Year: 2015

Falling Prices spell trouble for walnut industry

Editor

In this bustling village on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway, dozens of walnut kernel traders are a worried a lot these days due to falling prices this year. Traders said the prices had decreased by at least half compared to last year after India allowed imports from other countries, including the US, China and West Asia. The J&K Government said it was a serious issue and it would take it up with the Central Government. “We have the best quality walnut as it is organic. That was the reason we had high…

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Classes being held under tents at overcrowded school in Rajouri

Editor

The lack of infrastructure and a dilapidated school building has not only affected students’ studies, but it has also put the lives of almost 650 children at risk in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri region. The Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Rajouri district’s Thanna Mandi village has just four rooms to accommodate the 650 students. At times the classes are shifted to make-shift tents, which do not stand torrid weather conditions. “In this school poor children from far off villages come to study. To study in tents is still fine…

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Pledge to promote Kashmir cause reaffirmed

Editor

The 13th anniversary of Azad Kashmir Radio and 6th anniversary of its second channel Radio FM-93 were observed here on Thursday with renewal of a pledge to achieve their prime objective of projecting the Kashmir cause in an effective manner. Azad Kashmir Radio Mirpur had started its regular transmissions 13 years ago on September 30, 2002. Then Minister for Information and Media Development Nisar A Memon had inaugurated its Broadcasting House. AK Radio Mirpur is the third major public-sector radio station in AJK next to Radio Muzaffarabad and Radio Tararkheil.…

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Gilani condemns Mufti Sayeed’s remarks regarding future of Kashmir

Editor

The veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, has said that Jammu and Kashmir is the most militarized region of the world and Indian troops are occupying this land against the wishes of its people, unleashing brutal and inhuman atrocities upon its residents. Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar took strong exception to the puppet Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s assertion that the future of Jammu and Kashmir lies with India and termed it a big lie. He said that Mufti Sayeed and people like him had no…

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13 months later, flood victims angry over slow rehabilitation

Editor

Thirteen months after the devastating floods, thousands of victims are angry over the paltry compensation provided by the state’s coalition government, which had promised swift rehabilitation. The state government has so far provided no compensation to thousands of affected businesses, which suffered great losses during the last year’s devastating floods with Srinagar city’s main trading centres submerged for over a month. “The business community is not happy as they have not received anything,” Mushtaq Wani, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, told. Wani, who represents more than…

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As meat is turned into a political issue across India, a Muslim ironsmith in Dadri pays the price

Editor

In the Uttar Pradesh village where a mob murdered Mohammed Akhlaq for allegedly eating beef, youngsters have been avidly following the debates on cattle slaughter in Maharashtra, Kashmir and other parts of the country. Supriya Sharma   Eighteen-year-old Vandana Rana is a second-year student in the Bachelors of Pharmacy course in RV Northland Institute in Dadri, about 50 kilometres from Delhi. She has read about the ban on beef in Maharashtra. As recently as last week, she watched news on TV that Kashmiris had slaughtered cows on Bakri-Eid despite a ban…

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Tourism department to hold plethora of adventure sports

Editor

The state tourism department is planning to hold a plethora of adventure sports activities to create maximum sporting action in the Valley.  These adventure sports includes events such as the “12th Tour de Kashmir rally” that would be flagged off from Pahalgam on October 3, Saturday. This event would see participation of 50 local and 50 national cyclists pedalling to win the title. Even as some events such as an international river rafting championship to be held last month was postponed but tourism department is enthusiastic to hold this event…

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CM to promote Aru as Lavender Village

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Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, Friday morning took a quick round of Pahalgam resort to take a firsthand appraisal of works on the ongoing projects related to tourism and other sectors, an official statement said. According to the statement, the CM visited the Circular Road, which has recently been macadamised, and various parks maintained and developed by Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) and the Floriculture, Gardens & Parks Department. Secretary Tourism, Farooq A. Shah, Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, Muneer-ul-Islam, CEO PDA, Riyaz Ahmad, besides several other senior officers accompanied the Chief Minister.…

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Domestic Violence in Kashmir, Eleven severely burnt women battle for their lives

Editor

The burn ward of SMHS Hospital here symbolizes the increasing domestic violence in Kashmir as 11 severely burnt women battle for their lives. The space and resource-constrained ward struggles to cater to the load of such patients coming from all districts of Kashmir and even from Jammu, as the state government sits on the sanctioned Rs 4 Cr project under National Burn Prevention Programme of Government of India. As soon as one enters the ward, the smell of burnt flesh coupled with the swollen, disfigured bodies of women who must…

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Swach Bharat Abhyan gathers ‘official dirt’ in Srinagar

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Delay in funds keeps Srinagar out of top 100  list  On October 2, the ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhyan (SBA) launched across India completed its one year but Srinagar continues to be out of the list of top 100 clean cities. Top official sources revealed the reason lies in delay in releasing funds. They said central government released funds only on last day of September—two days before its maiden anniversary. Only one-fifth of the toilets promised have so far been built, way behind the target and the larger problem is of…

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