By Sarwar Kashani
Srinagar, Feb 22 (IANS) Authorities had in the past proposed that the sprawling Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) campus located on a strategic arterial road be guarded by police or paramilitary troopers, months before one of the longest gunfights in the history of Kashmir militancy began on Saturday, officials said on Monday.
But the idea was shot down by the institute administration who viewed the presence of security forces as a hurdle for young people, both men and women, who visit the campus to be trained and financed as entrepreneurs in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly Kashmir valley, the officials, who did not want to be named, told IANS.
The 3.5 acre campus, housing three large buildings, is located near the saffron-producing town of Pampore, some 12 km from here on the strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway - the only surface link that connects the winter and summer capitals of the terror-ravaged state.
The road that also links the summer capital with south Kashmir is the lifeline not only for local supplies but is the only all-weather route used by the army to reach the Srinagar-based 15 Corps headquarters of the Indian Army that is the nerve centre of the fight against militancy in the state. Army convoys keep moving on the road stretch throughout day and night.
"Keeping in view the sensitivity of the area, the police had in the past wanted that the JKEDI complex may be guarded," said a top official of JKEDI, not wishing to be named.
The official said that he was privy to the proposal mooted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) but the institute management turned it down on the plea that the presence of security forces would deter many young men and women from coming to the institute.
"We were not expecting this...it was unforeseeable," the official told IANS, referring to the gunfight between suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militants and government forces, which has claimed six lives -- a civilian, three soldiers and two paramilitary troopers. The gunfight was still raging.
Another official said that the government wanted security presence at JKEDI because it could have given extra cover to an already highly secured compound housing medium and shortwave radio transmitters of Radio Kashmir, located on the left of the campus.
"I think it was not prudent on part of the institute management to refuse the security cover. We didn't even allow a police van to park near the gates of the institute," he said.
The government-funded autonomously-run institute trains and finances young men and women of the job-starved state to be entrepreneurs. It has so far trained more than 13,000 aspiring entrepreneurs and financed some 5,000 of them with soft loans.
JKEDI officials were also staring at an "irreparable" loss of data of thousands of loan accounts. The institute's data centre was one of the first parts of the multi-floor office complex that was bombed in the gunfight. The building was equipped with state-of-the-art audio and visuals for teaching and training purposes. It had a rich library of around 2,000 books.
"We are hoping against hope that the data servers may have survived the onslaught," another official said, adding "if not, then the data is gone".
The institute had no data backup site even as its IT department had proposed to buy new servers to be located at the more secured Jammu office of the institute. "The plan and the proposal got stuck in procedural hassles," the official said.
The institute has disbursed some Rs.220 crore as seed money and loan amounts to its beneficiaries across the state, the official. "And you can imagine the loss of data may cause to us."
(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
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