‘No info on leak of WhatsApp chat on Art 370’
NEW DELHI, Mar 16:
A total of 32.31 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir have been given domicile certificates, while 2.15 lakh applications have been rejected, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said today.
Reddy also said in Lok Sabha that as per the information provided by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, a total of 35,44,938 applications for issue of domicile certificates have been received as on December 31, 2020, out of which 32,31,353 applicants have been issued domicile certificates.
A total of 2,15,438 applications have been rejected, he said replying a written question.
He said Rule 5 of the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020 mandates certain documents to be annexed with the application. The applications which lack the prescribed documents are rejected.
Meanwhile, as many as 31 civilians and 39 security personnel were killed in cross-border firing and ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, Reddy said.
He said incidents of ceasefire violations and cross border firing by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir have been reported since decades and immediate and effective retaliation is undertaken by security forces in such cases.
“Thirty-one civilians were killed and 39 security force personnel were martyred in such incidents from August 5, 2019 to February 28, 2021,” he said in a written reply to a question.
Reddy said the Central Government has sanctioned construction of 14,460 bunkers (1,431 community bunkers and 13,029 individual bunkers) to provide protection to the people living in areas close to the IB and LoC and to safeguard human lives in the event of cross-border firing.
Out of these, 7,856 bunkers have already been constructed in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Reddy said the Central Government has no information on the leak of WhatsApp chat related to confidential and sensitive information, including scrapping of Article 370, which surfaced during the investigation of TRP scam by the Mumbai Police.
A 500-page transcript of a purported WhatsApp conversation, containing details of Balakot air strikes and abrogation of Article 370, went viral in January this year after it was submitted by the Mumbai Police before a court as part of its chargesheet in a case of misuse of TV rating point (TRP), which led to a political storm.
“No such information has come to the notice of the Government,” Reddy said in a written reply.
Reddy’s reply came when asked whether the Government has taken cognisance of the leak of the Whatsapp chat on confidential and sensitive information which surfaced during the TRP scam investigation. (PTI)
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