Sinema has not yet said whether she’ll run for reelection, but a three-way general election clash with Gallego and a to-be-determined Republican candidate could become one of the most high-profile races across the country. No Republican has yet announced a bid to unseat Sinema, though top contenders include former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and former Senate candidate Blake Masters.
Gallego, a 43-year-old former Marine who served in Iraq, would be Arizona’s first Latino senator if elected. He announced his candidacy with a video that featured him talking to veterans at an American Legion post in Guadalupe, Ariz.
“You’re the first group of people that are hearing this besides my family. I will be challenging Kyrsten Sinema for the United States Senate, and I need all of your support,” Gallego said in the video.
Gallego’s campaign will force the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and others in the party to choose whether or not to defend Sinema as an incumbent. Though she’s opposed key portions of the White House’s agenda, Sinema has largely voted in favor of most Democratic legislation and to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The poll is the first large survey on New York voters’ attitudes about Santos, who has refused to step down since a bombshell report in The New York Times in December revealed he had fabricated most of his resume, including his professional background and college education.
Earlier this month, Santos said only the voters could get him to step down.
“I am going to outwork any of the pundits and talking heads that are out there saying I should resign, that I’m unfit for office,” Santos told reporters earlier this month. “When 142 people ask me to resign, I’ll resign.”
He later clarified that he meant to say 142,000 people, a reference to voters in his district.
As more allegations have mounted, some of which he has admitted were exaggerated, Santos has drawn widespread condemnation from within his own party, including Republican officials in Nassau County, who pledged to cut off local support to their colleague in the House.
But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has largely ignored calls for his resignation because he needs to maintain his slim majority in the chamber.
Santos has received low-level committee assignments, but he also faces a slew of federal and local investigations.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
ISLAMABAD — The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed former middle-order batter Haroon Rasheed as chief selector on Monday.
In a press conference in Lahore, PCB Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told reporters on Monday that Haroon will be heading the new selection committee but the remaining members would be decided later.
Najam Sethi made it clear that negotiations with Mickey Arthur were still going on and in next two or three days a final announcement would be made on the new head coach of the Pakistan team.
Rasheed will replace Shahid Afridi, who had been appointed interim chief selector ahead of Pakistan’s second test match against New Zealand late last month.
The cricket management committee had named Shahid Afridi as interim chief selector soon after coming into power, and Sethi had wanted him to continue on long-term basis but the former all-rounder refused, insisting he had lot of commitments with his foundation and charity work.
Rasheed previously served as chief selector in 2015-16 and also played 23 test matches and 12 ODIs for Pakistan from 1977-83. He has also served as the PCB’s director of cricket operations and as the national team’s manager.
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SRINAGAR: Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, 37, from north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has come a long way in his life from being employed as a dishwasher in England to support his living while pursuing a master’s degree and now flowing to California in the United States of America for Glendale University’s Leadership Programme scholarship.
Mushtaq Ahmad Rather
He is currently working as a Business Manager in Riyadh where he reached after spiralling through a maze of hard work.
He did his high schooling at a Government High School in Tarathpora where from he went on to Government Higher Secondary School in Jawahar Nagar.
He did his Honour’s degree from Pune in Maharashtra where he says that Peoples Conference President and politician Sajad Lone guided him.
After graduating from Pune, Mushtaq moved to Mumbai to find employment to raise money to travel to England to enrol in the University of Chester’s Master of Business Administration programme.
However, the journey in England was not as easy as one may think, Mushtaq had to do some odd jobs to support his stay.
“Soon I joined Chester University where we were given a timetable for the whole year. We only had to attend the university for three days, and in the remaining days we used to do part-time jobs to manage our living expenses as living in England is very expensive.”
“I did many jobs starting from dishwashing which was very hard and I used to cry sometimes. Later on, I took up a job of a waiter, a marketing executive and a salesman. All the jobs helped me to understand more about business management,” Mushtaq said.
After completing his Master’s degree in England, he moved to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He is currently working as an operational head of Daralheiam Investment Company owned by former Hollywood rapper of 2pac Rap group turned businessman Mutah Beale.
But Mushtaq’s’ journey of doing something more in life didn’t stop at Riyadh, he continued applying for new programmes in various universities across the globe.
“I always used to contact people from many universities on the internet and I had also applied online to many universities. I applied to the Glendale University of California and luckily got selected after many rounds of interviews where I portrayed my managerial experience. I got selected from among 485 students who had participated from across the globe,” Mushtaq said.
Staying in Kashmir and opening a good business here was what Mushtaq had always had in mind but life had other plans in store. While Mushtaq was in England, he with his brother’s help tried his hands at many business ventures which couldn’t flourish for varied reasons.
“I started a wholesale business of garments with the help of my brother but we suffered a massive loss. I tried to develop a restaurant business in Kashmir where employees used to handle it but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had to be shut down. A businessman in Kashmir has to face several problems”.
Despite all his business ventures failing, Mushtaq didn’t lose hope and is planning to export Kashmiri food products to Saudi Arabia.
Mushtaq is hopeful that he will get support from the government of India in establishing his export business which will provide jobs to the unemployed people in the Valley.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s net profit witnessed a 79 per cent rise on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to Rs 311.59 crore for the December quarter of fiscal 2022-23. In the same quarter, last year, the profits were at Rs 173.95 crore.
A man shows new Rs 2000 currency after exchanging old Rs 500 and 1000 denominations at Srinagar on Thursday 11 November 2016. KL Image Bilal Bahadur
The bank announced the results after its Board of Directors reviewed and approved the numbers for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2022, in a meeting held today at Bank’s Gurugram Office in Delhi.
Bank officials said they are on the anticipated trajectory to meet annual profit targets. The bank’s profit for nine months is up 85 per cent to Rs 721.05 crore from Rs 389.36 crore recorded during nine months of the last fiscal.
The Bank’s Net Interest Income (NII) surged by 27 per cent YoY to Rs 1257.38 crore for the December quarter when compared to Rs 993.30 crore recorded last year, while growing 19 per cent YoY for nine months to Rs 3495.73 crore. The Bank’s Operating Profit grew by 65 per cent YoY to Rs 544.11 crore for the December quarter, of 2022.
The Bank’s NIM has also improved by 54 basis points (bps) YoY to 4.10 per cent – the highest in the last seven years – while as the Return on Assets rose to 0.92 per cent for the December quarter from 0.57 per cent recorded last year. With Yield on Advances improving by 90 bps to 9.34 per cent, the Bank’s steadily moderating cost-to-income ratio has come down further to 63.71 per cent for the third quarter.
The Gross NPA Ratio of the Bank has further come down 168 bps YoY and 42 bps QoQ to 7.25 per cent for the quarter, while as the Net NPA ratio has moderated YoY by 94 bps to 2.08 per cent. The provision coverage ratio (PCR) of the Bank stood at 84.83 per cent for the quarter that ended in December 2022.
The top bank executive said they have brought down our Net NPAs to 2.08 per cent, which is the lowest in the last eight years.
Meanwhile, the Bank’s net advances are up 14 per cent YoY and 4 per cent QoQ to Rs 77639 crore during the quarter reviewed while as the deposits have grown 8 per cent from Rs 109298 crore to Rs 117935 crore. However, the Bank witnessed 21 per cent YoY growth in advances in its operational geographies across Rest-of-India (RoI).
The Bank’s overall business increased by 10 per cent to Rs 195574 crore from Rs 177664 crore recorded last year while as the Bank’s CASA Ratio continues to remain one of the industry’s best at about 54 per cent.
With the tier-II capital augmentation of over Rs 1000 crore, the bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio rose up to 13.82 per cent as against 12.38 per cent recorded as on December 31, 2021.
The capital augmentation through the raising of tier-II bonds worth Rs 1021 crore during the December quarter has cushioned the bank to comfortably execute its envisaged growth plan, especially in the rest of India. Bank’s CRAR has improved to 13.82 per cent.
SRINAGAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party will put all its force into the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) statehood.
“There is no bigger issue than your statehood. Your right has been snatched by the Centre and Congress will use all its might to restore it,” said Gandhi while addressing a gathering in the Satwari area of Jammu.
Jammu and Kashmir lost its statehood on August 5, 2019, when the Centre scrapped its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and split the state into two Union Territories.
Gandhi also accused the government of doing injustice to Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory and asked Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to apologise to the community for alms remarks.
“Today I met a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits who briefed me about various issues. They told me that when they went to meet LG, they were told not to seek alms. LG must realise, these people are seeking their rights, and apologise to the community,” Gandhi stated.
Many Kashmiri Pandit employees working under the prime minister’s package announced in 2008 are on strike in Jammu, demanding their relocation out of the Valley against the backdrop of targeted killings.
The former Congress president also said that during his Yatra in Jammu region, he met many people who told him that outsiders are being benefited by the government and locals have been deprived.
“Jammu and Kashmir is facing the highest percentage of unemployment in India. Educated people don’t have employment opportunities. Earlier, they had the option of joining the Indian Army, but now the BJP has brought the Agniveer scheme,” said Rahul Gandhi.
He said that the Agniveer scheme is weakening the Indian Army and Army personnel are against it.
“The unemployment is rising because the government is working only to benefit 2-3 industrialists,” he alleged.
On January 23, Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra started from Samba district’s Vijaypur and reached Jammu district in the afternoon where he was received by senior party leaders.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra will culminate in the Valley on January 30 with a mega public rally.
Despite contributing to the making of generations of professionals in the last more than seven decades, the state-run Degree College at Sopore is yet to reach a level where it can have NAC top grade, reports Daanish Bin Nabi
The team of teachers who have contributed immensely to the making of Sopore college an important centre of higher education.
Precisely, the credit must go to politician Malik Abdul Gani and businessman Sukhdev Ganjoo who were instrumental in setting up the intermediate college at Sopore in 1949. They later literally chased the then Prime Minister, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah to upgrade it into a college. On September 27, 1951, Sheikh laid the foundation stone of Degree College Sopore, with 50 students on its rolls. After 71 years, the college has 6000 boys and girls on its rolls. What distinguishes the college is that after the inaugural ceremony, no head of the Jammu and Kashmir ever visited the college.
Till the 1980s, students from north Kashmir would join the college after matriculation and study for four years and leave as graduates. Initially affiliated with erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir University it is one of the oldest affiliate colleges of the University of Kashmir.
“This college has been the highest seat of learning for over 60 years for the entire north Kashmir,” Prof Abdul Rashid, who has served the college for 11 years, said. “We cannot negate the role of this institution in spreading education to the far-flung border areas.”
Till the 1970s, it is interesting to mention, the college was housing SKUAST’s Agriculture College, till it managed its own premises at Wagoora.
The Bakhshi Era
In Ghulam Muhammad Bakhshi’s rule, when Jashn-e-Kashmir dominated the scene. Degree College Sopore was the epicentre of activities in north Kashmir. Teachers who served the institution then, remember that a large stage used to be installed and artists from all over Kashmir like the famous Qawal Zakhmir and Gani Trali (a famed Bach Kot from Tral) would perform.
Interestingly, however, during Bakhshi era, the college had fewer enrolments of girl students. There were only three girl students in college in the 1950s. Their number only increased from three to ten in the 1960s. It was only at the dawn of the 1970s that girls started to enrol in impressive numbers.
A Golden Era
The 1960s is being seen as the college’s golden age and the credit goes to its Principal Abdul Salaam Dhar, a resident of Srinagar. A tough disciplinarian and the main architect of the college, Sopore remembers Dhar by the nickname Hachkal (Woodhead).
“It was our luck that we had him as our head,” Prof Muhammad Abdullah Charoo, who served as Principal for 8 years till July 1998, said. “He was upright, disciplined and honest and would listen to no excuses whatsoever.”
Foundation stone of Sopore college. KL Image Daanish bin Nabi
Dhar introduced a uniform – a grey blazer and grey trousers and a white shirt, the first in any Kashmir college. On the pattern of erstwhile Biscoe-style, he constituted small volunteer groups who would help people during natural disasters.
“No influential person would get admission during his time. All the tenders during his time were full proof. There was no compromise with anything,” remembers Prof Sheikh Sanaullah, who served the college for 33 years. “The cheating during the examination was rampant in the college and he curbed it.”
An Interesting Event
People talk about an interesting event. Veteran Congressman and lawmaker, Ghulam Rasool Kar of Sopore lived in the same vicinity, facing the college. In the early 1960s, he came from Srinagar in a bus that dropped him college gate. Then, the college had no fence. Kar tried to cross the college ground to reach home. Dhar interrupted him and asked him not to trespass on the college property. To Kar’s credit, being a sitting MLA, he patiently listened to the college principal and obeyed his orders.
“I was a student of the college in the 1960s. I vividly remember, Principal Dhar had installed simple boards all across the ground which read ‘trespassers will be prosecuted’. No one dared to cross the college property,” Charoo said. “Those were the days when the institution head would assert the authority and the society would take it very seriously.”
It was in Dhar’s era when the College launched Wullar magazine and every professor had to contribute to it.
Sheikh Sanaullah said that years before militancy broke out, one day students resorted to a protest demonstration in the town. In reaction, on the following day, paramilitary forces barged into the college and clashed with the students. “A professor provoked the students. After the issues were settled, Prof Dhar made an example of the professor. He was quickly shifted out of the college,” Sanaullah remembers.
Institutional Rivalry
Initially, the college opened for students in the eleventh class, then called PUC (pre-university class). Later, the Higher Secondary School was separated. Despite being separate entities, the two had a single umbilical cord – they share a common ground. On paper, the ground belonged to the Higher Secondary School.
In the 1960s, the Higher Secondary School was led by another visionary Principal, Abdul Gaffar Shah, a Geography lecturer. Like Dhar, Shah too was a man of principles, honest and upright.
Then, there was no demarcation of land between the two institutions and both would lay claim to the ground. Both the men stuck to their guns about the claims to the land and the stand-off between the two continued for many weeks. It happened in anticipation of a sports event.
The situation got out of control on the day of the event. The students from both institutions came to loggerheads with each other. Sensing the mess, they were landing their institutions in, and the two men sat down and sorted it out. “Had it not been Dhar and Shah, many would have died that day,” Sopore historian, Rasheed Parveen said. “There was rage on both sides. Students were young and immature.”
Up In Flames
However, the college did not remain unharmed for long. On the fateful night of October 7, 1990, at around 10 pm, a sudden blaze engulfed the entire college and burned it to cinders. The biggest loss was the destruction of a rich library housing 60,000 books. Some of the manuscripts that the Fourth Buddhist Council held at Harwan in Srinagar were also housed in the library along with other rare manuscripts. Nothing could be saved.
Sopore college went up in flames and was reconstructed but it lost hundreds of rare manuscripts. KL Image Daanish bin Nabi
“We have lost a treasure. We could rebuild the college but we never get back that library. We lost our Baghdad that day,” Parveen regretted.
It was Muhammad Abdullah Charoo who headed the college. “Militancy was at its peak,” Charoo remembers. “That evening, I heard loud shouting. As I got out of my house, I saw huge flames from a distance and someone said the college has been burnt. Helpless, I could do nothing. Neither police nor the Fire and Emergency Services reached the spot. It was only around Fajar time that I reached the premises. It was devastating to see the ruins.”
For Charoo, it was a new challenge – running a college that had no edifice. His first drive was to Raj Bhawan. He remembers Governor Girish Chandra Saxena telling him: “We can do nothing. unko bolo jinhoney jalaya.”
Charoo got 20 tents from the Department of Education and started routine classwork within ten days. However, there was no library, laboratory or sports facility for the students. For months, Charoo would go from one government office to another for seeking some support in rebuilding the edifice. Finally, it was Vijay Bakaya, who came up with an idea.
“Bakaya Sahab told me if I can somehow show that Sopore falls in border areas then there is a scheme with the Government of India known as Border Area Development Program (BADP) from where I can get funds for the college,” Charoo remembers the top officer’s help. “I went to Delhi to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and told them that Sopore College caters to students from Bandipora, Kupwara which extends to Teetwal and Gurez area.
The NCC cadets at the Sopore College in a session in 2017. KL Image Masood Hussain
This is how I managed to put Sopore in border areas and got funds for college rebuilding. After it was approved, I remember Education Commissioner, Sushma Chowdhary telling me ‘Mubarak ho Paison ki Barish hai…lelo…’. The college got Rs 75 lakh as the first instalment.
Charoo said he hired a Srinagar Engineer for the re-building of the college. The new building was made fireproof and the old design was retained. Around 25000 books were purchased but rare manuscripts were lost forever.
The Wall of Fame
The College has produced a generation of leaders in diverse fields. Some have brought accolades internationally too. These included doctors, Muhammad Yousuf Kanjwal, M Sultan Khuroo, Khurshid Ahmad Salman, Abdul Rahman Rather, Manzoor Halwai, and Muhammad Shafi Tara; politicians Abdul Ahad Vakil, Hakeem Habibullah, Abdul Gani Bhat, Saifuddin Soz and teachers like Haji Ghulam Hassan Bacha, M A Charoo, Jeelani Kamran and scribes like Shujaat Bukhari.
It has also produced some wonderful debaters like Ghulam Qadir Wani. The colleges bought accolades in 1967-68 when five students qualified for medical courses from the college.
“Prof Maqbool Bhat was my relative and used to teach us Botany. Even as my relative he was strict with me and he made sure that there is no discrimination against other students, former CMO, Khurshid Salman said. “Many of our science subjects were also taught by Pandit teachers.”
Sporting Venue
The Subhan Stadium, locally known as the college ground in Sopore, was named after Sopore’s “legendary” footballer, Subhan Janwari. His legend is interesting: “He was the first Sopore footballer who played football wearing a shoe. Having a shoe in those days was a luxury.”
Subhan Janwari belonged to Mumkak Mohalla of Sopore and played for the Mohammadan Sporting team in 1960.
“Almost all the players who have played at national or international level have had their basic training at the Sopore College Ground,” veteran cricketer, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, said. “However, we lack the basic facilities now. Sopore College has no contribution towards the sports facilities in the town. They even turned their own ground into a concrete jungle.”
During the 1960s and the 1970s, teams from Srinagar like the Transport Department Team; Food Department Team, KMD Team and the Police Team used to play at the Sopore College ground.
In the 1980s, Srinagar Transport Team led by Majeed Kakroo, the ace footballer who led the Indian team to Bangladesh, visited Sopore for a match with the host team. It triggered a crisis and led to Kakroo’s marshalling. The match was never played.
Presently, only two cricket tournaments and three football tournaments are being played between June and October at Sopore College ground. It has lost the sole venue of knowledge and sports.
Space Constraints
Though the college has 105 kanals of land in the heart of the town, the haphazard expansion of new buildings has shrunken the space. There are around three to four classes daily for every subject in 36 departments. The teaching staff caters to nearly 100 classes on daily basis.
College managers said more departments are coming up and there is a dire need for a satellite campus for the college. The departments of Biotechnology, Biochemistry, and BBA and a large Botanical Garden have come up inside the college and the college is craving more space.
In 2013, the college administration required the district administration to provide them with land for the construction of a satellite campus in Tuilbal area. Interestingly, the land identified for the college was eventually given for the construction of police.
“We requested the administration to provide us the land of Sopore’s District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), after the premises was shifted to Watlab but that too was not considered,” Prof Abdul Rashid said. The erstwhile DIET is adjacent to the College and is ideal for its use.
Upgradation
Within the premises, however, there are improvements. The college now uses a smart classroom, comprising a smart board with an internet broadband connection.
If a student misses the lecture he can join the classroom over her/his cell phone through an app. Students alleged that many of these smart classes are rarely used.
The fully automated library has 39850 books for 36 subjects. Students can access the material of other national and international universities too. A special detector Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) has also been installed to stop the theft of books from the library. “If a student attempts to steal a book, she/he can be detected and stopped,” Chief Librarian Dr Ansar Hussain said.
A new indoor stadium is also come up. Measuring 110 x 49 ft, it will soon be dedicated to students.
The College also runs two hostels one each for boys and girls. Unlike the boys’ hostel, the girls’ hostel is in shambles due to the management feud with the contractor.
Both its websites were down when accessed in October 2022, at the time of filing this report.
Despite all this, the college failed to impress the National Advisory Council (NAC) in 2015. The College falls in Grade B unlike its junior cousin in Baramulla which falls in Grade A, making it financially independent.
SRINAGAR: The Government on Monday constituted a Committee to enquire into the matter relating to the appointment of faculty members in Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (JKIMPARD) in “violation of rules”.
Headed by Financial Commissioner Chairman (Additional Chief Secretary), Home Department, the members of the committee include Director General, J&K Institute of Public Management, Administration and Rural Development, Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department, Secretary, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Director General (Codes), Finance Department, news agency GNS quoted an government order as saying.
‘The Committee shall also enquire into the reasons for not previously reporting to the Government the irregular appointments of the faculty members in the Institute, which pre-date the term of the current Director General.’
Besides, it has been asked to enquire the number of meetings of the Governing Council required to be held under norms vis-à-vis the actual number of meetings held over the last five years and whether the matter involving “irregular appointments” was ever brought to the notice of the members of the Governing Council.
“The Committee shall also evaluate overall functioning of the IMPARD Over the last five years and submit its recommendations for improving work/academic environment, management efficiencies and institutional integrity on sustainable basis,” the order reads, adding, “The Committee shall be serviced by the J&K IMPARD.” It has been asked to submit its report within one (01) month.
