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J-K spars with Punjab on water & power, approaches Centre
‘Powerless’ J-K dreams to become ‘powerful’ by 2021
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Rana condemns PDP, BJP for boycotting legislature
NC blames PDP for ordering killings in Valley
Manpower shortage hits state’s e-governance project
Posting state policemen on Nepal border an uphill task: Top officer
‘Mysterious’ killings: Moderate Hurriyat forms 2-member panel
MLA demands tabling of Bedi Commission report
Bemina playground shut for outsiders since fidayeen attack
House panel sought over delay in college buildings
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J-K spars with Punjab on water & power, approaches Centre
Jammu, March 30 Replying to a Calling Attention Notice of Basholi MLA Jagdish Raj Sapolia in the Legislative Assembly today, Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Sharma said the Punjab Government had unilaterally cancelled the 1979 bilateral agreements on water and power sharing with the Jammu and Kashmir Government. The minister claimed that as per the agreement, the Punjab Government has to give water and power to Jammu and Kashmir besides providing jobs to the families displaced due to construction of the dam. About 22 villages of this side have been submerged in Ranjit Sagar dam and 60 per cent of the state area came under the reservoir. “The displaced people are still struggling to get justice as many of them are yet to get compensation”, said Sapolia. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Mubarak Gul directed the minister to aggressively pursue the case and inform the Assembly during the next session about the progress made in this case. The minister assured the Speaker that the state government would take up the matter at administrative as well as political level. Talking to The Tribune, the PHE minister said the state government has put forward its viewpoint in the meeting of Central Water Commission which was held last week. “The Centre is on our back”, the minister claimed and added that the Punjab Government has prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Shahpur Kandi Barrage worth Rs 2,800 crore in which 32,000 hectares of land from Jammu and Kashmir has been identified. “It is ridiculous that the Punjab Government has identified our land without taking our consent”, he said. Earlier, the PHE minister informed the House that Kathua Deputy Commissioner has stated that to date the Collector Land Acquisition (Ranjit Sagar Dam), Basohli, has processed cases of 1,015 oustees for appointment in the dam. He said as per information received from the Ranjit Sagar Dam authorities, only 242 candidates have been appointed. Regarding their posting to far-flung areas of Punjab, he said, it was the prerogative of the Ranjit Sagar Dam authorities (Punjab Government). Sham said as per the MoU signed between the government of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab Government, 15 per cent of the entire personnel required for the construction and operation of the dam project, in all categories, will be taken from Jammu and Kashmir cadres, subject to actual availability. He said it has also been mentioned in the said MoU to provide immediate employment opportunities to the displaced persons from the Dam Project and the authority charged with the construction of this
dam at various levels will give preference in the matter of employment to such persons. The MLA pointed out that instead of giving jobs to the displaced families in the dam, the authorities have deputed them in the
far-flung areas to discourage them from joining at their postings. The Dispute
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‘Powerless’ J-K dreams to become ‘powerful’ by 2021
Jammu, March 30 According to an official document, J&K has been able to generate only 760.46 MW of power from 21 projects under the state sector while four projects under the Central sector generate 1,680 MW and two projects under Independent Power Producer (IPP) sector generate 17.5 MW of electricity. The 760 MW of power being generated by the state sector meets only 40 per cent of its needs and it relies heavily upon the Northern Grid and hence faces power deficit of Rs 2,000 crore. The load projection given by the Union Ministry of Power in a report says that the state will have a peak load of 3,856.642 MW in 2021-22 with an energy requirement of 21,282.743 multiple units. Out of 20,000 MW, the state government has identified a potential of 16,475 MW on four rivers — 11,283 MW on the Chenab, 3,084 MW on the Jhelum, 1,608 MW on the Indus and 500 MW on the Ravi. In order to bridge the gap between demand and supply, the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation claimed it has approved a roadmap for systematic capacity addition of nearly 9,036.55 MW from 58 projects, which include 14 projects (including three joint-ventures) in the state sector with a capacity of 6,130 MW. “It is expected the state will achieve self-sufficiency in power generation by 2020-21 and thereafter become a power exporter,” reads the document. The Indus Water Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan has already done more harm to the state. Under the treaty, Pakistan will receive for unrestricted use all those waters of the western rivers which India is under obligation to let flow under the provisions of the treaty. The western rivers comprise the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab tributaries. For J&K, these rivers are the only significant source of water crossing the state, which it could develop and exploit. Under the treaty, India will be under an obligation to let flow all the waters of western rivers and shall not permit any interference with these waters, except for the following uses, restricted in case of each of the rivers - Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - to the drainage basin thereof, domestic use, non-consumptive use, specified agricultural use and restricted generation of hydroelectric power. Except for specified allowances, India will not store any water of, or construct any storage works on the western rivers. Grim reality
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Rana condemns PDP, BJP for boycotting legislature
Jammu, March 30 Addressing a public meeting at Panjgrain here this afternoon, Rana said the people had sent them to the legislature with hopes of highlighting their problems and ensuring basic essentials to lead a comfortable life. “While the resolution of various vexed issues pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir need to be addressed politically, the people of the state have the right to seek the resolution of their day to day needs,” said Rana. The provincial president said the people had elected their representatives after braving various odds to seek redress of their day to day problems related to drinking water, power, essentials, roads and unemployment, but the self-seeking leaders were abusing the mandate by indulging in rhetoric and creating obstructions in the smooth functioning of the government. He exposed the hidden nexus and sinister conspiracy hatched by the PDP and the BJP in boycotting the Legislative Assembly, thereby relegating the issues of public importance to the backburner. He also questioned the moral plank adopted by PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed over the functioning of the democratic institutions and hit back by asking how many times he had attended the Assembly session during the past four years. He criticised the PDP and the BJP for their narrow political agenda, saying this may serve their baleful game plan but the ultimate sufferers and losers would be the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. He, however, added that the National Conference would not allow the machinations of these frustrated and disruptive politicians to succeed. He cautioned the people to guard against elements whose ultimate destination was to seek power by hook or crook. Those who were present on the occasion included ex-MLC Kashmira Singh, Rameshwar Dutt, sarpanch Thoru Ram, Bharat Singh, Joginder Lal, naib sarpanch Bashir Ahmad, panch Noor Mohammad, Kuldeep Kumar, Manzoor Ahmad and Chanchal Singh. |
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NC blames PDP for ordering killings in Valley
Srinagar, March 30 The NC, which rules the state in alliance with the Congress, blamed Mufti for ordering the massacre of “73 Kashmiris at the funeral procession of Shaheed-e-Millat (martyr of the nation) Mirwaiz
Farooq”. Mufti was the Union Home Minister when militancy broke out in Kashmir in 1989. He founded the PDP in 1999. Mirwaiz
Farooq, father of moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was assassinated in May 1990. This is the second hard-hitting statement issued by the NC against the PDP since Friday. The NC, in a statement issued by its spokesman, further said Mufti was responsible for the “targeted” killing of 21 Hizbul Mujahideen commanders. “They had been convinced by (National Conference leader) Farooq Abdullah’s government for peace talks on the Kashmir issue,” the party said. “Does Mehbooba ji remember how many separatist leaders, scholars and legal experts were killed on the directions of Mufti sahib when he was the (Union) Home Minister,” the spokesman said. The ruling party, which was reacting to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s statement, also defended the detentions under the Public Safety Act
(PSA) during its tenure. “Arrests are temporary and time-based, but Mufti
(Sayeed) will have to answer for the genocide of youths, honour of mothers and sisters and for the blood of more than 1 lakh
Kashmiris,” the ruling party said. The National Conference, while rejecting the concern of the PDP president over the detentions under the
PSA, said, “A total of 1,266 youths were detained under the PSA during the PDP’s three-year tenure from 2002 to 2005.” “It is only Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who amended the PSA last year and softened it,” the ruling party said. Under the amended Act, the time-period for detention without trial has been decreased from two years to six months. |
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Manpower shortage hits state’s e-governance project
Srinagar, March 30
So far Rs 19 crore has been spent on six of its components. Rupees 7 crore has lapsed and the funds have been returned to the Centre, the source said. However, most of the department websites, with a few exceptions, either provide outdated information or no information about the services listed on the websites. The market survey on the Department of Employment’s website is based on a two-decade-old data. The state’s employment department, according to the information provided on its website, also sees “job potential in J&K” in only three areas vis-à-vis handicrafts, tourism and horticulture. The website of the Higher Education Department has no data available about the number of associate professors and lecturers in its profile of human resources section and the last circular that was uploaded on the website is dated August 2011. The website also hosts the achievements of 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. Since then no yearly achievement has been updated. In most websites, including that of the Higher Education Department, the population indicators are based on the Census of 2001. The figures of the latest Census of 2011 have not yet been updated. The website of the Department of Labour and Employment has no information in the forms and procedures section, which otherwise is the important information segment. The Health Department’s website has no data available for the “sanctioned strength of human resources” in the state’s 22 districts. The outdated and missing information on these websites is a reminder of the failure of the much-hyped e-governance project in the region which has missed its deadline to even meet its short-term goals. In the revised e-governance plan, released on May 2010, the state government had set a “roadmap” of two years till 2011-end to meet its short-term goals. The foremost among the four points of the short-term plan was State Wide Area Network or SWAN, which was expected to get operational by March 2011. Despite this deadline, the pre-bid conference for SWAN was held in November 2011, seven months after it was supposed to be operational. The State Data Centre (SDC), listed second on the short-term plans, was “expected” to be operational by September 2010, according to the revised e-governance plan. However, as per the information available on the Department of Information Technology’s website, the foundation stone of the SDC was laid on January 9, 2012, and its completion time was 34 weeks from the date of order. Minister of State for Information Technology Feroz Ahmad Khan, who took charge of the department two months ago, acknowledged that the deadline was missed. “The main problem is that we have an agency for e-governance, which has many vacant posts. That is why it is not able to do much work. I took up charge recently and I have already talked to the Chief Minister about the need to fill the vacant posts, if we want to meet the purpose for which it was constituted,” the minister said. Khan said there was nearly 50 per cent shortage of manpower in the e-governance agency, which had been formed under the Information Technology Department to function as an intrinsic arm of the government with a mandate to drive e-governance in the state. He said it would take some time to meet the deadline on short-term goals. “First we need to fill all vacancies in the e-governance agency to make it properly functional, then we can make the short-term goals time-bound,” he said. Former Minister of State for Information Technology Aga Syed Ruhullah blamed the delays in the implementation of the project on the lack of manpower. “We don’t have the manpower from the directorate to ground-level which is necessary for the implementation of projects. You also need to have a proper implementing agency. Unfortunately, the IT Department doesn’t have its own implementing agency,” said the former minister. |
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Posting state policemen on Nepal border an uphill task: Top officer
Jammu, March 30 “There have been discussions between the state government and the Union Home Ministry on the issue in the past and if the Centre wants the J&K Police along the Nepal border, then the state government will have to chalk out all modalities,” said a top police officer, who declined to be named. For the purpose, the state government will have to go into all minute details such as how many and which wings of the state police will be needed on the Nepal border. Of course, the state government would have to approve and sanction posts according to the requirement on the ground, he added. Since it would be a policy matter of the federal government in tandem with two provincial governments of J&K and Uttar Pradesh, several other issues such as the legal authority over Kashmiri militants, the moment they enter India via Nepal, posts on the Nepal border to be identified for letting them in and the requisite infrastructure for state police personnel needed to be looked into, he said. Since Pakistan didn’t cooperate with India on the rehabilitation policy and former Kashmiri militants were preferring to travel from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to Nepal by air before entering India, the Union Government had been thinking of adding the Nepal border in the list of official routes, said the officer. Under the rehabilitation policy, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had identified four routes, Chakan da Bagh in Poonch, Salamabad in Baramulla, Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi and the Wagah in Punjab, but not a single militant has so far returned via these routes. Instead, former militants continue to enter India via Nepal, to which the Army has strong reservations. The officer said alleged Hizb militant Syed Liyaqat Shah, who was recently arrested in Delhi for allegedly carrying out attacks, was returning home under the rehabilitation policy. Security ring
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‘Mysterious’ killings: Moderate Hurriyat forms 2-member panel
Srinagar, March 30 This decision was taken by the Hurriyat in a joint meeting of its executive and working committees today, which was chaired by the chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. “The meeting took note of the recent killings across the Kashmir valley, detention by the
government forces using their special powers under the AFSPA and termed it unacceptable”,
a Hurriyat spokesman said. “The participants condemned the killings of innocent people either by the forces or by unidentified gunmen. They said the APHC believes that murdering any person
for espousing a particular political or ideological belief is an inhuman act”, he said. “On the occasion, APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq formed a two-member committee, which would analyse the thinking behind political retribution and murders in the state after which Hurriyat would devise a strategy to deal with the issue,” he added. Political killings
May 21, 1990: Unidentified gunmen kill Mirwaiz of Kashmir, Moulvi Mohammad Farooq May 21, 2002: Senior Hurriyat and Peoples Conference leader Abdul Gani Lone assassinated May 30, 2004: Moulvi Mushtaq Ahmad, uncle of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, shot dead Sept 15, 2004: Geelani's aide Peer Hisamuddin killed Civilian killings
March 24, 2013: A 65-year-old civilian was killed by militants in Sopore market March 19: 18-year-old Suhail, a resident of Sopore, was shot dead inside a mosque March 9: Militants shot dead Bashir Ahmad Ganai, a former member of the disbanded counter-insurgent militia Ikhwan in Baramulla Feb 24: Militants killed sarpanch Javed Ahmed Wani in Kalantra village Jan 12: Zoona Begum, a woman sarpanch, was wounded in an attack by militants in Baramulla Jan 11: Sarpanch Habibullah Mir shot dead in Sopore |
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MLA demands tabling of Bedi Commission report
Jammu, March 30 Seeking directions of Speaker Mubarak Gul to the government to table the report in the House, Mankotia said, “We want the report to be made public. We have known the outcome of the report through the media.” “I do not think there is any reason to hide the report,” he said. Mankotia’s request was turned down by the Speaker, who said it was not necessary. “It is not necessary that the government should respond to every issue raised during the zero hour,” the Speaker said. The Panthers Party MLA tried to raise the issue when the House assembled this morning, but he was not allowed by the Speaker. The state government had on November 18, 2011, appointed a retired Supreme Court judge as the head of the Commission to probe the death of Yousuf (61) in police custody. The report was placed before the state Cabinet and approved by it in the first week of January this year. |
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Bemina playground shut for outsiders since fidayeen attack
Srinagar, March 30 While some are scared to do so, the authorities too have declared the ground out of bounds for outsiders for security reasons. “On every Sunday or a strike day we used to play cricket on this ground, but after the attack, we are not being allowed to enter the ground,” said Tufail Jeelani, a Class XII student and resident of Bemina. “We have been playing here from many years but that seems to be a thing of the past now,” he added. Another youth Moin Ahmed said the children were scared of playing on the ground now. “I don’t know whether the ground has been declared out of bounds but since the attack I have not gone there. I was about to enter the ground the day the attack took place, but had a narrow escape. My parents have been advising us not to visit the ground,” he said. Principal of Police Public School Tazeem Wahidi confirmed that they had stopped outsiders from playing cricket on the playground. “We have told our own securitymen not to allow outsiders into the ground after the recent attack,” Wahidi said. On March 13, two fidayeen had posed as cricket players and concealed weapons and grenades in their playing kits. They attacked the CRPF men who were on the school ground, adjacent to the CRPF 73 Battalion headquarters, leaving five of them dead. The two fidayeen were also killed in the encounter. A policeman deployed near the playground said they had directions not to allow anyone to play cricket on the ground. |
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Kashmir’s cycling mission gets going
Srinagar, March 30 Sameer Gojwari, a banker, along with a group of other youths has been promoting cycling for over a year now by hosting various events. “The plan to promote cycling is welcome and it can revolutionise the way we commute. We have been promoting cycling since January last year through various events and we have also met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the SMC commissioner in this regard. The cycling dream is finally bearing fruit,” Gojwari said. The group of youths, who cycle to their respective offices, has also formed a group ‘Re-cycling Kashmir’ and are planning to hold a cyclothon at Budgam in central Kashmir on April 15. “As we had held a cyclothon in Srinagar last year and have so far motivated around 150 persons to cycle to their offices here, we are now shifting to other parts of the Valley. We are expecting around 800 cyclists, including bureaucrats, to join us in the cyclothon at Budgam,” he said. While SMC Commissioner GN Qasba has announced that its plan to promote cycling would be formally launched in May, it has already caught the attention and is being actively debated on social networking websites such as Facebook. Besides those associated with ‘Re-cycling Kashmir’, others too have welcomed the idea and given their suggestions. “Popularising the non-mortorised mode of transport for short distances is really appreciable and I think the road from Dalgate to Grand Palace via Nehru Park can be used as a dedicated corridor, exclusively for cycling. The practice can be started on weekends on a trial basis,” said Parvez Hakim, a local. Another local, Jalaluddin Sufi said: “Cycleway network is definitely an efficient and effective transport option as the benefits of cycling can be a solution to easing traffic congestion, besides a proved way to health and physical fitness. It is a dream project and I wish it comes true.” However, others are sceptical about the idea. “It is better to have good and reliable public transport. Cycling is risky as we don’t have suitable roads,” said Ikram Syed. Srinagar resident Saifuddin Shangloo said: “It may not be practical to go cycling considering traffic congestion. However, rickshaws can be an option in the Lal Chowk area.” |
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House panel sought over delay in college buildings
Jammu, March 30 Earlier, Minister of State for Higher Education Manohar Lal Sharma informed the House that the government had constituted a committee to look into the feasibility and other parameters and to devise a mechanism for establishment of new degree colleges in uncovered areas of the state, including the Hazratbal Constituency. The minister informed the House that three degree colleges, Women’s College, MA Road, Srinagar, women’s College, Nawakadal, and new Women’s college, Srinagar, were functioning in Srinagar district. |
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