Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, July 16: Not even single truck loaded with goods arrived here from PoK while 25 truck goods crossed over to PoK from this side today.
Officials sources said that today 25 truck goods including banana, Jeera, tamarind valuing over Rs 65 lakh crossed over to that side from Chakkan-da-Bagh LoC point while no goods arrived here from that side. It is feared that payments of traders worth crores are pending from both the sides and it could be reason behind decline.
Today, a delegation of cross LoC traders also met visiting Divisional Commissioner here and took up their issues with him, which included increasing number of tradable items, provide banking facility, arrange meeting for clearance of pending payments worth Rs 10 crore with traders on both sides and installation of full body scanner for trucks at Chakkan-da-Bagh.
No goods truck arrives from PoK
Illicit liquor seized in Katra
Excelsior Correspondent
KATRA, July 16: Continuing its drive against illicit liquor, Katra Police today seized 14 bottles of Imperial Blue brand of country made foreign liquor from a bus driver, who was smuggling the same to Katra town for illegal sale.
The accused driver, namely Mahraj Singh of Faridabad, was smuggling these liquor bottles in bus number UP14T- 7724, which was on way from Faridabad to Katra.
According to Additional SP Katra, Kulbir Singh the consignment was to be delivered at Katra for the consumption of locals. Police has registered a case in this connection under 48 Excise Act and 188 RPC at Police Station Katra.
DC Leh raises issue of polling parties honorarium with DyEC
Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, July 16: The Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Simrandeep Singh today raised the issue of increasing honorarium to the polling parties deployed in difficult regions like Ladakh, Gurez and Kupwara with the Election Commission of India in the video conference taken by Vinod Zutshi, Deputy Election Commissioner of India.
“It is unfair to pay the same honorarium of Rs 1150 to the polling officers deployed in an easy district like Jammu or Samba as well as in a difficult district like Leh”, he said.
He stressed for factoring the difficulty level of the place of deployment of a polling party. Further, the DC pointed out that in difficult districts like Leh, the polling personnel are paid honorarium for only one polling day but in most of the cases, the polling parties are deployed two to three days in advance and hence should be paid for all these additional days at the same rate.
Moreover, the DC strongly raised the point for paying honorarium to Class-4 employees who are instrumental in packing postal ballots, packing polling material and receiving the polling parties late in the night.
The Deputy Election Commissioner agreed to all these proposals and assured to approve them before the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
HC takes serious note of adhocism
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 16: Taking serious note by adopting adhocism and stop gap arrangements in Public Works Department, High Court today directed that not to fill up post of Superintending Engineers in Hydraulic Wing of PWD by stop gap and on ad hoc basis till next date of hearing.
Justice Hasnain Masoodi hearing a petition filed by Assistant Executive Engineer and also holding the post of Executive Engineer on OPG basis was expecting his promotion as EE to be regularized in near future.
“Petitioner Vijay Kumar is aggrieved that Chief Secretary of the State and Commissioner Secretary to Government PHE and FC Dapartment have resorted to ad hocism in PWD and made promotions on ad hoc and in charge basis in violation of fundamental principles of service jurisprudence”, court said.
Court also directed the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit detailing therein as to what steps have been taken by him so for towards the compliance of earlier order passed in February, 2014.
Referring the judgment of February,2014 by petitioner counsel Jehangir Iqbal Ganaie where in Government was directed to avoid making ad hoc or stop gap arrangement and take steps to make promotions on regular basis, so as to avoid any bitterness amongst the ranks and also in violation of Rules of 2005.
Court also issued summons to CS, Commissioner Secretary and PSC in this regard for filing their response by next date.
Many terror accused acquitted due to lack of evidence
NEW DELHI, July 16:
Government today said acquittals in terror cases registered by NIA cannot be termed as “honourable acquittals” as many of the people were released due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha that since 2009, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been assigned with 86 terror cases for investigation out of which 11 cases have been partially or fully decided and 28 accused have been convicted and 13 were acquitted.
“However, acquittals in NIA cases have so far been for the reasons of variance in appreciation of strength of evidence by the prosecution and the Presiding Officer of the court and therefore, these acquittals cannot be termed as ‘honourable acquittals’,” he said.
Replying to a written question, the Minister said the Central government does not maintain any data whether a large number of Muslim youth arrested on the charges of terrorism have been ‘honourably exonerated’ by various courts after the cases were found to be false.
Rijiju said acquittals by court is also an outcome of a free and fair trial but in every case, acquittal from charges cannot be considered to prove that innocent civilians are being wrongly framed.
“The acquittal by the courts may also be because of lack of sufficient evidence which could establish/prove charges beyond all reasonable doubt,” he said.
Replying a another question, the Minister said there are 270 people who the Central government is providing security on the basis of threat perception.
“As regards category-wise details, there are 39 ‘Z-plus’, 71 ‘Z’, 125 ‘Y’ and 35 ‘X’ category protectees,” he said. (PTI)
Two drug peddlers held with large quantity of intoxicants
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 16: Batote police arrested two drug peddlers along with large quantity of intoxicants.
As per police sources, on specific inputs, police party from Batote police station laid a naka on Doda-Batote road and intercepted a bus bearing registration number JK14B-1786 which was on its way to Doda.
Police subjected two persons to checking on suspicions basis and recovered 5600 intoxicant capsules and 44 bottles of liquid intoxicants from their possession.
The accused were arrested and have been identified as Khalid Hussain, son of Mohammad Shafi and Bilal Ahmed, son of Abdul Latief, both residents of Bhaderwah.
A case under FIR number 70/2014 under Section 8/21/22 Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered at police station Batote and investigation started.
Police team headed by Inspector Mohammad Iqbal made the arrest under the direct supervision of SSP Ramban Javed Iqbal Mattoo.
Coastal security strengthened post 26/11 terror attack: Govt
NEW DELHI, July 16:
Significant steps have been taken by the Indian Coast Guard for round-the-clock monitoring and patrolling of eastern and western coasts post 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
The entire coastal security scenario has been reviewed in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack and several initiatives and decisions have been taken to ward off threats from the sea, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said.
Coastal security has been subjected to multi-level inter- ministerial review by the Government, he said in a written reply.
Replying to supplementaries, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Government will make maximum efforts to ensure coastal security.
Listing out the initiatives and decisions to enhance the coastal security, Rijiju said Phase-I of the Coastal Security Scheme was completed in March 2011 and the Indian Navy has been designated as the Authority responsible for overall Maritime Security.
The Navy has established four joint operation centres at Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Port Blair for sharing intelligence among various agencies and acting on actionable intelligence at sea.
Rijiju said the Indian Coast Guard has also established nine additional stations, including at Karwar and Ratnagiri.
He also said that preparation of National Population Register (NPR) for coastal population has been initiated.
Besides, issuance of Multi-purpose National Identity Cards (MNICS) to all those living in the coastal villages, including fishermen, and registration of all types of fishing vessels have been initiated, he added.
Rijiju said sustained deployment of 19-22 ships per day at sea has been made and 100 Coastal Security Exercises and 117 Coastal Security Operations have been conducted from January 2009 to June 2014.
To another question, he said UT Administration of Daman and Diu received guidelines form the Ministry of Environment and Forest to prepare a comprehensive plan for the abatement of pollution in the Daman Ganga river under National River Conservation Plan.
Steps have been initiated by the Daman and Diu administration to prepare and submit the same to the environment ministry, the Minister said.
He also informed the House that the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur has been requested to prepare a comprehensive plan for the abatement of pollution in the Daman Ganga river under National River Conservation Plan. (PTI)
Defeat to India in 2011 WC semifinals still haunts: Afridi
Karachi, July 16: Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has said that his team’s defeat against arch-rivals India in the semifinals of World Cup 2011 at Mohali still haunted him and made him sad.
“We had played well until then and were just one step away from the final but it was a bad day for us and in the end we returned empty-handed. The defeat to India still haunts me and makes me sad,” said Afridi.
Afridi was captain of the one-day and Twenty20 teams in 2010 and 2011, but in May 2011 he had a fall out with head coach Waqar Younis during the tour of the West Indies, and as a disciplinary measure, the Pakistan Cricket Board had removed him as skipper.
The decision to remove him from the top post was then considered a vastly unpopular one and it also led to Afridi announcing his premature retirement.
Afridi insisted that he had neither run after or was fascinated to become the captain of the national cricket team.
“There is no doubt that being captain of the national team is a big honour but that does not mean I am running after it,” Afridi said.
“Whether Misbah-ul-Haq is captain or anyone else I have and will always give my full support to them,” he added.
His comments on the captaincy issue have come after controversy cropped up in Pakistan cricket circles and within the Pakistan board on whether Misbah or Afridi should lead the team in the next World Cup in 2015.
Afridi has made it clear he is always ready for challenges and if the board ever asked him to lead the side again, he would give it serious consideration.
He also said that World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand offered a great opportunity for him and his teammates to undo what happened in 2011.
“If we work hard and play well as a unit, we can achieve the impossible,” he said.
The allrounder, who has restricted his career to ODIs and T20 matches, said he was pumped up for the World Cup and his focus would be on his form and training in the coming months.
He admitted that he had become used to criticism over his performances.
“When you play the way I do — aggressively all the time — you can expect praise and criticism. I have played in my own way for years now and am still doing it. Nothing has changed. I like to entertain people,” he insisted. (PTI)
Land owners on NH demand release of compensation
Excelsior Correspondent
KISHTWAR, July 16: A meeting of land owners situated on National Highway Kishtwar to Sinthan-Srinagar road was held under the leadership of Ajeet Bhagat.
The meeting discussed that the land compensation in respect of the land acquired for construction of Kishtwar-Sinthan National Highway road has already been sanctioned/awarded in favour of the land owners, but the compensation is yet to be disbursed amongst the land owners which is lying in the office of Assistant Commissioner Kishtwar.
The Deputy Commissioners, Kishtwar has been time and again being represented by the land owners for release of compensation but to no avail. The meeting demanded immediate release of compensation to the land owners failing which they will come to streets.
Those who attended the meeting include Badri Nath Shan, Prahlad Shan, Sheikh Gulam Mohammad, Gh Rasool Sheikh, Vinod Kumar Bhagat, Bansi Lal and others.
Oil Min to move Cabinet to allow RIL to retain gas finds
NEW DELHI, July 16:
With development of three gas finds in Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 block held up due to a technical dispute, the Oil Ministry is seeking Cabinet nod to relax timelines to allow the firm retain and produce from the discoveries worth USD 1.45 billion.
RIL had notified the Dhirubhai-29, 30 and 31 in 2007 and submitted a formal application for declaring them commercial in 2010, well within the timelines set in the Production Sharing Contract. But the ministry’s technical arm DGH refused to recognise them in absence of prescribed confirmatory test.
The issue was intensely debated between RIL, DGH and the ministry since then. Mukesh Ambani-run firm finally agreed to do the Drill Stem Test (DST) but the DGH declared that the contractual time period for development of the finds is over.
The Oil Ministry feels that taking away the discoveries, which hold an estimated 345 billion cubic feet of reserves, and rebidding them may lead to delay in development, sources privy to the case said.
Also, it feels RIL may go to arbitration which may lead to further delay in production and extra legal cost.
The three finds, which can be quickly put on production by RIL using existing infrastructure of currently producing gas fields as well as those being developed, are worth USD 1.45 billion at current gas price of USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit.
Sources said the ministry is moving the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for relaxation in the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) timelines to help RIL monetise the finds.
Comments on a draft CCEA note are being sought from the ministries of finance and law besides the planning commission before taking it to the CCEA for approval.
Sources said RIL will have to conduct DGH prescribed DST on D29, 30 and 31 discoveries and only half of the USD 93 million cost of the test will be allowed to be cost recovered.
Originally, the petroleum ministry under the previous UPA regime’s oil minister M Veerappa Moily had in April prepared a draft CCEA note seeking relaxation for RIL.
The ministry sought Election Commission nod to approach the CCEA on the issue since general elections had been declared, they said adding the permission never came.
Sources said the ministry has once again revived the CCEA note.
It has proposed to the CCEA that RIL be allowed one year to submit a revised declaration of commerciality based on the DST results and allow another year for submission of a field development plan.
If the CCEA approves, the same rule will then be applied to RIL’s four gas discoveries (D-9, 10, 32 and 40) in North-East Coast block NEC-0sn-97/1 (NEC-25) which hold recoverable reserves of 1.032 trillion cubic feet. (PTI)