Kupwara, December 8
Unscheduled power cuts continue to irk consumers in Kupwara district of North Kashmir. The power scenario has improved in metered areas of Kupwara and Handwara towns, but frequent cuts in power supply have become a routine in unmetered areas over the past few weeks.

The situation in remote villages of Handwara is grim. Many remote villages including Rajpora, Bakikar, Vadipora, Chak, Datipora Lasipora, Kumoora, Sarmarg, Shalal and Sudal are facing acute shortage of power. Consumers said the power supply had been very erratic for the past three weeks and the voltage was too low.

They said the supply lines tied on polar and other trees had been lying suspended in Sudal village and posing great danger to humans and livestock.

“The electricity goes off for hours together, but we are made to pay a monthly power tariff of Rs 338. The voltage is too low as it fails to illuminate even a small room. We often take dinner candles under candle lights,” complained Gh Mohammad Bhat, a retired headmaster of Sudal.

Residents of Kupwara, Trehgam and Kralpora towns complained that power had been playing hide-and-seek and during night hours, the supply goes off for hours together. They said they were forced to pay the power tariff according to the curtailment schedule, but electricity was not provided to them in accordance with the schedule.

“Electricity is playing hide-and-seek and often, there is no electricity for hours. Unscheduled power cuts have become the order of the day,” said Altaf Ahmad of Handwara. Students are the worst sufferers. They maintain this has badly affected their studies.

“We are forced to study under candle-lights. One major reason for dismal performance in examinations is less hours of studies during the nights owing to erratic power supply,” claimed Altaf Ahmad, a Class X student of Halmatpora Kupwara.

Thousands of students are taking part in the ongoing examinations of Kashmir University and Board of School Education. Consumers of many Lolab villages including Darpora, Maidanpora, Cheepora, Lalpora, Krusan and Dardpora also complained of low voltage. ”The voltage is even lower than that of candle-light. The supply is snapped for days but power bills are served in time,” said Fahad Aijaz.

A senior power development department official said, “During the prevailing cold season, consumers resort to use of room heaters, cooking heaters and broilers, which causes extra load and badly affects the power supply.” He added that consumers should cooperate in regulating the power supply.

Srinagar, December 8
The Gulmarg resort in north Kashmir received a fresh spell of snowfall even as the night temperatures across the plains in the region recorded a considerable increase.

The famous skiing resort of Gulmarg received one inch snowfall till morning, an official of the state Meteorological Department said. The night temperature had fallen to minus 3.4 degrees Celsius. Today’s snowfall marked the third spell in the area in the past two weeks.

The Meteorological Department today issued a forecast saying light rainfall and snow "may occur at isolated places" across the state in the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature across the region increased with the mercury at most places settling above the freezing point.

In Srinagar, the minimum temperature overnight fell to 1.6 degrees Celsius, an increase of over three degrees from last night, the official said. The day temperature in the city was recorded at 10 degrees Celsius. At the Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, the minimum temperature recorded was 1 degrees Celsius.

In Leh town of the remote Ladakh region, the mercury fell to a freezing minus 8.8 degrees Celsius overnight and in the nearby Kargil district, the mercury fell to minus 5.4 degrees Celsius at night.

The minimum temperature in the Ladakh region is usually many degrees below the freezing point, sometimes as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in the winter. The region remains cut off from the rest of the state for most of the season as heavy snow shuts the Srinagar-Leh road.

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature recorded at frontier Kupwara town in north Kashmir was minus 1.2 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature recorded in south Kashmir’s Qazigund town was 0.4 degrees Celsius, the official said.

The Valley is gearing up for bad weather conditions during 'Chillai Kalaan' - the 40-day-long harshest phase of the winter - which is set to begin after two weeks.

Srinagar, December 8
“Zakhmon Ki Saalgirah”, a novel by Kashmiri author Farooq Renzushah has been selected by the Hyderabad Central University for its MPhil degree curriculum in the varsity for research.

After conducting similar M Phil researches on literary contributions of Munshi Premchand, Saadat Hasan Manto, Asmat Chugtai and other treasured literary books of globally acclaimed authors, Central University Hyderabad, through its research scholars, has reached the zenith of literary horizon. Kashmir-based research scholar Manzoor Ahmad will conduct his research for award of an M Phil degree on the novel.

Earlier, in 2006 and 2009, Jammu University awarded M Phil degrees to Dr Imran Tak and Dr Irfan Qureshi for conducting research on rare literary short stories of Renzushah and research on spiritual content of his literary writings.

Renzushah started his literary career when he was a class IX student. His first book “Doobtay Kinaray” was published when he was a student at SP College Srinagar. While recommending his works, literary personality Aali Ahmad Saroor compared Renzushah with Munshi Premchand and observed that with passage of time, the entire literary fraternity would understand the extraordinary literary content of Renzushah’s writings.

His first literary novel “Zakhmon Ki Saalgirah” was published in 1982. It received all-round appreciation throughout the subcontinent.

This literary novel was followed by a series of novels and other books in Urdu, English, and Kashmiri, for which, Renzushah received prestigious awards at state, national and international levels.

He was honoured by an international literary organisation at Los Angels, USA. He also received awards at Tripoli and Syria for his literary contribution.

Renzushah being an author of 11 books, he has assumed the status of being the first living Kashmiri novelist and author, on whose literary works, three M Phil degrees have been awarded to three research scholars. This is apparently for the first time that Hyderabad Central University has selected the novel of a Kashmir-based author for research work.

Handwara, December 8
Forest division Langate in North Kashmir has recovered around 300 kanals of forest land encroached upon and occupied by people in Mawar, Rajwar and Magam villages of Handwara and Langate tehsils.

Forest officials assisted by a team of policemen and Naib Tehsildar Kralgund today recovered at least 50 kanals of forest land under illegal occupation in hamlets including Mawar, Monshnar, Haroot, Raingpat and Nowgam.

The forest division has started a drive against people who have illegally encroached upon the forest land over the past two decades. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Tawheed Ahmad Deva said during the past two weeks, as many as 300 kanals of forest land had been recovered from people and the drive will continue till the forest land is freed from illegal occupation.

“We have constituted a team of officials who identify the land under illegal occupation of people in forest division. So far, we have recovered at least 300 kanals of land from many families in these areas. The drive will continue till all the land under illegal occupation is restored to the forest range,” said DFO forest division Langate.

The hamlets where most of the forest land has been encroached include Gund Chabotra Mawar, Monshnar, Haroot, Raingpat, Nowgam, Reshwari, Lawoosa, Chak, Potawari, Haril, Baman, Lachanpora, Sultanpora, Wadar, Buna Wadar and Satkochi.

The forest official said the department has, through the print media, already asked people to vacate the land under illegal occupation. The people in many villages of Handwara and Langate Tehsil have planted trees, built structures and set up orchards on forest land.

The DFO said, “We are satisfied with the cooperation of people in the drive against illegal land encroachment in villages of Handwara and Langate. Hopefully, we will be able to recover all the land under occupation in a few weeks. I appeal to people to vacate the land under illegal occupation.”

Khazir Mohd Dar of Mochinar said, “People in our village have no problems in giving the land back to the forest department. The department should, however, demarcate the forest land and fence off the entire land so that there are no chances of encroachment upon the land again.”

Srinagar, December 8
Terming that statistics is an essential component in the overall developmental progress for any community or nation, University of Kashmir Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Talat Ahmad told aspiring scholars and academicians that they should equip themselves with the modern statistical knowhow.

The VC was speaking at a seminar on ‘Awareness about Official Statistics in India’ in the university. He said the country cannot progress unless accurate statistical data is available for research and documentation purposes.

"In our university, the proposal for the mandatory implementation of statistics in research methodology while doing M Phil and Ph.D is under consideration as it gives accurate scenario of the field and makes the research more authentic," he said.

Commenting on the present efficacy of the statistics department of the university, Prof Talat said it was the opportune time for the department to help other departments by providing expertise on daily affairs and research work in various subjects of study.

KU Dean Academics Affairs Prof AM Shah, while acknowledging the importance of the statistics for better management and effective analysis of various administrative issues, said, "Besides giving proper direction to the research undertaken by the scholar, statistics also helps in managing various affairs which are purely administrative in nature."

National Academy of Statistical Administration Deputy Director Devinder Singh said the main purpose of the seminar was to make students aware about statistics and improve research in the statistical field.

Kulgam, December 8
CPI (M) state secretary Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami today urged the Government of India to grant general amnesty to political prisoners languishing in different jails of Kashmir and other parts of India.

“I request the Prime Minister of India to directly intervene in the matter,” Tarigami said while addressing a gathering at Arreh village of Kulgam district in south Kashmir.

Asserting that granting political prisoners general amnesty will be a great confidence building measure, Tarigami said, “Releasing prisoners who’re not involved in heinous crimes will prove to be fruitful as far as improving the ground situation in Kashmir is concerned.”

Stating that a visit to Pakistan by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will help in ending the political impasse between the two countries, Tarigami said the peace process should not be held hostage to domestic pulls and pressures.

“The recent invitation by Pakistan gives Dr Singh a chance to take a step towards being a statesman and to not go in the archives of history as just a politician,” Tarigami said.

The CPI (M) leader said the dialogue between the two countries would remain inconclusive until the internal dimensions of the problems are taken into consideration. “The political aspirations of the people of Kashmir can in no way be overlooked during the dialogue between the two countries,” he said. He said corruption was eating into the vitals of society and a nexus between politicians and bureaucrats was keeping the institutions of self-governance disempowered.

He said the need of the hour was to go for the block development council elections to fulfill the pre-requisites of the Panchayat Raj system in the state.

Srinagar, December 8
Independent MLA from Langate Engineer Rasheed has said he and panchayat members will hold a protest against the “failure of the government to revoke contentious laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the unabated human rights abuses in the region”.

Accusing the government of ignoring people’s woes, Rasheed in a statement issued here said the demonstration will be held on the World Human Rights Day on December 10 in Srinagar.

“Engineer Rasheed has accused the government of ignoring the sufferings of people of Jammu and Kashmir and not showing least respect towards human rights,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“MLA Rasheed has questioned both the state and Central governments of their sincerity and intentions to revoke the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which he said was the root cause of evils and human rights abuses,” the spokesman said.

He said the MLA had planned a protest to highlight these issues in the protest.

Rasheed said panches and sarpanches, being representatives of people at the grassroots level, know better than anybody else what human rights abuses mean and so their voice should be heard.

“He said though he had sought permission from state administration for the protest, the authorities seem to be in denial mode as they want to curb political and human rights of Kashmiris at the barrel of gun and with the help of draconian laws such as the AFSPA and the Public Safety Act,” the spokesman said. 

Srinagar, December 8
Ahead of their forthcoming visit to Pakistan, leaders of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference today consulted members of minority communities in Kashmir.

A group of Hurriyat leaders from the moderate camp led by Mirwaiz is scheduled to leave for a week-long visit to Pakistan on December 17.

Mirwaiz had earlier announced he would hold a series of meeting with members of the civil society and legal, economic, academic and political experts ahead of the visit. Subsequently, on November 20, the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference had conducted a consultative meeting with traders in Srinagar.

Srinagar, December 8
Hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday organised a seminar on human rights.

The key speakers at the seminar included chairman of the hardline separatist amalgam Syed Ali Geelani, chief of Dukhtaran-e-Millat Asiya Andrabi, head of Muslim Khwateen Markaz Zamrooda Habib, Prof Shiekh Showkat, Prof Hameeda Nayeem and columnist Arjumand Hussain Talib.

Leaders of several Hurriyat constituents and members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association also addressed the seminar.

The seminar, held at the Hyderpora residence of Geelani, which also houses the head office of the Hurriyat faction, was organised to coincide with the Human Rights Day, which is annually observed on December 10.