SRINAGAR: A civilian was injured in a grenade attack in Eidgah area of central Kashmir’s Srinagar district on Sunday.
“One grenade was lobbed by militants in Eidgah area which caused minor splinter injury to one person namely Ajaz Ahmed Deva S/o Abdul Rasheed Deva aged 32 years R/o Sangam, Srinagar. Person has been taken to hospital & is out of danger. Operation launched to catch the culprit(s),” Srinagar police tweeted.
JAMMU: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha gave its assent for authorizing Revenue Department to move an amendment in Section 21 and Section 28-A of Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor and Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K attended the meeting.
The proposed amendments shall lift prohibition on transfer of land vested under section 6,7 and 12 of the Act and to bring these lands at par with the land vested under section 8 of the said Act. The proposed amendment bill will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, for placing before the Parliament for enactment. The enactment will be a big relief to such land holders who were vested land under section 6, 7 and 12 of the Agrarian Reforms Act, as this would enable them to sell off their land parcels which was earlier prohibited under the Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.
The amendment will also lead to vesting of revisional power to the Financial Commissioner Revenue which shall facilitate to dispose of the cases arising out of the said Act in the larger interest of the public.
Big relief for land holders vested land under section 6, 7 and 12 of the Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976
Jammu, Jan 22 (GNS): The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha gave its assent for authorizing Revenue Department to move an amendment in Section 21 and Section 28-A of Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976 Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor and Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K attended the meeting.
The proposed amendments shall lift prohibition on transfer of land vested under section 6,7 and 12 of the Act and to bring these lands at par with the land vested under section 8 of the said Act. The proposed amendment bill will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, for placing before the Parliament for enactment. The enactment will be a big relief to such land holders who were vested land under section 6, 7 and 12 of the Agrarian Reforms Act, as this would enable them to sell off their land parcels which was earlier prohibited under the Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.
The amendment will also lead to vesting of revisional power to the Financial Commissioner Revenue which shall facilitate to dispose of the cases arising out of the said Act in the larger interest of the public.(GNS)
JAMMU, JANUARY 22 (GNS): The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched an ambitious project targetted to revolutionize the food-processing sector and transform the lives of farmers in the UT.
The “UT Level Food Processing Programme for Development of Clusters for Specific Products of J&K” is a Rs 879.75 crore initiative that aims to maximize farmer income and minimize post-harvest losses.
This comprehensive project has been designed to increase the competitiveness of seven identified products across categories in terms of cost, quality, branding, and sustainability within five years. The government is investing in value-addition, logistics, marketing and branding of various Agriculture, Horticulture and livestock products to achieve this goal.
The project will focus on developing 17 districts in J&K with establishment of processing and marketing infrastructure, providing growth and development opportunities to stakeholders and facilitating suitable economies of scale in production and post-harvest activities. The government has allocated a budget of Rs 879.75 crore for the project including a grant-in-aid of Rs 293.25 crore (33.33%) and a debt-equity of Rs 586.50 crore to be raised by entrepreneurs. The project shall create 7030 direct jobs and lead to establishment of 34 enterprises with expected revenue generation to the tune of Rs. 1436.04 crore every year.
“UT Level Food Processing Programme for Development of Clusters for Specific Products of J&K” is one among the 29 projects, which were approved by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after being recommended by the UT Level Apex Committee for holistic development of Agriculture and allied sectors in UT of J&K. The committee is headed by Dr Mangala Rai, Former DG ICAR and has other luminaries in the field of Agriculture, Planning, Statistics and Administration like Ashok Dalwai, CEO NRAA, Dr. P. K Joshi, Secretary, NAAS, Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Horticulture Commissioner MOA & FW, Dr. H. S Gupta, Former Director, IARI, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department Atal Dulloo besides Vice Chancellors of twin Agriculture Universities of the UT.
The programme will focus on seven products in 17 districts/clusters including Milk for Jammu and Pulwama, Walnut for Kupwara and Kishtwar, Basmati for RS Pura, Samba and Kathua, Vegetables (Conventional/Organic/Exotic & Mushrooms) for Doda, Budgam, Samba and Udhampur, Meat and Poultry for Srinagar and Kathua, Trout for Anantnag and Ganderbal besides Cherry for Ganderbal and Baramulla.
“This project represents a beacon of hope for farmers in J&K, who have been facing challenges such as post-harvest losses that are generally in the range of 15-20 per cent and the wastage of 20 per cent of the total fruit produced due to non-availability of packaging and processing facilities and mismatch between production and post-harvest management.” said Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department Atal Dulloo. “The government’s investment in this project is expected to address these issues and help farmers to better price realization and enhancing their income by creating competitiveness across the entire value chain.” he added.
In the next five years, Jammu and Kashmir will have a dynamic food processing, food packaging and storage infrastructure with dedicated support services including farm-level logistics and transportation, marketing infrastructure and cluster branding. This project is a step towards a brighter future for farmers and the food-processing sector in J&K.(GNS)
Jammu, Jan 22: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha gave its assent for authorizing Revenue Department to move an amendment in Section 21 and Section 28-A of Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor and Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K attended the meeting.
The proposed amendments shall lift prohibition on transfer of land vested under section 6,7 and 12 of the Act and to bring these lands at par with the land vested under section 8 of the said Act. The proposed amendment bill will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, for placing before the Parliament for enactment. The enactment will be a big relief to such land holders who were vested land under section 6, 7 and 12 of the Agrarian Reforms Act, as this would enable them to sell off their land parcels which was earlier prohibited under the Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.
The amendment will also lead to vesting of revisional power to the Financial Commissioner Revenue which shall facilitate to dispose of the cases arising out of the said Act in the larger interest of the public.(GNS)
SRINAGAR: Kargil and most of the erstwhile Purig region celebrated the Mamani Festival by displaying the traditional foods and the local culture. With the help of the tourism department, it is being celebrated on January 21.
Kargil men display various tools that are part of the culture and routine life on the ethnic Mamani Festival at Steyangkung village in Barsoo Kargil on January 22, 2023. KL Image: Special Arrangement
Mamani is a traditional food festival of Purig (Kargil) that indicates the reduction in the harshness of winter temperatures. It symbolises community brotherhood as every household in the village brings food and the whole community eats it jointly.
Resident in Kargil said the festival is celebrated across the bet from Kharmang in Baltistan (on the other side of the LoC) to Chiktan area in Kargil
Elders suggest that the festival’s history goes back to the ancient period when the people would give food to departed family members. Then, they used to exchange food with their relatives and neighbours and worship a variety of spirits (Lha). The tradition envisaged the people preparing good dishes of the previous year and assembling at a centrally located place called Chagrah. There they mix the foods and distribute them amongst themselves.
Kargil women display various foods that are part of routine life in Ladakh on ethnic Mamani Festival at Steyangkung village in Barsoo Kargil on January 22, 2023. This year, they had prepared more than 25 different dishes and traditional art works for display on the ancient festival. KL Image: Special Arrangement
The tradition exists amongst both the communities that inhabit Ladakh – Muslims as well as Buddhists. Elders say the tradition dates back to the era when the region followed Bonisim, a faith system that was replaced by Buddhism in the region. The Bonisim followers would pray the natural forces – the water, sun, air.
Now, it has changed a bit as the residents avoid praying for the sprits. It has emerged as a community food festival. People prepare various traditional dishes such as thukpa, popot (grain soup), hrtsrap khur (leavened bread), mar-khur, azoq (deep fried bread), poli (buckwheat pancakes), curd, suggoo (kash or pachae) and other foods. They then gather in the Hlchangra (meeting place in the village) on the evening of January 20, and early morning of January 21, every year.
This date is significant as it marks the beginning of the second month of the Ladakhi Calendar. Once everyone has gathered, the celebration of Mamani commences and people start to distribute the collected dishes amongst each other.
According to oral history, the celebrations included the tradition of a small Mamani called Maqsoomi Mamani, which was celebrated on the same day at dawn. People would light a fire in the courtyard of their home as part of this celebration. Off late, however, this practice has been stopped for various reasons.
There is another tradition linked to this festival, which is still retained as part of the routine. As part of the celebration, a portion of each dish is sent to the homes of girls who have moved elsewhere after marriage.
There is another interesting tradition linked to Mamani in which children visit each home in the village or neighbourhood to collect money to organise a celebration called Issun in the evening. This is still practiced in Chanchik neighbourhood of Kargil town.
SRINAGAR: Acting tough against illegal land encroachers, the District Administration Ganderbal today retrieved 983 kanals of state and Kahcharie land across the district.
Giving details, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Ganderbal, Mehraj-ud-Din Shah said that on the directions of Deputy Commissioner, Shyambir, Revenue department is acting tough against the land grabbers who have illegally occupied State/ Kahcharai land and anti-encroachment drives against such persons shall continue till each patch of government land is retrieved in the district.
He further said that strict directions have been given to all Tehsildars for intensifying the anti-encroachment drives in the district for retrieval of all encroached State/ Kahcharie land at an earliest.
Following these directions, teams from the revenue department have launched massive anti-encroachment drives across all tehsils and in the last two days administration has retrieved more than 1701 Kanals of encroached State/ Kahcharie land.
With these 1701 Kanals, the total retrieved land has increased to 13431 Kanals throughout the district and so-far 56 percent of State land and over 47 percent of Kahcharai land has been retrieved during anti-encroachment drives in the district.
“He has never experienced what a traditional new year is like because he was too young three years ago and he had no memory of that,” said Si Jia, who brought her 7-year-old son to the Qianmen area near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to experience the festive vibe and learn about traditional Chinese culture.
Nearly 53,000 offered prayers at Beijing’s Lama Temple but the crowds appeared to be smaller compared to pre-pandemic days. The Tibetan Buddhist site allows up to 60,000 visitors a day, citing safety reasons, and requires an advance reservation.
Throngs of residents and tourists swarmed pedestrian streets in Qianmen, enjoying snacks from barbecue and New Year rice cake stands, and some children wore traditional Chinese rabbit hats. Others held blown sugar or marshmallows shaped like rabbits.
At Taoranting Park, there was no sign of the usual bustling new year food stalls despite its walkways being decorated with traditional Chinese lanterns. A popular temple fair at Badachu Park that was suspended for three years will be back this week, but similar events at Ditan Park and Longtan Lake Park have yet to return.
The mass movement of people may cause the virus to spread in certain areas, said Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at China’s Center for Disease Control. But a large-scale Covid-19 surge will be unlikely in the next two or three months because about 80% of the country’s 1.4 billion people have been infected during the recent wave, he wrote on the social media platform Weibo on Saturday.
The center reported 12,660 Covid-19-related deaths between Jan. 13 and 19, including 680 cases of respiratory failure caused by the virus and 11,980 fatalities from other ailments combined with Covid-19. These are on top of 60,000 fatalities reported last week since early December. The statement on Saturday said the deaths occurred in hospitals, which means anyone who died at home would not be included in the tally.
China has counted only deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official Covid-19 death toll, a narrow definition that excludes many deaths that would be attributed to Covid-19 in much of the world.
In Hong Kong, revelers flocked to the city’s largest Taoist temple, Wong Tai Sin, to burn the first incense sticks of the year. The popular ritual was suspended the last two years due to the pandemic.
Traditionally, big crowds gather before 11 p.m. on Lunar New Year’s Eve, with everyone trying to be the first, or among the first, to put their incense sticks into the stands in front of the temple’s main hall. Worshippers believe those who are among the first to place their incense sticks will stand the best chance of having their prayers answered.
Resident Freddie Ho, who visited the temple on Saturday night, was happy that he could join the event in person.
“I hope to place the first incense stick and pray that the New Year brings world peace, that Hong Kong’s economy will prosper, and that the pandemic will go away from us and we can all live a normal life,” Ho said. “I believe this is what everyone wishes.”
Meanwhile, the crowds praying for good fortune at the historic Longshan Temple in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, were smaller than a year ago even as the pandemic has eased. That is partly because many had ventured to other parts of Taiwan or overseas on long-awaited trips.
As communities across Asia welcomed the Year of the Rabbit, the Vietnamese were celebrating the Year of the Cat instead. There’s no official answer to explain the difference. But one theory suggests cats are popular because they often help Vietnamese rice farmers to chase away rats.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Former Rep. Albio Sires spent eight terms in Congress, representing hundreds of thousands of constituents, before calling it quits last year.
For his next job, the New Jersey Democrat is looking to downsize.
Sires is gunning for mayor of West New York, a town with a population of around 53,000 people — more than an order of magnitude smaller than a congressional district. He said he’s often in the grocery store, at the dry cleaner’s, or getting a haircut when people approach him about what’s going on in the community. It’s a lot more intimate than the phone calls, letters and office meetings that form the daily rhythm of life in Congress.
Local office is not a conventional career path after serving in Congress. Some turn to education or end up on cable news. Many land on K Street. But Sires is the latest in a small number of former members of Congress who’ve sought lower office, not a higher one, after leaving Washington on their own terms.
A driving force behind that step is the frustration with gridlock that’s prevalent in Washington — often getting in the way of legislators delivering for their constituents. There may be some of that on the local level, but people are more supportive because “they see you have their best interests at heart,” Sires said.
“I love the local stuff,” he continued. “I can go out on the street, people say, ‘Hey Albio, how’re you doing? You fixed the pothole? You rebuild the parks?’ … In Congress, you don’t see that. In Congress, you’re constantly fighting.”
Sires is seeking a completely different scale of job than a few other mayoral hopefuls among his former colleagues, like now-Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who left Congress to run for mayor, or Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), who’s running for mayor of Chicago. Those posts have constituencies well into the millions.
Local politics are a calling for some after they leave the Capitol. Former Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.), who lost her reelection race in 2010, went on to a long tenure as the Erie County, Pa., executive. But it’s a more common step for people who have lost and still want to continue in politics. More rare is a step like the one Republican Todd Platts took. Another former Pennsylvania representative, he retired from Congress and is now a judge on the York County Court of Common Pleas after running for and winning a seat.
Former Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.), who retired from Congress last year, has had his name floated for executive in his state’s Erie County. But he told The Buffalo News it’s unlikely he’ll run because he wants to focus on “my private business and my volunteer things.”
Sires was previously mayor of West New York from 1995 through 2006, before he was elected to Congress. He said he didn’t necessarily see himself getting back into local politics after he left Washington earlier this year, but he was encouraged to do so by constituents who urged him to run upon his return.
The nonpartisan election takes place in May, and the five candidates with the most votes are elected to the town commission, which then chooses the mayor among them. Current West New York Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez is leaving the position to run for the state Assembly.
The filing deadline is in March, and Sires’ competition includes a slate of candidates led by Commissioner of Public Affairs Cosmo Cirillo, as well as Felix Roque, another former mayor of the town.
For some diving back in, it’s because they have legislative priorities at the local level that they want to tackle — but the relative bipartisanship compared to Washington doesn’t hurt, either.
“I’ve never looked at Congress as such an upgrade,” Sires said. “I always looked at the best era I had was serving the people of my community and doing things for the people in my community. Sometimes the party gets in the way.”
A want to return to local office is a sentiment that former Rep. David Skaggs (D-Colo.) also shared. He’s in the running for a vacant Colorado state House seat — potentially a homecoming for Skaggs, who retired from Congress in 1999. Prior to serving in the House, he was a three-term member of the state House in the 1980s, including spending two terms as minority leader.
It’s more common for state legislators to run for higher office — and much more rare the other way around.
“I’d like to think that the experience I’ve had and the energy I still have can make a contribution at the state level,” Skaggs said.
This is not a campaign he’s spent months planning out. The night before the Colorado legislative session began earlier this month, Democratic state Rep. Tracey Bernett announced her resignation, some weeks after the Boulder County District Attorney charged her with felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, forgery and providing false information about residence, as well as misdemeanors for perjury and procuring false registration.
But a state-level comeback is an idea Skaggs had in his head for years, inspired by Ohio Democrat Tom Sawyer, who was elected to the House in 1986, along with Skaggs. Redistricting following the 2000 census altered the lines of his district, and he ultimately lost reelection to his ninth term in 2002 to Tim Ryan in the primary. Sawyer ran for the House again in 2006, but lost in the primary to Betty Sutton. He then successfully ran for the state’s Board of Education that fall.
The following year, Sawyer was appointed to the Ohio State Senate, where he served until 2016.
“That’s always been an interesting proposition in my mind of what one might do to still apply whatever political and legislative skills have come my way,” Skaggs said.
Most recently, Skaggs is a senior adviser at Dentons law firm. He previously was chair of the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and executive director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Aspen Institute and then the Council for Excellence in Government.
Still, he said it’s not common for former members of Congress to talk about what they want to do once they leave the Capitol. “I think for most of us who have left that place, you’re sort of preoccupied with getting on with the rest of your life and something else. … There’s a certain prejudice about not looking back.”
Skaggs has at least five other challengers, including Kitty Sargent, who serves on the Boulder Valley School District, Louisville City Councilmember Kyle Brown and Jenn Kaaoush, co-director of a nonprofit that provided support following the 2021 Marshall Fire. The vacancy committee will hold a meeting at the end of the month to select Bernett’s successor.
Skaggs, who was a founding co-chair of the House Bipartisan Retreats while in Congress, said he’s looking forward to a collegial environment in the statehouse — one that’s absent from Washington lately.
“Especially these days with so much dysfunction in Washington, state legislatures may be a much more productive and interesting place to be if you really want to change things,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of Judiciary, predicted that at least for his intellectual property subcommittee, “there’s not going to be as much sparring there as long as the Democrats hold their votes.”
“It’s going to be very difficult” for Republicans to influence the committee results given the Democrats’ “structural majority,” Tillis said. “There are some that are going to do it, but then you have to ask why, in terms of a vote outcome.”
Of course, that dynamic could change, and would shift instantly if a Supreme Court vacancy arises. The recent confirmations of Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh each served as high-water marks of partisan bitterness for the committee. And much of the environment will depend on the tone between Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and the panel’s incoming top Republican, former chair Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Durbin said in a brief interview that he and Graham have a “good relationship.” Both have teamed up on bipartisan legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, even as Graham pushes for a tougher border policy. (An ally of former President Donald Trump, Graham has also had his fair share of battles with the panel’s Democrats, accusing them in 2018 of wanting to “destroy” Kavanaugh.)
As for the panel as a whole, Durbin said it won’t just be a rubber stamp for judges this Congress and cited oversight of drug policy as one area of potential focus.
“I hope that we are as productive when it comes to judicial nominees, but we’re also going to take the oversight role very seriously,” Durbin said. “To restore the reputation of the committee, we have to have meaningful oversight even of your own party’s administration. And there’s so many issues that come at us in so many different directions.”
Senate committees have yet to finalize how many members will sit on each panel, and if any senators will be added or removed. Subcommittee gavels are also up in the air, though that committee assignment process is expected to wrap as soon as this week. And it’s unclear how many members will be using the panel as a launching pad for presidential ambitions, though Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have both disavowed interest in the 2024 race.
Democratic committee aides highlight some bipartisan successes from the last Congress, including legislation that eliminated the use of forced arbitration for victims of alleged sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. But other priorities, like changes to the immigration or criminal justice system, stalled out despite Democrats’ full control of Washington.
Getting anything related to those policy areas through Congress will only be more difficult this term, given the GOP-controlled House.
Democratic committee aides, in interviews, cited the reauthorization of surveillance law intended to gather electronic communication of foreign targets as one policy area that they’ll need to address — a topic that may well cause partisan sparks given House Republicans’ emerging divisions about their own plans to try to overhaul the law.
One GOP aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that a handful of bills that passed the Senate unanimously last year but stalled in the House, including a bill to aid first responders with post traumatic stress disorder, could get through this Congress.
The committee is also expected to continue examining Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department in the leadup to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Meanwhile, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said the courts subcommittee he’s led would “continue to look very hard and very consistently at all the ethics failures and gaps at the Supreme Court,” including potentially bringing in a clerical worker to explain the process for when the high court receives an ethics complaint.
Yet even as the Judiciary Committee plans oversight hearings, including this week’s hearing on Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift ticket-sales debacle, Democrats are still ramping up their attention on judges.
The panel ended the last Congress with 39 judicial nominees who got committee hearings without winning confirmation. Those judicial picks, 25 of whom have already been renominated by the Biden administration, will need committee approval before reaching the Senate floor.
And the limited legislative agenda that’s typical of divided government will inherently allow more floor time for judicial nominees. From 2019 to 2020, when Democrats controlled the House and Republicans controlled the Senate, the upper chamber confirmed 145 district and circuit judges and one Supreme Court justice. Democrats are also benefiting from a 2019 GOP rules change that cut down the debate time for district court nominees.
“We’ll once again set a record in terms of the number of qualified judicial nominees we’ll confirm,” predicted Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the panel.
Despite outpacing Trump on judicial confirmations in the last Congress, Democrats are facing calls from outside progressive groups to go further by tossing so-called “blue slips,” which grant home-state senators veto power over district court nominees. The liberal group Demand Justice has underscored that most of the current district court vacancies lacking nominees are situated in red states.
“The number one reason that the pace of confirmations will slow down is Republican blue slips,” said Chris Kang, chief counsel of Demand Justice. “One of the challenges in the Obama administration was that Republican senators would obstruct by delay. And at some point the clock will run out on even this two-year Congress.”
A Democratic Judiciary committee aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, described calls to get rid of the blue slip as “premature.”
In the last Congress, 10 blue slips were returned from GOP senators for district court nominees, including four from former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), four from former Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and one from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). The Biden White House has also recently nominated district court judges from Indiana and Idaho.
Mike Davis, founder and president of the conservative Article III Project, acknowledged that Republican senators may not be “very eager to negotiate with the Biden White House [on] judges” given that “they can just wait two years” for a potential change in administration. Yet some say they’re willing to work with the Biden team.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the committee, said in a statement that he looked forward to working with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the White House “to ensure Texas continues to have top-notch federal judges.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
