Excelsiordaily

REGD.NO.JK-71/18-20RNI No. 28547/65Vol No. 54 No. 2 JAMMU, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2018 12 Pages `̀ 5.00

Sanjeev PargalJAMMU, Jan 1: Expected

to be “very stormy”, the 40-day long fourth budget sessionof Legislature of presentGovernment will get under-way tomorrow with GovernorNN Vohra's Address to JointSession of Legislature at 11 amwhile major Opposition par-ties including NationalConference and Congress heldtheir Legislature Party meet-ings today and decided to cor-ner the PDP-BJP coalitionGovernment on a host ofissues.

Ruling PDP LegislatureParty met under the chairperson-ship of Chief Minister and PDPpresident Mehbooba Mufti ather official residence over din-ner tonight to finalize partystrategy to counter theOpposition while joint meetingof PDP-BJP Alliance has beenscheduled for January 3.

Sources told the Excelsiorthat almost all Ministers, MLAs

and MLCs were present at thePDP Legislature party meetingat Mehbooba's official residencein which she reportedly calledupon the party Ministers andlegislators to project achieve-ments of the Government andput up "united face'' in bothHouses to counter the"Opposition propaganda''.

Sources said the PDP leader-ship was of the view that bothmajor Opposition parties includ-ing National Conference andCongress would try to provokethe two coalition partners-thePDP and BJP-by trying toexploit "ideological differences"between the two parties but thetreasury benches must exerciserestraint, put up united front andcounter the Opposition effec-tively.

Ruling PDP was of the viewthat there was "no majorissue'' before NationalConference and Congress, oreven the smaller groups, as sit-

uation by and large remainedpeaceful in the Kashmir valleythis year, barring few inci-dents. However, the partyleaders observed that theOpposition would try to makeout issues "out of nothing''and the PDP legislators shouldbe well prepared to counterthe Opposition effectively inboth the Houses.

Sources said the PDP andBJP Legislature Parties willmeet jointly on January 3 at theresidence of Mehbooba Mufti todevise "collective strategy'' ofthe Alliance for the budget ses-sion.

The BJP Legislature Partyhas already held its meeting onDecember 30 under the chair-manship of BJP national generalsecretary (organizations) RamLal in which a host of issueswere taken up which includedthe ruling party's strategy in theLegislature.

The BJP has decided that

some of its MLAs would contin-ue to project the party's "agenda''but in such a manner that it did-n't hurt the PDP and coalitionfunctioned smoothly in theLegislative Assembly as well asLegislative Council.

Meanwhile, according tosources, the NationalConference legislators met heretoday to discuss the issues to betaken up during tomorrow'sGovernor Address and the budg-et session. The NC had held itsLegislature Party meeting onDecember 20 under the chair-manship of NC LegislatureParty leader Omar Abdullah.

"Today, the NC legislatorsdecided that they would takeup the issues like Kashmir sit-uation, corruption, nepotism,favouritism, governancedeficit, development inertia,backdoor appointments,,shortage of essential supplies,paralysis of administration,

Project achievements, counterOppn forcefully: Mehbooba WASHINGTON, Jan 1:

President Donald Trumptoday tore into Pakistan accus-ing it of giving nothing to theUS but "lies and deceit" andproviding "safe haven" to ter-rorists in return for USD 33billion aid over the last 15years thinking of Americanleaders as "fools".

In his strongest attackagainst Pakistan yet, Trump inhis first tweet of the year on

New Year's day also appeared tosuggest he could cut off foreignaid to Pakistan.

"The United States has fool-ishly given Pakistan more than33 billion dollars in aid over thelast 15 years, and they havegiven us nothing but lies &deceit, thinking of our leaders asfools," Trump said in the strong-ly worded tweet.

"They give safe haven to theterrorists we hunt inAfghanistan, with little help. Nomore!" Trump said.

His remarks come days

after the New York Timesreported that the US is consid-ering withholding USD 225million in aid to Pakistanreflecting its dissatisfaction

with the latter's reluctance inthe war against terrorism.

Shortly after Trump's attack,Pakistan Foreign MinisterKhawaja Asif called on Prime

Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,a Pakistani media report said.

"The meeting held a detailedreview of the Trump's state-ment," the Geo TV reported, cit-ing its sources.

It said the two leaders alsodiscussed on the country's for-eign policy.

"We will respond toPresident Trump's tweet shortlyinshallah...Will let the worldknow the truth..Differencebetween facts & fiction..," Asiftweeted.

In November, the US hadstrongly condemned release ofthe Mumbai attack mastermindHafiz Saeed by Pakistan and haddemanded his immediate re-arrest and prosecution, warningthat there would be "repercus-sions" for bilateral ties ifIslamabad fails to take "decisiveaction" against the JuD chief.

Saeed, who carries a USD 10million American bounty on hishead for terror activities, walkedfree after the PakistanGovernment decided againstdetaining him further in anyother case.

Pak has given US nothing but lies & deceit: Trump

2 boys shun violence

Excelsior CorrespondentSRINAGAR, Jan 1: Two

boys from Kangan area ofSouth Kashmir's Pulwama dis-trict, who had gone missing andlater updated their pictures car-rying a hand grenade oversocial media, have today sur-rendered before Army inPulwama.

The boys Suhail Ahmad Darson of Bashir Ahmad Dar, aclass 10th student and ArifAhmad Dar son of BashirAhmad Dar, a 9th class studenthad gone missing after offering

Indo-Pak NSAsmeet in Thailand

ISLAMABAD, Jan 1:National security advisors

of India and Pakistan held a"secret" meeting in Thailandwhere the tone and tenor ofIndia's NSA Ajit Doval was"friendly and positive", a seniorPakistani official said today.

A Pakistan's national securitydivision official, on the condi-tion of anonymity, said the meet-ing between Pakistan's NSAretired Lt Gen Nasser KhanJanjua and Doval took place onDecember 27 in Thailand, 'TheDawn' newspaper reported.

11 KAS officersshuffled

Excelsior CorrespondentJAMMU, Jan 1: The State

Government today orderedtransfer and postings of 11 KASofficers with immediate effect.

Reyaz Ahmad, SpecialSecretary, Department ofForest, Ecology andEnvironment, has been trans-ferred and posted as SpecialSecretary Higher EducationDepartment while Nitu Gupta,Special Secretary HigherEducation Department, hasbeen transferred and posted asRegistrar, J&K Special

Rs 20 lakh forCRPF martyr

SHIMLA, Jan 1:The Himachal Pradesh

Government today gave an ex-gratia relief of Rs 20 lakh to thefamily of Inspector KuldeepRoy of the 185 Battalion of theCRPF, who was killed in a sui-cide attack by militants inPulwama district of SouthKashmir yesterday.

Roy hailed from TikkarKhatriyan village of Hamirpurdistrict.

Governor Acharya Devvratand Chief Minister Jai RamThakur have expressed grief

Govt relaxes GSTreturn norms

NEW DELHI, Jan 1:The Finance Ministry has

permitted businesses to rectifymistakes in their monthlyreturns - GSTR-3B - and adjusttax liability, a move that willhelp them file correct returnswithout fear of penalty.

This relaxation will give anopportunity to businesses toclaim tax credit correctly byrectifying the mistakes madeinitially while computing GSTliability.

Businesses have been find-ing it difficult to assess tax

INSIDE WEATHERSolar energy fiasco ...Page 6* Gulmarg encroachmentsQuick disposal of cases withfairness major yardstick to judge officer’s quality: CJ ...Page 3PDP-BJP misrule adds towoes of people: Mir ....Page 3Veeri for speedy recovery ofpayments, arrears of custodian land ....Page 5Cong to expose BJP-PDPduring Assembly session: Jora ...Page 5Vidarbha win maidenRanji Trophy ...Page 10

JAMMU : Mainly dry.

TEMPERATUREMax: 18.4 Degree C Min: 6.7 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 89.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 56.0 per centSunset on Tuesday: 05.38 p.m.Sunrise on Wednesday: 07.34 a.m.

SRINAGAR:Mainly dry.

TEMPERATUREMax: 11.2 Degree C Min: -4.4 Degree C

RELATIVE HUMIDITYRH-I (Morning): 96.0 per centRH-II (Evening): 61.0 per cent

LEH: TEMPERATURE

Max: -0.2 Degree C Min: -14.5 Degree C

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Mohinder VermaJAMMU, Jan 1: Though

several new commitments arelikely to be made in theGovernor's Address to JointSession of Legislature tomor-row morning yet StateGovernment has failed to hon-our numerous announcementsmade in the Governor'sAddress of past two years.This has put a serious questionmark on the performance ofthe PDP-BJP CoalitionGovernment, which otherwiseis making tall claims aboutbeing the entirely differentdispensation the State has everwitnessed.

The Governor's Address is

drafted by the Government itselfand is approved by the StateCabinet in its special meetinggenerally convened few daysprior to the commencement ofthe Budget Session. The imple-mentation of all the announce-ments in the Governor's Addressis the responsibility of the con-cerned departments andGovernment is required toensure proper follow-up actionthat too in a time bound mannerso as to ensure good gover-nance.

However, during the

detailed exercise carried outby EXCELSIOR it came to thefore that several commitmentsmade in the Governor'sAddress to the Joint Session ofLegislature on January 2, 2017and on May 25, 2016 have yetnot been implemented by thePDP-BJP CoalitionGovernment thereby under-mining the importance of theLegislature.

As far as Governor's Addressof January 2, 2017 is concerned,it was mentioned that StateGovernment was seriously pur-

suing the project of developmentof Tawi River Front on the pat-tern of Sabarmati River inGujarat and a pilot project ofapproximately 3.5 kilometer ofthe river stretch has been identi-fied to be taken up in the firstphase.

However, there is noprogress on this projectdespite lapse of one year andHousing and UrbanDevelopment Department isstill groping in dark vis-à-vissource of funding even for thefirst phase of the project.Astonishingly, during the pastone year the Ministers andMLAs of the Bharatiya JanataParty came up with numerous

Numerous commitments made in Governor’sAddress of past 2 years fail to become reality Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR Jan 1: Theoperation launched by securi-ty forces against the Fidayeen,who attacked Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) TrainingCentre in Pulwama district ofSouth Kashmir ended todayfollowing the recovery of thebody of third militant.

In a pre-dawn strike, fiveCRPF men were killed whilethree others injured when threeFidayeen of Jaish-e-Mohammadstormed the camp at Letpora inPulwama district yesterday.

The body of third Fidayeenwas recovered this afternoonfrom the debris. Bodies of twoFidayeen Manzoor Ahmad Babafrom Drubgam, Pulwama andFardeen Ahmad Khanday fromNazeempora, Tral were recov-ered yesterday.

As the security forces wereconducting searches last eveningand removing debris, they werefired upon by the third Fidayeenleading to heavy firing.However, the operation was puton hold for the night and in themorning it was resumed andbody of third Fidayeen wasrecovered. However, his identity

was not ascertained and he isbelieved to be Pakistani nation-al.

Special Director General ofCRPF, SN Srivastav, todaytold reporters that the opera-tion continued throughout thenight. "Darkness was a limit-ing factor and it impeded ouroperation. This morning wecontinued the operation andconcluded it with the killing oflast hiding militant. While Iam briefing you some amountof search operation is going onas the campus is very big", hesaid.

"We want to discountchances of anybody hiding any-where, though the chances arebleak. But still we want to befully sure before calling off theoperation. There were no further

3rd Fidayeen shot dead

Excelsior Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Jan 1: Theproposed bunkers along theInternational Border (IB) andLine of Control (LoC) inJammu & Kashmir, which arebeing funded by the UnionHome Ministry, will now beconstructed directly by aCentral Agency like CPWD,NBCC (National BuildingConstruction Corporation),etc.

This was disclosed heretoday by Union Minister DrJitendra Singh while briefingthe media about some of theimportant projects to be under-taken in the New Year in Jammu& Kashmir and Northeast. Onthe occasion, the Minister alsoreleased a 2018 wall - calendarprepared by the Ministry ofNortheast /DoNER.

Dr Jitendra Singh thankedHome Minister Rajnath Singhfor having accepted the requestto undertake the construction ofbunkers along the IB and LoC inJammu & Kashmir directly by aCentral Agency, in order toavoid further delay and also toensure efficiency and trans-parency.

The demand for constructionof bunkers along the Indo-Pakborder in Jammu & Kashmir, DrJitendra Singh said, had beenconsistently made by the BJPeven when it was not in powereither in the State or at theCentre. He said, the ModiGovernment promptly consid-ered the demand for construc-tion of community bunkers, butthen the local people residingalong the borders also made a

demand for individual bunkers.Finally, therefore, within theconstraints of viability and feasi-bility, it was decided to have acombination of communitybunkers as well as individualbunkers and to begin with, theUnion Ministry of Home Affairsformally conveyed to the J&KState Government, the sanctionof Rs 415.73 crore for construc-tion of 14,460 bunkers," headded.

In the meanwhile, DrJitendra Singh disclosed thatthe Union Home Ministry haswritten to the J&K StateGovernment to submit adetailed list containing exactlocation of large communitybunkers as well as a list ofindividual bunkers as per theconditions and norms laiddown for the purpose. He

Central Agency to constructbunkers in J&K: Dr Jitendra

Nishikant KhajuriaJAMMU, Jan 1: It may

sound incredible but is truethat in the Directorate ofHealth Services, Jammu,which has the strength ofaround 900 doctors only ,more than 2000 transfers wereaffected in the last one andhalf year.

While some doctors weretransferred twice and thrice, afew others were shifted evenfour times within days for thereasons best known to the con-cerned authorities at the helm ofaffairs, though officially theseorders were said to be issued ‘inthe interest of administration’.

On the other hand, some blue

eyed and influential doctors con-tinued to evade the ingenuousduty by managing to remainattached at the Directorate officeor at the so called EveningClinics in Jammu City notwith-standing a clear direction by theCommissioner Secretary Healthto Director Health Jammu forimmediate detachment of all theattachments and adjustment ofsurplus doctors in Jammu.

Pertinent to mention thattotal sanctioned strength of doc-tors in the Directorate of HealthServices Jammu is 1370 whileworking strength is only around900. However, more than 2000transfers were affected in theJammu Directorate during thelast one and half year with sev-

eral doctors shifted frequentlywithin days till their pick andchoose adjustment at suitableplace, official sources told theExcelsior with documentary evi-dences in this regard.

While elaborating, sourcesquoted several orders, mostlyindividual, according to whichsome doctors were transferredfrom one place to another andwithin days, the same personwas shifted to second andsometime third or even fourthplace to adjust the blue eyed.

Listing the examples,sources quoted the orders of fre-quent shifting of a femaleMedical Officer, who was trans-ferred thrice within two months.

More than 2000 transfers in one & halfyear though DHS has only 900 doctors

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 1: FinanceMinister Dr Haseeb Drabusaid today that the PDP-BJPAlliance was doing “remark-able well’’ and it will last fullterm even as he observed thatseveral significant issues men-tioned in ‘Agenda of Alliance’of the two parties have beenfulfilled in less than half of theterm of the Government.

In an interview to theExcelsior, Dr Drabu said theAlliance between the two parties

has beenw o r k i n gwell withboth thep a r t n e r sshowing lotof maturity.

“The BJPleadership in

New Delhi as well as Jammuand Kashmir and the PDP lead-ership in the State have beenshowing lot of maturity andworking with great responsibili-ty. Unlike the previous coalitionGovernments, the presentAlliance is firmly in placedespite ‘ideological differences’between the two parties. Thecoalition will complete its fullterm of six years,’’ he said.

Asserting that it would betoo early to take a view onwhether the PDP and BJP willcontest 2019 Lok Sabha and

2020 Assembly elections togeth-er, the Finance Minister, howev-er, maintained that comfort levelbetween the two parties is veryhigh despite grave provocationsfrom some quarters.

“Both sides now know eachother very well,’’ he remarked.

Dr Drabu maintained that itwas due to PDP-BJP Alliancethat “extreme polarization’’ wasnot in Jammu and Kashmir. “The BJP has been taking careof Jammu and the PDP Kashmir.Both have very good equationsand the State is benefiting fromthe Alliance,’’ he asserted.

The Finance Minister, how-ever, didn’t agree with generalperception that incidents ofstone pelting have gone downconsiderably in Kashmir due todemonetization.

“There seems to be no linkbetween demonetization and

stone pelting. But definitely,the stone pelting incidentsstopped suddenly. I don’t seeany link between the two but itis a fact that stone peltingstopped all of a sudden,’’ headded.

On implementation of‘Agenda of Alliance’ reachedbetween the two Alliance part-ners before forming theGovernment, Dr Drabu said anumber of points mentioned inthe Agenda have already beenimplemented.

“The talks have been startedby the Centre through SpecialRepresentative DineshwarSharma. He has made it clearthat he was ready to talk withHurriyat Conference. The PrimeMinister’s DevelopmentPackage worth Rs 80,000 crores

Won’t contest next election, if powerprojects not returned: Drabu

Suhail BhatSRINAGAR, Jan 1: Government's inability

to clear its liability towards Small ScaleIndustrial Units (SSIUs) has taken the numberof defunct electric transformers to 340 inKashmir.

An official at Power Development Departmentsaid the number of transformers awaiting repairkept on changing as the workshops received mul-tiple complaints every day. "I have never seensuch demand. We are receiving more transformersthis year. The numbers are probably more thanwhat it used to be two decades back when menand machinery were less", he said.

At one of the workshops in South Kashmir'sPulwama town, an official of the PDD lamented

Unit holders refuse to repairas Govt fails to release money

‘Alliance doingwell, will last

full term’

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Pic on page 9

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Malangpora village in Pulwama waits fortransformer damaged a week ago.

-Excelsior/Younis Khaliq(Contd on page 9 Col 5)

Individuals shifted twice, thrice within days

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PDP, NC, Cong LPs devise strategy

40-day long budget session begins today

(Contd on page 9 Col 7)

‘They gave safe haven to terrorists’

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*Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com

Pak bans JuD from collecting donations

LAHORE, Jan 1: Pakistan today banned

Mumbai attack mastermindHafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-udDawa and Falah-i-InsaniatFoundation from collectingdonations, on a day whenPresident Donald Trumpaccused Islamabad of givingnothing to the US but "liesand deceit" and providing"safe haven" to terrorists.

The Securities andExchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP) issued a

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Major question mark on performance of PDP-BJP Coalition Govt

Good governance remainsconfined to statements

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Had inputs about attack: Spl DG

(Contd on page 9 Col 7)

340 transformers defunct in Kashmir