Tag: cover story

The College Crisis

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With a huge network of colleges and a lot of enrolment, the students are dissatisfied with the pace and process of the education they get, reports Babra Wani
Girl students of a college in Srinagar enjoying the sunshine on the premises of the college. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
With her eyes glued to her mobile, Saima (name changed) is watching a lecture on Scaler and Vector quantities. With the uncertainty of the presence of teachers in her school looming large, she has been preparing for her upcoming examination virtually.
A student of Government Degree College, Kangan, Saima prefers not to attend the college where she is enrolled for BSc. She stopped going to her college because of the “lack of permanent staff for her subjects.” The deficit was managed by contractual lecturers, who leave the college when their contracts expire. “I mean if we talk about the present, we have no teachers there and our exams are about to begin in a month,” she said.
The lack of permanent teachers and staff is not a one-college problem but a pan-higher education issue in Kashmir. It literally triggered a sort of a “scandal” when a college principal formally ordered teachers from unrelated subjects to “engage” students in absence of the relevant faculty.
Karnah Story
Just like Saima, Zahra (name changed) is concerned and worried about the lack of teachers. A fifth-semester BA student at Government Degree College Tanghdar, Zahra recalls how she was a happy girl when she passed her higher secondary examinations just to get admission to the college. The excitement, however, soon went down as she realised the harsh realities.
“Living in a remote area was already challenging enough,” Zahra said. “We already knew that our college will not provide us with the facilities but we never knew that our issues will never be even heard.”
For her, the lack of permanent staff is her biggest concern. “Due to staff issues, we suffer from a lot of academic loss as we are not able to cover the whole syllabus and hence rely completely on self-study to prepare for examinations,” Zahra said. “Ours is a remote area so if we students face any problems here, they are rarely addressed.”

Located some 67 km north of Srinagar, beyond the Sadhna Pass, Tanghdar(Karnah) is located literally on the line of control (LOC). The area remains closed for most of the winter and there are cases when the authorities had to retain the dead in mortuaries till the road opened. The college, established in 2008 has more than 700 students on its rolls. This load is being managed by seven permanent teachers and three contractual teachers!
The Tulail Story
For 20 years old Adnan (name changed) walking for five kilometres to reach the college seems to be a daily routine. In 2019, when he and his friends heard about the establishment of a degree college, they were excited. They thought their hardships will now slow down. “We just have two permanent teachers here, one for history and one for English,” Adnan said.
For more than sixty students enrolled with Government Degree College Tulail, there are only six teachers, with two permanent and four contractual. Located at a distance of 200 km from Srinagar, Tulailis part of Gurez, the new destination for naya Kashmir tourism. The college was established in 2019.
Supposed to help residents not to migrate – as most of Gurez lives between Bandipore and Srinagar, the college could have hugely contributed. Students, however, insist this is not the case.
“We have a history teacher, right?,” one student pointed out. “History as a subject is not taught here. I mean we have other subjects here but not history so technically we have no teachers to study from.”
These teachers engage students in classes organised on a shift basis. Students insist they have bigger issues. “We do not even have our separate principal. The principal of our college watches over two different colleges (the other one is at Dawar), we neither have professors, principal nor facilities here,” Adnan who is currently studying in BA third semester said.
Due to the lack of facilities, mostly a shortage of teachers, students prefer to stay home. This, they do after paying fees and costs for the degrees. Days ahead of the examination, the colleges start assessing attendance and enforcing shortages on them. “Tell me how does it make sense that students travel long distances for hours together, jeopardising their health to study here but there are no teachers? Not even a single official has ever visited us, we have been left to the mercy of the Lord,” a visibly upset Adnan complained.
The lack of staff is not the only issue for the colleges in Gurez. “Last year, when we were writing our examinations, we knew we were appearing for three subjects,” Adnan said. “It was during the examinations that the college told us we have to appear in two more subjects – the subjects we never knew. We were desperate for what to write and a day before we had to write the examination, they sent the syllabus of that subject.”
Students arrive at a college after a gap of nearly one year, following Covid19 safety guidelines issued by the government, in Srinagar, Monday, February 15, 2021. All the educational institutes including schools, colleges and universities in Jammu and Kashmir, which were closed in March last year in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
The Kashmir Plains
The staff crisis is not a high-altitude issue. Even the colleges within and around Srinagar are suffering.
In Government Degree College, Sumbal, the students said the teachers for skill enhancement courses, which have been recently introduced, are not permanent. They are contractual and keep changing. “The continuous cycle of changing of these contractual teachers results in a month-long gap in the session,” one student said. “The month is wasted which is worrisome as it affects our studies.”
The Sumbal College was established in 2010 and has an enrolment of more than 2500 students. In the neighbouring degree college at Hajin, students are crying for a physical education teacher.
A Teacher Deficit
Subsequent governments in Jammu and Kashmir have gone into the creation of a huge network of colleges. Some villages that had put up huge struggles to get their middle schools upgraded into high schools are now addresses for the new colleges. There were around 161 colleges for general education with an overall enrolment of 151478 students manned by 5745 teachers by the end of 2020-21. With the onset of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020), the government made huge plans about improving higher education. It included making five autonomous degree-granting colleges into Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities, a sort of deemed universities. In fact, the government said three are already operating as autonomous colleges. There was a focus on skill and innovation.
Under NEP-2020, 30 colleges have been identified for the start of research and designated as Hub colleges. These are supposed to provide basic facilities of infrastructure and logistics to the rest of the colleges in their catchment.
On the ground, however, nothing much is visible. “How can these colleges become research centres, when prestigious colleges like Amar Singh College are yet to grant the right to its first and second-semester students to get into the library,” one student, speaking anonymously asked. “Students have been desperately seeking library cards but we are told the access to the library is permitted to higher semester students.”
The NAAC accreditation is the new mad race within colleges in which the assessment is mostly based on the infrastructure and the results – nobody is seeing, if at all, the students are taught in classrooms. Officials said 55 colleges in Jammu and Kashmir are NAAC accredited 17 more will be added to the list by December 2023. By 2025, 70 old colleges will be NAAC accredited.
Right now, most colleges are battling the faculty issue. This triggered a controversy when the management of a state-run women’s college in Baramulla asked the faculty from unrelated subjects to engage “classes of the departments (currently) without staff”.Teachers from Education, Physical Education, and Sports were asked to engage in the classes of Political Science; Chemistry faculty was assigned Public Administration; Botany teachers were supposed to engage in Economics; the Zoology department was given Social Work and Mathematics was to manage the Philosophy students.
This was the outcome of the higher education department not filling the vacancies on a temporary basis by the middle of March, almost a month after the colleges opened after the winter break. It created a sort of scandal and the college principal was asked to amend or withdraw the order. As it did not happen, the authorities issued a show cause notice. Insiders said the college asserted that the faults are at the policymaking level and not the college level.
A Generation Lost
For the last nearly two decades, the higher education department has been hiring teachers on an academic arrangement basis against a consolidated sum. They are disengaged every season. They lack any rights to leave, provident fund and other facilities that permanent faculty enjoy. Over the years they have been the main players in the higher education department.
“Every year, the government used to hire 800 to 1000 teachers on an academic arrangement basis,” Dr M Yousuf, one of the contractual lecturers said. “With the NEP, the requirement might have gone slightly up, maybe up to 1200.”
For a very long time, there was a rule in Jammu and Kashmir government that if somebody worked for the government for seven years, he or she has a right to be permanently hired. They had gone to court with the plea and secured an order directing authorities to ensure the people are not disturbed. So, every year, the government would hire them on priority. Post-2019, the government stopped extending this courtesy to them and instead started hiring new faces. Some of the contractual impacts by this decision in Jammu went to the supreme court and secured an order. Yousuf said while the order was implemented in Jammu, it was breached in Kashmir. Now, they have gone to CAT and are expecting a positive decision.
“This crisis ended up almost destroying their career of nearly 500 contractual teachers –mostly PhDs’, who served the department for 15 t 20 years and then the government stopped hiring them and they crossed the age bar,” Yousuf, one of these candidates, said. “Now we are no-bodies, we gave our entire life to these institutions and now we have nothing to do.”
Yousuf said the delay in hiring teachers on an academic arrangement basis is the main issue that is hitting the colleges right now. “There is a set norm for how many students a teacher must have but I know cases, where one teacher is assigned 600 students.”
Transportation Facilities
Teaching is just one part of the crisis. Students allege, there are other issues as well. Transportation is a key factor. Though almost every college has a transport facility, quite a few busses move out of the college.
“Some students in my college walk a distance of around 26 km to reach the college,” Adnan said. “Why we do not have the transport facility as other colleges have.”
In Government Degree College Kangan, the students have a similar complaint. “We have no transportation facility here, I mean that is basic,” one student said.
Various colleges have buses but lack the funds to hire a driver. In certain cases, they have drivers but not enough money to fuel the bus.
In the newly established Government Degree College Hajin, students allege the ground is in puddles, “Whenever it rains, the ground accumulates water and it becomes difficult to even walk through it let alone be any other thing,” Ahmad (name changed) who is currently enrolled in arts stream in the college said, “We don’t even have proper classrooms. In the main building only a few classes are taught, the rest of the classes are conducted in a hut which has a couple of rooms.” Besides, he said there is still an old building, which used to be a middle school in the past, on the ground there.
“Even if available, the washrooms are not located in proper settings,” he said.
Government Degree College Hajin is one of the 52 new colleges which were established in the year 2019.
City Colleges
Zubair (name changed) and his friends made a decision to get admitted to Amar Singh College, a prominent city college. As soon as he joined the first semester his perspective changed. A student in the second semester at present, Zubair had a list of issues to share, “You know there is no punctuality, I mean the classes are never conducted on time. The teachers are always late and never on time.”
Amar Singh College, Srinagar
The college, Zubair added, lacks hygiene, has dirty desks in classrooms, unclean washrooms and abundant stray dogs. This is in addition to the staff shortage. “We have been waiting since March for the teacher, as the contract of our previous teacher expired,” he said. The lack of mics in the classrooms is yet another concern for the students. “The classrooms are huge and the teachers are not audible to everybody in the class.”
The students said they have no access t the library. It has been done so easily. The college has not issued identity cards which are basic to entry into the library.
“This college has no proper gatekeeping and outsiders who are not even enrolled in our college get in and fight with the students of our college,” one female student said. “There is nobody who can check the people getting in.” Students confirmed the drug-peddling boys moving around.
Students of Women’s’ College Nawa Kadal alleged that the government is frequently shifting their principals. This, they said, is impacted the college.
In Women’s College MA Road, the students complained how the focus has been more on extra-curricular activities and not on education, “The classwork always suffers the most.”
Officials Admit
College managers and insiders admitted to the lot of issues they are facing. However, they insist they are not supposed to talk the way they used to talk earlier. Some of them agreed to talk in utmost anonymity.
“Yes, there is no college bus for students and the majority of the faculty positions are vacant except English and History,” echoing the thoughts of the students an official posted in Government Degree College, Tulail said. The official added that they have tried bringing it to the notice of authorities from time to time, “We had taken up the matter with our ex-principal secretary and he told that they were ready to sanction the college bus but it was not possible to engage any driver as there is a blanket ban on contractual or local fund recruitment.” He also lamented over the trend of teachers from Gurez and Tulail ensuring they are transferred to other places outside Gurez. “What can we expect from the teachers who are hired on a contractual basis.”
Most of the college managers approached to offer their side of the story but refused to talk. “Maybe next time,” one college principal said.

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( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 15, 2023
The SKIMS Story

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In the 40 years of its existence, the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), a deemed university, has emerged as a key research and healthcare facility for the well-being of people within and outside Kashmir. While the scope of improvements is vast, interventions in its autonomous character may neither go well with the society it serves nor the institution it has evolved into, reports Yawar Hussain
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on one of his initial visits to SKIMS after the institute started functioning. Sheikh was the Chief Minister.
For millions of people within and around Kashmir, the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) is the only go-to place for sickness. Over the last around 40 years, it has emerged as a major institution that apart from treating millions of people is a major address for research and medical education.
“The work done at SKIMS on viral hepatitis, iodine deficiency, and influenza is global in nature and some of the world-shaking treatments in gastrointestinal bleed and other things that started here are now in vogue the world over,” a senior doctor who has spent his entire career at SKIMS said. “Can you believe that one of our seniors has 72000 citations in his field?”
SKIMS has time-tested collaborations in research with some of the best health research institutions in the world. “The importance of the work done at SKIMS is acknowledged to the extent that SKIMS incumbent director is the vice chair of Middle-East and Africa Influenza Surveillance Network (MENA-ISN) despite the fact that it has nothing much to do with Jammu and Kashmir,” the doctor said.
On the patient care front, SKIMS, insiders say has many firsts in the region. “We have 500 transplants to our credit and we have started bone marrow transplant as well,” the doctor said. “Our only problem is that the brand that SKIMS has emerged into is triggering massive footfalls and we neither have a right nor an ethical ground to stop it. It sometimes leads to problems.”
The Genesis
For a political restart, it was a key confidence-building measure (CBM) After the release of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference’s founder and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah from years of captivity and just ahead of the Indira Abdullah Accord on February 24, 1975, the Sher-i-Kashmir National Medical Institute Trust (SKNMIT) was floated on May 19, 1973 by some of his friends for setting up a hospital in Srinagar’s Soura, the ancestral residence of Kashmir’s towering leader.
SKIMS Launch: In sitting row are Late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Late Dr Ali Jan and Dr Ajit Kumar Nagpal (the first director of SKIMS)
The SKNMIT’s creation paved the way for the commissioning of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) a decade later. However, the construction of the premier health facility was not as smooth as the dates suggest.

In 1972, Jammu and Kashmir’s Housing Department acquired land measuring about 1000 kanals at Zoonimar village for the construction of a housing colony. Alternatively, the Jammu and Kashmir government had also been working on a plan of building a 500-bedded hospital at Soura.
The ‘Court’ History
The details of the evolution of this super-speciality hospital are part of a 2004 judgement of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court delivered in a petition challenging the government’s 2003 decision of taking over the hospital. It said some friends and admirers of the late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah had a meeting on November 21, 1972, in which they decided to set up a public charitable trust for the establishment of a Medical Institute at Srinagar.
In December 1972, Sheikh personally approached the Chief Minister, informing him that, on his birthday, some of his friends and admirers had presented to him a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh for instituting a benevolent trust and that the consensus was on building a hospital. He sought the cooperation of the State Government and requested for leasing out 230 kanals and 13 marlas of land situated to the West of Soura, acquired by the Government and the Government dispensary that existed at Soura, adjacent to the land in question, as also a contribution towards construction and maintenance of the hospital. Sheikh was made the lifetime Chairman of the Trust and Syed Mir Qasim, the then Chief Minister of the State, was one of the ten trustees.
The State Cancer Centre at SKIMS in Srinagar. KL Image: Masood Hussain
However, Dr Ajit Nagpal, the founder Director of SKIMS said that the idea was conceived by Sheikh Abdullah in 1976 so that the long-pending health needs of Kashmir are met, which got instant approval from Indira Gandhi. Gandhi is said to have been in the mood to reward the Sheikh for signing the accord.
“I was deputed as the Director, SKIMS, from the PGI, Chandigarh,” remembers Dr Nagpal. “Indira Gandhi got advisers from all over the country for establishing the institute and setting up state-of-the-art facilities there.”
One of the key officers involved in the making of the SKIMS was Narinder Nath Vohra, then a young civil servant, who later became Delhi’s Kashmir interlocutor from 2003 to 2008 and later the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir twice till 2018. He was handpicked for the project by Gandhi. He would often fly on weekends to oversee the implementation.
Following Shiekh’s request, the Qasim government through order No 872-HD of 1973 sanctioned the leasing out to the Trust of 292 kanals and 8 marlas of land comprising khasra Nos 415, 423, 424, 422, 5381/421, 5582/421, 425, 426, 429, 432, 430, 431, 433, 434, 416, 417, 418, 419, 437, 438, 411, 412, 413, 414, 388, 5379/390, 5380/390, 391, 392, 389, 394, 410, 405, 407, 408, 409/1, 409/2, 406, 398, 399 situated at Zoonimar for a period of 40 years at a consolidated rent of Rs 101 per annum.
“Earlier to that, vide Government order No 627-HD/G of 1973 sanction was accorded to transfer of Government Dispensary situated at Soura comprising main dispensary building, its kitchen block, chowkidar’s shed along with land underneath and appurtenant thereto, to the Trust,” the Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s 2004 judgement has recorded.
However, the judgement mentions that no lease deed was executed between the government and the trust in 1973. In May 1974, the government through order no 232-MD/G of 1974 sanctioned allotment of another government property, namely, the Drug Research Laboratory situated at Moulana Azad Road, Srinagar, to the Trust on rent which was to be decided later.
In February of 1975, the SKNMIT Chairman, Sheikh took over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Congressman Syed Mir Qasim, following the accord, stepped down and paved way for Sheikh’s takeover of the Congress majority house.
Immediately after, the High Court records that RK Sawhney, the then Secretary of the Trust, wrote to Sheikh on May 22, 1975, requesting him to amend Government Order No 872-HD of 1973 so that the trust can be made absolute owner of the 292 kanals and 8 marlas of the land at Zoonimar.
SKIMS Soura
Sheikh government sought the opinion of its law department, which highlighted that the land could only be transferred to the Trust if the Transfer of Property Act is amended. In follow-up, the Health Department processed a memorandum for the cabinet which was approved by the Cabinet on February 17, 1976. This paved the way for amendment of the Transfer of Property Act, Samvat 1977 on the proposed lines.
There were a lot of turns and twists. The court held that on August 27, 1976, the Sheikh government through order No 214-ME transferred Kashmir Nursing Home, Gupkar road, Srinagar along with its land, buildings and annexe and all its assets, including equipment, to the Trust on the condition that it shall use the premises solely and exclusively for maintaining a Nursing Home and shall provide adequate representation to the government on its Management Committee.
On August 5, 1977, Revenue Secretary was appointed as the coordinator on the land transfer case. The approved cabinet memorandum, however, said the properties to be transferred to the Trust would be a donation from the Jammu and Kashmir government. An order was issued in 1978. “Though there was no formal deed of transfer of the aforesaid properties to the Trust executed yet, the Trust got the aforesaid properties mutated in its name in the revenue records,” the High Court judgment recorded.
On January 18, 1977, the government renamed the 500-bedded hospital as Institute of Medical Sciences. It followed an agreement, the other day, which termed the SKIMS as a “joint venture”. The agreement laid down the constitution of an all-powerful Governing Body with the Chief Minister as Chairman; cabinet ministers as members; as the Trust nominated four members to the body.
The hospital started functioning in 1983. The 2004 judgement, however, said that the entire funds were mobilised by the government.
There were many players in establishing the SKIMS. One of them is a legend. Dr Ali Muhammad Jan. A household name, he turned down the post of Principal Government Medical College, Srinagar, and instead remained busy with the Trust of which he was Vice Chairman.
Launch and Growth
On December 5, 1982, the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science was formally inaugurated with an Outpatient Department and a 150-bed in-patient service.
This Institute soon started to flourish and the first batch of postgraduate students was enrolled in 1984 due to the hard work, grit and determination of its Director, Professor Anand. He retired in December 1985.
Dr Karan Singh being briefed about the construction of SKIMS when the multi floor structure was coming up.
Dr Nagpal, its founding Director said that Indira Gandhi in 1976, sent a team of 56 doctors outside Jammu and Kashmir to get trained in various specialities. “At the same time, Indira Gandhi got a group of reputed doctors from all over the country for heading faculties like neurosurgery, anaesthesia and cardiac surgery.”
Subsequently, the government relaxed norms for the Kashmir girls to undertake nursing courses. A scholarship of Rs 600 per month was offered to attract girls towards the nursing profession and strengthen medical assistance staff at the SKIMS.
“It was a Herculean task, but by the time we had the SKIMS building ready in 1982, the Board of Directors interviewed freshly trained doctors and inducted them into the staff,” said Dr Nagpal.
“I joined SKIMS on January 1, 1982. Back then, most of its faculty was from other states of India. I have been involved in establishing the first services at the hospital,” Dr M Sultan Khuroo, who eventually became the Director at the peak of militancy, said. He credits Dr Nagpal with building the institute structurally, and monetarily and envisioning it to be a tertiary care hospital. “Besides him, his successor, Dr BK Anand catapulted it to function as one of the best institutions in the country. There were 150 doctors under Anand.”
A Medical College
In 1989, the Jhelum Valley Medical College was started by the Trust as a private entity. However, in 1998, Farooq Abdullah-led government took over the college and named it as SKIMS Medical College, spread over around 400 kanals in Bemina.
“The trust started the hospital in 1993 but it did not pick up. The college had been running for seven years with three batches already graduating. The graduates of this college were unable to get any job or go for post-graduation pending the MCI recognition. To safeguard the interest of students the newly elected government of Dr Farooq Abdullah in a historic decision took over and attached this institute with the SKIMS Soura in 1998.”
An operation in progress. This is a well-equipped operation theatre of 1980s that is still n service.
The then Director SKIMS Soura, Dr Mehraj ud Din appointed Dr Yaqoob Khairadi as vice principal, which paved the way for the recruitment of faculty, nursing staff and other paramedical staff in various departments. Prof M Afzal Wani the next principal laid the foundation of new hostels and made policy decisions for the college.
Following the takeover by the government, the dysfunctional departments were streamlined and the plan was made to develop the whole campus on the requirement of a full-fledged Medical College based on MCI requirements.
Earlier on August 19, 1983, the government through an act of legislature had accorded the deemed university status to SKIMS.
“Its growth was swift. Till 1989 it grew much faster than any other health facility in India. We worked extraordinarily hard to make turn it into Deemed University. There were many medical procedures which set precedent in the institution itself,” Dr Khuroo said.
Tumultuous 1990s
In the tumultuous 1990s, the SKIMS played a crucial part in emerging as the last address for survival, especially for trauma patients. There were days when the bullet-hit or the splinter-splattered people would not get beds in the hospital and doctors had to work non-stop round the clock.
“During the 1990s, SKIMS doctors despite being ill-treated at their hospital by unwanted guests performed their duties with full dedication and sincerity,” the erstwhile adviser to Lt Governor, Farooq Khan told the gathering on SKIMS 37 Raising Day. He was a police officer heading the encounter-insurgency unit. “I personally know that during the turbulent ’90s, the institute (SKIMS) was affected very badly. Most of you who were there in the 90s may recall who used to run the institution. It was not the Director SKIMS. Some unwanted guests sitting in one of your rooms used to virtually run the show…SKIMS professionals were maltreated, they were harassed, but they continued to perform their duties. That tells you about fabulous work their teachers have done, who had trained them.”
Dr Khuroo said that unfortunately, after the 1990s the faculty plummeted from 250 to less than 60 as many migrated. “At times it plummeted to 40.”
To cater to footfall with fewer human resources, according to Khuroo, they had to get people vertically within the state at a fast pace as it was an urgent need.
“We could not repair equipment as people were unwilling to come to Kashmir and even buy new ones. We were badly affected due to it,” he said.
During his tenure as Director SKIMS, times were hard. “The local faculty kept the institutions functional along with thousands of employees. Many people including myself had to migrate in 1996 besides Pandits due to deteriorating security conditions. The local young faculty kept it functioning.”
The 1990s meant trouble from various quarters for the doctors and paramedical staff. Many times, SKIMS employees had to reach the hospital in the night hours amid curfews in place.
“During the early 1990s, being involved with tertiary care meant a call at any time of the hour. There were times when I left home early in the morning and come late. The security officials along the route would threaten me with a gun pointed towards me till I showed my identity card,” a senior SKIMS doctor wishing anonymity said. “During that era, the infrastructure became dilapidated, however, the government chipped in. We kept the ship sailing and prevented it from sinking.
In the early 2000s, the Mufti Sayeed-led coalition government took over the affairs of the hospital after rescinding the government orders from the 1970s.
The decision was challenged in the court but the judiciary sided with the government. A few patches of land initially granted by some members of the Abdullah family had been compensated while they had turned the Drug Research Laboratory at Maulana Azad Road into the Ali Jan Shopping Complex. The Court said the Trust’s desire to lease out the Kashmir Nursing Home to a third party had led to the Mufti government’s rescinding of the series of 1970s government orders.
Present Status
In July 2022, the government reconstituted SKIMS Governing Body with Lt Governor as chairman. The other members of the body include his Advisor(s) the Chief Secretary, the Union Health Secretary, the Secretary, the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology Government of India; the Director, AIIMS New Delhi (or one of his Deans in the absence of Director, AIIMS); Principal, Government Medical College Srinagar; Principal, Government Medical College Jammu and Principal SKIMS Medical College Bemina as its members.
Currently, SKIMS is manned by 5000 odd employees and incorporates more than 50 departments. The medical faculty of each department consists of Professors, Additional Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Senior and Junior residents where the senior-most professor functions as the head. The hospital is catering to 20,000 patients in 24 hours. Currently, the institute has 1200 odd-bed capacity with a requirement of 1000 beds still felt to cater to patient demand.
SKIMS, a deemed university offers post-doc degrees including Doctorate in Medicine (DM) courses; Magister Chirurgia courses; Doctorate of National Board courses; Doctor of Philosophy courses. At the PG level, the SKIMS offers Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS) courses in all the major medical departments. Besides, the institute offers Master of Science courses as well as Bachelor of Science courses. At the undergraduate medical courses level, the SKIMS offers MBBS; MSc Nursing and BSc Nursing courses.
In 1988, the Journal of Medical Sciences (JMS) was started by SKIMS, which publishes in all categories of medical research work, together with invited articles/editorials from the doyens in varied specialities (native and abroad).
A former SKIMS Director, wishing anonymity said during his tenure he never had to deal with any of the Chief Ministers but only with the governors. “To me personally, the stripping of autonomy will not impact its functionality as the institute itself is a force to reckon with,” he said.
Recently when the LG administration asked the SKIMS to route its files through the health department, it was angrily reacted from various sides. “SKIMS should be a college now. That is what is happening to everything in Kashmir. First the university’s academic independence and now this institute,” former minister Naeem Akhter said. “The roller is on. They are trying to have a bonsai garden and reduce people to Lilliput size. It was a deemed university with autonomy.”
The Director, according to Akhtar, never reported to Health Department in the past as it had direct contact with the Chief Minister. Off late, the SKIMS Raising Day on December 5, has been a lacklustre event.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Dr AK Mehta formally inaugurated the SKIMS Cath lab on February 11, 2023.Pic: SKIMS
Even the veterans who have served the institution for their entire life are concerned. “Once the autonomy goes, the SKIMS will be reduced to a medical facility,” Dr Shikeh Aijaz Ahmad, former head of the oncology department said. “While we expect that the institution must grow, I am unable to understand why there are efforts to undo a medical university.
Insiders, however, said the situation on the ground has not changed. “It was way back in 1997 when SKIMS was tagged with health and medical education,” one insider in the government said. “However, it did not impact the status of the Director who remained ex-officio secretary to the government. It has not even changed now even though there were at least instances in the recent past when the ex-officio secretary status was stripped from the director.” If these insiders are to be believed then the files are still directly submitted to the Chief Secretary and not routed through Secretary of Health.
The Research Side
What makes the SKIMS different is that a lot research is also transacted while treating the patients. In 2020, when Stanford University came out with its list of the world’s top two per cent scientists, there were four Kashmiris – among whom, two were from SKIMS – gastroenterologist Dr Khuroo, and pulmonologist Dr Parvaiz A Koul – one a former director and another, the incumbent director.
In 2015, Dr Sameer Naqash, prominent Surgeon head of the upper GI Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic surgery unit at SKIMS was invited as a guest speaker at Prestigious International Gastric Cancer Congress, the highest international forum on gastric cancer in the world, which was held in Verona, Italy.
In January 2022, Hyder Mir, Scientist ‘C’ while working on Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network at SKIMS bagged the 2021 first MENA-ISN Research Award for his paper.
Dr Manijha Yaqoob, a Physician Scientist at Roche USA, started her successful medical professional from SKIMS.
“There are countless instances of SKIMS doctors making small or major intervention that is part of medical practices,” one doctor said. For commoners in Kashmir, however, it is the last address for a healthy survival or a dignified death. A general belief on the ground is that disturbing the autonomy of a major health facility is not a good idea.
Performing many firsts in the medical field in Jammu and Kashmir, the SKIMS is faced with two All India Institute of Medical Science facilities coming up, one each, in Jammu and Kashmir divisions. Would the clipped autonomy help SKIMS sustain its numero uno status or not, only time would tell.
… Khalid Bashir Gura contributed to the report

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( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 24, 2023
Property Tax Controversy

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Abandoned many times in the recent past, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has started the process of imposing a property tax that is estimated to fetch Rs 150 crore and augment the resources of the urban local bodies. The move triggered a chain reaction, Khalid Bashir Gura reports
Within days after bulldozers halted the high-pitch anti-encroachment drive, Manoj Sinha-led Jammu and Kashmir administration issued property tax notifications on February 21, 2023, triggering another row. However, this is restricted to urban areas where according to the 2011 census, Jammu and Kashmir’s 27 per cent of population lives. The Housing and Urban Development has notified that it will
assess and collect property tax at five per cent of Taxable Annual Value (TAV) for residential properties and six per cent for commercial properties within the jurisdiction of urban local bodies (ULBs) from April 1, 2023.
Unlike the rest of the country, no property tax was ever imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. There were some efforts between 2010 and 2018 but the stiff opposition frustrated the idea.
Months after reading-down Article 370, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in October 2020 allowed the UT administration to impose a property tax. Well before it could trigger a crisis, Lt Governor insisted that “there is no proposal to impose the property tax in Jammu and Kashmir”. In June 2021, the Badami Bagh Cantonment Board (BBCB) started levying property tax in areas under its jurisdiction in Srinagar but it was not collected.
Now, when almost all districts across Jammu and Kashmir have started working on the notification, almost everybody from Kanak Mandi in Jammu to Old Town in Baramulla is seeking the withdrawal of the notification. Being seen as “arbitrary and undemocratic and anti-people,” trade, politics and lawyers have all opposed the idea.
Property Tax

All municipal bodies across the world levy a property tax. It is already in vogue in the rest of India. Officials in Jammu and Kashmir expect to raise Rs 150 crore in 2023-24 and pump the funds into moribund municipal bodies currently managed by people who were “elected” to the office by controversial elections. Interestingly, the municipal corporations in Srinagar and Jammu have rejected the idea insisting the proposal was supposed to be mooted from them.
Officials said the tax collections will enhance the resources of urban local bodies, which have not been able to deliver as the revenue from other sources accounted for less than 15 per cent of their operational expenses. The property tax policy will enable urban local bodies (ULB) to get enhanced central devolutions and improve their services.
The tax will be 5-6 per cent of the taxable annual value (TAV) of the properties, a base calculated on basis of nine variables – the type of municipality, built area, land value in line with the J&K Preparation and Revision of Market Value Guidelines Rules, 2011, as on the first day of the block, the number of floors, usage type, construction type, age of the property, given slab of the area, and the occupancy status. It will be in vogue for three years and will be calculated annually with a 1000 sq ft area exempted from the tax.
As per Act, 10 per cent rebate can be availed by early submission of property tax. A person liable to the property tax shall be liable to give to the officer authorised in this behalf particulars of property and tax due by May 30 financial year and the second instalment of tax shall be furnished by November 30 along with proof of receipt of the first instalment.
All places of worship, cremation and burial grounds stand exempted. No tax will be levied on vacant land not attached to a structure or building; or municipal property. The properties owned by the government of India and the J&K government are also exempted. But a service charge at three per cent of the TAV will be payable in respect of such properties.
According to the notification, in case of failure to pay tax, a penalty of Rs 100 or one per cent will be imposed as the maximum amount shall not exceed Rs 1000. “Failure to file return in due time, unless prevented by sufficient cause, will result in a penalty of Rs 100, or 1 per cent of the tax due, whichever is higher, for every month of default, without prejudice to the interest due for the delay in payment,” it reads.
Land Costs
In the evaluation of the land value, the rates that are fixed under the law for particular areas will be fundamental. Many years back, the government felt a serious requirement of having a basic ceiling for the value of the land resource in urban as well as rural areas. Every few years, the top officials in a district sit and evaluate the costs of land on basis of its real market worth for residential as well as commercial purposes. These costs are basic. Once a property is changing hands, the purchaser has to pay the stamp duty strictly as per the minimum prices set by the committee. This process has improved the stamp duty collections.
The growth of revenue in the stamp duty collection has shown a steep hike of 56.12 per cent as the total collection made has reached Rs 425 crore in 2021-22 against Rs 272.22 crore recorded during 2020-21. It is expected to be better by the end of the current fiscal.
These land rates will now be basic to the evaluation of property tax the same way as it has been for the registration of immovable assets for requirements of stamp duty.
Reactions
The decision triggered a row as political parties opposed the move tooth and nail and have demanded its immediate withdrawal. The common refrain across political classes is that it is untimely and its legitimacy in absence of an elected government is a question mark. They justify the opposition to the idea on basis of the economic downturn after 2019, owing to various factors including Covid19, political instability, inflation, and unemployment.
NC and Congress, now vehemently opposing the move, initiated the bills for the imposition of property tax in 2010 and managed its passage in the erstwhile assembly. A subsequent bill for setting up the property tax board was cleared in 2013. However, the process was binned as the government feared the move will have serious fallout on the electoral prospects in the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
“No taxation without representation, why should people in J&K pay state taxes, including the proposed property tax, when we have no say in how our government is run and no say in the decision-making of J&K?” Omar Abdullah, in whose era the bills were initiated, said in a tweet. “We are expected to be mute spectators to all unjust decisions by Raj Bhavan.”
NC’s Jammu president, Ratan Lal Gupta terms the tax as Jaziaand insists the peoples’ paying capacity has dipped to an all-time low. He sees it as the move to “impoverish” and make “lives miserable”. He said for allaying the distress of the people, there should be elections and decisions on property tax will be taken by representatives of the people.
Jammu and Kashmir is without an elected government since 2018 summer – almost 56 months.
Congress president Vikar Rasool sees the tax as an “injustice” for people who are battling high rates of inflation, unemployment and low business due to government policies. It is like an emergency, he added.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir are being oppressed and are distressed economically and politically. There is terrorism in J&K unlike in the rest of the country. There should be elections and such decisions should be left to elected governments,” Congress spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said. “
It is like a dictatorship procedure. Taxation is not new to Kashmiris as we have been paying taxes in different shapes since Maharajas times. But this time the economy is derailed and the orders come from the top which renders ULBs useless,” added GA Mir, former JKPCC president.
Former Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti said the tax was part of the BJP’s larger agenda of impoverishing the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“These tactics are to keep people of Jammu and Kashmir under never-ending stress and trauma so that they can’t focus towards their genuine demands,” PDP spokesperson Mohit Bhan said. “Imposition of local taxes is the prerogative elected representatives of Municipal Corporation or Panchayats and such arbitrary orders prove the administration has no regard for any institution and they just want to bulldoze everything which comes in their way.” Bhan said the government orders are like earthquakes and floods.
People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone alleged the government of perpetrating economic euthanasia. “Property tax in aftermath of -an year lost post-2019, a couple of years lost in Covid is – seems determination to turn every stone that can be turned to ensure economic euthanasia. Governments have pumped billions worldwide to bump start ailing economies,” Lone tweeted. His party colleague Basharat Bukhari regretted that while in the rest of the world, governments are offering packages and creating employment opportunities post-pandemic, it is completely vice versa in Jammu and Kashmir.
Apni Party said the “unprecedented and big decision” should not be taken by LG administration and should ideally be left to an elected government.
“This is a return gift by the BJP to the people, who voted for them,” Harsh Dev, who returned to his Panthers Party said. “It has imposed so many taxes in the past like GST and created inflation in the country as the security situation is adverse, the unemployment in J&K is the highest in the country, and the economy is in shambles.”
Terming the decision as “arbitrary and undemocratic,” CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said levying property tax in the absence of an elected government is quite unconstitutional. “Whatever elected formations exist on the ground, they have to decide. Why are they depriving these ULBs of their own legitimate rights of decision-making? The process of collecting tax and deciding the values of the tax is the sole prerogative of these institutions. How does an officer in Raj Bhavan know the terrain in Habba Kadal,” Tarigami said as he demanded elections in the UT if according to government claims, all is well.
The newly formed Democratic Azad Party (DAP) also voiced its concern about taxation and questioned the timing. There is a need to understand that for the past three decades, the people in Jammu and Kashmir have suffered in every aspect due to militancy, Azad said. This has triggered unemployment and weakened the economic condition. “I can only say that the time is not apt for the move because of the economic conditions of the people here,” he said.
BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur said that tax is being paid in every city of India. “In J&K it was in vogue during 1962 and 1982 when these regimes were ruling who are vehemently opposing it. However, we are also requesting LG to defer its imposition as the UT has been going through a bad phase due to militancy for the last three decades which weakened UT’s economy,” he said as it is not the right time.
Bar Associations
The political class apart, other sections of society reacted to the development as well. There were protests in certain towns. Normally, the lawyers were the first to come to the streets. The reaction was vocal in Jammu, unlike Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association’s outgoing president MK Bhardwaj asked the administration to withdraw the notification.
Terming it “tax terrorism”, the president asked the administration to stop pursuing “anti-people” policies in Jammu and Kashmir. “Jammu and Kashmir can’t be equated with other UTs or states in the matter of taxations, especially when no facilities of the like are available here,” he said urging the government to raise the economic status of people first. The bar association at Jammu suspended work for a day. “We have an anti-encroachment drive where the people in possession of land for over decades together are deprived of their land,” they said.
Trade followed the lawyers. Newly appointed Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Javid Ahmad Tenga said, the trade body is assessing property tax. However, he said it is not the right time to impose it as people’s financial conditions are not good. Jagmohan Singh Raina, who is also part of the KCCI body said, as central laws are being applied to J&K, the process is being carried out without local consensus.
“We have for long being governed by bureaucrats,” Shakeel Qalander, a former FCIK president said. “They don’t consider the reality on the ground while formulating policies. Even though this property tax is being imposed everywhere, we are an exception as we had to unlike others grapple with turbulences for decades as well natural disasters like floods and pandemic.”
Unlike Kashmir, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jammu was vocal. “Chamber is of the firm opinion that this order of imposition of property tax should be withdrawn by the government to give a sigh of relief to the people of Jammu and Kashmir”, Chamber President Arun Gupta said. “If the government fails to understand our feeling than we shall have no other option but to go for a bandh call by consulting civil societies, bar association and others”.
Last year, Gupta said the idea of imposing the tax was mooted but the Chamber opposed it and the idea was shelved.
Miffed Mayors
Srinagar’s Mayor, Junaid Azim Mattoo said that the decision was not approved by elected ULBs and thus the SMC will explore ways to contest this ‘arbitrary move’.
“Imposition of Property Tax in J&K is ironically violative of municipal empowerment as this has neither been deliberated upon, nor approved by elected ULBs. While SMC will explore ways to contest this arbitrary move, I am writing to the Hon’ble LG seeking a withdrawal of the SO,” Mattoo tweeted
Similarly, his deputy, Parvaiz Ahmad Qadri urged people not to panic over property tax. “People need to understand that the proposal has to be first passed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. We are rejecting it even before its arrival. It won’t get the consent of corporators. People should not panic,” he tweeted.
Qadri said the tax was not implemented since 2000 despite being a law in vogue. “Why do we need to take money from people? If the UT had been developed then we may have asked for taxes but even the basic amenities like sanitation, drainage, and street lights are not even working,” he rued.
Asked that the tax collections are supposed to add to the ULB resources, the deputy mayor said that there is no dearth of funds but bureaucrats lead the resources lapse. “Last year, only 30 per cent of funds could be utilized in the city and the rest lapsed. The files in which we had proposed plans gathered dust till March. They give approval at the eleventh hour when we have no time to meet a deadline,” he claimed.
Unlike his counterparts in Srinagar, the mayor in the winter capital termed it as a reformative move.
Jammu Mayor, Rajinder Sharma said that it has been imposed across the country except for Jammu and Kashmir and local body institutions need their revenue generation resources. “Our grants are linked to this resource. If we do not get property tax, the centre will not fund us liberally. The Centre has funded crores of rupees to each ward, unlike the past. We must now get independent,” Sharma said. “The Property Tax has been imposed by the Administrative Council of the Union Territory and not by the JMC. In a democratic set-up, the Administrative Council has superseded us and they have the power to do so.”
Progressive Taxations
In response to the widespread reaction, Jammu and Kashmir Housing and Urban Development Secretary, H Rajesh Prasad talked to the media in Jammu. He indicated the expected Rs 150 crore collection will improve municipal services. He said the residents were imposed the least tax slabs if compared to the rest of the country.
“Better municipal services are expected to attract more investment and encourage more people to set up businesses in Jammu and Kashmir. Revenue generated from Property Tax will be used to improve infrastructure, build new parks and playgrounds and maintain the already existing facilities which will significantly enhance the services provided by municipal bodies,” Prasad said.
Prasad said that tax rates are notified in such a way that its implications are progressive in nature with minimum implication to small businesses and households as according to him, it is to be levied annually and can be paid in two equal instalments, it will not be burdening common citizens.
A day after issuing the notification, the government said the tax rates were one of the lowest in the country – almost half that of Himachal Pradesh, and one-fourth to one-sixth, overall, of other states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi.
The tax rates are 25 per cent lower in the municipal councils and 50 per cent in municipalities. “Residential property with built-up area up to 1500sftare also discounted ensuring relief from Lower Income Group and Middle Income Group category residential houses. Similarly, small commercial establishments especially shops up to the size of 100sqft and 200sqft are also provided relief with very minimal tax implications,” the spokesman said.
The debate is on. Deputy Commissioners have started the process of implementation of the notification. Some Deputy Commissioners said most of the towns in their jurisdiction will be impacted by the new tax to less than half indicating that Srinagar and Jammu cities will be the major source for Property Tax collections. LG Sinha also reacted. His last statement on the issue was a question: “In Jammu and Kashmir, people pay to use internet data, buy I-phones and play videos; I wonder why there is a hue and cry over the imposition of property tax?”
Post Script
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha spoke on the issue of property tax after fierce reaction against the idea from political class and the business in Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is the lowest property tax rates that are being imposed,” Sinha told reporters on the side-lines of a function at SKICC on February 27, 2023. “It is almost one-tenth of what is in vogue in Shimla, Dehradun and other places.”
Offering statistics, Sinha said there are 5,20,000 residential structures in Jammu and Kashmir’s urban space. Of them, 206000 have a built-up area of 1000 sq ft which are already exempted. In 203600 residential structures which are built above 1000 sq ft but below 1500 sq ft will have to pay Rs 1000 a year. Of these 203600 houses, he said in almost 80 per cent of the structures, the owners will be paying no more than Rs 600 a year.
Sinha said there are 101000 shops across Jammu and Kashmir and 46 per cent of them fall under a 100 sq ft area and will have a minimum of Rs 700 a year. There are only 30000 shops which are spread over less than 2000 sq ft. These will be paying Rs 2000 a year.
“Nearly 75 to 80 percent of the population of JK will be exempted from the Property Tax. Those who are falling under the purview of Property Tax are trying to create chaos and confusion among the common masses”, the Lieutenant Governor reiterated on March 2.
Sinha said the citizens across the country are paying Property Tax. Property Tax proposed for Jammu and Kashmir is one-tenth of Shimla-the capital of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh”, he said and pointed out that on an average Rs 900 to Rs 1000 to be paid annually as Property Tax.
LG said that aim of proposing this tax is to develop the cities of Jammu and Kashmir. “Every year government grants funds worth Rs 900 crores to the urban local bodies of JK. Property Tax will be directly deposited to the concerned urban local bodies for the overall growth and development of the area,” he added.

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#Property #Tax #Controversy
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 5, 2023
Kashmir: First Land Settlement

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Two years after the British “took over” the governance of Jammu and Kashmir and appointed Sir Oliver St John, the first British Resident on September 25, 1885, Andrew Wingate was appointed the land Settlement Officer on January 15, 1887. Of the state’s 28 tehsils he did land settlement in Lal and Phak Parangna’s leaving the gigantic exercise to Walter R Lawrence. In his preliminary report, however, he detailed how the land, crops, markets and people were consumed by the middlemen unleashed on the peasantry
This photograph taken by an astronaut on December 1, 2021, using a Nikon D5 digital camera with having 70-mm focal length, was released by NASA on December 31, 2022. It shows the Kashmir valley in a haze.
“The general result of the last 70 years appears to be that the population is now little more than half of what it used to be. That it is a considerable loss, there can be little doubt. Traces of disused irrigation and of former cultivation, ruins of villages or parts of villages, of bridges, &c, local tradition, all point to a greater prosperity, which by the end of the Sikh rule in AD 1846 had well-nigh disappeared.
Feeding People
To maintain the population, two devices have been resorted to, both I believe of old date. The first, prohibiting export of rice is still in existence. The second, prohibiting any Kashmiri crossing the passes was removed during the last famine. The door of hope was, however, opened too late for of the numerous refugees few succeeded in reaching the open country and consequently few came back. Since then, numbers of Kashmiris visit the Punjab every winter where they find employment and save on their wages, returning in the early spring to cultivate their fields, generally bringing with them some cloth or other trifle for their wives, but getting frequently roughly handled by the customs’ clerks for their pains.
Kashmiri requires more and more frequent nourishment and warmer clothing than his brother of the plains. Not only does the climate necessitate more but the Kashmiri has the body and strength of an elephant. The collectors of shali often pay insufficient attention to this point, and as the aim is to collect for the use of the city all that can be safely taken, they are apt, acting on their experience of what a family consume in the plain, to leave too little to properly support and multiply the agricultural population. (page 16)
I saw mobs struggling and fighting to secure a chance of getting a few seers of the government shali, in a way that I have not witnessed since the great famine of southern India.
Stagnant Prices
I have found it impossible to obtain any record of bazar prices, but I believed I am correct in saying that before AD 1846 the normal price of shali was about eight annas per kharwar, and that it varied with the harvests. For example, during the famine of AD 1861-33, the price rose greatly, and oven after AD 1833, it remained for some time as high as Rs 1.5 per kharwar. Whether the kharwar was reduced to 15 traks instead of 16 traks then I have not ascertained. Shortly after Maharaja Golab Singh assumed control, the present system of collecting shali in large granaries in the city and selling it by retail through government officials appears to have been introduced, and the price of shali, with a brief interval about AD 1879 when it was raised to Rs 1.5 has remained stationary at Rs 1.25 per kharwar of 15 traks = two maunds and one seer of standard weight at 80 tolas per seer.

For over 40 years the system has been sufficiently profitable to support a large body of the pandit population of the city in idleness, and the government has gradually become on the one side a farmer working with coolies under a management closely approximating forced labour, and on the other side, a gigantic bannia’s shop doling out food to the poor in exchange for their coppers, and keeping with every cultivator an account showing what is taken from him whether in the way of grain, oil, wool, ponies, cows, &c, and what is given to him in the shape of seed, plough-cattle, cotton or wool to spin and weave, and a hundred other petty details. (page 17)
When I told your Highness in Darbar the price of shall must rise with the state of the harvest, and must probably be often higher than rupees two chillki, a shiver went round the officials, and your Highness said you would not dare to raise the price so great would be the outcry. I can only say that a country cannot go on feeding a semi-idle host at less than cost price and somebody must be a loser. The cultivators have lost much, even the interest to cultivate, and now the loss is falling on the State. (page 26)
The Booty
Under the Sikhs, the State took a half-share of the kharif crop and in addition four traks per kharwar and on account of the rice straw and the vegetable produce of’ the Sagazar” plots, the whole of which were kept by the Asami and were supposed to be free of assessment, Rs 1-9-0 per cent, was added to the total. The patwari and kanungo got 4 a trak per kharwar between them.
Inferior village servants got something. Nazarana was levied four times a year, and tambol (about two per cent) was taken on occasions of marriages in the ruler’s family. The villagers had also to feed the state watchers of the grain, called Shakdar. Non-resident cultivators paid a little less and Pandits and Pirzadas only paid two extra traks instead of four.
For the rabi and kimiti crops, all classes of cultivators were taxed alike, and in addition to the half-share, three traks per kharwar were taken under the names of extra cesses. The kimiti crops appear to be those that have always had a money value and are tilgogal, sarson, tobacco, cotton, linseed, saffron and the like.
For other crops, whether kharif or rabi, the collection might be in kind, or the villages might be farmed out. But I can find no trace so far of any crop rates. Walnut oil, fruit-trees, and honey have also always been taxed. Under the above, the State share was not less than three-fifth of the gross produce and what the cultivator actually retained was certainly less than two-fifths and probably only about one-third. The abundance of fruits, berries, and nuts, the extensive grazing area, and forest produce, enabled the cultivators to live, but an assessment so heavy as this would extinguish all rights in land, would render land valueless and would reduce a population forcibly confined within the valley to the condition of tenants-at-will. (page 18)
Panchan Pather is a fascinating meadow in Kulgam that was opened for tourists by officials recently. Photo: special arrangement
Since the times of the Sikhs, the pressure has been undoubtedly relaxed but it must still be pretty severe when cultivators, are found ready to sell whole villages for no other equivalent than the protection of a powerful name. Many of the Mukaddams, or heads of the villages, are very intelligent, but when it comes to seeing their children stinted of food, with hearts sickened by deferred hope, they sign away fatuitously day by day such rights as they possess. During Maharaja Golub Singh’s rule (AD 1846 to 1857) the Sikh procedure was followed, but some slight relaxations were made in favour of land newly cultivated, for large areas were lying waste.
His Highness was fond of horses and a number of grass-rakhs were reserved from cultivation.
Under Maharaja Ranbhir Singh, circles of villages were annually farmed out to contractors, called kardars. About 1865 the extra traks per kharwar were reduced for all Pandits and Pirzadas for a time to only one trak.
From about 1869 the practice of contracting with the Mukaddams or with the Zamindars gradually established itself in place of the farming system, and only two extra traks came to be levied instead of four.
In 1873-74, the village contracts seem to have been divided up into asamiwar khewats” or cultivators’ accounts, and either produce or cash was taken from each man.
In 1875 the harvest was a bad one, and the state took two shares of the produce and left one only to the cultivators. Next year fresh contracts were entered into either with Mukaddams, Kardars or cultivators and two traks per kharwar were again added to the assessment, besides an aggregate tax of Rs 9-12-0 per cent, if paid in cash or nine kharwars 12 traks per hundred kharvvars if paid in kind. This tax included a number of items, such as support of the Palace-temple, the abolished kanungo’s share, and so on.
In 1877 the scarcity began and the new contracts broke down and so the State collected in kind only, and this practically continued till 1880 when a new asamiwar khewat was made based upon previous years’ collections as estimated in cash but payable either in produce or cash as the cultivator was able. This khewat or cash settlement is supposed still to be valid, but after the good harvests of Samvat 1937 and 1938 the settlement was thought to have been too easy, and so it was raised by Rs 8-9-0 per cent, the chief item of the increment being Rs 6-13-0 for a pony tax, which might be paid in ponies instead of money, and in place of the Rs 1-9-0 per cent, formerly levied for fodder, the cultivators were required to give five kurus of rice-straw per 100 threshed.
This settlement includes all cesses except the tambol and nazrana. In 1885 the Rs 8-9-0 per cent, tax was remitted, and so now the khewat of S 1937 is supposed to have been reverted to, with the exception of the five kurus of rice-straw which are still taken.
In 1886, one seer per kharwar, formerly payable to the zillalidars, was made payable to the State, who appointed paid chowkidars. If this revenue history is not very correct, it must be remembered that access to the revenue records has been denied me. (page 19-20)
A pre-partition photograph showing the men and women busy in rice-field harrowing.
Grain Free Market
There are neither grain shops in the bazar nor bannias nor bankers. I do not know whether it is an offence to sell shali but cultivators are afraid to do so, and in tehsils nominally under a cash settlement and with an abundant harvest my establishment have once and again been literally starving and the only way they can get food is by having it sent out, rice, atta, dall from the government storehouses in Srinagar to the tehsildars who thereupon sell to my men for cash. My men still find difficulty in procuring the necessaries of life, and only very urgent representations at headquarters have secured the supplies necessary to stop the angry and to me humiliating clamour of my subordinates to be allowed to buy food for ready money. (page 17)
Coolies, Not Cultivators
I have been told by the highest and most trusted officials in Srinagar that the Kashmiri cannot be trusted with shali because he would eat the whole of it, that he will not plough unless the tehsildar gives him the seed and makes him, and that without this fostering care of government he would become extinct. The truth being, that he has been pressed down to the condition of a coolie cultivating at subsistence allowances the State property.
The Kashmiris are called cowardly because they have lost the rights belonging to the peasantry elsewhere and tamely submit to be driven like sheep before a sepoy. But it is useless to expect that a small population forming an isolated state that looked only to its hills for protection could withstand powerful neighbours, like Afghans or Sikhs, or that so distant and inaccessible a province would not be ruthlessly ground down under the endless succession of Governors that have enriched themselves in this valley. The Kashmiri is strong and hardworking, but his spirit is dormant, and he is grudged the quantity of food the climate makes necessary but which a short-sighted policy considers gluttonous, and consequently, he is being closer pressed every harvest. (page 19)
Last year I found in the cash-settled tehsil the standing crops, reaping, and threshing, as strictly guarded as if there was batai assessment with this serious difference that the cultivator did not know what share of his shali would be left to him. (page 25)
Peasant Loot
It may be easier now to understand why the Kashmiri cares naught for rights in land, why his fields are fallow or full of weeds, and manure and water neglected, why he has, as I can well believe, even to be forced to cultivate? The revenue system is such that whether he works much or little, he is left with barely enough to get along on till next harvest. He is a machine to produce shali for a very large and mostly idle city population. The secret of the cheap shali is because if the price were allowed to rise to its proper level, the whole body of pundits would compel the palace to yield to their demands. (page 26)
An early twentieth-century photograph showing a group of extremely beautiful Kashmiri women, disempowered and in poverty. The photograph has been taken in the Kashmir periphery.
The ignorant Mohammadan cultivator has not only no one he can call friend, but everyone, whether Hindu or Mohammadan, of any influence, is against him, for cheap bread by the sweat of the cultivator’s brow is a benefit widely appreciated. The Mohammadan cultivator is compelled to grow shali, and in many years to part with it below the proper market rate, that the city may be content. If the harvest is too little for both, the city must be supplied and is supplied by any force that may be necessary and the cultivator and his children must go without. That is the explanation of the angry discontent that filled the valley during the famine. The cultivator is considered to have rights neither to his land nor to his crops. The pundits and the city population have a right to be well fed, whether there is famine or not, at rupees two chillki per kharwar. I said everybody of influence was against the cultivator. (page 26)
Enforced Weave
The anti-climax is reached when cotton is served out to the villagers to be made into army clothing, and when the villagers can make nothing of the rotten commodity, they are charged for the cotton supplied at Rs 14 chilki per kharwar, with interest at over 14 per cent. (Page 27)
Internal Displacement
It has been described how the revenue system leaves the cultivator, without protection. His one concern is to get enough to eat and when he fails in one tehsil he betakes himself to another. Consequently, hereditary occupants are few and if any proof were wanting of the unsatisfactory condition of agriculture it is the fact that large numbers have only cultivated their present lands for a few years. In a highly fertile valley to find the peasantry roving from village to village is a clear sign that the administration is faulty.
This constant search for a rest never found, leads to two things; first, that much valuable land is annually thrown out of cultivation, and secondly that the people endeavour to shelter themselves behind any influential name. Consequently, since the death of Maharaja Golab Sing, from which date central authority appears to have been weaker, there has been a steady and latterly rapidly increasing transference of land from the cultivating to the non-cultivating classes and a landlord element is intruding itself between the cultivator and the State. (Page 27)
The Modus Operandi
As soon as a man has got any land he proceeds first to oust all the old cultivators so as to destroy any proof of the land having been cultivated when he entered upon it, and second to extend his ownership over every bit of land in the neighbourhood he can lay hands on. An instance will speak for itself. A tehsildar cast his eye upon a fine village within his charge, close to Srinagar. There, were six or seven kharwars fallow and waste, which supplied a pretext for developing the country and improving the revenue by applying for a chak. He had good influence at headquarters and his friend the Diwan, about five years ago, gave him a mukarrari patta for 20 kharwars at the usual rates of Rs 12 for wet and Rs 6 for dry land, but the tehsildar took care to get it inserted that all the land was dry… For some such trifling sum he is in possession of 29 kharwars of fine land of which 20 kharwars are irrigated and chiefly shali, so that even at the nominal rates of the patta, he should be paying about Rs 300. Some of the villagers objected to their land being thus appropriated and specially to the water supply being controlled for the benefit of the land seized, but the tehsildar speedily reduced them to reason by getting their revenue demand raised by between 30 and 40 per cent, and the village is now labouring under heavy outstanding balances. This leads to cultivators disappearing and as they disappear their fields are quickly added to the chak. He is now trying to turn the villagers out of their abadi and to house his own cultivators there instead.
One of the major jobs of a Kashmir home was to grind the paddy for rice, the main staple food. In this photograph taken somewhere in the twentieth century, an entire village family is recorded in the process of grinding paddy. The process involved using stone mortar (Kanz) and pestle (Mohul) to pound the dried rice. Both men and women would do it.
Another cultivator dies, his children are young. The neighbouring chakdar immediately takes possession under an agreement to be answerable for the revenue and to restore the land when the children grow up. Another chakdar makes a quarrel about his boundary and works in a few kharwars of land that way. One cannot ride in any direction without hearing complaints of these annual accretions to chaks. (page 30-31)
When I saw the village its fine lands were mostly lying unsown and its houses empty. If it is inquired why the old cultivators do not now return it is because the outstanding balance against the village is enormous, and last year I found the tehsildar trying to secure the entire crops of the miserable few who were left in a vain attempt to reach a sum equal to about one-third of the demand, but with the more likely result of ensuring the complete desertion of the place. As I pointed out villages do not tumble down in this fashion without a cause and the cause is bad administration, and that I fear sometimes with a definite purpose. (page 32)
The son of an influential official took a contract in the old days for two villages. Next year he petitioned the Vazir Wazarat that he was being hindered paying the revenue of the villages which are his property. The Vazir Wazarat submits the case for orders and an endorsement is written across a corner that petitioner is to be allowed to pay the revenue of the villages, and here the writer takes care to repeat the words of the petition, which are his, in milkiyat and zumindari. Now whatever rights cultivators may have it is certain that ownership of villages, unless conferred by the Darbar by sanad, does not exist in Kashmir. Having got so far, the next step was to take an ikcrarnama or agreement from the villagers that he is the proprietor. Armed with these documents, he requests me to record him as proprietor of both villages. On inquiry, of course, it is ascertained he is a mere contractor of revenue and that one-half the villagers deny his claims, and the other half were bought over by a promise that they should be protected from seizure for forced labour. (page 32)
A 1900 photograph showing Sir Walter Lawrence in Kashmir. Agha Sayed Hussain as the young Tehsildar is standing behind him (third from right)
It is to be clearly understood that the interests of the Darbar and the interests of the cultivators are identical and that the interests of all middlemen whatsoever, whether revenue farmers, telisildars, or quasi-proprietors, are inimical to both. The cultivators desire more food and the Darbar, more revenue, and the whole pundit class live by stinting both. (page 37)
The Commission Crisis
I cannot conclude without representing that the conditions which environ my department are most unfavourable to good work. Your Highness’s back is no sooner turned than the measurers again suffer from obstruction. Coolies arc seized, not only from villages under survey, contrary to your Highness’s positive command, but even the parties are interrupted, and chain drawers and flag bearers are dragged away. Recently the judge has begun to receive complaints against my subordinates for assault and the like and to issue process against them. Considering they are Punjabis working for your Highness in a country where they cannot even understand the language, and that a dozen Kashmiris can be made to give any evidence an offended chakdar or official instigates, my subordinates are not likely to consent to work absolutely alone in isolated villages with the prospect of appearing in Criminal Courts. My subordinates have a most difficult task and are exposed to every temptation. (page 45)

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( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

February 24, 2023
Crowd Content

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With the effective takeover of personal communication by the internet-powered cell phone, hundreds of fortune hunters and vested interests are generating content for a diverse audience. Offering the flip side of the virtual world, Fahd Khan reports the ways and means of the new fortune-hunting and the costs society pays on a long-term basis
social media
Over the years, the cell phone supposed to help mankind in real-time better communication has emerged as a key player in reshaping life. Connected with the internet, it has already made obsolete a huge electronic equipment basket comprising nearly 50 items from GPS to a watch. It has taken the sheen away from newspapers and is currently threatening the library. Smartphones have already taken a huge sliver of the classroom as the banking sector is the new target. Covid19 triggered work-from-home culture has taken the crowd out of the offices and online governance has done away with the time-space matrix.
Regardless of how anti-social it might be making its users and which kind of vision and orthopaedic issues it may lead to, the small device is a huge time killer.
Never ever in human history was this much data generated or consumed at a mass level as it is happening now. Kashmir, with more than 90 per cent of cell phone penetration, is as good on this parameter as any developed nation could be. But, what are we consuming?
Ubaid Taj’s Hello Hish might have taken the internet by storm in Kashmir and people of all age groups have bombarded social media with lip sync reels without even recognizing what the words represent or what the music is trying to serve or promote. They just jump into the bandwagon wishing their reels to go viral and become instant celebrities.
Level Playing Field
Cell phones have been a disruptive intervention. It demolished the routine hierarchies and opened multiple sectors for almost everybody. Now people go directly to the virtual world with their artworks, music, photography, writings and music.
They can make significant incomes while lounging at home in luxury. Writing blogs and running websites might formerly be the only way to make money online, but with India’s digital revolution and the introduction of fast internet (now 5G), that is no longer the case. From being a consumer to a prosumer, there has been a shift.

People used to merely consume content, but now easy access to the internet has enabled them to generate content too. Content consumers are prosumers now. More and more people are trying their luck on social media to obtain notoriety and recognition, but only a handful of people are able to achieve it.
Now, users decided what to watch and that decides who earns what. A general trend in Kashmir, unlike the rest of the world that consumes knowledge, is that users consume a lot of data, apparently categorised as entertainment and music
Now, there is a bulk of platforms that can help prosumer to reach out to a host of consumers. It is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and a host of other applications. Chinese TikTok’s lip sync service in 2016 took the world by storm. Even those living in remote areas started making videos, and some of them even rose to fame overnight and started making money. However, as a result of the standoff between India and China, the app was blocked in India. Taking advantage of the deficit, Instagram developed Reels that allow users to create 60-second videos based on popular music and filmy dialogues.
The Eco System
Everyone who has achieved success on social media has a similar slow growth trajectory as it all begins with the creation of an account, after which they are influenced by other creators and decide to try their luck by making lip-sync videos. If this strategy proves successful, they eventually decide to start a YouTube vlogging channel where they make regular day-to-day videos and let their viewers into their personal lives. However, when they shift from lip sync to producing content, the problem arises.
YouTube content creators have started posting videos where they discuss their incomes, show purchasing luxury goods and automobiles with money they earned online, and generally cajole viewers into doing the same.
Kashmir witnessed a surge in content creators, and there are several individuals who have achieved online fame. Singer Ishfaq Kawa, who will make his Bollywood debut soon, began his career by uploading songs. Kawa has established himself as a household brand and now makes substantial earnings from his YouTube channel, which has about 500000 members.
Almost all the new ‘singers’ connect with the masses through the internet, leaving their traditional counterparts to the age-old practices.
Fame and Fortune
YouTube is a huge platform for these content creators so is Facebook. In India, a video with 10 lakh views might trigger a business of US $800 to US $2500. The earnings depend on the geographical location the views come from, the quality of the videos, the niche and the type of adverts displayed on the channel.
This advantage has inspired a large number of Kashmiris to launch their own YouTube channels and make content creation a career. Some of them are into comedy and some into “singing” and there is a lot of trash too. Some of them imitate famous artists from other regions of the world by producing videos that are identical to theirs. It is being seen as a surefire method to have fame and money. It is a simple formula: “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”
There are some huge successes and Kawa is one of them. This is despite the prevalence of stereotypes that usually gets invoked when a female content creator attempts to chase a virtual goal.
Kashmiri Kalkharabs is a young group of satirists and stand-up comedians having nearly 900 thousand followers. Bakus, another video creator apparently inspired by the roast-content creator Carryminati, has 324 thousand subscribers, all of whom have been garnered either by making roasting others or by creating cringe songs. It makes fun of other’s content to make its own profile, a legitimate virtual world reality.
Amir Majid, a content creator from Jammu, has 23 lakh subscribers on YouTube where he posted his rags-to-riches story. In a video, he shows how he was living in an old house and how YouTube changed his life forever. The YouTuber explores different places and also arranges meet-ups with his fans in different parts of India. In one of his fans’ meet up in Srinagar, thousands of fans gathered to meet him. People were in such large number that police was called in to control the mob. His channel is also evident in how much fortune he has made through the platform.
Kashmiri singer Reshi Sakeena who at many times was compared to Dhinchak Pooja, the queen of cringe pop music, now dances at private parties and uploads content. Not everyone can pull off what she does: sing off-key, miss every beat, and still win millions of fans. On YouTube, all of Sakeena’s videos have accumulated millions of views and she has earned well.
Off late, pranks have come to Kashmir. Popularised by some private FM radio studios, pranksters were able to capture the audience’s interest right away. However, as time went on, people began to lose interest since the content was drab and old. There has been an explosion of such videos on the internet where creators create self-humiliating videos that might make one feel uncomfortable at times. While some content makers do it for enjoyment, others do it to gain notoriety and make money from their films. These creators’ primary goal is to get popular online.
Amir Bhat has a Facebook page where he plays pranks on others and has earned 100 thousand followers.
You-tuber Idrees Mir is famous Vlogger with around 900 thousand followers on YouTube and Facebook. He recently made a trip to two foreign destinations and uploaded videos buying automobiles and tech equipment on regular basis, indicating that he earns well.
Risking Lives
Some creators even risked their life for creating content. Murtaza Rafiq known by the name of The EmmInErr recently crossed a milestone of 100 thousand subscribers on his channel and uploaded a video where he spent a night camping in an ordinary summer tent at Gulmarg. Accompanied by the two young children, his video was uploaded with the caption Surviving in Snow for 24 hours in minus 13.
Kashmir’s winter wonderland, Gulmarg is mostly the coldest place where temperatures dip to minus 15 degrees during the night. This act of creating content could have proved fatal for the trio as they didn’t carry proper equipment.
There was also another video creator who jumped into the frozen Nigeen Lake for his video, a media report said.
‘Virtual Politics’
With formal politics squeezed to a level, a group of youth have emerged as “virtual politicians’. They create and upload cringe content presuming it is politics but the people consume it as comedy.
The comic character of Fayaz Scorpio surfaced on the internet during the Covid19 pandemic soon after he became Deputy Sarpanch of Dandoosa (Rafiabad). His rise was his infatuation and an uncanny demand for a Scorpio vehicle. Now, he has become a household name in Kashmir. His clumsy speaking and mannerism have turned him into a laughing stock in Kashmir, and all of his online videos receive millions of views. Scorpio’s fame is so established that people rope him for advertising their products.
His contemporary is Mohammad Shafi, who calls himself Babar Sher, the lion. He moves from one party to another, is driven in a Scorpio vehicle and is always well-dressed. He jumps into any crowd and becomes its “leader” and is known for his theatrics and interesting “statesmanship”. His commentary is sure to make the video viral.
While their virtual presence indicates the tragedy of politics in Kashmir, the fact remains that the people barely watch formal politics the way they see this content. Unlike formal serious politics, these rib-tickling capsules give people moments of pleasure and reasons to laugh at the shift in the space-time matrix.
The Music
In the recent past, one had to be a serious singer or musician, spending years of his life practising to get in the zone of being good, just to be taken seriously and to get a launch by any Music label. Now, anybody can make music and have access to free tools, auto tuners, vocal plugins, melody, and free beats, and it hardly matters whether one sounds good or bad. On top of that, literally, anyone can sing, shoot an album on their smartphone and upload it to Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
This is the tragedy the entertainment and culture sector shares with the media. Anybody with a smartphone and microphone in hand is seen as a “journalist”. The coverage of a murder case in Pampore, where a brother-in-law strangled his sister-in-law to death for rebuffing sexual assault, is evidence of how low video creators have descended. In a viral video on social media, journalists can be seen asking the slain victim’s daughter to describe what transpired, but she seemed hesitant to do so concerning the age of the victim.
Promoting Vulgarity
Musaib Bhat is one of the social media “influencers” whose musical content has been consumed a lot and was very well appreciated. He initially began creating TikTok videos by lip-syncing on well-known Kashmiri tunes. His video gained popularity among all age groups, especially for his copying of female conversations on phone. Apparently, he is attempting to make the virtual world his career.
Recently one of his ‘songs’ Excuse Me, featuring transgender Manu Bebu hogged the headlines for its questionable content. He is being accused of glorifying eve-teasing and objectifying women. One of the lines of his ‘song’ says: When you leave home for the tuition, Everyone including the baker and Milkman swoons at you.
Despite his public apology, his video is still accessible and earning.
The promotion of sexism and the objectification of women through songs and films is not limited to Musaib alone.
Ubaid Taj has released only two songs to date and both of them were watched by millions. Both legitimise the objectification of women. The songs show a man trying to ‘own’ a woman and objectifying her with or without her wish. It dubs a woman a biscuit.
There is another content creator by 7afazul on Instagram who started a new trend of reels in which a person is being asked “che chuy zanh love gomut” (have you ever fallen in love?) His reels have huge views. His popularity has given birth to a similar channel on Instagram where they ask people if they have even fallen in love and shockingly some videos have surfaced where children or mentally challenged people were not spared. Instagram is quite popular among teens and youth groups.
Response
“These songs are good for providing enjoyment, but apart from gathering views and followers, every content creator has certain social duties,” a female university student said. “Everything has an effect, and these song lyrics encourage eve-teasing, which breeds crime and other social evils.
Another girl, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the impact is being seen when girls are being referred to as “biscuit” in real life now. “Tragedy is that future generation is getting impacted. One of the song’s lines, which is subtly advocating eve teasing, is being repeatedly hummed by my 8-year-old cousin.”
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( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

February 9, 2023