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No talks on Kashmir: IndiaNo talks without Kashmir: Pak

Won’t arrest separatists to stall their Delhi meeting: JK Govt

Separatists question India’s Kashmir policy

Shah, Lone detained at New Delhi Airport

IANS

New Delhi, Aug 22: There will be no talks with Pakistan if it insists on making the Hurriyat a third party or discussing Kashmir, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Saturday, asserting that the talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan must focus only on terrorism.

The minister said that in the spirit of the Simla agreement, there can be no third party, and in the spirit of the Ufa statement, the NSA-level talks would

be limited to terrorism.“Keeping in mind the

spirit of the Simla agree-ment, don’t make Hurriyat a third party to the talks, and keeping the spirit of Ufa, don’t expand the sub-ject of talks beyond terror-ism,” she said.

“Pakistan is saying Kashmir is the core issue but they did not say so in Ufa. Talk on terror first, we can talk on Kashmir later,” she said.

Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz is to meet Indian NSA Ajit Doval for talks on August 23-24.

NSAs won’t meet if agenda deviates from terrorism: Swaraj

Govt downsizes Pediatric Hospital proposalApproves only 200 beds against 500-bed project

MUDDASIR ALI

Srinagar, Aug 22: Srinagar, Aug 22: The Peoples Democratic Party-led J&K Government on Sat-urday said it won’t arrest the separatist leaders to stall their meeting with Pakistan National Security Advisory Sartaj Aziz in New Delhi.

ABID BASHIR

Srinagar, Aug 22: Amid blame game over the NSA level talks between India and Paki-stan, the Minister for External Affairs’ state-ment prompted separatists to question New Delhi’s Kashmir policy.

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Aug 22: Separatist leaders Shabir Ahmed Shah and Bilal Lone were detained at New Delhi Airport today.“When we reached the Delhi Airport, a con-tingent of policemen in civvies was waiting.

ZEHRU NISSA

Srinagar, Aug 22: The government has approved the construction of a 200-bedded Pediatric Hospi-tal within the upcoming Maternity Hospital at Bemina, slashing the pro-posed bed strength of 500 by 60 percent.

The cabinet recently approved the 200-bedded hospital at a cost of Rs 25 crore and ordered that its construction be started within the Maternity Hos-pital coming up at Bemina. The decision dumps the

Pediatric Health Institute proposal submitted thrice to the government in past.

Minister of Health and Medical Education, Choud-hary Lal Singh, however denied that the govern-ment had downsized the bed strength for the hospi-tal. He reiterated, “Mother and child facilities need to be located at the same place. It is criminal to sepa-rate them and I will not let this happen.”

Asked whether the gov-ernment was planning to designate the approved 200 beds as a Neonatology

facility, he replied in neg-ative and said, “This will come up as a full-fledged facility for Pediatrics, just above the Maternity Hospital in Bemina.” He added that all facilities for diagnostics and treatment would be available there, and these could be shared between the two hospitals.

The Health Minister said that the government will also 'work on the 500-bedded proposal'. "Nothing is being put in cold storage."

However, senior officials in the health department called this announcement by the government ‘a cruel joke’ with the people of Kashmir. “It is clear that Kashmir needs a full-fledged Pediatric Hospital to come up on fast-track basis. However, the gov-ernment chooses to ignore the community needs, resort to patchwork and befool the people. Instead of a hospital, a few wards are being given to Kash-mir and that too after a

JK presses panic button as power liabilities swell to Rs 7000 crSeeks bailout package from New Delhi

MUDDASIR ALI

Srinagar, Aug 22: Jammu and Kashmir’s power liabil-ities have touched Rs 7000 crores, forcing State Gov-ernment to approach New Delhi for a bailout package, sources told Greater Kash-mir on Saturday.

The State purchases elec-tricity from at least 27 sourc-es including more than 20 central powers suppliers and State’s own Power Develop-ment Corporation (PDC).

The pending bills had gone up to Rs 4538 crores on June 21 this year apart from Rs 1726 crores that the Gov-ernment owes to the PDC as “liabilities of the past”.

The State owes the highest Rs 1574 crores power dues to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) that has seven hydropower projects operational in the State with cumulative capacity of 2009 MW, highest in any state.

The NTPC that has threat-ened to snap supplies to the State had bills pending worth Rs 759 crores with the Government by June 21 fol-lowed by PDC (Rs 542 crores), Power Grid Corporation India Limited (Rs 264 crores) and SJVNL (Rs 233 crores).

Every year, State spends

sizeable chunk of its budget on import of energy but there has been little focus on generation front to meet growing energy demands.

An official in the Power Development Department (PDD) said while State is generating 761 MW from 22 hydropower projects owned by the Power Devel-opment Corporation, J&K’s peak power demand was 2657 MW for last year and it was expected to cross 2800 MW this year.

The difference in avail-ability and demand of elec-tricity is putting strain on state finances with Govern-ment spending more than Rs 21000 crores only on purchase of energy for last one decade.

The PDD official said that last year the Government had initially kept budgetary

allocation of over Rs 3600 crores for power purchase but the figures had to be revised to Rs 4258 crores to meet the growing demand.

“But by the end of last financial year the total spending on power pur-chase however went to Rs 5207 crores including inter-est on outstanding liability and supplementary bills,” said the official.

While the budget for purchase of power for this year has been approved at Rs 3785 crores, the official said in view of the energy requirements the govern-ment would require revis-ing the allocations for power purchase to around Rs 4200 crores. The figures may go up if some pending liabilities are taken care of this year.

“This is bound to happen as the energy consumption is growing by at least 10 to 12 percent annually,” said another PDD official.

Amidst rising power bill and accumulating liabilities and with little resources at its disposal, the State Gov-ernment has sought a finan-cial support of Rs 5414 crores from Government of India as one time measure to liqui-date liabilities on account of power purchases.

“The arrears on account of power purchase is making a big dent in budgetary pro-visions which otherwise could be gainfully utilized for system improvement and

Amidst rising power bill and accumulating liabilities and with little resources at its disposal, the State

Government has sought a financial support of Rs 5414 crores from Government of India as one time measure to liquidate liabilities on account of power purchases.

See JK presses panic...on Pg-12

See NSAs won’t...on Pg-12 See No talks...on Pg-12

See Won’t arrest separatists...on Pg-12 See Separatists question...on Pg-12 See Shah, Lone detained...on Pg-12

See Govt downsizes...on Pg-12 See ‘Revival Day’...on Pg-12

‘Revival Day’ to cost JK Rs 26 lakhs

SYED RIZWAN GEELANI

Srinagar, Aug 22: The proposed ‘Revival Day’ to be observed by JK govern-ment on September 7 in the memory of last year’s floods will have expen-diture of Rs 26.5 lakhs. The main function will be observed in Srinagar’s Botanical Garden.

As per official docu-ments, Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) has been directed to ensure participation of around 700 to 800 students.

The total expenditure for publicity and print-ing material for the event is estimated as Rs 4 lakhs while as the expenditure for award money, shawls, certificates, dummy checks will be Rs 3 lakhs.

The estimated cost for refreshments, light-and-sound show is Rs 2 lakh each. “The expenditure for video coverage of the event with multi-camera set up will be Rs 1.75 lakhs while as for costumes, make up and jewellery is Rs 1.50 lakh,” reads the official document, adding that the total cost for ‘Traditional

Islamabad calls off NSA meet, ‘can’t ignore most important issue’

PTI/IANS

Islamabad, Aug 22: Ending the suspense, Pakistan Saturday night called off the Indo-Pak NSA-level talks saying that it can’t ignore the ‘most impor-tant issue’ of Kashmir, hours after India made it clear that discussions on Kashmir and a meet-ing with separatists will not be acceptable.

"Pakistan reiterates that the scheduled NSA-level talks cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set

by India," a statement by the Pakistani For-eign Office said.

Pakistan's announce-ment brought to an end the battle of attrition as to who would blink first.

That the talks were a non-starter was evident in the last two days in view of the acrimonious exchanges between the two sides but the last straw appeared to be External Affairs Minis-ter Sushma Swaraj's vir-tual ultimatum to Paki-stan to give a clear com-mitment by midnight

SUNDAY, August 23, 2015 07, Zul Qaadah, 1436 AH 28th Year of publication

Published from Srinagar | Jammu Regd. No. JK NP-6/SKGPO-2012-2014 Vol: 28 No. 233 Pages: 20 Rs. 5.00

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