Category: Business

Business

Bollywood stars come calling to Valley

Editor

The efforts of the government to bring Bollywood back to the Valley bore some fruit today as a film crew shot at the picturesque Tulip Garden in the foothills of the Zabarwan range. Even as schedules of several film shootings had been cancelled last year due to the unrest, the authorities say more stars were coming to the Valley in the coming days that would renew Kashmir’s Bollywood connection. “Star cast of movie ‘India Tujhe Salaam’ starring Bollywood actor Ashutosh Rana and Aarya Babbar, son of veteran star Raj Babbar,…

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Fearful election staff show up for duty after ‘Assurances, Suspension Threats’

Editor

Nearly 50 per cent of the polling staff was absconding till Wednesday afternoon in violence-hit Budgam, indicating their fear to be a part of the election process after the violence during bypoll in the Srinagar constituency on April 9. Officials deputed for the poll duty in Budgam, where repoll at 38 polling stations took place on Thursday, had not reported to their duties. However, after assurance of security and threat of suspension by the government, the officials showed up in the evening. Imran Nazir, an official, was deployed in the…

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Volatile situations created in a planned manner to hurt Kashmir economic growth: KCCI

Editor

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) on Wednesday claimed that volatile situations were being created in Kashmir since 2014 floods to “suppress the economic growth of the state”. In a statement, issued here today, the KCCI said that “ever since 2014 floods, situations are being created on one pretext or the other to disrupt the peace, particularly in the Valley, which result in the death, maiming and blinding of a large number of people of all age groups.” The Chamber said that “uncalled for political statements and ill-timed…

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Holding by polls in May will hit Kashmir’s peak tourist season: Tourism Inc

Editor

‘Internet blockade affecting booking’; Operators mulling to write to ECI The decision to hold deferred by polls of the Anantnag parliamentary seat on May 25 is going to hit Kashmir’s peak tourism season, tour and travel operators here believe. Election Commission of India on Monday announced that by-polls for the Anantnag seat would be re-scheduled for May 25 after violence marked the voting for Srinagar by-polls on April 9. At least 8 people were killed and scores got injured in forces firing on the Election Day Sunday. Tour and travel…

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Flood threat: Panic-stricken traders shift merchandise to safer places

Editor

Shopkeepers of markets such as Jehangir Chowk, Lambert Lane, Goni Khan, Maisuma as precautionary measures have shifted their stocks to upper storeys of the buildings. With flood threat looming large due to high water level in river Jhelum, panic-stricken businessmen and shopkeepers in city-centre areas are shifting their merchandises to safer places. Amid flood threat, shopkeepers in and around Lal Chowk since Thursday evening and Friday have been shifting their merchandise sand stocks to safer places, fearing repetition of devastating 2014-like floods. “There is a panic everywhere due to rising…

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Over 6 lakh pilgrims visited Vaishno Devi till March 11

Editor

At a review meeting held by Governor NN Vohra, who is also the chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Ajeet Kumar Sahu, board Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said that of the 6,83,032 pilgrims who offered prayers at the Vaishno Devi shrine from January 16 to March 11 this year, 1,46,535 had gone through the natural cave. The natural cave of the Vaishno Devi shrine remains open every year from around mid-January to mid-March. Around this time, the pilgrims rush is at its lowest. During this period, the…

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Bureaucratic hassles welcome foreigners at Srinagar Airport

Editor

Cumbersome registration puts tourist to inconveniences The cumbersome and lengthy process of filling registration form at Srinagar airport is putting the foreigners to lot of inconveniences. Many foreign tour operators have expressed their resentment at the tedious process of registration for the foreigners at Srinagar airport. In a complaint a tour operators from Singapore said the cumbersome process at Srinagar airport can prove detrimental for the growth of tourism in Kashmir. In the complaint, Mohammad Afandi the owner of Afandi Travel and Services Pvt Ltd. says his group of 25…

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Kashmir high-cost destination with less service: Maharashtra tour operators

Editor

With Maharashtra traditionally contributing 40 percent of overall tourist arrivals in Kashmir, the tour operators from this central Indian state have asked JK Government, especially the Tourism Department, to improve infrastructure, introduce tourist friendly policies and ensure reasonable prices for better flow of tourists. They also demanded measures such as advance booking for sightseeing, more food courts and restaurants and to ensure hygiene and cleanliness of places like houseboats. In its recommendations recently handed over to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during her Mumbai visit, Maharashtra Tour Organizers’ Association (MTOA) has…

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Mehbooba Mufti asks Bollywood to renew its Kashmir Connection

Editor

Asking the Bollywood to renew its connections with Kashmir, Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today appealed country’s film industry to act as promoter of State’s tourism. Addressing a function attended by several Bollywood stars in Mumbai, the Chief Minister reminded the film industry of its warm and affectionate relationship with Kashmir which the people of the state so fondly recall. She, according to an official statement, appealed the members of film world to take up this thread forward and start revisiting Kashmir in good numbers for shooting. Mehbooba Mufti said her…

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In name of Kashmir promotion, Tourism Deptt spends crores on official’s outside tours

Editor

Sources informed Kashmir Post that despite the department failing to bring any tourists to the state, it is busy spending lavishly on visits of its officials to outside places. With no visible outcome so far, Tourism Department has spent about Rs 4 crore sponsoring tours of its officials to different cities of the country, in the name of holding promotional events. In a revelation, the tourism department has spent Rs 3.87 crore on promotional events -including expenses borne on facilitating visits of its officials to outside places, while the tourist…

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