Srinagar: The state government has to pay Rs 650 crores to Indian Air Force (IAF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the rescue operations they carried out and the relief material distributed during the recent floods in Kashmir.
Sources told Rising Kashmir that a bill of over Rs 650 crores has been drafted in Delhi and verbally communicated to the state government through official channels.
“However, the state government has not received the hard copy of the bill so far,” sources said.
They said the bill also includes charges for food items dropped from the choppers and for the boats that were used during the rescue operations.
The disclosure of this bill was discussed in a meeting of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah with traders prior to their road show protest to press for their demands to expedite rehabilitation process.
“During the meeting, the CM disclosed that the bill has been prepared by IAF and NDRF for their relief efforts in the valley,” sources said.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khanday said they haven’t received any such bill so far.
However, he added: “I don’t have any information about it yet, but anyways we have to pay the bill as per the procedure.”
Khanday said it was on the recommendation of the state government that services of IAF and NDRF were availed at the time of disaster to be paid for from the funds of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
“Whenever IAF and NDRF services are availed by any state at the time of disaster, they have to be paid from the treasury of state’s SDRF,” said Khanday.
Earlier, the government came under criticism for allegedly dropping expired food items from the choppers in the name of relief.
“It is a cruel joke, first they provide us expired food items and now they are charging for it,” a trader said requesting anonymity.
The development has come at a time when flood victims are desperately seeking financial package for their rehabilitation.
It has also infuriated the business community which has been badly affected in the floods.
“It is an irony that instead of sending relief package for the revival of Kashmir, Centre is sending such kind of bills,” said another businessman.
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had announced Rs 1000 crore relief package for J&K along with Rs 320 crore State Disaster Relief Fund, but the affected families have not been paid so far.
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JK asked to pay Rs 650 Cr bill for NDRF, IAF rescue ops
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Banday Group to recruit 200 youth from Kashmir
CSR Initiative: Co to help improve education, health services
Srinagar: Banday Impex Private Limited, manufacturers of Rehmat food products, today announced that as part of its expansion plan, it will recruit 200 youth from Kashmir.
The company further said that under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative it will help improve education and health services in Kashmir.
Company Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ashiq Banday, in a statement said the aim of its CSR initiative is to assist the people in distress, and help improve services in health and education sectors.
Giving details he said under the initiative the company plans to achieve twin objects: Help the destitute and facilitate upgradation of services in different schools and hospitals.
“We plan to organize camps for providing access to healthcare to people in different areas of Kashmir as also spread awareness on issues like health, girls’ education, female feticide and other social issues,” he said.
“Many people in our society are in dire need of support for varied reasons. I aim to contribute to the society’s cause in whatever way possible,” he said.
He said the company has started operations outside India as well and they are planning to begin a recruitment drive to provide employment opportunities to local unemployed youth.
“As part of our expansion plan we will be hiring 200 local youth for our company for which advertisement notices shall be issued shortly.” -
Rehmat COO Ashiq Banday bags Business Wizard 2014 Award
Srinagar: Ashiq Banday, Chief Operating Officer of Banday Group of Companies, the makers of Rehmat Spices, has been conferred the Business Wizard of North India 2014 award by the India Today group for having carved a niche for his company in food industry.
He received the award few days back from Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal at a felicitation ceremony held at Chandigarh. Top business houses and entrepreneurs of India were presented the awards for their achievement and to salute their invaluable contribution in transforming the economy of the region and putting north India on the global map, a company official said.
Banday Impex Pvt Ltd is one of Kashmir’s own leading manufacturers and exporters of food items, spices and saffron.
“We awarded 26 leading industrialists of north India for doing outstanding work in their field of business and the aim of India Today is to recognize their feat and encourage them. Banday has done really well in his field and was awarded in recognition of his achievements,” said Rajesh Malik, a senior India Today official.
In his message Ashiq said he felt humbled by the award and credited his young workforce for the achievement. He said his company is manufacturing more than 100 different food products that have been received very well in India and outside.
“The idea of setting up a food processing unit was to give the best quality and hygienic products to the people of Kashmir. Our products have been internationally certified by ISO 22000 GMP, Halal, HACCP, AGMARK and other quality standards”, he said, adding, “We also aim to provide decent employment to the youth of Kashmir for which we are recruiting more than 200 young graduates within next two months”.
He informed that the company has started operations outside India as well. “I want to send my people (youth) outside so that they can get good exposure of work culture apart from lucrative financial support”, he said.
About his future plans, Banday says he is currently focusing on the ways to help poor and needy in the society. “Over last several years I have come to the realization that many people in our society are in dire need of support for varied reasons. I aim to contribute to the society’s cause in whatever way possible. We will shortly launch a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative for helping the needy as also the social sector like education and healthcare”, he added.
He urged fellow Kashmiris to support local business which ‘will in turn benefit to our own society’. -
“Apple iWatch” Launching With 1.7″ and 1.3″ Variants in October 2014
All you Apple lovers must read out the coming information as many rumors are coming for Apple iwatch. Apple is working on its final launching plans to release its new product Apple iWatch in the span of the coming months.
The iWatch will be available to its users with two variants 1.7 inches and 1.3 inch screen . The smart watch will be available for both the genders ie. for Men and Women .The iWatch having smaller screen size will be available for women with vibrant colors and combinations. The wearable Apple iWatch will be launched with a OLED display . The OLED display, which will have 320 x 320 pixels resolution will provide a great vision to its users . It is heard from source that iWatch will have a flexible display to compete with its other big brand smart watches like Motorola, Samsung, LG etc. Samsung the brand in technology is also working on flexible display smart watch and it will also launch in the couple of months. The Apple iWatch likely to be released at the end of September or in the beginning of the October 2014. In spite of the Apple, In the technology market Samsung Galaxy Gear, Motorola Moto 360, SonySmart Watches will also be seen till the end of this year. Apple Inc. Hired a Nike Key Designer to include a sporty look at its iWatch . The images for Apple iWatch looks a bit very interesting at the moment on the web portal. As per the images Apple iWatch seems so elegant and sporty whether it goes on men or if we talk about women.So Apple iWatch will be so impressive and smart in looks. Users have to wait a bit for the Apple iWatch to be launched in the Indian Markets. Price and other specification are not yet properly disclosed.
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Worlds oldest man dies at 142 in Kashmir
Srinagar: Feroz-Ud-Din, who claimed to be world’s oldest man last year, died in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday at about 2 in the morning.
Feroz-ud-Din Mir son of Mattuli Mir of Bijhama village of Border tehsil Uri in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir was Born on 10 March 1872 according to his date birth particulars.
Reports said that Father of 10, Feroz had five wives, the fifth one 60 years younger than his age.
Feroz was laid to rest at his native village Bejihama early Friday morning.Last year it was reported that Guinness World Records is investigating the claim and if it was true he would have been the world’s oldest surviving man.
To substantiate his claim, Feroz had showed a government-issued birth certificate which shows his date of birth as March 10, 1872.
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Modi’s hard-line approach can’t crush freedom movement: Yasin Malik
Stating that freedom movements could not be crushed with a tough attitude nor can people be oppressed for long under the grip of armed forces, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman, Yasin Malik told a television channel that Kashmiris are the real stakeholder in the final resolution of Kashmir issue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot dislodge the sentiment. He faced a volley of questions during a TV programme AAP KI ADALAT from host Rajat Sharma and the audience on India TV. Here is the full transcript of the show:
Rajat Sharma: When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister he invited Nawaz Sharief to India and you spoiled the peace process?
Yasin Malik: We did not spoil the peace process but made efforts to strengthen it. All those dignitaries including Prime Minister, Foreign Minister or Foreign Secretary who came from Pakistan to India have been talking to Kashmiris and Indian state facilitated the process.
Rajat Sharma: The system has changed. Nawaz Sharief during his visit to New Delhi did not invite you for talks?
Yasin Malik: There has been shift in the policy not in system. The system has got a new captain; this is the same BJP government which talked with pro freedom camp and Government of Pakistan. The last BJP government openly said we are talking on Kashmir. The new captain of the BJP led government (Narendra Modi) has made it categorically clear that he does not want to talk on Kashmir…
Rajat Sharma: Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not say he does not want to talk on Kashmir but maintained separatists like you don’t have any role in the talks?
Yasin Malik: Is Narendra Modi saying that seven Prime Ministers who preceded him in last 24 years adopted wrong policies and only he is taking right decision?
Rajat Sharma: Narendra Modi wants to convey to Pakistan leadership that it cannot talk with Yasin Malik and India at the same time, and that there is shift in the policy?
Yasin Malik: Time has changed for Narendra Modi Ji as it is his personal ideology. He wants to move forward with this ideology. I want to convey to Modi Ji that “Hum Log Bhi Deewane Hain, Aap Agar Zulam Karna Chahtay Ho Jee Bhar Ke Karoo….. (We are also dedicatedly pursuing our goal. And we want to convey to Modi Ji that if he wants to use oppressive tactics, let him do it. As rightly said by an Urdu poet “Idhar Aa Sitamghar Hunar Aazma, Tu Teer Aazma Hum Jigar Aazmayain (come on o tyrant, do whatever you can…you shower your arrows on us and we will bear them on our chests.”
Rajat Sharma: Do you think it is right that Indian High Commissioner talks to those people in Balochistan who propagate revolution there?
Yasin Malik: There is problem in many states in India too and we never talked about them. Who took Kashmir dispute to United Nations? It was none other than India. Who opened the offices of United Nations in Srinagar and other side of Line of Control: The then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru took the Kashmir dispute to international community and UN passed resolutions on Kashmir.
Rajat Sharma: Yasin Sahib….but Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India now?
Yasin Malik: Narendra Modi has been chosen by people of India and I don’t have any objection to it. He has taken a decision to adopt hard-line approach on Kashmir. We have understood the shift in the policy and have geared up to strengthen our movement too.
Rajat Sharma: Modi has not adopted hard-line approach…He wants the love letters to Pakistan should stop?
Yasin Malik: In 2003 I wrote a joint love letter to heads of state of Pakistan and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bijari Vajpayee. He (Vajpayee) wrote an article stating ‘we should ignore beaten tracks and find out new innovative ways to resolve the Kashmir issue.’
Rajat Sharma: You talk about Nehru and Vajpayee and forget that a hard man is heading India this time?
Yasin Malik: I am trying to convey the same thing that Modi by adopting hard-line approach thinks he can crush the ongoing Kashmir movement. History stands testimony to the fact that no issue or movement in the world has been crushed by military might.
Rajat Sharma: Pakistan attacks India office in Afghanistan, gives clean chit to Hafiz Sayeed before talks. Shall India still talk with Pakistan? Despite India’s objections, Pakistan went ahead with his meeting with separatists. India has to make clear that what used to happen in past 24 years won’t continue now?
Yasin Malik: It is a testing time for us. Now that Modi has come, hard times may be waiting for us but we are revolutionaries and we by Allah’s grace will survive and pass this test too.
Rajat Sharma: But Modi says there is good day ahead of India?
Yasin Malik: We have never cursed India as there are many people who support our movement. I want to tell Modi that such an atmosphere is being created which can be summed up in two stanzas from Faiz Ahmad Faiz “Nisar Teri Galiyoon Pay Aay Watan Ke Jahan Chale Hai Rasm Ke Koi Na Sar Utha Key Na Chalay, Jo Koi Chahney Wala Tawaaf Ko Niklay, Nazar Bacha Ke Chaley, Jism o Jaan Bacha Kar Chaley’’ (Oh my nation! Be sacrificed on your streets where a ritual has started that no one should walk on these streets with his head high. And if anyone still wants to walk on these lanes, he should keep eyes down and save his life and honour). He (Modi) can give good governance to India but cannot crush our movement by his hard-line approach.
Rajat Sharma: The Pakistani High Commissioner invited you: Tum Ne Pukara to Hum Chaley Aaye (you called us and we are there)
Yasin Malik: We were invited by India Prime Minister, Hum Chalay Aaye (we came)…..we came…..Atal Bihari Vajpayee also invited the Hurriyat when it was united through his interlocutor RK Mishra. Credit should be given to Kashmiris that whenever peace process started they participated and welcomed it.
Rajat Sharma: You live, eat and breathe in India, but you always go to Pakistan for talks?
Yasin Malik: We talk to both the countries ……We always tell them that since 1947 Kashmiris have been suffering due to unresolved dispute. I am the only Muslim leader who met with RSS leader for five hours for resolving the dispute.
Rajat Sharma; You talk with the Pakistan which gave safe passage to Osama Bin Laden?
Yasin Malik: When we talk with India you have no objection but when Pakistan which you consider as stakeholder to the dispute, invites us, you label us as their agents. Same way tomorrow Pakistani journalists will also label us as Indian agents when we talk with Indian leadership.
Rajat Sharma: India never supports terrorism …Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, Dawood Ibrahim lives in Karachi, Hafiz Sayeed roams in Lahore. These are internationally recognized terrorists.
Yasin Malik: These issues are related to other issues of India with Pakistan. If India is concerned over these issues, why has it initiated dialogue with Pakistan? India cancelled the talks with Pakistan after it objected to its meeting with separatists. India should openly raise these issues?
Rajat Sharma: People of India feel pained when you talk with Pakistanis whose soldiers behead their Indian counterparts like Khemraj?
Yasin Malik: We also feel pained over such issues but if it is a fact why do you talk with Pakistan. Why did you call Pakistani Prime Minister to India?
Rajat Sharma: When Pakistan says it provides diplomatic and moral support to you then India by inviting its head wants to convey to stop such activities?
Yasin Malik: Representatives of United States, Britain and European Union meet pro freedom camp. Even India engaged them to talk with separatists. Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated talks with Pakistan by stating at Minar-e-Pakistan that he wants to resolve Kashmir during his lifetime. Vajpayee later talked to Kashmiris. We started armed struggle in Kashmir against human rights violations. In a country where Mahatma Gandhi propagated that all issues can be resolved through peace, I could not find the soul of Gandhi and we started the armed struggle. Later when I was arrested, India engaged US, Britain and civil society, urging us to start a peaceful movement. My 600 activists were killed and I was lodged in jails 300 times. I lost hearing in my right ear due to interrogation; six attempts were made on my life. After the ceasefire the state terrorism continued to crush our peaceful movement.
In 2008 there was a transition from violent movement to non violent movement. What we received is 82 bodies in 2008, 45 in 2009 and 128 in 2010….military might was used to crush our movement, Are you not pushing Kashmiris to start an armed struggle?
Rajat Sharma: Why do you forget what Pakistan is doing in India? It sends Ajmal Kasab to kill people in Mumbai?
Yasin Malik: It is on record that I and all the separatists showed concern over the brutal killings in Mumbai. India seems to be confused. Ministry of External Affairs termed Pakistan as stakeholder to the dispute. When India wants to talk, it changes its vocabulary? Movement of Kashmiris is indigenous and people of Jammu Kashmir want right to self-determination to decide whether they want to stay with India, Pakistan or remain independent.
Rajat Sharma: Do you believe that when Pakistan cannot resolve its own issues, how can it resolve Kashmir?
Yasin Malik: Pakistan is a sovereign country. It has its own issues. I cannot interfere in its internal affairs. I only want to resolve Kashmir issue according to aspirations of Kashmiris. India terms Kashmir as its integral part, and Pakistan calls it its jugular vein. Our stand on this is clear. We say let Kashmiris decide their future. Let them decide whether they want to accede to Pakistan or to India or want to remain as an independent nation. Modi’s message is very clear. He is not going to give Kashmiri freedom camp any diplomatic or political space.
Rajat Sharma: But your heart seems to be with Pakistan.
A big laugh………..
Yasin Malik: Everybody has his belief. Modi got majority and came in his own colour. We have a political belief that we want Azadi. Kashmiri people have offered unflinching sacrifices for the movement.
Rajat Sharma: Your actions and words don’t match: You claim to propagate Gandhi’s policy but have friends like Hafiz Sayeed and do what Jamat-ul_Dawah and Jamaat Islami tell you to do?
Yasin Malik: We declared ceasefire in 1994. I challenge you to cite one instance in which JKLF propagated violence since then despite lots of provocations.
Rajat Sharma: On February 11, 2013, you sat on hunger strike against the hanging of Afzal Guru in Islamabad and Hafiz Sayeed shared stage with you?
Yasin Malik: It was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who, after the Ramzan ceasefire in November, 2000, had allowed Kashmiri separatist leaders to go to Pakistan to meet resistance and militant leaders on other side, so that an atmosphere for peaceful dialogue could be created. After Vajpayee government left, I had an official meeting with the then PM Dr Manmohan Singh in 2006 in which I told him that the government should involve militant leadership in peace talks. The PM said, he needed our help in this regard. I went to the United States, and when the earthquake shook Pak administered Kashmir, I went there with relief goods. It was then that I visited the Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Mureidkay where Hafiz Sayeed had organized a felicitation event. I addressed the Lashkar cadres there. I told them that Islam teaches us to give peace a chance. The Indian media did not report and created havoc on the meeting.
In February, 2013, I was in Pakistan when my wife gave birth to my daughter. What is the concept of hunger strike; it is a non-violent way of protesting. There were civil society members and Hafiz Sayeed also came there. I had not invited anybody.
Rajat Sharma: Audience wants to know that when Mumbai was attacked why not you organised hunger strike against Hafiz Sayeed
Yasin Malik: When Gandhiji fought against British rule, even some British people supported him. If I ask you when lakhs of Kashmiris including children were killed, there are graveyards of martyrs in every nook and corner of Kashmir why you (Indian people) remained silent?
Rajat Sharma: Should anyone talk with Hafiz Sayeed?
Yasin Malik: My stand is clear…..it is not that Laskhar-e-Toiba should talk on Kashmir. I addressed the US State Department and White House that we should take on board Kashmiri militant leadership (United Jihad Council ) led by Syed Salahuddin to create peaceful atmosphere for genuine talks. When I talked to Hafiz Sayeed, I tried to tell him that when two countries are talking with each other, a peaceful atmosphere needs to be created.
Question from a woman among audience: “Do you believe in the Indian stand that Hafiz Sayeed orchestrated 26/11 attack?”
Yasin Malik: A senior journalist of India also met Hafiz Sayeed. I was jailed after my return and my passport was also impounded. If he had not gone without knowledge of India government he should have faced the same action as I faced.
Rajat Sharma: Kashmiri Pandits blame you for their exodus?
Yasin Malik: I am ready to face the charges in any public court. If somebody levels allegations on anyone, there should be argument or evidence to prove those allegations.
Rajat Sharma: Kashmiri Pandits allege that Bita Karatey has confessed that he killed 40 Kashmiri Pandits on your orders.
Yasin Malik: On 19 January, 1990 Pandits left Kashmir. There is a perception that of genocide of Kashmir Pandits. Please give me the list of those killed. I am ready to participate in this program, let Kashmiri Pandits come up with that list.
Rajat Sharma: Do you believe that Hafiz Sayeed and Salahuddin can help in peace process?
Yasin Malik: Even after fighting three wars with Pakistan including Kargil war and skirmishes on border, India still tries to resolve the dispute through dialogue. In conflicts there are attempts to bring all parties on dialogue table, so that nobody can sabotage the process.
Rajat Sharma: People believe Hafiz Sayeed should be in Indian jail than on dialogue table?
Yasin Malik: My stand is that engagement of Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue is important and necessary. I only went to Mureedkay camp to seek cooperation of Hafiz Sayeed during the India-Pakistan peace process.
Rajat Sharma: Do you believe that Hafiz Sayeed should get punishment for his crime and is his prosecution going on in a right way in Pakistan?
Yasin Malik: India must be aware about the trial going on in Pakistan and only it can comment on it.
Question from a woman among audience: “I want to tell that people living on both sides of border that have relatives on either side, want peace. I want to know why more people don’t take note of the fact that they used to access someone who had a violent way of life and this person is made a turnaround, talks about peace and quotes from Faiz Ahmad Faiz and believes in Mahatma Gandhi, why are people not willing to listen to a person.
Yasin Malik: The behaviour of Indian state, civil society, writers and other people about Kashmir, continues to refuse to honour Kashmiri peaceful movement. Rhetoric and oppressive measures taken give a negative message to youth in Kashmir. This gives a message to the youth of Kashmir that peaceful struggle will yield them nothing and hence will push them towards the armed struggle. When Kashmiris made a transition from armed struggle to non-violent movement there were questions in Kashmir whether it was a right or wrong decision. We trained Kashmiri youth for non-violent movement. Its glaring example is 2008 when there was collective transition. The response from the Indian civil society and audience here, is seemingly pointing to Kashmiris that Kashmir can be resolved through armed resistance and not through non-violent movement. It is not a good message.
Rajat Sharma: Are Kashmiri people are with you?
Yasin Malik: I won’t claim to be a big leader, but I want to maintain that Kashmiris want peaceful resolution of the issue.
Rajat Sharma: When people of Kashmir are with you why you don’t contest elections?
Yasin Malik: We made an effort in 1987 and we saw its consequences ….we saw Red 16 interrogation centre and jail. If Indian audience have any doubt that people of Kashmir are not with the freedom movement, then I pose a question to Rajatji and India TV team to forget about Indian parliament or assembly election and ask Mehbooba Mufti, Mufti Sayeed, Omar Abdullah, Congress and other pro India parties and leaders to choose any constituency and conduct private elections to determine who represents the aspirations of the people of Jammu Kashmir, we will participate in it and whole world will witness that who represents the people of Jammu Kashmir .
Rajat Sharma: Elections are scheduled to be held later this year. Why don’t you participate in the elections and form your own government?
Yasin Malik: Many elections were held in Kashmir since 1947 and one of the senior Gandhian leader Jay Prakash Narayan wrote an article in Hindustan Times titled “rethinking” in 1962, and he said: “my countrymen may accuse my patriotic credentials but I want to tell them that all Kashmir elections are rigged and manipulated. We have made many pledges to the people of Jammu Kashmir that they will be given a free chance to decide their future and we are yet to fulfil these promises.”
( TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED BY JKLF)
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Nathu Sweets caught selling expired, unhygienic edibles
‘Outlet sells insect infested sweets in designer boxes’
Srinagar: The authority has caught Nathu Sweets red handed selling expired and utterly unhygienic sweets.
The people who have been relishing the Nathu brand sweets are shocked after authority found it selling expired and unhygienic edibles on Tuesday
Nathu Sweets has a chain of outlets in India that sells sweets across the country having atleast one or two franchises in almost each State.
The higher officials of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) today raided one of the franchises of Nathu Sweets here in Dalgate at Boulevard along with Municipal Magistrate Judge Khursheed-ul-Islaam following the complaints made by locals.
The authority discovered that sweets were being prepared in filthy, unhygienic conditions in gross violation of rules. The insects and pests harmful for human consumption were found in bulk quantity there.
“We received a lot of complaints against Nathu Sweets and after inspecting the storage of the shop, we found that there were lot of insects in the flour that was being used to prepare the sweets which are later packed in the designer boxes to make them appealing,” SMC Health Officer Dr Rubeena Shaheen told Rising Kashmir.
She added that the area where the eatables were being prepared was full of insects, with many of the insects sitting on material to be used in sweets.
The hygiene was not maintained and the kitchen was the filthiest place where eatables were prepared, she said.
“Also, the personal hygiene of workers was questionable and there was no provision to cover the material which was stored in dirty containers, flour was stored in open containers and drums which is a serious health hazard,” Rubeena Shaheen added.
The department also raided various food establishments across the city but the Nathu Sweet among them was found violating Food Safety Act.
Moreover, rusted containers were also seized in Raj Bagh area from various food establishments and were also challaned on the spot.
According to officials, a piece of delicious sweet or a lavish dish one might consume after paying a good sum, can in fact, turn out to be a grave health hazard if there is unrestrained adulteration, and poor hygienic conditions of the kitchens.
The locals are of opinion that the danger to the health of people due to the consumption of adulterated and poor quality sweets, confectionary and other food items, has reached to alarming proportions.
“It has become tough to decide whether to go for buying the bakery items, sweets and other edibles or not. One can really fall for decorative packaging of items but who knows what actually we are buying,” one of locals of Dalgate Mudasir Lone said.
If doctors in various hospitals here are to be believed, due to long gap between the preparation of sweets and their consumption, coupled with poor quality of inputs and unhygienic conditions prevailing in most of the stores and kitchens of bakery cum sweet shops, the consumption of such food items can lead to serious gastric disorders and, at times, even cancer of the intestines.
A majority of the people from different walks of life whom Rising Kashmir spoke to on this subject were of the opinion that the so-called procedure of sample taking from sweet shops and other eating joints was a mere eye wash.
“Why do the officials only target small venders while the big sharks continue to thrive, challenging and arresting one or two shop owners will not help, the SMC should wake up and do something concrete. All the diseases prevailing in Kashmir are due to adulterated food sold in the market,” another local from city’s downtown area Basharat Ali said.
Pertinent to mention here that last year, the authority claimed to have saved people from food adulteration and had also vowed to make new rules to clamp down on the mafia manufacturing bakery products and sweets in unhygienic conditions, but very little has so far been done to implement the new rules.
Khursheed-ul-Islaam said, “The owners have been prosecuted. The violators will be given punishment. The punishment will be of two types, either we will arrest them or the owners will be challaned.”
“Today, we seized all the expired and unhygienic products that the Nathu Sweet was using,” he added. -
Watching Papa
Razia Sultana, daughter of JK Liberation Front chairman, Mohammad Yasin Malik, watches from the window as Malik leaves his Maisuma, Srinagar to visit Delhi To Meet Pakistan High Commissioner
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PDP GOT CONG. VOTES: Omar `Dr. Farooq not contesting’
By M.ASLAM
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on July 20 disclosed that he had met the All India Congress Committee (AICC) chairperson Sonia Gandhi 10-days ago conveying her that NC will not forge any pre-poll alliance with the state Congress 5 for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Omar maintained further that NC patron and his father Dr Farooq Abdullah will not contest the assembly elections as his health does not allow him to fight the elctions. In an exclusive chat with Kashmir Magazine, the chief minister stated that he had a detailed meeting with Ms Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and had categorically told her that NC in no way will forge alliance with the Congress for the forthcoming assembly polls.
“The recent parliament polls suggested us that forging alliance with the Congress in no way will benefit NC. It is because the Congress votes in Valley during the recent parliamentary elections got transferred to PDP in- stead of National Conference its coalition partner,” Omar revealed to KNS. “I during my meet with Ms Gandhi, told her that I am not going to formally announce that Congress and NC is contesting upcoming assembly polls separately as I didn’t want to take political benefits out of that announcement,” Omar maintained. When asked whether the government would continue to function despite the coalition partners deciding to end alliance, chief min- ister maintained that the decision will have no affect on the functioning of the government and that the government will continue to run till the elections in the state are announced. “We have to understand that this coalition came into existence after the elections.
There will be no impact on the government function- ing and the coalition will continue to function till the assembly elections are announced in the state. Besides preparing for the coming elections, we will continue to run the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir. Later we will present services before the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” Maintaining that NC from the day one was not willing to contest assembly elections jointly with the state Congress, Omar stated that if NC had any intension of entering into the pre poll pact with Congress, it would not have issued the list of the candidates in the recent past. “We issued the 1st list of the candidates prior to the announcement of Congress over not forging alliance with NC. We even nominated the candidates for the Jammu region.
The fact is that I already had informed Congress that keeping the experience of parliament elections in view, NC is not going to join hands with it for the assembly polls.” Omar remarked further that an ‘unusual’ hype was given to the issue with the state Congress leaders saying no to pre-poll. “My party leaders did not go to press and issued detailed state- ments over the issue. Congress did. Let they fight alone and we will fight alone.” The chief minister stated that during the recently held parliamentary polls in Jammu and Kashmir, national conference transferred the votes in the favor of Congress at Jammu region but contrary was witnessed in valley. “It is quite obvious; NC didn’t get the Con- gress votes in valley.
If votes would have been transferred, the situation today would have been different,” Omar told. Omar, however, refused to comment over the reports that the former chief minister and a senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met the PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. “I can- not comment anything over the issue,” said Omar. He added that if alliance ahead of polls would have been forged with the Congress, the same would have caused much damage to NC. “If the things of the past would have been repeated in the assembly elections, the same could have caused damage. Now both the parties will contest the elections separately.
Let us see who performs better. Good thing about the decision is that we would not witness further dam- age.” About the reports that NC president and patron Dr Farooq Abdullah is not contesting the forthcoming assembly elections in the state, Omar maintained that the health condition of his father is not allowing him to contest the assembly elections. “No Dr Sahib is not contesting this time. His health is not allowing him to contest the polls.” When asked about the reports that his party remains indecisive over the constituency where from he would contest, Omar stated that the list is coming to fore in the near future and that the people would come to know where from he would fight. “We should wait till the list comes out; only then people will come to know where from I am fighting.”
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ARUNDHATI explains how corporations run India
And why they wanted Modi as prime minister
CHARLIE ‑ SMITH
“Wealth has been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands,” Roy tells the Georgia Straight by phone from New York. “And these few corporations now run the country and, in some ways, run the political parties. They run the media.” The Delhi-based novelist and non- fiction writer argues that this is hav- ing devastating consequences for hun- dreds of millions of the poorest people in India, not to mention the middle class. Roy spoke to the Straight in advance of a public lecture on Tuesday (April 1) at 8 p.m. at St. Andrew’s–Wesley Unit- ed Church at the corner of Burrard and Nelson streets. She says it will be her first visit to Vancouver. In recent years, she has researched how the richest Indian corporations— such as Reliance, Tata, Essar, and In- fosys—are employing similar tactics as those of the U.S.-based Rockefeller and Ford foundations.
She points out that the Rockefeller and Ford foundations have worked closely in the past with the State De- partment and Central Intelligence Agency to further U.S. government and corporate objectives. Now, she maintains that Indian companies are distributing money through charitable foundations as a means of controlling the public agen- da through what she calls “perception management”. This includes channelling funds to nongovernmental organizations, film and literary festivals, and universities. She acknowledges that the Tata Group has been doing this for decades, but says that more recently, other large corporations have begun copying this approach.
Private money replaces public funding
According to her, the overall objective is to blunt criticism of neoliberal policies that promote inequality. “Slowly, they decide the curricu- lum,” Roy maintains. “They control the public imagination. As public money gets pulled out of health care and education and all of this, NGOs funded by these major financial cor- porations and other kinds of financial instruments move in, doing the work that missionaries used to do during colonialism—giving the impression of being charitable organizations, but ac- tually preparing the world for the free markets of corporate capital.” She was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things.
Since then, she has gone on to become one of India’s leading social critics, railing against mining and power proj- ects that displace the poor. She’s also written about poverty- stricken villagers in the Naxalite movement who are taking up arms across several Indian states to defend their traditional way of life. “I’m a great admirer of the wisdom and the courage that people in the re- sistance movement show,” she says. “And they are where my own under- standing comes from.” One of her greatest concerns is how foundation-funded NGOs “defuse peo- ple’s movements and…vacuum politi- cal anger and send them down a blind alley”. “It’s very important to keep the op- pressed divided,” she says. “That’s the whole colonial game, and it’s very easy in India because of the diversity.”
Roy writes a book on capitalism
In 2010, there was an attempt to lay a charge of sedition against her after she suggested that Kashmir is not integral to India’s existence. This northern state has been at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. “There’s supposed to be some po- lice inquiry, which hasn’t really hap- pened,” Roy tells the Straight. “That’s how it is in India. They…hope that the idea of it hanging over your head is go- ing to work its magic, and you’re going to be more cautious.” Clearly, it’s had little effect in silenc- ing her. In her upcoming new book Capitalism: A Ghost Story, Roy ex- plores how the 100 richest people in India ended up controlling a quarter of the country’s gross-domestic product. The book is inspired by a lengthy 2012 article with the same title, which appeared in India’s Outlook magazine.
In the essay, she wrote that the “ghosts” are the 250,000 debt-ridden farmers who’ve committed suicide, as well as “800 million who have been impoverished and dispossessed to make way for us”. Many live on less than 40 Canadian cents per day. “In India, the 300 million of us who belong to the post-IMF ‘reforms’ mid- dle class—the market—live side by side with spirits of the nether world, the poltergeists of dead rivers, dry wells, bald mountains and denuded forests,” Roy wrote. The essay examined how founda- tions rein in Indian feminist organiza- tions, nourish right-wing think tanks, and co-opt scholars from the commu- nity of Dalits, often referred to in the West as the “untouchables”. For example, she pointed out that the Reliance Group’s Observer Re- search Foundation has a stated goal of achieving consensus in favour of eco- nomic reforms. Roy noted that the ORF promotes “strategies to counter nuclear, biologi- cal and chemical threats”. She also re- vealed that the ORF’s partners include weapons makers Raytheon and Lock- heed Martin.
Anna Hazare called a corporate mascot
In her interview with the Straight, Roy claims that the high-profileIndia Against Corruption campaign is an- other example of corporate meddling. According to Roy, the movement’s leader, Anna Hazare, serves as a front for international capital to gain great- er access to India’s resources by clear- ing away any local obstacles. With his white cap and traditional white Indian attire, Hazare has re- ceived global acclaim by acting as a modern-day Mahatma Gandhi, but Roy characterizes both of them as “deeply disturbing”. She also describes Hazare as a “sort of mascot” to his cor- porate backers. In her view, “transparency” and “rule of law” are code words for al- lowing corporations to supplant “lo- cal crony capital”. This can be accom- plished by passing laws that advance corporate interests.
She says it’s not surprising that the most influential Indian capitalists would want to shift public attention to political corruption just as average In- dians were beginning to panic over the slowing Indian economy. In fact, Roy adds, this panic turned into rage as the middle class began to realize that “gal- loping economic growth has frozen”. “For the first time, the middle class- es were looking at corporations and realizing that they were a source of incredible corruption, whereas ear- lier, there was this adoration of them,” she says. “Just then, the India Against Corruption movement started. And the spotlight turned right back onto the favourite punching bag—the poli- ticians—and the corporations and the corporate media and everyone else jumped onto this, and gave them hour coverage.” Her essay in Outlook pointed out that Hazare’s high-profile allies, Ar- vind Kerjiwal and Kiran Bedi, both operate NGOs funded by U.S. founda- tions. “Unlike the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, the Hazare movement did not breathe a word against privatisation, corporate power or economic ‘reforms’,” she wrote in Outlook.
Narendra Modi seen as right-wing saviour
Meanwhile, Roy tells the Straight that corporate India backed Narendra Modi as the country’s next prime minister because the ruling Congress party hasn’t been sufficiently ruthless against the growing resistance move- ment. “I think the coming elections are all about who is going to crank up the mil- itary assault on troublesome people,” she predicted. In several states, armed rebels have prevented massive mining and infra- structure projects that would have dis- placed massive numbers of people. Many of these industrial develop- ments were the subject of memoranda of understanding signed in 2004. Modi, head of the Hindu national- ist BJP coalition, became infamous in 2002 when Muslims were mas- sacred in the Indian state of Gujarat, where he was the chief minister.
The official death toll exceeded 1,000, though some say the figures are higher. Police reportedly stood by as Hin- du mobs went on a killing spree. Many years later, a senior police of- ficer alleged that Modi deliberately allowed the slaughter, though Modi has repeatedly denied this. The atrocities were so appalling that the American government re- fused to grant Modi a visitor’s visa to travel to the United States. “The corporations are all backing Modi because they think that [Prime Minister] Manmohan [Singh] and the Congress government hasn’t shown the nerve it requires to actually send in the army into places like Chhattis- garh and Orissa,” Roy had said. She also labeled Modi as a politi- cian who’s capable of “mutating”, de- pending on the circumstances. “From being this openly sort of communal hatred-spewing saccharine person, he then put on the suit of a cor- porate man, and, you know, is now try- ing to play the role of the statesmen, which he’s not managing to do really,” Roy had said.
Roy sees parallels between Congress and BJP
India’s national politics are domi- nated by two parties, the Congress and the BJP. The Congress maintains a more sec- ular stance and is often favoured by those who want more accommodation for minorities, be they Muslim, Sikh, or Christian. In American terms, the Congress is the equivalent of the Dem- ocratic Party. The BJP is actually a coalition of right-wing parties and more force- fully advances the notion that India is a Hindu nation. It often calls for a harder line against Pakistan. In this regard, the BJP could be seen as the Republicans of India. But just as left-wing U.S. critics such as Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky see little difference between the Dem- ocrats and Republicans in office, Roy says there is not a great deal distin- guishing the Congress from the BJP. “I’ve said quite often, the Congress has done by night what the BJP does by day,” she declares.
“There isn’t any real difference in their economic pol- icy.” Whereas senior BJP leaders encour- aged wholesale mob violence against Muslims in Gujarat, she notes that Congress leaders played a similar role in attacks on Sikhs in Delhi following the 1984 assassination of then–prime minister Indira Gandhi. “It was genocidal violence and even today, nobody has been punished,” Roy says. As a result, each party can accuse the other of fomenting communal vio- lence. In the meantime, there are no seri- ous efforts at reconciliation for the victims.
“The guilty should be punished,” she adds. “Everyone knows who they are, but that will not happen. That is the thing about India. You may go to prison for assaulting a woman in a lift or killing one person, but if you are part of a massacre, then the chances of your not being punished are very high.” However, she acknowledges that there is “some difference” in the two major parties’ stated idea of India. The BJP, for example, is “quite open about its belief in the Hindu India… where everybody else lives as, you know, second-class citizens”. “Hindu is also a very big and baggy