news details |
|
|
| Move offices opening amid shutdown, demonstrations | | Governor, CM, Ministers reach Srinagar; Sikhs planning demonstration | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
EARLY TIMES REPORT
SRINAGAR, May 9: After functioning in the winter capital of Jammu for six months, Durbar Move offices are opening in the summer capital of Srinagar today amid separatists-sponsored shutdown and tight security arrangements even as Governor, Chief Minister and almost all Ministers and bureaucrats reached here today smoothly. While supporters of the separatist leaders are likely to clash with Police and paramilitary forces at several places in Kashmir valley on Monday, members of the minority Sikh community were planning to put up a demonstration in front of the Civil Secretariat with a big question: Why successive governments had failed to identify and punish the gunmen who had shot dead 35 Sikhs in a midnight massacre at Chittisinghpura village in Anantnag district on March 20, 2000?
While as Governor, a number of Ministers and legislators, besides senior bureaucrats and Heads of Departments (HoDs) reached here today from Jammu and other places in routine flights, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah drove all the way from Jammu to Srinagar. Authoritative sources said that Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, took a meeting with senior and middle-rung Police officers to assess the security scenario and the situation arising out of the call for shutdown issued on Friday by Kashmir Bar Association and supported by almost all the separatist outfits and alliances.
Civil Secretariat and other Move offices have been spruced up and illuminated a day before these were scheduled to re-open here after six months. Even as officials claimed that entire Durbar Move staff had been accommodated suitably, a large number of the employees from Jammu were heard complaining of "inadequate" lodging and boarding facilities and "nexus" of Deputy Director of Estates with hotel and guesthouse owners, furnishing suppliers and catering handlers. They complained that large scale irregularities had been noticed in acquisition of guesthouses, particularly in Rajbagh, allotment of rooms to the staff besides acquisition of furniture and furnishing articles. They lamented that even the officials of State Vigilance Organisation had ignored these complaints after the Estates officials greased their palms and accommodated their favourites in accommodation of their own choice.
Well-placed sources said that even some senior bureaucrats and Ministers were complaining that their offices had been dislocated and allotted to others without their knowledge.
Almost all the separatist leaders and KBA have called upon the people of Kashmir to freeze the Valley on Monday to register a strong protest against "phenomenally increasing human rights abuse by armed forces", "advantage government silence of judiciary over the tribulations of political detainees", passage of a Bill in Assembly that bans inter-district recruitment for government services and "government's plans of changing Kashmir's demography" in the current countrywide census operation. Authorities have already imposed prohibitory orders, banning assembly of more than four persons on a spot, but some officials in Police and civil administration are apprehending demonstrations and clashes of separatist activists with security forces.
Traffic Police have, however, heaved a sigh of relief as there would be little civilian traffic and prospects of jam on the streets in Srinagar due to the call for shutdown from separatists. Officials said that Police and CRPF personnel were being deployed in thick numbers so as to ensure that there was no subversive or disruptive act from militants and civilian demonstrators.
Sources said that Chief Minister and other members of his council of Ministers had fixed routine and special meetings without paying attention to the calls of shutdown and disruption at Civil Secretariat. Sources said that immediately after taking salute at a ceremonial guard of honour on occasion of opening of the move offices, Chief Minister would be taking a routine meeting with his Ministers and senior bureaucrats. He would also visit offices and clerical halls on different floors of Civil Secretariat to personally take stock of the problems, if any, afflicting the employees. Thereafter, his first meeting would be with this year's topper of the prestigious Indian Civil Services, Dr Shah Faisal alongwith his mother, at CM's Secretariat.
Meanwhile, sources said that members of the minority Sikh community were planning to organize a demonstration in front of Civil Secretariat, asking why successive governments had failed to identify and prosecute the gunmen who had carried out the massacre of 35 male Sikhs outside a Gurudwara at Chittisinghpura village, in the south Kashmir district of Anantnag, during the night intervening March 20 and 21 in year 2000. Demonstrators were expected to demand speedy investigation of the massacre and legal action against the culprits within two months.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
