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  • NC Says The Demolition Drive Will Add To The Poverty

    NC Says The Demolition Drive Will Add To The Poverty

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    SRINAGAR: National Conference on Sunday stated that the ongoing demolition drive is deepening the despair of poor and the rightful landowners across Jammu and Kashmir.

    According to the statement pointing to the new disturbing trend of arbitrary acts of demolishing homes and structures, the party’s In Charge constituencies of Srinagar district Ali Muhammad Sagar, Mubarak Gul, Shameema Firdous, Irfan Shah, Tanvir Sadiq, Ahsan Pardesi, Mushtaq Guroo and Salman Ali Sagar issued a joint statement saying the meas has compounded the vulnerabilities of marginalized traders, women, children, senior citizens, socially and economically downtrodden.

    Causing  immense distress, the eight segment In Charges said that the ongoing bulldozer rampage has created a humanitarian crisis. “The worrying trend of state demolishing homes, business units, and shops violates all due norms and established human rights procedures,” they added.

    The leaders reiterated that the government should make the bulldozer its last resort, give people a chance to prove their claim and issue proper notices to the people having illegal possession of State land. “The ongoing bulldozer rampage has been carried out by government agencies professedly to ‘clear encroachments’ and remove ‘illegal structures’ from public land. However, the state authorities have used this reasoning to arbitrarily select and demolish settlements. All we seek is a strict adherence to due process and ensuring that informed demolition. The wanton rampage, it goes without saying, will only disproportionately affect marginalised communities and divest them from accessing the most basic facilities, essential for a life with dignity,” the leaders said.

    They said the government should regularise  those sitting on the State land if such policies exist in other parts of the country. “This will bring ease in the common man’s life and help the government earn as well,” they added.

    Calling out hypocritical condemnation of  demolitions by Apni Party, whose mayor is at forefront of harassing Srinagar residents, the Segment In Charges said, “On one hand we see party chief denounce bulldozer rampage and evictions. On the other hand,  the Apni party’s Mayor is at the forefront of the drive. They cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hound. Nothing brings the glaring paradoxes within Apni Party’s to the fore as this new diktat, asking traders to evict their complexes and shops from Doodh Ganga. They cannot continue to smokescreen the reality with their theatricals. People have seen their masks fall off.”

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    #Demolition #Drive #Add #Poverty

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • 45 Shops Linked To Health Sector Sealed In Banihal, Two Demolished

    45 Shops Linked To Health Sector Sealed In Banihal, Two Demolished

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    SRINAGAR: The government on Sunday sealed almost 45 shops in Banihal and most of them were either pharmacies or diagnostic centres. The market existed on the state land in, what is being called “hospital gali” and has mostly been sealed and taken over by the local municipal committee.

    Reports reaching from the highway town said that authorities demolished a shop and a ‘tin shed’ located n the same lane. All the shops we linked directly or indirectly with the health sector.

    Authorities had informed the shopkeepers in anticipation that their shops are being sealed and they had removed their belongings enabling officials to seal the market. Local residents said the decision will seriously impact healthcare sector and will result in jobless of around 400 people. One report said the sealed shops include 22 pharmacies – shops were medicine are sold, nine clinical laboratories and five optical shops. One report said some of the facilities that were being provided by these shops are missing in the hospital.

    Two political activists were taken into preventive custody before the start of the drive to retrieve state land along the sub-district hospital road amid tight security arrangements, they said.

    Fearing disruptions, police had taken into custody two local activists, Mohammad Ilyas Wani of the Democratic Azad Party (DAP) and Qaiser Hamid Sheikh of the Congress party.

    The anti-encroachment drive was a joint effort led by the civil administration and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. There were symbolic protests as well.

    Officials said the market had come illegally on the state land on the banks of a stream. The encroachments that were undone include part of the premises taken over by a private school.

    Local businesses believe that since the shops have been formally taken over by the Municipal Committee, these may, in the coming days, be reallocated to the shopkeepers who were running their business from these shops and did not own them. Authorities, however, are tight-lipped, making no promises. They left after sealing the shops and pasting a paper on every one of them suggesting the property belongs to the MC Banihal.

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    #Shops #Linked #Health #Sector #Sealed #Banihal #Demolished

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Two Decades On, Jetty Bridge Baramulla Far From Completion

    Two Decades On, Jetty Bridge Baramulla Far From Completion

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    by Masrat Nabi

    BARAMULLA: 21 years on, Jetty Bridge on river Jhelum in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is yet to be completed by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

    Pertinent to mention that in 2002, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of the bridge and work was allotted to Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC)-a government undertaking construction agency.

    This bridge was supposed to be an alternate crossing over the river Jhelum that will bypass the town of Baramulla, significantly reducing traffic through the main town. The bridge would connect Khoja Bagh to Rafiabad’s Janbazpora and Chakloo areas and provide an alternate route for traffic between Baramulla and Kupwara.

    The bridge has been a source of much anticipation and frustration for locals, as the potential to improve transportation infrastructure in the region continues to remain unfulfilled.

    “We’ve been waiting for the bridge to be finished for over two decades, but it appears that the administration is too busy elsewhere,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident of Baramulla.

    “In the last two decades, the executing agency has been able to erect only one pillar of the bridge,” says another local, Irfan Ahmad.

    “It would take only 10 minutes to reach Rafiabad if the jetty bridge becomes a reality. In the absence of this bridge, we have to take a longer route and travel through the main town to reach Rafiabad,” Ahmad said.

    JKPCC could not construct the bridge in all these 2 decades and now the administration has handed over the project to the R&B Department.

    When contacted, a top official from district administration, rues lack of required funds to complete the construction of bridge.

    He said that the delay in the completion of the bridge resulted in the cost escalation of project as the project cost soured from Rs 2 crore to around Rs 18 crore.

    Executive Engineer R&B Division Baramulla said, “As of now, no construction work is going on at the site.”

    He also refused to comment about the work to be completed by the department.

    When tried to contact Shiekh Javid Maqbool, Superintending Engineer R&B, Baramulla- Kupwara Circle, he didn’t respond to our repeated calls.

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    #Decades #Jetty #Bridge #Baramulla #Completion

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • With Doctor On Video Call, Paramedics Help Woman Deliver Baby

    With Doctor On Video Call, Paramedics Help Woman Deliver Baby

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    SRINAGAR: Paramedics in the Keran area of north Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district have managed a delivery of a baby without a gynaecologist, in a 3 Idiots style. Both mother and baby are safe.

    Quoting Block Medical Officer (BMO) Kralpora Dr M Shafi news agency KNO reported that on Friday, an expecting mother from the Kalas Keran area with labour pain was brought to Primary Health Centre (PHC) Keran where there was no gynaecologist posted.

    “We tried to shift the patient to Kralpora but the inclement weather didn’t allow us to do so,” he said. “Even due to continuous snowfall, we were unable to take the patient to any other hospital.”

    Given the circumstances, the BMO said the gynaecologist of Kralpora PHC motivated the paramedical staff at PHC Keran through a WhatsApp call and asked them to manage her delivery.

    The staff was earlier a bit reluctant; however, after motivating them, they managed the delivery quite normally, he said.

    Both baby and mother are fine and have been discharged, the BMO said. “This is not the first time that we have managed the emergency patients in this way and Keran being at high altitude faces such issues frequently.”

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    #Doctor #Video #Call #Paramedics #Woman #Deliver #Baby

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Clear Sky In Jammu, Cloudy Kashmir In Next 24 Hours

    Clear Sky In Jammu, Cloudy Kashmir In Next 24 Hours

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    SRINAGAR: The weather was dry in Jammu and inclement in the Kashmir valley in the last 24 hours. The MeT office said that there will likely be clear sky in Jammu and generally cloudy sky in the valley during next 24 hours.

    Clear sky in Jammu and generally cloudy weather is likely in the valley during the next 24 hours,” an official of the MeT department said.

    Srinagar had minus 0.6, Pahalgam minus 4 and Gulmarg minus 3.5 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature today.

    In Ladakh region, Drass town had minus 16.5 and Leh minus 11.2 as the minimum temperature.

    Jammu had 5.8, Katra 5, Batote minus 0.7, Banihal minus 0.6 and Bhaderwah minus 2.2 as the minimum temperature. (IANS)

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    #Clear #Sky #Jammu #Cloudy #Kashmir #Hours

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • JK Wanted Love But Got BJP’s Bulldozer: Rahul Gandhi

    JK Wanted Love But Got BJP’s Bulldozer: Rahul Gandhi

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    SRINAGAR: Amid the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that residents in the region have to face ‘Bhajpa ka bulldozer’.

    Rahul alleged that the administration is snatching away land from people they have built through years of hard work.

    Taking to social networking site Twitter, Rahul wrote: “Jammu and Kashmir needs employment, better business and love, but what did they get? Bulldozer of BJP! The land which the people there irrigated with hard work for many decades, is being snatched from them.Peace will be protected by uniting, not by dividing people.”

     



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    #Wanted #Love #BJPs #Bulldozer #Rahul #Gandhi

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Justice N Kotiswar Singh Appointed New Chief Justice Of JK, Ladakh

    Justice N Kotiswar Singh Appointed New Chief Justice Of JK, Ladakh

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    SRINAGAR: Chief Justices were appointed to four high courts on Sunday. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the fresh appointments on Twitter.

    Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh
    Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

    Justice Sonia Giridhar Gokani, Judge of the Gujarat High Court was appointed its chief justice.

    She was appointed acting chief justice of the Gujarat High Court on Friday after its chief justice Aravind Kumar was elevated to the Supreme Court.

    Justice Sandeep Mehta, Judge, Rajasthan High Court has been appointed as chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.

    Justice Jaswant Singh, Judge, Orissa High Court has been elevated as chief justice of the Tripura High Court.

    Justice N Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Gauhati High Court has been made chief justice of the High Court of J-K and Ladakh.



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    #Justice #Kotiswar #Singh #Appointed #Chief #Justice #Ladakh

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Kashmir Innovator Bags Rs 50 Lakh BIRAC BIG Grant

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    SRINAGAR: Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) innovator Sameena Lone has been selected for the Government of India’s BIRAC BIG grant worth Rs 50 lakh.

    Sameena Lone Innovator
    Sameena Lone Innovator

    Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) is a flagship programme of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), which provides the right admixture of fuel and support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals. BIG is the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)’s largest early-stage biotech funding programme in India. Funding grant of up to Rs 50 lakh (USD 60,500 approx) to best-in-class innovative ideas to build and refine the idea to proof-of-concept.

    Sameena Lone, an innovator cum scholar in the SKUAST-K’s Division of Vegetable Science, supervised by Dr Khursheed Hussain, Assistant Professor, Division of vegetable science, SKUAST-K and mentored by Naveed Hamid, BDA, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cell of the university, submitted her innovative proposal on ‘Organic & Disease-Free Seed Potato Production through Tissue Culture in Kashmir’ under Industrial Biotechnology, Clean Energy & Environment category in Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Not-for-Profit Company’ of Government of India which supports technology innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue a promising technology idea, and establish and validate proof of concept (POC) for the idea under the BIG grant scheme a few months back. More than 500 innovators across the country had applied under the said scheme and only 26 got selected for the final pitching round before the panel committee from which only nine innovators were selected under the given category across the nation.

    SKUAST-K innovator is the only one from Jammu and Kashmir to receive the BIRAC BIG grant in the present round.

    Vice Chancellor SKUAST Kashmir Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai congratulated the innovator and her team of mentors for securing the BIRAC Grant. He appreciated the level of effort and dedication of the team and support from SKUASTK Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Centre that brought laurels to the University. He further added that such achievements are so precious that they not only boost the morale of the innovators but help in developing the ecosystem for innovations, incubations & startups.

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    #Kashmir #Innovator #Bags #Lakh #BIRAC #BIG #Grant

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • BD Mishra Is New LG Of Ladakh

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    SRINAGAR: BD Mishra, a former brigadier of the Indian Army, and present Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, has been appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor for the union territory of Ladakh.

    BD Mishra
    BD Mishra

    According to reports on Saturday, Lieutenant Governor Radha Krishna Mathur quietly left his office in Leh.

    After that on Sunday a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the President of India has accepted the resignation of Radha Krishnan Mathur as Lt. Governor of Ladakh.

    Quoting sources reports said that on Saturday, Mathur packed his bags and informed the staff that he was leaving, without citing any reason for the sudden decision.

    It’s unclear if  Mathur was asked to resign by the Centre, or he has chosen to leave, said the reports.

    Mathur, a former defence secretary, was appointed as the first Lt Governor of Ladakh after Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its statehood and divided into two union territories in August 2019.

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    #Mishra #Ladakh

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • 25000 Already Dead, Rescue Teams from 90 Countries Looking For Survivors in Turkey, Syria

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    by Tazeem Nazir

    SRINAGAR: The death toll in the Turkey-Syria earthquake has crossed 25000 people as rescuers from more than 90 countries, including India, are desperately looking for survivors in the debris. Since February 6, when the twin earthquakes flattened a vast belt straddling the border, the region has witnessed more than 650 aftershocks, reports in international media quoting AFD said.

    “This is the worst earthquake and perhaps the world’s largest inland disaster,” a Kashmiri student in Turkey said. “Seismologists say that the width of the fault line is between 150 km to 200 km, which means the destruction caused by the earthquake would be huge because the fault line is quite wide. They say it was a shallow earthquake as its epicentre was merely 18 km deep from the crust of the earth.”

    In Turkey, the death toll has crossed 22327 people as 80,104 survived injured. In Syria, the total number of deaths stands at 3,553, including 2,166 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defence group. There have been 1,387 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media. The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,273, with 2,326 in government-controlled areas and 2,950 in rebel-held areas.

    Forecasting by rescue and relief workers suggest millions stand rendered homeless including 53 lakh in Syria alone.

    Most of the people were asleep when the disaster hit the region. AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management authority, is being helped by 7800 rescue workers from more than 90 countries. Two major teams from India are part of the rescue and relief operations.

    “The first three days are critical for evacuation and saving lives during a disaster. But miracles do happen, even today people are being rescued alive,” the student, referring to the reports appearing in the Turkish media said.

    The student said that the major problem was managing translators who could help international teams to interact with the host population. Most of the international teams speak English but Turks prefer Turkish over every other language.

    “Apart from AFAD translators, international students and international workers have joined the rescue and relief work and they are helping the international rescuers to communicate with the people.”

    India launched a search and rescue operation to aid Syria and Turkey named as Operation Dost. “Our teams are working day and night as a part of ‘operation dost’. They will keep giving their best to ensure maximum lives and property are saved. In this critical time, India stands firmly with the people of Turkiye” tweeted prime minister Narendra Modi.

    There was a lot of reportage about Turkey getting preference in rescue and relief, unlike the war-torn Syrian belts. This led to certain changes in the last few days.

    The US has temporarily eased its sanctions on Syria in an effort to speed up aid deliveries to the country’s north-west, where almost no humanitarian assistance has arrived despite the deaths of thousands in this week’s earthquake. “I don’t think that this license will suddenly open the floodgates and allow for unhindered humanitarian access and delivery in Syria,” said Delaney Simon, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group’s US programme, was quoted as saying by the Guardian. “There are just too many other access issues. But I hope that the license will ease the concerns of financial providers, the private sector, and other actors, to show them that sanctions won’t be a risk for them to engage in Syria.” The United States will provide $85 million in humanitarian aid to Turkey and Syria.

    Rescue teams from Russia have also been sent to both Syria and Turkey.

     



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    #Dead #Rescue #Teams #Countries #Survivors #Turkey #Syria

    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )