Kashmir farmers suffer as rivers illegally mined under supervision by the people at the helm

Start of the apple season hampered by unabated mining of rivers, hitting thousands of farmers as government officials admit lapses. Ghulam Mohammad Mir, 62, looks grudgingly at the canal that usually brings water year-round to his and many other fruit orchards in Kashmir’s Shopian district, home to some of the finest apples grown in the lap of the Himalayas. Mir’s anger has a reason. The canal is dry these days, hampering the start of the apple season when farmers prepare the trees with minerals and fertilisers. “It is time to…

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Parents worried as Schools across Kashmir Valley report fresh covid cases

Most of the schools have asked the parents to send their wards on alternate days to maintain Covid protocols such as social distancing. Some schools have also decided to run two shifts in the day to reduce the class strength by half. At-least 50 students from two south Kashmir schools including 36 students in a private school in Kulgam district and 14 in a government school in Anantnag district were found infected with coronavirus along with a handful of teachers and staff during random testing drives in schools in Kashmir…

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Pakistan seeks ‘Guarantees’ on J&K for better ties

The thaw comes after a considerable deterioration in ties that followed New Delhi’s decision to do away with the special status granted to J&K under Article 370. Constitutional guarantees on not changing the demography of Jammu & Kashmir would go a long way in creating an “enabling environment”, Pakistan has conveyed to India, highly placed government officials told. The thaw in the India-Pakistan relationship that started with the restoration of the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in February, through a statement by the Director Generals of Military…

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J&K records 461 fresh covid cases, 4 Deaths; 39 Students, 5 School staff test positive in Budgam

For the first time this year, the daily Covid count in Jammu and Kashmir crossed 400 For the first time this year, the daily Covid count in Jammu and Kashmir crossed 400. The UT on Thursday recorded 461 infections, the highest daily count after December 8. The new cases have taken the case tally in the Union Territory to 1,31,421. The death toll reached 1,998 with four fresh fatalities — three in Kashmir and one in Jammu division. For the last seven days, the UT has reported around 200 daily…

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Pakistan to defers trade with India until Delhi reviews Kashmir’s Status: Shah Mehmood Qureshi

Pakistan’s cabinet on Thursday put off allowing imports of cotton and sugar from neighbouring India until Delhi reviews its 2019 move to revoke the Kashmir region’s special status, the foreign minister said. In an effort to cool local demand and prices, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), the country’s top economic decision-making body, gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for the imports, which would have ended nearly two years of trade suspension between the nuclear-armed rivals. “It was a consensus opinion, including the prime minister, that as long as India doesn’t review…

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