SRINAGAR, Jan 23: The one-man judicial commission, probing the killing of four youth  in a firing incident in Shopian district of Kashmir in September last year, today adjourned the proceedings till February 13 as the petitioners were not present.
“The petitioners were not present and the Government has not yet issued the formal orders for engaging public prosecutor Shopian as the prosecutor for this case. I adjourned the case till February 13,” Justice M L Koul, who is conducting the probe, told reporters.
He said the public prosecutor for Shopian had been instructed to discharge the duties of prosecutor before the Commission but has not received formal orders so far from the Government.
Four persons were killed at Gagran in Shopian district, 55 kms from here, on September 7 on the day when renowned orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta performed at famed Shalimar gardens here.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ordered a judicial probe into the killings after the CRPF claim — that all the deceased were militants — was contested by local residents of Shopian.
While police admitted there was no record of involvement in militancy for the three deceased local youth, it maintained the fourth youth was a Pakistani militant.
The commission has been appointed to find out the circumstances leading to the killing of four youth, ascertain the identity of the deceased and if they had any involvement in militancy.
The commission has also been asked to fix responsibility for any act of misuse of authority by the CRPF personnel. (PTI

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Jan 23: The Finance Division of the Planning Commission of India today held an in-depth discussion with Administrative Secretaries of Planning and Development and Finance Departments of the State through video conferencing and discussed “financial resources” of Jammu and Kashmir for the next financial year of 2014-15 for funding the annual plan.
Principal Secretary of Planning and Development Department, BR Sharma and Principal Secretary of Finance Department BB Vyas attended the meeting through video conferencing on behalf of the State Government with Finance Division of the Planning Commission, represented by Advisors and other senior officers of the PCI.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the top officials of Planning and Finance Departments presented “financial resource position” of Jammu and Kashmir that mainly pertained to “tax collection of its own resources” during current financial year of 2013-14 and the likely targets for next fiscal year of 2014-15.
“The Planning Commission had to take into account `resource position’ of the State before funding the annual plan,” sources said, adding that Jammu and Kashmir was likely to achieve record revenue from all State taxes including Commercial Tax, Sales Tax, Value Added Tax, Excise Tax, Motor Spirits Tax, Entertainment Tax etc. Revenue collected as power or water tax is not included in the tax revenue
The Government had received about Rs 6000 crores worth revenue from the taxes in Jammu and Kashmir during 2012-13 (the last financial year), which was pegged to grow at least by 10 per cent or even more during 2013-14. The Government has assured the Planning Commission of India of hefty increase in its tax revenue during 2014-15 without hitting the common man.
Sources said the Planning Commission also wanted the State Government to reduce the widening gap between power tariff collection and expenditure on purchase of electricity. It was in view of the directive that the Government has already increase revenue target of the Power Development Department (PDD) for current financial year from Rs 2340 crores to Rs 2800 crores as against just Rs 1450 crores recovered during 2012-13.
Though it would be an uphill task for the PDD to recover Rs 2800 crores worth revenue in the current fiscal, the Government had to spend around Rs 4000 crores on account of power purchase bill.
Sources said the State Government presented in detail its tax base position for current as well as next financial year, the Planning Commission wanted it to improve further. The State has assured the Planning Commission that it would do its best to improve the resources in a way that the common man was not burdened heavily.
It may be mentioned here that the State Government had sought meetings with the Planning Commission of India as it has decided to present full budget in the Legislature in the month of February before the Election Commission of India imposed Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.
The Government wanted to get tentative figures from the Planning Commission of India on next financial year’s annual plan and Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan (PMRP) to include them in the budget. Sources said after ascertaining the resource position of Jammu and Kashmir, the Planning Commission could give tentative figures of annual plan and PMRP to the State officials to facilitate the Government in presentation of full budget.
The State Government was likely to seek higher plan for 2013-14 as against Rs 7300 crores given to it by the Planning Commission during 2012-13 and 2013-14. In 2012-13, the Planning Commission had imposed a cut of Rs 1500 crores reducing the plan to mere Rs 5800 crores. This year also, the Planning Commission wanted to give only Rs 5800 crores worth plan to the State but following reservations expressed by the Government it was raised to Rs 7300 crores.
Apart from the annual plan, the State was assured Rs 600 crores under the PMRP.
Sources hoped that the Planning Commission would approve anything above Rs 7500 crores as its annual plan for next financial year. They, however, said that if there was a change of Government at the Centre after the general elections in April-May, there would be an altogether new Planning Commission and the State would have to present its case once again for annual plan and PMRP.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 23: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was likely to inaugurate Udhampur-Katra rail track by flagging off a DMU train at 2.30 pm at Udhampur railway station on February 2 bringing to an end several years wait of Mata Vaishno Devi ji pilgrims to reach holy town of Katra, the base camp of the shrine, by train from different States.
As exclusively reported by the Excelsior earlier, Dr Singh would be on a two days visit of Jammu on February 2 and 3 during which he would inaugurate train to Katra on February 2 and open Indian Science Congress at Jammu University on February 3.
Official sources said the Prime Minister would fly to Udhampur around 2.30 pm on February 2 and flag off local DMU train from Udhampur to Katra at about 2.40 pm. It would be about half an hour function after which Dr Singh would fly back to Jammu and had night stay at Raj Bhawan.
On February 3, he would open the Indian Science Congress at Jammu University at 10 am. He would attend the function for about one and a half hours before flying back to New Delhi.
Ahead of Dr Singh’s visit, a high level team of Special Protection Group (SPG) today visited Udhampur and Katra Railway Stations to inspect the spots for inauguration of the train by the Prime Minister. Sources said the SPG had clear preference for holding inaugural function at Udhampur Railway Station, where Dr Singh had in 2005 opened Jammu-Udhampur railway section for trains.
The SPG team inspected both railway stations of Udhampur and Katra and reserved its decision on the spot where the Prime Minister would flag off the train. However, the indications were clear that the spot would be Udhampur.
Sources said Commissioner of Railways Safety (CRS) was likely to inspect the spot on February 28 to give green signal for chugging off the trains on Udhampur-Katra track. A special Railways team would be here from January 27 to 29 for security clearance and finalisation of other measures for inauguration of the rail track.
Sources said the Railways proposed to run three DMU trains between Jammu-Katra and start two new trains including Kalika (Chandigarh)-Katra and New Delhi-Katra immediately apart from extending the route of two trains from Udhampur to Katra within the next few days of the inauguration of the train.
Later, some more trains would be launched to Katra from different States after next railway budget, which was scheduled for February 12 while some trains running up to Jammu would also be extended to Katra.
The Railways Department would like to connect as many States as possible by train to Katra, which had been attracting nearly one crore pilgrims every year for darshan of Goddess Vaishno Devi.