Settlement of Kashmir problem

Sir,

It is highly welcome that India and Pakistan are taking positive steps to remove the irritants that have continue to bedevil their relations for over half a century. An atmosphere of bonhomie, cordiality and trust is essential to break rigidities which involved confrontations and wars. It is however far-fetched to expect that an atmosphere of peace and end to sponsored -violence will be ushered in the J&K State as a result of Pakistani obsessions in view of frequent occurences of incidents of large scale killings of the people in the state which are going on without hold by Pakistan. The Kashmir problem has eluded solution since the genesis in 1947 and so to expect ''to find a peaceful negotiated settlement" appears to be hard to realise. Pakistan missed the bus in resolution of the problem by not withdrawing her regular and irregular forces from the occupied part of Kashmir through aggression by her vide UN Resolution of 13 Aug 1948. She was not given parity with India for weighty considerations by UN. Now the joint statement by both India & Pakistan reiterated their commitment to the principles and purposes of the charter of the United Nations was their determination to implement the Shimla Agreement in letter and spirit. The basic principles of the UNO founded on 24th Oct 1945, are based on peaceful settlement of disputes refraining from the threat or use of force against any other State. Shimla Agreement further emphasises and binds both the countries not to violate the line of control in Kashmir by force. China has welcomed the joint declaration advising both the countries to resolve their differences by dialogue as in case of India and China but at the same time go on expanding their relations ties trade and co-operation in all the other matters for the mutual benefit of their people, and peace and prosperity in south East Asia. Importantly Kashmir problem is the creation of Pakistan. It was further vitiated by the Anglo-American Block during the cold war era with Pakistan joining their military pacts targetted against Russia, so as to grab 'Kashmir' through the good offices of powerful Anglo. American Block. Notably Kashmir problem is a complex issue. Besides, legal and political inplications of peaceful co-existence the problem is linked to the psyche of the people and ideology of the two countries. It is not so easy to resolve because of its persistence since 'Partition' and confrontations. Pakistan has support of some sponsored scessionist factions and elements but they are not representatives of the very large majority of the people of the State and the political parties. The other elements and identities cannot be ignored in any settlement. In the interest of good-will, amity, co-operation and deeper relations we wish success to the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan for ensuring cordiality, peace and prosperity of the estranged neighbours!

Yours etc...
Babu Ram Sharma
443-A Gandhi Nagar Jammu.

Doctors selected and rejected

Sir,

Nothing lasts forever. But in Government Medical College Jammu, the lasting was really short-lived. This refers to the doctors who were selected for House Jobs in various departments on 25th of June, 2004 but were shown the door on 1st of July 2004, five days after their selection, in the name of re-counselling. The re-counselling exercise (so as to say) was initiated by the committee members for the reasons best known to them. These reasons were obviously absent when the doctors were chosen on 25th June. These new reasons for rejections emerged on 1st of July (the date when firstly counselled doctors were to start working). If the criteria for selection was to be changed, the committee could have changed this criteria well before the selection process but what prompted committed committee members to change the criteria within 5 days of selection has cast a shadow over the whole selection process. If some of the committee members were not present on 25th of June and there were substitutes available in their place, were these substitute members not competent enough to select candidates? Or is it that the members who were absent on 25th June wanted their own candidates to get house jobs. So as to favour some of the candidates, who were not selected on 25th June, the whole criteria for the selection process was changed and reinvented within five days, without even thinking once about the fate of earlier selected house officers. This criteria should have been changed before selecting doctors and not after and should have been implemented for the next batch of House Officers and not for this selected batch. This thing does need to be looked into. Even if one such doctor lost his job after being selected, the whole process for the second time was dubious, flawed and biased.

Till the time we have such unprofessional committee members who have no standing for their own decisions and act in a flip flop manner, so called fair selection exercise seems a far fetched dream in Government Medical College Jammu.

Our previous health minister was highly proactive and I hope our new health minister too would look into the matter proactively and ensure that such bungling does not happen again.

Yours etc…
Simz
Channi Himmat