Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 10: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram paid obeisance to Goddess Vaishno Devi ji inside holy cave shrine at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan, located between Trikuta hills this morning. He remained inside the sanctum sanctorum for eight minutes and offered prayers and ‘aarti’ to the Goddess.
He stayed at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan, located at a height of 5200 feet from the sea level, for about 10 minutes before returning to Sanji Chhat and flying back to Jammu.
Soon after his arrival at Jammu Airport from New Delhi along with Governor NN Vohra, Chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB), Mr Chidambaram flew to Sanji Chhat.
K Skandan, Joint Secretary (Kashmir) in Ministry of Home Affairs and Rajeev Kapoor, Additional Director, Intelligence Bureau, who accompanied the Home Minister from New Delhi, also joined him in visit to holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji.
He was received at the Airport by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani and Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda. Tara Chand, Mr Khoda and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal accompanied the Home Minister to the cave shrine.
Mr Chidambaram reached Sanji Chhat at 8.25 am and was received by SMVDSB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Navin Choudhary, Additional CEO Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, DIG Udhampur-Reasi range, Jagjit Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Reasi, Sheetal Nanda and SSP Reasi Atul Goel among others.
The Home Minister trekked three kilometers distance from Sanji Chhat to Bhawan. The pilgrimage to the cave shrine continued uninterruptedly even as Mr Chidambaram walked from Sanji Chhat to Bhawan amid tight security arrangements.
Sources said there had been special instructions from the Home Minister that the yatra shouldn’t be disrupted during his visit to the holy cave shrine.
Mr Chidambaram went inside the holy cave shrine around 9.30 am and offered prayers and ‘aarti’ for about eight minutes.
He had a brief halt of about 10 minutes in the premises of Sreedhar complex outside the Governor’s suite. He took some water and started return journey to Sanji Chhat on foot. From Sanji Chhat, he flew back to Jammu Airport and drove to the Chief Minister’s official residence for security review meeting.
Enroute Sanji Chhat to Bhawan and back, SMVDSB CEO Navin Choudhary briefed Mr Chidambaram about arrangements made by the Board for the pilgrims and increase in yatra to the cave shrine every year, which had, for the first time, crossed 10 million mark last year.
DGP Kuldeep Khoda briefed the Home Minister about security arrangements made at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan, 13 kilometers track from Katra to Bhawan and Katra, the base camp of the shrine.
The Home Minister appreciated arrangements made for pilgrims by the Shrine Board and security arrangements by police.

Haji Yousaf death case

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 10: The State Government has resisted the cross-examination of all the witnesses including the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Home, Nasir Aslam Wani, Political Advisor to Chief Minister, Devinder Singh Rana and other ‘key’ witnesses in the much publicized death of National Conference worker Syed Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Haji Yousaf.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that some days back Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, the counsel for the deceased’s family, moved an application before Justice H S Bedi Commission seeking permission to cross-examine all the witnesses in the Haji Yousaf murder case.
Accordingly, the Comm-ission invited objections from the State Government in response to the application of Mushtaq Ahmad Dar and the same were submitted yesterday in which the Government has resisted the cross-examination of all the witnesses on various grounds, sources said.
The Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Home, Nasir Aslam Wani, Political Advisor to the Chief Minister, Devinder Singh Rana, Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch), Dr Noor, who had conducted the post-mortem of Haji Yousaf, are among 12 persons, who have been arrayed as witnesses in the much publicized case, sources disclosed.
They said that Commission has adjourned the proceedings in the case till April 27 as the counsel for the Chief Minister has pleaded his inability to appear before April 21 due to some prior engagements.
“On April 27, there will be arguments on the application of Mushtaq Ahmad Dar seeking cross-examination of the witnesses and affidavit of the Government resisting the same”, sources said, adding “it would be only after hearing the arguments from both the sides that the Commission will take any decision on this vital aspect of the case and initiate further proceedings”.
In response to a question, sources said, “as per law, opportunity of cross-examination of the witnesses cannot be denied to the counsel of the aggrieved party. However, before allowing the same the Commission will have to decide as to who are the relevant witnesses, whose cross-examination would be of considerable help in the case”.
“The application seeking cross-examination of all the witnesses in the case was moved by the counsel of Haji Yousaf’s family after visiting the residence of Chief Minister where Yousaf was summoned on September 28, 2011, a day prior to his death allegedly under mysterious circumstances”, sources further said.
Replying to another question, they said, “it would be only after the decision on the cross-examination of the witnesses that the Commission would be in a position to decide whether it can complete its task within the latest deadline fixed by the Government on its request”, adding “at present the Commission has time till May 28 to complete the probe and submit report”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Haji Yousaf was handed over to IG Crime Branch by the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on September 29 last year after he (Haji Yousaf) allegedly admitted to taking money from two NC workers for getting them favours from the Government.
He died a day later and the medical tests so far have revealed that he died of cardiac arrest and that there were no external injuries on his body. His death after he was summoned by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on September 28, 2011 to ascertain whether he was taking money from people on the pretext of getting them Ministerial berths, snowballed into a political controversy with top leadership of NC being directly accused by the Opposition parties in the State.
After Haji Yusuf’s death, the Chief Minister ordered a judicial probe by a sitting J&K High Court Judge. However, after Chief Justice of State High Court expressed his inability to spare a sitting judge, the Government wrote to the Union Law Ministry to provide panel of three retired Supreme Court Judges.
Accordingly, the Union Law Ministry proposed the name of Justice H S Bedi, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, and subsequently a Commission of Enquiry was appointed by the State Government in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 3 of Jammu and Kashmir Commission of Enquiry Act, 1962 to enquire into the causes and circumstances leading to the death of Syed Mohammad Yusuf Shah, son of Sayed Ghulam Ahmed of Loktipora, Bijbehara in Anantnag district

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 10: Within days of being entrusted with the responsibility of handling the affairs of the party, Chief Minister and working president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah, today had nearly two hours long interaction with the Provincial Working Committee of the party Jammu province and chalked out a schedule to personally interact with the workers at all levels. He also advised the party Ministers, Legislators and senior leaders to focus on every nook and corner of the State to ascertain people’s grievances and get the same resolved.
According to the sources in the party, in nearly two hour long meeting, Mr Omar preferred to devote maximum time to elicit views of the Provincial Working Committee members about the party activities at various levels instead of making long speech to them.
He confined his address to only 15 minutes wherein he divulged his plans to interact with the workers at all levels to hear their views regarding the functioning of the party and the steps required to be taken to further strengthen party base in every nook and corner of the State. He also received feed-back from the party leaders about the functioning of the Coalition Government.
Describing National Conference as a fortress of public aspiration, communal amity, solidarity and equitable development of all regions of the State, he asked the party rank and file to render selfless service to the people to mitigate their difficulties and help Coalition Government to carry forward development agenda with firmness and determination.
“National Conference has always stood for the cause of people and history bears testimony to the struggle spearheaded by it for empowerment of common man. Our endeavour in this direction would continue”, he said.
Stating that National Conference and Congress share the ideology of secular democracy and equitable development and both the parties stand for solidarity and holistic development of the State irrespective of any consideration of creed, caste, region, religion or colour, Mr Omar stressed the need for strengthening the coalition to achieve the higher goals in the process of development and restoration of permanent peace.
He advised the party workers to disseminate the people-friendly initiatives taken by the Government during last three years at grass root level. “This is the collective responsibility of one and all to ensure that common masses are made aware about the revolutionary steps taken by the Government”, Mr Omar said, adding “this is also imperative to counter the false propaganda being launched by the Opposition parties”.
Advising the party Ministers and Legislators to focus even on those areas from where the party has no representation in the Government, he said, “you have to highlight the public requirements on development fronts at all fora and at the Government level so that these are properly focused and addressed”.
The working president of the National Conference said that he has formulated a schedule to interact with workers at all levels to hear their views regarding the functioning of the party. “I have asked the provincial presidents and others to finalize meetings with the workers at district level. These meetings will follow the interaction with the party cadre at block and village level”, he added.
He stressed the need for strengthening National Conference at all levels and asked the workers to contribute in this direction. “You represent the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Your glorious past and shining present is with you. You have to work to ensure prosperous future for the State and its people”, he told the workers.
Earlier, Provincial president, Rattan Lal Gupta and all the District presidents of J&K National Conference Jammu province highlighted the issues of the party workers.
Minister for Industries, Surjeet Singh Slathia, Political Advisor to Chief Minister, Devender Singh Rana, MLCs Ajay Sadhotra, Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, Javed Rana, Master Noor Hussain, MLAs Aijaz Jan, Bimla Luthra, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo, Mohammad Aslam Goni, Vijay Lakshmi Dutta, Harbans Singh, Haji Mohammad Hussain, Brij Mohan Sharma, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, Qazi Jalal Din, Ram Paul, Mushtaq Bukhari, Mirza Abdul Rashid, Mohd Aslam Khan, Gh. Haider Malik, Surinder Singh Bunty, Jugal Mahajan and other provincial committee office bearers were present in the meeting.

By Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 10: Former Union minister and president Pradesh Congress Committee, Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz today said that visiting Union Home Minister P Chidambram was satisfied with the security environment in the State and stressed for joint efforts by both the ‘coalition partners’ for further improving the situation here.
The PCC chief who met the Union Home Minister along with a delegation of about fifty Congress functionaries including Dy Chief Minister Tara Chand, some cabinet ministers, legislators and several former ministers and senior party functionaries at State Guest House here this afternoon, told the Excelsior that nearly fifty-five minute dialogue with the Home Minister was held under good and peaceful atmosphere. He said Mr Chidambram was satisfied with the over all security environment in the State. He also referred to the security review meeting which was held here today with various representatives from security agencies. The Union Minister said that last summer had remained peaceful in Kashmir and he was hopeful that this summer will also pass off peacefully. He, however, asked to remain alert from the designs of the anti-national forces. He said it was joint responsibility of both the coalition partners to work in tandem and carry forward the peace agenda and help in improving over all situation in the State.
Prof Soz said the Home Minister expressed that an improvement in the tourists influx and pilgrims rush at Mata Vaishnodevi and Shri Amarnath shrine every year has been witnessed which is clear indicative of normalization of situation in the State. He stressed that both the coalition partners (Congress and NC) have to play a crucial role in further normalizing situation in the State. It was emphasized to improve the tourism infrastructure and facilities for the pilgrims visiting the State. The contribution of security forces including paramilitary forces, VDCs, SPOs and police in improving situation also came for discussion during the meeting.
Referring to the issues of border migrants and PoK refugees, Prof Soz said that he and several other party leaders projected the issue forcefully. It was stressed to resolve their issues once for all by providing adequate compensation. The demand regarding enhancement of cash relief of migrants and special package for Jammu migrants and border people was also projected during dialogue with the Home Minister. When asked about any talks regarding Armed Force Special Powers Act or Interlocutors, Soz said no such issue was discussed with the Home Minister during today’s meeting. He however, said that issue of smooth trade and travel between two sides along the LoC had taken place and he has also emphasized on the same during rally in Kashmir yesterday.
Another senior leader said though earlier, thirty minute time was provided to the 50-member Congress delegation but the time was extended to 55 minutes. He said Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla projected the demand of Rs 1775 crore special package for settlement of PoK, West Pakistan refugees and displaced persons from Chhamb once for all. The demand was also projected before the Union Home Minister to provide cash relief in favour of Jammu migrants at par with the Kashmiri migrants. Some Congress men also pointed out that with the fencing of LoC, infiltration has been contained to large extent specially in Rajouri and Poonch. It was projected that role of armed forces, para-military forces and police besides SPOs and VDCs has been crucial in containing militancy and improving situation in the State. They said that armed forces have a crucial role to play in the State under present situation.
Prominent among those who accompanied Prof Soz included, DyCM Tara Chand, Pt Mangat Ram Sharma, Dharam Pal Sharma, Ministers Raman Bhalla, Sham Lal, Peerzada Mohd Sayed, Dr Manohar Lal, Shabir Khan, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Madan Lal Sharma (MP), Ch Lal Singh (MP), Ravinder Sharma, Ghulam Mohd Saroori, Ghulam Nabi Monga, Bashir Ahmed Magray, Indu Pawar, Subash Chander Gupta, Naresh Gupta and others.
Meanwhile, another deputation of Pahari Culture & Welfare Forum led by former minister Mushtaq Bhukhari called on Union Home Minister and apprised him about their demands. Several other members of the Forum from Rajouri and Poonch accompanied Mr Bukhari.
A deputation of All Party Sikh Coordination Committee led by Jagmohan Singh Raina, chairman, presented a charter of demands to the visiting Home Minister at Guest House today. The other members of the deputation included Ajeet Singh Mastana, Paramjeet Singh Bali, Dr Sheetal Singh, advocate Teja Singh, Harcharan Singh Khalsa, Kulbir Singh, Mohinder Singh, H S Raina and Surinder Singh.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 10: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had wide ranging consultations with Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on several important matters at a meeting held at Raj Bhavan here today.
During their hour long luncheon meeting, the Governor, the Union Home Minister and the Chief Minister discussed several important matters which related, interalia, to the pace of socio-economic development of the State, internal and external security management, measures taken for empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions and ensuing elections to the Urban Local Bodies.

From Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Apr 10: The Deputy Director Technical Education Kashmir today established the violation of the financial code with regard to the sixth Pay Commission arrears by majority of the Drawing and Disbursing Officers of the department.
The Commissioner Secretary Technical Education, Vinod Kaul, today ordered probe into the Sixth Pay Commission arrears scam that was reported by Excelsior today. He has asked the Deputy Director Technical Education Kashmir, Munir Ahmad Shah, to conduct the preliminary inquiry into the scam within a day.
The Deputy Director has reportedly submitted its report to the Commissioner Secretary Technical Education Department this evening where he has confirmed that the Drawing and Disbursing Officers have violated the financial code and demanded special audit of the financial fraud.
Deputy Director Munir Ahmad Shah told Excelsior that majority of the Drawing and Disbursing Officers of the department have released the Sixth Pay Commission arrears in favour of the non-deserving employees and paid amount in cash to them.
Shah said that not only the arrear scam has been established; the fixation in favour of the adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees of the department has also been made in violation of the Government order.
Meanwhile soon after the scam was reported in the newspaper, the Drawing and Disbursing Officers of the ITIs of Pattan, Srinagar and Bandipora were negotiating the remittance of the amount to the respective treasuries to save their skin.
In the meantime, the District Treasury Officer Ganderbal, Syed Farooq Ahmad, told Excelsior he has not passed any of the arrears bills of any adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees of any department.
Ahmad said that ITI Ganderbal had submitted bills of both the regular and adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees of the department together but “we refused to pass them”. He said that they later submitted separate arrear bills of the regular employees that were passed.
The Deputy Director, Munir Ahmad Shah, confirmed that the Treasury Officer Ganderbal has not passed the arrear bills of the adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees of the ITI Ganderbal.
In Jammu division several Drawing and Disbursing Officers of ITIs including Deputy Director Jammu, N K Gupta, have released the sixth Pay Commission arrears bills of adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees of the department.
In the meantime, sources said that the Department of the Technical Education is illegally paying the higher pay scale of Rs 6500-10500 (pre-revised) with effect from 2003 against the sanctioned scale of Rs 4000-6000 to adhoc vocational instructors of all the institutes of ITI sector in the State.
It has been reliably learnt that it is not the Technical Education department only but also Health, PDD and almost all Government departments where DDO’s in league with the treasury officers have released arrears of the sixth Pay Commission to the non-deserving adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees.
The Health department has reportedly released highest amount in cash to its adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees as sixth Pay Commission arrears. According to sources Block Medical Officer (BMO) Ganderbal was pursuing the District Treasury Officer Ganderbal to release two bills worth Rs 4,48,563 and Rs 9,29,043 of these non-deserving employees but the Treasury officer has refused to pass them.
It may be mentioned here according to the Government order (No. 238-F of 2011 dated 30-09-2011) the sixth Pay Commission arrears are to be paid to the regular State Government employees in 5 equal installments in 5 years by debit to their GP Fund.
The arrears are paid in cash to those employees who have retired upto 30-09-2011. The adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees are not entitled to these arrears but crores of rupees has been released in cash to them.

NEW DELHI/AMRITSAR, Apr 10:
After the bonhomie-marked visit of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, five Union ministers will converge at Attari on Friday for inauguration of the first Integrated Check Post (ICP) along the border which is expected to give fresh impetus to Indo-Pak ties.
“India is giving a lot of importance to it as this will enhance India-Pakistan trade manifold and increase people-to- people contacts. The high-profile delegation reflects India’s seriousness to the project,” a Government official said.
Pakistani Commerce Minister Makhdoom Fahim and Chief Minister of that country’s Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif will join the Indian delegation from across the border for opening of the ICP, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet in 2010 and will boost trade between the two countries.
Home Minister P Chidambaram will inaugurate the ICP while Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Science Technology Minister Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for External Affairs Parneet Kaur and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will attend the function.
Water Resource Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is also expected to travel to Attari.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met Zardari while he was in Delhi for a stopover enroute to Ajmer on a private visit, had noted that Pakistan had “moved forward” on the trade front.
Last month, Singh met Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on the sidelines of Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.
At present on an average 200 trucks laden with Indian merchandise cross the Wagah border daily. The new ICP would enable passage of 10 times more the number of trucks.
Pakistan has recently notified a list of 137 items which can be imported from India through land route. The list include vegetables as well as cattle.
Chidambaram had laid the foundation stone of the project in February 2010. The ICP at Attari is being constructed at a cost of about Rs 150 crore on 130 acres of land acquired by the Punjab Government.
The Government had set target to establish six ICPs in the first phase along India’s international borders. They are West Bengal’s Petrapole, Meghalaya’s Dawki, Tripura’s Akhaura (all in Indo-Bangla), Punjab’s Attari (Indo-Pak), Bihar’s Raxaul (India-Nepal) and Manipur’s Moreh (Indo-Myanmar).
The ICPs will have dedicated passenger and cargo terminals comprising adequate customs and immigration facilities, security and scanning equipment, health and quarantine facilities, passenger amenities like waiting areas, restaurants, rest rooms, duty-free shops, banks and financial services, dormitories for drivers and all related facilities like service stations in a single compound.
In the second phase, seven ICPs will be developed of which four are along India-Bangladesh borders-Hilli, Chandrabangha (both in West Bengal), Sutarkhandi (Assam), Kawarpuchiah (Mizoram) — and three are along India-Nepal borders-Jagbani (Bihar), Sunauli and Rupaidiha (both in Uttar Pradesh).
Well-managed ICPs are expected to boost India’s trade with neighbouring countries and also help check smuggling of goods.
Ahead of the ICP inauguration, Secretary Border Management E Ahmed held a meeting with district officials to take stock of the preparations.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is also expected to be present at the function which will coincide with Baisakhi festival in Punjab.
On April 8, the much-awaited ICP underwent a test run and yesterday 50 Pakistani trucks crossed into the country. (PTI)

Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 10: Police today arrested 4 persons and booked them under Public Safety Act (PSA) on charges of human trafficking in north Kashmir and sent them to Central Jail Kot Bhalwal, Jammu for serving the period of detention.
Police said that these persons were involved in immoral business of human trafficking in and around Pattan town in north Kashmir.
Police said that they have been working in an organised gang and exploiting the poor and helpless women hailing from outside State like West Bengal by luring them on the pretext of providing employment in the Valley, but instead they would exploit them sexually and there after sell them to different people for the same purpose for a meager amount of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Police said that the activities of the gang had posed a potential threat to the moral values of the society in general and to the people of the area in particular, besides being prejudicial to maintenance of public order.
Police identified the gang as Ali Mohammad Bhat, 22, son of Sona Ullah Bhat resident of Gund Ibrahim Pattan, Mohammad Subhan Dar, 27, son of Ghulam Nabi Dar resident of Check-Tilwanpora, Mirgund Pattan, Mohammad Altaf Khan, 43, son of Ghulam Mohammad Khan resident of Checki-Razaq Khan Mirgund Pattan and Mohammad Maqbool Dar @Maqbool Kaka, 40, son of Abdul Aziz resident of Check Tilwanpora Mirgund Pattan.
Police said that earlier they had been arrested on January 31 this year at Hanjiwera, Mirgund in Pattan area while they were travelling in a vehicle bearing registration NO: JK01R-1389 along with a victim girl from West Bengal. The girl was found to be a minor of 16 years of age. Medical examination of the girl confirmed her sexual exploitation.
Police said a case (FIR NO: 21/ 2012 U/S 366-B, 376 RPC) stands registered in the matter in Police Station Pattan. Police said that during the course of investigation it was found that this gang of exploiters have been involved in the illegal trade since long. They had lured a number of people of the area into this immoral business in order to make easy bucks, police said. However these exploiters had got themselves released on bail in the instant case, added police.
Meanwhile, Baramulla Police had prepared a dossier of these persons and submitted the same to the District Magistrate Baramulla in order to get them detained under PSA. After studying the dossiers District Magistrate Baramulla issued detention warrants of all the four persons citing that the normal laws are not sufficient to contain the activities of the gang.
People of the area have highly appreciated the role of Police in bringing these notorious persons to book. They have lauded the commitment of Baramulla Police in containing the activities of people involved in immoral and illegal activities.

NEW DELHI, Apr 10:
Army Chief General V K Singh today sent his complaint to the CBI regarding Rs 14 crore alleged bribery offer made to him by a retired officer to clear the supply of a tranche of 600 vehicles.
CBI sources said the complaint has been recieved by them and it is being examined.
Singh, who had made the allegation in a media interview that forced Defence Minister A K Antony to order a CBI inquiry, had alleged in a letter to the agency on March 30 that there was a bribe offer from retired Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh, the sources said.
The agency had asked him to furnish a detailed complaint along with a possible witness list and other supporting documents so that they could proceed with the inquiry, they said.
Tejinder Singh has refuted the allegations and also filed a defamation case against the Army Chief and other officers.
A preliminary enquiry or an FIR could be registered soon after completion of the procedural requirements, the sources said.
The Army Chief had claimed in media interviews that an equipment lobbyist had offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore, a matter which he had reported to the Defence Minister.
The ministry had then recommended a CBI probe into the allegation made by the Army Chief. (PTI)