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Real-time database to upgrade planning: Omar
12 panchayat members quit over sarpanch’s killing
Ex gratia, job to kin of slain sarpanch
Cross-LoC trade via Chakan da Bagh suspended
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Bill to go through censors before passage: Omar
Draft Bill only a first step: Home Secy
Minister urges people to help steer J-K to peace, progress
BJP to gherao secretariat on March 14
Governor reviews preparations for Amarnath yatra
Guv for high standards of teaching at JU
Mufti writes to PM, demands return of Afzal Guru’s body
Omar demands mortal remains of Afzal, Bhat
No need to be ashamed of attack on Parliament: Afzal’s letter
Even after 65 years of Independence, J-K yet to become ‘secular’
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Real-time database to upgrade planning: Omar
Jammu, February 26 “A real-time spatial database available to planners and decision-making authorities would significantly help in improving governance and reaching out to people on development front according to their requirements in particular sectors,” he said and added that collection, storage and usage of data acquired through latest technological interventions and its harmonisation in a holistic manner would serve as a kingpin in decision making and planning process. Launching the State Spatial Data Infrastructure (SSDI) project and addressing the sensitisation-cum-demonstration workshop in this regard, organised by the Department of Environment and Remote Sensing here today, Omar said Geographical Information Service (GIS) mapping of social sectors like health, education, road communication, forest conservation, etc was a modern concept of basing schemes and infrastructure development programmes on the data collected through this method. The Chief Minister said the SSDI initiative to address forest denudation issues, construction plans in hilly backward and remote areas, conservation of water bodies and protection of environment in the state was all the more essential and cost saving as the data collected and stored could be utilised by different departments in a harmonised manner without going for collecting the necessary information independently. “The information so available will help the government make decisions more effectively and based on real-time database. This system will also depict real need and relieve the decision-making bodies to depend on needs perceived”, the Chief Minister said and added that the SSDI would help in fine tuning the decisions of the government. He said the information available through SSDI would be easily understandable, real-time and help upgrade the quality of governance and quality of decision making. Minister for Forests Mian Altaf Ahmad, Minister of State for Cooperatives Dr Manohar Lal and Minister of State for Science and Technology Feroz Ahmad Khan also highlighted the importance of State Spatial Data Infrastructure project for the state. |
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12 panchayat members quit over sarpanch’s killing
Srinagar, February 26 Those who resigned included two sarpanches and nine panches from Tangmarg. The panchayat members have disassociated themselves from political activities. Sources said these panchayat members have resigned because of a constant fear of militants. Officials, however, maintain that no one has resigned after the killing of the sarpanch. “After the latest killing, no panchayat member has submitted resignation,” Baramulla Deputy Commissioner Ghulam Ahmed Kwaja said. “I have also seen some resignations in local newspapers, but no one has officially approached them,” he added. Four panchayat members have been shot dead in the past six months in Baramulla district. Due to these killings, over 800 panchayat members had quit publicly, but the government claims that only 17 panchayat members had resigned until last month. Meanwhile, the police continued to question two Personnel Security Officers (SPOs) of Javid Ahmad Wani and a deputy sarpanch Ghulam Mohideen. The two PSOs were not escorting Wani when the militants attacked him outside his residence at Kalantara Payeen on Sunday. “Wani was not used to coming out of his house in the late evening. But on Sunday, someone must have tipped off the assailants that he was going out of his house,” said a police officer. “We are looking into all the angles,” he added. The police has so far questioned over two dozen people who had either called up Wani on the mobile phone or were close to him. “A few panchayat members are also being questioned,” he added.
Ex gratia, job to kin of slain sarpanch
Srinagar, February 26 “Instructions have been issued to the district administration to process the ex gratia relief and job in favour of the next of kin of the deceased sarpanch,” an official spokesperson said after Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo
visited the bereaved family yesterday. — PTI |
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Cross-LoC trade via Chakan da Bagh suspended
Jammu, February 26
The traders have suspended trade in protest after the Indian authorities blacklisted a Poonch-based trader a few days ago. On the first day of the indefinite strike, the Indian traders suffered a loss of Rs 75 lakh and chances of resumption of the trade this week look grim. The trade takes place on four days in a week from Tuesday to Friday. After finding some empty AK-47 cartridges in the consignment of almonds sent to Poonch-based Dewan Traders from Rawalakote in PoK, the Indian authorities recently blacklisted the trader, Abdul Gani Dewan, and also told the Pakistani authorities to ban PoK trader Hamid Raza Hashmi, who had sent the merchandise. “No Indian trader turned up at the Chakan da Bagh trade centre today in protest against blacklisting of Abdul Gani Dewan,” said Pawan Anand, president of the Chakan da Bagh Cross-LoC Traders’ Association. Anand said infuriated by the move of the Indian authorities of banning Dewan Traders, other traders also boycotted the trade. “They demanded that the standard operating procedure (SOP) be implemented in letter and spirit to ensure a hassle-free trade and an end to unnecessary and unwarranted harassment,” he said. The traders’ association held a meeting in the afternoon at Chakan da Bagh where traders castigated the trade authorities for blacklisting Dewan Traders and causing harassment to them. “Now, probably on Wednesday or Thursday we would meet the Poonch Deputy Commissioner AK Sahu, who is the nodal officer of the trade. If the issue is resolved amicably, the traders would resume the trade. If things do not settle, then we would talk to higher officials in the state government,” said Anand. He also derided the trade authorities for frequently slapping new rules and formalities on the traders. Spokesperson of the Chamber of LoC Trade, J&K, Shiraj Ahmed Khan, who operates his business from Chakan da Bagh in Poonch and Salamabad in Baramulla, also criticised the authorities for blacklisting Dewan Traders. “Unless Dewan Traders is allowed to do trade again and harassment to traders is stopped, we would not resume work,” he said. Deputy custodian at Chakan da Bagh trade centre Rizwan Qureshi said following orders from the Poonch Deputy Commissioner, Dewan Traders was blacklisted. “The matter (traders’ strike) is being looked into by the administration and we hope a decision will be taken soon,” Qureshi said.
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Bill to go through censors before passage: Omar
Srinagar, February 26 “Why this manufactured outrage regarding the draft police bill? It hasn’t passed public scrutiny, let alone been seen by me and the Cabinet. Public feedback will be incorporated,” the Chief Minister said. Omar said the draft Bill would go through a series of censors before being passed. “The Law Department will vet, I will clear it, the Cabinet will approve it, both the Legislative Houses will vote on it. It will then go to the Governor for his signature and finally it is implemented so there is no chance of bad legislation passing scrutiny,” he wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter. The Chief Minister said he had ordered the state Home Department to place the draft Bill in the “public domain” so that feedback would lead to a “better legislation”. The draft Jammu and Kashmir Police Bill, 2013, which was made public by the authorities on February 15, has created a stir in the region with members of the civil society terming it an attempt to “formalise the practices that have resulted in structural police violence”. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, an umbrella of various civil society groups of Kashmir, in a statement, said the Bill was a blueprint on how to exercise control on the entire populace. While the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the proposed police Bill as an attempt to institutionalise the “dreaded Ikhwani (counterinsurgent) culture”, the moderate separatists group termed the Bill an attempt to turn Jammu and Kashmir into a “police state” and threatened to launch an agitation to thwart its passage. The Peoples Conference led by Sajjad Gani Lone also expressed concern over the proposed Bill and described it as a “covert attempt” to impose marshal law in the state by putting civil liberties and rights into permanent abeyance. Among many controversial sections of the Bill is a clause which protects police officers against prosecution for “anything done or intended to be done in good faith in the due discharge of official duties”, which is a reminiscent of the controversial
AFSPA. |
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Draft Bill only a first step: Home Secy
Jammu, February 26 “Only the draft Bill has been prepared and has been put up in public domain. After a detailed feedback from stakeholders, including the civil society, the suggestions would be examined threadbare. In fact, it is a first step to a healthy and effective legislation,” Kumar told The Tribune. Once done with the feedback and suggestions from stakeholders, the draft Bill has to go through the Law Minister, state Cabinet, state legislature and to the Governor for his assent, said the Home Secretary. A series of steps are involved before coming out with legislation, he added. The state government has put up the draft Bill on the Home Department’s official website www.jkhome.nic.in for inviting reactions and suggestions from the stakeholders. President of the Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti, in the Lower House, yesterday had equated the draft Bill with the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act. She said the Bill, if adopted in its present form as the J&K Police Act, 2013, would convert Jammu and Kashmir into a “lawless state”. |
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Minister urges people to help steer J-K to peace, progress
Jammu, February 26 Addressing party workers and various delegations at the National Conference headquarters here this afternoon, Altaf called for a constructive approach to tackle the problems being confronted by the state. The interaction was part of the series initiated by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to make his party’s ministers available at the party headquarters for solving people’s problems. The minister cautioned party workers against machinations of vested interests, saying they (vested interests) were hell bent upon creating a wedge between the people and divide the state for their political gains. He exuded confidence that people would frustrate the designs of vested interests, as they had done in the past, and contribute in maintaining traditional bonds of brotherhood and amity. He referred to the distinct identity of Jammu and Kashmir and said this would flourish as a single entity. Those trying to weaken its (state’s) unity will meet their doom, he said, adding that the unity in diversity has been the strong point of the state. He said negative politics had proved detrimental to the interests of the state and disillusioned the people. “The National Conference has been striving to restore the faith of the people in the system by making administration more responsive, transparent and accountable.” Altaf lauded the courage of National Conference workers in braving odds during difficult times and hoped they would demonstrate similar resilience in serving the people. |
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BJP to gherao secretariat on March 14
Jammu, February 26 Sharma said the present NC-Congress coalition government had failed on all fronts and there was widespread resentment and anger among the masses. The refugees, migrants, pensioners, farmers, educated youth, traders, transporters, daily wagers and regular employees have been seen on roads lodging their protests against the discriminatory and anti-people policies of the government. There have been protests on delay in delimitation, regional discrimination, non-implementation of the 73rd and 74th amendments and insecurity among sarpanches and panches, he said.
— TNS
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Governor reviews preparations for Amarnath yatra
Jammu, February 26 At a meeting held here today, SASB CEO Navin K Choudhary told the Governor that arrangements had been made to provide registration counters through 422 outlets for the ensuing yatra as compared to 276 outlets last year. He said 121 branches of the J&K Bank, 50 branches of the YES Bank, 101 branches of the State Bank of India, 100 branches of the Punjab National Bank and 50 branches of the HDFC Bank would launch registration on March 18. Vohra was informed that for the convenience of the applicants, the list of bank branches, format of the application form and format of the compulsory health certificate (CHC) had been uploaded on the Board’s website www.shriamarnathjishrine.com. The CEO said the state wise list of doctors and institutes authorised to issue the CHC in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh and Tripura had also been put on the website. To ensure wide publicity of all yatra-related matters, Vohra told the SASB CEO to issue clear advisories from time to time and inform all intending yatris about the requirement of obtaining the prescribed CHC from the state government-authorised doctors and medical institutes. |
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Guv for high standards of teaching at JU
Jammu, February 26 They discussed budgetary problems relating to off-site campuses and issues relating to private institutions affiliated to the JU.The Governor stressed on the importance of ensuring the highest standards of teaching and research in all centres within and outside the university campus. Principal Secretary to the Governor Navin K Choudhary was present during the discussions.
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Mufti writes to PM, demands return of Afzal Guru’s body
Srinagar, February 26 “I am writing to you not to seek any concessions for the state, but I am suggesting a way out to restore to some extent the prestige lost by the country in the entire sequence of events around the hanging. It would also reduce the pain of his family and perhaps open the way for some rebuilding of bridges at the psychological-level between Kashmir and rest of the country,” Mufti wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister. “The return of Afzal Guru’s remains to his family is the minimum that the Government of India can do to apply some balm to a deep wound. Needless to mention, the denial of a decent burial in accordance with the religious practices of the deceased has created anxiety within the community even outside the state, in rest of the country,” the former Chief Minister said. Mufti requested the Prime Minister to take necessary measures to accommodate the “wishes of the people of the state and a majority of them in the country to return Afzal’s remains to his family for last rites and try to retrieve whatever little can be of the trust of the people in Kashmir.” The Guru family is still waiting for the reply from the Union Government for handing over Afzal’s body to them for burial in Kashmir. The state government, on February 13, had forwarded the request of Afzal’s widow Tabassum and other family members to the secretary of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for return of Afzal’s body to enable them to perform his religious rites. The clamour for returning Afzal’s body is growing in the Kashmir valley. Both separatists and many mainstream politicians are demanding Afzal’s body Mufti said he had written the letter after an agonising fortnight which in his opinion witnessed all efforts at rebuilding a relationship of trust between Kashmir and rest of the country almost evaporate into thin air. “The manner in which Mohammad Afzal Guru was executed in secrecy and very obvious unholy haste is not just another hugely negative reference point in our painful history, but it could have the potential to redefine the very nature of how the people here would view their status within the Union. And, I am deeply anxious about its possible fallout on our younger generations who have been struggling to come out of a nightmarish experience of life marked by blood and tragedy,” the letter said. “This unfortunate event (hanging) came at a time when you as the Prime Minister and your predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee had invested a great deal in the peace process that in spite of setbacks had the potential of rewriting the destiny of South Asia. It happened after the people of the state had reposed their faith in democratic methods and processes even in the face of odds and the failure of the establishment to respond in a matching measure. The result is an uneasy, forcibly implemented calm and an internalised anger; ingredients for an unpredictable future,” he wrote. |
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Omar demands mortal remains of Afzal, Bhat
Srinagar, February 26 “I had written to the Prime Minister on the 19th of this month, asking for the return of the bodies of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat to their families,” Omar wrote on social networking site Twitter. Afzal was hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 9 while Bhat was also hanged in the same jail on February 11, 1984. Omar said he had reiterated the demand at a meeting with the PM. “I followed this up with a visit to the PM to make the request in person a few days ago. My government will continue to raise the issue with Delhi,” he wrote. —
TNS
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No need to be ashamed of attack on Parliament: Afzal’s letter
Srinagar, February 26 Guru, convicted for the 2001 Parliament attack, in at least two of his letters links the attack - which drove India and Pakistan to a near-war situation along the Line of Control and international border -with the Kashmir issue. “With humility and respect, I request the commander of Hizb (Hizb-ul-Mujahideen) Syed Salahuddin that he should not call the incident of December 13, 2001, as a conspiracy. This statement has pained me. December 13, 2001 is related to the Kashmir issue,” Guru says in a letter which has been published for the first time by a local weekly. The editor of “Qaumi Waqar” weekly, Shabnam Qayoom, said he received the letter from Guru three years ago along with some other documents. The letter has been published by the weekly in its latest edition. Qayoom said he received this letter, and four others from Guru, through postal service. The handwriting in the Guru’s letter, whose scanned copy has been published in the weekly, matches with the last letter which was released by his family. The letter further discloses that Guru had remained remorseless and unapologetic for the 2001 attack on Parliament. “If December 13 is a conspiracy, then the entire militancy is a conspiracy,” he wrote while addressing Salahuddin, who heads the amalgam of a dozen militant outfits. “We should not feel any shame about the December 13,” Guru wrote in the letter suggesting that he remained completely remorseless till the end about the attack. Guru also defended the attack on Parliament by saying that those who had turned Kashmir into a “graveyard” were unashamed about their acts. “Then why should we shy away from the December 13 incident,” he wrote in the letter. Guru, however, said he considered bomb blasts on roads, bus stands and other public places that target “poor and oppressed people” as “terrorism”. |
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Even after 65 years of Independence, J-K yet to become ‘secular’
Jammu, February 26 Harsh Dev Singh had moved a resolution in the last budget session of the Assembly to include these two words in the preamble of the Constitution of the state to make Jammu and Kashmir a “secular and socialist” state in the real sense. Singh’s much-publicised resolution, during the last budget session, was not listed for discussion in the House. So, he has decided to press for discussion on this issue during the ensuing session. “I want a discussion on this resolution so as to include the words “secular and socialist” in the preamble of the Constitution of the state”, Singh said. He said since the resolution had been pending in the business of the House, there was no need to move a fresh one. For the past four consecutive years, Singh has been continuously moving this resolution but to date these words have not been incorporated in the Constitution. The Panthers Party MLA had moved the same resolution in the Assembly on March 29, 2006. After a discussion, the resolution was referred to the Select Committee on February 9, 2007. The Committee held five sittings on March 5, March 23, April 5, April 19 and May 17 in 2007. The Committee in its report on May 25, 2007, had recommended that the resolution be passed in its original form to amend the Constitution to incorporate the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Constitution. Former Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Prem Sagar Aziz, who had headed the Select Committee comprising legislators of all political parties, said only one meeting during his tenure was held but no further action was taken. “After the formation of the new government in 2009, the issue was further transferred to another committee and now I am not aware what action the government has taken so far”. Unlike other parts of the country, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has its own Constitution due to the special status granted to it. The preamble of Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, 1957, is an adaptation of the Preamble of the Constitution of India. Through the 42nd Amendment of the Indian Constitution in 1976, the words “socialist” and “secular” were added to the preamble of the Constitution. Through this amendment, the words “socialist” and “secular” were added between the words “sovereign” and “democratic" and the phrase “unity of the Nation” was changed to “unity and integrity of the Nation”. |
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The cross-LoC trade between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Jammu and Kashmir via Chakan da Bagh in Poonch district came to a grinding halt today. Not a single trader turned up at the trade centre with his merchandise.
Governor NN Vohra today reviewed arrangements being made for the ensuing Amarnath
yatra, which will begin on June 28 and conclude on August 21. Vohra, who is also the chairman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board
(SASB), was briefed about the to-date measures initiated to commence the registration of yatris from March 18.
