Year: 2019

GDP slipping, Unemployment on rise and we still voted for Vikas?

Editor

Promises around development and economic growth were aplenty in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections 2019 but did they have any desirable effect on voters’ mindset? Detailed accounts and reports suggest that the country’s overall growth was not among top factors that helped Narendra Modi’s party cruise to a landslide victory. Modi’s social outreachIndependent journalist Kunal Purohit, who travelled extensively across the country’s hinterlands before the 2019 elections, reported that rising unemployment, farm distress and growth slowdown were not major concerns among voters residing in India’s poverty-stricken rural belts.…

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PDP advocating for a joint initiative to safeguard J&K’s interests

Editor

Expressing concern on the attempts being made to fragment the mandate in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today asserted that it shall be open for a joint response to the new political challenges the state was facing. A PDP spokesman, in a statement, said that the concerns were expressed by the members of political affairs committee of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Democratic Party which met here under the chairmanship of party president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. He said that the party patron Muzaffar Hussain Beig, Abdul…

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Juma-tul-Vida will be observed as Youm-e-Qudus, Youm-e-Kashmir: Hurriyat Conference (M)

Editor

As a convention, Hurriyat Conference (M) has announced that Juma-tul-Vida (last Friday of Ramadan) will be observed as Youm-e-Qudus and Youm-e-Kashmir—urging imams and khateebs to raise their voice for the peaceful settlement of the world’s two oldest and lingering disputes—Palestine and Kashmir on this day and to press on the international community to play its role towards solution of these disputes. Hurriyat spokesperson said that “that on the occasion of Youm-e-Qudus and Youm-e-Kashmir, a resolution framed by the Joint Resistance Leadership will be passed in all the masjids, shrines, and…

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At 42.8°C Jammu sizzles witnesses season’s hottest day

Editor

A blistering heat wave swept across the Jammu region on Wednesday as the day temperature soared to season’s highest so far. At 42.8°C, the city recorded 3.7 degrees above the normal temperature. According to the meteorological department, Jammu record the hottest day of this summer so far with the mercury rising to 42.8°C. On Tuesday, Jammu day’s temperature was 41.1 degrees Celsius and it was two notches above the normal. In Katra, the base camp of the holy cave shrine of Goddess Vaishno Devi, the day temperature settled at 38.9°C…

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One Civilian killed, 70 injured as protestors help rebels escape the siege

Editor

A man was killed and at least 70 people were injured in clashes in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday as protestors helped rebels escape two separate sieges by government forces, police and hospital authorities said. While protests in support of the surrounded rebels have increased on the Indian side of the divided territory in recent years, it is rare for insurgents to escape. Militant groups fighting the 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed there demand independence or a merger with Pakistan. Thousands of villagers poured onto roads Wednesday as two suspected rebels fought…

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No one can scrap Articles 370, 35A: Hasnain Masoodi

Editor

Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi of the J&K High Court is credited with dethroning the queen of Kashmir politics, Mehbooba Mufti, from south Kashmir by winning the Anantnag seat. While talking, Masoodi said as long as the rules of the game were followed, nobody, not even Parliament, had the power to scrap Articles 370 and 35A Now that the BJP has come to power, how do you, as a former HC judge and an MP, see the future of Articles 370 and 35A?Even if the BJP has come back to power,…

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14 Hours by road or Rs 14000 Jammu-Srinagar flight, Repeated landslides on national highway continue to haunt commute

Editor

Frequent landslides at vulnerable spots on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway have forced the Centre to send a high-level team from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which visited the affected areas of Ramban today. As uncertainty looms over the 270-km stretch following regular blockades, airfares between the two state capitals have spiralled, with tickets selling as high as Rs 14,000 for a one-way trip. Sources say the blockade of the highway on a regular basis is creating hurdles in the smooth movement of security forces in the Valley. With the annual…

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Is BJP’s second term more disastrous for Kashmir?

Editor

The provocative statements made by top BJP leaders pertaining to the abolition of Article 35-A and Article 370, along with the usual rants of following a more hard and muscular policy in the state has led to the rise of anxieties within the state. With the return to power of BJP under Narendra Modi with a much bigger mandate as compared to 2014, many new anxieties are arising in the country, especially due to what was witnessed during the last 5 years under Modi and also during the campaigning for…

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Don’t fall prey to BJP’s false promises, will surpass 1996 tally in Assembly elections: Devender Rana

Editor

National Conference (NC) provincial president and former MLA, Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday asked people of Jammu not to fall prey to “false” election promises of Bharatiya Janata Party. Hitting out at BJP’s state chief Ravinder Raina for his assertion that his party would get over 50 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections and new Chief Minister would be from Jammu, Rana said, “BJP has a history of fooling people using such emotional statements during elections.” “In 2014 state Assembly elections, the BJP promised people that if the party was…

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Medical report rules out rape in infamous Sumbal rape case

Editor

The medical examination conducted by doctors at SKIMS medical college, Bemina has ruled out rape of minor girl of Sumbal area in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district earlier this month. In contrary, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Srinagar result of the underwear, seized by police from the accused, has substantiated that DNA profile of accused matched with the 3-year-old victim. The case is sub-judice and the special court of District and session judge Bandipora would hear the case FIR No. 81 /2019 of police station Sumbal on June 1 against the accused…

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