Month: October 2018

BJP surpassing other parties in dynastic politics

Editor

Rising to power after charging the Congress, National Conference, and Peoples Democratic Party with promoting dynastic legacy, the BJP is following the same path now. Whether it was as part of the PDP-BJP coalition government in the state or the ongoing urban bodies elections, the party is drawing widespread resentment from its cadre for promoting “bhai-bhatijavaad.” Ironically, this maxim was used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the election campaign in 2014 against his rivals. State BJP general secretary Yudhveer Sethi’s wife Priya Sethi, who was earlier a Minister of…

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Manan Wani, AMU Scholar who turned militant killed in Kupwara gunfight

Editor

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, including PhD scholar-turned-terrorist Manan Bashir Wani, were killed Thursday during an encounter with security forces at Handwara in frontier district of north Kashmir, officials said. Police, however, said the identities of both the militants was being ascertained. The encounter broke out in the early hours at Satgund in Handwara following a specific intelligence about presence of Wani, 27, along with two others, they said. Wani had joined militancy in January 2018. Giving details emerging from the encounter site, which ended, police and other security forces were…

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Hindu organsations forcfully shut down 400 meat shops across Gurgaon

Editor

The Shiv Sena and another Hindu organisation claimed to have forcibly shut around 400 meat and chicken shops at different locations here on Wednesday, demanding that they remain closed during Navaratri. Chief of Shiv Sena’s Gurgaon unit Gautam Saini told PTI that around 300 members of different Hindu organisations assembled at the Lord Shiva temple located at the Old Railway road on Wednesday morning and headed to different places to close meat shops. Locals claimed a group of Sena workers assembled at Palam Vihar on Wednesday and forcibly shut down…

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Haven’t seen ‘Such An Election’ anywhere before: CRPF Personnel

Editor

Deserted polling booths and lack of poll festivity was a “rare sight” for Central Reserve Police Force personnel deployed for the first time in Srinagar to guard polling booths during the second phase of urban local body elections Wednesday. At least six CRPF men were seen guarding a polling booth at ward number 24 in Chattabal area—which witnessed zero voting—and gossiping about why people in Kashmir don’t turn up to vote. Ramesh Kumar, a CRPF man from Chattisgarh, who was deployed for poll duty for the first time in Kashmir,…

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‘Who is contesting against whom’, This is not election but mystery

Editor

As Srinagar’s Batamaloo and Karan Nagar areas went to polls during the second phase of urban local body elections Wednesday, the residents in the twin localities said they neither know the location of polling booths nor the names of contestants. This reporter had to roam for around 20 minutes inside Batamaloo to finally locate five polling booths set up outside the police control room (PCR) where—till 3 pm—only 13 votes had been cast. The poll timing was 6 am to 4 pm. “We don’t know anything about polling booths, election…

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Boycott Continues: 3% Turnout in Kashmir, 78.6% in Jammu

Editor

Kashmir Valley recorded just three percent voter turnout in the second phase of urban local body elections on Wednesday as parts of summer capital Srinagar and southern Anantnag town witnessed a near-total boycott of the electoral exercise. However the areas that went to polls in Jammu province witnessed brisk polling throughout the day. According to J&K’s chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra, the overall voter turnout in the second phase was 31.3 percent. “78.6% polling was witnessed in 214 wards of Jammu while Kashmir division witnessed average 3.4% polling in its…

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E Sreedharan, India’s ‘Metro Man’ declines to be part of Dal Lake expert committee

Editor

India’s ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan, one of the members of the expert committee formed by the High Court (HC) last month to save the Dal Lake, has expressed his inability to be part of the effort. In a letter to the HC, Sreedharan has cited “illness and old age” as the ground for not being able to be part of the expert committee. To look for the “immediate measures” aimed at the conservation of the dying Dal, a division bench of the HC headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal had,…

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Poll Boycott trend continues for 2nd Phase; Dull voting across Kashmir Valley, brisk in Jammu

Editor

The second phase of urban bodies’ elections in Jammu and Kashmir, being held on Wednesday, covers 384 wards and has 1,094 candidates in the fray. Separatists have given a call for a shutdown in the areas going to the polls. Polling in the second phase of urban local bodies’ elections, covering more than 380 local bodies spread over 13 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, is being held on Wednesday. This phase covers 384 wards (166 in Kashmir and 218 in Jammu) spanning six districts in Jammu and seven in the…

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Voting begins for IInd phase of Urban Local Bodies, 1029 candidates in fray for 263 wards across JK

Editor

Amid tight seceuity arrangements polling in the second phase of Urban Local Bodies began on Wednesday.At 8:00 am 341 votes (211 from male and 130 from females) were cast in Sumbal. The voting started at 6: am and it will end at 4:00 pm. Over 1000 candidates are contesting polls in the second phase in 263 wards spanning 13 districts across the state – seven of which are in Kashmir. The second phase of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls would be held in the State on Wednesday and fate of…

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Parents accuse schools of charging hefty amount as donations for admission

Editor

The school education department has failed to regulate the private schools in Kashmir as the elite private educational institutions continue to charge hefty amount as donations from parents at the time of admissions in the school. Most of the private schools in Srinagar and other districts are charging donation in and admission fee in lakhs from the parents for enrolling their kids in the school. The money is charged at the time of admission in Kindergarten or any other class up to 8th. The government has constituted a full-fledged School…

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