Category: Community

Ammunition depots in J&K are live bombs: Devinder Rana

Editor

Speaker Legislative Assembly, Kavinder Gupta, on Wednesday directed the Government to conduct safety audit of all Army ammunition depots in J&K in the wake of the fire in a depot in Maharashtra which killed 17 people. The Speaker issued the direction after National Conference MLA Devinder Rana raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly. “These ammunition depots (in J&K) are live bombs and could be disastrous for the population living around them,” said Rana, pointing towards the treasury benches. He said over the years huge population has settled around these…

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5.4% Increase in liquor consumption, Can Govt follow Bihar to ban liquor?

Editor

Bihar is not the lone state in India which banned liquor trade. States such as Kerala, Nagaland, Gujarat and Lakshadweep have already stopped liquor business. Jammu and Kashmir witnessed an increase of 5.4 per cent in liquor consumption in the last fiscal year compared to 2014-15 and the state revenue rose by 20 per cent. A total of about 5.75 crore bottles of Indian manufactured foreign liquor, whiskey and beer were consumed during 2015-16 compared to 5.46 crore bottles in the previous fiscal. These figures were submitted in the Assembly…

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Supreme Court issues notice on High Court order on Food Safety Act

Editor

The Supreme Court today issued notices to the respondents, including Registrar General, J&K High Court, in a petition challenging High Court orders asking all food manufacturing/ processing units operating in the region to file an affidavit indicating as to how and in which manner the food manufacturing/ processing units are following the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Act, 2006. The apex court issued the notices after admitting a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the J&K Traders and Manufacturers Federation, who have challenged the High…

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Only 4 of 117 traffic violations catch eye of police

Editor

The Indian road rules, titled “Rules of the Road Regulation”, brought into effect in 1989, cover seven major traffic offences related to documents, driving, towing, pollution, motor vehicles, commercial vehicles and parking. In Jammu and Kashmir, wrong parking, non-possession of driving licence or registration certificate of the vehicle and driving without a helmet are the only cognisable offences while many in the list of 117 other offences either go unnoticed or do not catch the attention of the Traffic Department. Most of the offences are penalised through cash payment or…

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Govt imposes ban on sale of loose cigarettes, beedies, tobacco in J&K

Editor

With a view to discourage the consumption of cigarettes and tobacco by the people, especially the younger generation, the Government has put a complete ban on the sale of loose cigarettes, loose beedies and loose tobacco in the State with immediate effect. As per a notification issued by the Department of Health and Medical Education which reads “ in the interest of public health and in consonance with the section 7 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and…

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VHP demands sacking of director tourism for renaming of Hari Parvat as Koh-e-Maran

Editor

Condemning the renaming of Hari Parvat as Koh-e-Maran in the advertisement of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department, VHP today demanded the state government immediately sack the Director Tourism. “We condemn the action of Director Tourism, Srinagar for changing the ancient Sanskrit name Hari Parvat as Koh-e-Maran in its advertisement”, State VHP President Leela Karan Sharma told reporters here today. He condemned the recent advertisement of J-K Tourism in newspapers in which it referred to Hari Parvat as Koh-e-Maran which triggered the controversy. “Even there have been attempts to rename Shankaracharya…

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Mehbooba reviews development projects

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Asking J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency to strictly adhere to fixed timeline, CM Mehbooba Mufti today passed instructions to the Planning Department to monitor the pace of work on a fortnightly basis. She also called for devising an effective mechanism which binds contractors to delivering the projects on time, as the state government cannot afford any spillover of Asian Development Bank-aided projects if they stretch beyond March 31, 2017. Some of the prestigious projects reviewed by the CM included Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh Expressway Corridor in Srinagar, Bikram Chowk Flyover at Jammu, Landfill…

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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…

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SHO framed Kashmiri youth in drug case to extort money

Editor

On March 7 this year, Jammu Police claimed to have arrested “two drug peddlers”, namely Rajbeer Singh and Sameer Ahmad Mir, residents of Baramulla at a Naka at Narwal Chowk on Jammu-Delhi national highway. It claimed to have recovered from their Wagon R, JK02AL-2298, 6500 intoxicating capsules and 65 bottles of banned syrup. It said that the Naka was laid on “specific information” and FIR No: 51/2016 under sections 8, 21 and 22 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered against the two detainees at Bahu Fort…

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Smokers spend more on cigarettes in JK than rest of India

Editor

Smokers in Jammu and Kashmir spend Rs 514 on cigarettes per month against rest of India average of Rs 399, a study has revealed. The increased use of tobacco puts children and women at greater risk of lung cancer, warns Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI). “The state’s monthly spending on smoking tobacco as far outstrips the national monthly expenditure averages. While nationally, smokers aged 15 and above spend Rs 399.20 a month on cigarettes and Rs 93.40 on bidis, those in J-K spend Rs 513.60 and Rs 134.20, respectively,…

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