Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, May 17: Amidst raging controversy over the status of Tawi Lake Project and AIIMS in the State, the Bhartiya Janta Party national president Amit Shah today reviewed the party performance in coalition Government and co-ordination with the alliance partner PDP in Jammu and Kashmir.
A high level meeting in this regard was held at Amit Shah’s official residence in New Delhi wherein the progress on implementation of the Common Minimum Programme between the ruling coalition partners, level of acceptance of Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s stand on various issues and some organizational issues were discussed in detail, sources informed the Excelsior.
The meeting lasted for four hours and was attended by BJP national general secretary and incharge J&K Affairs, Ram Madhav, national organizing secretary Ram Lal, Minister of State in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, Deputy Chief Minister J&K, Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP State president Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member of Rajya Sabha, Shamsher Singh Manhas, Minister for Health, Choudhary Lal Singh, BJP organizing secretary Ashok Koul and BJP Co-incharge J&K affairs, Avinash Rai Khanna.
During the meeting, sources informed, Amit Shah reviewed the performance of coalition Government and asked the party to remain stick to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of development, which should not derail at any cost.
In response to the BJP leaders’ query on the issue of AIIMS as well as Tawi Lake Project, Amit Shah is learnt to have made it clear that interests of Jammu should be on priority while ensuring that there may be no discrimination with any region or compromise on the party principles, sources informed.
Pertinent to mention that soon after the meeting was over in New Delhi, the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Choudhary Sukhnandan hurriedly called a press conference in Jammu and declared that contrary to Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s statement, the Tawi Lake Project was very much feasible and had not been shelved by the State Government.
The BJP national president also sounded a caution to the party leaders against negative campaign by the opposition and suggested that a constant touch with the party workers at the ground level was necessary.
According to the sources, main purpose of the meeting was to obtain a feedback on performance of the coalition Government and its impact on BJP prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections in some States across the country.
Besides reviewing the Government performance, sources said that Amit Shah also sought a feedback on public opinion vis-à-vis Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayed’s stand on various issues so that coalition with separatist friendly PDP may not adversely affect BJP in Jammu & Kashmir as well as in other States.
During the meeting, some organizational issues as well as arrangements for the forthcoming Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir were also discussed, sources said and added that Amit Shah asked the party leaders to ensure that pilgrims from all over India may not face any difficulty or security threat during the Yatra.

*SLSA Act being amended to bring at par with Central law

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 17: State Cabinet, which is meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar tomorrow, is going to order reshuffle at the top level in the civil administration in view of repatriation of some senior officers from the Central deputation and promotion of 16 IAS officers. Moreover, the Cabinet would conduct much-awaited cadre review of IAS and give nod to carry out amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) Act to bring it at par with the Central law.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that Cabinet would order adjustment of three senior IAS officers namely Dheeraj Gupta, Navin Choudhary and R K Goyal, who have recently been repatriated from the Central deputation on the personal intervention of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The State Government had sought repatriation of five IAS officers of the J&K Cadre, who were on Central deputation so that their services could be utilized in the State. However, the Centre cleared deputation of three officers.
Dheeraj Gupta has been repatriated on the completion of Central deputation while as Navin Choudhary and R K Goyal had their enough time left for completion of deputation. But Chief Minister wanted them to make use of their administrative experience for the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir, sources said while disclosing that these three officers are likely to get significant postings in tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting to be held at 3 pm.
According to the sources, Cabinet is also likely to order transfers and postings of some of the 16 IAS officers, who were promoted in the earlier meeting held at Jammu on April 19.
Among these, 10 IAS officers of 2002 batch namely Saurabh Bhagat, Mohammad Yousuf Dar, Hemant Kumar Sharma, Hilal Ahmed Parray, Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Dilshad Khan, Basharat Saleem, Tsering Angchok, Shafiq Ahmed Raina and Sajad Ahmad Khan were promoted to the Selection Grade of IAS with effect from January 1, 2015 while as six officers of 2010 and 2011 batch were promoted to the Senior Time Scale of IAS.
Sources informed that Cabinet would also conduct cadre review of IAS so as to meet the current demand of IAS officers in the State. “The IAS cadre review is required to be conducted after regular intervals so as to work out the requirement of the State and refer the vacancies following such review to the Union Public Service Commission for meeting the demand of IAS officers”, they said.
“The cadre review is imperative in the light of the fact that J&K is facing the shortage of IAS officers and decision on cadre review would then be communicated to the Union Ministry of Personnel along with the justification behind the same and subsequently the requirement would be projected before the UPSC”, sources further said.
They disclosed that Cabinet would also accord promotion in favour of two IPS officers and subsequent adjustments in the Police Department. “This was also on agenda in the last Cabinet meeting but the same could not be taken up because of paucity of time”, sources added.
The Cabinet would also give concurrence to the appointment of eight members to the State Legislative Council, sources said.  As per the rules, this was imperative when eight persons were nominated to the Upper House in the first week of April but the same could not be done prompting the Governor N N Vohra to point out this ‘mistake’ on the part of the Government and the same would be rectified by the Cabinet tomorrow.
Sources said that Cabinet would also consider amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Act in order to bring it at par with the Central law.
“As per the Central law, Member Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority should be a Judicial Officer but in Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Act, the post has been given to the Law Secretary”, sources said, adding “the recommendations vis-à-vis appointing Judicial Officer as Member Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority were made during the Chief Justices and Chief Ministers Conference held in the year 2013 and thereafter by the Division Bench of State High Court in a Public Interest Litigation titled Rufi Khan Versus State of J&K”.
It is pertinent to mention here that only J&K and two North East States have not brought the State Legal Services Authority Act at par with the Central law till date.
The Cabinet would also accord approval to the creation of posts in the Government Medical Colleges of Jammu and Srinagar in order to overcome the shortage of manpower, which is creating hurdles in providing timely and proper medicare to the patients.

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 17: The Centre has decided to conduct an extensive study of September 2014 worst ever floods in Jammu and Kashmir including the reasons that led to the devastating floods taking over 300 lives and rendered thousands of people shelterless besides causing extensive damage to infrastructure and measures required to be taken to prevent them in future with Monsoon just a little over month away.
The study will be conducted by high level Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) during its six days visit to all three regions of the State beginning May 24 from Srinagar, which was worst affected by the flood and accounted alone for nearly 200 deaths apart from huge destruction. The 22 members Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests comprised 22 members of Parliament and is headed by Ashwani Kumar, former Union Minister, as its Chairman.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Committee would visit all three regions including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and also pay brief visit to neighbouring Pathankot district of Punjab to carry out extensive study on the factors that caused death and destruction in worst ever floods in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014, steps taken by the Government so far to prevent recurrence of the floods and more initiatives required to ensure that such natural tragedies were averted in future.
The Parliamentary Commi-ttee will report to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Dr Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who, in turn, will forward their report to the Government of India for taking necessary measures to check floods in Jammu and Kashmir, which had completely paralyzed the State for nearly a fortnight prompting the Centre to carry out biggest ever operation through Defence forces to rescue the people.
Sources said the Committee will hear various stakeholders on the subjects of unprecedented floods and failure of system of Warning and Forecasting of floods in Srinagar and pollution related issues. It would discuss with officials as to how such devastating floods couldn’t be predicted well in time so that the people could be asked to leave their houses to survive and put in place a system to ensure that the people were forewarned in future to save their lives and property in the event of impending floods.
The Committee was likely to meet Governor NN Vohra, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sukhnandan Kumar, Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, other top officers of civil and police administration, Metrological department and all other officers concerned with taking measures to prevent floods.
Sources said the Parliamentary Panel will undertake study on unprecedented floods in Srinagar and failure of system of Warning and Forecasting of Floods in the context of Climate Change in Srinagar from May 24 to 26. Apart from capital City of Srinagar, the Panel will also visit other parts of the Kashmir valley.
It would study the problems arising out of pollution, climate change and urbanization in Leh on May 27 and 28. Though Leh and Kargil districts in Ladakh had remained unaffected by the September 2014 floods, cloudbursts had caused extensive damage in Leh in 2010 killing 255 people including six foreign tourists and causing extensive damage to life and property.
“Problem of pollution in Tier-II cities of Jammu and Kashmir in general and Jammu in particular will be discussed by the Parliamentary Panel in Jammu on May 29. The same evening, the Committee will study similar problems in neighbouring Pathankot district of Punjab before winding up its visit and returning to New Delhi,’’ sources said.
Sources said the Government of India and the State Government were concerned over reasons that led to worst ever floods in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014 taking toll of several lives and causing huge devastation of property running into thousands of crores. With Monsoon just a little over month away, the Centre wants to take preemptive measures well in advance to ensure that the floods were not repeated in heavy rains leading to another September 2014.
The Parliamentary Committee visiting Jammu and Kashmir comprised Ashwani Kumar (Chairman), Badruddin Ajmal, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Chirag Paswan, Bijoya Chakrovorty, Pankaj Choudhary, Prabhatsingh Pratapsinh Chouhan, Sushmita Dev, Ninong Ering, Laxman Giluwa, K Gopal, Daddan Mishra, Shivaji Adhlrao Patil, Anil Madhav Dave, Prem Chand Gupta, CP Narayanan, Paul Manoj Pandian, T Subbarami Reddy, Arvind Kumar Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Bimla Kashyap Sood and Ronald Sapu Tlau. All of them are members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
MK Khan, Joint Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat will also accompany the Parliamentary Committee.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 17: Army and police today recovered large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosive from a hideout of Hizbul Mujahideen militants at Chandali forests in Kishtwar and foiled plan by the ultras to carry out terror strikes in the sensitive district.
“Recoveries have dealt a crippling blow to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, which was trying to revive itself in Kishtwar district,’’ official sources said.
They said a joint team of Kishtwar based troops of Delta Force and Kishtwar police carried out joint search operation in Chandali forests and busted a hideout used by the militants in past. They recovered large quantity of weaponry from the hideout, which reportedly belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.
Recoveries included one AK-47 rifle, one AK-56 rifle, two pistols, , one USA made radio set, two Under Barrel Grenade launchers (UBGLs), two batteries, two printers, nine hand grenades, seven UBGL grenades, six AK magazines, two pistol magazines, 315 AK rounds, 12 pistol rounds and one bipole antenna.
“This is a major milestone achieved by the troops of Delta Force and Kishtwar Police and is a serious setback to anti-national elements. This will certainly prove detrimental to revival of militancy in Kishtwar district,’’ sources said.
Though there was no official word on the militant outfit to whom the consignment belonged, sources said the area was once stronghold of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and there were reports that the consignment belonged to that outfit. The Hizbul Mujahideen was presently lying virtually defunct in the Kishtwar district though it has couple of active militants, who were not only lying low but had fled to mountainous areas of Kishtwar.
However, sources said, the consignment of arms, ammunition and explosives had the potential of causing large scale devastation and destruction if it had fallen into hands of the militants.
Police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the recoveries at Kishtwar police station under Sections 120, 120-B, 153-A RPC, 7/25 Arms Act, 4/5 Egress Act and 3 Enemy Agent Ordinance and started further investigations into the case.
However, no arrests have been made in connection with the recoveries, sources said, adding that Army and police conducted searches in the area but there was no presence of the militants.
Sources pointed out that Chandali forests in Kishtwar district had remained highly militancy infested in the past.
Police team in the operation was led by ASO Mohammad Qasim of Police Component, Kishtwar under the supervision of DIG Doda-Ramban range Nissar Ahmad and SSP Kishtwar Yougal Manhas.

Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, May 17: Army today said that it will secure the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Kashmir that has been the target of militants recently.
General Officer Commanding (GOC), 15 Corps Lt General Subrata Saha when asked about the militants targeting National Highway ahead of Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir, told reports on the sidelines of an Army function at Pahalgam that the Highway has to be secured all the time.
“Whether there is Yatra or not, the Highway has to be secured all the time. Why highway only, entire Kashmir has to be kept secure and safe. Those who will try to disturb it, they will keep trying but we will leave no stone unturned and will secure it”, said Lt General Saha.
On weapon snatching on the National Highway early this week at Sangam in district Anantnag, the GOC said: “It is our responsibility to ensure security of this place which we will continue to do.”
Lt General Saha suggested that Kashmiri youth need to be engaged so that they may not join the militancy and said that Army is doing its bit of engaging youth.
“By organizing sports tournaments we are trying to engage youth of the Valley. Besides this, there are skill development programmes. Kashmir Super-30 is there and there are also other programmes as well and you see how people participate in it”, said the GOC.
Lt General Saha said that Army’s programmes have positive impact and youth in large numbers are joining Army in Kashmir. “All this has positive impact and youth of Kashmir are coming forward to join the Army”, he said.
The GOC said that recently Army held three recruitment rallies for Territorial Army Engineering wing and response was overwhelming. “We advertised 753 posts and 22, 211 people came for the rally”, he said adding: “Prior to this in January this year we had 90 vacancies in Territorial Army and 21,000 people had come. I feel we are doing our best to engage youth”.
On militants threatening the cellular operators in Sopore area of North Kashmir, Lt General Saha said: “It is our responsibility to keep the environment secure, we will secure it.”
Earlier, speaking at the concluding ceremony  of three day Sakoon Festival at Pahalgam the GOC said that the Army has taken it upon themselves to conduct such events. He said that the aim was to provide a platform to the local talent, which abounds in each village of Kashmir, to showcase their talents in front of a local and national audience.
Various competitions were held between in the Army Public School Pahlagam over the last three days. These included painting competition where internationally acclaimed artist, Sudip Roy was in action.
The GOC said that Roy’s participation will inspire a generation of artists from the region.
The renowned Hockey coach, Mir Ranjan Negi, also joined festival for a performance on a song of ‘Chak de India’, a film based loosely on Negi’s life. The famous Bollywood music director, Anand Raj Anand, also interacted with the youth.
The GOC said that Army will continue its efforts of empowerment of youth and women and also for promoting peace, prosperity, tourism in the Valley and showcasing the beauty, serenity and exquisiteness of the people of Kashmir.

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, May 17: Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, today suggested that theaters in Kashmir should be re-opened and said he would like to release his upcoming film, Bajrangi Bhaijan, in Kashmir besides other parts of the country.
“It is surprising that the theatres are not operational here and people have to watch movies through pirated DVD’s. It is unfortunate that the people are not enjoying cinema on 70mm screen”, Khan told a press conference in Sonamarg this evening.
Bollywood actor was all praise for the beauty of Kashmir and said that they were fools to shoot in Switzerland. “I like this place. This is very beautiful. We were fools when we used to go to Switzerland for shooting. When everything is here why should we go there? Here are lot of places to explore for films.”
Describing Kashmir as most beautiful place on earth, the Bollywood actor said: “Whether you come for Honeymoon or vacations with family or shooting. You should come and see this place. I feel this is the most beautiful place on planet earth.”
The Film’s director Kabir Khan said: “Whenever I have to shoot in landscapes, Kashmir would be my first preference.”  He said that he enjoyed to shoot film in Kashmir and that he would like to focus on Kashmir in his upcoming movies as well.
Kabir said lot more needs to be done in Kashmir so that Bollywood would make Kashmir its prime destination. “Internet connectivity must get better besides the roads which are ruff at various places and need to be repaired”, he said.
The Bollywood actor was all praise for the hospitality of the people of Kashmir and said he enjoyed his 40 days shoot in Valley. He also thanked his fans in Kashmir who prayed for him.
Terming last year’s floods in Kashmir as unfortunate, the Bollywood actor said that his “Being Human” organization has supported and will continue its support to put Valley back to normalcy. He said that he would possibly, in future, open Being Human store in Kashmir.
Khan revealed that his maternal grandfather hailed from Jammu region of the State.
Khan said that he is trying to do larger than life films. “I am trying to do films which are larger than life. I want to do such films and use those who play on screen. Every film I am doing which are amazing characters and I try to follow those characters in my personal life as much as possible. I have always been fan of large than life things, success stories and bravery”, he added.
Earlier, in the day, Kareena Kapoor joined Khan at Thajwas Glacier for the film shoot. Khan was already here for 40 days excepting the days of his court hearings and adopted a destitute family in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam area. The film is to be released in last week of July.

NEW DELHI, May 17: Over 11,000 women will soon be recruited in Central Security Forces for combat duties like border guarding and law and order assignments.
The Government has taken this decision to enhance representation of women in these forces.
It has already set in motion its plan to hire 8,533 women constables in paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF, CISF and ITBP after it recently announced one of its biggest recruitment drives to hire over 62,000 young men and women as constables this year.
Also, sanctions have been granted by the Union Home Ministry for raising 21 new companies or a total of 2,772 women personnel in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) which guards open Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan by 2017.
“The recruitments are being done to take the representation of women in central forces to at least 5 per cent of the total strength in the coming days. At present, women constitute about 2.15 per cent of the total strength of these forces,” a senior officer said.
Under the mega drive to hire a young workforce for these forces, a special sanction has also been accorded to the CRPF to raise two exclusive ‘Mahila’ (women) battalions within its establishment to bolster the strength of the existing three such units.
The Home Ministry, the officer said, has made its policy clear that women personnel should be at least 5 per cent of the total strength of these forces and this could only be done after conducting fresh hirings.
While in border guarding forces like BSF, ITBP and SSB, the women personnel are being actively deployed to undertake patrols at frontier locations, they are also deputed to guard the crossing gates at international borders like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal as forces they are deployed to interrogate and escort female apprehendees.
“The CRPF has tasked its women units with rendering extensive law and order duties apart from their recent and small-scale induction in anti-Naxal operations theatre in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. They are also being increasingly deployed for static guard duties and escorting pilgrims of Mansarovar and Amarnathji yatras,” the officer said.
At present the maximum women personnel are in CISF at 4.89 per cent of the total strength (6,203), CRPF 2.13 per cent (6,120), ITBP 1.75 per cent (1,570), SSB 1.50 per cent (1,186) and BSF (3,534) 1.42 per cent.
The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will hold a three- tier examination for these posts with the stages being physical tests, written efficiency and medical tests.
Candidates, who have passed Class X and are between 18-23 years of age are eligible to apply for these posts.
The expected salary for those hired would be around Rs 20,200 apart from other salary benefits that the Government extends to the Central Armed Police Forces. (PTI)

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 17:  Putting a lid on the ongoing controversy over purported closure of Tawi lake project in Jammu city, the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Choudhary Sukhnandan today made it clear that the project was very much feasible and had not been shelved.
“However,  some technical blunders  have been committed in execution of the project by the previous Government, which had resorted to Loot Khasoot only  and an inquiry would be initiated against the persons responsible for the same,” he  said while addressing a hurriedly called press conference at the BJP headquarters, here today.
While elaborating, Mr Sukhnandan said that the allied works of the lake project were not taken up before construction of the 32 barrage pillars with two meters radius each, which squeezed flow of water during floods and thus severely damaged the fourth bridge.  “Had the allied work of channelizing Tawi properly been taken up before construction of the pillars and quality was maintained, the floods would have not caused damage,” he explained and held the previous Government responsible for the faulty work.
He stressed that there was no question of shelving the lake project, on which Rs 55 crores have been spent so far and around 85 percent work is completed. “Last Thursday, I met the Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti and discussed with her various water supply schemes, including the Tawi lake project and there is no question of shelving the same,” he maintained. The Minister further said that Tawi lake project would not only beautify the Jammu city and promote tourism here but will also help for irrigation purpose by supplying the stored water to agricultural fields.   Claiming that work on the project was on, the Minister, however, refused to set a deadline for completion of the same by citing the difficulties in executing work during rainy season.
Replying to a query on Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed’s statement, which led to controversy over the status of lake project, the BJP Minister sought to clarify that an apparent confusion in understanding the technical mistakes could have been reason for the same. “Recently I had met the Chief Minister and discussed with him the technical mistakes committed in executing the project and the latter may have pointed towards the same during the press conference but there is no question of shelving the project, “he said.