General News Archives | Page 279 of 362

‘Picture abhi baki hai dost’: Omar on PDP-BJP alliance

March 23, 2016 Editor

As PDP and BJP attempted to break the deadlock over government formation in Jammu & Kashmir, state’s former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday appeared to doubt the possibility of revival of the alliance, quipping “picture abhi baki hai dost”. The tech-savvy politician, who returned here after his meeting with Governor NN Vohra yesterday in Jammu, remained quiet through the day as PDP and BJP got busy fine-tuning how go to about forming the government. While reacting to reports quoting BJP’s interlocutor on Kashmir Ram Madhav as saying that final…

Modi-Mehbooba ‘positive’ talks give fillip to Kashmir government formation

March 23, 2016 Editor

A new government in Jammu and Kashmir is likely to be in place, as early as the next week, after PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s “positive” meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday. “Hopefully, the (new) government should be in place by March 29,” a senior Peoples Democratic Party leader and former minister Nayeem Akhtar said in Jammu as Mehbooba met the prime minister at his official 7 Race Course residence here. Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government after the death of chief minister Mufti Mohammad…

Guv finalises arrangements for making Super Speciality Hospital operational

March 23, 2016 Editor

Reviews development projects undertaken by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Governor NN Vohra today reviewed the progress of various ongoing major infrastructural development projects being executed by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB). Chairing a high-level meeting at Raj Bhavan here, the Governor, who is chairman of the board, discussed issues relating to making the 230-bedded Super Speciality Hospital being established by the Shrine Board at Kakryal, near Katra, operational. After discussions, the meeting decided, inter alia, the various pending issues in regard to the making Shri…

By 2019, J&K to be home to world’s tallest railway bridge

March 22, 2016March 22, 2016 Editor

The world’s tallest railway bridge being built above the Chenab river on the Udhampur Srinagar -Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) will be ready only by 2019. The bridge, which will rise 359 metres over the Chenab and is being built in hostile and isolated terrain, will be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. Currently , the tallest bridge is above the Tam River in France, with its tallest pillar rising 340m from the riverbed. The Chenab Bridge, which has an arch de sign, will connect the steep banks on the…

Mehbooba meets PM, to meet PDP legislators on Thursday before taking call on coalition govt

March 22, 2016 Editor

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday that she will meet with her party legislators on Thursday and then take a decision on resuming the coalition government with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir. Mufti said she had a positive meeting with PM Modi earlier in the day. In he meanwhile, the BJP has hardened its stand on the coalition issue. “We don’t know what she plans to do. However, we are pretty clear about not giving in to her fresh conditions for restoring the coalition, a senior BJP member…

Int’l fossil park in Khonmoh, ‘Rock Garden’ in G’bl on Cards

March 22, 2016 Editor

J&K would soon get an International Fossil Park at a 250 million-year-old tsunami site here to give a broader display of the state’s geological history as well as to facilitate research work. “An International Fossil Park would soon be established at Khonmoh, Srinagar,” said Srinagar DC Farooq Ahmad Lone. Lone visited the site at Khonmoh yesterday and sought the records from the Departments of Revenue and Wildlife so that the project can be commissioned at the earliest. Apart Kashmir valley may have first of its kind a ‘Rock Garden’ in…

Campaign to promote medicinal plants begins

March 22, 2016 Editor

The Director General, Indian System of Medicines (ISM), AYUSH, J&K, Dr Abdul Kabir Dar, today started medicinal plants plantation drive at Indira Chowk on the premises of Directorate General of ISM by planting trees of Amla. The plantation drive was aimed at promoting and propagating medicinal plants in the state. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Abdul emphasised on the importance and need for plantation of trees and plants with medicinal values. He added that some important high-demand species of medicinal plants had become endangered due to over-exploitation in the wild.…

In 2 months, Governor NN Vohra took decisions that hanged fire for years

March 22, 2016 Editor

J&K Governor NN Vohra has rolled out major reforms in the State during his two-month rule while keeping the administration on toes to fast-track decision-making on issues concerning public—something which the elected governments failed to do in their tenures. In a significant move, the Governor-headed State Administrative Council (SAC) last month cleared disbursement of financial assistance to Kashmir’s flood victims that was pending for more than a year and had brought the PDP-BJP coalition under fire. The move was followed by the SAC’s clearance to increase in allocation of food…

CAPD issues ration card to Kurkure, Lays, Punjabi Tadka

March 22, 2016 Editor

Faux Pas Massive discrepancies have come to the fore in the database compiled by the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department (CAPD) in Jammu and Kashmir as the State Government without waiting for the consent from State Assembly has already implemented National Food Security Act (NFSA). One of the application forms received by the CAPD department that has gone viral shows how a ration card holder has sarcastically mentioned the names of his sons as ‘Kurkure’, ‘Lays’, and ‘Punjabi Tadka’. The netizens all over Kashmir not only are making fun…

Mehbooba has to make up her mind for govt formation : Jaitley

March 22, 2016 Editor

Even as the BJP-PDP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir is tottering on brink, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today asked PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti to make up her mind. “The fact is that the PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti has to really make up her mind,” Jailtey told Shekhar Gupta, former Editor of Indian Express in a conversation organised by his media start-up ‘The Print’ which he launched with television journalist Barhka Dutt. Noting that the PDP and BJP are ideologically quite distinct, Jaitley said, “Our support bases are different, our core…