LIFTED: Finally the police lifted curfew of Palhalan (Pattan) after 29 days. Some of the restrictions continue but the students were permitted to go to the schools. The village that lost six youth to the police firing since June was brought under strict curfew jointly implemented by SOG, CRPF and Army. The power transformers in the locality were blasted and residents were prevented from harvesting apple and paddy.

ELECTED: India was voted by 187 of the UN’s 191 members to become UN Security Council’s non-permanent member for a two year term. UNSC takes 10 non-veto non-permanent members every two years. India has had this seat earlier as well, the last time in 1991-92. Tuesday’s vote marked a contrast to the last effort by India 14 years back when it lost to Japan for the Asia seat.

BEATEN: Police beat up National Conference legislator from Zadibal Peer Afaq for defying curfew in his Lal Bazar locality on Tuesday. Afaq said he was asking police to allow road macadamisation going on in the area when they entered into an argument and beat him up. A number of people have been beaten up badly by police and paramilitary in the last four months leading to fractures and serious wounds in many instances, but this is the first time a ruling party legislator has been roughed up.

ENGAGED: At a cost of Rs 143 crores, state government is engaging 43000 youth as ‘casual labourers’ in Power Development Department, Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control, Public Works, Rural Development, Floriculture, School Education and Forests. Of this, Rs 23 crores would be loaded on the cost of the projects currently under implementation, the existing provisions of the respective departments would have their non-plan budget cumulatively up by Rs 40 crore and the balance Rs 80 crore will be managed by adding it to the maintenance provision under the plan of the current fiscal.  Kashmir and Jammu would get 20,500 each and the balance 2000 would go to Ladakh.

NOMINATED: Journalist Dr Shujaat Bukhari was nominated as member to South Asia Media Commission, a SAARC media watchdog. Commission’s objective is to promote fair and objective reporting, analysis, and comment in the interest of better understanding and relations among the people of the SAARC region. A widely travelled reporter and a culture activist, Bukhari works in Kashmir for The Hindu newspaper. He is working on his memoir as a reporter.

BEATEN: BSF personnel barged into two state-run schools in Sangrama and beat the teachers and students. They were reacting to a round of stone pelting on their vehicles albeit at a different place. This is the first incident of its kind in which a number of teachers, including females and students were injured. Police has taken cognizance but there is no word about the follow up.

STOPPED: Even though the trans-LoC trade improved, especially in Poonch sector, not a single soul from J&K visited the other side for the last four weeks. Right now, there is not a single civilian from Jammu who is on the other side of the LoC. The reason was that the Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Jammu did not issue a single permit in last one month.

PROTESTED: Police detained 15 of the special police officers (SPOs) from a huge group who came on roads in Bandipora. They were protesting against “indifferent attitude” of the state administration towards them. Working on Rs 3000 a month, they are seeking regularization, application of SRO 43 and fair salary structure arguing that they are exposed to the same threats as that of regular cops. Police has 25965 SPOs of whom 3648 have been working with the police for 10 years now. As many as 475 SPOs have been killed over the years.

DELAYED: Most of the non-locals work force working on the prestigious Mughal Road has fled. Masonry work on a 41-km stretch of the road that should have been over by now is yet to start. The road connecting Kashmir with Poonch is slated to be operational by 2011 summer.

PUNISHED: A general court martial (GCM) has acquitted Colonel A S Rathore, the erstwhile director of Military Farms, Northern Command, of 16 charges of professional impropriety in a case pertaining to misappropriation of milk powder worth crores, but has held him guilty on one charge of failing to carry out technical inspection of military farms under his control. He was awarded a severe reprimand and five-year loss of service for the purpose of fixing pension.

SUGGESTED: Geologists have suggested restricted agriculture activities with a changed cropping pattern in Dharam village of Ramban where most of the land mass caved in. Over 638 kanals of the land became useless after the tragedy. Experts say though the activities under the crest have stopped but they cannot rule out the possibility of its recurrence. Authorities have identified a spot near Gundi to rehabilitate the 44 families whose houses were buried in the crevasses.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here