Mail

Plea to Telecom authorities

Sir,

Sometime back probably in the last week of January 2001 Mr. Kaka Ji Bhat's letter appeared in the columns of your Daily. Mr. Bhat had requested Telephone Deptt. to clear the waiting list in Miransahib Telephone Exchange by 31.3.2001. He requested rightly to the Telecom authorities to clear the waiting list in respect of four telephone connections on war footing basis.

Inspite of the timely advice and certain specific meetings of the local people with the telecom. authorities, nothing concrete has come out. The crucial date viz. 31.3.2001 is fastly approaching, the laying of cables and other relating work has not been taken up in the area. The prospective subscribers thus continue to suffer. It is learnt that new Exchange of 2000 lines is proposed to be set up instead of the present Telephone Exchange. The Exchange machinery has been arranged and has reached the site. The only problem is of space in the Exchange building. It is not understood as to how the machinery was purchased before arranging the space, enlarging the exchange building. It is like appointing a pilot before the purchase of an aeroplane.

In order to avoid the enlargement of Miran Sahib Exchange which is likely to take further 3-4 years I would suggest the Telecom Deptt. to detach the area upto canal (Miransahib) consisting of villages like Krishna Nagar, Indira Nagar, Singhpur etc. from Miransahib Exchange and attach these villages to Gadigarh Exchange so that the bottleneck of low capacity of exchange is removed and the people get fresh telephone connections at an early date through Gadigarh Exchange which is stated to be higher/sufficient capacity.

Remarks of the telecom authorities as to the likely dates of providing of telephone connections (fresh) to the residents of the area are also requested to be made known to public through press.

Yours etc..
K L Bhagat
Miransahib

Trifurcation not admissible

Sir,

The Union Ministers for Home and Parliamentary Affairs have rejected the demand for trifurcation of J&K and separate Homeland for KPs. This rejection is perhaps at the behest of the State Chief Minister.

The ruling party as well as some Valley based parties are against the division of the State terming the demand as 'communal' But as per the announcements made by various leaders, they have categorically stated that the demand is not 'communal' as the Muslims and Gujjars and Bakerwals in Jammu and Ladakh have generally welcome this idea.

Basically the demand for separate Statehood for Jammu and Ladakh is based on economic and administrative considerations. People of both the regions have a standing grouse against the ruling party that there is a great discrimination with regard to allocation of plan funds for development purposes as major portion of funds including funds meant for central schemes are allotted to Valley. Similarly there is allegedly discrimination in the ratio of employees belonging to Jammu, Ladakh in State Government offices including the Civil Sectt. Once the demand for trifurcation is conceded the Valley based politicians cannot have dominance over the other two regions as each region will get its share of allocation not only with regard to funds but in respect of every matter.

Similarly the homeland for KPs to be carved out of the Valley will provide a permanent settlement for the KPs once for all. Both the State as well as Central Govt. have failed to take back the migrant KPs though twelve years have passed when they were forcibly evicted from their homes. Not only this, the State Government has miserably failed to protect their houses and land.

The proposed Units will be governed by the constitution of India as has been made clear by various leaders. In that case, the valley can be granted full autonomy to rule their unit as they may like. It is not, therefore, clear why the Govt. of India is hesitant to examine this demand in its entirety. It may be added that this demand is now gaining ground and the public may become restive if it is not considered seriously

Yours etc...
B L Seru
Subash Nagar,
Jammu