KULGAM
Dusky Shurat village must be happy these days because the DFO’s ‘boy’ Danish Bhat is slated to debut in upcoming Dunno Y 2 – a Bollywood-Hollywood collaboration film. It has been a long trek since 2008 when Danish went for his studies. His break came with a Nokia advertisement in which Shahrukh Khan was in the lead. Soon after came Mahindra, Reliance, City Bank, Samsung mobile ads that built Bhat’s profile. Then came the TV show Amrit Manthan that helped him to exhibit his talent and get noticed. Bhat was the lead model in designer Shantunu Goel’s Lakme Fashion Week in August and is the lead in Siyaram Suiting advertisement. Finally came the Dunno Y 2 in which Bhat will act against Pakistani actress Meera. The shooting is slated to be around Oslo (Norwegian).
KOKERNAG
It is no news that the pastures are under stress across Kashmir, partly because of the security situation around LoC and in Ladakh. But it is a problem if the herdsmen use violence to grab pastures and keep others at bay. Last week, a group of herdsmen from Kachwan (Kokernag) protested in Srinagar against some “politically backed” herdsmen who opened fire on them using hunter guns. The resultant injuries led to the loss of an arm of twelfth standard student Shakeela Khatana as her cousin Anwar lost his right eye. During summers they take their herds to Hajgah-Nallah meradoq in Warwan where they were attacked, for the second consecutive year.
KHANYAR
Minister Sagar sees entire Srinagar his constituency but it was his segment in Khanyar that was in news last week. Students of the state run middle school Daribal started their classroom outside the police station Khanyar in protest against the landlord of the school building locking the classrooms. The school started in 2004 and has 60 students. Though the school is operating from the rented premises for 15 months, the landlord is yet to get the first penny. He demands Rs 5000; a month and the babus in education department think it is huge. The standoff is yet to be resolved.
KISHTWAR
Post-Kishtwar, VDC’s feel encouraged. The latest on their activities came from Padder, the godforsaken belt where they killed a villager during riots. People from three villages Atholi, Kejai and Afani had come in a huge delegation to the DC in Kishtwar complaining that the various VDCs from the belt have stormed their villages during the night and threatened to kill them if they did not migrate. They did migrate and the district administration persuaded them to return. They got a free bus ride back home. But will the government act against those who killed Lassa Khanday.
POONCH
It is shocking and police is investigating its veracity as they have already registered a formal case. Mother of a 13-year old girl residing in Qasba village has petitioned police that two men have raped her daughter resulting in pregnancy. Doctors have confirmed pregnancy of three months. Accused are Shabir Ahmed (Gultrian village) and Mohammad Rafiq. The latter, the shocking detail is girl’s maternal uncle. Police said they have registered a case and the investigation is in progress. There are claims that the dirty duo had conspired to kill the girl after the discovery that she was carrying a foetus.
CHENNAI
The south Indian city watched Kashmir Before Our Eyes, the first-ever four days film festival dedicated to Kashmir organized by Ajay Raina and Pankaj Rishi for Films Division at the Asian College of Journalism. Films that were exhibited at the show included Ashvin Kumar’s The Long Autumn after Winter: Inshallah Kashmir – Living in Terror, Sanjay Kak’s Jashn-e-Azadi, Iffat Fatima’s Where Have You Hidden My New Crescent Moon, Ajay Raina’s Tell Them, The Tree They Had Planted Is Now Grown and concluded with Musa Sayeed’s Valley of Saints.
Delhi
The controversial Technical Support Division (TSD) that former army chief Gen V K Singh had set up has spent Rs 20 crore on operations in Kashmir and an audit found no accounts for eight crore rupees. A Delhi newspaper reports that it believed that part of these funds was given to an NGO YES Kashmir that had filed a petition against Gen Bikram Singh involving him in a fake encounter.
Economist Dr Haseeb Drabu has revealed that J&K’s own tax/sdp ratio is 7.3 percent in 2012-13 which is huge compared to 6.4% for Gujarat.
Banking sector advanced Rs 2859.24 crore in J&K in first three months of 2013-14 and Rs 1913.07 crore (67%) is the share of state owned J&K Bank.
