Mehbooba stalls Army’s demand for safe passage to convoys

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has apparently told the Army that it will take her administration some time to devise a mechanism for giving safe passage to the Army convoys to secure them from militant attacks.

The Army demanded a halt to civilian traffic after three soldiers were killed by militants at Pampore on 18 December. In a recent highlevel meeting for this purpose chaired by State DGP K. Rajendra Kumar, it was suggested that civilian traffic should be stopped when the convoys move on Kashmir highways. But CM Mehbooba said that she also needs to ensure that there was minimum ordeal caused to the locals.

Informed sources told this newspaper that Mehbooba Mufti has asked the police and traffic department to devise a new mechanism guaranteeing the safety of Army convoys while not halting civilian traffic for hours.

However, the Army contended they are coming under attacks in the midst of traffic jams and there are chances of civilian casualties if their jawans retaliated to such attacks. They have suggested that the government should halt the movement of public and private transport during the Army convoy movement on Srinagar-Jammu highway. Initially the security grid of the state had agreed to the Army’s suggestion. But when the file reached the CM, she reportedly asked her police chief and traffic department to relook into the entire case and devise a fresh mechanism so that the common people are not stranded on the streets in their vehicles, waiting for the Army convoys to pass. Mehbooba Mufti has asked the police to create special check posts and post their CID personnel in civics at all the vulnerable places all along the highway in South Kashmir for the safe passage of Army convoys.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has pushed his Cabinet colleagues and senior IAS officials to go cashless. Naidu insisted that they go for cashless shopping at the two-day district collectors’ conference held at Vijayawada on Wednesday and Thursday.

In order to make his 19 ministers and senior officials including 13 district collectors well versed with cashless dealings, the CM ordered the shoppers on the busy M.G. Road in Vijayawada to keep their shops open till midnight on Wednesday, so that the VIPs can shop after the first day of the conference was over late in the evening.

The CM’s initiative came after he learnt that most of his ministers and officials had never used their debit