Fresh Islamist movement building up in Valley

Mass mobilization begins against Facebook blasphemy, conversions, promiscuity, drug addiction, liquor consumption

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 18: With the clerics and separatist politicians asserting against “serious threats to the religion”--- blasphemous pages on Facebook, recent conversion of some youth into Christianity, menacingly spreading drug addiction, promiscuity, flesh trade and spiraling liquor consumption--- a fresh Islamist movement appears to be taking shape in the conflict-riddled Kashmir valley.

The ground is not as fertile as it was during the pre-militancy halcyon days of 1989 when groups like Shabir Shah’s Peoples League, Shakeel Bakhshi’s Islamic Students League, Asiya Andrabi’s Dukhtaraan-e-Millat, followed by Islamic Jamiat-ul-Tulaba, Hizb-e-Islami and Allah Tigers, shut cinema, liquor shops and even cultivation of certain species of flowers. The provocation too is not as sweeping as Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses”. Yet, the inertia that has demobilized many of the frenzied religionists in the last over a decade of disillusionment, has not been all-pervading.

Even if the separatist leaders and clergymen have been politically at the receiving end from the masses for several years of high turn-out elections, they can be down but not out. Paradoxically, their existence and influence has received the best of nourishment from the politics of competitive separatism and appeasement employed by principal pro-India political parties---notably PDP and National Conference. Successive regimes have left no stone unturned to discredit the “controlled separatists” with mundane privileges like free movement overseas, importing of spouses and huge Police protection. Yet, at the end of 21^st year of insurgency, the fact remains that this stuff of clerics and politicians is the liability for New Delhi and asset for Islamabad. Thus, neither discredited nor irrelevant in the Valley.

Cutting across ideological barriers, almost all of the Valley’s separatist political as well as Islamic outfits are once again asserting against social evil and “fresh threats to the faith”. This time around, the maximum of mobilization is coming from ‘moderate’ clergymen like Saddar Mufti Mohammad Bashir-ud-din and Karwan-e-Islami founder Maulana Ghulam Rasool Haami. Mainstream politicians as well as bureaucrats from New Delhi to Srinagar have been privately hailing these clergymen as “anti-extremism”. Earlier this year, government kept its official machinery at the disposal of Karwan-e-Islami which held a massive congregation in Srinagar. Senior officials like Director of Information were seen conspicuously in company of these groups than with Ministers and bureaucrats. Official electronic media and Department of Information ensured envious coverage to their activity.

This very outfit today organized the first rally against social evil that the government has been hailing as the major source of revenue. On the other hand clerics like the “moderate” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mufti Bashir-ud-din have taken lead in denouncing conversions. In this race of cementing emotions, nobody can afford to be ‘moderate” as the hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani today succeeded in staging the first demonstrations against ‘serious threats to the faith’. Geelani’s well-timed call has come close on the heels of a blasphemous page though Police claims it has been got blocked.

First incidents of stone pelting, though still low intensity, were witnessed after months of calm at certain traditional flash points in Srinagar. Maulana Haami’s followers remained peaceful all through the route from Dastgir Sahab Masjid in Sarai Bala to Hari Singh High Street. Still, the crowds at Maisuma turned violent. Rounds of stone pelting with Police came with a wake up call for the authorities who are said to be already on red alert. In its first detentions, Police arrested at least two youth in Maisuma.

Maulana Haami served an ultimatum on the Government and asked Omar Abdullah-led coalition government to impose blanket ban on trade, circulation, transportation and consumption of liquor “within two months”. “If this evil can be fully banned in BJP ruled Gujarat, why can’t it be completely banned in the Muslim majority Jammu & Kashmir?” he asked.

Will this embryo of religious emotion snowball into a full-fledged mass movement like in 1989, 2008 and 2010 remains to be seen. Is it emerging as the first serious threat to year-long calm in the Valley? Weather appears to be conducive but season doesn’t. Traditionally, uprisings have gone into hibernation in the months of chilling winter. But disruption, like death, does not always keep a calendar.

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Govt issues red alert over Facebook mischief in Valley

Demonstrators blame authorities for being ‘permissive’ to blasphemous pages

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 17: Sensing serious threat to over year-long tranquility, authorities have issued red alert against any attempts to create communal unrest in Kashmir Valley. This time around an outrageously blasphemous Facebook page, coupled with some recent religious conversions, is leading to a palpable mass mobilization in the heavily Muslim-dominated population. Low intensity demonstrations at several places today alerted the authorities who are now frantically trying to track down the administrators of the controversial page on the world’s largest social networking domain.

Shops remained shut in protest at Chadoura in Budgam district for some time, thin groups of demonstrators burned rubber-tyres on Srinagar-Chadoura Road, classes of Veterinary Science at SKUAST-Kashmir remained suspended and students shouted slogans at Press Enclave in Srinagar. Participants of the low-intensity demonstrations said that their protest was directed on the “Government’s permissiveness” to operation of blasphemous pages on Facebook. They complained that one of such pages had crossed all limits as “extremely offending” sketches and slogans had been posted to hurt religious sentiments of the population in Kashmir.

Even as there were no clashes between the demonstrators and Police, youngsters in the groups said that they were “surprised” over the way authorities were permitting operations of these highly objectionable and illegal pages. They pointed out that entire Internet traffic in this country was being regulated either by Government’s own telecommunication companies like BSNL or the registered private telecommunication companies. Besides, there was regular surveillance on all Internet operations by Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Home Affairs of Government of India, Central and state intelligence agencies and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

“If Police and other state authorities claim to track operators of anti-national and separatist websites and Facebook pages, why don’t they who who the hell is running these anti-Muslim pages on Facebook?” asked a number of demonstrators.

Authoritative sources said that Police were kept on high alert as today’s Facebook mischief had potential of causing rupture to the peace and tranquility that had of late completed one calendar year in the Valley. However, there was not a direct and serious provocation to prompt Police to use force.

SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, told Early Times that Police took cognizance of the Facebook mischief late last night and today it got the “highly objectionable page” blocked with the help of union Ministry of Home Affairs and union Ministry of Communication in New Delhi. He confirmed that cyber surveillance had been immediately increased to ensure that nobody got an opportunity to foment trouble and mistrust among the local population, particularly the youth.

SSP Srinagar revealed that cyber crime sleuths of J&K Police were on the red alert and some arrests were likely in the next 24 hours. Asked if Police had got any clue with regard to administrators of the offending Facebook page, Mr Bukhari said that In the last two years Police had gathered enough knowledge and understanding about certain “anti-national groups” like Aalav and Kal Kharab and efforts were underway to investigate if any of these “exposed mischief mongers” was attempting to shatter the Valley’s peace and tranquility.

A spokesman of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, expressed surprise over operation of the Facebook page that has surfaced yesterday. He said it was astonishing that Geelani’s telephone numbers had been mentioned as contact numbers of the page operator. He urged all surfers and others to immediately report to Geelani’s office if they came across any clue or evidence about identity or whereabouts of the Facebook mischief mongers. He asserted that the guilty would be punished at all costs.

Today’s expressions against the outrageous Facebook pages included slogans against some recent incidents of conversions. Valley has been abuzz with reports and rumours about conversion of some Muslims into Christianity in recent months, allegedly with the greed of money and mobilization by a Christian missionary group. One of the prominent Pastors had been summoned for an explanation by head of a local Shariat Court Mufti Bashiruddin. The Pastor deposed before Mufti and a number of Muslim clerics and theologians while claiming that he and his missionary were not involved in any forced or illegally offered conversion. Sources said that Mufti played a CD containing audio-visual evidence of the baptism of some converts, reportedly at a Church in Kashmir.

Cleric-politician Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is himself alumnus of a Christian missionary school set up in Srinagar nearly a hundred yeas ago, has also expressed concern on recent conversions whose exact number is still not known. Chairman of his rival group of separatist Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has also issued several identical statements and called upon the Muslim religious leaders to unite against “such religious aggression”. Yet another separatist leader and cleric, whose followers are among those who have been baptized, has called for “social boycott” against the converts. He has urged them to renounce and return to their faith.

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Timber mafia smashed but encroachment of 183 sq km forest area still existing

153 vehicles, 1620 horses seized; PSA slapped on over 100 timber smugglers

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 16: Forest Minister Mian Altaf Ahmad today claimed to have liberated four hyper-sensitive divisions from timber mafia with slapping of Public Safety Act (PSA) over more than 100 smugglers and seizure of 153 vehicles and 1620 horses. He, nevertheless, admitted that 183 sq km encroached forest area was still under the occupation of land grabbers in Jammu & Kashmir.

Available at the Winter Secretariat for current week, Mian Altaf revealed at a crowded news conference that despite acute shortage of manpower, Forest Department and Forest Protection Force (FPF) had decisively curbed the menace of timber smuggling in four hyper-sensitive divisions of Kashmir Valley in the last three years. He said that non-availability of human resource was a major handicap as recruitment of ACFs and Range Officers (ROs) had remained frozen from 1984 to 2011. He admitted that during this long period of nearly 27 years, IFS officers from outside Jammu & Kashmir dominated the Forest Service in the state.

Mian Altaf said that due to paucity of staff and involvement of Forest officials at several places, timber mafias had set up their dens in certain areas in the strife-ravaged Kashmir valley in the last many years, particularly from 2006 to 2008. “When I took over in January 2009, I found that officials of Forest Department and Forest Protection Force had completely surrendered in Pir Panjal Division in Budgam, Forest Division Shopian in South Kashmir, Rafiabad in North Kashmir, besides Sindh Division in Ganderbal district”, Mian Altaf said. He said that he made liberation of these critical areas from timber smugglers as the top priority of his Ministry.

“Thousands of green conifer trees had been felled by the smugglers with involvement of Forest officials in Shopian, Budgam and Rafiabad areas. Timber mafias had established their regime”, Mian Altaf said. A number of officers, who held senior positions in Forest Department and FPF during this infamous period, were present at the Minister’s press conference. Their faces turned read. “But when we began asserting our writ, common people and civil society lent us unflinching support and within three years we succeeded in curbing the menace of timber smuggling to a large extent”, Mian Altaf said.

Forest Minister said that as many as 153 vehicles, carrying illegally felled and smuggled timber, were seized---61 in 2009-10, 68 in 2010-11 and 24 till date in 2011-12. In addition to that, officials also seized 1620 horses for the same illegal activity---822 in 2009-10, 508 in 2010-11 and 290 till date in 2011-12. He said that PSA was slapped on 74 timber smugglers in 2009-10 and on 28 in 2010-11 but only 29 detention orders were implemented in 2009-10 and just 13 in 2010-11.

According to Forest Minister, dwindling of the figures of the vehicles and horses seized to 24 and 290 respectively in 2011-12 was an indication of the success of his campaign as least number of people were currently indulging in the forest crime. He said that cheques and balances had also been employed to ensure that innocent civilians don’t become victims of his department’s drive against timber smugglers. He revealed that Rs 16 Lakh was the department’s expenditure on fodder and transportation of the seized horses in 2009.

“Of late, we received a complaint from a detained civilian in Shopian through Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell. We immediately sought a report from CID. Two investigations confirmed that an innocent person had been arrested and booked under PSA. Thereupon, we immediately ordered his release”, Mian Altaf said. 

In reply to a question, Forest Minister said that he had not found security forces in any incident of green felling or timber smuggling in the last three years of his government. However, complaints regarding the firing range at Tosamaidan, in Budgam district, were being addressed.

Forest Minister said that his government had initiated several measures to improve the system of making timber available to domestic consumers in the state as 95 percent of the population use it in construction of their residential houses and other buildings. The system of sanctioning timber was made transparent and people-friendly. Different teams would conduct spot inspections and ensure that timer was sanctioned only to genuine applicants and it was not diverted to any other use or re-sale by the applicants. As many as 1400 sanctions were found fake during a verification process in South Circle alone.

Mian Altaf revealed that in addition to auctions by J&K State Forest Corporation, Forest Department was providing 13 Lakh cft of timber to the consumers on concessional rates. He said that import of timber from foreign countries had been encouraged by the government so as to ensure that timber remained available to consumers through parallel channels and people were not constrained to resort to illegal felling and smuggling. While as 23 cft of imported timber was used in the state in 2009-10, it rose to 43 Lakh cft in the current year. He said that officials were asserting to see that the traders did not fleece the consumers with exorbitant rates and that only good quality timber was allowed in.

Mian Altaf further revealed that nurseries of conifer trees were being laid and hundreds of thousands of trees were being planted in affected areas out of the funds available under CAMPA. Departments acquiring forest land for different developmental projects were providing particular amounts of money under Supreme Court of India direction for development and protection of forests every year. Chain Link fencing was also  being laid around hundreds of endangered compartments under CAMPA. He said that Rs 3 Cr had been allocated out of CAMPA funds to the worst hit divisions of Pir Panjal, Rafiabad and Shopian during the current year. Nurseries were being set up in all ranges. He said that Forest Department under this scheme would plant 12 Lakh conifer trees in the forthcoming season while as 6 Lakh plants would be provided to common people.

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Hurriyat expects ‘unimaginable turmoil’ after revocation of AFSPA

Both factions say Gen Hasnain is right, Kashmir will separate from India

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 12: Both factions of Kashmir’s premier separatist conglomerate, led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and cleric-politician Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, are expecting “unimaginable turmoil” in the Valley following revocation of Jammu & Kashmir Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In two separately issued statements today, they endorsed 15^th Corps Commander Gen S A Hasnain’s purported apprehension that withdrawal of the special powers from armed forces would inevitably lead to Kashmir’s separation from India---albeit with their archaic claim that no Kashmiri would accept Indian sovereignty in absence of military and its extraordinary authority.

According to the statement from Geelani’s faction of Hurriyat Conference, Gen Hasnain has “unwittingly” admitted that the “Indian occupation” in Kashmir is subservient to the country’s military might and impunity. “The Army’s observation has made it abundantly clear that withdrawal of AFSPA would be closely followed by a massive revolt against the (Indian) occupation that would make impossible even a day of the Indian control in Kashmir”, spokesman Ayaz Akbar said.

Hurriyat’s statements have obviously come in quick reaction to Gen Hasnain’s apprehensions carried in a section of the national media on Friday. As reported by Praveen Swami of The Hindu, Gen Hasnain had expressed his opposition to the suggestion of withdrawal of AFSPA from six of the 20 districts in Jammu & Kashmir in a presentation to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other participants of the Unified Headquarters meeting in Jammu early this week. Without any reaction from Army, Hasnain is quoted to have cautioned that revocation of AFSPA, followed by withdrawal of the American troops from Afghanistan next year and simultaneously increasing OIC influence in the UN, would lead to Kashmir’s separation from India by 2016.

Geelani’s spokesman emphasized that “ending India’s forced military occupation” in Kashmir was the fundamental demand of the Kashmiris which, according to him, could be realized after withdrawal of special powers from the Indian armed forces. He said that by virtue of these powers, troops had been “suppressing and decimating the Kashmiris” and thus sustaining the “rule of occupation”.

“As soon as Disturbed Areas Act, AFSPA and other draconian laws go, India will not find a single individual accepting its sovereignty in Jammu & Kashmir. It will, in fact, lead to unimaginable mass revolt against the Indian military occupation in Kashmir”, Ayaz Akbar said in the Hurriyat (Geelani) statement.

In an identical statement, a Hurriyat (Mirwaiz) spokesman observed that Gen Hasnain’s assertion was an authentic admission of the fact that the Indian military rule would not sustain even for a day in Kashmir in absence of its troops and the special powers enjoyed by them. “In his observation, General (Hasnain) has admitted that Indian rule in Jammu & Kashmir for nearly 70 years is the result of military occupation and that nobody in Kashmir wants to live with India”, the Hurriyat (Mirwaiz) statement added.

Both the statements insisted that the ruling National Conference’s campaign for revocation of AFSPA was part of the mainstream political gimmickry and posturing aimed at hoodwinking the party’s votebank in the Valley. They alleged that NC’s, as well as other mainstream parties’ objective was nothing but grabbing the power by hook or by crook. They said that NC could go to any extent in its obsession of sticking to power.

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Despite his apologies, Delhi asks Farooq to fire Kamaal

AICC takes umbrage on ‘unwarranted’ remarks against Rahul Gandhi; Farooq seeks resignation from Kamaal

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 10: In its first assertion of authority and command in the last three years of NC-Congress coalition, Congress high command has asked National Conference patriarch and Minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, Dr Farooq Abdullah, to stop his younger brother, Mustafa Kamaal, from extending his anti-Congress, anti-Delhi and anti-Army tirade to the party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. Working obsequiously on the warning from Delhi, Dr Abdullah has immediately asked Mr Kamaal to tender his resignation, both as NC’s Chief Spokesman and additional General Secretary.

Highly connected political sources revealed to Early Times that a senior leader of Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) this evening mailed one of Dr Mustafa Kamaal’s interviews, purportedly given to Kashmir News Service, with a note of caution to All India Congress Committee (AICC). In the interview circulated today, Kamaal is quoted to have rebuffed JKPCC chief Prof Said-ud-din Soz’s revelation that the AICC General Secretary had lately expressed his “unhappiness” over the quality of governance in Omar Abdullah-led government in Jammu & Kashmir.

In the interview carried in today’s Greater Kashmir, Prof Soz is quoted to have said: “I will tell you honestly that even Rahul Gandhi is not happy with governance here and he expressed his disapproval when he visited the state last month. He was not satisfied with what is happening here. Many young entrepreneurs talked to him during the visit and raised the issue of a kind of ‘disconnect’ between the youth of the state and the government”.

Soz is further quoted to have said: “Coalition is a compulsion and we have to be in coalition but we have fallen short of expectations. There are many things that could have been done better in the governance and action against corruption. There is lot of corruption in the system which has made the life of common man difficult. But this is not to suggest that blame can be passed on to NC only. Governance is a joint responsibility”.

The KNS bulletin, that stirred a hornet’s nest at AICC, quoted Kamaal to have asserted that Rahul Gandhi’s displeasure was immaterial. “What has Rahul’s happiness or unhappiness to do with the functioning of the state government?” Kamaal is quoted to have asked. “If Soz has any specific corruption case, he should refer it to State Accountability Commission or State Vigilance Commission. He is part of the government and shouldn’t level such allegations in public”, Kamaal is quoted to have rebuffed Soz through KNS.

Sources said that men of consequence in AICC took umbrage on Dr Kamaal’s remarks and dismissed them as “completely unwarranted”. After taking 10-Janpath into confidence, Congress high command intensified its snub on the NC top brass. If these sources are to be believed, Dr Abdullah was categorically asked to “discipline your unbridled brother and stop him, at once, from extending his anti-Congress, anti-coalition, anti-Delhi and anti-Army tirade to the person of Mr Rahul Gandhi”. It was pointed out that with his “virulent statements”, Kamaal had not only violated the “coalition dharma” but also generated ill-will against the Centre and its armed forces.  

Even as Dr Abdullah is understood to have refreshed his last week’s apologies, he was tersely directed to remove Dr Kamaal from the key positions in his party at once. Last month only, Dr Abdullah had installed Kamaal simultaneously on the two important positions in the party. A Minister in Dr Abdullah’s coalition Government in 1987-90, Kamaal has been functioning as NC’s MLA from Hazratbal constituency since April 2009.

Amid flurry of political activity between New Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar, Dr Abdullah not only directed Dr Kamaal to tender his resignation from both the party positions but also made his embarrassment public through NC’s Media Cell.

NC’s press release this evening read: “President Jammu & Kashmir National Conference Dr Farooq Abdullah has asked Dr Mustafa Kamaal to resign immediately as the Additional General Secretary and Chief spokesman of the party. Dr Farooq Abdullah said that he had to take this difficult decision because Dr Mustafa Kamaal has been making certain statements which are not in tandem with the policies of the National Conference and are against the Coalition Dharma. Dr Abdullah said Jammu & Kashmir National Conference is committed to the National Conference-Congress coalition government and its smooth functioning and any indiscipline in this regard within the National Conference will not be tolerated”.

Sources revealed that Dr Abdullah’s political detractors scored today’s point only after making Congress high command believe that Kamaal’s tirade was actually “NC’s drama” and it was not without sanction from NC top brass including President Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and General Secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmad. Significantly, both, Dr Abdullah as well as Omar Abdullah, had last week publicly distanced themselves from Kamaal’s statements and dismissed them as “unfortunate” but neither stopped him nor initiated any action against him.

In a quick succession, AICC’s snub to the NC has come close on the heals of an embarrassment caused to J&K Chief Minister on account of not permitting him to withdraw AFSPA on the eve of Durbar Move.

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Coalition’s ‘Deewali-Eid gift’ to unemployed youth is patently absurd, whimsical and nonsense

Ministers, who raised their own salaries from Rs 40,000 to Rs 90,000 in 2011, have no moral ground to slash salaries of inferior services by 75%

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 8: They call it a ‘revolutionary reform’ and claim that it has been done under pressure from the central Planning Commission but leaders of the ruling National Conference (NC) have little hesitation to admit privately that the coalition government’s new recruitment policy could prove to be the proverbial last nail in its coffin. “We are in shackles. Our lips are tight. But we are pretty aware that this nonsense recruitment policy is diagonally opposite to our Vision Document as well as NC’s Election Manifesto of 2008”, observed a senior functionary of the ruling party whose inputs had enriched the promises made to the electorate three years ago.

Failure to provide jobs to the unemployed youth was indisputably NC’s strongest criticism to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-Congress regime in 2002-2005. More than anything else, NC accordingly made employment as its biggest election plank in 2008. In its first year, the coalition floated the much-hyped SKEWPY which is miserably still a non-starter. Even the MOU between Department of Labour & Employment and Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd could not be inked for over a year. And when the contentious issues were finally resolved, hiccups continued to be galore.

Notwithstanding competent and high integrity officials, both in Department of Labour & Employment as well as the nodal agency, Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Government has hardly a success story to showcase. Authorities have failed to create an alternative to the ‘madness’ of the state youth to hanker after the government jobs.

Towards the end of its first year in office, the coalition government began exposing its moral and intellectual bankruptcy. It withdrew the social security of the entire Generation Next with the decision that nobody joining government service from January 1^st, 2010, would be entitled to pension and other post-retirement perks.

After two years of sustained struggle by a host of trade unions, Government finally surrendered before the employees’ leaders and announced to pay sixth pay commission arrears to all employees in five equal annual installments, beginning this year. If rumours are to be believed, superannuation cap is also being raised from 58 to 60 years. Nobody really knows, whether these “revolutionary measures” are the brainchild of Mr Jaleel Khan, Economic Advisor to J&K Government, or someone else in the high profile Department of Finance. At least three Ministers, who participated in the crucial Cabinet meetings on the subject, confided to Early Times that the “purely bureaucratic exercise” was passed without discussion of even five minutes.

Finally the fatal blow to the already alienated and depressed Generation Next was struck by the state Cabinet in its meeting on October 19, 2011, mercilessly on the eve of a convergence of festivals---Maha Navmi, Dussehra, Deewali and Eid-ul-Azha. Prisoners of the personal promotion, who did not rest until raising their own salaries from Rs 40,000 to Rs 90,000 a month, decided to reduce salaries of Class 3^rd and 4^th employees (joining government service after Nov 1^st, 2011) by 60% to 75%.

According to the Cabinet Decision No: 193/23/2011 Dated 19-10-2011, followed by Government Order No: Government Order No: 257-F of 2011

Dated: 27-10-2010, a Class 4^th employee, whose salary would be otherwise fixed at gross of Rs 13,000 a month, would now be paid a paltry Rs 3,170 for the first two years and thereafter Rs 4,610 for the next three years. Similarly, a high-end non-gazetted official in the Pay Band-2 of Rs 9300—Rs 34,800 (with grade pay of Rs 4,200) would get nothing more than Rs 7,050 a month for first two years, followed by Rs 10,430 for subsequent three years. Without the Cabinet Decision of 19-10-2011, same official’s salary would have been fixed at total of Rs 25,000 on 1-11-2011 while as his emoluments on 1-11-2016 would have been around Rs 34,000.

Civil society has already dismissed this decision as “begaar” (forced labour) and the opposition parties have begun to make it a major issue around this Durbar Move. “This is definitely absurd, irrational and without precedence in any of the Indian states in the last 64 years of Independence. But, our mandarins in the Department of Finance have their own logic. They insist that this decision would not only de-glamorize government jobs but would also cause savings needed to pay to the in-service employees as the arrears”, said a highly placed IAS officer. He did not contest the argument that it would directly promote absenteeism, corruption and other evils in the state services.

Socio-political analysts have no divergence over the apprehension that the so-called ‘Fixed Salary Mode’ recruitment policy would not only aggravate alienation, frustration and despondency among the educated youth trying their hands at a government job but would also sustain depression of even those who succeed in getting a job. “All those of us who were enamoured and enthusiastic by the glamour of RTI, Public Service Guarantee Act and anti-corruption campaign, would now feel constrained to make good their salary deduction of 75% by receiving bribes and other unfair means. Make me a Forest Range Officer and I am ready to accept zero-salary for 10 years. I will rather pay Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 a month to the Government from my earnings”, an RTI activist, with post-graduation in Forestry, said sarcastically.  

The ad hocist policy, framed over the NC-introduced ‘Rehbar-e-Taleem” pattern is blatantly in contravention to all existing labour laws in this country. High Court has already got it stayed. Even a complete rollback would not fully neutralize damages of the government’s intellectual bankruptcy. Interestingly, the state bureaucrats, who ensured that Ministers’ salaries remained pretty lower to those of Commissioner-Secretaries and above, have kept all superior services out of the ambit of new “Gareeb Hatao Recruitment Policy”.

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Minister, IGP among 50 VIPs accommodated by Hajeej

Owner of fraudulent travel agency arrested in Mumbai while boarding a Jeddah-bound flight

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 4: Owner of a high profile travel agency has been arrested by J&K Police in Mumbai for cheating nearly 550 Kashmiri Hajj aspirants even as he has accommodated 50 VIPs, including a Cabinet Minister and an Inspector General of Police (IGP), and arranged their pilgrimage.

Informed sources revealed to Early Times that entire group of 50 VIPs from Kashmir boarded a Delhi-Mumbai-Jeddah flight SV-745 of Saudi Airlines on Wednesday last at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Fugitive operator of the travel agency Hajeej, namely Arsalan Wahid Gilkar S/o Abdul Wahid Gilkar R/o Chandpora, Harwan, Srinagar, was also booked on the same flight from Mumbai to Jeddah. Since J&K Police had circulated a look out notice to all domestic and international airports in India last week, Arsalan was identified at immigration and customs check and handed over to SHO of Police Station Khanyar.

Fifty of the highly influential VIPS, whose pilgrimage had been arranged by Arsalan while cheating 550 ordinary Kashmiri Hajj aspirants, included senior Congress leader and Minister for Irrigation and PHE, Taj Mohiuddin, IGP Railways Farooq Ahmad and Additional Advocate General Ali Mohammad Magray. Sources said that the flight proceeded to Saudi Arabia as per its schedule and there was immediately no intervention to pre-empt Arsalan’s arrest. Two of the well-connected contacts of Arsalan, however, made unsuccessful attempts to rope in DGP Kuldeep Khoda and other senior functionaries of the state government.

Reports from Saudi Arabia said that the entire group of 50 VIP pilgrims, carried by Hajeej, landed in trouble when nobody from the company reported to provide the services promised. They later established contact with Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi which further managed their rapport with Consulate in Jeddah and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh with the direction that accommodation and traveling of the pilgrims be arranged on war footing basis as just few days were left to beginning of Hajj at Mecca.

Detainee Arsalan was brought back to Srinagar by a party of Police Station Khanyar on Thursday and immediately subjected to sustained interrogation. He is being interrogated as to how he cheated 550 Hajj aspirants and grabbed nearly Rs 11 Cr from them. Sources said that search was still underway for Arsalan’s brother, namely Fabyan Wahid Gilkar.

SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, confirmed Arsalan’s arrest as also the fact that he had grabbed a huge amount of Rs 11 Cr from nearly 550 Hajj aspirants. He said it was surprising even for Police that the company had been operating in Srinagar without being registered with Directorate of Tourism besides the Central Hajj Committee and union Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Quoting complaints of the cheated Hajj aspirants and the information subsequently gathered by Police, SSP said that Hajeej had collected Rs 2 Lakh each from 600 aspirants since last year for Hajj-2011. Even as Hajeej arranged visas, air tickets and other travel documents for 50 VIP aspirants, it failed to make similar promised arrangement for remaining 550 aspirants. Until last week, Hajeej continued to assure them that their visas and travel documents were being arranged. They accordingly completed all formalities, enjoyed invitations and made personal arrangements for the traveling for pilgrimage.

It was last week only that 550 aspirants learned that they had all been cheated by Hajeej. As the angry and outraged aspirants staged protest demonstrations and sit-in, Police Station Khanyar registered case FIR No: 58 of 2011 under sections 420 and 406 against the Hajeej operators. A Police party, headed by SHO Khanyar Inspector Raashid, flew all the way to Mumbai, circulated look out notices for the accused Arsalan and Fabyan and finally succeeded in detaining Arsalan at Mumbai International Airport.

SHO Khanyar, Inspector Raashid, said that Police obtained remand of nine days custodial interrogation from Second Additional Munsiff Srinagar on Thursday. He said that Police were looking for Fabyan and quizzing Arsalan how Hajeej had cheated 550 gullible Hajj aspirants and grabbed money worth Rs 11 Cr from them. He said that the money seemed to have been transferred to overseas accounts but the matter was still under investigation. According to him, Hajeej had been extensively projected by official electronic media and newspapers while operating from Rambagh, Srinagar, for five years before shifting office to Munnawwarabad, Khanyar, last year.

Enquiries made by Early Times revealed further that nearly 30 travel agencies, based in Kashmir valley, have been conducting package Umra and Hajj tours of aspirants. While as only nine of them are registered with the authorities, others have been operating illegally with the support of certain influential individuals---politicians, bureaucrats, Police officials etc. J&K State has got 8300 official Hajj seats this year as per its Muslim population plus a special quota.

In addition to that 250 seats have been allotted by MEA in favour of nine registered private travel agencies. Unregistered agencies have been illegally buying seats from Delhi and Mumbai-based authorized agencies and subsequently selling same to other groups who charge exorbitant rates from gullible Hajj aspirants.

END