Category: Latest News

Latest News

PDP, BJP at loggerheads over tax imposition on chopper service

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A decision by the Jammu and Kashmir government to impose service tax on commercial helicopter services has brought the alliance partners BJP and PDP at loggerheads with each other. The decision, according to sources, has irked the Bharatiya Janata Party which has sought its roll back immediately, while Finance Minister Dr. Haseeb Drabu blamed “some parties” for “trying to communalize a simple administrative order applicable across J&K.” The two notifications issued by the Finance Ministry, which have become a bone of contention between the alliance partners, read: “SRO 296: In…

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Next round of protests will be decisive, say Valley traders

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A day after the shutdown called by them threw normal life out of gear, flood-affected traders in the Valley are bracing for the next round of protests. They said the government could not afford to continue ignoring victims of last year’s devastating floods and they would soon come up with a decisive protest calendar. “The government has seen our power even though we are non-political. It cannot afford to take us for granted,” said Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairman Showkat Chowdhary. “People from different walks of life gave their verdict…

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Talks with India only if Kashmir on table: Sartaj Aziz

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National security advisor Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday said Pakistan will hold talks with India only if the Kashmir issue is on the agenda. He said the entire world has supported Islamabad’s stance that the two countries need to hold dialogue on all the outstanding issues including Kashmir, Radio Pakistan reported. Aziz rejected Indian allegations about the presence of wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan. He said a befitting reply would be given. The advisor said that a meeting between Pakistan Rangers’ chief and commander of Indian Border Security Force (BSF)…

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Hang the guilty: Machil Fake Encounter Victims’ Kin

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Life sentence to six Army personnel In a dimly lit room, Naseema Bano, mother of Riyaz Ahmed, a 22-year-old mechanic who was one among the three locals in the village who was killed in the Machil fake encounter in 2010, was busy with her daily chores. When a group of media persons dropped at her single-storeyed modest house this afternoon to inform her about the Army convicting six of its men for killing her son along with the two locals in the fake encounter, she broke down. Her relatives rushed…

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Court martial sentence in Machil fake encounter confirmed

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The army`s northern command GOC on Monday confirmed the life sentence awarded to six army personnel, including a colonel-rank officer, by a general court martial in the 2012 Machil fake encounter case, an army official said. “General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C), Northern Command, Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda has confirmed the sentence of a Summary General Court Martial in the Machil encounter case,” Colonel S.D. Goswami, spokesman of the army`s Udhampur-based Northern Command, told IANS here. “Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devendra Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun…

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Government Should Allow International Aid for J&K Flood Victims: Ex CM

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A year after devastating floods hit Jammu and Kashmir, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today asked the Centre to allow international aid to the state if it did not have money or was unwilling to announce any package for the rehabilitation of victims. “We want that aid should come from wherever it can. If the Centre is not ready to give financial aid, or it does not have the money, then we should be allowed to get it from where we are getting it (internationally),” Omar told reporters after donating…

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Weary of waiting for aid, Kashmir Valley shuts down today

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Coalition of trade associations calls for protest, says state and central governments did not fulfil promises.  Accusing the state government and the Centre of failing to rehabilitate victims of the devastating floods that submerged parts of Jammu and Kashmir exactly a year ago, the Kashmir Economic Alliance, a coalition of trade bodies, has called for a complete shutdown in the Valley on September 7. After the deluge hit the Valley, the then Congress-National Conference government had sought a financial assistance of Rs 44,000 crore from the Centre for rehabilitating the…

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PM to take final call on Rs 1.35 lakh-cr financial package soon

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The wait for Jammu and Kashmir to get a financial package may end soon and the package could be staggering Rs 1.35 lakh crore. The file is pending with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has to take a final call on it. This package will cater to all needs of the state government, including rehabilitation of flood victims, who have been waiting for the past one year. Since the PDP and the BJP joined hands to run the coalition government in the state on March 1 this year, they were…

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Authorities not to allow traders to protest at Srinagar

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Authorities on Sunday decided not to allow Kashmir Economic Alliance and other traders body’s proposed protest against government’s failure to rehabilitate the flood victims at Lal Chowk on Monday. A senior police officer told Srinagar based news gathering agency Global News Service (GNS) that administration has denied permission to KEA for protest at Lal Chowk. The official said that the traders were offered SK Park as the venue which they declined. “They won’t be allowed to protest at Lal Chowk as there is apprehension of law and order problem as…

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Widespread support to Valley traders’ Sept 7 shutdown call

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FAILURE’ TO REHABILITATE FLOOD VICTIMS The strike call by Valley traders on September 7, marking the ‘failure’ of the government to rehabilitate flood hit victims of the last year, has received widespread support, ranging from separatists, mainstream political parties to private schools. “Valley’s private schools, which have been neglected the most by state and Central governments after the 2014 floods devastated infrastructure of many schools, supports the complete shutdown call given by the Kashmir Economic Alliance for September 7,” the Joint Committee of Private Schools said in a statement today.…

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