Posts Tagged ‘Jammu’
Written by admin on 02 February 2012
Jammu, Feb 2 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir’s tourism department will constitute a Golf Management Authority to showcase and oversee the golf courses in the state, officials said Thursday.
Tourism department official said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a meeting Thursday, said the creation of a golf circuit in the state would help rope in national and international golfers and also boost tourism.
Omar said the completion and inauguration of golf courses at Pahalgam and Gulmarg (Kashmir) and Sidhra (Jammu) and development of a course at Leh would attract golfers.
There is already an 18-hole international standard golf course, Royal Spring, in Srinagar.
Chairing the first governing body meeting of Jammu Tawi Golf Course (JTGC) here, the chief minister also approved release of Rs.3 crore for the upgrade of the 9-hole Sidhra Golf Course to an 18-hole venue.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
Posted in National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 01 February 2012
Jammu, Feb 2 (IANS) Remote police stations and police buildings in Jammu and Kashmir will now be lit by solar energy for uninterrupted power supply to help ‘maintenance of law and order and in anti-terrorist operations,’ it was announced Wednesday.
According to an official spokesman, union New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah has sanctioned over Rs. 30 crores to the Jammu and Kashmir Police to install over 500 solar photovoltaic power plants at training centres, battalion headquarters, sub divisional police offices and even police stations and border police posts.
Abdullah, who is also president of National Conference that is leading a coalition with the Congress in the state, said: ‘The project is expected to be completed in a year’s time. The installations of these power plants will enable uninterrupted power supply to the various police installations.’
‘In particular, reliable power supply to far-flung and remote police stations and outposts will ensure regular connectivity and quicker action in both routine law and order and anti-terrorist activities.’
Earlier in December last year, some remote inaccessible and border areas along with some hospitals were ordered to get electrified through solar and wind energy in Jammu and Kashmir.
This came under Remote Village Electrification Programme (RVEP) sanctioned by Abdullah’s ministry and to be commissioned by the state science and technology department.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 01 February 2012
Jammu, Feb 1 (IANS) The Jammu and Kashmir State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Wednesday approved a three-tier draft disaster management policy for the state ‘which is vulnerable to natural calamities’.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah presided over the SDMA meeting that laid importance on professional responses to preparedness, prediction and prevention of disasters, an official statement said.
Kashmir is prone to natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, snow-storms, landslides, cloudbursts and droughts, said the statement.
Abdullah said there was a need for a fool-proof mechanism to rescue, provide relief and rehabilitate disaster-hit people.
He asked the authorities to strengthen operational functionaries at all levels, enhance capacity building and educate people about the importance of disaster management.
Abdullah said: ‘We need a comprehensive strategy with befitting command and control to be in place to face any exigency befittingly and in a coordinated manner.’
The meeting followed heavy snow and rains that have triggered landslides and avalanches, cut off many areas, stranded hundreds and caused shortages of essential supplies.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
Posted in National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 31 January 2012
Jammu, Jan 31 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday gave his approval for ‘Youth Start-Uo Loan Scheme’ (YSLS) under the state’s Sher-i-Kashmir Employment and welfare programme for Youth (SKEWPY) to increase employment opportunities for youth to set up business ventures.
A government spokesman said, in a release, that the approval was given in the fifth review meeting of SKEWPY here.
‘The YSLS initiative under SKEWPY on the pattern of term-loan schemes of National Minorities Development and Financial Corporation (NMDFC) will make SKEWPY more inclusive and support entrepreneurs in an off-bank mode to get soft loans for launching self-employment ventures,’ the spokesman quoted Abdullah as saying.
The chief minister said that the initiative could be implemented with target cases of 100 each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions within a time frame of two months. He said that the initiative will provide opportunities to the budding entrepreneurs to get hassle-free and simple loans on lesser interest rates.
According to the spokesman, the chief minister was informed at the meeting that more than 2,808 cases for establishment of entrepreneurship units have been sanctioned during 2011. Out of these, 2,411 have received about Rs. 70 crore financial assistance for launch of business.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had started SKEWPY, which mainly focused on stipends to the educated unemployed youth in the age group of 20-37 for generating employment and self-employment in December 2009.
Various kinds of grading has been done for the youth, who have studied upto class 10 and above. The monthly stipend would be Rs.500 to Rs.1,100 depending on the qualification of the candidates.
The government had come with this programme ‘to give a hope to the youth, feeling frustrated because of the shrinking chances of government employment’.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Srinagar/Jammu, Jan 30 (IANS) In a major embarrassment for senior Congress leader and Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Peerzada Sayeed, a newspaper in Srinagar Monday carried the facsimile of an answer sheet in two handwritings — alleging that part of it had been written by an official to help his son pass the secondary school exam in 2009. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has summoned the minister to explain his stand.
A front page story in the widely circulated ‘Greater Kashmir’ newspaper carried the facsimile of the answer sheet with the roll number 228211.
The newspaper story alleges that an official of the education department posted on exam duty had written part of the student’s Urdu exam paper in order to help him pass the exam.
A complaint lodged by another teacher posted on duty at the centre was received by the authorities of the Jammu and Kashmir board of school examinations, but despite recommendations to withhold the result of the candidate, the authorities went ahead announcing that the candidate had passed the exam.
Omar Abdullah Monday summoned Peerzada Sayeed on the case, an official statement in Jammu said.
‘The chief minister asked the school education minister to see him to explain the facts in this matter. The file submitted to the chief minister by the school education minister has been sent to the crime branch of J&K Police who have been told to complete their inquiry within seven working days,’ it added.
Another senior Congress leader G.M. Saroor had to resign from the state cabinet in 2010 following media reports that his daughter had passed a medical college entrance exam by arranging a proxy candidate to write the papers.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar
Posted in National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 29 January 2012
Jammu, Jan 29 (IANS) A Congress leader in Jammu and Kashmir has accused a minister from his own party of being corrupt.
Former social welfare minister Abdul Gani Vakil, in a letter to Public Health Engineering Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din, released Saturday night, alleged there were cases of corruption within the latter’s department.
Vakil alleged that corruption cases were pending against the minister in the ‘State Accountability Commission (SAC) and a land grabbing case’ was going on against him in the high court.
Vakil, a loyalist of union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, also alleged that ‘various scams were surfacing from time to time in the public health engineering and irrigation departments’. A copy of the hard-hitting letter was sent to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
However, Mohi-ud-Din, a confidant of Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmad Patel, called it a conspiracy against him.
‘Vakil wanted the transfer of some engineers and other staff in the public health engineering and irrigation departments after having taken bribes from them. I did not oblige him, hence this tirade…He has been trying to blackmail other ministers too,’ Mohi-ud-Din told IANS.
Tags: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
Posted in National, Politics | No Comments »
