ATTACHED: Cabinet ordered attachment of Power Development Commissioner Aftab Ahmad Chewa after it received the minutes of a May 21 CEA meeting in which he had held political interferences responsible for energy pilferages. Aftab, an otherwise upright officer, had been removed as Chief Engineer Maintenance & Rural Electrification Kashmir earlier this year and attached to PDC. He was made power development commissioner in April and within three fortnights attached again.
APPOINTED: Ghulam Nabi Mir is the new General Secretary of the J&KPCC. An engineering graduate from University of Madras, Mir sought pre-mature retirement in 1996 as Superintending Engineer and contested assembly elections unsuccessfully from Chadoora on Congress ticket. He contested unsuccessfully again in 2002 and 2008. Son of former minister late Ghulam Muhammad Mir (Lasjan), Mir was PCC secretary general in 1997 as well.
DIED: Lawyer and MP, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Shawl (1922-2009) passed away in Islamabad. A close associate of Sheikh Abdullah, Shawl spent around 16 years of his life in jail. A law graduate from AMU (1948), he was acting president of Plebiscite Front at one point of time. He was one of the accused in Kashmir conspiracy case. Later, he was sent to Rajya Sabha twice.
VISITED: Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor visited Kashmir for two days and reviewed counter-insurgency and anti-infiltration operations. He interacted with governor N N Vohra besides meeting GOC Northern Command Lt Gen P C Bhardwaj, GOC XV Corps Lt Gen Bikram Singh and Additional Director Gen Military Operations Major Gen Rameshwar Roy. Reviewing security of the ongoing Amarnath yatra was part of his agenda.
BOOKED: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has a registered a corruption case against Director Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar Rafiq Masoodi, producer Ghulam Hassan Dar and several other private producers for placing orders for recording tapes without sanction and beyond budgetary allocation. In a raid, several officials were questioned by the sleuths in connection with purchasing bulk orders for tapes for its programme ‘Subahai Subahai’.
DIED: Dr Jagat Mohni, a nonagenarian social worker passed away in Srinagar. Born to a renowned Kashmiri Pandit family in Lahore, she did her schooling in Ajmer, Karachi, Mumbai, and Lahore, which gave her a broad outlook to life and tolerant religious views. She did her MBBS degree from King Edward Medical College Lahore and specialisation from Lady Harding College of Delhi. She founded Ratan Rani hospital and was one of the few learned Pandits who choose to stay put in 1990. She started her political career with Congress, but later joined Janata Party (JP) and contested 1977 election on JP ticket. It was during her campaigning when NC workers broke her teeth and jaw-bones. Muslims from all walks of life joined her funeral in Srinagar.
AWARDED: State Cultural Academy announced eight awards for Photography for 2009. First award was bagged by Mir Majeed Mumtaz, Naushad Gayoor got the second and Mohammad Safeen bagged the third. Five Special State Consolation Awards were conferred upon Dr N S Jamwal, Sanjay Gupta, Sonam Spalizin, Azam Hussan and Shiekh Yaseer Arfat.
DENIED: Family members of Syed Ali Shah Geelani were denied a meeting after the government designated a JKTDC hut in Cheshma Shahi as a sub-jail. Now the family will have to formally approach the court to get the a meeting permission. His son had met him last week. Geelani’s elder son is reportedly admitted to a hospital in Pakistan for some serious cardiac problems.
