Month: November 2015

BJP claims 3 lakh members in Kashmir; 45,000 from Bandipora alone

Editor

Party elects its first ever constituency president in Valley The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday after electing its first ever constituency president in Kashmir claimed to have three lakh members in the Valley. The party state president Askok Koul announced the names of president and representative of Sonwar constituency here. A function was organized by BJP regarding its Organizational Elections here in a hotel. BJP State High Command observed the election process which started at 11 am. BJP had invited 80 polling booth presidents on the occasion and a number…

Read More

Gold Flake abuses name Kashmir to promote tobacco use

Editor

Gold Flake, an ITC cigarette brand, is using pictures of Kashmir’s locales and Shikaras in famed Dal Lake on its cigarette packets to boost sales. The move has fumed stakeholders here who seek action against the company. The new packing of Gold Flake is being marketed with theme “My Kashmir My Paradise” showing Shikara in Dal lake and pictures of Tulip garden on the outer covering. The move by the company has left stakeholders here fuming who demand legal action against the makers of the cigarette brand for abusing Kashmir…

Read More

Employees hail 7th pay panel’s proposals

Editor

Government staff in Kashmir have welcomed the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations of an overall increase of 23 per cent in the salaries of Central and state government employees. They said it would improve the overall economic condition of people. Abdul Qayoom Wani, Chairman of the Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC), while welcoming the panel’s recommendations, said the hike was the right of employees for which they had been waiting for the last 10 years. “This is a welcome step and it is the right of employees who have been waiting…

Read More

800 kanals in Pampore encroached upon

Editor

An illegal residential colony is coming up on state and saffron land in the Pampore area of Pulwama district. Locals alleged that the administration was hand in glove with the land mafia. Pampore residents said soil excavation was rampant in the saffron fields located in the periphery of the town. They alleged that the district administration was allowing vandalising of precious saffron land. They claimed that the land mafia was facilitating construction of residential houses on a huge chunk of state and saffron land. Any kind of construction on either…

Read More

Rs 21,000 cr in Ladakh’s kitty from PM’s package

Editor

Emphasis to be on better road connectivity, power supply in arid region The Ladakh region has been allocated nearly Rs 21,000 crore for various projects under the Prime Minister’s Rs 80,000-crore package for the state. The prime focus will be on an all-weather road to the region which generally remains cut off from the rest of the country for almost six months due to closure of the 434-km-long Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway and the 474-km-long Manali-Leh highway in harsh winters. The power sector is another key area that will be given a…

Read More

Jammu fails to use power-saving LEDs to light up streets, roads

Editor

At a time when cities across India have launched a campaign to replace the existing traditional streetlights with light emitting diodes (LEDs) to save electricity, civic bodies in Jammu are yet to wake up and adopt the latest technology. Replacing conventional streetlights with LEDs could result in saving of thousands of electricity units every year in the power-starved state where long-duration power cuts are a norm during both winter and summer months. The majority of the street and high-mast lights installed across the city use conventional bulbs which consume more…

Read More

Mufti for dialogue with separatists, Pak

Editor

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Friday pitched for dialogue with separatists as well as with Pakistan, saying the state’s development is hampered by the political uncertainty. “I strongly believe that all issues between India and Pakistan should be resolved amicably by engaging in a meaningful dialogue,” he said during an informal conversation with members of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation here. “On internal front, we favour dialogue with all shades of opinion,” Sayeed said, referring to the separatists. To press his point, he gave the example of…

Read More

Uncertainty over Mehbooba replacing her father is ‘dangerous’ to JK: Omar

Editor

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah has said that the uncertainty looming large over People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti replacing her father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir is ‘dangerous’ to the state. “If the transition is to take place then this period of uncertainty is unnecessary & in a state like J&K dangerous,” Omar tweeted. Mufti Sayeed has in recent past dropped enough hints about his daughter’s ascendance to the Chief Minister’s post. If Mehbooba becomes the Chief Minister of the state then she…

Read More

Mahjoor: The Patriot

Editor

Mansha Ashraf Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor commonly known as Shair-e-Kashmir is one of the most remarkable lyrical poet of modern Kashmiri poetry. Eminent poet of India Rabindranath Tagore always referred to Mahjoor as Wordsworth of Kashmiri poetry. He was born in Mitrigam, Pulwana on August 11, 1887. Mahjoor first worked as a patwari (village accountant). During these years he got an opportunity to spend many years in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir including Leh and Kargil. As a result of his stay he started to learn the richness and…

Read More