Government has admitted that the Commission to probe Kishtwar riots has failed to submit the report in stipulated time frame

Demanded regularization of daily wagers in various departments

Jammu, Feb 28: - In a reply to a question of Congress MLA Inderwal Ghulam Mohammad Saroori in the Lower House, the Revenue Minister Ajaz Ahmed Khan said while recommending creation of new administrative units, both the Mushtaq Ganai Committee as well as Cabinet Sub Committee had taken in consideration the topography, terrain, accessibility, distance and population density. He said the recommendations made by the said committees had already been sent to the respective Deputy Commissioners for determining the geographical boundaries of the newly proposed units.

Saroori raising constituency specific supplementary said more than 200 BDOs besides Patwaris, Tehsildars etc were required. All PSC members except one member and the Chairman were retired so when the PSC would make selections and the appointments would be made, he asked the minister.

He demanded regularization of daily wagers in various departments. He attacked the Government for “shelving” a House Committee report which has suggested measures for checking frequent road accidents as pandemonium broke out in the Legislative Assembly over road accident in Banihal in which 13 persons were killed and Kishtwar accident in which 2 people died.

Saroori also said that Government should earmark adequate funding for the development of bad pockets of Chenab Valley, particularly for strengthening the road connectivity, electricity and generating employment for rural youth. He also called for strengthening the PSC/SSRB, enabling these agencies to make recruitment on fast-track basis.

In another reply to a question of Congress MLA from Inderwal constituency, G M Saroori, who was seeking the statue of Commission of Inquiry and payment of compensation to the victims, Chief Minster through written reply in Legislative Assembly has admitted that after the laps of more than six months the Commission of Justice (retd) RC Gandhi has failed to submitted finial report and missed another deadline of February 22. Government has admitted that the one-man Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed by it to probe Kishtwar riots has failed to submit the report in stipulated time frame.

“The Commission of Inquiry constituted on August 23, 2013 to enquire into the incidents of violence and arson that took place on August 9, 2013 in Kishtwar has submitted only an interim report in December, 2013 and the date of submission of the final report has been extended upto February 22,” the written reply reads.

In another part, Chief Minister confirmed that government has not received the final report and was considering the interim finding received by the commission.  “As the final report is yet to submitted by the commission, certain interim findings made in the interim report which are under considerations and do not pertain to the victims,” the reply reads.

However in the answer it was also mentioned that an amount of Rs 1, 84,11,563/- has already been sanctioned and disbursed among 75 affected families 45 relief cases are under process for payments.

Pertinently, state government constituted one man Commission of Inquiry to probe into the circumstances that led to large scale rioting in Kishtwar and asked it to submit report within one month.

Later the government appointed Qazi Sarwar, Additional Secretary to Government, Housing and Urban Development Department, as Secretary of the Commission, retired SSP, Reasi, Raghubir Singh and senior prostituting officer, Udhampur, P P Singh to assist CoI.

After taking four months and recording the statements of officials including then Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar and Superintendent of Police besides statements of more than 350 locals of Kishtwar and Padder the Commission had submitted its interim report on December 20, 2013 and give clean chit to Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, who had resigned from the ministry in wake of his allegations of his involvement in riots by the opposition.