ANNOUNCED: Soon after the erstwhile Shri Amarnth Yatra Sangharsh Samiti started raising questions over the delay, governor N N Vohra announced the annual Hindu pilgrimage will start from June 15. Owing to massive snowfall, the governor who heads the SASB said the yatra will be permitted only from the Baltal route.
CONSTITUTED: Traders on either side of the LoC in Poonch have constituted a 14-member group to discuss mutual problems they are facing after authorities banned certain ‘out of the state products’ like ginger, onions, cardamom, coconut and kernel. Though they met only once so far in Chakandabad, they are in touch through internet. The issue on top of the agenda is currency, communication and dispute resolution. Interestingly, customs authorities have seized certain items that were imported from PaK which included poppy seeds.
BOOKED: After detecting Rs 12.50 crore scam in the border fencing, the CBI has booked some army officers and contractors who executed the project. The officers are from 5 Engineering Regiment and contractors from Jammu who have used a fictitious firm – M/s Shiva Steel & Wire Industries, Phase-III Gangyal – for supply of substandard barbed wire. Contractors Anil and Sunil Gupta have since been in hiding.
DEACTIVATED: Reliance Communications has deactivated al least 36,000 mobile phone connections following detection of mass discrepancies in issuance of SIM cards to customers. This became inevitable after the Crime Branch detected serious problems. All mobile providers are supposed to verify the antecedents of the customers before issuing the SIM cards.
AWARDED: Rohit Verma and Gurpreet Kour have been conferred state art awards for 2008 by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. It carries Rs 51000, a citation and a shawl. Hilal Ahmed Khan and Varun Kumar were given the award under student category. Also approved are Certificate of Merit under Senior Artists and Student categories to Aslam Naqshbandi, Amit Singh Salathia, Gayoor Hussan Vani, Kanchan Verma, Surjeet Singh Kukal, Anish Tikoo, Narinder Kumar and Renu. Of the 60 exhibits on display, 26 belonged to professional category and others to students’ category.
POSTED: J&K 1974 cadre IPS officer, Padamdeep Singh Gill, currently the state’s Vigilance Commissioner is being appointed as next police chief for Punjab, his home state.
AWARDED: Allama Aga Syed Baqir Almosvi Kashmiri (Budgam) has been conferred Shaheed Mutahari Award by the Ministry of Culture of Islamic Republic of Iran through the Iranian Cultural House, New Delhi. This was in recognition of his versatile scholarship and diverse creative activities dedicated to propagatory and reformatory endeavours towards the furtherance of Islamic culture.
DAMAGED: As many as 600 rail clips, de-linking around 150 sleepers of the Budgam-Srinagar section, have been stolen away. This has posed a question mark over the safety and security of the track. All the cliffs belonged to bridge number 115. Fortunately there was no rail traffic and a possible tragedy was averted. The rail security for the track is short of 70 percent of the required men. The requirement is put at 2637 posts including 1922 constables.
WON: Finally, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s uncle Dr Mustafa Kamal won the Hazratbal assembly seat. He defeated his rival PDP’s Asiya Naqash by 1552 votes. Nearly 20 percent voters participated in the polling on June 3 when agitation over Shopian murders was at its peak.
