Govt moots giving electricity revenue collection to Panchayats
No deceit in administrative units, Govt will make them functional
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 22: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today declared that a process for partial withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) would start during his tenure as he maintained that situation in Jammu and Kashmir has undergone a sea change with violence level down by 70 per cent during last five years of National Conference-Congress coalition Government.
He disclosed that he and former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram were on same page on AFSPA and even the Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) was nearly with them but the Defence Minister (AK Antony) was not convinced. “The Defence Minister preferred to listen to the Army instead of the elected leadership of Jammu and Kashmir or his own Home Minister. He was perhaps given a wrong picture of the situation,” he said.
In his 87 minutes reply to the debate on the grants of his Departments in the Legislative Assembly this evening, Omar said the ground situation has improved in Jammu and Kashmir with 70 per cent decline in the level of violence due to hard work from Constable to Commander, who sacrificed many lives for bringing improvement in the situation.
“We sincerely tried for partial revocation of AFSPA to further strengthen the proof of peace. We tried it while sitting in the Government and not after losing the chair. In fact, then Union Home Minister (P Chidambaram) and myself were on same page on the issue. We tried hard for it (partial withdrawal of the Act). Even the Prime Minister was almost with us but he wanted us to convince the Defence Minister. But, the Defence Minister was not convinced. He preferred to listen to the Army instead of elected leadership or then Home Minister. He was perhaps given a wrong impression of the situation,” he said.
Asserting that he has still not given up the attempts on partial revocation of AFSPA, the Chief Minister declared amidst thumping of benches by the National Conference members that it would be under his Government that partial lifting of the AFSPA would begin.
Without naming the Army, Omar said an impression was being created that withdrawal of (US and NATO) troops from Afghanistan would lead to problems in Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said he was not claiming that the AFSPA would completely go but a beginning of its partial withdrawal would be made during his tenure before the Assembly elections in October-November this year.
Omar, who was replying to the grants of Home, Power, GAD, Information, Civil Aviation, Estates and Hospitality and Protocol Departments etc, said during five years of NC-Congress coalition Government, the violence level has declined by 70 per cent in the State, which indicated vast improvement in the situation. The grants of the CM’s Departments were passed by a voice vote in the Assembly with all MLAs withdrawing their cut motions.
“The improvement in the situation was the result of hard work put in by Constable to Commander, who sacrificed many lives. If the situation has improved, we are responsible for it and not the United States action in Afghanistan. It was the Counter Insurgency Grid, fencing on the Line of Control (LoC) and other measures taken by us, which led to improvement in the situation and decline in violence level by 70 per cent in the past five years,” the Chief Minister said.
He hinted at giving the power supply and revenue in their areas to Panchayats.
“As an incentive, the Panchayats would be given a part of revenue collected by them for development of the area. The Panchayat members know how and when the power theft was being committed in their areas. They can curb the menace of power thefts. The more revenue the Panchayats generate, the more they would benefit with the share from collections and use them for development works,” Omar said, adding the Panchayats have so far been given 14 Departments only and it (the Power) would be their 15th Department.
He also proposed that the Government would do away with uniform pattern of cuts. “We would ensure less power cuts in the areas, which give more revenue and more cuts, which give less revenue”.
Charging NPP leader and former Minister Harshdev Singh with adopting ‘shoot and scoot tactics’ (firing salvos at the Government and then leaving the House), Omar said that creation of new administrative units was not a mere announcement as claimed by Mr Singh.
“We have announced creation of new administrative units. We would lay their foundation stone and God willing, we will cut the ribbon also. There was no deceit with the people. We have kept adhoc provision of the funds (for creation of units) in the budget and we would give funds from non-plan, whatever required, for creation of people. We will set up the new administrative units and make them functional,” he declared amidst thumping of desks by the treasury benches. Mr Singh was not present in the House during the Chief Minister’s reply. PDP legislature Party leader Mehbooba Mufti was also absent.
He said the Government has taken series of measures to reduce footprints of security forces in the Kashmir Valley.
“In 2008, it seemed Jammu and Kashmir was separate but we fought the conspiracies,” he said.
Omar said all schools have been vacated by the security forces. Apart from this, 37 out of 40 hospitals, 33 out of 60 hotels, 30 of 44 industrial units, private buildings and 50 bunkers have been vacated by the security forces as a part of the Government measures to reduce foot prints of the security forces in the Valley, he added and said the left out buildings would also be vacated soon.
“The real tribute to the soldiers, who sacrificed their lives for bringing peace in the State, would be revocation of AFSPA and not its continuance. They sacrificed their lives for peace and normalcy and a tribute to them would be to show that normalcy has returned on ground with partial withdrawal of AFSPA,” the Chief Minister said.
Strongly defending the Rehabilitation Policy, he took strong exception to the remarks made by one of the BJP MLAs (Ashok Khajuria) in the debate that the militants were returning from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) along with degree of MBBS (Miyan Bibi Bachon Samet) saying so far 308 militants have returned from PoK (after announcement of the Policy but none of them has been re-cycled (into the militancy).
“Pakistan didn’t want the return of these youths. If they are returning (from the Nepal) route, it indicates the failure of our neighbour (Pakistan). This shows that Pakistan had been running training camps across the LoC and providing guns and support to the militants,” Omar said, adding that the parties opposing the Rehabilitation Policy were strengthening Pakistan, which didn’t want these militants to return.
He said the youths are not coming with guns.
“They are coming with their families to lead peaceful and normal life. What is the problem (to the BJP) if these youths are coming from across (Pakistan) without guns. They can come and lead peaceful life,” he said.
Omar reminded the BJP that it was during the tenure of BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah that a surrender policy was approved for the militants. He said it was tallest leader of the country Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who as a Prime Minister had extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan in a rally at Srinagar and took the bus to Lahore from Amritsar.
Describing Army’s decision to close Pathribal case as “tragedy of justice”, he said five innocent civilians were killed, disfigured and buried and then they say there is no accused.
“This is not acceptable,” he said, adding there was no politics involved in it but the murder is a murder.
“Army says there men were not accused. Then who is the accused? Who killed five innocent civilians? You can’t say you know that the killed persons were not militants. Even the Centre’s premier investigating agency (the CBI) had said those killed were innocent,” Omar said, adding: “such incidents made the people believe that they wouldn’t get justice till AFSPA was revoked.
He said he has taken up the matter with the Prime Minister, who has assured that he would take up the issue with the Defence Minister. Pathribal won’t end here. Efforts would continue till the people get justice, he added.
On Tosha Maidan firing range, Omar said the field firing range would be relocated. “The Army, Indian Air Force has to prepare somewhere. It was decided in the civil-military liaison conference that Army would identify alternate area for their practice. When it was done, Tosha Maidan would be opened for tourists,” he added.
Asserting that the Government was not fond of imposing restriction on the people, Omar said it was done from February 9 to 12 in the Kashmir Valley to keep the situation peaceful.
“Had we imposed restrictions in the Valley after the killing of Tufail Mattoo, 2010 won’t have happened. If we can ensure peace by enforcing restrictions, its’ not bad,” he said and charged separatist Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, albeit without directly naming him, for trying to foment trouble by coming to Srinagar for three days in the winter and giving the call for strike. However, he gave credit to the people for foiling the designs of the separatist leader and maintaining normalcy.
“This `bujurg rahnuma’ (elder leader) generally spends winters outside the Kashmir. This winter, he came to the Valley for three days to foment trouble but the people didn’t allow him to succeed”.
Omar said the Government don’t want the use of pellet guns or teargas on the people but added that non-lethal weapons are used only when people subject security forces and police to stone pelting. “If there is an encounter, why the people should pelt stones on security forces”? he asked. At the same time, he warned that any police officer found using excessive or unjustified force on the people would be dismissed from the services.
On 2010 unrest, the Chief Minister said the cases of excess use of force have not been withdrawn and rather charge sheet produced in the court. “In every case of excess use of force, a FIR has been registered and charge sheet produced in the Court. The matter is sub-judice,” he added. He disclosed that the cases against all youths, who were not involved in serious offences, have been withdrawn.
Taking strong exception to Harshdev Singh’s allegations of alleged corruption in power projects, Omar challenged him to establish a single allegation of corruption in allotment of 1400 mw worth power projects.
“The allegations are baseless. He (Harshdev Singh) has developed habit of making baseless allegations,” Omar said, adding that during past 60 years, the State had developed power generation capacity of only 750 mw with Baglihar alone accounting for 450 mw while during past five years of his Government works was on for generation of 1400 mw worth power through different projects.
The Chief Minister, who holds the portfolio of power, declared that during next six to seven years, the State would not only be self dependent on power but would be power surplus and able to sell it to other States.
“I commit that there would be no load shedding in Jammu and Kashmir in next five to seven years,” he declared and said that AT&T losses have been brought down to 64 per cent from 72.37 per cent five years back and would be further reduced to 59 per cent this year. The T&D losses, which were 61.9 per cent, have come down to 52 per cent. The collections have gone up to 84.36 per cent as against 57.94 per cent five years back. The per capita power consumption has gone up to 25 per cent, which was above the national average.
The difference between power purchase bill and revenue generated has come down to less than 50 per cent as against 67.58 per cent in 2003-04, Omar said, adding the transformer damage rate has also been brought down to 25 per cent from 42 per cent in 2010-11.
He said the State has 4240 mw capacity transformers as against peak hours load of 2600 mw only, which means the transformers had 1600 mw additional capacity but still they continued to burn. He said this required rationalization of transformers. He said the MLAs’ CDF criteria on giving transformers was at par with the MPs. The MLAs can give transformers as per the agreemented load.
Admitting that power thefts were still going on even in metered or unmetered areas, he lamented that even the architects have started giving maps of power thefts along with the maps of the houses. “This process has to be checked and completely curbed. The `hook’ system has to be completely stopped,” he said, adding “these days the people were not even afraid of using hooks during the visits of Ministers and officers to their areas.
On corruption, Mr Abdullah described it as a `major disease’ and advised the people to use anti-graft institutions like State Accountability Commission, State Vigilance Commission, Right To Information Act and Public Services Guarantee Act.
He said allegations were levelled against Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather that he owned a house abroad. “We got the allegation proved through Vigilance and found them baseless,” he added.
“I admit that there is corruption but why the people are not using the anti-graft bodies”, he said. Indicating that termination of corrupt officers has not served the people, he noted that all those officers terminated since 2002 have managed to come back through court.
On employment, Mr Abdullah declared that the Government was committed to meet the target of giving one lakh Government jobs in its six years tenure. He told the House that strength of the Public Service Commission has been deliberately kept low in consultations with the Chairman as even large States have small PSCs. However, some more vacancies were like to arise in the PSC due to retirements and they would be filled after imposition of Model Code of Conduct.
On Government employees, the Chief Minister said they were part and parcel of the Government and “we don’t want any kind of confrontation with them”.
“They (the employees) are part and parcel of the Government. We announce the decisions but it were the employees, who implement them. The employees should shun the path of confrontation and gold talks. We are ready to consider their all genuine demands,” he declared.
He pointed out that the Government has done a lot for the Government employees including implementation of Sixth Pay Commission and payment of arrears and DA to them.
He announced that runway of Jammu Airport is being expanded from 6700 feet to 8000 feet while its terminal is being expanded from the capacity of 350 persons to 700. He said the Kargil runway expansion has also been cleared. Hopefully, when this is done, the operation of commercial flights would start from Kargil. On creation of runway at Kishtwar, he said this would require Rs 100 crores.
“The Government took up the matter with the NHPC but they refused. Now we are talking to a firm, which was constructing a power project in Kishtwar for developing runway there as it would benefit the firm also,” the Chief Minister said, adding the company too has shown the interest in developing the runway.
On Working Groups, Omar said some of the recommendations of four Working Groups have been implemented while a Cabinet Sub Committee was on the job on fifth Working Group of Sagheer Ahmed.
Rejecting the demand raised by many MLAs for providing ration money to the police personnel, he said the police men were already getting 10 per cent of basic pay as hardship allowed, which was much more than the ration money.
“We can’t give both (hardship allowance and ration money),” the Chief Minister, who holds the charge of Home Department said.
On increase in wages of SPOs, Omar said it has to be done by the Centre. “We have taken up the matter with the Centre. The Government of India has engaged SPOs in many other States also. They have to pay uniform wages to all SPOs,” he said, adding the decision on increase (in the wages) vested with the Union of India. He added that the honorarium of the Home Guards has been increased.
The Chief Minister announced that Government will examine the guidelines under which relatives of deceased militants and surrendered militants are given no objection for passports maintaining that 10 years and 12 years moratorium kept in the guidelines to provide passports to the relatives of the deceased and surrendered militants respectively will be reduced to a greater extent so that they could get the passports as early as possible.
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