SRINAGAR
The day one of the Muslim month of fasting coincided with two fierce fires. Well before the civil secretariat could start its daily routine, its huge wooden two-story annexe went up in smoke. The fire was so ferocious that it could not be controlled. Fire service created new record in delay despite being in the neighbourhood. Apart from 300 service books of employees, a huge record of at least four departments, the fire led to lose of face for authorities’ failure in controlling it. The government has already instituted an inquiry. By the time, the government was at home, it was Zum Zum hotel in Rambagh that was seriously damaged in fire. The hotel is accommodating various government offices.
SUMBAL
The Markundal family whose teenager son Irfan Ganai was killed by army last month claimed harassment which is essentially nocturnal. Within three days of the killing, they have their main door being banged by unknown people. They say, ideally, they could have gone out and caught the person but not any more. Irfan was killed while he came out in the middle of the night on June 30. Though the family and the locality is unable to pinpoint the persons behind it, they presume it might be Manzoor, a local who works for the army.
LONDON
The Dutchman Richard De Wit, 43 was formally charged for the brutal murder of Sarah Groves, 24, in a Srinagar houseboat. Sleuths submitted evidences including the knives and daggers that he used to stab the young lady. They also presented the shopkeeper from whom the weapons were purchased. Lawyers appearing for De Wit said the evidence was only circumstantial. The accused is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and he is alleging “mental torture” by police. He has been seeking “strange music” in detention. The trial will start on July 29.
UDHAMPUR
Northern Command is in the process of acquiring six Border Surveillance Management Systems (BSMS) for deployment across LoC in the state. The LoC that has three-tier fencing, flood-lighting, sensors, thermal imagers and manual patrolling would get added protection by the BSMS. It is expected to be a networked system with multiple observation devices and a thermal imager camera which can observe and record images both in daylight and during darkness. It must function in wireless and wired mode.
RAJASTHAN
Son of a story writer and former information official Mohi-ud-Din Reshi, Naveed Atiq was drowned in the Badi Lake of Udaipur. After completing his course from Srinagar based Institute of Hotel Management, Naveed was appointed in Seven Star Hotel Oberoi and he joined on June 13. On July 10, he went on a picnic to see a lake and drowned while swimming. Divers were employed to fish out his body. His body was laid to rest on Friday.
MUMBAI
Apart from the films being in Kashmir and about Kashmir, it is a song that is in news now. Filmed on Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, their song for film Chennai Express that mentions Kashmir was released last week. The song – Kashmir main tu Kanyakumari’ – a North-South horizontal dichotomy – is fun, colour, better picturization and the use of Kathakali dancers in the background. Slated to be out on Eid, the Rohit Shetty film is the story about a man’s journey from Mumbai to Rameshwaram and what happens during the journey. Arijit Singh, Neeti Mohan and Sunidhi Chauhan have sung this number.
SRINAGAR
It was a huge crowd of civilians when 494 recruits from J&K were formally inducted in the JAKLI at their Srinagar regimental centre. There were parents and their friends and well wishers. Recruits who underwent 49 weeks of training talked at length about their dreams they finally realized. The event followed a similar passing out by police last week in which a number of former protesters joined the state police formally.
J&K spent Rs 3955.58 crore on power in 2012-13 which is Rs 247 crore higher than Rs 3730.33 crore that was booked in 2011-12.
Two months after the start of 2013-14, the Planning Commission approved Rs 7300 crore plan outlay for J&K which is Rs 700 crore less than what the state anticipated.
