Jammu & Kashmir

Srinagar, Mar 24: The government has started night bus services on many routes to ensure that the common people, who don’t have their own transport, get accessible and reliable transport system in evening hours and also give access to the people towards Dalgate-Boulevard road, Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Kashmir, Syed Shahnawaz Bukhari said on Friday.

The directions in this regard were passed by Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, V K Bidhuri in a meeting yesterday.

Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), RTO Kashmir, said that the decision to come up with the night bus service on many routes has been taken keeping in view many issues.

“The shopkeepers in many areas put down their shutters by 6 PM as they are not confident whether they would get transport to reach home in late evening. Similarly, the people too don’t come out in the evening in absence of public transport,” he said, adding that the night bus services will be ensured on the Chadoora route and Lal Chowk-Dalgate to Harvan.

He said that the people are being given access to boulevard road in evening hours as there were many events in the past and the common people, who don’t have their own transport, desired to visit the place, but couldn’t. “Thus, keeping these things in mind, the night bus service will be ensured along these routes to ensure the people heave a sigh of relief,” he said.

RTO Kashmir further said that the decision has been taken to ensure accessible and reliable transport system for the people—(KNO)

Srinagar, Mar 24 : The administration of Jammu & Kashmir on Friday unveiled guidelines regarding the use of social media by government employees in the Union Territory.

According to guidelines, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), no employee shall, through any post, tweet or otherwise, discuss or criticize on social media, any policy pursued or action taken by the government, nor shall he/she, in any manner, participate in any such discussion or criticism on social media pages communities/microblogs.

The guidelines state that no employee shall post, tweet or share content that is political or anti-secular and communal in nature or subscribe to pages, communities or twitter handles and blogs of such nature. “No employee shall himself/herself or through any person dependent on him/her for maintenance, or under his care or control, undertake any such activity on social media which is, or tends directly or indirectly to be, subversive of the government as by law established in the country or in the Union territory,” the guidelines further state.

According to the government, the employees, directly or indirectly, shall not publish, post or release any information on social media that is considered confidential or that is not meant for public dissemination.

The employees have also been directed that they not pass any official document or any part thereof to any employee or any such person to whom he is not authorized to communicate such document or information.

But the guidelines allow employees to defend and explain to the public the policy of the government through their social media posts. “An employee may, for the purpose or removing misapprehensions, correcting misstatements, and refuting disloyal and seditious propaganda, defend and explain to the public the policy of Government in his posts and tweets on social media,” it said, adding that employees shall not post on social media, any such content or comments about co-workers or individuals, that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, intimidating or that violate the conduct rules of employees.

The employees have also been directed that they shall not post grievances pertaining to their workplace on social media in the form of videos, posts, tweets or blogs or in any other form, but will follow the already established channels of complaint redressal existing in the departments.

“The employees shall not indulge in sharing/partaking in so-called giveaways and contests on social media platforms, which are actually scams in disguise, as they could unknowingly spread malware or trick people into giving away sensitive data by sharing it on their profiles, “the government further said.

The government said that violation of these guidelines/rules shall tantamount to misconduct and invite disciplinary action against the delinquent official under the relevant rules.

“All administrative secretaries, deputy commissioners, heads of departments, managing directors shall immediately proceed against the employees working in their departments/offices who are found to have violated the aforesaid guidelines and rules, in terms of the relevant disciplinary framework,” the government said.

“Further, in case of a violation committed on a group platform, the ‘administrator’, if they are serving government/semi-government employees, shall also be liable for disciplinary proceedings,” the government said—(KNO)

Ganderbal, Mar 23 : Tanveera Jan, an eighteen-year-old girl from the Fatehpora area of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, has published her first poetry book ‘Tasawar-E-Zindagi’. The book, which comprises 40 poems, focuses on the menace of dowry prevalent in Indian society.

Tanveera, studying in the 12th class at Government Girls Higher Secondary School Ganderbal, discovered her passion for writing at a very young age.

“I started writing poems in 2019, and have penned around 40 poems so far,” she told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

“I started penning my thoughts and feelings in the form of poetry when I was in 8th standard. With time, I honed my writing skills and finally published my first book in 2022,” she said.

‘Tasawar-E-Zindagi’ is on dowry and revolves around different aspects of life such as kindness, love, hate, struggles, destiny, emotions, pain, and more, Tanveera said.

“I have always been encouraged by my parents, relatives, and friends. My teachers have been a great support to me,” the young girl said. “My family has been very supportive of my dreams and aspirations. They encouraged me to pursue my passion for writing and provided me with all necessary resources.”

Talking about her future plans, Tanveera said she wants to become an author and “spread happiness through my writings”.

In her message to the youth of Kashmir, especially girls, Tanveera urged them to tap into their talent and set their goals high. “Giving up is not an option; one must work hard to achieve targets,” she said.

The book is available on Amazon and is receiving an overwhelming response from readers—(KNO)

Sopore, Mar 23 : Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested a militant associate of Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit in Sopore area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

An official told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the militant associate was arrested during a joint cordon and search operation near Railway Station in Peth Seer area of Sopore.

He identified him as Umer Bashir Bhat son of Bashir Ahmad Bhat of Manz Seer.

“During his personal search a hand grenade, Pistol, Pistol Magazine, 15 Pistol live rounds and a mobile phone along with Sim card was also recovered from him,” he said.

The official said a case under relevant sections of law has been registered at Police Station Amargrah and further investigation has been initiated—(KNO)

Waris Fayaz

Sopore, Mar 22 : With poor jio network services at Tarzoo village of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, subscribers are alleging it to be a reason for immense hardships, with the Jio officials claiming a dispute between two families a reason for disruption of services.

The subscribers told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that there is a poor network of JIO from months together. JIO service is irking the customers, we have been suffering because of the insensitive and fleecing attitude of this telecom service providing company, they said.

“With JIO telecom providers claiming to launch 5G services across the region, however, the village – barely 3 kms from Sopore township is facing immense problems, as we are currently using 1G services”, alleges a local resident, Bilal Ahmed.

He said that from last month, the area is witnessing a cut off from the rest of the internet world, with the authorities concerned failing to take any appropriate steps to redress the issue.

“JIO has been a cause of irritation for them as most times it doesn’t function properly, Due to poor services, many JIO subscribers have switched over to other service-providers for better calling/internet services,” said Hakeem Junaid, a commercial photographer”. He said that, due to the low internet, he is unable to do his professional duties. “I have to remain stationed in Sopore town only for better connectivity”, he added.

The subscribers, however, later appealed to the JIO higher ups and the district administration to look into the matter and redress their grievance at earliest, so that they may not face any issues anymore.

“If there is any dispute between the families over some issue, why would they suffer? Why can’t the telecom provider find an alternative till the issues are resolved”, they added.

An official at Jio telecommunication services told KNO that they have two sites in the Tarzoo area, one at Tarzoo and another at Amberpora. However, the site at Amberpora is not functional because of the stay – as there is an internal dispute between the two families. “Due to overload on the Tarzoo site, network congestion happens”, Official added.

The issue would be resolved once the stay on the site is lifted, he further added—(KNO)

Waris Fayaz

Kupwara, Mar 21: Deputy commissioner Kupwara on Tuesday termed the reports of deaths in the district following strong earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir as fake and baseless.

Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), deputy commissioner Kupwara Doifode Sagar Dattatray said the reports doing rounds on social media about 3 deaths in Kupwara due to earthquake are fake.

He said no such incident has happened anywhere in the district, while damage to any property was being ascertained.

Earlier, an earthquake of 6.6 magnitude shook Jammu and Kashmir and several parts of north India—(KNO)

Srinagar, Mar 21: An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale jolted Kashmir and several parts of the country, officials said.

Deputy Director Meteorological department (MeT) told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the epicenter of the quake, which struck at 10:17 pm IST, was the Hindukush region of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, damages caused by the earthquake couldn’t be not ascertained at this moment.
Mobile telephony was disrupted in many areas.

Reports reaching KNO said that the phone calls are getting disconnected as the services have been affected in many areas—(KNO)

Jammu, Mar 20 : Former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Monday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre for not conducting the assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir, saying the ruling party lacks the courage to face voters as they have failed to mitigate people’s problems.

According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Omar while addressing the first public meeting at the Bajalta area of the outskirts of Nagrota constituency in Jammu – the first after the abrogation of Article 370 – said they (BJP) have also not been able to keep their promise of bringing large-scale investments and creating job opportunities in the Union Territory.

“They are not ready to face the people and are escaping from (assembly) elections on one pretext or the other. They used the pretext of delimitation of constituencies and revision of electoral rolls which stands completed long back. They talked about the weather not being conducive but have no justification to further delay the polls,” he said.

The NC vice president said the BJP has only two reasons for delaying the polls further: one could be the worsening security situation which they claim has improved, and the second is that they are afraid to face the voters.

The former chief minister further said that despite many differences, both Jammu and Kashmir share common sufferings. “Nobody can deny the differences between Kashmir and Jammu as far as weather and culture is concerned but what we witness today is that both the regions are having common sufferings; people are annoyed and gripped by despondency,” he said.

Referring to the anti-encroachment drives in the Union Territory, Omar Abdullah said he was surprised to see the pictures when they took out a bulldozer rally in Kashmir to frighten the public.

“Welfare governments procure ambulances, school buses, vehicles for transports and other public goods but the present regime purchases bulldozers. I was assumed by seeing the pictures of bulldozers, which are hundreds in number, procured by the government to demolish homes,” he said.

When people protested and the situation became tense, the bulldozer drive was stopped at the behest of Delhi, he claimed. He said after the demolition drive was stopped, they frightened people with the tax. “They are saying only a handful of income will be generated but if that is the case, then what is the need for imposing the tax to harass the public,” he asked.

The former chief minister said that for the first time, he is witnessing “a government which feels happiness in inflicting difficulties on the people”. “It is better to get rid of this government as soon as possible,” he said.

On Article 370

Omar said those who celebrated the abrogation of Article 370 in Ladakh and Jammu are equally sad. “We were angry from day one but there were some people who celebrated it with the hope of ‘Naya J&K’. The people in Jammu suffered economically because of the stopping of the darbar move and anti-encroachment drive, while Leh people are openly expressing that they were happy to be part of J&K,” he said.

On jobs to militants

The NC leader said that no militant was given government jobs by the previous Jammu and Kashmir dispensations and asserted that his party would not support any policy to punish the relatives of militants saying “it is against natural justice”. “No militant was given a (government) job but we did not punish people because they were relatives of militants. Is it fair for me to punish you for the crime committed by your father or a son? Tomorrow, if God forbid a close relative of (Lt Governor) Manoj Sinha Sahab commits a crime, should he be sent to jail?” he said.

The former chief minister was responding to a question on Sinha’s recent allegations that the previous governments in Jammu and Kashmir provided jobs to terrorists and their families and facilitated one lakh backdoor appointments.

“Natural justice is not that relatives are punished for the crimes of someone else. Nobody is advocating that hardcore militants should be given government jobs but it is also wrong to punish somebody just because they have the misfortune of being related to a militant,” he said, adding, “This is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the people. This is not something we will ever support.”

On Sinha’s statement that 47 employees were dismissed for anti-national activities, Omar Abdullah said, “I am not going into a war of words… If for lakhs of appointments, all you can find is a list of 47 then that is next to nothing.”

On recruitment scams

Omar accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of playing with the future of job aspirants by engaging a tainted company to conduct recruitment examinations.

“We want an inquiry on how APTECH, which is blacklisted across the country, was given a contract and where the scams had taken place,” he said. “We heard the contract was cancelled but the youth are still not happy. You (LG) need to reassure the youth,” Omar said, alleging that the Jammu and Kashmir administration is not making any attempt to resolve the issues of the people.

On conman

Abdullah also took a dig at the administration over an alleged imposter, Kiran Patel, who was arrested in Srinagar early this month and said “the deserving are not getting their rights but the frauds are getting benefited”.

“Instead of finding the reality of Patel before treating him as a VIP, they bowed before him. My colleagues who faced (militant) attacks were not given an escort, he (Patel) was given adequate security, five-star accommodation and taken to LoC with many officers lined up to seek recommendations for transfer and promotions,” he said.

Defends Rahul Gandhi

Omar also came in defence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘women are still being sexually assaulted’ remark, saying he did not say anything wrong and there is nothing unusual in his statement.

“Is this not a fact that sexual violence is prevalent in India? Do we need Rahul Gandhi to tell us that? Open any newspaper, do we not hear cases of rape so what did Rahul Gandhi say that is so unusual,” he told reporters here—(KNO)

Srinagar, Mar 20 : Former Chief Minister and founder of Democratic Progressive Azad Party on Monday said that nobody should be put in jail in Kashmir just on the basis of mere suspicion.

Addressing a workers meeting at Anantnag Gh Nabi Azad said that he and everyone is against militancy and militancy is on decline but nobody should be kept in jail on the basis of suspicion.

“If only on the basis of suspicion, the government starts putting people in jail, then they have to put 90 percent of the population in jail,” he said, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

He said due to some good steps of Union Government, militancy is on decline, there are no protests or stone pelting now but then why government isn’t allowing former legislative members and DDC, BDC and Sarpanches allowing to move freely as according to him, they are allowing to move from 11 am to 5 pm only.

Government is taking some steps due to which its good steps are also getting washed out like anti encroachment drive, property tax etc, he said, adding that we are with the government to take action against those who have misused his power but the poor must be spared.

“We are not against tax but let the elected government take call on it,” he said, adding that “PRIs and former legislative members and besides other members must be allowed to move freely.”

Notably, District Development Council member Sagam, Anantnag, MC president Achabal and some sarpanchs joined Ghulam Nabi Azad- led Democratic Progressive Azad Party in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

Muhammad Saleem Parrey, who secured 2172 votes in DDC polls in 2020 and defeated his nearest rival Anees-ul- Islam of Apni Party by around 700 votes , joined the party today in presence of its president Ghulam Nabi Azad.

This is the third party Parrey has joined in his political career. In 2020, he contested DDC polls on NC ticket and won from Sagam. In 2022, he joined the Peoples Conference.

This was the second joining of a DDC member in the Azad- led party in the past 24 hours. On Sunday, DDC chairman Anantnag Muhammad Yosouf Gorsi joined Azad- led party—(KNO)

Waris Fayaz

Srinagar, Mar 20: Jammu and Kashmir’s capital city, Srinagar is all set to host the maiden two days ‘World Apple Conference’ – organized by Sarhad, a Pune based NGO and Sopore Apple Farmer Producer Company (J&K), which aims to further empower and strengthen the apple growers of Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Fayaz Ahmed Malik, Director of event – who is also a president of Asia’s second largest Fruit Mandi, Sopore said, that they are organizing the two-day conference on June 24 & 25 this year scheduled at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Center (SKICC), Srinagar.

Malik said that eminent personalities will grace the event with their presence along with experts from various fields especially from agriculture and horticulture sectors. “The event aims to empower and strengthen the apple growers of Jammu and Kashmir who have been facing huge losses due to unprecedented and untimely fall in prices of their produce over the past several years”, he said.

Malik also said, that the apple season this year fetched prices below expectations leading to losses for farmers across the Jammu and Kashmir, in a bid to provide a platform to farmers to mitigate the issues faced by them, moreover the conference would help to provide sustainable solutions to issues those faced by the people affiliated with the industry.

Similarly, Chairman Sopore Apple Producer Company (J&K), Adil Malik said, that the conference would mainly focus on the ‘Apple Tourism’ – the valley shall be opened for tourists from all parts of the world where they get to interact with apple farmers, live on the farms, experience the lifestyle.

“We propose to let tourists across India and around the world experience the orchard life, which would not only generate additional tourism revenue for the state and incomes for the farmers but could attract more investment as the tourism progresses”, Adil said.

Adil added that the potential solutions to the issues like wastage of crop both premature and post harvesting is only to strengthen the highway transport and logistics in the form of better roadways and highways, which could help mitigate the problem of produce reaching the markets on time.

Meanwhile, to make the event successful, the organizers have appealed to the people affiliated with the Apple industry to join and participate in thought-provoking discussions, engaging workshops and networking opportunities with the professionals of Apple industry—(KNO)