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First trial coach reaches Kashmir
Mufti sees self-rule as solution
Ballot boxes choke storeroom
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First trial coach reaches Kashmir
Ompora (Budgam), November 9 This has been for the first time that most residents of this village have seen a railway coach. The unique feature has been the run of the trial coach from Firozpur division of the Northern Railways that arrived here this evening. This is the first of the 24 coaches to be transported to the valley for running the railway service early next year. It started its journey by road from Jammu on October 31. More coaches will follow for running the train service between Budgam in central Kashmir and Awantipora in south Kashmir in February next year. The work is on to complete the railway track passing through high mountains between Udhampur and Qazigund. It will also pass through the longest tunnel of 12 km near Qazigund. It was a spectacular scene for residents of Ompora, a small township, on the Srinagar-Budgam road, when the trial coach arrived here at 5 p.m. this evening. It was a hectic job for the driver, Joginder Singh, of the trailer-truck to drive through the half-km-long link road to the Kharmohalla locality where the station is located. "It has been a challenging job", said Darshan Singh, one of the 26- member team of ABC Ltd Company, who had been assigned the job of transporting the rail coach to the valley. "We were able to cover any distance between 20 km and 60 km per day depending upon the road condition", said he. It had been more difficult through the narrow curves between Jammu and Jawahar Tunnel. For many residents ,it was a unique feature. Most of them had not ever seen the train. Men, women and children assembled along the link road to see it. At least 1200 kanals of land of these villagers have been occupied for laying the railway line and the construction of the station. They are not, however, happy with the rates of land ranging from Rs 70,000 to Rs 2.25 lakh per kanal offered by the government. "The rates have not been judiciously paid", said the villagers equivocally, while this land cost had gone up to Rs 10 lakh in the nearby areas. Like many others, the arrival of the train is a welcome step for Mohammad Akram Wani, a retired teacher. It was a first sight of a railway coach for Wani. "All my seven kanals of land have been utilised for the railway line and the station", said he, but laments that due compensation was not given to him. |
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Mufti sees self-rule as solution
Srinagar, November 9 The former Chief Minister and PDP patron stated this in an interview on a private television network in New York recently, a party spokesman said here. The Mufti said the solution of the problem must be built on clearly defined fundamental principles backed by institutional arrangements. He said all parties concerned must look into the ground realities and try to evolve a consensus over some formula. During his ongoing visit to New York, the Mufti met a cross-section of Kashmiris from both sides of the divide to know their views on peace in the region. He is currently on the US visit as part of the non-official Indian delegation to the UN and has already addressed the UN General Assembly. “I have been time and again saying that the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan is irreversible as it is people-driven in both countries,” he said. The Mufti said the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue was inevitable and everything was not possible immediately, but the resolution could be a long-drawn process. Referring to the PDP’s theory on self-rule he claimed that it was the most viable solution of the problem and the details of the proposal were being discussed and finalised. He said the PDP was calling for self-rule, which is within the Constitution. He said the broader perspective of the self -rule involved adequate Constitutional guarantees that the legislature elected by the people of the states would not be dissolved by the Central Government and is allowed to function for its term. He said another proposal was that the Governor should be elected and not appointed by the Central Government. The post could alternate between the Jammu and Kashmir regions in the interest of harmony and to ensure that there was no discrimination between the regions.
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Ballot boxes choke storeroom
Jammu, November 9 Official sources said the Chief Electoral Officer had received a suggestion from a couple of officials saying that all these ballot boxes should be disposed of or converted into flower vases as was done in Lucknow two years ago. The sources said since the electronic voting machines (EVM) were introduced during the polling, ballot boxes had become obsolete. These boxes could be used during panchayat and civic elections but there was still a long time for these elections and by that time the ballot boxes, stored in the office, may become unusable. |
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