Category: Union Territory

Credit goes to Agriculture, allied department intervention schemes

Srinagar: High returns of Integrated Farming have become another attraction for the cultivators of high end Saffron crop in this mountainous district of Kishtwar.

Together with the Saffron, a high-value commercial/export crop being grown in a few pockets, the farmers are undertaking mushroom cultivation, Bee Keeping, Protected Vegetable growing with special focus on local specialties for doubling the farm income.

The Agriculture Department is ensuring involvement of PRI members in selection of beneficiaries for better implementation of schemes and programmes at the gross root level.

The Department, with the help of field functionaries is also endeavoring to achieve 100% targets set for implementation of Kissan Credit Card Scheme (KCCS) and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-KISAN).
The department is motivating the farmers to follow integrated farming system. The farmers are being offered incentives and knowhow for mushroom cultivation, Bee Keeping, Protected Vegetable growing. A special focus is being laid on local specialties for doubling the farm income.

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in Kishtwar District as in the rest of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory.

The major crops grown in the district are maize, wheat, paddy and grain. A total of 25872 Hectares area of the District is under food and non food crops out of which 15186 Hectares area is under HYVS (High yielding variety seeds).

The cold climatic conditions suit the horticulture sector. The main fresh fruit produced in the district includes Apple, Apricot, Plum Pear and Peach and dry fruits produced include Walnut, Almond and Peanut. Kishtwar is also known as unique land of saffron.

While attending a meeting of Back to village-3, Abdul Qyoom, a resident of Block Marwah said that the farmers are pinning high hopes from the Saffron farm being developed by the Agriculture department in the district. He said the modern technique and research based interventions being used there is capable of producing high quality saffron. The success of technique would also benefit the private growers when it is taken to their farms, he hoped. Kishtwar is the only district of saffron producing district in Jammu region.

Kishtwar saffron is very famous owing to its fine flavour, colour and medicinal value. For being a low volume and lucrative cash crop, Saffron is a very popular crop in the region. The main marketing channels are brokers/local traders/cooperative societies etc.

Villages namely Thakraie, Kuchhal, Kuchhan, Bunjwah, Inderwal/Chatru, Palmar, Trigam, Poochal, Dool, Padyarna, Na-gseni, Paddar (Ligri &Tata Pani) and some villages of Drabshala and Dachhan blocks are known for commercial cultivation of saffron in the district. About 202 hectares of land in the district is under the saffron cultivation, producing 5-6 quintals of saffron annually. It takes about 4, 50,000 stigmas or 1, 50,000 flowers to produce 1 Kg of saffron spice.(KINS)

Srinagar: Principal Secretary Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal today chaired a meeting with senior officers to review the preparedness of Power Development Department (PDD) with regard to power supply for the upcoming winter season in Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by Managing Director KPDCL, Chief Engineer KPDCL, Chief Engineer Projects, SEs, EXENs and other concerned. MD JPDCL and other concerned from Jammu division participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

At the outset, the Principal Secretary was briefed about the Action Plan and its implementation during the upcoming winter season in both the divisions of Kashmir and Jammu and other preparations for the upcoming winter season.

The meeting discussed various issues with regard to branch cutting of trees along Transmission Lines and power supply lines, buffer stock of transformers, tendering of transformers and workshops’ upgradation, setting up of divisional control rooms etc.

Speaking on the occasion, Kansal directed the concerned officers to maintain buffer stock of transformers for time-bound replacement of damaged equipment and subsequent reclaimable transformers and eventually adding them up to the buffer stock.

He also set a deadline to repair and reclaim transformers so that buffer stock of such transformers would be added besides the repairing of transformers in the normal course of time.

On establishing divisional control rooms in all divisions of distribution division, he directed the concerned to set up a dedicated 24X7 public grievance center with sufficient staff to cater to the consumers’ complaints.

He told the meeting that for additional infrastructure under SAUBHAGYA, Rs 50 crore each have been sanctioned for Kashmir and Jammu divisions to replace wooden poles and barbed wires and directed to concerned officers to issue tenders for the work so that an entire village would be taken for the upgradation of power system.

He said that during the upcoming winter season the priority is that the system must be up and running with minimum disruption in the power supply system.

The meeting was also informed that in areas like Gurez, Machhil, Keran, Karnah etc which remain cut off during winters, sufficient amount of fuel (Diesel, Petrol and K-Oil) has been dumped for which funds have already been released to the concerned chief engineers.
The meeting also discussed installation of new meters and the cost to be incurred during the installation process.(KINS)

Asks all stakeholders to ensure strict adherence to COVID preventive protocols

Srinagar: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, KK Sharma, today visited the Mega Fruit Mandi Aglar Shopian and reviewed the development activities being executed there.

District Development Commissioner Shopian, Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin, SSP Shopian, Amritpal, Director Industries, MD Sicop, Chief Agricultural Officer, Chief Horticulture Officer, Manager Industries, Police & other concerned officers accompanied the Advisor.

During his visit to Mandi Fruit Growers Association, Traders and Civil Society members met the Advisor and apprised him of their issues.

President Fruit Growers Association, Mohammad Ashraf, apprised the Advisor of several issues and demands which inter alia included protection Bund, mhacadamization of approach road, smooth plying of fruit trucks on National Highway and other hardships. Besides, civil society members and others also put forth their genuine demands for early settlement.

Advisor listened to the issues raised during his interaction with the public and assured that all these would be looked into seriously and redressed in a time bound manner.

Regarding de-congestion of traffic on national highway and Mughal road, the Advisor said that the matter would be taken up at the appropriate forum for an early redressal.

Advisor also visited and reviewed the functioning of various units including Orchard Fresh Cold Chain Private Limited, Green Valley Estates and Firdous Cold Storage Aglar Shopian and other units.

He asked for close scrutiny of the proposals being submitted by various aspiring entrepreneurs and big industrial units so that the viability of these can be ascertained.

Advisor urged upon the Fruit Growers, Traders and other stakeholders of the Mega Fruit Mandi Aglar and Industrial Estates to ensure strict adherence to all necessary preventive protocols regarding COVID-19 to contain further spread of this dreaded virus.

He directed the concerned officers to promote income generating activities and attract the young entrepreneurs towards Hi-tech farming ventures.

During his visit to Industrial Estates Aglar, the Advisor emphasized upon quality of the apple production to make them more competitive.

DDC briefed the Advisor about various development activities being taken up in the area like augmenting power supply and portable drinking water, better road connectivity and other development works going on in the Mandi. He said that Executing Agencies have geared up to fill up the gaps created due to COVID-19 and additional men and machinery has been pressed into service for timely completion of works. He said that the district administration is on its toes for rapid restoration of all developmental works for making the Mega fruit Mandi Aglar fully functional.(KINS)

Srinagar: Chief Electoral Officer, J&K Hirdesh Kumar, conducted a meeting with the representatives of political parties regarding the conduct of Panchayat and Municipal By-Elections 2020 and several issues were deliberated in the meeting for the smooth conduct of the By-Elections.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, apprised all the representatives of political parties about the conduct of By-Election 2020 by mentioning that all the preparations have been finalised including providing all logistics and procurement of election material.

The Panchayat By-Election 2020 will be conducted through Ballot Boxes on non-party basis, whereas Municipal Election will be conducted on party basis through M2EVMs and accordingly a detailed scheduled in this regard is being issued shortly.

He further said that the continuous updation of Panchayat Electoral rolls w.r.t 01-01-2020 is under process with the aim that no eligible voter to be left behind unregistered, as far the updation of Municipal Electoral Rolls a Special summary revision is being conducted with the qualifying date as 01-01-2020.

Regarding the free, fair and transparent conduct of election, CEO J&K assured all the political parties that Panchayat By-Election and Urban Local Bodies By-elections 2020 will be conducted in free, fair, transparent, ethical, participative and COVID safe manner.

Several issues were raised by the representative of political parties including the deferment of the election due to COVID-19 , provision of adequate security as per actual threat perception and need without any party affiliation, and conducive atmosphere for the conduct of elections.

In response CEO, J&K informed that the said By-Elections can’t be indefinitely deferred as the Govt., has now decided to conduct By Elections on the analogy of Assembly Elections being conducted in the country after observing all COVID-19 SOPs. He further assured that all COVID-19 related arrangements shall be ensured at polling stations including the provision of face masks, sanitizers, thermal scanners etc and proper social distancing will be ensured during the entire election process.

Among the prominent Dr. Rama Kant Khajuria representative of Indian National Congress, Shri Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman, J&K National Panthers Party, Shri Narender Singh Raina representative of PDP and other officers/officials of CEO Office J&K attended the meeting.(KINS)

Srinagar: General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps, Lieutenant General BS Raju on Saturday said that 250-300 militants are ready to infiltrate at launching pads established on the other side of Line of Control (LoC).

He said that Court of Inquiry (CoI) into Amshipora Shopian fake encounter has been completed and the process to the next level will reach soon.

GoC 15 Corps who was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the passing-out-cum attestation parade at JAKLI centre at Rangreth in Srinagar outskirts said that “Pakistan has failed to mend its ways of helping militants to infiltrate into this part of Kashmir but Army is enough skilled to teach a lesson to neighboring country”.

“Pakistan is continuously helping militants to infiltrate into Kashmir with an aim to destabilize peaceful atmosphere in the region”, GoC said and added around 250-300 militants are ready at launching pads  to infiltrate into this side.

He however admitted that few ceasefire violations are reporting at Line of Control (LoC) but maintained situation is “under control”. He said Army needs peoples support to frustrate the designs of Pakistan who is continuously pushing infiltrators to Kashmir.

Lauding the efforts of Army while foiling the infiltration bids at Line of Control (LoC), GoC said that effective counter infiltration mechanism has declined the attempts of infiltration by militants this year.

“This year we have stopped infiltration bids to large extend. Last year till October 126 militants had managed to enter into this part of Kashmir however this figure during current year witnessed a decline and the number reached to just 30”, he said.

GOC, according to news agency KINS, said this morning Army foiled a weapon smuggling bid into Kashmir across the KishanGanga River and recovered four AK rifles. He said army is containing the situation and has recovered cache of arms as effective surveillance mechanism has been put in place.

He added that anti-militancy operations are on across valley during which militants are being killed continuously both in the hinterland and on Line of Control (LoC). “This morning, Army killed two militants including a foreigner in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district and added it has been seen where foreign militants got killed the area witnessed peace afterwards.

GoC said that after six months the local recruitment into militant ranks went up again last month. “During last six months there was a decline in local recruitment but it went up again in last month”, he said.

To a query about surrender policy, GOC said that several youth who had joined militant ranks are giving up now as such things are being kept hidden for several reasons. “Local boys who were swayed and taken up arms have started to come back. They are being given every change to surrender and such things are being kept into secret”, GoC said while replying to a query.

When asked about the comparison of south Kashmir to northern parts, GOC said that there is no doubt that recruitment is south Kashmir is little high than in north Kashmir but situation is comprehensively under control.

To a question about Panchayat elections, GOC said that as the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has already given nod to its conduct, we are hopeful that people from all areas will come forward for the development of their respective areas.

On Shopian fake encounter, he said the Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been completed and on the basis of the inquiry who found some wrong were been committed. “We have ordered a summary of evidence and have covered some distance. Hopefully, we will reach the next stage soon”, he said.

When asked whether there is any indication of assistance by China into infiltration bids at LoC, Army officer maintained that so far there is no such evidence of direct strategic or logistic support from China but as far as CPEC is concerned, the reports cannot be ruled out.

He also added that economic activity has also been started in Kashmir and apple and paddy cultivation has also started. GOC further added that Army along with people are containing the Covid-19 pandemic situation meticulously. (KINS)

Srinagar: Food Safety Department Saturday fined people for smoking at public places.

An official told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) that a special drive to implement section 4 of cigarettes and other tobacco product act was conducted in and around major hospital premises of district Srinagar by a team of food safety officers headed by Assistant Commissioner Food Safety Srinagar.

“The hospitals which were covered include SMHS, Super Speciality Hospital, Lalla Ded and G B Panth. An amount of Rs 4400 was recovered from those who were found smoking at these public places. Commissioner Food and Drugs administration Shakeel Ur Rehman has directed the enforcement officers to strictly implement the provisions of COTPA and has appealed the general public to desist from smoking as it adversely impacts the health of active as well as passive smokers,” official said.(KINS)

Srinagar: Senior NC leader and member of Parliament M Akbar lone on Saturday said that centre has no right to impose property tax here in J&K.

While talking exclusively with PTK, lone said if there would have been legislative Assembly and such issues should have been decided by them not by Centre.

He said that on what ground they have imposed property tax hete, when the market value of property here is very low.

Govt must re-consider its decision and revocate this decision immediately so that locals who have been going through tough times already must feel a sigh of relief.

According to the recent order the property tax shall be levied at such percentage not exceeding fifteen per cent of the taxable annual value of land and building or vacant land or both, as the Government may, by notification, from time to time specify.

These laws also empower the government to exempt certain classes or categories of persons or lands and buildings, or vacant lands or both from the payment of the property tax.

They also define methodology for determination of property tax.

“Subject to the provisions of section 86 and rules, if any, made by the Government in this behalf, the taxable annual value of land and building or vacant land assessable to taxes under this Act shall be calculated by multiplying the corresponding unit area value with the total built-up area of a building or the total area of land, as the case may be, minus depreciation, at such rates as may be prescribed, depending on the age of the building,” reads the laws.(PTK)

Srinagar: Army on Saturday said the gun was not a solution to any problem and claimed that recruitment of militants has gone down in Kashmir.

“Recruitment of militants has gone down which is a good sign. We appeal Kashmiri youth to look after their families and focus on their studies,” Sector commander of Army’s 9 RR regiment, Brigadier V S Thakur told reporters as per news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).

This he stated after the Army killed two militants in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. “Two militants have been killed. One is a local youth Tariq Mir and another is a Pakistani. The operation was launched by RR after receiving specific information from the police. It was a successful operation with no loss of life or property,” he said.

“Gun is no solution to any problem. The youth in Kashmir should focus on their studies and help in bringing peace in the valley,” he added.
Meanwhile, General Officer Commanding 15 Corps, Lt General B S Raju said that there are inputs that about 250-300 militants are waiting to cross to this side of Line of Control. “But we have been successful to some extent in blocking their infiltrations,” he said during a press conference here.

He said 130 militants infiltrated last year and the number is 30 this year so far.

He said that the situation on LoC is under control and only a few ceasefire violations are being done by Pakistan to initiate the infiltration.

On the Shopian fake encounter, he said, “We have ordered a summary of evidence which is halfway done and we expect it to be completed at the earliest so that further steps can be taken.”

Srinagar: At least four militants were killed on Saturday in two separate encounters with security forces in Kulgam and Pulwama districts of South Kashmir.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Chingam area of Kulgam district of south Kashmir late Friday night following specific inputs about the presence of militants there.

An official said the search operation turned into an encounter after militants fired upon a security forces party, who retaliated.

The slain militants have been identified as Tariq Ahmad Mir, resident of Zangalpora Divsar Kulgam; and a Pakistani national identified as Sameer Bhai alias Usman, resident of Punjab Pakistan, and an “A” category militant, the official said.

Sector commander of Army’s 9 RR regiment, Brigadier V S Thakur as per news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) termed Kulgam encounter a “successful operation without causing any damage to life and property of civilians”.

“Two militants have been killed. One is a local youth Tariq Mir and another is a Pakistani. The operation was launched by RR after receiving specific information from the police. It was a successful operation with no loss of life or property,” he said.

An official said both militants were affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. The official said an M4 rifle and a pistol have been recovered from the site of the encounter.

In another operation in Dadoora area of Pulwama district of south Kashmir, two militants were killed, the official said.

The police said the encounter started after security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation there following information about the presence of militants. Two AK rifles have been recovered from the encounter site, the official added.(KINS)

Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir Government on Friday said that 25,000 vacancies in the Union Territory will be filled soon, adding the number includes those 10,000 jobs advertised already by the Government.

According to Kashmir News Service (KNS), Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the Government is working on fulfilling the assurance given by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi about 50,000 jobs to the unemployed youths in Jammu and Kashmir.

Taking micro-blogging site Twitter LG Sinha said, “A Comprehensive Plan is in offing for filling up of 25,000 vacancies with 10,000 posts already advertised.The UT Government is also working on fulfilling the assurance of 50,000 jobs given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister @narendramodi”.

In his another tweet, Sinha said that recruitment rallies for Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), Paramilitary Forces and Jammu & Kashmir Police shall also be conducted across the region.

“Central Armed Police Force, Paramilitary Forces and JKP recruitment rallies shall also be conducted across the UT. The Government is laying special focus on connectivity to every village and every household,” he further tweeted. (KNS)