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  • Muzaffar Baig unlikely to be part of Bukhari’s ‘Apni Party’

    Differences over leadership issues surface before formation of group

    Srinagar, Mar 06 (KNO): Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron Muzaffar Hussain Baig is unlikely to be part of new political party as talks between him and former finance minister Altaf Bukhari over the leadership issues has reached a dead-end, sources disclosed.

    Sources familiar with the negotiations told wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that talks between him and Bukhari failed due to divergences between the two on the role of the former(Baig) in the new party. “The talks are almost over. We have not accepted conditions put forth by Baig,” a leader in Bukhari’s camp disclosed.

    Sources in Baig’s camp also confirmed that talks between the two sides have collapsed. “Baig Sahab has his own political stature. Nobody among them (new party leaders) can match his political clout and experience,” he said.

    Baig has served as J&K’s deputy chief minister in the PDP- Congress government and represented north Kashmir’s Baramulla segment from 2014 to 2019 in Parliament.

    Bukhari, who was Finance Minister in Mehbooba Mufti-led government, is set to launch his political party on Sunday here. “He is also expected to hold a meeting of key members of the party tomorrow here to give final shape to formation of the new party,” they disclosed.

    Bukhari had approached Baig to join the new party to be christened as “Apni Party”.

    The new political party is being launched at a time when almost all top mainstream leaders of Kashmir are in detention under the Public Safety Act— (KNO)

  • Coronavirus scare: Admin on toes, 7000 people screened in just two days

    JK virus free, no one tested positive so far, 25 samples taken to Delhi, says Dr. Shafqat; Health Dept sets up 5 help desks at Sgr Airport

    Srinagar, Mar 06: The hectic efforts are on to screen the people across Jammu and Kashmir with at least 7000 people screened so far in last two days across the Union Territory, officials said on Friday.

    According to wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Nodal Officer, coronavirus control Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Shafqat Khan at least 7000 people have been screened in last two days in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that 2800 were screened only in Jammu.

    “Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is still safe and secure from the deadly coronavirus with no one found positive so far,” he informed—KNO, adding that 25 samples have been sent for testing to Delhi.

    “We are ensuring that none among the travelers goes unscreened,” he said, adding that the 7000 people screened so far were either coming via flight or via Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only road connecting Valley with rest of the States.

    He, however, added that none among the people screened so far were found positive. He also appealed people not to panic, but advised them to remain cautious.

    “Jammu and Kashmir is coronavirus free, there is nothing to panic, however people are advised to remain cautious,” Khan said.

    The administration has already geared up and claimed that it is ready to tackle any eventuality. Besides, the administration has established an isolation ward for such patients at Sanant Nagar in Srinagar outskirts with separate general Out Patient Department (OPD). “Trained staff has been mobilised and an isolation ward has been established at Maternity Centre and General OPD at Sanatnagar, Srinagar,” officials said.

    Also, the administration has appointed various officers to ramp up efforts for prevention and control of the fast-spreading virus, which has so far infected 31 people in the country as of Friday.

    The officers are tasked to ensure the creation of adequate quarantine, isolation and other requisite facilities besides undertaking adequate measures for surveillance of home quarantined persons.

    Meanwhile, the Health department were on alert to deal with any possible case in the Valley. The administration has also deputed medical staff to screen foreigners at the Srinagar Airport.

    Meanwhile, as per—KNO, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary in a tweet said that coronavirus epidemic is a ‘Global Health Emergency’ and said that awareness is this regard is equally important as preparedness. He also asked the passengers landing at Srinagar Airport to ensure 100 per cent self-declaration for the safety.

    “#Coronavirus outbreak is Global Health Emergency. Awareness is equally important as Preparedness. People landing at Srinagar airport pl ensure 100% self-declaration for your own safety and everyone else. Pl cooperate with Health teams,” DC tweeted.

    He also added that the health department in unison with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) headquarters and Airport Authority of India (AAI) has established five help desks at Srinagar Airport. “Health Deptt Sgr with active help of @CISFHQrs and @AAI_Official established 5 help desks at Srinagar aiport… For all those travelling to Srinagar. Pl report,” DC further tweeted—(KNO)

  • Fever Dreams: Did author Dean Koontz really predict coronavirus?

    Source: The Guardian

    Science Fiction Books: From ‘Wuhan-400’, the deadly virus invented by Dean Koontz in 1981, to the plague unleashed in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, novelists have long been fascinated by pandemics

    According to an online conspiracy theory, the American author Dean Koontz predicted the coronavirus outbreak in 1981. His novel The Eyes of Darkness made reference to a killer virus called “Wuhan-400” – eerily predicting the Chinese city where Covid-19 would emerge. But the similarities end there: Wuhan-400 is described as having a “kill‑rate” of 100%, developed in labs outside the city as the “perfect” biological weapon. An account with more similarities, also credited by some as predicting coronavirus, is found in the 2011 film Contagion, about a global pandemic that jumps from animals to humans and spreads arbitrarily around the globe.

    But when it comes to our suffering, we want something more than arbitrariness. We want it to mean something. This is evident in our stories about illness and disease, from contemporary science fiction all the way back to Homer’s Iliad. Even malign actors are more reassuring than blind happenstance. Angry gods are better than no gods at all.

    In Homer’s Iliad, the Greeks disrespect one of Apollo’s priests. The god manifests his displeasure by firing his arrows of contagion into their camp. The plague lasts nine days, brief by modern epidemiological standards. When the Greeks make amends and sacrifice sheep and goats to Apollo, the plague is cured.

    Dean Koontz’s novel ‘The Eyes of Darkness’ (1981) made reference to a killer virus called “Wuhan-400”

    Seven centuries later a plague struck Periclean Athens, killing a quarter of the city’s population and setting the city-state on a path to military defeat at the hands of Sparta. Thucydides, the Athenian historian, has a simple explanation for the epidemic: Apollo. The Spartans had cannily supplicated the god and he in return had promised victory. Soon afterwards, Sparta’s enemies started dying of the plague. Hindsight suggests that Athens, under siege – its population swollen with refugees, everyone living in unsanitary conditions – was at risk of contagion in a way the Spartan army, free to roam the countryside outside, clearly wasn’t. But this thought doesn’t occur to Thucydides. It can only be the god.

    Between then and now there have been prodigious advances in medical science. We understand contagious disease vastly better, and have a greater arsenal of medicine and hygiene to fight it. But in one respect we haven’t advanced at all. We still tend to see agency in our pandemics.

    Disease has no agency. Bacteria and viruses spread blindly where they can, their pathways facilitated by our globalised world. We, meanwhile, bring to the struggle our ever-improving drugs and hygiene. With Covid-19, experts insist, your two best bets are: wash your hands often, touch your face never. But people do not warm to the existential arbitrariness of this. Just as the Peloponnesian plague was seen as evidence that the gods were angry with Athens, so HIV was seen by a deluded minority as God’s judgment on homosexuals. Of course, HIV spreads wherever it can and cares nothing for your morals or sexual orientation.

    This attribution of agency is clearest in the many imaginary plagues science-fiction writers have inflicted on humanity. In place of gods we have aliens, like those in Alice Sheldon’s chilling and brilliant short story “The Screwfly Solution” (1977). A new disease provokes men to begin murdering women en masse. At the story’s end we discover an alien species had introduced a brain infection so that the human race will destroy itself and the aliens can inherit the emptied planet. It’s a story about what we now call “toxic masculinity” and it says: it’s not gods we have angered, but goddesses.

    Sometimes the alien plague is less picky. In HP Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space (1927; recently filmed, starring Nicolas Cage) an alien infection arrives via meteorite, wastes the land and drives people mad. In Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969) potentially world-ending contagion falls from outer space. This bug repeatedly mutates as Earth’s scientists try to combat it. We’re doomed – or would be, if it weren’t for the tale’s germus ex machina ending, in which the alien spontaneously mutates into a benign form.

    If it’s not aliens behind our world-threatening plague, then it is probably that other SF stalwart, the mad scientist. Dozens of zombie franchises start with a rogue scientist infecting the population with a genetically engineered bioweapon virus. In Frank Herbert’s The White Plague (1982) a geneticist, pushed into insanity by the murder of his family, creates a pathogen that kills all humanity’s females. A cure is eventually found, but not before the world’s population balance has been shifted to leave thousands of men to every woman.

    In Joanna Russ’s feminist masterpiece The Female Man (1975), “Whileaway”, a gender-specific virus has wiped out all the men, creating an effective utopia for women left behind, procreating by parthenogenesis and living in harmony. By the novel’s end it is hinted that the man-destroying plague was actually engineered by a female scientist. Never mind the antibacterial handwash: it is patriarchy that we need to scrub out.

    So characteristic is assigning agency to pandemics in today’s culture that a video game such as Plague Inc (Ndemic Creations 2012) styles its players not as doctors attempting to stop the spread of a pandemic, but as the sickness itself. The player’s mission is to help their plagues spread and exterminate the human race. In HG Wells’s seminal War of the Worlds (1898) and in its various modern retellings, including Independence Day (1996), the virus is on our side, destroying alien invaders that lack our acquired immunity.

    One of the most striking twists on this conceit is Greg Bear’s novel Blood Music (1985). A scientist, angry at being sacked by his lab, smuggles a virus out into the world in his own body. It infects everybody, becomes self-aware, and assimilates everybody and everything to itself: human beings and their infrastructure melt down into a planetwide sea of hyperintelligent grey goo. It sounds unpleasant, but it’s actually a liberation: the accumulation of concentrated consciousness, our own included, punches through a transcendent new realm. The plague becomes a kind of secular Rapture.

    If on some level we still think of contagion as the gods’ anger, these stories become about how we have angered the god – about, in other words, our guilt. When Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver planned their reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise, they decided an agent, a neuroenhancer spliced into simian flu, would both raise the apes’ level of intelligence and prove fatal to humans. The resulting movie trilogy (2011-17) was more than just a commercial hit; it proved an eloquent articulation of broader environmental concerns. The few surviving humans move through the film’s lush rejuvenated forestscapes, compelled to confront avatars of humanity’s generational contempt for the natural world.

    The plague that has destroyed us has uplifted these animals, given them wisdom, and they are angry with us – why wouldn’t they be? It’s a common genre trope. The scientist in Alistair MacLean’s The Satan Bug (1965) is an environmental fundamentalist who hopes his germ will wipe out humanity. The mad scientists from Channel 4’s TV drama Utopia (2013‑14) and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy are both driven by the same animus.

    Having invested ourselves with the crown of all creation, coronavirus arrives to puncture our hubris. Think of the computer intelligence Agent Smith in The Matrix (1999), played with sneering panache by Hugo Weaving: humans, he tells Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus, are incapable of developing a natural equilibrium with their environment: “You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed.” In this telling, we are the virus.

    (This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • An Interview With PDP Leader Hussain Baig, ‘New Delhi’s Man in Kashmir’

    The chief patron of the party led by Mehbooba Mufti, who is still under house arrest, talks about the scrapping of Article 370, New Delhi downgrading J&K to a Union Territory from a state and politics in Kashmir.

    Jammu: In July 2017, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehboob Mufti had said, “If Article 35A is tinkered with, there would be no one in the state to hold the tricolour.”

    According to chief patron of the Peoples Democratic Party, former member of parliament and Padma Bhushan awardee Muzaffar Hussain Baig, a “proper and more productive course would have been having a polite conversation”.

    In an exclusive interview with The Wire about the scrapping of Article 370, New Delhi downgrading J&K to a Union Territory from a state and politics in Kashmir, Baig said, “Scrapping Article 370 and J&K’s special status was already in BJP’s election agenda but downgrading of J&K to Union Territory was not. When Mehbooba made that statement, I was surprised… PDP suffered immensely due to this.”

    Baig said he does not know what the future holds for Kashmir, and whether there is a lull before a storm – or whether the people will be forced to reconcile with “altered realities”.

    Excerpts from the interview:

    Is it true what is being said, are you ‘New Delhi’s Man in Kashmir‘?

    Every Indian is somehow connected with New Delhi. New Delhi represents the central government in parliament. If you mean that I’ve been commissioned by the central government to do a job, then no.

    From fighting the slain Maqbool Bhat’s case to receiving the Padma Bhushan in Janaury 2020, the third highest civilian honour – has what ‘Baig Sahab’ stood for changed over time?

    We had a law firm in Srinagar and Amnesty International had written a letter to provide legal help. I contacted Kapil Sibal and he was kind enough to present the case in Supreme Court. Moreover, I don’t think the Padma Bhushan has anything to do with the future of Jammu and Kashmir. I don’t take it personally. I think this award was for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

    Is there a reason why you have not approached a court of law regarding the incarceration of former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act?

    It was a very startling development when Farooq Abdullah went to the Supreme Court to challenge his arrest under Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Normally when a Naib Tehsildar can relieve you, when he went to the Supreme Court, a PSA was slapped on him. It made the situation from bad to worse. Since, I was under house arrest for some time, the question of knocking at the door of any court became a very doubtful double-edged sword. It would not have been wise.

    Before the scrapping of Article 370, you had argued till the last moment that the government of India or parliament does not have the power to scrap J&K’s special status. Do you still believe the move was unconstitutional and illegal?

    I am bound by the law of the Supreme Court so I don’t want to talk about the merits of the case. Of course, I can hope that the Supreme Court will do what is just and proper according to law.

    Do you believe that the people of Kashmir have suddenly forgotten ‘Azaadi’ and even autonomy and only want statehood now?

    The people of Kashmir are not the only people involved here. The people of Jammu are equally involved. So far as Kashmir is concerned, there has been deafening silence. I do not know what the people of Kashmir will do in the future – whether it is a lull before the storm or whether it is a reconciliation with altered realities.

    You are the one who wrote the self-rule document and today you are demanding statehood. How does it feel?

    Yes. I authored the self-rule document but that was in a historical context. Dialogue between then prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf was at a very advanced state. They had agreed in principle to render borders irrelevant. Musharraf had learnt his lesson after the Kargil War. The governments of both countries were on course to attempt something along the lines of a European Union – which came into existence after two world wars.

    After the dilution of Article 370, people want statehood restored. They are seeking something on the lines of Article 371. Things have changed. The government of Pakistan is no longer ready to support armed resistance in Jammu and Kashmir.

    So, we must accept the reality and understand, so long as there is militancy, you may even have statehood, you may even have benefit of Article 371 – but the situation would not be called better.

    Don’t you think that before engaging with the Centre and its representatives, it should be a precondition that all the activists and politicians who have detained since August 5 last year be released?

    It is a very perplexing situation that three former chief ministers are under arrest. People who swore by the constitution of India, whose families faced social boycotts, who face the threats of militants, whose relatives were killed; they have been behind bars since last six months.

    But I don’t like to use the word precondition, it is a request. If you can’t release them at once, release them one by one. If they commit a crime, you can arrest them again. It is not a preventive detention, it is a conviction, without any charge.

    Of course, if someone is indulged in corruption or has joined hands with militants, taking constitution in one hand and helping people with gun on the other hand, if you have some evidence or charge of this nature, then you prosecute them. Whosoever it is.

    If you have no such allegations, release them.

    You have been advocating land rights, educational rights and job rights. Are you trying to bring a new discourse to Jammu and Kashmir?

    If the Supreme Court upholds the decision made by the central government vis-à-vis Article 370 and 35A, it will mean that the legislation which downgraded Jammu and Kashmir was flawless. But than what would be left for the ethnic communities of Jammu region? We should try to evolve a consensus across all ethnic and linguistic identities of Dogras, Gujjar-Bakkarwals, Paharis, Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits in a civilised and responsible manner and request the Government of India to place Jammu and Kashmir under Article 371.

    I was the first person who started this debate. After me, some other people have started repeating the same request – Article 371, protection of land and job rights and so on.

    Some PDP leaders have already rebelled against the party. You, as chief patron of the PDP have said that it was Mehbooba Mufti’s statement on Article 35A that were responsible for the loss of J&K’s autonomy. Is there an internal crisis in PDP?

    I did not make that statement. Scrapping Article 370 and J&K’s special status was already in BJP’s election agenda but downgrading of J&K to Union Territory was not.

    When Mehbooba made that statement, I was surprised. Proper and more productive course would have been having a polite conversation with a request to defer the agenda until the confidence of people across the regions was won. Some mischief-monger within the party who enjoyed her confidence might have persuaded her to make this statement.

    The PDP suffered immensely due to this. Whether there is a crisis or not will depend on the voters and the workers.

    What will be the future of People’s Democratic Party? Will you stay with the party?

    I don’t know. I am still in the PDP. I don’t know what the future will hold. I don’t even know whether I will remain in politics. It will depend on the people who are silent. They are not expressing their views at all. There is no political activity on the ground. There are some people who are here and there, busy taking one direction or the other but since I have been in politics for a very long time, I have a different perspective. It is the people who decide.

    Do you wish to be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir?

    I don’t waste my time thinking who the chief minister will be and who will not. I don’t even know whether I will remain in politics or not. Suppose my suggestions are rejected by people, GOI and also parliament, why should I impose myself on the people?

    If everybody rejects my pleas, why should I remain in politics?

    You had previously said in a statement that a referendum is not possible. There are talks of invasion of Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir. Do you think it is possible?

    History teaches us that anything is possible. I think that it is possible, but not advisable. Both countries are nuclear powers. Somebody has come up with a calculation that if both countries use their full nuclear power, we won’t see the sun for a hundred years. Entire life will disappear in two years.

    So I don’t think and I hope and pray every day that a situation arises where even the talk of nuclear power – anywhere in the world, but particularly between India and Pakistan – does not arise.

    Do you think separation of Ladakh is irrevocable or would you demand a reunification of Ladakh?

    When I became minister in 2002, I was also Minister of Ladakh Affairs. So, I had occasion to interact with elected representatives of the Hill Council and their representatives across society. Ladakh has two distinct identities, one is Buddhist dominant in Leh and then there are Shias in the other part of Zanskar. My impression is that Buddhists of Leh would not like to become part of Kashmir again.

    Maybe the Shias may want to become part of Kashmir, but the Buddhists would be reluctant. So I am not at the moment advocating that when you upgrade J&K back to a state, I will not be putting it as a condition that Leh should also become part of J&K. No, the people of Leh should decide.

    Many commissions in the UT of J&K have been made dysfunctional. Do you think it was a well-thought-out decision to scrap Article 370?

    So far as the management of security on the ground was concerned, I think it had been well thought of and well executed. I believe the army, CRPF and BSF, which were deployed in Kashmir, had been instructed not to use force and to be polite with the people.

    Even during the period of my house arrest, some people, who were not journalists or others, could come see me and they told me that army or CRPF did not trouble them. However, I don’t mean to say that the silence of people of Jammu and Kashmir means reconciliation. I don’t know what is going on in their heart. I hope they think constructively and responsibly.

    I do think there are problems we face at the administrative side, closing of commission, development issues. But I don’t think they will last long. They will have to take some positive and constructive decision that will provide some relief and hope to the people of J&K.

    You are one of the few Kashmiri politicians who admire Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Considering the way dissent is being dealt with in the entire country with regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, do you still admire them or are you reconsidering?

    I publicly had admired PM Modi. The way he had initiated various schemes in the country, and reached out to the Muslim countries in the world as well as some other countries, I said, “Prime Minister sahib if you have the support of your colleagues, you may go down in history and you may be remembered like Mahatma Gandhi.”

    Unfortunately, lately some issues have cropped up. It started with North-east – with Assamese and Non-Assamese and the issue which was a legal issue because there were some agreements between Assam Student Union and Congress govt, with passage of time became a religious issue. You see those old ladies sitting here and there, you see people with guns going into Universities, you see the country being divided on religious lines. It hurts me

    We suffered first during the Partition of 1947 because there was a division on the basis of religion. Had that Partition not taken place, we would have been the largest country in the world and one of the most prosperous and prestigious countries in the world and we would have been a member of the Security Council.

    So this religious divide is not good, neither for Muslims nor for Hindus – it is not good for anybody. But how to manage it? Nobody cares what a small person like me talks from a Union Territory sitting in Jammu. Who will listen, even if I make some suggestions?

    The interview Was First Published On The Wire.

  • This book predicted 2020 coronavirus outbreak 12 years ago

    Source: India Today

    Remember we told you about a novel that predicted the coronavirus outbreak 40 years ago? It was a thriller, The Eyes of Darkness, written by Dean Koontz. Looks like it is not the only piece of fiction that predicted the coronavirus outbreak.

    A book titled End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World, written by Sylvia Browne, also predicted the global outbreak of coronavirus. The book was first published in 2008. A photo of an excerpt from the book is going viral across social media platforms and is spooky enough to reach for that box of tissues to wipe your sweat.

    End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World, a 2008 book written by Sylvia Browne predicted global outbreak of coronavirus

    “In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and bronchial tubes resisting all known treatments,” the excerpt read.

    Doesn’t it sound very similar to this novel coronavirus and the disease, Covid-19? Be it the nature of the illness, the year mentioned or the part about the resistance to treatments – the similarity with coronavirus is uncanny.

    The excerpt also mentioned that the illness will vanish soon after its arrival. “Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrives, attack again ten years later and then disappear completely.”

    Netizens are absolutely stumped with the reference of coronavirus outbreak in the book.

    Coronavirus has spread to over 50 countries and has claimed over 3,000 lives. Medical experts are yet to find a cure for Covid-19. In India alone, there are 28 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Wednesday evening.

    (Except headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • Patient care missing at SMHS Hospital

    In-human behaviour compels patients to visit private hospitals

    Srinagar, Feb 27: The authorities of the SMHS hospital here seem to be least concerned about the patient care. This is despite the fact that SMHS is being considered as well reputed hospitals among the government hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir.
    Sources said that the condition of corridors and other areas of this oldest hospital give a feeling to the patients and attendants as they have entered into the cowsheds.
    An attendant (name withheld) told early times that, while moving upstairs after passing from the (F Block) one feels that they have entered into the cowshed as everything is scattered everywhere.
    “The corridors in upper stories are full of old broken accessories like chairs, beds, tables, crutches, microscopic slides, mating and other hospital items,” said an attendant.
    A group of attendants said that the bathrooms are not in good conditions adding that due to the foul smell, patients as well as attendants are suffering badly. They claimed that condition of patients is getting worsened day by day.
    They said that, during night hours, there is no proper heating arrangement in wards, due to which attendants had to sleep in corridors or even under the beds of patients in the wards.
    “The security staff at every nook and corner of SMHS behaves rudely with the visitors. Instead of guiding them they are misbehaving with each and every attendant due to which the attendants feel sorry for admitting their dear ones in this hospital,” attendants observed.
    They said the inhuman behavior of security staff at SMHS has compelled many patients to visit private hospitals for treatment adding that the security staff of government hospitals across the Kashmir valley has failed to win the hearts of poor people.
    Attendants said that instead of getting medicine and other surgical items from the hospital they are compelled to bring the medicinal items from the market, while as sometimes doctors insist that get the medical tests done from private clinics.
    “The patient care is missing here, and fact of the matter is that, the doctors and other high profile officials at SMHS are themselves enjoying the luxurious facilities, while as the patients and attendants are suffering badly,” allege the attendants at SMHS hospital. (Early Times Report)

  • Indian Penal Code, Criminal Law Among 37 Central Laws To Be Applicable In J&K

    Source: NDTV

    The cabinet had approved the order for adaptation of Central Acts in the Union Territory under Section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

    Political map of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh – File Photo

    New Delhi: The Indian Penal Code, 1860, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, Representation Of People Act, 1950, Census Act 1948 and Prevention Of Corruption Act, 1988, are among the laws which will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir following Union Cabinet’s decision on Wednesday to approve adaptation of central laws under concurrent list to the Union Territory.
    The cabinet had approved the order for adaptation of Central Acts in the Union Territory under Section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. As a result, 37 central laws which were not applicable to the union territory will now be applicable.

    According to Home Ministry, 37 central Acts that will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir also include Income-Tax Act, 1961, Protection Of Human Rights Act, 1993, Official Languages Act, 1963, Press Council Act, 1978, Press and Registration Of Books Act, 1867, Insolvency And Bankruptcy Code, 2016, Census Act, 1948, Public Debt Act, 1944, Indian Forest Act, 1927 and All India Services Act, 1951.

    The Arbitration And Conciliation Act, 1996, Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Act, 2013, Limitation Act, 1963, the Court-Fees Act, 1870, Textiles Committee Act, 1963, Securitization And Reconstruction Of Financial Assets And Enforcement Of Security Interest Act, 2002, Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966 and National Co-Operative Development Corporation Act, 1962 will also be applicable to the union territory.

    The release said it is necessary to adapt central laws made under the concurrent list, with required modifications and amendments, for ensuring administrative effectiveness and smooth transition with respect to Jammu and Kashmir to remove any ambiguity in their application.

    According to Section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the Central Government has requisite powers to make adaptations and modifications of the laws whether by way of repeal or amendment.

    (This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • Every fever and cough is not coronavirus: DAK To People

    SRINAGAR – “People should not mistake flu illness with coronavirus as both have similar symptoms which is fever and cough,” said Doc­tors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday in a com­muniqué.

    “Every fever and cough is not coronavirus,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

    “A suspect case of new coronavirus is one who has respiratory symptoms and has a history of travel to the affected area in the past 14 days or the one who has been in close contact with a confirmed case of coronavi­rus infection within the last 14 days,” he said.

    Dr Nisar said despite simi­lar symptoms of coronavirus to flu, there are some impor­tant differences.

    Quoting a study pub­lished in The Lancet, he said coronavirus cases do not exhibit upper respiratory tract symptoms like runny nose,sore throat and sneez­ing which are seen in most of flu cases.

    Dr Nisar said the new coronavirus,like flu spreads mostly from person to per­son by respiratory droplets, but new research suggests coronavirus can also spread through feces and this could be the reason for the rapid spread of the virus.

    “While this year’s flu vi­rus is hitting kids especially hard, coronavirus has large­ly spared this vulnerable group,” he added.

    “Coronavirus, also called COVID-19 is a novel (new) vi­rus that originated in Wuhan city of China has killed 2,362 people and infected 77,925 people so far.

    Men represent the majority of novel coronavirus cases, and they seem to die more often from this deadly infec­tion.

    Research has found that the death rate among men was 2.8% compared to 1.7% among women.

    Majority of the patients who died of novel coronavirus were older men with underly­ing health problems like dia­betes, hypertension and heart disease,” said Dr Nisar.

  • Pregnant women in Kashmir not getting flu vaccine: DAK

    “Despite life-saving benefits of flu vaccine in pregnancy, majority of expectant mothers are unvaccinated,”

    Doctors do not offer flu vaccine to expectant mothers putting them and their babies at risk

    Srinagar Feb 20: “Most of the pregnant women in Kashmir valley are not getting vaccinated against flu,” said Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday in a communiqué.
    “Despite life-saving benefits of flu vaccine in pregnancy, majority of expectant mothers are unvaccinated,” said DAK President and flu expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
    “The reason why pregnant women are unvaccinated is because they are unawareabout the importance of flu vaccine,” he said.
    “Also, doctors do not offer flu vaccine to expectant mothers putting them and their babies at risk,” he added.
    Dr Nisar said pregnant women are prone to develop severe illness from flu, which can lead to hospitalization, and even death.
    Quoting a study, he said flu vaccine reduces pregnant women’s risk of hospitalization by 40%.
    “The vaccine in pregnancy saves infants from dying in the womb,” Dr Nisar said adding “a large study has shown that flu vaccine reduces the risk ofstillbirths by 51%.”
    He said there is evidence to suggest that a pregnant woman sick with flu has a greater risk of preterm delivery and that a flu vaccine lessens that risk.
    Dr Nisar said mother’s flu shot protects her baby up to 6 months after he or she is born, which is important because babies younger than 6 months of age cannot be vaccinated.
    “In a paper published in journal Pediatrics it was found that infants born to women vaccinated for the flu were 81% less likely to be hospitalized during their first 6 months of life,” he said.
    “Flu vaccine is perfectly safe for pregnant women and can be given to pregnant women during any stage of pregnancy.The power of vaccination in pregnancy is a message that should be broadcast far and wide. It is imperative that obstetricians should advocate for flu vaccination and provide flu vaccine to expecting mothers,” said Dr Nisar.

  • Muzafar Beigh seeks restoration of statehood of J&K

    Jammu: PDP Member parliament Muzafar Hussain Beigh today demanded restoration of Statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.

    He said this during a function organised by Pahari welfare culture forum in Jammu in his honour for bagging Padma Bhushan award recently.

    “I hope that statehood of J&K is restored very soon,” Beigh told gathering during his speech.

    He said India and Pakistan leadership has to play their role for lasting peace in south Asia particularly in J&K. However he blamed Pakistan for doing mischief and thwarting peace efforts of India.

    “ PM Modi went to Pakistan even without invitation. Then they paid back with Pathankot, similarly, after Agra summit, they did Kargil,” he said.

    Without naming anyone, he blamed some political leaders for bloodshed in Kashmir.

    He also praised dogra rulers for securing the rights of the state and its subjects.

    Taking a leaf from history, he said that British divided Hindu-Muslims in 1858.

    “When Ali Muhammad Jinnah left congress, he went to London. British government there asked him to seek separate land for Muslims,” he said in a statement issued to KNS.

    “If India would have been undivided. It would have been most powerful voice in United nations,” he said.

    Those attended the event include Raja Ajaz Ali, Muhamnd Rashed Quereshi, Yasir Reshi, Rafiq Shah, Abdul Gani Kohli, Gurchan singh Charak and others (KNS)