SRINAGAR
I
t is not only the common man who is suffering from the acute power outages in Kashmir’s summer capital but the business community too is plunged into darkness. With electricity playing hide and seek both industry and service sector is struggling to survive the neglect. Interestingly, this year number of tourists visiting Kashmir for winter retreat has gone up considerably but with most of the hotels without uninterrupted power, is this rush going to sustain is on everybody mind.
KOKERNAG
It has been happening for ages. But what made the difference this time was that somebody acted. Tehsildar Kokernag raided the residence of NC activist Ghulam Qadir Wagay and recovered 44 pipes that belonged to the PHE. Raid was conducted in Bidder area and it was on basis of the specific information that the revenue officer had. Pipes are recovered and now the real issue starts: how to prove it legally that it was PHE property when PHE did not claim it? The pipes had been dumped by the officials at various places while laying a line. The project is complete and now the access stock goes to market through political beings!
DAL LAKE
It is the best model that Bhutan has been implementing for ages. Even Leh created a good corpus by using this model. Ask tourists to pay a nominal fee in eco-fragile zones. That is exactly what LAWDA intends to do in Dal Lake. From February 1, every tourist who gets sailing into Dal or to live there will have to pay Rs 10. This will go to the fund for maintaining cleanliness of the water body. LAWDA says they collect 1.5 truckloads of solid waste from the lake daily and this fee will supplement these efforts. Irfan Yasin: good start, post retirement.
SRINAGAR
They will choose the new course for their lives but they will survive as Kashmir’s Munna Bhai MBBS. The 12 students who have been established to have used questionable means to get into the prized professional in 2012 are being shown the door. The BOPEE whose erstwhile boss is in custody and currently facing another case by Enforcement Directorate, has issued a letter to the students asking them to explain crucial things about their entry into the list. The fraud, otherwise known to public not many days after the examination was held, was formally exposed after the high court acted on a Public Interest Litigation. The twist in the story is that there are still many boys and girls who are suspects.
GULMARG
Bollywood is back. But it is the old story. The news is that Saif Ali Khan is in Gulmarg shooting for Phantom, a Sajid Nadiadwala production. It will take him a few days to complete film’s Kashmir part. Tourists cheered as Khan fired from INSAS, the latest rifle that has been inducted into the armed forces. Whenever in Srinagar, Khan’s have gunned a round. Last time, his father Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi flew Sharmila Tagore to Srinagar in 1997, they resorted to a massacre of migrant birds in Hokersar. As it was reported, the Khans’ advanced their departure and fled.
JAMMU
It is an interesting story that has a grand mix of authority, technology, individual liberty and obvious rights and privacy. Jammu University is hosting the science congress and has appointed many teachers as secretaries. They have been given certain privileges to manage the show and it includes a cell phone. When one of the secretaries Meena Sharma sought reimbursement to her cell phone bill, the accounts section head Khem Pal Singh objected. As the crisis deepened, he got the call details of her cell phone. Now the issue is, even if Singh is right, it is a breach of privacy to Ms Sharma. If the two did not bury the hatchet, the case may offer interesting twists till it is decided. The lady teacher has already petitioned VC for registration of an FIR against Singh.
AWANTIPORE
Occult visits become Hollywood films but tragedies can happen anywhere. In an Awantipore village, a man brought home a faith hailer to treat his mentally upset son. For most of the night, they were awake. The occult Nazir A Gujri was listening to music. Nobody slept for the night. Finally at around 4 am, when they started retiring for the night, they slept wherever they found some space. In the morning seven of them in a single room were found unconscious. As neighbours came to rescue, they found the owner’s daughter dead. All others including the occult were rushed to hospital. Though the results of the post-mortem are awaited, it seems the case of lack of oxygen in the room. But why should have faith-healer need oxygen!
In last three years, government says 300000 passport applications were processed and disposed off and in the last five months 5000 adverse cases were reviewed and cleared.
In second instance of its kind, 114 packets of some narcotics (presumed to be brown sugar) was detected in a dry fruit truck that a Bandipore trader imported from PaK. Last time nearly two kilograms of brown sugar was recovered concealed in a truck.
