New Delhi, October 8 :

After Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent “successful” visit to Jammu and Kashmir, an upbeat BJP claimed that preparatory works were “on course” to go to the hustings alone, as the party expected the Assembly elections in the union territory to be held in the summers next year.

Sources in the Election Commission said the final electoral rolls would be published by the end of next month, as scrutiny of the voters’ list would be completed by that time. The revision of the electoral rolls of the UT began soon after submission of the report of the Delimitation Commission redrawing the Assembly segments in May this year.

What is important is the fact that the fresh electoral rolls will include migrants from PoK and erstwhile West Pakistan as well as those who had left Kashmir during height of militancy. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had earlier issued an order giving voting rights to a person residing in J&K for at least 15 years, as he or she will be treated as a domicile of the UT.

BJP leaders appeared quite enthused after seeing large turnout and the response of the crowd at Shah’s public rally in Baramulla. They claimed that such a response was indicative of the “normalised” atmosphere in the Valley, which “makes us believe that the time has come to hold elections”.

On the Home Minister’s stance of “no talks with Pakistan”, sources in the BJP said the party would not go in for any alliance with a party that demands for dialogue with Islamabad or has any links with the Hurriyat. They said the BJP would not have any poll arrangements with the newly formed Democratic Azad Party of former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad either.

Shah, during his three-day visit to the UT, had announced that Paharis of J&K would soon get reservation in education and jobs as ST, which is seen as a pre-election promise aimed at widening his party’s support base.

Jammu, October 8:

Five persons were apprehended and booked under Sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the recent recovery of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Poonch district, the police said on Friday.

The IED was smuggled in from across the Line of Control (LoC) and recovered from a woman at Parade Park in Poonch town on September 28.

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“The woman revealed that her husband, Mohd Azad, provided the IED to her and, accordingly, he was picked up and subjected to sustained questioning, leading to the busting of the whole module,” Senior Superintendent of Police (Poonch) Rohit Baskotra told media.

He said Azad’s maternal uncle Tika Khan, who is in Pakistan, arranged the IED. It was subsequently smuggled into India and handed over to him by Qamardin and Wajahat, both of whom have been taken into custody. The name of another person, suspected cross-border smuggler Kamaldin, also emerged during the questioning of the accused.

Ramban, Oct : Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta along with Additional Chief Secretary Home and Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh Friday took a first-hand appraisal of the progress of four laning of the Banihal-Nashri stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) in Ramban district besides reviewing the status of traffic movement on the highway.

The chief secretary visited vulnerable spots and proposed truck holding areas at Rampadi in the Chambalwas area and directed the RO NHAI to immediately clear the debris lying at various locations alongside NH-44 on the Banihal­Nashri stretch to facilitate smooth double-lane vehicular traffic movement besides developing truck holding areas.

He issued directions for constituting a committee to be headed by Principal Secretary, PW (R&B) Department and comprising the Administrative Secretary, Transport Department, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, IG Traffic, Deputy Commissioner Ramban, and SSP Ramban to submit a plan to regulate the traffic movement smoothly on the NH-44 on the Banihal-Nashri stretch.

During a high-level meeting at Chanderkote, Mehta directed the IGP Traffic to implement all the directions issued regarding the holding area management at all four proposed locations on the Banihal-Ramban stretch to accommodate stranded vehicles in the event of the closure of NH-44 due to bad weather.

Directing the Regional Officer, NHAI to expedite the pace of the widening work, he asked him to ensure the macdamisation of the existing highway for smooth movement of traffic on NH-44.

The chief secretary directed the SSP Ramban and RO NHAI to fix the timing for macdamisation work to avoid inconvenience to the commuters and fruit-carrying trucks on this stretch.

He directed the RO NHAI to enhance manpower and machinery at all vulnerable slide-prone areas for immediate clearance of landslides and debris from the roads besides filling potholes and metalling of the damaged road to maintain hassle-free traffic movement.

Mehta enjoined them to install CCTV on these stretches for round-the-clock monitoring besides a fair assessment of the time for which vehicles remain stranded.

He asked them to declare these stretches no-stopping zones and ensure that no roadside parking was resorted to.

The chief secretary impressed upon them to keep cranes ready on the road for facilitating towing away of trucks that breakdown on the road.

He directed the concerned to provide a 24-hour helpline number to all the commuters for instant help.

Mehta asked them to explore the possibility of following the 12-hour cycle for the truckers to move from opposite directions instead of the alternate days currently adhered to.

He suggested they use the Mughal Road as an alternative in case of exigencies and blockages.

The chief secretary asked them to utilise the alternative Jawahar Tunnel if the main road was choked.

The RO NHAI apprised him about the section-wise progress on the four-laning of NH-44 including that on the Nashri-Ramban and Ramban-Banihal sections.

Meanwhile, the DGP directed the Traffic and Police Department to effectively regulate vehicular traffic movement and facilitate the smooth passage of fruit-laden trucks on the highway.

He also directed the Police and district administration to implement the orders in letter and spirit issued regarding the no parking zones.

The NHAI was asked to immediately restore the double-carriage traffic movement on these stretches.

It also directed the installation of crash barriers and signboards at all vulnerable spots to provide real-time information to commuters and transporters regarding traffic movement.

Earlier, IGP Traffic gave a PowerPoint presentation and briefed the meeting about vehicular traffic movement on NH-44 besides highlighting the bottlenecks hindering the flow of smooth movement of vehicular traffic.

Doda West: Gearing up for the forthcoming Assembly Elections a workers meeting of Democratic Azad Party was held a Village Pranoo of Doda West Assembly Constituency.
The meeting was organised under the leadership of Ashraf Ali Sheikh, Senior Leader of Democratic Azad Party. While addressing the workers Ashraf said Ghulam Nabi Azad enjoys unbridled popularity in Jammu & Kashmir and after the decision of Azad Sahib to float his own party the workers at the grass root level are joyous & jubiliant.

He added only Azad Sahib has the vision for peace and prosperity of Jammu & Kashmir & only if the Democratic Azad Party comes to poor the general issues of public will be redressed.
He added that as stated by our beloved Leader Azad Sahib The DAP will be based on the principles of democracy. It will not be influenced by any outside leader or other party. It will have independent thinking and will stay independent in its decisions. It will not be autocratic and power will not be in one hand,”

While explaining about the flag, Ashraf said “Our party flag has three colours, mustard, white and blue.
The mustard colour indicates creativity and unity in diversity, white indicates peace and blue indicates freedom, open space, imagination and limits from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the sky,”.

Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion include, Rakesh Kotwal ( Ex-Sarpanch), Surinder Pandit (Ex-Sarpanch), Ghulam Ali (Ex-Sarpanch), Advocate Naseer Babar (PRI Member), Sanjeev Parihar.

Srinagar, Oct 7: Deputy Drug Controller Kashmir division, Nighat Andrabi on Friday said that people need not panic as the cough syrups, regarding which the World Health Organization had issued an alert, as the same were manufactured for Gambia only.
Andrabi said that the four products were not manufactured for Kashmir or India, but they were manufactured for the Gambia only, so there is no reason for people to panic here.
He said that they have already issued a circular in this regard and so far nothing has been found on the ground by their teams. “Still we are checking all the products in order to be sure. But for now, there is no need to panic,” she added.
She also said that rumour mongers are always there and people should not pay any heed to them.
Earlier, deputy drug controller Kashmir had asked all Assistant Drug Controllers (ADCs) for immediate action after identifying the formulations from the distribution channels.
The WHO had issued an alert over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India, warning they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia.