Coalition buys peace! At what cost?

KT NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, Feb 16: Partners of the ruling coalition must be happy and satisfied that by expanding the council of ministers they have managed to accommodate "almost everybody" so the threat of dissension is over.

But at what cost? "Nobody has actually been left out.

Almost everybody has got his pound of flesh", says Shakeel Ahmad, a keen Kashmir watcher.

Statistics, in fact explains the situation better than words.

Out of 16 PDP MLAs 12 are ministers.

Congress has 14 ministers out of 20 legislators.

PDF - the party that independent MLAs formed last year - has 11 legislators of whom nine are ministers.

Of the four Panthers Party legislators two have ministerial berths.

Three MLAs from Ladakh who are part of the coalition stand accommodated besides the lone BSP candidate who joined the coalition and was made minister last week.

This leaves four MLAs from PDP, six from Congress, two from PDF and two from CPI (M), who as a matter of policy would not like to have ministerial berths.

Numerically speaking, of the 53 MLA that form the coalition, 39 are ministers leaving out a total of 16 MLAs.

"But this is not the fact", says one legislators on phone from Jammu.

"Why do not you count Mohammed Shafi Bhat, Girdhari Lal, Ghulam Mohammed Saroori and Haji Rashid Dar who as Chairmen of various corporations are enjoying the ministers status", he asked adding that if Mrs Ghulam Nabi Azad is also counted then it adds to the Congress strength.

Adds another MLA: "Do not you think Mehbooba Ji as PDP president is more than a minister.

What about her Mama Ji who enjoys a good influence.

And what about Mufti Sahib's PRO who is son of one MLA".

Mohammed Shafi Uri, former minister and senior NC leader who lost to Taj Mohi-ud-Din from Uri in the last elections terms this "an unprecedented arrangement in the history of post-partition India when a state has over 43 percent of its MLAs as ministers".

"I fail to understand how they could do it when they have voted to a recent legislation in the parliament that prevents having over 15 percent of legislators as ministers even after combining the strength of both the houses", he said.

One of the widely reported factors that Mufti attributed to the fall of Dr Farooq Abdullah regime was his "bad governance".

"But by making most of his MLAs as ministers is he trying a new standard of the good governance, asks Shafi.

Off late, Mufti has been insisting that for a cop being the main executive at the ground level, he must be well read.

This suggestion has been widely appreciated.

But has the Chief Minister recorded that neither of the 10 ministers who were inducted in the council were able to pronounce the word "conscience" correctly - that was part of their oath of the office.

While Mufti is yet to gauge the mood of the masses on this count, he seems to have avoided taking his coalition partners into confidence.

Perhaps that is why voice against such decisions from within have started echoing from the coalition.

Says Communist leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami: "This (expansion) was un-wanted and unwarranted.

There is no outcome of these decisions other than adding more load to the critical public exchequer".

Estimations suggest that so far the Mufti government has burnt fuel worth four crore rupees and they have taken allowances and other emoluments of over one crore.

For every single minister - of whatever status - estimations suggest it needs Rs.

20 lakhs as non-recurring expenditures once in a year and over one lakh rupees a month as recurring expenditures.

Surely, this excludes the rent of the bungalows and the huge army of servants that every minister likes to have at their homes.

Government for the first time has not taken a serious view of having a balanced council.

While Jammu is having nine members in the council, there is nobody from Srinagar other than Raman Mottoo - the famous MLA who polled less than 500 votes.

Is it impossible to limit the "compulsions in a coalition"? After all this is not the first coalition that is governing J&K.

Congrats for the good governance, Chief Minister.

Protesting ReT teachers lathicharged several injured, arrested KT NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, Feb 16: Police today cane charged a procession being carried out by the Rehbar-E-Taleem (RET) Teachers Forum at Lal Chowk.

Some of the office bearers of the forum were injured in the lathi charge while some of them were arrested by the police and were lodged in different police stations of the city.

The RET teachers had assembled at the Pratap Park to lodge their protest against the apathy of the government towards them.

They had decided to take out a peaceful procession towards the office of divisional commissioner Kashmir, but were lathi charged before taking out the procession.

The protestors were demanding that the services of 40,000 RET be regularized after two years and not after five years.

They were also demanding that the pay of RET teachers be increased and they be given the basic pay equivalent to the government teachers.

The RET teachers also demanded that the contractual period of their services be included in their service.

They have also made the demand that those RET teachers who have crossed the age of 37 years be regularised with immediate effect for which the orders have already been issued.

They also demanded that the service book of the RET teachers be made from the date of appointment and their families be given compensation under the proper SRO in case if any of the teachers becomes a casualty in any of the accidents.

Kabul hails Indo-Pak talks Concern over HR violations KT NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, Feb 16: The National Democratic Front (NDF) chairman Abdul Rashid Kabuli has expressed happiness over the secretary level talks between India and Pakistan.

He said this while addressing the party workers at the party head office here today.

Kabuli has hoped that the talks would proceed on the right path so that everything becomes normal in the entire sub-continent and people of the sub-continent in general and Kashmiri people in particular are able to live a normal life.

The party is hopeful that the wishes as well as aspirations of the people living in all the three regions of the state are kept in proper consideration so that peaceful and long lasting solution to the Kashmir issue is found out.

The party has urged the people of the state in lending a helping hand to the ongoing talks between India and Pakistan.

Kabuli also ridiculed the 'feel good' factor of the central government and said that the feel good is totally absent in the state.

He has also expressed his concern over the human rights violations being carried out across the length and breadth of the state.

Commenting on the recent cabinet expansion by the state government, Kabuli said that the same has added to the already burdened state ex-chequer.

He added that the state government has totally the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

'It is linked with future of J&K people'