Jammu, Mar 8: Jammu-based opposition parties Tuesday created uproar in the Legislative Assembly over ‘diversion’ of ration quota of Jammu people to Durbar Move employees and migrants putting up in Jammu with the BJP legislators staging walkout from the House.
 Two legislators of Panthers Party, Balwant Singh Mankotia and Yashpal Kundal also trooped into the well and staged a ‘dharna’ (sit-in) to protest ‘unfair, erratic and discriminatory’ distribution of ration in the state
 It all happened when the BJP MLA, Ashok Khajuria pointed out that the ration quota meant for Jammu people were being diverted to Kashmiri migrants living since 1989.
 “Lakhs of Kashmiri migrants have been given ration from the quota of Jammu people. Instead of curtailing ration from the quota of those people who had forced them to leave Kashmir, the government was doing injustice with the people of Jammu by diverting their ration to migrants,” Khajuria remarked.
 He demanded that Jammu people should be compensated by giving ‘backlog’ quota and said, “Jammu was being discriminated in every sector.”
 Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Qamar Ali Akhoon told the House that 27,011 metric tonnes of food grains are being supplied in Jammu division every month.
 Uproarious scenes broke out in the House with some Valley-based MLAs opposing the remarks of the BJP leader, saying “Kashmiri migrants are being provided separate ration quota and if somebody thinks that ration meant for them is being distributed in Kashmir, it will be completely wrong.”
 MLA Gurez, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi contested the claims of the BJP MLA and said there was no such arrangement where the migrant quota was being distributed in Kashmir.
 Senior PDP MLA, Abdul Rehman Veeri remarked, “There are 1.60 lakh people who don’t have ration cards and they still are deprived of ration.”
 Endorsing the viewpoint of his party MLA, Leader of BJP Legislature Party, Chaman Lal Gupta said that ration quota of Jammu people was being diverted to Kashmiri migrants since 1989 and there was need to make special arrangements so that Jammu gets its due share.
 Leader of Opposition, Mehbooba Mufti while expressing concern over ration shortage in Kashmir valley demanded that the government should take immediate and concrete measures to eradicate the ration shortage there.
 “Earlier the demand of ration was less but population is increasing day by day and agriculture land is being used for commercial purpose. It will be our request to the government to take immediate measures to solve the problem of ration shortage,” she remarked.
 Intervening in the debate, MLA Kulgam, M Y Tarigami also contested the claims of the BJP leaders, saying the Kashmiri migrants were being provided ration under special quota and no diversion from Jammu quota was being made.
 “The issue of Kashmiri migrants is a serious issue and it should be seen on humanitarian grounds. There is a need to seriously look into the problems of migrants so that they could live a dignified life,” he maintained.
 While the MLA Kulgam was about to conclude his speech, Mankotia also raised the concern over migrants of Jammu region, who, he alleged, were being ignored and were not provided ration as per their needs.
 Amid uproar and noisy scenes, the JKNPP legislator, Harsh Dev Singh said, “the government had promised last year to open ration outlets in far-off places of the state and to engage unemployed youth for distribution purpose but it could be materialized. The government has failed to keep its promise and it must initiate measures to open more outlets in far-flung areas of the state.”
 Even as the Minister for CAPD, Qamar Ali Akhoon sought to clarify, the House continued to witness uproar. The BJP legislators walked out of the House, accusing the government of “discriminating” with Jammu.
 Akhoon, however, said that 35 kgs of monthly ration for six months from March 2011 would be strictly regularized to the APL consumers, while as the BPL and AAY consumers would get 40 kg ration from March 2011.
 He said Centre has increased ration quota to the State for next six months which would be strictly implemented from March this year as per the norms fixed already by the government.
 The Minister said that issuing of licenses for opening of more sale outlets of CA&PD Department in remote and hilly areas have been taken up with Planning and Finance Department and after approval of the government that said outlets would be opened in required areas.
 The Minister said that all leftover families would be provided ration cards after completion of fresh census. He said to cover all BPL families under the ambit of welfare schemes, the survey of such families in the State is nearing completion.
 He further said that no separate and additional quota of ration has been sanctioned for the Durbar Move employees and migrants putting up in Jammu.
 Infuriated over the minister’s reply, the JKNPP legislator, Balwant Singh Mankotia stormed into the well and alleged that Jammu migrants were being discriminated. “They had been living in miserable conditions and they have not been provided sufficient ration,” he shouted.
 He sat on dharna inside the well. He was later joined by his party colleague, MLA Samba, Yash Pal Kundal.

54396 POSTS VACANT IN GOVT DEPARTMENTS
 As many as 54396 posts are laying vacant in gazetted, non-gazetted and class-IV categories in various government departments of the state.
 The state government said that it has made 22239 selections through state Public Service Commission (PSC) and Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) during 2009-10 and 2010-11.
 These details were provided in the Legislative Assembly in a written reply to a question of PDP legislator, Abdul Rehman Veeri.
 The government said that 11234 selections were made under category-wise and department-wise in 2009-10 while this number in 2010-11 was 3074. Besides, the government has also made 4860 selections under ‘Migrant Special Drive’ quota. 
 Official figures said that the state has 7702 gazetted posts are laying vacant while the number of posts in non-gazetted category is 35,130. A total of 11764 posts are vacant in Class-IV category.
 The statement indicating the department and category-wise selections by the PSC said that 2025 selections were made in 2009-10 while 1046 selections were made in 2010-11.
 The maximum number of selections, 1414 were made in School Education department while Health and Medical Education department ranked second in the tally with 1091 selections during the period.
 The statement further said that 393 daily wagers were regularized while 2879 casual labourers were engaged during the last two years.

14,359 HECTARES OF FOREST LAND ENCROACHED: ALTAF
 The government Tuesday said that 14,359 hectares of forest land has been encroached upon in Jammu and Kashmir.
 Replying to a question in the Legislative Assembly, Minister for Forest, Environment and
 Ecology Mian Altaf said that 14,359 hectares of forest land is under encroachment in the state.
 He said the forest land under encroachment in Kashmir and Jammu regions is 4,877 hectares and 9,482 hectares respectively.
 "Whenever any incident of encroachment is reported, all possible steps are taken to retrieve forest land and cases are lodged against the culprits," he said.
 Besides, special drives are regularly carried out to get the encroached land evicted, he said.
 64 hectares of forest land in Jammu and 944 hectares in Kashmir have been retrieved from the encroacher's, he said.
 Besides this, 65 attempts on encroachments on about 286 hectares of forest land in Jammu were foiled from 2005 to this time, he said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST