It was his maiden visit to J&K, Dr S Subbarao, the RBI governor had came to see the process of financial inclusion in a Samba village. He later presided over a bankers meeting.
But he was shocked that banks are barely advancing 31% of the deposits they are mobilising in the state which is almost half of the national average. Even he played conservative by suggesting them to increase it by five percent next fiscal not knowing that banks had advanced nearly 42% in last financial year. Interestingly, it is J&K Bank that is managing most of the loan book – of the overall advances of Rs 18018.26 crore in J&K, J&K Bank’s share is Rs 12133.52 crore (67.34%). Subbarao talked about adding to the peripheral network and sought assurance from banks that they will cooperate when RBI studies the issue of collaterals in the state. RBI governor met everybody from governor to chief minister but the real issues that J&K has with RBI were not talked about. It seemed as if the chief minister was talking for him when he suggested state owned J&K Bank should get public sector bank status. Why?
JEDDAH
Perhaps for the first time Mirwaiz Umer Farooq missed the Pakistan Day in Islamabad’s Delhi High Commission. He has been out for a fortnight and most of it he spent in Geneva interacting with the “uselessly great” OIC contact group on Kashmir. Newspaper reports suggested he had prolonged discussions with various members of the UNs human rights set up including specific rappotuers, one of whom might come calling this year. It was there that the peacenik hinted of foregoing third party mediation on Kashmir that triggered a controversy back home. Finally, Mirwaiz has landed in Jeddah for a week long stay during which he would meet the ‘Oh I See’ bosses.
DELHI
They were quite a few but they stayed out. As controversial novelist Salman Rushdie flew to grace the India Today conclave last week, there were quite a few high profile absentees. Apart from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Aklesh Yadav, the chief minister of UP, it was Omar Abdullah who skipped participation. It started with Imran Khan who dropped out of the conclave first. As Rushdie attacked the prominent absentees, he missed Omar. Finally Omar write a slightly longer tweet explaining his inability to participate. “Plus Salman Rushdie doesn’t even know I exist so do you really think he gives a toss whether I was there or not?” he wrote.
NEW YORK
Noted cardiac surgeon Fayaz Shawl wanted to set up a hospital in Srinagar. It did not happen. What happened is that he has sent a written apology and it was announced at a press conference by Home Minister Jr last week. Dr Shawl had accused many people for not permitting him to set up his dream centre in Kashmir. The government took him to the court and last week he sent an affidavit to the court tendering an unconditional apology for his utterances. He had said the same thing in an e-mail that he shot within days after “fleeing” from Kashmir. Can Dr Shawl now fly to Srinagar where scores of poor patients are waiting for his free stunts and consultations?
KISHTWAR
Suman Rathore alias Sapna was 22 and a small time actress. She was found hanging at Pochhal village of Kishtwar where she was married eight months back. Police have arrested her husband and other relatives to solve the case. Before her marriage she played the role of a Kashmir Pandit girl in Suresh Goswami’s film Ziyarat. Post marriage she had applied for a private teacher’s job that started cracking her marriage. Her sister had claimed the dead actress was pregnant and it was a “double murder”.
SRINAGAR
The leopards in Kashmir will start wearing the radio collars to help ‘experts’ understand their behaviour. Last week, the Wildlife officials at Dachigam National Park fixed a radio collar to a leopard for the first time. Warden Imtiyaz Lone said they will radio track the beast to understand its home range, behavioural patterns that may also help understand the growing incidence of man-animal conflict.
