Year: 2016

Harnessing the potential

Editor

Hydropower Development in India and in J&K – An overview Iftikhar A Drabu Recently a very senior retired bureaucrat of our state commented that India was viable as a state only after stealing our hydro power. I thought it is time to share some statistics about hydro power in India and in Kashmir to put things in a perspective. While it is a fact that J&K is blessed with abundant hydro power potential it is also a fact that some other states in India have a much larger hydro power…

Read More

JK’s special status being disrespected : Omar Abdullah

Editor

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah today said the special status of the state is being “disrespected” and the extension of central acts and programmes to the state without ratification by the Legislative Assembly is an “alarming trend”. “J-K’s special status is being disrespected and the extension of central acts and programmes to the state without ratification and approval by the state’s Legislative Assembly is an alarming trend,” Mr Abdullah said addressing his party workers during a tour of his Beerwah constituency in central Kashmir. He said the…

Read More

Burhan Wani on his own now: Mujtaba Gillani

Editor

‘Stone pelters just seek attention’ The poster boy of militancy in Kashmir, Burhan Wani is on his own now as most of his accomplices have been killed, according to police. In an interview with Kashmir POST, IGP Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani said Wani has been quiet in the past eight months “since most of the people around him have been neutralized”. “Now he is on his own with just two or three people around him,” Gillani said. The IGP said 150 to 170 militants, both local as well as…

Read More

Rambagh flyover likely to miss deadline

Editor

Srinagar is likely to witness traffic congestion for some longer period as the prestigious Rs 369 crore Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh Expressway Corridor (flyover) project is unlikely to be completed by March 2017; the reason being the delay in execution work followed by loss of time during 2014 floods. The flyover, which was announced in July 2009 in its initial phase, hit many roadblocks including litigations by traders and hurdles in land acquisition. Work on the project began in 2013 and was scheduled to be completed by September 2016. However the deadline…

Read More

‘I am not a terrorist’ movie being shot in Sonamarg

Editor

“I am not a terrorist,” shouted Muhammad Afiq Muiz, a Malaysian actor clad in traditional Kashmiri attire at his Bollywood counterpart Rahul Dev on a mountain in the backdrop of Thajiwas glacier in this scenic tourist resort. As the duo intensely glared at each other, the silence was broken by thundering applause by the crew with onlookers yelling “excellent shot.” The scene was part of maiden Malaysian feature film ‘I am not a terrorist’ being shot in Sonamarg. Amidst heavy rains, the crew including noted Bollywood actor Gulshan Grover, who…

Read More

Srinagar to get a ring road to ease traffic

Editor

The district may soon get a ring road which will provide an alternate route for the traffic moving between North and South Kashmir and ease the traffic congestion inside the city. In the project discussed at a high-level meeting on Saturday, officials planned the construction of a four-lane ring road. They said, “This will go a long way in easing traffic congestion in the city and reduce cost, time and distance.” In the first phase of the project, a four-lane ring road will be constructed from Galander near Pampore town…

Read More

Who after Syed Ali Shah Geelani?

Editor

Rashid Ahmed analyses politics of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and who may be his political successor. Some time in 2004, Mangat Ram Sharma, the then deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, spoke at a public meeting in the Ganderbal area of the Kashmir valley. Sharma, ever the man to cause political sensation with his all too candid and at times impolitic remarks, predicted that the Kashmir issue would live until the time Syed Ali Geelani was alive and that it would cease to be an issue after his death.…

Read More

National Conference would safeguard Kashmir’s special status : Farooq

Editor

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday claimed there were “clear indications” that a “long-existing lobby” in New Delhi was “reinventing its mission to erode” Jammu and Kashmir s internal autonomy and asserted that his party would safeguard the state’s political rights and special status. “I have personally witnessed how a long-existing lobby in New Delhi has used pliant leaders and regimes in the State to erode Article 370 and rob the State of its constitutionally guaranteed internal autonomy one step at a time. “This is a chronicle of…

Read More

Three sites identified for displaced Pandit families by state

Editor

Land selected in north, central & south Kashmir; Central approval awaited The J&K Government has identified at least three sites for setting up colonies for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. It has asked the Union Home Ministry to assess and approve the selected land. Official sources said most of the land was held by private owners and the state government had approached them for its sale. One of the identified lands for constructing the dwelling units for Pandits is in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. It is spread over…

Read More

Soon, law to make JK polythene-free : Nirmal Singh

Editor

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said since the government was putting in place austerity measures on smoking and drug abuse, the menace of polythene use and non-adherence to ban was another major health hazard. He said the government would soon bring in a stringent legislation to cleanse the state of polythene pollution. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in her recent statement, endorsed an NGO’s view to take stringent measures against smoking in Jammu and Kashmir. “It is a great step forward to take all-out measures to protect the health of the…

Read More