by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Sringar : Authorities on Monday imposed a shutdown on Srinagar and some other parts of the Kashmir Valley following rumours that the Supreme Court has scrapped Article 35A, police said.
Jammu and Kashmir Police issued a statement here, saying: “Some sections of the media have circulated news regarding scrapping of the Article 35A. The news has been refuted as baseless. People are requested to maintain calm and not to pay heed to these rumours.”
As a precaution, shops, public transport and other businesses were shut.
Clashes between stone pelting protesters and the security forces were also reported in Anantnag district and other places.
Petitions challenging Article 35A which gives powers to the state legislature to define permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and their privileges, has been listed for hearing by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Reports from Delhi said a fresh petition seeking scrapping of the Article is being filed in the apex court on Monday which fuelled the rumours.
Governor Satya Pal Malik has engaged Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehra to defend the Article.
Authorities have decreased the speed of mobile internet across the Valley.
Separtists have called for a general shutdown on Friday and Saturday to highlight the public support for the Article.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Halal Food, Halal Industries, Markets, News, SMEs
Srinagar : As Eid-ul-Zuha approaches, animal markets across the Kashmir Valley were bustling with shoppers on Sunday who were looking to buy sacrificial animals to mark the festival on Wednesday.
Muslims all over the world offer animal sacrifices to commemorate the sacrifice made by Prophet Abrahim. It is for this reason that Eid-ul-Zuha is also known as Bakr Eid.
Makeshift animal shops have come up in all cities and towns although the Eidgah grounds in Srinagar continues to remain the biggest such market.
The sacrificial animals being sold at the Eidgah market were sheep, goats and also a few camels.
State government has fixed rates for these sacrificial animals, but the official order determining the price seems to be nobody’s priority.
A well fed sheep can cost anything between Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000 as buyers and sellers engage in hectic haggling over the prices.
Once they have bought a sacrificial animal or two, Kashmiris are seen lined up outside bakeries.
Buying bakery items for the family around the Eid festival has almost become a ritual in the Valley.
Well known bakeries in Srinagar sell cakes, pastries and biscuits worth millions of rupees on Eid.
Other priority items on the Eid shopping list are new clothes and firecrackers for children.
In sharp contrast to Eid-ul-Fitr, very few locals are seen hanging around butcher shops on Eid-ul-Zuha.
This is because gifts of mutton of sacrificial animals reach homes of neighbours, relatives and friends in every locality of the Valley on Eid-ul-Zuha.
During the last 10 years, locals have engaged in organising charity for supporting orphanages and even individual households who are in need of financial support.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, News, Politics
By Arun Kumar Das,
New Delhi : Awaiting the return of normalcy — as well as tourists — in the Kashmir Valley, an indigenously-built vistadome (glass-top) railway coach, though ready to run, has been docked at Badgam station for months.
The 40-seater vistadome coach was announced in June last year by then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and was manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai at an estimated cost of abut Rs 4 crore.
The see-through air-conditioned coach with large glass windows, glass roof, observation lounge and rotatable seats, a first such service in the state, aims to facilitate passengers to experience the breathtakingly beautiful locations and sites en route the 135 km from Banihal to Baramulla.
Keeping tourists in mind the seats are attached with trays similar to those in airplanes for eating and passengers can order light meals to be made available during the journey.
The vistadome coach travelled all the way and was delivered at Badgam this April. It was expected to be made operational in May, allowing visitors to Kashmir to get a delightful view of the picturesque landscape of the Valley.
“The prevailing situation is not right now to press vistadome coach into service. It will be operational once the conditions improve,” a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS, not wishing to be identified.
The specially-designed vistadome coach also has double-wide reclining seats which can be rotated 360 degrees for a panoramic view of the surroundings. It also has glass-domed ceilings, automatic sliding doors, luggage racks, multiple LED screens for entertainment and a GPS-enabled information system.
A step towards boosting tourism, the vistadome coach was first introduced for Araku valley in Vishakapatnam-Kirandul passenger train in April last year, offering a panoramic view of the hills, valleys and an exhilarating experience to tourists as it passes through tunnels.
The second vistadome coach was attached to the Jan Shatabdi between Dadar and Madgaon, on Mumbai-Goa route, in September last year.
(Arun Kumar Das can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Srinagar : Life across the Kashmir Valley remained adversely affected for the second consecutive day due to a separatist-called protest shutdown on Monday.
Separatist conglomerate, Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for the protest shutdown to voice support for Article 35A.
The article has been challenged in the Supreme Court. A petition seeking abrogation of this article will be heard by the apex court on Monday.
Shops, markets, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained closed here and other district headquarters of the valley.
Very few private vehicles were seen moving on city roads here and elsewhere in the valley.
Authorities placed senior separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest.
Although Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has evaded arrest by going underground.
Authorities suspended the Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to Srinagar for the second day on Monday because of the shutdown.
An official, however, said pilgrims who have already reached the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps will continue to perform the Yatra on Monday.
Rail services between the valley and the Bannihal town of Jammu region also remained suspended for the second day.
Although heavy deployments of police and paramilitary forces have been made in Srinagar and other sensitive areas yet no restrictions were imposed anywhere.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : Authorities on Thursday placed senior separatist leaders under detention in the summer capital Srinagar to prevent their participation in a protest shutdown that derailed life in the Kashmir Valley.
Police took Muhammad Yasin Malik, Chairman of pro-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), into preventive custody here to stop him from taking out a protest march in the city.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani were placed under house arrest at their residences on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a grouping of separatists headed by Geelani, Mirwaiz Farooq and Malik, called for the shutdown against the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and continuing killings of civilians in Kashmir.
Bukhari, editor of “Rising Kashmir” newspaper, was shot dead along with two security guards in Srinagar on June 14.
Shops, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained shut on Thursday at most places in Srinagar while attendance in banks, post offices and government offices was thin due to non-availability of public transport.
Private transport and some three-wheelers, however, plied in uptown areas of Srinagar.
Taxis and buses carrying tourists to Sonamarg, Pahalgam and Gulmarg hill stations operated as usual. Train services were suspended in the Kashmir Valley as a precaution.
No incident of stone pelting was reported in the Valley.
The shutdown also derailed normal life in all other major cities and towns of the Valley, where a separatist campaign has been raging since 1989.
Despite the shutdown, Governor N.N. Vohra and all senior bureaucrats of the state government attended their offices in the Srinagar Civil Secretariat on Thursday.
Vohra had on Wednesday too visited the Civil Secretariat and was presented a guard of honour by police though June 20 was a public holiday in the Valley on account of the annual festival at the Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine, the holiest for Kashmiri Pandits.
Vohra took charge of the Jammu and Kashmir administration after the PDP-BJP coalition government collapsed following the BJP’s withdrawal of support to the PDP.
—IANS
