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Excelsiordaily

REGD. NO. JK-71/18-20RNI No. 28547/65Vol No. 55 No. 83 JAMMU, TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019 14 Pages `̀ 5.00

3 robbers lootRs 2 lakh

Excelsior CorrespondentKATHUA, Mar 25: Three

bike borne robbers looted aboutRs two lakh cash from a petrolpump in Chadwal area onJammu -Pathankot NationalHighway late last night on gunpoint and fled away.

According to reports, threemasked youth riding on a Pulsarbike entered a petrol pump atNH Chadwal late last night.Among the trio, one biker camedown from the two- wheelerwith a revolver in his hand. Hestraightway entered the officeof petrol pump where the twoemployees of the pump includ-ing the manager and sales manwere sitting.

The biker fired upon themand both sustained seriousinjuries in their legs and felldown in pool of blood. Later hisother two associates also enteredthe office and decamped with

Tribunal set upon Jamaat ban

NEW DELHI, Mar 25:The Centre has constituted a

tribunal headed by a Delhi HighCourt Judge to decide whetherthere is sufficient cause fordeclaring Jamaat-e-IslamiJammu and Kashmir as anunlawful association.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) on March 23had issued a notification whichstates that Justice Mukta Guptawould head the tribunal set upunder the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA).

Assets identifiedfor attachment

NEW DELHI, Mar 25: At least 10 properties of a

Jammu and Kashmir-basedbusinessman, an Islamabadhouse of Hizbul Mujahideenchief Syed Salahuddin and ahost of immovable assets ofseparatists have been identifiedby security agencies for attach-ment in multiple terror financ-ing cases, officials said today.

The 10 properties of ZahoorAhmad Shah Watali, currentlyin Delhi's Tihar jail in a terrorfunding case probed by theNIA, and Salahuddin's house in

CRPF to getmine protected

vehiclesNEW DELHI, Mar 25:

The CRPF will procure anew fleet of mine protectedvehicles (MPVs) and small 30-

seater busesto ensuresafety of itstroop con-voys in theK a s h m i rvalley, thechief of theforce hassaid.

The paramilitary has alsodecided to enhance the numberof its bomb detection and dis-posal squads (BDDS) for itsabout 65 battalions based in theKashmir valley for anti-terrorand law and order duties.

These new measures havebeen chalked out by the force inthe aftermath of the February 14Pulwama terror attack in which44 personnel travelling in a bus,part of a convoy from Jammu toSrinagar, were martyred by asuicide bomber as he explodeda vehicle-borne ImprovisedExplosive Device (IED).

"We are enhancing ourcounter-IED capabilities inKashmir. We are procuring andsending more MPVs and bullet-proofing force buses. As it is

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 25:Majority of candidates fromrecognized political parties,who have so far entered intopolitical fray from four LokSabha constituencies of theState including Jammu,Udhampur, Srinagar andBaramulla, are millionaireswith Congress candidate fromUdhampur-Doda seat,Vikramaditya Singh, son oferstwhile ruler of the State, DrKaran Singh topping the listhaving assets running into sev-eral crores and BJP candidateon Jammu-Poonch constituen-cy, Jugal Kishore Sharma hav-ing maximum of Rs 34.53crore worth loan from thefinancial institutions.

National Conference presi-dent, Dr Farooq Abdullah, whohas served the State as Chief

Minister as well as the UnionMinister, owned moveableassets worth Rs 10.6 crore andhad no liabilities, a compulsoryaffidavit filed by him before theReturning Officer at the time offiling of nomination papers,revealed.

Vikramaditya Singh hasshown Rs 11.41 crore worthmoveable and Rs 10.5 croreimmovable assets on his nameand Rs 7.46 crore moveable andRs 5.38 crore immovable assetson the name of his wifeChitrangda Singh. His sonMartand Singh owned moveableassets to the tune of Rs 67.93lakh and immovable worth Rs58.99 lakh.

Vikramaditya has liabilitiesof Rs 46 lakh as loans from bankand other financial institutionswhile his spouse has Rs 2 lakhworth liabilities. He owned jew-ellery to the tune of Rs 32.38

lakh and his wife Rs 47.7 lakh.Apart from fleet of cars,

Vikramaditya also owned RoyalEnfield motorcycle worth Rs1.25 lakh.

Union Minister of State inthe Prime Minister's Office(PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh hasmoveable assets to the tune ofRs 1.84 crore and immovableworth Rs 4.02 crore while hisspouse has moveable assetsworth Rs 57.87 lakh andimmovable to the tune of Rs63.2 lakh.

They have no liabilities.BJP candidate from Jammu-

Poonch seat, Jugal KishoreSharma has movable assetsworth Rs 1.44 crore and his wifeUsha Sharma worth Rs 69.73lakh. Jugal owned land to thetune of Rs 58.4 lakh and his wifeRs 13.29 lakh. However, Jugalhas shown Rs 34.53 crore worthliabilities in form of loans

obtained from Banks and finan-cial institutions.

National Conference candi-date from Baramulla,Mohammad Akbar Lone, whohappens to be former Speaker ofthe Legislative Assembly as wellas ex-Minister didn't own anymovable assets while his wife hasmovable assets to the tune of justRs 6 lakh. He has self acquiredassets worth Rs 7.5 crore and Rs1.89 lakh loan from the bank.

Raja Aijaz Ali, the People'sConference candidate fromBaramulla seat and retiredInspector General of Police hasmovable assets of Rs 1.1 croreand his wife has similar assetsworth Rs 80 lakh. He has Rs 8.2crore self acquired assets andinherited assets to the tune ofRs 5 crores. His wife has selfacquired assets worth Rs 3.24crore. He owed Rs 8.48 lakh as

Bigwigs among 37 join fray inJammu, 14 in Baramulla

Sanjeev Pargal / Fayaz Bukhari

J A M M U / S R I N A G A R ,Mar 25: Though a recordnumber of 37 candidates havejoined fray for prestigiousJammu-Poonch Lok Sabhaseat where nominations closedthis evening and four candi-dates filing papers for

Udhampur-Doda constituencyon penultimate day today, thefight is gradually turning outto be between BJP sitting MPsversus ‘Mahagathbandhan’,unofficially floated by theCongress, NationalConference and People’sDemocratic Party (PDP) tothwart BJP’s halt to victoryfor second time.

Returning Officer forJammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat,Ramesh Kumar (DeputyCommissioner, Jammu) told theExcelsior that 35 candidatesfiled nomination papers today,taking total number of nomina-tions to 37. Returning Officer

Kathua, Rohit Khajuria saidthree candidates joined the fraytoday taking total number tofour on Udhampur-Doda seat,where tomorrow is last date offiling papers.

National Conference (NC)president Dr Farooq Abdullahtoday filed his nominationpapers from SrinagarParliamentary constituency at

Deputy Commissioner’s officein Srinagar.

Returning Officer forBaramulla ParliamentaryConstituency, Dr G N Itoo todaysaid that 10 nominations werefiled on the last date of filingnominations for the upcoming

Lok Sabha elections, taking totalnominations to 14.

While BJP’s sitting MPsfrom Udhampur and Jammuseats, Dr Jitendra Singh and

Jugal Kishore Sharma havealready filed their nominationpapers, the Congress candidates

including Vikramaditya Singhand Raman Bhalla joined theelectoral battle today on the twoseats.

BJP rebel and DograSwabhiman Sangthan (DSS)chairman, Choudhary Lal Singhand Panthers Party supremoBhim Singh too joined the frayfor Jammu Parliamentary seattoday while Lal Singh and

Panthers Party leader HarshdevSingh will file papers forUdhampur seat tomorrow.

Though many bigwigs havejoined the race for two seats ofJammu region, politicalobservers were of the view thatit could be a straight contestbetween BJP and Congress can-

Nishikant KhajuriaJAMMU, Mar 25: Jealous

over 20 times more touristsvisiting Jammu than Valleybecause of peaceful atmos-phere in this part of the State,the Tourism Department ofState Government has decid-ed to virtually block publicityof tourist places of this regioneven on social media by por-traying entire J&K asKashmir only thus once againforcing Jammu to suffer at thecost of Kashmir notwithstand-ing Governor's rule in theState.

Authoritative sources toldthe Excelsior that PublicityCommittee of J&K TourismDepartment has decided for clo-sure of social media account of

Tourism Jammu and orderedthat there will be only one socialmedia account for both theDirectorates of Tourism, whichshall be maintained by Director,Tourism Kashmir.

As per the controversialdecision, taken by the PublicityCommittee during its meetingheld last week under the chair-manship of Commissioner/Secretary Tourism Department;"The Social Media account ofthe Director, Tourism Kashmirwill be the only account to beused. The Director TourismJammu can continue with theexisting Social Media team, ifany, but will only post in theSocial Media account main-tained by the Director TourismKashmir."

Even as publicity through

social media account costs noth-ing and thus has no bearing onthe State exchequer, the ironicdecision to close down theJammu Tourism group is clear-ly aimed to hit tourism poten-tial of this region by blockingpromotion of the tourist sites inthis region and more particularlyby creating a wrong impressionthat J&K means Kashmir only,sources explained.

Pertinent to mention that sce-nic Jammu region is fast emerg-ing as a favourite tourist destina-tion and more than 1.6 croretourists from across the countryand globally, have travelled tothis beautiful and peacefulregion in 2018 whereas on theother hand, tourism in Kashmirhas nosedived because of

Govt’s bid to portray J&K as only Kashmir, discourage tourists visiting Jammu

Mohinder VermaJAMMU, Mar 25: Going

ahead with its drive againstthe habitual tax evaders, theIncome Tax Department todaycarried out surveysin the premises ofseveral prominentdiagnostic centresand pharmaceuticaldistributor and laidhands on several doc-uments indicatingconcealment of prof-its.

More such surveysare likely in the com-ing days as IncomeTax Departmentsleuths found vitalinformation about sev-eral persons particular-ly renowned doctorswho are hand in glovewith these diagnostic centres incheating the taxmen by way ofconcealing their exact income.

Official sources toldEXCELSIOR that during thepast quite long time senior offi-cers of the Income Tax

Department J&K Circle wereminutely scrutinizing theIncome Tax returns of ownersand partners of prominent diag-nostic centres and pharmaceuti-cal distributors of past many

years.During the detailed exercise

it came to the fore that thoughbusiness of prominent diagnos-tic centres and pharmaceuticaldistributors was on continuousrise during the past many yearsyet there was no commensurate

increase in payment of theincome tax.

Further, the departmentcame to know from differentsources that owners and part-ners of several diagnostic cen-

tres have even purchasedproperties worth severalcrores of rupees in the poshlocalities of Jammu but invest-ment was never reflected whilefiling the Income Tax returns,sources informed.

IT Deptt surveys prominent diagnosticcentres, pharmaceutical distributor

Haresh SinghNAGROTA: Held by

National Conference bigwig,Devender Singh Rana, NagrotaAssembly constituency on theoutskirts of Jammu City is oneof the rare segments in theregion, where people openlyboast of the development workscarried out by their first-timeformer MLA in a short span ofjust four years and that toowhen he was in the Opposition.

This reporter, who touredseveral parts of NagrotaAssembly segment, himself sawthe difference as compared toother rural or semi-urban con-stituencies of the region. It wasnot that people of Nagrota havegot everything and were fully

satisfied asthey too

faced day-to-day problems onaccount of water and electricityamong others but majority ofthem were proud to say thatDevender Singh Rana is notonly easily accessible to themon phone or at his residence orNational Conference office buthe even visit parts of the con-stituency himself every week totake stock of public grievancesand address them on spot.

"We have seen the perform-ance of earlier MLAs but the

pace of development picked-uponly during four years tenure ofDevender Singh Rana.Previously only routine worksused to be executed,'' said RamKrishan Sharma, a shopkeeperat Nagrota.

"Be it the construction ofroad in interiors, installation ofwater pumps, supply of waterand electricity, providing otherbasic facilities and bringingareas on tourist map, Rana hascome up to our expectationsbecause of his people-friendlyapproach and easy accessibility

as he managed to listen to ourproblems regularly and then getthem resolved,'' said Ram Lal,an elderly person at villageBajalta, which is part ofNagrota Assembly segment.

Satish Kumar, a local,opined that merit of their for-mer representative was that hehad developed close contactwith the common man and fre-quently paid visits to theirareas.

People wanted that theSports Stadium, whose founda-tion stone was laid by DrFarooq Abdullah at BainBajalta in 2011, on an area ofnearly 560 kanals, should becompleted immediately as itwould attract sports lovers and

Rana develops Nagrota a lot in 4 years, people want more in next term

Ex-MLAs’ Report Card Constituency: Nagrota

Devender Singh Rana (NC)http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/ex-mlas-report-card/

Dr Farooq Abdullah, Vikramaditya Singh, Raman Bhalla, Ch Lal Singh, Khalid Jehangir, Prof Bhim Singh and Tilak RajBhagat filing their nomination papers on Monday.

(Contd on page 9 Col 3)

CRPF personnel deployed outside prominent diagnostic centres duringIncome Tax Department surveys on Monday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

R R Bhatnagar

ISLAMABAD, Mar 25:

The Pakistan Governmenttoday approved a proposal toestablish a corridor that willallow Hindu pilgrims fromIndia to visit Sharda Peeth, anancient Hindu temple and cul-tural site in Pakistan-occupiedKashmir, according to a mediareport.

The Sharda Peeth corridor,

when opened, will be the secondreligious tract after Kartarpurcorridor in Pakistan-controlledterritory that will connect thetwo neighbouring nations.

India had already sent a pro-posal to Pakistan to open thetemple corridor, the ExpressTribune reported quoting

sources in Pakistan's Ministry ofForeign Affairs.

"After Kartarpur, a piece ofbig news is in the offing forHindus. Some of theGovernment officials will visitthe area and will later submit a

report to the Prime Minister,"the sources said.

Established in 237 BC dur-ing the reign of Ashoka, the5,000-year-old Sharda Peeth isan abandoned temple and

Pak approves proposal to open Sharda Peeth corridor

*Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com

*Watch video on www.excelsiornews.com

Majority of contestants’ ‘crorepatis’

NEW DELHI, Mar 25:

In a big poll promise thathe described as a "ground-breaking" measure to endpoverty, Congress chief Rahul

Gandhi today said 20 per centfamilies in poorest of the poorcategory will be given Rs72,000 each annually as a min-

imum income.Making the announcement at

a press conference here, Gandhisaid, "The time for change hascome". Five crore families and

25 crore peoplewill directly bene-fit from thescheme, heclaimed, terming itas a "final assault"to eradicate pover-ty in the country.

"The finalassault on povertyhas begun. We willwipe out povertyfrom the country,"he said.

"I promise thatthere will be justice for the poor.The Congress guarantees that 20per cent families belonging topoorest of the poor category in

India will be given Rs 72,000each annually," he said.

The Congress chief termed ita "historic day", saying theCongress had launched its final

Rahul promises minimum incomescheme, 20% families to benefit

EC Observersmeet officials

NEW DELHI, Mar 25: The three Special Observers

appointed by the ElectionCommission (EC) to help itdecide on holding Assemblyelections in Jammu andKashmir today met top officialsof the CRPF and State policehere.

Sources aware of the meet-ing said since the CRPF is theprincipal security agency in theState, the Observers wanted afeedback on how early theAssembly polls can be held inthe State.

Bid to cheat poor: JaitleyNEW DELHI, Mar 25: BJP leader and Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley todayslammed Rahul Gandhi'spromise of giving Rs 72,000per year to the most deprivedfamilies as a "bluff" and yetanother Congress' bid to"cheat" the poor, and assertedthe Modi Government wasalready giving one-and-a-

(Contd on page 4 Col 1)

File photo of Sharda Peeth shrine.

Congress president Rahul Gandhiaddressing a press conference in New Delhion Monday. (UNI)

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Documents reveal huge evasion of tax, undisclosed investments

To initiate action against several doctors shortly

(Contd on page 9 Col 5)

BJP faces ‘Mahagathbandhan’ on 2 Jammu region seats

Farooq files papers in Srinagar

(Contd on page 9 Col 7)

(Contd on page 9 Col 3)

(Contd on page 4 Col 1)

Decision on closure of Jammu Tourism social media account

(Contd on page 4 Col 3)