Brig Rajinder Singh's birth anniversary to be celebrated
JAMMU, April 28 — The Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to celebrate the birth anniversary of the late Brig Rajinder Singh, the saviour of the state from Pakistani invaders who had attacked Kashmir in October, 1947.

J&K plan on defunct schools
JAMMU, April 28 — The Minister for School Education, Mr Mohammad Sharief Tariq has said that defunct schools located in the far-flung and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir will be made functional by appointing teachers on an ad hoc basis.

J&K in fix over fate of bill
JAMMU, April 28 — The state government is in a fix over the fate of the bill on increasing the seats of the Legislative Council by eight which had been sent to the President for approval.

NC to contest all seats on its own
From M L Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 28 — The National Conference, which had won three of the six Lok Sabha seats in 1998, has no plan of contesting the ensuing mid-term poll in alliance with any political party. In principle, it has decided to contest all six seats on its own.

Since the distance between the National Conference and the Congress, with which it could forge an alliance, has not been narrowed owing to the former's continued support to the BJP-led combine at the Centre, there is no other political party with which the National Conference could have an electoral understanding.

The question of having any understanding or seat adjustment with the BJP was ruled out after the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, received reports that his support to the BJP-led government had resulted in erosion in the strength of the National Conference in the Kashmir valley. The National Conference leadership had political and economic compulsions for lending issue-based support to the BJP but still the Chief Minister had been misunderstood even by his close party colleagues.

Dr Abdullah has, time and again, made it clear that the state government had to support whichever party was in power at the Centre. The 1984 events, when his duly elected government had been dislodged through defections "engineered" by the Congress, had made Dr Abdullah a wise man. Since then he had been telling his friends that even if the National Conference had a two-thirds majority in the assembly it could not be a shield against the toppling game if the Centre wooed dissidents, and last year the Congress had started winning over more than 20 disgruntled National Conference MLAs for repeating the 1984 drama. Since the Congress was not in power to the Centre, the move was dropped.

Equally important is the economic factor responsible for Dr Abdullah siding with the BJP. He knows it well that a state government which has no internal resources to meet the wage bill of the employees can hardly take up the cudgels against the Centre. Hence, he has toed the usual line of supporting the party that is in power at the Centre.

But his critics have started exploiting the NC's support to the BJP. As such, Dr Abdullah has to be very cautious in fielding candidates from the six Lok Sabha constituencies after he has thrown out Prof Saifuddin Soz from the National Conference. Professor Soz had won from the Baramulla constituency right from 1984 and it was only in 1996 that he could not re-enter the Lok Sabha after the National Conference had boycotted the poll.

A small lobby within the National Conference is in favour of reviewing the expulsion of Professor Soz from the party. This lobby has already explained to Dr Abdullah that once Professor Soz was back in the National Conference he could act as a bridge between Dr Abdullah and the Congress and other non-BJP parties. It is believed that Professor Soz, as candidate of the National Conference, could pose a serious threat to the Opposition parties in the Baramulla constituency.

Reports reveal that several political leaders, including those belonging to the Congress, are trying to seek secret support from separatist organisations, including the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party headed by Mr Shabir Ahmed Shah and some militant outfits, so that the National Conference fails to win a single seat from the Kashmir valley, which has three Lok Sabha constituencies.

If this permutation and combination fructifies, the only alternative for the National Conference, according to party sources, will be to contest the Lok Sabha poll on six seats on its own and without joining hands with any political party. The National Conference leadership is not prepared to allow people to misconstrue its electoral adjustment with any political group. It hopes to do better when it will be the National Conference versus the rest in the state, so that it has a chance to sail through with a marked division in the non-NC votes.

15 militants arrested

SRINAGAR, April 28 (UNI) — Militants killed two persons and kidnapped a special police officer and his wife while the security forces captured 15 militants and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in the Kashmir valley during the past 24 hours.

An official spokesman said militants entered the house of Mohammad Hussain in the Dayann Sigdi forest area and shot him dead. The body of Bhagat Ram was recovered from Nazwani Top last evening.

He said militants entered the house of special police officer Khalil Ahmad and kidnapped him along with his wife at Gujhaar last evening.

He said militants hurled a grenade at a patrol party at Gojwara Chowk last evening. However, the grenade did not explode and was later defused.

Militants and the security forces exchanged fire at Dooru in south Kashmir. However, no one was hurt in the incident.

He said the security forces captured 15 militants and recovered arms and ammunition, including five AK rifles, one pistol, 21 magazines, 5 kg of explosives, two pencil bombs, 80 detonators, three wireless sets, two grenade launchers, one remote control device, one compass and more than 350 cartridges, from them.

Brig Rajinder Singh's birth anniversary to be celebrated
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, April 28 — The Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to celebrate the birth anniversary of the late Brig Rajinder Singh, the saviour of the state from Pakistani invaders who had attacked Kashmir in October, 1947.

Mr Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Minister of State for Home, said the year-long celebrations would be launched on June 14 from a Rajinderpura, the native village of the brigadier popularly known as Bagoona. Wreaths would be laid at his samadhi and cultural programmes would be held. Recalling the service of the Army officer the minister, said Brig Rajinder Singh and his 150 brave soldiers had delayed the entry of over 5,000 invaders to Jammu and Kashmir on October 27, 1947 for four days. His action enabled Maharaja Hari Singh to complete the state's historic secession proceedings with India.

A sub-committee for finalising the arrangements of the birth centenary functions has been constituted to work under its convener the Divisional Commissioner, Mr B.S. Jaswal.

The minister further said programmes highlighting the supreme sacrifice of the Brigadier would be telecast on Doordarshan transmitted on radio. Issuance of commemoration stamps releasing of cartoon books for children, souvenir and video films, sport melas at the districts and tehsil headquarters would also be a part of the celebrations. Installation of his statue, display of lifesize (out-outs, debates essay writing, on the spot painting competitions, setting up of a museum-cum-library in the ancestral house of the brigadier, publication of posters, advertisements and a carved out write-up at Rajinder Park, Jammu are the other main highlights of the celebrations.

J&K plan on defunct schools
From Our Correspondent

JAMMU, April 28 — The Minister for School Education, Mr Mohammad Sharief Tariq has said that defunct schools located in the far-flung and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir will be made functional by appointing teachers on an ad hoc basis.

Mr Tariq who was speaking at a function organised to release a magazine "Surbhi" started by the Government Higher Secondary School Domana, yesterday, also urged the teachers to impart quality education among students.

He expressed his displeasure over the declining trend in enrolment in government schools. He sought the cooperation of the teaching community in upgrading the standards in schools and eliminating dominance of private schools.

Giving details of the measures taken by the government to improve the service conditions of teachers," he said while the services of the ZEOs had been regularised, the regularisation of principals, lecturers and headmasters was in the pipeline.

J&K in fix over fate of bill
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 28 — The state government is in a fix over the fate of the bill on increasing the seats of the Legislative Council by eight which had been sent to the President for approval.

The bill had been sent to the President through the Union Home Ministry more than a year ago. It had been returned to the state with the remarks that it should justify the need for increasing the seats of the Upper House.

The state government resubmitted the document along with the reasons that called for enhancing the number of seats. It explained that since the seats of the State Assembly had been raised from 76 to 87, this increase had to be reflected in the Upper House also.

It was three months ago that the Union Home Ministry had raised fresh objections and the state had sent a reply. Since then the file had been pending in the Prime Minister's Office.

State Law Ministry sources said that attempts had been made to find out the fate of the bill but there was no response from the Prime Minister's Office.