Joint teams on final assessment visits of Pahalgam track

To have a final assessment of the critical stretches on the traditional track to Shri Amarnathji Cave Shrine, from Sheshnag to Panchtarni, a high level joint team of the State Administration and the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board surveyed the Mahagunus Top, Wavbal, Poshpathri and the two main camps of Sheshnag and Panchtarni this morning and took stock of the arrangements for the smooth conduct of the Yatra.

Another Team is scheduled to visit the entire traditional track tomorrow morning for making a conclusive recommendation to the Governor and Chairman of the SASB, Mr N N Vohra, to enable him to arrive at a practical decision regarding the commencement of the Yatra after taking into consideration the ground situation and the reports of the District Administration, Anantnag and the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering (JIM). The teams from the JIM and the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) have undertaken extensive recce of the track during the past two weeks.

Sh. B. B. Vyas, Chief Executive Officer, SASB, recognising that significant work on the track had yet to be done by the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA), particularly on the snow avalanche portion between Sheshnag and Panchtarni, gave on the spot instructions for engaging additional 300 labourers to supplement the efforts of the PDA in clearing snow on the critical patches within the next two days. He said that two teams of trained mountaineers of theJammu and Kashmir Police would be stationed at Wavbal and Poshpathri, on the two sides of the Mahagunus Top, to provide the much needed assistance to Yatris in shape of mobile rescue squads to provide rescue support, at short notice, whenever required. “Positioning of the rescue teams has been necessitated in view of the critical condition of the frozen snow track,” the CEO added.

The Joint Team took a detailed review of the arrangements and positioning of various essential services at the enroute camps. While 900 tents, 10 shops, 9 huts, 80 toilets and four langars have become functional at Sheshnag, the tenting colony and other utility services have also been put in place at Panchtarni, which include 750 tents, 80 toilets and four langars.

The team impressed upon the Yatra Officers and theCamp Directors of the SASB to have double-fly tents, with appropriate matting, pitched in view of the extreme cold and unpredicted weather conditions.

The Team walked a considerable distance on the snow-clad track and took stock of the clearance work, which had got impeded due to the accumulated snow, intermittent fresh snow and rains during the past two weeks.

The Joint Team also visited the Holy Cave and the Baltal Base Camp to review the arrangements, as the Yatra is progressing on this route for the past nearly one week. Necessary instructions were given to the local officers of the State Administration and the Board for taking effective measures to regulate the Yatra and to monitor the functioning of various service providing departments and organizations. The team appreciated the high level of synergy between various utility departments and the Board.

After having another reconnaissance tomorrow, the Joint Team will submit a final report to the Chairman for taking a decision on starting the Yatra on this route as well. The Yatra commenced from the Baltal route from 17^th June.

A Spokesman of the SASB indicated that all necessary measures like regulated pilgrim traffic will be ensured on the Pahalgam route when it is thrown open. The Yatris are being regularly advised to carry adequate woolen clothing, a small umbrella, raincoat, waterproof shoes, torch, a stick, cap, gloves, jacket, woolen socks and trousers. These are essential as the climate is unpredictable, particularly in view of the unprecedented inclement weather in the past two weeks, which can recur any time. The temperature sometimes falls in the area to 5 degree Celsius. For ladies, sari is not a suitable dress for the Yatra. Salwar Kameez, pant-shirt or a track suit will be more comfortable for Yatris of both sexes.

Meanwhile, 10,692 Yatris performed darshan at the Holy Cave Shrine yesterday, while another batch of over 8,000 pilgrims left the Baltal Base camp for the Holy Cave early this morning. A batch of 2,073 Yatris also left Jammu for Baltal this morning. In all, till today morning 67,388 Yatris had done darshan at the Holy Shrine.

Rs 50 cr mega tourism projects for J&K on anvil: Union Secy

Union Secretary of Tourism Mr. S. Banerjee has said that two mega projects would be taken up at a cost of Rs 50 crore for upgradation of tourism infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir. In this regard he asked the concerned authorities to prepare the project reports of the tourist destinations where the infrastructure is required to be upgraded.

The funds would be released for early execution of these mega projects soon after receipt of the project reports by the Centre.

Mr. Banerjee, who arrived here today for 3-day tour of the state to take stock of physical and financial achievement registered under tourism sector, being executed under 12 tourism development authorities at a cost of Rs 240 crore, today chaired a high level meeting of officers of tourism department.

The Union Secretary stressed for expediting the upgradation works of tourism related infrastructure taken executed under Prime Ministers Re-construction Programme in the state. He impressed upon the concerned authorities to complete under execution mini and mega projects taken up for the development of tourism infrastructure at various tourist destinations, besides conservation and preservation of heritage sites in the state well in time. He said funds already released by Central government should be utilized in a proper way for the purpose.

Mr. Banerjee said that projects reports for taking up new works under PMs Package should be formulated and submitted to the Union Ministry well in time for its early approval. He assured that central tourism ministry was keen to take all necessary measures for tapping varied tourism potential of the state.

Secretary, State Tourism Department, Mrs Tanvir Jehan gave a power point presentation, detailing the achievements registered under 12 centrally-aided TDAs. She briefed the Union Secretary about various developmental activities being taken by the government for promoting tourism in the state. She said that out of Rs 115.72 crore released under PM’s Package, Rs 61 crore have been expended till date on development of tourism infrastructure in the state.

Mrs. Tanvir Jehan requested Union Secretary for grant of additional funds for publicity campaign, organization of tourism marts and festivals in and outside the country besides promotion of adventure tourism in the state. She also pleaded for early approval of pending projects submitted by State Government to the Union Ministry of Tourism for funding.

Director Tourism Kashmir, Mr. Farooq Ahmad Shah, Director Tourism Jammu, Mr. S. M. Sahni, Managing Director JKTDC, Mr. R. A.Qadri, Managing Director Cable Car Project, Mr. Farooq Ahmad Khan, Chief Executive Officers of all development authorities besides senior officers of the department attended the meeting.

Who face action, where is culprit?

“Abraham Lincoln has rightly said that if you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.”

The Jammu and Kashmir government has rightly taken appreciable steps on the basis of interim report submitted by Justice Muzaffar Jan Commission and suspended five officials including the former SP of Shopian in much publicized Shopian rape and murder case indicting them for lapses and loss of evidence.

Yet the question rises here is, will this action of the Govt which came so late, that too after the pressure of opposition, separatists, social organizations, NGOs and Human Rights (HR) organization, will help in restoring the confidence of general public? Though, the Commission, which was set up on June one after massive protests rocked the Valley over the May 30 alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian, Neelofar Jan and her 18-year-old sister-in-law Asiya Jan on the intervening night of May 29 and 30 is yet to submit its final report to the government but as it has mentioned in its interim report that evidence have been either destroyed or lost or because of the negligence of the district administration, including civil, police and doctors involved in the handling of the incident, vital evidences which could have easily helped in nabbing the culprits were destroyed and lost, indication are clear that the real culprits who have committed the crime may go Scot free.

No doubt the action has been taken by the Govt but it is analyzed that the action has not been taken for the crime, it seems that the action has been initiated against these officials for their failure to maintain the law and order situation, which fuelled the public anger against the coalition government particularly the major partner National Conference (NC).

As indicated by the commission in its interim report towards the loss of evidence, than as how it comes that government will punish the real culprit and what would be those grounds and basis.

It is not only Shopian double rape and murder case, there may be many other, unreported such cases of physical exploitation (sans killing) but it was the general public courage which helped in, at-least, shaking the government to setup a Commission to probe.

It is clear that if Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah had not taken personal pain and Home Minister, P Chidambaram had not promised action against the guilty, this heinous crime would have been hushed-up by our able administration as have been done in countless cases in the past.

One more thing to be pointed here is that, to get justice and such crimes probed, in a bid to punish the real culprit, does a common man need the intervention of Chief Minister of the Union Home Minister at every level. If so, than what for these agencies, administration and other departments are?

Whatever may be the reason for Jammu and Kashmir government for going behind this particular incident and assure the general public that government particularly present Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah has been tying to come-up to the expectation of general public, it is high time for the young Omar Abdullah to open all those cases which were left untouched by the previous coalition Govt in which several big wigs were involved.

It is ironic as stated by the Commission, which was appointed by CM Omar Abdullah on June 3, that several officials were accused of mishandling of the investigation and be suspended also FIRs should also be lodged against these officials.

The worst on the part of police and administration as mentioned in the Commission’s interim report that both have been accused of misinforming the Chief Minister (CM) into initially saying the women had drowned. The part played by both police and the administration indicates either their involvement of inefficiency, as the interim report has suggested action against police officials on the charge of 'destroying evidence' and also pointed the 'needle of suspicion' to their involvement in the crime.

Whatever that may be, CM has to go for some drastic initiatives to reform the entire administrative and police setup from the bottom level so in future the transparency could be mentioned and public faith/trust and confidence can remain intact. It is good that departmental action will also be taken against the doctors who conducted the post-mortem as the Commission was of the view that the conduct of the some of the officials, including doctors who conducted the first post mortem on the victims and an official of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had led to loss of crucial evidence.

Relevant to mention here that the Commission had grilled the then SP for nearly six hours spread over two days to explain his conduct in the case. He was questioned as to why he did not attend to the case personally when the bodies of the victims were recovered and did not register an FIR in the case. The FSL official was asked to explain why he did not counter-sign the report of the samples taken from the victims prepared by his laboratory, which was mandatory for processing the reports. The official had reportedly not put his signatures on the report for at least two days, thus delaying the investigations. The government transferred the Deputy Commissioner Shopian within three days of the incident while a week later the SP was also transferred. The incident has kept the entire Kashmir Valley on the boil with protests and shutdowns. Due to the Even today the normal life in south Kashmir Shopian town remained paralyzed for the 22nd day Monday with shops and businesses shut and traffic off the roads. Here The young Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah must go through the saying of great present day President of USA, Barack Obama, who has said, “I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics”.