between 2008 and 2010. Having taken clues from handling the public outrage in 2009 and 2010, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been extra careful while handling any situation that had the potential of getting “exploited by vested interests”. A considerably long list of new experiments has been undertaken this year and the recent visit of moderate Hurriyat leaders to Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to interact with political leadership there has been at the top of the list. Political observers do not see much in the latest Hurriyat visit, undertaken after the much-publicised maiden visit of the Hurriyat to Pakistan, led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, in June 2005. This is regarded as a repetition of the previous visit, even as hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani rejected the Pakistan invite. On the other hand, the government says the Hurriyat’s Pakistan visit is yet another step forward in the political arena of the state. The Indo-Pak talks have been resumed and the Foreign Ministers and the secretaries of the two neighbouring countries have been holding discussions on varied subjects, including the Kashmir issue, it is being observed. “Many things are going on…it is a movement towards restoration of permanent peace (in Jammu and Kashmir),” said a senior officer. For the coalition partners, the National Conference (NC) and the Congress, the year has seen a giant leap in bonding of the relations, though simmering differences within the parties over the alliance in the next Assembly elections have been continuing. The two parties projected a joint face and maintained the “coalition dharma” by jointly plunging into the field for the elections to the four seats of the Legislative Council from the panchayat quota. The “revived coalition” despite differences over the 73rd Amendment paid dividends, as the two parties bagged all the four seats, two each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions. In view of the panchayat elections, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited the state twice and ensured 33,000 elected panchayat members that they would be empowered to strengthen the democracy at the grass-roots level. Rahul’s two visits also raised the hopes of youth, looking for jobs in the government and industrial sectors. The holding of the panchayat elections after a gap of three decades and the filling up of the four seats of the Legislative Council after a gap of 38 years are seen as a big leap towards the strengthening of the democracy on the ground. This could be possible in view of peace throughout the year. However, the elections to the Urban Local Bodies, awaited for the past two years, could not be held for varied reasons. While the NC and the Congress have been focusing on both governance and political issues, the PDP has been playing its role by making the government a target of its criticism on both fronts. Having given a “tough fight” to the coalition parties across the state in the recent Legislative Council elections, the PDP has been focusing on Jammu. All political activities of mainstream parties are going on with an eye on the 2014 Assembly elections in the state. |
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Promotion norms relaxed for medical college teachers
Srinagar, December 27 In what came as a partial modification of the J&K Medical Education (Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 1979, the state government has amended the rules for the service period of each cadre from five to three years. The state medical colleges have a four-tier system of faculty cadre from lecturer (fresh recruit) to professor unlike the three-tier system in medical colleges across the country. The Medical Faculty Association (MFA), Kashmir, has welcomed the government’s move, describing it as a step in ensuring quality education is imparted in medical colleges. According to the Medical Council of India (MCI) norms, assistant professors are promoted to the posts of professor in seven years period. The MFA said the state government needs to work in the direction of adhering to the MCI norms fully. “The issue of retirement of medical faculty should also be raised up since professors teaching in state colleges retire at 58 while the retirement age is 70 years elsewhere. The early retirement costs dear to the college recognition status as most of the courses are not taught by experienced teachers,” said Dr Qazi Sajad, general secretary of the MFA. |
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Speaker reviews functioning of Assembly panels
Jammu, December 27 Lone chaired a meeting of the chairpersons of the Financial and other Committees of the House here today to discuss and review their work and said the Committees had shown good results on the ground. The Speaker appreciated achievements registered by each Committee during this year and called for making them more effective, particularly with regard to the monitoring of flagship programmes and other welfare schemes. He directed the secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD), Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed, to submit Action Taken Reports on the observations and recommendations issued by
various Committees from time to time to the Assembly Secretariat in a time-bound manner. He said any negligence in
this regard would not be tolerated and prompt action should be taken against erring officials. The Chairpersons, Rafi Ahmed Mir, Abdul Majid Wani, Harsh Dev Singh, MY Tarigami, Chaman Lal Gupta, GA Mir, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, Abdul Haq Khan, Balwant Singh Mankotia and special invite T Namgiyal, gave their valuable suggestions in making the Committees more effective. The GAD secretary briefed the meeting about the implementation of directions given by the Committees from time to time. He assured those present in the meeting that prompt action would be taken on the observations and recommendations as and when issued by the Assembly Secretariat. Secretary, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs GH Tantray; secretary, Assembly, M Ramzan and officials from the Law Department and the Assembly Secretariat attended the meeting. |
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Farmers told to switch over to biofertilisers
Rajouri, December 27 Mir was addressing a one-day Kissan Mela Awareness Camp at Kalakote in Rajouri here today. The camp was organised by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Kissan Advisory Board. The minister told the farmers to avail themselves of benefits of flagship schemes of the Agriculture Department which had been launched by the government. He said the agriculture sector, being a priority sector of the coalition government, had witnessed a notable improvement in crop production during the past three and a half years. He said the government was providing subsidy to the farmers for introducing farm mechanisation for which kissan melas and machinery melas were being organised at the block level across the state to provide awareness and agriculture machinery on their doorsteps. Referring to streamlining of agriculture inputs in the state, the minister said fertilisers, seeds and other agriculture facilities were being provided to the farmers throughout the year without any delay. He said steps were being taken to further streamline the distribution system so that the farmers would get fertilisers and other agriculture inputs in time. He said directions had been given to the officials concerned across the state to ensure frequent field visits to their respective areas for redress of farmers’ issues at the earliest. Telling the farmers to use biofertilisers in place of chemical fertilisers, the minister said the trend had changed across the globe for consumer safety. The state has also launched a scheme for setting up of vermin compost units for production of bio-fertiliser. He said the government was providing Rs 30,000 as subsidy to the farmers for setting up of one unit. The minister announced that hybrid maize seed would be provided to the farmers on 50 per cent subsidy for Rajouri district. He also said low cost vermin compost units would be provided to the Kalakote block on a priority basis to bring the area under organic farming. He said directions had been given to the Krishi Vidhyan Kendra (KVK), Rajouri, and agriculture officers to work together for boosting mushroom production and apiculture in the area. He further said the KVK had been asked to focus on women empowerment programmes in which local girls would be trained in skill development programmes. Saying the bivolitine cocoon of Kalakote had tremendous potential, the minister told cocoon-rearers to plant more plants in their areas. He said the department was providing Rs 5,000 for plantation of 300 saplings. He said the department also provides Rs 75,000 for construction of rearing sheds. Vice-chairman of the Kissan Advisory Board Rashpal Singh said the board acted as a bridge between the farmers and the government. Director of Agriculture, Jammu, Ajay Khajuria, Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Director, Sericulture, and senior officials
of the Agriculture Department were present on the occasion. |
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Winter months challenging for BSF: IG Jammu, December 27 “Foggy and hazy weather conditions make the mandate of BSF jawans tough. We have harder task ahead and more challenges in the winter. As far as our strategy is concerned, we have analysed and assessed past incidents and I can reasonably presume that there would be more pressure on the border during the winter months. The upcoming three months are challenging and we have fine-tuned our strategy and mobilised our resources to defeat the designs of anti-national elements,” Rajeev Krishna, Inspector General (IG) of the BSF, Jammu Frontier, told mediapersons here. He said about 17 to 18 points were sensitive which were based on the historical, traditional and intelligence inputs. “Though there was no successful infiltration attempt from across the border so far this year, the number of bids was more than the corresponding last year. According to inputs, there are five active launch pads of militants on the international border and their corresponding areas have been included in vulnerable points,” the IG said, adding the activities in these areas were being closely monitored by the BSF. Admitting that dense fog had a negative impact on the capability of the BSF jawans, Krishna claimed the winter strategy had already been operationalised and sensitive points were being guarded effectively. “There is no doubt that fog affects our capabilities while guarding the international border and sometimes anti-national elements try to take the benefit of this situation. We have been effectively monitoring the border with the available equipment and the BSF is making maximum utilisation of technical support,” the IG said.
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Hideout busted
Batote, December 27 On a tip off, the Special Operations Group of the police and Rashtriya Rifles, under the supervision of Ramban SP Anil Magotra and DSP (Operations) Deepak Digra, Gool, raided the hideout and seized one PIKA gun 7.62, one RPG launcher, four UBGL grenades, 790 rounds of 7.62 PIKA, 246 rounds of 7.62 mm LMG, 267 rounds of AK-47 and 236 rounds of 9mm pistol. — OC
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Met warns of fresh snow spell in Valley
Srinagar, December 27 “The western disturbances are likely to disrupt surface and air transport systems of the state on December 28. The day temperature will fall by 4 to 5° Celsius and the night temperature will rise by 1 to 2°C,” an official of the state Meteorological Department warned. The western disturbances, a low pressure system which moves east over Pakistan into Kashmir, are dense thunder clouds which lead to heavy rain or snow. Kashmir’s only road link which connects it with the rest of the country is often closed in winter months when the weather conditions deteriorate and snow endangers the movement of vehicles on the slippery mountainous road. The 294-km Srinagar-Jammu highway is considered the lifeline of the Kashmir region as all essential commodities, including medicines, are transported via this road. The weatherman said the western disturbances over the state were likely to intensify and would affect the state and its adjoining areas for two days beginning Thursday night. The Met official said moderate snowfall would occur over hills of south Kashmir’s Pirpanjal range and rains would lash towns and villages in the plains. The weather department warned that some places in the Pirpanjal range, which traverses several districts of south Kashmir, might receive up to 30 cm of snow. Snowfall and rains will also occur at many places in the higher reaches of the Jammu region and at a few places in the Ladakh region. The remote Ladakh region is already snowbound as the only road connecting it with Srinagar has been closed for all vehicular traffic due to heavy snowfall along the stretch around Zoji pass, located deep in the Himalayan mountains. The night temperature across the Kashmir region this month has consistently fallen several degrees below the freezing point resulting in extremely cold conditions. |
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Gulmarg to come alive with sports activities in January
Srinagar, December 27 After nearly a decade, school students from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand will fight it out for the National Junior Alpine skiing Cup to be held from January 26. The event is being organised by the Winter Games Federation of India in association with the Winter Sports Association of Kashmir at Gulmarg which boasts of the highest ski lift in the world and is situated at an altitude of 2,730 metres above sea level. The National Snowboarding and Cross Country championship will start in the first week of February and is being organised by the Winter Games Association of Kashmir in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, Gulmarg. Around 30 participant teams from all over the country have registered themselves for the event, which is the first of its kind event in the winter sports arena of the Valley. Winter Games Association of Kashmir president Farooq Shah said the winter sports carnival would stretch over two months and is aimed at invigorating the spirit of snow sports among people. “People from other states, who have only witnessed snowfall in movies, will get to live the thrilling experience during these championships. These events, which are carried out with the help of locals, would witness the participation of national and international sports celebrities,” Shah said. Taking a cue from European sports, indigenous adventure sportspersons have introduced various other forms of winter sports games this year such as snow rugby, snow football, snow baseball and snow cycling. “The rules and techniques are the same as in the normal forms of these games. We have just made these games lively by playing on snow. So far we have received tremendous response from local, national and even international sportspersons for their participation,” said Shabir Wani, general secretary of the Winter Sports Association, Kashmir. The winter calendar of the Department of Tourism is also full with winter sports activities and coaching camps that it is offering to locals and tourists. These include skating coaching camps, free of cost style skiing, ski touring and snow sculpting. Gulmarg, which is blessed with perfect slopes and terrains, is the most preferred destination for skiers and snowboarders worldwide, offering a platform to enjoy games which are rarely played in Asia.
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Faction-ridden Cong presents united face
Jammu, December 27 The Congress exhibited this unity during a function which was held yesterday at Udhampur to observe the first death anniversary of former Legislative Council member Yashpal Khajuria. Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Saifuddin Soz was the main speaker at the function in which leaders of “pro and anti” Soz groups were present. Local Congress leaders Brij Mohan Sharma, Ashwani Khajuria, Shakil Shah, Taro Devi, Anil Pachayala, R S Pathania, Ashok Gupta and Anil Panchayala, who belong to two warring factions of the party, participated in the function. Soz had words of praise for Udhampur District Congress Committee (DCC) chief Bhupinder Singh for bringing leaders of the two factions on a single platform. He said unity among party leaders was a must to pursue the agenda of the party and called upon all leaders to iron out their differences to face the challenges before the party. Party leaders believed that since Pathania was a non-controversial leader, both factions were present at the function. Sources said the Congress leadership had realised that the party had failed to implement its own agenda in the coalition due to infighting in the party. “During the last four years, the Congress has failed to implement its agenda because coalition partner National Conference has been taking benefit of factionalism in the party,” a source said, adding that leaders of both the warring factions were “seriously thinking” of ironing out their differences in 2013 to face the coming elections. The sources said the party leadership had promised to extend the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen Panchayati Raj but the Congress had so far failed to fulfil that promise. The party had also promised in 2008 that citizenship rights would be granted to West Pakistani refugees. “Party leaders feel that they would face backlash from voters if they failed to implement promises made to them,” the source said. |
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PDP exploiting sentiments of people, says minister
Jammu, December 27 Addressing a public gathering at Vijaypur in Samba district to welcome various prominent personalities and political workers of the area into the party, Slathia said the PDP was unnerved with the growing popularity of the NC among the masses due to its pro-people policies and programmes. He said it was now trying to foment trouble on one pretext or the other to sabotage prevailing peace in the state. He said due to the concerted efforts of the Omar-led government, there was an improvement in the security situation after 20 years of unrest and bloodshed in the state. Slathia said with the return of peace a record number of 1.22 crore tourists, including one crore Vaishno Devi pilgrims, 6.20 lakh Amarnath yatris, 13.14 lakh tourists to the Kashmir valley and 1.80 lakh tourists to Ladakh, had visited the state and trade and business had received an impetus. The overall situation in the state has brought a turnaround in the economic activities and the common people are yearning for permanent peace so that their wounds inflicted by the turmoil are healed. Forty young political workers and a prominent social and political worker of the area, Ajay Kumar Sharma, joined the NC.
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Political parties extend support to ReT teachers
Jammu, December 27 State BJP president Jugal Kishore Sharma has extended the party’s full support to the agitating ReT teachers. He said the agitating teachers were demanding regularisation of their colleagues, who had completed five years of their service, inclusion of five years service at the time of promotion, proper transfer policy and enhancement of honorarium from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per month. He said their genuine needs should be sympathetically considered. In a statement issued here today, Sharma said government employees comprise a large section of the state population, so it was the responsibility of any elected government to address the demands of its employees. He appealed to the state government, particularly the Education Department authorities, to call the agitating teachers to the negotiating table to find an amicable solution before the situation takes an ugly turn. He advised the police authorities to exercise restrain while tackling such situations, where peaceful people come on the roads for the fulfilment of their genuine demands. Extending sympathies to the teachers, several of whom received injuries in the police lathicharge during the “secretariat chalo” peaceful protest, Sharma said the party has always taken up the just cause of the state employees from time to time, adding that the BJP will continue to work on its people-friendly policy. Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front president Anil Gupta condemned the use of force and lathicharge on RET Teachers and Education Volunteers during the protests. In a statement, Gupta said the government had deliberately used force to suppress the people’s voice. Such use of brutal force was an attempt to stop the people from exercising their democratic rights in a peaceful manner. Gupta extended his sympathies with those who were injured during the peaceful protest and assured his full support to the struggle of RET’s for their justified rights. |
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Hurriyat leaders back from Pakistan
Srinagar, December 27 The delegation leaders arrived at New Delhi today after completing their 12-day-long visit to the neighbouring country, during which they “met and discussed Kashmir” with several Pakistani leaders, including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. “The delegation members led by Mirwaiz have arrived in new Delhi after successfully completing their Pakistan visit. From Delhi, the delegation will arrive in Srinagar on Friday,” a Hurriyat spokesman said. After arriving in Srinagar, the Mirwaiz is expected to share details and achievements of his Pakistan visit during his Friday sermon at the historic Grand Mosque in Srinagar. “After arriving in Srinagar, Mirwaiz will offer Friday prayers at Jamia Mosque in Srinagar,” the spokesman said. |
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Nine hurt in road mishap
Rajouri, December 27 The police with the help of locals admitted all the injured persons to the District Hospital. A source at the hospital said some of the passengers with minor injuries were discharged after getting first aid.
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Srinagar, December 27
