Deputy Commissioner Rawalakot and Regional Passport Officer Jammu would be the respective designated authorities for the Rawalakot-Poonch bus service with effect from October 1, 2008. Monthly co-ordination meetings between the designated authorities will be held, with the provision to convene urgent meetings whenever required. Crossings will stand enhanced to sixty persons per crossing.
Steps to be taken to reduce processing time for applications on both sides. The operation of the Tithwala-Chiliana crossing point will be effective from May to November of every year, in view of the accessibility problems in the winter. Crossing on Uri-Hajipir will be facilitated. The designated authorities will start exchanging application forms by e-mail from October 1, 2008. E-mail transfer will be backed up by hard copies.
In cases of emergencies (death of close relative across LoC), clearance to be processed within a week. Stay in such cases will be for upto seven days. This will be effective from October 1, 2008. Frequency of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Pooch-Rawalakot bus services will be increased from fortnightly to weekly with effect from August 21, 2008 and August 25, 2008 respectively.
Designated authorities will reconcile data regarding crossings regularly.
CROSS LOC TRADE: List of commodities to be traded with zero-tariff regime were exchanged. To begin implementation, each side will indicate the items that are willing to receive. The visit of Chambers of Commerce from both sides of LoC will take place as early as possible to make recommendations on modalities of trade.
Meanwhile, India on Monday said its peace process with Pakistan was 'under stress', repeating allegations that 'elements' in Pakistan were behind this month's suicide attack against its Kabul embassy.
"The composite dialogue itself is under stress. The dialogue is happening at a difficult time in our relationship with Pakistan," Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon told reporters in New Delhi.
"In the recent past, several events have vitiated the atmosphere," he added. "Incidents on the Line of Control, incitement of violence, some (Pakistani) leaders reverting to the old polemics - and this sequence of events culminated in the suicide attack on our embassy in Kabul," he said.
"All our information... points to elements in Pakistan being behind the blast," Menon said after talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir as part of a peace process the two nuclear-armed rivals launched in 2004. The July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul left dozens dead, including India's military attache and a diplomat.