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Rs 29 crore for trade centre at Pampore
Politics of effigy burning
Rs 50 cr for upgrading hospitals
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Rs 29 crore for trade centre at Pampore
Srinagar, July 4 Describing the announcement as a unique exception for J&K in view of the persuasion by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the minister said similar centres at Bangalore, Chennai and Guwahati had been set up at a cost of Rs 20 crore each. He said the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) should also make investment and assured that he would take up the issue with them. Ramesh was speaking at a high-level meeting here yesterday to review the decisions taken at a similar meeting he presided over here last month. The minister said the focus of Kashmir Expo would be to get at least 50 top buyers for Kashmiri handicrafts, horticulture and floriculture. This, he said, required a lot of homework and called upon the state government to put things in place in time. He said Kashmiri handicrafts would be brought under the Geographical Indicator Act to check sale of imitations in the name of Kashmir handicrafts. Ramesh announced several decisions for the promotion of trade and commerce in the state. He said the office of the director-general, Foreign Trade, would be reopened in Srinagar within a month and an officer of the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation from Delhi would be visiting the state every alternative Thursday and if the need arose a wholetime officer would be posted here. In another decision, Ramesh said his ministry would open Spice Board office in Kashmir to promote marketing of Kashmiri saffron and chillies. He said the Board and the National Masala Mills would set up a joint venture company after which the board office would be opened within a month. He said he would have a relook on the exclusion of zeera and pudeena (mint) as there was potential in Kashmir in these two items. |
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Politics of effigy burning
Jammu, July 4 An effigy is burnt every third day in this city of temples. Looking at the events, as many as 13 effigies were burnt in the past 30 days by activists of the BJP and the Shiv Sena factions alone. Besides these saffron brigades, Jammu-Kashmir National Panthers Party activists also recently burnt an effigy of People's Democratic Party patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syeed. Some workers’ bodies have also been involved in such act during demonstrations against the state government. The BJP and the Shiv Sena activists even did not spare presidential candidate Pratibha Patil, whose effigy was burnt on June 26 to demonstrate against her candidature. Earlier actor Anara Gupta's effigy was burnt on June 22, when her debut film was released countrywide, except in Jammu where the said party activists did not allow its release. What does it mean? State’s BJP chief Ashok Khajuria stated burning an effigy of any person was " a part of the democratic nature of protest in our country". "Like we burn Ravana on Dasehra, which symbolises the burning of evil thoughts and deeds, we burn the effigy to lodge our protest against the wrong-doings of a person in question,". The BJP leader added that he found nothing wrong in such an act. Considering this aspect as "an indecent and vulgar act in public", noted political analyst Balraj Puri said the act of effigy burning was a recent trend in Jammu, "mainly adopted by the saffron parties whch are desperate to catch the media attention in the absence of their political representation in the elected bodies like the state Assembly". Puri also agreed with a viewpoint this act be made punishable by the court of law, especially when some individual or group burnt the effigy of the Governor, a constitutional head of the state. However, Constitutional expert Jameel Ahmed Kazmi, a former Additional Advocate-General at the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, said the act in question could not be punishable in India, as this was just another form of expression of protest in a democratic set up. He said the burning of effigies was not common in Srinagar, which had a Muslim majority, because this act was against the tenets in Islam. The burning of an effigy of US President George Bush or controversial author Salman Rushdie were rare incidents in the state's summer capital in the past one year, he added. A Sikh youth organisation had issued a press note here, during the protests against Dera Sacha Sauda chief appealing to the Sikh masses not to burn the self-styled godman's effigy. But then the dera chief's effigy was burnt continuously for four days by Sikh activists here. |
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Rs 50 cr for upgrading hospitals
Srinagar, July 4 Union minister for health and family welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss stated this at a review meeting with Chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the National Rural Health Mission held here yesterday. Union minister of state for commerce, Jairam Ramesh and minister for health Mangat Ram Sharma also attended the meeting. Dr Ramadoss said due to the intervention of the Prime Minister, Jammu and Kashmir got two projects of upgradation of medical colleges. He said Government Medical College, Srinagar, and Government Medical College, Jammu, were being upgraded at a cost of Rs 120 crore each. Dr Ramdoss said the state would get two trauma centres at Srinagar and Jammu and several smaller trauma centres along the national highway. The union health minister also announced the setting up of a medical plant processing zone in Kashmir to tap wealth of medicinal and aromatic plants in the state. He said under the NRHM, the health infrastructure in the state would be bettered. He said the Union Health Ministry would consider changing criteria for J&K for holding health melas so that each MP got a share of three to four melas a year in his or her constituency. Dr Ramdoss said the Rogi Kalyan Samitis would be constituted both for district hospital and community health centres for better management of these health institutions. These samitis, he said, would be provided grants of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh ,respectively, to enable them to hire services of specialist doctors on need basis. Later Dr Ramadoss and Azad inaugurated regional research institute of Unani Medicines at Naseem Bagh constructed at a cost of Rs 4.87 crore here. The complex will provide research facilities under the Indian System of Medicines (ISM) and houses two 50-bed indoor wards for male and female patients, besides a full-fledged out patients department. He said the Centre would provide every assistance to the state in strengthening ISM having greater potential in the state. |
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Sufi renderings of Chand Afzal, Adi Barki regale audience
Srinagar, July 4 The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board(SASB), the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages jointly organised the event. It was inaugurated by the Governor on Monday. Sufi renderings by Chand Afzal Qawwal and Sufi vocal recital by Adil Barki from Pakistan charmed the audience last evening. The Governor, as chairman of the SASB,and Pavan K. Varma, director-general of the ICCR, were among the audience. Music transcends all barriers and boundaries and unites people across the world, irrespective of caste, colour, creed and nationality, said noted Pakistani singer Farida Khanum in a chat with artistes and mediapersons here. Lauding musicians, singers and artistes of India she said they were role models for Pakistani artistes and music lovers. She said people of
Pakistan were very fond of Indian songs adding that she herself as a great fan of Lata Mangeshkar, Parveena Sultan, Girja Devi, Anoop Jalota etc. Inviting Indian artistes, especially of Kashmir, to perform in Pakistan, she said such visits would help demolish the walls between the two peoples. Verma welcomed the guests and said the SASB had presented a unique opportunity for organising the Sufi music festival in the land of Sufis. He also appreciated the support lent by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and the state Tourism Department. “Tamanna iski nahi hai ki sar par taj rahe, faqir hun to faqirana mizaj rahe” by Chand Afzal Khan and party enthralled the audience so much that they kept clapping with the qawwals. Equally enchanting was “Bahut kathin hai daggar pangat ki,” a light vocal recital by the Pakistani troupe. Commenting on the event, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi, secretary of the Academy, said it was the beginning of a new era. The cultural exchange would open the hearts, which otherwise had been shrinking, he said. That had been made very clear by renowned artiste Fareeda Khanum who had charmed the audience at the inaugural function. |
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