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SRINAGAR : The J&K high court has directed the Central Water Commission to ensure continuous monitoring of the water level in the River Jehlum and asked it install such equipment as is necessary keeping in view the public interest involved in wake of the floods.

“The Central Water Commission shall ensure that it continues with the monitoring of the water level in the River Jehlum,” a division bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Dar.

“For this purpose, the Commission shall stand permitted to install such equipment as is necessary keeping in view the public interest involved.”Also a status report dated 4th June 2019 was filed by Sr. AAG B A Dar. “The details of the several steps have been taken by the State Government for preparing a concrete plan of action on the issue of flooding,” the court said.

“Again, we find that the status report and the annexures has not been furnished to the other side. Furthermore, no details of the annexures have been mentioned in the index. We are unable to understand as how the Registry is accepting the same in this format,” the court said and asked the Registrar Judicial to ensure that all requirements are complied with in future.“Given the importance of the matter and the several steps which have been taken, it would see that the steps which have already been taken deserve to be put in the public domain so that there are no unwarranted objections,” the court added while hearing the Public Interest Litigations.

The court asked advocate Nadeem Qadiri, amicus curiae, to place before it a summary of the waterways and various water bodies which are the subject matter of all the five public interest litigations; the court orders which have been made with regard thereto and the steps which have been already taken or are required to be taken. “Let such a summary be placed before this Court. The summary shall not be more than three pages. Copy thereof shall be shared with all the parties and the authorities who are before us within four weeks from today,” the court added

An intelligence input has been passed on to the Jammu and Kashmir police about a possible threat to some BJP leaders including its president Ravinder Raina, officials said Saturday.
Inspector General of Police (Jammu range) M K Sinha said they have got the security inputs and are looking into it.
Security alerts have been sent to the Senior Superintendents of Police (SSP) of Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Poonch and Rajouri districts and range officers for necessary action and precaution.
Raina, an RSS pracharak who was appointed as the state BJP head last year, is already a state government protectee.
Senior police officials said that they were aware about the threats but added that such warnings come almost on regular basis.
The intelligence input is being verified by other concerned security agencies, they said.

Srinagar, Jun 08: The Federation of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Employees have refuted to have given any shutdown call on Monday over the removal of the Bank chairman.

“We have not given any shutdown call which is being spread on social media,” Federation president Tasaduq Madni told Kashmir News Service (KNS).

Madni said that employees of the bank are not “person specific and we deal with Chair.”

“The new chairman is within the bank family. We are not person specific. Whosoever occupies the chair, we have to deal with chairman ,” he said, adding the employees federation has convened a meeting tomorrow and will address the media in the afternoon.

He said that earlier some chairmen were removed in more dramatic ways that the recent chairman.

“Raid has not been taken in a good taste, but if there are complaints against any person, the concerned authorities are within their right to investigate them. Because of media, such issues are given more hype,” he said about the raids and the controversy which erupted after the removal of the former chairman Parvez Ahmad Nengroo.

The president said that the government is within its rights to appoint chairman of the bank.

“Some traders have come up with statements (over the residence of the new chairman). If we remember, S D Singh, a non Kashmiri who hailed from South India, was chairman of the Bank. This ‘Jammu Chairman debate’ is frivolous and I think it is creating problems for JK Bank. I assure our depositors that JK Bank is fundamentally very strong and we have got a good human resource which is dedicated to its mission,” he said. (KNS)

Chairman removed; Corporate Headquarters raided by Vigilance team, R K Chibber new interim head; top vigilance officials say 1200 appointments during PDP-BJP regime

Srinagar, June 08 : For the Jammu and Kashmir’s premier financial institution—J&K Bank, it was an eventful day on Saturday as the Governor Satya Pal Malik led administration cracked its whip on the head of the institution by ordering his removal and appointing a non-muslim face as the head of the institution.

“Parvez Ahmad, chairman-cum-managing director, shall cease to be director on the Board of Directors of the bank and consequently be no longer the chairman-cum-managing director of the board,” an order issued by Additional Secretary, Finance, Vishal Sharma said here, announcing the appointment of R K Chibber as the bank’s interim chairman and the managing director of the board of directors.”

The order triggered a storm in the headquarters as it came as a big surprise for all the staff members of the J&K Bank headquarters at Dalgate area of Srinagar who were on holiday as it was “second Saturday of the week.” “It is a total surprise for us,” a senior employee of the Bank told KNO.

In another surprising development, minutes after the removal of Parvez Ahmad as chairman of the Bank, state vigilance organisation sleuths raided the financial institution’s corporate headquarters here. Top officials told KNO that the vigilance organisation was looking for records of nearly 1,200 appointments allegedly made at the behest of political masters of the previous PDP-BJP government in the state and during Ahmad’s tenure.

The sleuths raided the bank’s corporate headquarters at Dalgate here soon after the state government dismissed Ahmad and appointed Chibber. Ahmed was appointed in 2016 as the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. Reliable sources told KNO that an FIR vice number 10/2019 has been lodged and investigations launched.

Sources revealed that the Vigilance sleuths have seized some documents from the Bank chairman’s office and also from the office of Human Resource Section to collaborate the evidence about the backdoor appointments made during the PDP-BJP tenure. “Governor was kept in loop while conducting the raid on the JK Bank Corporate headquarters,” they said.

This is for the first time that the Vigilance conducted the raid on the State’s prestigious financial institution triggering a storm across Kashmir as to whether the Governor wants to take the reins of the all the premier institutions like State Road Transport Corporation, Handloom Corporation, State Finance Corporation, and State Forest Corporation.(KNO)

Srinagar, June 08: One militant body was recovered after brief exchange of firing took place between militants and government forces in Nowgam area of Verninag in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Saturday.

A senior Police officer told GNS that one militant body was recovered from the encounter site after there was a brief exchange of firing with militants.

The officer further said that since its a forest area it will take time to search for other hiding militants.

As per the sources the slain militant has been identified as Iqbal Ahmad of Panzath, Dooru and is believed to be associated with JeM.

If reports are to believed the other militants might have escaped taking advantage of dense forest, however the area is still under cordon.

Meanwhile mobile Internet has been suspended in parts of Anantnag for precautionary measures.(GNS)

ISLAMABAD, SRINAGAR: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written another letter to PM Narendra Modi, offering him to work together for durable peace and stability in South Asia and to promote a peaceful neighbourhood Pakistan today reported.

This is the third consecutive letter by Imran to his Indian counterpart since he took office last year. Soon after taking over the reins in Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran had inked a letter to Modi, urging him to resume the dialogue process between the two countries that has been suspended since 2015.

On May 2, Prime Minister Imran wrote another letter to congratulate Premier Modi on his election win, reiterating his offer for reopening dialogue with India.

A senior official at Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that PM Imran had sent a letter to Premier Modi congratulating him on assumption of office and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood had delivered the same in New Delhi.

“Besides Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has also sent a letter addressed to Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. This is in line with established diplomatic norms and inter-state practice. Foreign Secretary delivered these letters in New Delhi earlier this week,” the official said.

Asked to comment over the nature of the communication, the official said the letters underscored Pakistan’s consistent policy of peaceful neighbourhood and the vision of working for durable peace and stability in South Asia with peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, including the Jammu & Kashmir dispute.

“Pakistan also emphasised the need to work together, on the basis of mutual respect and trust, to address challenges faced by people of both the countries, including poverty and underdevelopment. The need to advance the goals of regional peace, progress and prosperity through collective endeavours was underscored,” the official added.

SRINAGAR, June 07: Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people is the oft repeated quote of Abraham Lincoln. The people run the government through their representatives elected through adult franchise under supervision by an independent and impartial authority. To give the elected government a true representative character with sense of participation to one all, it becomes necessary to divide the country and each of its constituent states into segments on the basis of fair and objective criterion, giving each segment or constituency a right to elect a member to the House of People or the State legislature, as the case may be. The number of the segments or constituencies cannot remain static as growth in population, urbanisation and like factors necessitate review or readjustment of these segments at regular intervals. This exercise is called delimitation. Ideally this exercise is to be undertaken after every ten years after the results of census are notified, Masood told . The constitutional provision in this regard, however is recommendatory and exercise has been undertaken on a few times during last seventy years. Having said that, the reports that MHA is toying with the idea of undertaking delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir before much delayed and overdue Assembly elections is a cause of concern as the exercise would be without legal authority and in gross violation of Constitution and law.
Section 47, Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir provides for readjustment of ‘extent and boundaries’ of the constituencies in accordance with law. The Jammu and Kashmir Representation of Peoples Act 1957 (Sec. 3) is the law enacted to govern the matter. The Proviso added to Section 47 of the Constitution by 29th Amendment of 23rd April 2002 has frozen delimitation exercise till the results of first census taken after 2026 are published. Corresponding amendment has been made in Sec 3 in Representation of Peoples Act as well. It is not that the amendments have come from nowhere. These were preceded by amendment to Articles 82 and 170 by Constitution 84th Amendment of 2001 whereby delimitation was frozen till results of 2026 were published. It follows that not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in all the states as well as in case of the House of People, the delimitation is frozen in effect till 2031 i.e the results of 2030 census are made public.
Once the delimitation is frozen as regards all the states, there is no reason to single out Jammu and Kashmir for such an exercise more so when the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir does not permit delimitation and the Constitutional mechanism to pave way for delimitation is not in place. The delimitation at present can be undertaken only after amendment to section 47 of the Constitution. The amendment can be effected only by the elected legislature of the state with requisite majority. The governor does not have power to amend the Constitution. In terms of Article 356 that has come into play after the imposition of presidents’ rule, the legislative power can be exercised by the Parliament, if so declared by the president. In terms of Article 357 the Parliament can confer on the president power of the state legislature to “make laws”. The power therefore is to remain restricted in both cases i.e the Parliament and the President to “make laws”. Neither the Parliament nor the President have power to amend the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir in exercise of powers under Article 356 and 357. The Constitution and legal position as on date therefore would not permit delimitation. Such an exercise, can be undertaken only after the elections are held, state assembly and a duly elected government are in place and necessary amendment is made in Section 47 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and Section 3 Jammu and Kashmir Representation of Peoples Act 1957, pre-poning the delimitation. Any effort of delimitation would be a misadventure and offend the Constitution and the Representation of Peoples Act.Delimitation not permissible under Constitution and law: Hasnain Masoodi
Sachnews Jammu Kashmir
SRINAGAR, June 07:
Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people is the oft repeated quote of Abraham Lincoln. The people run the government through their representatives elected through adult franchise under supervision by an independent and impartial authority. To give the elected government a true representative character with sense of participation to one all, it becomes necessary to divide the country and each of its constituent states into segments on the basis of fair and objective criterion, giving each segment or constituency a right to elect a member to the House of People or the State legislature, as the case may be. The number of the segments or constituencies cannot remain static as growth in population, urbanisation and like factors necessitate review or readjustment of these segments at regular intervals. This exercise is called delimitation. Ideally this exercise is to be undertaken after every ten years after the results of census are notified, Masood told Sachnews in statement. The constitutional provision in this regard, however is recommendatory and exercise has been undertaken on a few times during last seventy years. Having said that, the reports that MHA is toying with the idea of undertaking delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir before much delayed and overdue Assembly elections is a cause of concern as the exercise would be without legal authority and in gross violation of Constitution and law.
Section 47, Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir provides for readjustment of ‘extent and boundaries’ of the constituencies in accordance with law. The Jammu and Kashmir Representation of Peoples Act 1957 (Sec. 3) is the law enacted to govern the matter. The Proviso added to Section 47 of the Constitution by 29th Amendment of 23rd April 2002 has frozen delimitation exercise till the results of first census taken after 2026 are published. Corresponding amendment has been made in Sec 3 in Representation of Peoples Act as well. It is not that the amendments have come from nowhere. These were preceded by amendment to Articles 82 and 170 by Constitution 84th Amendment of 2001 whereby delimitation was frozen till results of 2026 were published. It follows that not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in all the states as well as in case of the House of People, the delimitation is frozen in effect till 2031 i.e the results of 2030 census are made public.
Once the delimitation is frozen as regards all the states, there is no reason to single out Jammu and Kashmir for such an exercise more so when the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir does not permit delimitation and the Constitutional mechanism to pave way for delimitation is not in place. The delimitation at present can be undertaken only after amendment to section 47 of the Constitution. The amendment can be effected only by the elected legislature of the state with requisite majority. The governor does not have power to amend the Constitution. In terms of Article 356 that has come into play after the imposition of presidents’ rule, the legislative power can be exercised by the Parliament, if so declared by the president. In terms of Article 357 the Parliament can confer on the president power of the state legislature to “make laws”. The power therefore is to remain restricted in both cases i.e the Parliament and the President to “make laws”. Neither the Parliament nor the President have power to amend the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir in exercise of powers under Article 356 and 357. The Constitution and legal position as on date therefore would not permit delimitation. Such an exercise, can be undertaken only after the elections are held, state assembly and a duly elected government are in place and necessary amendment is made in Section 47 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and Section 3 Jammu and Kashmir Representation of Peoples Act 1957, pre-poning the delimitation. Any effort of delimitation would be a misadventure and offend the Constitution and the Representation of Peoples Act.