Srinagar, September 1
With an aim to improve sanitation in the city and efficiently manage the house-to-house garbage collection system, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) is going to install domestic bins in the households in Srinagar.

The decision in this regard was taken recently during a high level meeting which was chaired by the Chief Secretary and attended by SMC Commissioner GN Qasba and officials from other agencies including the Economic Reconstruction agency, official documents reveal.

The SMC is responsible for the collection of garbage from source, households and commercial institutions.

Currently, the SMC is responsible for the management of various garbage collection points in the city. Besides, it is also responsible for the transportation of the garbage and the solid waste to the landfill site at Achen on the outskirts of the city.

During the meeting, six decisions aimed at improving the sanitation and solid waste management systems in the city were taken.

“It was decided that the SMC would further improve collection of garbage from house-to-house by providing domestic bins including segregation and its efficient and environment-friendly transportation to the landfill site at Achen,” the documents revealed.

During the meeting, it was stated that the SMC had already taken certain measures for efficient collection of garbage from house-to-house, including hotels, restaurants and other institutions.

It was said the SMC had also improved the roadside garbage collection by way of use of ‘smart garbage bins’ and added modern transportation fleet, including garbage compact machines and hopper vehicles.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of recent High Court orders which had asked the Chief Secretary to improve environment in the city and that potable water be provided to the people living near the Achin garbage dumping site, as it was reported that the foul smell from the dumping site has spread to interiors of Srinagar city.

Kupwara September 1
Parents in Baramulla district are worried over non-availability of Vitamin-A supplement at the district hospital.

The supplement is administered to the children below the age of five years. Parents said for past many weeks, they had been visiting the hospital to get Vitamin-A supplement administered to their children but to no avail.

“I made four visits in the past two weeks but the hospital management every time informed me that the supplement is not available. We are suffering immensely due to the non-availability of Vitamin-A supplement at the hospital,” said Wahid Shah, a resident of Khawajabagh, Baramulla.

Doctors say the Vitamin-A asupplement plays an important role in functioning of the immune system and the healthy growth of a child. A report by the World Health Organisation stated that deficiency of Vitamin-A could cause night blindness or full blindness and multiple illnesses in children.

Residents of Baramulla and its adjoining areas said the non-availability of the drug had put the lives of newborn children at risk.

“It is a major negligence on part of the hospital authorities. Many parents are not aware of the importance of Vitamin-A. But the hospital management cannot take the issue lightly. It is their responsibility to keep the supplement available and administer the same to children,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident of Sheeri, Baramulla.

The parents said the Vitamin-A was not being sold in the open market. “Throughout the Baramulla town, the supplement is not available at the medical shops. We made several pleas to the hospital management but the supplement has not been made available so far,” said Mohd Amin, a parent.

Sources said the supplement was also not available at other major hospitals in north Kashmir.

Srinagar, September 1
Lassipora, the industrial estate in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, will have the highest concentration of Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storages of apple in the country. This was revealed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after inaugurating a CA store and laying the foundation of another one at Lassipora today.

Omar tweeted, “With the projects in the pipeline, this estate will have the highest concentration of CA stores in India if not South Asia.”

Addressing a function after laying the foundation of a CA store, the Chief Minister said the CA facility would help in regulating the market and ensuring remunerative prices for Kashmir horticulture produce.

The Chief Minister said the glut created in the terminal markets by the bulk supply of the fruit from the Valley in the fruit season reduced the prices causing economic losses to the fruit growers.

He said setting up of infrastructure like CA storages in the Valley and regulating the market by dispatching fruit as per the demand in the terminal markets would benefit growers to a large extent. “This will also check the sudden fall in prices of fruits in the markets due to the glut,” he said.

Omar also laid stress on increasing per hectare production and productivity and said as per the analysis report per hectare production of apple in the Valley was 9.5 tones as compared to 70 tones per hectare in Austria. He said the growers and the Horticulture Department had to work together to work out a strategy of enhancing productivity. He said, if the per hectare production of fruit was raised up to 25 tonnes per hectare in the state, Jammu and Kashmir would be able to produce 35 lakh tonnes of apple annually. He said this would not only generate economic activities and jobs but help to strengthen the economy.

The Chief Minister also stressed the need for introducing “scientific packaging” techniques for better marketing of Kashmiri apples.

He said, “Packaging, grading and quality maintaining are must to sell the produce in terminal markets on reasonable prices.” He said Kashmir apple could be exported anywhere in the world if its quality, packaging and presentation was up to the mark and at par with the international standards.

Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry Nazir Ahmad Gurezi and MLA Aga Syed Ruhulla were also present on the occasion. 

Srinagar, September 1
The second JK Golf Association Tournament in association with Royal Springs Golf Course (RSGC) was played at Royal Spring Golf Course (RSGC) here today. As many as 120 members of the association from the state participated in the tournament.

The tournament was played between Chinar Team and Pine Team. The Chinar team was declared winner, while Pine team was declared runner up. Besides the main trophy, there were other spot prizes which were won by the individual golfers.

“The individual golfers who won the award included Agambir Singh, Mehboob Hussain, Bhawani Singh, SS Wazir, Harjot Singh, Iftikhar Beg, Umar Jan and Mushtaq Rahim,” an official spokesman said.

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, who was chief guest on the occasion, distributed the trophies and prizes amongst the Golfers.

Abdullah outlined various steps to be taken by the association for the betterment of the golf and stressed the need for imparting training to the younger golfers of the state so that the talent of state could compete at the national and international circuits.

The Union Minister complimented the JKGA for organising the tournament and appreciated the improvement and good work done in the Kashmir Golf Club as well. He announced that one tournament would be played for the welfare of caddies in near future.

Raja Ajaz Ali, president of the association, thanked Dr Farooq Abdullah, who is also patron of the association for his keen interest in the game. He also declared the schedule for forthcoming tournaments which are being played at Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Jammu. He also stressed the need for organising training camps by the JK Golf Association for training the juniors and refresher training courses for professionals of the state. 

Srinagar, September 1
While the authorities today sealed the main Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) taxi stand on the directions of the High Court, vehicles continue to operate in its neighbourhood, from the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) land that was encroached upon by taxi drivers.

Sources said a large contingent of police men appeared near the TRC taxi stand in the morning and sealed it with concertina wires in the presence of senior district officials.

“We have sealed it as per the directions of the High Court that is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the traffic regulations in Srinagar. The taxi owners have been allotted a land near Pantha Chowk and the SDA has established many public facilities for them so that Jammu-bound people in general don’t face any inconvenience,” said a senior district administration official.

The cab drivers were asked to operate from the Pantha Chowk. Meanwhile, dozens of taxi driver continues to occupy the portion of the SDA land in the heart of the city since last week. After the government officials failed to evict them, the SDA moved a court. The Chief Judicial Magistrate has directed the police to investigate and file a compliance report by Monday.

On the intervening night of August 24 and 25, dozens of taxi drivers allegedly forced their entry into the compound housing the Divisional Store of the SDA on the MA Link road and parked their vehicles on a portion of the SDA land. They have occupied six kanals of land and turned it into a taxi stand.

Srinagar, September 1
Limping his way to the non-striker’s end, 18-year-old Bilal Ahmad Shah is a ‘ferocious’ runner between the wickets. He recalls that he had recently scored over 100 runs while representing his school, Government Higher Secondary School, Manigam in Kangan tehsil of Ganderbal district.

At the age of two, Bilal’s right leg stopped working due to polio, but his love for cricket never came to an end.

He rather turned up to play for school and inter-school tournaments.

“All my life, I have played though I am handicapped. I don’t play for specially challenged (disabled) teams. I don’t know of any such teams. I play with schoolchildren who are normal. I do equally well. Sometimes, I perform much better because of which I am called the Sachin of my area, Bela Wusan,” Bilal told Kashmir Tribune.

Although Bilal dreams of making it big in life and playing for the state or even the country one day, there are no resources back at home. He gets monthly stipend of Rs 475 from the Social Welfare Department and has a family of four members to fend.

“My father is unemployed. He used to work on farms, not anymore. Earlier, the Social Welfare Department used to pay us regularly. But now, I get these stipends after months together. Although, I am dreaming big, but I fear that my poor family background may act as a damper,” he added.

Bilal thanked a government official, Aamir Ali, for raising awareness about his poor living conditions and volunteering for his involvement in cricket at a bigger level.

“I am grateful to him for his support. I want to play for the national and international teams of specially abled but I don’t know how to go about it,” Bilal said. 

Srinagar, September 1
Syed Ali Geelani has been elected the chief of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, the separatist group he formed in 2004, for the fourth consecutive term. Soon after the election result was out, Geelani called for a boycott of next year's elections.

Geelani, who is also the chairman of the hardline faction of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference, was elected to lead the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat after an election at the party headquarters here in the city in which 669 members of the group voted.

The 83-year-old separatist won the election with 590 votes, achieving a huge margin from his old aide and deputy Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, who ended up second with 
66 votes.

The members of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat had come from different parts of the Kashmir valley. Kupwara district of north Kashmir had the highest number of delegates (110), followed by Srinagar district (109).

Members of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat also elected a body of consultative council, whose members were elected from each district of the region.

Geelani had earlier been elected as the chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat in 2004, 2007 and 2010. The Tehreek-e-Hurriyat was formed in 2004 soon after Geelani and other hardline separatists split from the Jamaat-e-Islami.

In his speech, Geelani said the Kashmir issue had its "genesis in the two-nation theory". Geelani’s lengthy speech included description of events leading to partition, the situation in Kashmir in 1947 and analysis of the events of recent days in Kashmir which included Gool and Kishtwar incidents.

Geelani also talked about the execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru and the subsequent death of protesters.

The separatist leader also appealed for a poll boycott in the next year elections in the region saying there was no difference between the National Conference, Congress, PDP and any other party.

Geelani asked his party members to go “door-to-door” to campaign for boycott of the elections. 

Srinagar, September 1
Awami Itihad Party (AIP) president and Langate MLA Engineer Rasheed today flayed the government for "exonerating" Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in the probe into the recent communal clashes in Kishtwar, Jammu.

Referring to media reports over the "failure" of the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the role of VDCs in Kishtwar clashes, he said, "The VDCs were exonerated without ascertaining the facts. It is astounding that no FIR was registered against any VDC member. Muslim youth were booked under the Public Safety Act while activists of the Sangh Parivar and other extremist parties were given a clean chit. It is sheer discrimination."

When asked whether he supported the upcoming Zubin Mehta concert, Rasheed said he would write to the organisers of the event and urge them to dedicate a composition to the "martyrs of Kashmir". He said he would welcome the event only if his suggestion was adhered to. Meanwhile, former Deputy Commissioner Advocate Abdul Rashid Dar, social activist and businessman Ali Muhammad Khanday from Pampore, Advocate Sheikh Muhammad Younis, Ghulam Nabi Trali and Gulzar Ahmed Naik joined the AIP.

Welcoming new entrants to the party fold, the AIP president said: "These new leaders will help the AIP establish its base in the Tral and Pampore areas. Abdul Rasheed Dar would contest the elections on the AIP ticket from Tral."

He said the AIP's aim was to empower people and give them proper representation in every forum. 

Srinagar, September 1
As many as 11 panchayat members joined the Congress party in north Kashmir's Baramulla district.

Sarpanch Bashir Ahmad Shah, a social activist of the Sheeri Narava area, joined the Congress with 10 panchayat members, said a Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) statement here.

Shah and others joined the party during a public meeting chaired by JKPCC president Saifuddin Soz at Sheeri Narava.

He was accompanied by MLC Gulam Nabi Monga, former MLA Shoaib Nabi Lone and other leaders of the party.

While welcoming Shah, Gulam Hassan Rather and other leaders of the 'Panchayat Sangthan', Soz said, “The Congress has been recognised as the most acceptable political party even in remotest corners of the state.”

On the occasion, he also congratulated the people of Kargil for their “appreciation” for policy and programmes of the Congress party on the basis of which they achieved a great success in Kargil for the first time.

He was referring to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, elections.

The JKPCC statement said the cadre of National Youth Corps thanked Soz for his efforts in seeking extension in their services from the Centre. 

Srinagar, September 1
Chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was today conferred with ‘Khilat-e- Hanfi Sopori’ award for his contribution towards development of Kashmir language.

The separatist leader was conferred with this award on the concluding day of the annual ‘Kashmir Conference’ which was organised by the Adbee Markaz Kamraz (AMK), one of the biggest literary forums dedicated to the development and propagation of the Kashmiri language.

“This year’s “Khilat-e-Hanfi Sopori” award was conferred upon Mirwaiz Molvi Umar Farooq for promotion of Kashmiri language from the august religious platform of Jamia Masjid, Srinagar, and also as a religious leader for his keenness towards the protection of Kashmiri language and identity,” AMK said in a statement here.

“While speaking on the occasion, Mirwaiz emphasised the need for learning and developing ones own language, arts and culture”, the spokesman said. Mirwaiz added that by ignoring the development and propagation of Kashmiri language, the people of Kashmir could not maintain and preserve their identity.

Mirwaiz also said by translating holy Quran in Kashmiri language, his late grandfather Moulvi Yousuf Shah Kashmir not only made understanding of Quran easy for Kashmiri masses, but it was also a literary feat in Kashmiri language.

Noted litterateur and broadcaster Farooq Nazki was conferred with this year’s “Sharaf-e-Kamraz” award for his contribution towards Kashmiri literature, through his writings as well as the broadcast media, the AMK statement said.

Kashmir Writers’ Forum, Sopore, and Rafiabad Adbi Markaz jointly bagged the “Sharaf-e-Kamraz” award in the category of literary organisations, for their efforts on ground to reach out to poets and writers of Kashmiri language in Sopore and Rafiabad areas of north Kashmir, it said.

Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Shah was conferred with “Khilat-e-Hanfi Sopori” award in the administration category for his positive role in the administration for the promotion of Kashmiri language and literature. 

Srinagar, September 1
Five people were injured in two road accidents in the region, a police spokesman said. Four people were injured when a bus collided with a cab near Ompora in Budgam district, the police spokesman said.

In another accident, an SUV hit and injured an SMC worker identified as Bashir Ahmad Malik, a resident of Watergam, at Lawaypora in the city. — TNS