Jammu, Apr 1: Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Raman Bhalla on Friday faced an embarrassing situation when the Speaker Muhammad Akbar Lone grilled him for giving “wrong information” to the House.
 It all happened when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Zulfikar Ali while raising a ‘short notice question’ pointed out that the minister had provided two different statements vis-à-vis issuance of fake Permanent Resident Certificate (PRCs) to outsiders in the last few years.
 “In reply to the same question on March 10, the Minister had said there were 22 fake PRCs cases while today he told the House that there are 46 such cases. Which was corrected statement? The J&K State Subject Commission under the chairmanship of Justice AQ Parry (retired Judge of High Court) had has submitted only three interim reports in 12 years. I also want to know when the commission will submit its final report,” he maintained. The also questioned efficiency of the commission, saying if it had become outlived it should constitute fresh commission.
 The Revenue Minister was virtually speechless soon after the Speaker’s directions.  
 Earlier, he however told the House that 46 fake PRCs have been detected in the state in the last few years. Of the 46 fake PRCs detected, 29 were cancelled by the government on the recommendations of the commission, he said.
 The Minister said in most of the cases, where permanent resident certificates have been canceled, the aggrieved parties have managed to obtain stay orders from the High Court, which are still sub-judicious and are being contested by the department.
 The PDP legislators Zulfkar Ali and Basharat Bukhari again grilled the minister over a large number of settlement of migrant labourers in various areas of Jammu city including Rajiv Nagar, Qasim Nagar, Gorkha Nagar etc and grant of State Subjects to them.
 They alleged colonies of migrant workers in the state are being regularised by the government by providing with electricity, water supplies and roads for their settlement and this is a serious issue.
 However, Bhalla said these colonies are temporary and no non-state subject would be allowed to settle them in Jammu and Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST