Srinagar, October 19
With no mention of relaxation on rules in education loans in special rehabilitation package announced by Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the student community have demanded similar relaxations as given to business and housing loans.

In the education sector alone, it has suffered losses estimated to be around Rs 165 crore during the floods as total of 2,594 educational institutions has been damaged across the state.

The student community, which has already availed education loan, has urged the authorities for relaxation in interest and paying instalments. “After taking education loan, I was working in a private company in Raj Bagh, but it has been nearly two months now that the entire work is shut. I am not able to pay the instalments. There should be relaxation for us also keeping in view the situation we have suffered. It is not about who has suffered more or less, as students and unemployed youth are also the worst sufferers,” said Sameer Ahmad, a city resident, who has taken education loan for pursuing postgraduation in Delhi and is now working in a private company in Srinagar.

In its special rehabilitation package for flood victims across the state, J&K Bank has provided two years’ holiday for all business and housing loans and thus the bearers are supposed to repay only after two years.

The students said there was no mention of relaxation on rules in education loans, as there should have been some special package for flood-hit students of the Valley who wanted to go outside the state after the floods as the education sector has faced a setback due to the floods. “There should be special concession and scheme for students who want to avail education loan due to the floods as the education sector will take time to recover. There is already too much of unemployment. We are left with no books, no houses. We should be given some relaxation,” said Rabia Rasool, a student. An official of J&K Bank said the package was for business and house loans as education loan already had relaxation. “The rehabilitation package is purely for business and housing loans. There is already relaxation in education loan for students,” the official said.

Jammu, October 19
Amid reports that the Election Commission will conduct the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on time, the BJP has deputed a team for Leh and Kargil districts to explore the possibilities of roping in some prominent political figures in Ladakh before the 
elections.

State general secretary of the BJP Kavinder Gupta and Yudhvir Sethi have been in Ladakh for the last three days. They have been deputed to interact with prominent Buddhist and Shia leaders in Leh and Kargil, respectively.

“We are interacting with a cross-section of society. There is a wave in favour of the BJP in the mountainous region,” said Gupta over telephone from Kargil.

Without divulging details, he said the BJP would field strong candidates in the two Assembly segments of the Shia-dominated Kargil district. “It is too early to say anything. Wait for the appropriate time,” he said.

Sources in the BJP said the party had opened a channel of communication with some prominent Shia leaders in Kargil and the leadership was trying to convince them to join the party.

Victory from the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat had encouraged the party to explore possibilities of roping in prominent leaders. The party had set a target of winning three of the four assembly segments in the region.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had got the lead in one of the four Assembly segments, but a good number of votes. Despite getting the lead in one seat, the BJP had won the seat by just 36 votes.

The sources said the leadership was hopeful that the BJP would do well in the Buddhist-dominated Leh district, comprising two Assembly segments.

Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang is working overtime to ensure the victory of the party in the Assembly elections. The BJP is banking on his image in the region.

Srinagar, October 19
Sitting legislature and former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Syed Bashir Ahmed has said the time was not ripe for holding the Assembly elections as the people in the Valley were severely hit by the floods.

“How will politicians go to people to seek votes when they are homeless?” he asked. “People across the Valley have been devastated by the floods and it is sad some politicians are keen on holding the polls. I feel the time is not ripe for the elections and they should be deferred,” he said.

Barring the ruling National Conference, all political parties, including its coalition partner, Congress, want the Assembly elections on time.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to take a final call on the poll dates, but has given an indication that the elections may be held on schedule.

The former PDP leader, however, said the ECI’s decision that the election process would not hamper relief and rehabilitation was a welcome step.

Bashir, former Minister of State for Education during the PDP government in 2002, was denied ticket by the PDP from Rajpora for the upcoming Assembly elections. The party gave the mandate to former J&K Bank chairman Haseeb Ahmed Drabu from Rajpura. Drabu joined the party in June this year.

Bashir was recently expelled by the PDP’s disciplinary committee for his “anti-party activities”.

The sitting legislature said if the elections were announced by the ECI, his workers would take a “final call” on whether to contest the Assembly polls from south Kashmir’s Rajpora Assembly segment — the constituency he represented in the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections.

“I am a grass-roots level politician and if the Assembly elections are announced, my workers will take a final call on contesting the polls from Rajpora,” he said.

Srinagar, October 19
Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday said the situation along the borders in the state required reviving the process of reconciliation.

“The hostility between the two countries has hit the people of J&K the hardest and the incidents on the borders and the Line of Control should keep reminding the two countries the inevitability of sitting across the table to find a just and pragmatic solution,” Mufti said while addressing a joint convention of PDP workers from Handwara, Langate and Kargil Assembly segments here.

“While the democratic institutions need to be strengthened internally, on the face of it we cannot visualise any alternative to reconciliation and dialogue between our country and Pakistan,” he said.

Mufti said whatever the reasons for hardening of stances by the Union government and the Pakistan government, there was no substitute for the reconciliatory policy adopted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to revive the process of reconciliation to address the internal and external dimensions of the Kashmir issue,” he said, adding that the prevailing situation along the borders in J&K necessitated reviving the process of reconciliation, and the sooner the better.

Jammu, October 19
A Ministry of Urban Development report has mentioned that the increasing activities in the old city has resulted in “mushrooming of unauthorised housing colonies” in many areas of the winter capital.

The report also claimed that the influx of migrants from the Valley and their subsequent rehabilitation in the camps around the city, has deteriorated the quality of environment.

According to the report, in the old city, there are no organised parking lots and land is not available to provide proper parking.

The Jammu Development Authority has provided car parking lots at Kachi Chawni, City Chowk, Shalimar Chowk, etc…, but these are generally used by the residents of those areas.

It added that parking of cars on roads in Raghunath Bazar was taking up more than half the road width from the temple complex up to the City Chowk, which even made the movement of pedestrians difficult.

“Other city roads like the Ambphalla-Janipura road, Jewel-Talab Tillo road and Canal- Bakshi Nagar road always face traffic jams due to way side parking,” the report maintained.

The report further observed that continuous growth of population, resulting in high residential density and a mix of commercial and residential uses, has reduced the functional efficiency.

It stated that the poor circulation pattern with excessive congestion due to ribboning of commercial activities along the roads and lanes has further worsened the situation.

“The city lacks desired open spaces and parks and inadequate parking. The general bus stand within the city and mushrooming of a large number of workshops at its northern end and along the BC Road cause traffic congestion. There is heavy tourists/pedestrian traffic in the Raghunath Bazar, Raj Tilak Road, Purani Mandi, Moti Bazar and Link Road,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, a National Human Development Report has mentioned that about three per cent of the city population falls below the poverty line whereas 10 per cent belongs to the economically weaker section.

Srinagar, October 19
After the recent floods left thousands of people in the Valley homeless, a group of girls in Budgam district have embarked upon a project to stitch at least 10,000 ‘pherans’ for the flood victims.

These girls have been employed by the Incredible Arts Kashmir, a group of social workers training for stitching and weaving indigenous clothing and embroidery.

Feroz Hussain, who heads Incredible Arts Kashmir, said one of the biggest textile companies of the country, Chenab Textiles, Kathua, would provide fabric for making the ‘pherans’.

The textiles company had in the last week sent truckloads of textiles to the Valley for the purpose.

“At a time when measures are being taken to rehabilitate those who have lost their houses, we also have to understand that these people do not have sufficient clothes with them. A majority of those who have been rendered homeless by the floods have also lost their clothes and other property. They are all cash starved and we thought of helping them by providing them the necessary clothing,” Feroz said.

He said the girls who would stitch the ‘pherans’ were trained artisans now and had been working at a small tailoring centre in Budgam.

“This centre initially was my idea of enabling women empowerment in the Valley. But now, at the time of crisis, it has turned out to be a tool to help those affected by the deluge,” he said.

Feroz said most of these girls come from low economic groups but were now self-sufficient.

Srinagar, October 19
Minister for Roads and Buildings Abdul Majid Wani today conducted an extensive tour of the Devsar constituency of Kulgam district in south Kashmir to take stock of the post-flood situation and restoration of damaged infrastructure under the Roads and Buildings sector.

The minister visited Ganjipora, Sakloo, Manigam, Pahloo, Kilm Gund, Zoungalpora, Kund, Waltingo, Kraloo Kund and Khushipora villages.

Wani interacted with people at these places and got feedback about the recent floods and steps taken for restoration of basic services in the flood-affected areas. He said the government had been taking every possible step for restoration of basic services in the flood-affected areas.

The minister said the government was also providing relief for immediate succour to the affected, besides finding adequate mechanism for their permanent rehabilitation.

At Kilm Gund where the flash floods washed away 42 houses, Wani told the district administration to identify land at a safer place and allot plots for permanent rehabilitation of the flood victims, besides prepare a comprehensive proposal for providing free of cost construction material to them. — TNS

Srinagar, October 19
Rendered homeless after the recent floods, the non-migrant Pandits are demanding relief and suitable rehabilitation. Spokesman of the Hindu Welfare Society Kashmir (HWSK) Chunni Lal said around 65 families were living in pathetic conditions on the premises of the Durga Nag Trust in the Sonwar area of the city.

“Between 60 and 65 families have been provided shelter by the Durga Nag Trust. They have been rendered homeless since September 7 and have not been provided adequate relief by the government. They are living in adverse conditions with no proper flooring despite the cold at night. Besides ration, they need to be given warm clothes,” Lal said. Stating that nobody from the government had visited them either, he said they also needed to be suitably rehabilitated.

“While the houses of a few were destroyed by the floods, most of them were living on rent and the houses they used to live in too were flooded. These families need to be suitably rehabilitated,” Lal said. Finding rented accommodation after the floods has become difficult and rates too have skyrocketed. As per the government, 83,044 pucca houses were fully damaged and 96,089 partially in the Valley during the floods.

As around 70 % of the city had remained submerged, many are yet to shift back.

Katra, October 19
A high-level Central team today toured the Dera Bawa and Chassana area of Reasi district, where 20 villagers lost their lives in the first week of September due to floods and landslides.

The team comprised Vivek Tripathi, Director Monitoring, Central Water Commission; Aditya Prakash, Superintending Engineer in same commission; AK Rajput, Director, Central Electricity Board, Ministry of Power; and Prakash Bhardwaj, Under Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

An official said the Centre wanted to be sure about the exact damage to private property and government infrastructure before deciding on how to compensate Jammu and Kashmir for rebuilding.

Reasi Deputy Commissioner Shabir Ahmed Bhatt said the Central team flew to Dera Bawa and Chassana in Reasi district for assessment of the damage. The team interacted with local residents and civic officials.

The villages were flattened after floods and landslides killed 20 people. The Central team was in Seri village for an hour and enquired about the tragedy and ways to compensate survivors.

The district administration briefed the Central team about total losses in floods before flying to Mahore. In Chassana, the Central team raised several queries pertaining to assessment of damage.

The Centre had decided to undertake an extensive study of devastation caused by last month’s floods through two high-level teams.

The Centre had decided to carry out its own assessment after a memorandum was submitted, seeking Rs 44,000 crore for relief and rehabilitation.

Srinagar, October 19
Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali has made a short film on the recent floods in the Valley. He has roped in a boatman, Habibullah Bhat, to narrate the woeful tale of destruction caused by the floods in Kashmir.

Bhat, who rows shikara on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, had last year also featured in Imtiaz’s another short film on the Dal Lake. He was seen singing, cracking jokes with tourists and talking about the mesmerising beauty of the lake.

But this time, Bhat does not appear the happy man he once was. He says that the lake waters had claimed most of his assets in his houseboat and that he could not save anything for himself or for his children.

He said the boat-dwellers in the Dal Lake were told by people in towns and cities to send their boats for rescue which they had done, but they had never anticipated that the lake waters would enter their houseboats.

“I lost everything. It is not the same as last time. The government did not alert us at the right time. We were told to leave our houseboats at 2.30 am and we had nowhere to go,” Bhat says.

Bhat’s story reflects the angst of a common Kashmiri who lost everything in the floods, except hope.

Bhat concludes with a prayer, thanking God for his every breath.

Meanwhile, Bollywood has launched an initiative, ‘Umeed-e- Kashmir’, to raise funds for the floods victims of the Valley.

Jammu, October 19
The power supply in Kargil town and other parts of the district remained affected for the seventh consecutive day today following a technical snag in the 44 MW Chutak Hydroelectric Plant.

The hydroelectric project, constructed over the Suru — a tributary of the Indus in Kargil — was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 12.

Haji Asgar Ali Karbalie, Chief Executive Councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, said they had a meeting with the official concerned who had assured the people that power would be restored in the next 10 days.

“Electricity is being supplied to Kargil town through gensets only for 2 or 3 hours. It may take another 10 days to restore power supply from the Chutak plant,” he said. — TNS

Jammu, October 19
District BJP vice-president Karan Singh today said the state Custodian Department had no relevance and it should be “disbanded”.

“There is no justification in continuing with the Custodian Department and as such it should be immediately disbanded,” Karan Singh said while leading a massive protest organised by the Sher-e-Dugger Brigade, a social organisation.

Protesting outside the Raj Bhawan here, he said it was unfortunate that after partition, the government set up the department to act as a custodian of the “evacuee property”.

“Although these properties were lent out to the people of Jammu they were not given any rights over the property. They have been agitating for grant of ownership rights for three generations now,” the BJP leader said.

He said the people who were living in these properties did not have even the right to construct a wall in case it gets collapsed due to some natural calamity. “People will not tolerate this injustice anymore,” Karan Singh said.

He expressed hope that good sense would prevail and Omar Abdullah-led coalition government will fulfill the long-pending demand of disbanding the Custodian Department and grant the property rights to tenants.

The Sher-e-Dugger Brigade president Gourav Agnihotri declared that their organisation would continue to agitate till the government do not accede to the genuine and long-pending demands of the people living the “evacuee properties”.

Jammu, October 19
The Pradesh Vishwa Karma Sabha today took out a procession of Bhagwan Vishwakarma Maharaj in the city.

The religious procession passed through several areas of the city before culminating at Gurha Morh, Bakshi Nagar, Vishwakarma temple complex. The procession was taken out under the guidance of sabha chairman Vijay Kumar.

Srinagar, October 19
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh called on Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan here today.

An official statement said Jitendra Singh discussed with the Governor the ongoing relief and rehabilitation work in the Valley after the recent floods and issues relating to firing by Pakistan on the international border and the Line of Control in the Jammu region.

They also discussed existing issues relating to the educational sector and the quality of research being undertaken in the professional and educational institutions of the state.

Vohra, who is also the chairman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, discussed with Jitendra the need to install dependable weather forecast systems for the safe conduct of the annual yatra. — TNS

Jammu, October 19
The Shatiya Akademi, New Delhi, held a symposium on the life and works of late Shiv Nath, a renowned scholar, critic and historian here today.

Shiv Nath has contributed immensely to the Dogri literature. His pioneering work on Dogri literature is a bench-mark for future scholars and researchers.

In the inaugural session of the symposium, Professor Lalit Magotra, convenor of the Dogri Advisory Board, welcomed the audience and made observations about the significant contribution of Shiv Nath to Dogri literature.

Santanu Gongopadhyay, Assistant Editor, Sahitya Akademi, introduced the subject of the symposium.

In the paper reading sessions, Veena Gupta, Om Goswami, Bansi Lal and Nirmal Vinod read papers about various aspects of the works and personality of Shiv Nath.

Neelamber Dev Sharma and Nar Singh Dev Jamwal presided over the sessions.

Srinagar, October 19
A resident of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal was injured in a bear attack near his home in a second such incident in two days, the police today said.

Manzoor Ahmad Badana, a resident of Chittergul Bala village of Ganderbal, was attacked and injured by a bear near his home while he was harvesting corn crop, a police spokesman said. “The injured was shifted to hospital for treatment,” the spokesman said. It is a second incident of bear attack in the past two days as a 50-year-old man, identified as Mian Chichi, a resident of Chount Waliwar village of Ganderbal district, was yesterday attacked and injured by a bear.

Srinagar, October 19
A woman died due to electrocution at the Khonmoh Industrial Estate in the city here, the police today said.

Arzan Bano, a resident of Assam, was electrocuted while washing cloths in the bathroom of a cement factory at the Khanmoh Industrial Estate here, a police spokesman said. “She was shifted to hospital where doctors declared her brought dead,” the spokesman said. — TNS

Srinagar, October 19
The police today said it has started an investigation into the death of a man, who was missing since August this year, whose body has been recovered in a jungle in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

A police spokesman said the body of Farooq Ahmad Malkar, a resident of Gujjar Pati, Zirhama, was recovered from the jungle area of Gujjar Pati near the frontier Trehgam township of Kupwara.

Srinagar, October 19
Jammu University Teachers Union president Sunil Sahi and his team compromising Manoj Chauhan, Abhinav Sharma and Pawan Singh Bhau congratulated newly appointed Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi on his arrival at Kashmir University and assured their full support.

Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, the new Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University, gave them a patient hearing and assured that he would extend all administrative support to the association in theirfuture ventures.