Kashmir problem

Apr 21, 2005

       Pak woman's claim rings warning bells  

                                                                              S.P. Sharma

                                                                     Tribune News Service

 

Jammu, April 20

A Pakistani woman, who travelled to Jammu and Kashmir in the inaugural bus service from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar on April 7, and has now resorted to legal recourse to reclaim the property that her father had left in the Kashmir valley in 1949 when he migrated to PoK, has sounded warning bells for those who were allotted evacuee properties after the country Partition.

 

The incident has created fear among the allottees residing in the evacuee properties for the past 58 years as the bus service has opened the door for their eviction in case of claimants coming here from Pakistan or the PoK areas.

 

Thousands of persons were allotted the evacuee properties after they migrated here from Pakistan in 1947. However, unlike other parts of the country the Jammu and Kashmir Government continues to officially maintain the evacuee properties.

 

A sword was hung over the heads of the allottees by the then National Conference government that introduced in 1982 the Resettlement Bill in the legislature seeking to restore the evacuee properties to the genuine claimants who returned here from Pakistan. The Bill was passed by the two Houses, but is currently challenged in the Supreme Court.

 

The issue was politicised by the Congress and the BJP during the elections in 1983 when the former managed to sweep the Assembly poll in the Jammu region by highlighting the disadvantages of the Bill. Hundreds of families, particularly in the Jammu region, face uncertainty because of the legislation.

 

Initially, the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed tried to dispel the apprehensions that starting the bus service would not affect the allottees. However, the action of the Pakistani woman, Fareeda Ghani, who has filed papers to reclaim her three properties in the valley, has created a peculiar situation.

 

Such happenings are not new in the state. A Pakistani national, who crossed into Poonch district from across the LoC, filed his papers for contesting the last Lok Sabha elections from the Jammu-Poonch constituency. However, a special scrutiny of his papers was held following media reports about his nationality and the Election Commission debarred him. However, the state government has not so far taken any action to either push him and his family members back or detain them for overstaying in India without valid documents.

 

Meanwhile, taking a serious note of the Pakistani national reclaiming her property, the state BJP has described it as a conspiracy hatched by the Congress-supported PDP to alter the demographic landscape of Jammu.

 

The vice-president of the BJP, Prof Hari Om, today expressed fear that those who were settled on evacuee properties in 1947 might get ousted once the visitors from PoK started reclaiming the properties they had left back during Partition.

 

He said that the state government had allowed these visitors to stay here beyond April 21 while they were supposed to return to their native land as part of the second trip of the bus service.

 

terror in J&K

July 20, 2005

           Ration for poor passed on to terrorists 

                                                                         S.P. Sharma

                                                               Tribune News Service 

 

Jammu, July 19

With fudged figures of the number of families below poverty line (BPL) in Jammu and Kashmir, a large quantity of ration meant for them is being passed on to terrorists particularly in border districts.

 

No actual survey appears to have been made to ascertain the number of BPL families and different departments were making conflicting claims. The Planning Commission of India has also taken serious view of the fudged figures that have been prepared by different departments.

 

During recent raids on terrorist hideouts, particularly in Doda, Poonch and Rajouri districts, the security forces recovered a huge quantity of ration. The ration was reportedly supplied by the FCI to the BPL families in the far-flung areas.

 

During Operation Sarapvinash in the Hill Kaka area of Poonch, the Army recovered more than 2,000 quintals of ration from various hideouts of terrorists.

 

There were allegations that not only officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department but also the transport mafia responsible for siphoning off the government ration.

 

The vigilance department has registered a case in which ration worth more than Rs 40 crore meant for the Antoyadaya and BPL families in the Marwah block of Doda district was misused. Against the nearly 20,000 population of the block, the authorities were drawing ration for a population of about 56,000 every month.

 

The same was the case with most of the kerosene depots that were thriving on illicit trade.

 

One of the data complied by the state government claimed that there were 7.86 lakh BPL families in the state. Another document claimed that 57 per cent of the households were BPL. Another department put the figure at 3.98 per cent.

 

Piqued over these figures, the planning commission has pointed out that how can one reconcile 57 per cent on one hand and 3.98 per cent on the other? "It seems that none of them is correct".

 

According to yet another figure released recently by a minister, the number of BPL families in the state was 6,04,369. Interestingly, within a couple of days another minister put the figure at 7.36 lakh.

 

The commission observed that it would be futile to continue pumping money into the state for poverty alleviation programmes without having a realistic estimation of poverty in the state.

 

It observed that a modest attempt at analysing the implementation of various rural development programmes provided a "very sad" picture in terms of accountability and fund utilisation.

 

It said a disturbing feature of rural development interventions in the state was the implementation mechanism adopted for the major poverty alleviation programmes and schemes.

 

"It seems that instead of helping rural poor to come out of the poverty trap, these interventions have further drifted them into it. The amount of money pumped into various development programmes should have resulted in complete rural poverty."

 

Self-rule

Dec.7, 2005

       Centre's silence on 'self-rule' theory creates discontent 

                                                                         S.P. Sharma

                                                                   Tribune News Service 

 

Jammu, December 6

With the Centre and the Congress keeping mum on the sensitive issues of "self-rule" and joint control of India and Pakistan over Kashmir, a lot of confusion has been generated here by separatists, Mufti's PDP and the National Conference (NC) that are blowing their own trumpet on these proposals.

 

Neither the Centre nor the Congress has reacted to utterances of these parties that has once again created an atmosphere of uncertainty in this terrorism-hit state.

 

By raising such issues that smack of separatism, these parties may be trying to maintain their hold in the Kashmir valley, but anger against them has started brewing in Jammu and Ladakh regions where people are in no mood to reopen the issue of accession of the state.

 

The PDP and the NC in particular are trying to keep themselves a step ahead of each other on the issue.

 

While the PDP chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, recently advocated the "joint control" theory, the NC president, Mr Omar Abdullah, yesterday announced that he would go to Pakistan to present a copy of the autonomy report to president Pervez Musharraf and discuss the issue with him.

 

He said the "self-rule" proposal of the Pakistan President was no different from the autonomy roadmap of the NC.

 

The PDP has started splitting particularly in the Jammu region with a section of party activists annoyed at the statements of Ms Mufti on the issue.

 

The autonomy being sought by the NC aims at self-governance, except on the three matters of defence, communication and foreign affairs that would be taken care of by India and Pakistan.

 

On the other hand, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has been demanding self-rule in both sides of Kashmir, without any interference of India and Pakistan in day-to-day functioning.

 

Dr Farooq Abdullah, patron of the NC, is annoyed that the Centre has not taken any steps to constitute a committee to study the implementation of the autonomy report in the state.

 

The Assembly had adopted a resolution seeking autonomy for the state a few years ago and forwarded it to the Centre.

 

General Musharraf had some time ago tossed up the proposal of creating seven separate entities out of Jammu and Kashmir. Now the US-based Kashmir Study Group (KSG) has jumped into the scene, suggesting reconstitution of J&K with five entities, three in the Indian side of Kashmir and two in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), that would be self-governing.

 

However, the BJP is opposed to the rhetoric of these parties whom it accuses of having made a common cause not only to outrage the sensitivities of the people of Jammu and Ladakh, but also to move the state away from the constitutional organisation of India.

 

Prof Hari Om, vice-president of the BJP, in a statement here today, said the statements of Dr Abdullah and his son, Mr Omar Abdullah, seeking restoration of pre-1953 status for Jammu and Kashmir indicated that they were against the Indian Constitution and they wanted a dispensation in the state which was "sectarian, unaccommodating and anti-minorities".

 

He described the suggestion of the Hurriyat leader, Mr Umar Farooq, in favour of the Pakistan proposed self-rule as a definite proof that the valley-based and valley-centric leadership was striving hard to ensure dilution of Indian sovereignty in J and K.

 

Prof Hari Om urged pro-India forces to join hands and form a nationalist front against all those putting forth such "anti-national and communal solutions" such as greater autonomy, self-rule and joint control of India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

Apr.30, 2007

     

       Roundtable conference: Parties come out of hibernation

                                                                         S.P. Sharma

                                                                Tribune News Service 

 

Jammu, April 29

The third roundtable conference (RTC) has triggered political activity and a series of public meetings by mainstream parties and separatists giving an impression that snap polls might be held for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

 

The Kashmir valley has become a battlefield where not only the coalition partners, the Congress and the PDP, were holding separate public meetings almost every day, but Opposition parties have also started flexing their muscles.

 

With a term of six years, the elections for the Assembly here are due in November next year, but feverish political activity points towards early polls. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently asked Congress activists to be prepared for early elections.

 

The recent statement of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf that solution to the Kashmir problem might come earlier than expected has also caused speculations and expectations in the valley.

 

Hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's public meeting in the heart of the Srinagar city where anti-India slogans were raised on Monday last has generated heat in the state as well as in Parliament. In a belated action, a couple of Geelani's lieutenants have been taken in custody.

 

Geelani and PDP leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed were targets of the National Conference (NC) leaders, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, in their public meeting at Srinagar yesterday. The father and son accused the Mufti of representing the voice of militants. They challenged Geelani to test his strength by contesting the Assembly elections.

 

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, has added yet another dimension to the controversy by suggesting to New Delhi to provide a safe passage for the return of terrorists to Pakistan.

 

Qayyum Khan, who was in New Delhi to participate in the "heart-to-heart" talks on Kashmir organised by Bhim Singh of the Panthers Party, also gave a clean-chit to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit by describing it as a non-terrorist organisation.

 

Chief Minister Azad was prompt in rejecting the demand when he announced at Reasi yesterday that there was no question of amnesty to ultras.

 

Interestingly, while the former terrorists, who have now joined the mainstream here, were stressing that the Centre and the state governments should not bow before the separatists,leaders of various political parties were demanding that New Delhi should initiate dialogue with not only the separatists but also the Pakistan-based top terrorist leader Syed Salahudin.

 

The Mufti and transport minister Hakeem Yaseen have been making the demand. They are learnt to have touched the issue also during the RTC in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

 

However, Salahudin's former deputy Usman Majeed ridicules the demand by pointing out the situation might go out of control once the Centre showed its weakness before the separatists and ultras. Majeed warned that Musharraf's road map would lead towards the separation of Kashmir from India.

 

On the other hand, Hashim Qureshi, who hijacked an IAC aircraft to Pakistan leading to the war of 1971, is now critical of Pakistan and was opposed to any dialogue with ultras.

 

BJP leader Hari Om, who has returned after participating in the RTC, says abrogation of the Article 370 providing special status to Jammu and Kashmir was the only solution to the Kashmir problem.

 

J&K Controversy

Apr 4, 2007

                                Demand for troops reduction

                   Mufti in line of fire

                                                                     S.P. Sharma

                                                             Tribune News Service

 

Jammu, April 3

The Centre's decision to set up three committees for examining the demand of reduction of troops in Jammu and Kashmir has created political as well as regional polarisation in the state with Mufti Mohammed Sayeed being targeted by almost all partners of the ruling coalition and the Opposition.

 

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and his other coalition partners have come out with strongly worded statements against the demand for pullout of troops.The PDF and the CPM have criticised the Centre for trying to "befool" the people of Kashmir.

 

However, the Kashmir-based parties in the coalition have in a guarded language not come out openly against reduction of troops, but their statements expose the level of their anger against the Mufti who has "stolen" the show by taking lead in raising the demand.

 

The Jammu-based parties were gunning for the Mufti for seeking the pullout of troops that were deployed to protect lives of innocent people. Residents of villages around Thriat, where five labourers were killed by terrorists, chanted slogans not against Azad but against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mufti and Pakistan when the Chief Minister visited there on Saturday.

 

The politics of demilitarisation has puzzled the common man as Azad continues to stick to his guns by announcing that there was no question of pullout of troops from the state and more armed forces would be inducted in case terrorist strikes like the one in Thriat reoccurred.

 

On the other hand, the coalition partners of the Congress-led government were rallying around Azad by criticising the Mufti, who made the Centre to set up the three panels, including one headed by defence minister A.K.Antony. They have described the exercise just an "eye wash" to enable the Mufti show his face to the people in Kashmir.

 

But there was jubilation in the PDP camp over the "victory" of the Mufti. The political affairs committee (PAC) of the PDP in its meeting at Srinagar on Saturday appreciated the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for taking a "very sensitive, impassionate, understanding and enlightened view of the prevailing situation in the state".

 

The sincerity of the purpose shown by the Central leadership by establishing a mechanism that will hopefully further improve the ground realities, inspire peoples' confidence in the political processes and institutions and pave the way for a just and dignified resolution of the Kashmir issue, the PAC added.

 

The PDP leadership has clarified that it never demanded the complete withdrawal of troops, but was seeking their measured and responsible reduction and repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

 

Transport minister and chairman of the PDF, Hakeem Yaseen, described the Centre's decision as "eye-wash" and declared this yet another "humiliation and joke with people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly people of Kashmir who are being taken for granted and befooled in the garb of committees which are actually escape routes".

 

Hakeem said the committees constituted on the demand of the PDP would be headed by the defence minister, who has already revealed his mind that not a single soldier will be withdrawn from the state.

 

He claimed that the PDF was pioneer of demilitarisation slogan but "we will project this at appropriate time and not surrender after making behind curtain deals. By stealing the slogan, PDP has created difficulties for pro-people parties."

 

He demanded convening of the 3rd Round Table Conference (RTC)to expose opportunists and also provide equal ground to all political parties, including separatists to put forth their viewpoint.

 

Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, state secretary of CPM which is supporting the Azad government, has described the Centre's decision as "rigmarole and eyewash". The Central government, once again, seems to have skirted the real issue in Kashmir, which is evident from its response to the demand for reduction of forces in the state.

 

Monkey kingdon

Jan 9,2006

                                                  M A I N   N E W S

Monkey rule in Udhampur village

S.P. Sharma

Tribune News Service 

 A passerby in a deserted lane of Chirai village in Udhampur district tries to avoid the monkeys' attention.

— Photo by writer

 

 

Chirai (Udhampur), January 8

With lanes deserted, this obscure village in the foothills of the Pir Panchal range presents a curfew-like situation even at mid-noon as the residents not step out of their houses because of the fear of monkeys.

 

The burgeoning population of monkeys has forced several residents of the village to flee to "safer" places like Udhampur and Jammu.

 

The position is equally bad in the neighbouring villages of Dhani, Kambal-Danga and Balnagar, but no one has yet migrated from there.

 

Residents of Chirai say that the monkeys who virtually rule there have thrown life in the village out of gear. Women and children are frightened to venture out of their houses. Many incidents of monkey bite have occurred in the past few months.

 

A schoolboy was saved from monkeys, who injured him badly by taking out flesh from his cheek.

 

Ravi Abrol, a panchayat member, told this correspondent that the population of the village had considerably come down with almost 65 of the 100 households migrating from there because of the monkey menace.

 

On the other hand, the population of monkeys was growing day by day. Their strength has increased to more than 1,500 against the human population of just about 350.

 

Mr Abrol said panchayat members approached wildlife officials some time ago, but they expressed inability to do anything in the matter.

 

He said it had become difficult for the villagers to sleep even during night as monkeys kept jumping on the tin roofs.

 

A stick has become an essential part of life for the men when they come out of the house. Otherwise monkeys attack them and snatch eatables they carry.

 

Mr Mool Raj another resident of the village, said they had to bolt doors of houses from inside even in day time to save belongings from monkeys, who open the fridge and take away eatables.

 

The farmers in the adjoining area of about 5 square km have stopped cultivating their land or growing vegetable as the monkeys destroy the fields. Mr Mool Raj said till the past few years they were self-sufficient in grains and vegetables, but now they had to buy these from market.

 

Mr Ravi Kumar, a shopkeeper, said he had to keep the door of his shop closed even in the daytime because of fear. Monkeys snatch the merchandise from the hands of people.

 

He said only those such people were now left in the village who were financially unsound and not in a position to buy land outside. There were no buyers of property in the village and most of the abandoned houses had decayed.

 

Mr Ashwani Kumar, a chemist, said his relatives in other villages had stopped coming to meet them because of the fear of monkeys.

 

July 9, 2007

  Planning panel not to fund Project Snow Leopard 

                                                                  S.P. Sharma

                                                        Tribune News Service 

 

Jammu, July 8

The Planning Commission has not allowed funds to five Himalayan states to save snow leopard, an endangered species, facing threat to its survival.

 

Sources said the commission had refused to fund a separate snow leopard project and had asked the five state governments to merge the project with ongoing schemes for the conservation of wildlife. Project Tiger and Project Elephant will also be merged in the main scheme in the 11th plan.

 

The Union Ministry of Environment on July 31 last year set up a committee under the chairmanship of additional director- general of forests (wildlife) to draft strategy and action plan for the formulation of Project Snow Leopard. Chief wildlife wardens of J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, which are considered home to snow leopard, were, besides others, included as members of the committee. The committee, set up on the recommendation of a national workshop at Leh in July last year, is learnt to have prepared a report within stipulated eight months with inputs of all five states and strategies to protect the endangered species.

 

Disallowing separate funds for the project, the commission has asked these governments to formulate strategy within existing wildlife schemes by earmarking 3 per cent of the total outlay for this purpose. The commission is also learnt to have suggested the Wildlife Departments should pursue a landscape level approach by focusing on the entire terrain where snow leopards move. Confining to the wildlife sanctuaries will not be a proper approach.

 

Wildlife experts had hopes on the conservation of snow leopard in the high altitude when the committee was set up. However, the action of the commission has disappointed them. They expressed concern over the fast dwindling number of the species in the country where estimates put the number of snow leopards at only 500 with about 60 per cent of their population in the Ladakh region.

 

The five Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal , Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the abode of the snow leopard, have expressed inability to conserve the species unless the Centre announces a project on snow leopard.

 

The Leh workshop had stressed the species could be conserved only through a focused strategy and action plan. It was essential local communities were involved in conservation efforts.

 

Population of snow leopard in the world went down to 1000 in 1960s, but now it is estimated to have increased to more than 3500. Snow leopard is found in China, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Burma, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and India.

 

The Centre had been going slow on the conservation of the snow leopard as it was 20 years ago that concern was expressed about the decreasing population of the species at an international symposium on snow leopard held at Srinagar in 1986.

 

Wildlife experts have expressed concern over the gradual opening of the snow leopard areas to development pressures threatening its habitat. The Ladakh area has remained neglected from wildlife conservation point. Piecemeal efforts for the conservation of the snow leopard have been made from time to time. A scheme for its protection was formulated in 1988 when an area of 18,627 sq km in the five states was brought under its conservation. Protection of snow leopard again came into focus in 2004 at a two-day workshop at Jammu and a concept paper was drafted to initiate the project snow leopard.

 

At the workshop at Leh, representatives of all five states shared concern that the high altitudes of the country were generally close to international borders, some of which are also conflict zones. The presence of military and paramilitary forces often harmed interests of wildlife. The issue required to be addressed under a project on snow leopard, they had suggested.