Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who was on a day-long visit of Jammu and Kashmir, closeted with state chief minister Omar Abdullah and other top functionaries of the state government, police, intelligence and Central security forces’ officials to review the prevailing law and order situation and other related issues here on Wednesday.
The official sources here said that on their agenda were also the issues like the forthcoming Amarnath yatra, heavy rush of domestic and foreign tourists and the urgency of making their stay comfortable and the increasing trend of returning home via Nepal among Kashmiri youth stranded in PoK, besides the pitch for partial withdrawal of AFSPA from the areas deemed completely peaceful. Also discussed were developmental works underway in the state.
An official spokesperson here said that the home minister and the chief minister “jointly reviewed prevailing law and order and security situation at the high level” and that various issues were deliberated upon threadbare.
The meeting was also attended by Union minister of state for home Jitendra Singh and Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Tara Chand.
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EGoM TO meet next week on wheat export
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, MAY 23
With wheat production expected to touch record 90 million tonnes in 2012 against the storage capacity of 62.8 million tones, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) will deliberate next week on suggestions of the Rangarajan Committee for export of wheat as a way out to deal with problem of plenty. The Rangrajan Committee has recommended release of additional foodgrains through public distribution system (PDS) and export, which in all would cost about `17,000 crores in subsidy.
A senior official in the food ministry said that the EGoM would meet next week to take a decision on the set of recommendations given by the Rangrajan committee. The food ministry is preparing a note for the EGoM based on the recommendations of the Rangrajan Committee.