JAMMU KASHMIR
Months after various districts were given awards for banishing Tuberculosis; details revealed Jammu and Kashmir has lost 1239 people to TB in the last four years. As many as 36713 TB cases were reported in the same period. Media reports suggest Jammu and Kashmir lost 295 people to TB in 2020, 309 in 2021, 417 in 2022, and 218 deaths reported until May 2023. Overall cases are also up – 8830 cases in 2020, 10826 in 2021, 11804 in 2022, and 5253 cases until May 2023. The revelations came within days after the government recently announced Budgam, Anantnag, and Pulwama as TB-free districts.
Jammu and Kashmir has 10 babies abandoned every month and ninety per cent of them are born out of wedlock. It was five a month a few years back. While 50 infants were abandoned in 2018, 80 infants have been abandoned till September 2023. On the positive side, 25 babies were adopted, while 49 remain with the department.
KASHMIR
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission is going to take a huge hit in Jammu and Kashmir as 10 waste treatment plants supposed to come up in 10 Kashmir towns are not being constructed due to paucity of funds. These plants were approved on October 17, 2022, and were supposed to come up with a budget of Rs. 239.74 crore to manage 456 metric tons of sewerage per day. These were in addition to around a dozen plants already supposed to be operational. Early this year, the administration commenced construction on 10 additional waste treatment plants with a 40-ton-a-day capacity at Awantipora, Kulgam, Pattan, Khrew, Tral, Yaripora, Frisal and Hygam. Earlier, nine plants were set up at a cumulative cost of Rs 12.79 crore at Achabal, Beerwah, Chadoora, Dooru-Verinag, Ganderbal, Qazigund, Shopian, Sumbal and Kunzer.
The Army, TYCIA Foundation and SIDBI jointly run Project Jazba is helping 50 families by providing them with sustainable livelihood opportunities in the tourism sector by offering support of up to Rs 40,000 each.
SRINAGAR
In order to encourage migrant Kashmiri Pandits to return home, the government is planning to offer five marlas land to the landless under the PMAY-G scheme. The scheme will first take care of the employees who are already working in Kashmir. LG Manoj Sinha announced the initiative of offering land at a low or subsidised rate while addressing a gathering of migrant Kashmiri Pandits at the under-construction temple of Bhaderkali at Devi Angan Thalwal, Jammu on Ram Navmi. “We are trying to make such a situation so that you can permanently live in Kashmir,” Sinha told the audience. Right now around six thousand Pandits, employed under the PM Package, are operating from Kashmir.
The University of Kashmir has more than 500 positions vacant since 2016.
BEMINASoon after schooling is over, the normal Western cultures see young boys and girls investing their early morning spare time to do odd jobs and start understanding the challenges of life. They later get into internships and improve their profile. This is an idea that lacked takers in Kashmir. Recently, two twelfth grade student duo, Mohsin and Zain created a wave of appreciation after it was reported that they have started delivering freshly baked bread and essential goods to peoples’ homes at a minimal cost. Their inspiring endeavour named Kander Xot is anticipated to make life a little easier for the inhabitants of Bemina for a start. The duo was positively responded to by the people as their story dominated the social media. They said they are working during the wee hours and later going to join their tuition. This indicates that youth have started copying the best practices from evolved cultures.
Unlike last year when 110 locals joined militancy, only 10 local youths have become fugitives in 2023.
KUPWARA
Khalida Begum would have been a mother of four had destiny helped her quadruplets survive. However, the three boys and a baby girl died within 12 hours of their birth. Begum lives at Keran, near the Line of Control (LoC) and delivered quadruplets in a rare normal delivery at a state-run sub-district hospital in Kupwara. The hospital said that quadruplets were premature and were low birth weight babies. Normally, such babies require immediate special care in the neonatal intensive care unit which Kupwara lacks. Three died quickly within a few hours. Later the mother and one surviving boy were shifted to Srinagar but the baby died in Srinagar. Initially, she was admitted to a health facility at Keran and later shifted to Kupwara. It was post-delivery that doctors referred her to Srinagar. It was, however, too late.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Power Development Department has incurred Rs 5000 crore interest on unpaid power bills worth Rs 31000 crore crore.
JAMMU
The Jammu and Kashmir government has restrained Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh from ordering the transfer of Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) on his own, stating that he henceforth needs to forward the proposal to the Home Department. “Henceforth no transfers at the level of DSPs be effected without obtaining the prior approval of the Government, and the proposals for transfers and postings of DSPs be forwarded to the Home Department, along with complete details,” a Home Department circular dated October 5 addressed to the DGP reads. It set tongues wagging at the higher echelons of the powerful police department, who believe it can have a negative impact on the force. On April 7, the Home Department ordered the transfer of 31 DSPs, drawing criticism from some who described it as interference with the functioning of the force. Two months later, on June 17, DGP Singh had ordered the transfer of 22 DSPs, while on August 7, he transferred six more. Now he has formally been restrained from doing so.
The merger of more than 2000 schools in Jammu and Kashmir since 2015 has left nearly 800 school buildings unused.
BEMINA
When the corpse of middle-aged Tanveera was recovered from the Durbal area on October 17, protests broke out in Bemina accusing her estranged husband, Showkat Ahmad Kaloo of the ‘murder’. The Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested him quickly. Within less than a week, the police set him free and instead arrested the slain lady’s sister-in-law, Abida, her, minor daughter and her parents. Separated for many years, Tanveera was running some conjugal dispute with her husband, a resident of Nundresh Colony B. Police found the lady was murdered on October 16, at West End Colony, Hyderpora, and subsequently, her corpse was thrown at Durbal Bemina. Based on the investigations, the police – within five days of the murder, arrested Abina Parveez (sister-in-law of the deceased) W/o Parveez Ahmad Shah R/o West End Colony, Hyderpora; and her parents Ghulam Mohammad Ahanger S/o Late Haji Ghulam Hussain Ahanger R/o Khushipora HMT a/p Gulposh Apartment Bemina and Jala Wadoo W/o Ghulam Mohammad Ahanger R/o Khushipora HMT a/p Gulposh Apartment Bemina. Abida’s daughter, a minor, is also reported to be involved in the murder. Parveez is the brother of the slain lady. The investigation has led people to praise police for swift investigations that led to the release of an innocent.
Kashmir’s handicraft exports in 2023-24, Q1 is stated to be Rs 208.21 crore.
ZEWAN
Presiding over the Police Commemoration Day at Armed Police Complex Zewan Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said the nation will forever remain indebted to the bravery, courage and supreme sacrifice of Jammu and Kashmir police personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty. DGP Dilbagh Singh told reporters that in the last 30 years, Jammu and Kashmir Police lost 1605 personnel, including eight who fell in the line of duty in 2023.
Jammu and Kashmir’s government is clearing the backlog to appoint around 2000 SRO-43 cases pending for many years. Once cleared, the new policy on compassionate appointments will be implemented which emphasises merit-based criteria for such posts. Eligible candidates lacking merit will be paid a fixed amount of compensation.
LADAKH
Hanle Dark Sky Reserve in Ladakh is set to be promoted by the administration as a destination for astronomers from across the world. MHA has permitted the overnight staying of foreign tourists at the Hanle Reserve, which falls in the Changthang region. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Protection, Ladakh, organised the first official ‘star party’ from October 12 to 15 to promote astro-tourism in the region which has specific night sky free of pollution to watch distant starts. Due to its dark sky and dry weather, Hanle is home to IIA’s Indian Astronomical Observatory and hosts many professional telescopes. Recently Ladakh administration notified an area of radius roughly 22 km around Hanle as the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR).
In Jammu Kashmir, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) in higher educational institutes for 18-23-year-old students is 1.18 which surpasses the national average of 1.05.
KASHMIR
Nearly 350 women who married Kashmiris during the latter’s stay on the other side of the LoC are apprehensive that the recent formation of a high-powered committee by the administration to identify foreign nationals overstaying in Jammu and Kashmir may add to their problems. They accompanied their husbands to Kashmir after availing of an amnesty scheme but are yet to get citizenship. They are from Pakistan’s mainland and the area that falls on the other side of the LoC. These women with children have been resorting to symbolic protests for their rights. Embroiled in disputes, at least six of them have separated from their husbands and live as divorcees on their own. One of these women told reporters that recently they were approached by the government for sharing details with a promise that they would be allowed to travel to the other side of Kashmir to meet their siblings and relatives. “Now we fear we may not be allowed to return. We have spouses and children here. My children also want to travel to meet my parents and relatives but there is no guarantee we will be back here,” one of them said. The government set up a high-powered committee to identify foreign nationals overstaying illegally in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1, 2011, a year coinciding with the implementation of the rehabilitation scheme.
The 260-metre tunnel at Kandi on Poonch-Jammu National Highway is ready. It is one of the four tunnels on the crucial highway.
