News Kashmir Magazine

News Kashmir Exclusive

The  lack of hope is all time high in the state of Jammu and Kashmir especially in the valley of Kashmir .Worsening situation with reference to escalating killings, very less growth in private sector , declining agriculture sector , downslide in tourism sector are defining the life of Kashmir these days and with these factors weighing heavily the youth are worst hit.

Reflecting on this lack of hope of people in Kashmir both expert voices as well as the common masses are  expressing deep anguish and calling upon all the stakeholders, leadership, authorities to engage in brainstorming sessions so as to develop effective policy that can bring back hope in the pain hit valley of Kashmir.

Young Journalist Bilal Bashir Bhat states –‘’ There is an absolute lack  of hope in our society. Recently When whole of the world was busy in  making certain resolutions on the arrival of New Year 2018, the downtrodden people of Kashmir are focusing, praying for long lasting peace and prosperity. The annual gory statistics based on annihilation, pain, tragedies, anger, suffocation and fear psychosis has become a routine which needs to be ended, dreams every Kashmir cutting across the political ideologies. With PDP BJP government taking the reins of power the hope has been dashed to large extent further as situation with every week is going from bad to worse . It was unfortunate to note that like last several years, the images emanating from Kashmir in 2017 were not of its picturesque resorts but wailing Kashmiris mourning the death of around 400 precious human lives, including those of over 200 militants. One hopes this current atmosphere of absolute hopelessness is put to end .”

Even in the year 2018 when the entire world is thinking of making new discoveries or undertaking some more leaps towards the scientific and technological advancements the Kashmir is  mourning and drenched in tears of blood .South Kashmir has emerged as synonym of pain and grief ,with relentless protests and bearing the worst brunt of atrocities perpetrated by all the sides .

The pulse on the ground zero is that there are not many lucrative opportunities for the youth to engage themselves  meaningfully “ We believe that this and all the former governments have not been able to create good number of employments opportunities and the worst impacted are we the unemployed youth of Kashmir. Uncertain , violent situation of Kashmir  and chronic unemployment is killing the hope of youth,” stated Manzoor Ahmad, a youth.

Realities are calling upon the state government to speed up the efforts to ensure hope is restored in Kashmir and smile is returned back to sad faces.

News Kashmir Desk

In a move that is drawing widespread condemnation and outrage, The JK government recently has added a sub-rule in the Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees Conduct rules which states that no government employee shall engage in any criminal, dishonest, immoral or notoriously disgraceful conduct on social media which may be prejudicial to the government.

“They shall also not use their personal social media accounts for any political activity or endorse the posts or tweets or blogs of any political figure,” the rule states. The employees shall also not use their accounts in a manner that could reasonably be construed to imply that the government endorses or sanctions their personal activities in any manner whatsoever, it said. The order said that the employees shall also not post inflammatory, extraneous messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.

Kashmir and restrictions on social media are nothing new as internet services being snapped on several occasions to curb unrest has been a common feature . During the month of May the state government directed internet service providers to block 22 social networking platforms to clamp down on tensions spurring clashes between security forces and civilians.

Both on online and real world outrage against the order was witnessed. Shafat Farooq, a journalist wrote ”

Dear Netizens, in view of this recent government gag order for its employees, please brace up for more Angel Priya, Charming princess accounts. Remember: any Dady’s princess account could be Gafoor Bhai in real. Thanks”

Shah Faesal , the famed IAS officer in a comic tone criticized the order in comic tone on facebook articulating his feelings in critical  language  -”

“Heard that government employees will be subjected to foot whipping for operating Facebook (account). From now on I will use coded language to update,” Faesal, the first Kashmiri to top the civil services examination in 2009, wrote on his Facebook page, hours after the government issued the gag order

An employee pleading anonymity stated – ”The order of the government curbing our freedom of speech is an onslaught on democracy. It is  a bizarre 16-page order titled “Social Media Usage Policy for Government Employees” issued by the state’s general administration department on Tuesday, which invokes new ‘guidelines’ having been made into law by Governor NN Vohra, specifying how over we the more than 4.8 lakh government employees in the state must behave on social media. This is clear violation of democracy and killing freedom of speech.”

The  move to regulate Social Media activity of the government employees is drawing flak from every quarter.

News Kashmir Analysis

2017 remained another high-voltage year of happenings and sad developments that defined the buzz on street in Kashmir .We analyze the top five developments that impacted Kashmir in year 2017.

NIA raids against separatists and others

In June this year, NIA had carried out searches at 14 places in Kashmir and eight places in the national capital in connection with terror funding. Around eight hawala dealers and traders in the national capital were also raided. The raids and arrests related to it continued for several months.

Six Hurriyat members were arrested from Srinagar and one was nabbed from Delhi. Among those arrested, six of them including Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah (also known as Altaf Fantoosh), Geelani’s close aides Nayeem Khan, Merazuddin Kalwal and Pir Saifulla, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar, and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq’s close aide and spokesperson Shahid-ul-Islam were arrested in Srinagar. Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’ was arrested in Delhi.

At the yearend many leaders, businessmen continued to remain in Jail in what NIA termed its effort to curb terror and violence in Kashmir.

Braid chopping

Braid chopping was yet another burning issue faced by Kashmir in year 2017 and it remained intense in months of September and October.”Braid-chopping” attacks  had resulted in protests across the region.

At least 200 women in Kashmir had reported being attacked by masked men resorting to braid chopping.

The women had claimed that the attackers sprayed chemicals on their faces and left them unconscious. Upon waking up, they found their hair had been chopped off.

Review Of Article 35A, Key to J&K’s Special Status

The politics over the article 35 a which grants special status to the Jammu and Kashmir state was another dominating development defining debates on Kashmir. A case over whether Jammu and Kashmir can keep its right to decide who qualifies as a permanent resident of the state has  been taken for hearing by the Supreme Court  and would be taken again in January-end next year.

Intrestingly during last hearing The  Central government had cited the recent appointment of Dineshwar Sharma as its interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, saying the top court’s hearings in the politically volatile and emotive one could have some impact on the government’s initiative. The case is being heard by three judges including Chief Justice Dipak Mishra.

Operation  against militants

‘Operation All-Out’, an offensive launched by the security forces against militants in year 2017 that killed more than 210 militants  and security forces stated that it would continue till there was complete peace in the state.”The people of Kashmir will feel peace very soon,”. the top cops have maintained .

During these encounters scores of civilians also lost their lives in firing by security forces on protesters.

Farzana Mumtaz

“Our govt will be regularizing 60,000 daily wagers & casual labourers working in various departments in J&K to provide sustainable livelihoods to those who need it the most,” tweeted Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti few days back, which many have seen a big stride towards solving this complicated and serious issue .

Daily Wagers and Casual Labourers have become symbols of agitation over the past few decades owing to their unfulfilled demands.

Some years back the state Finance ministry stated that 61,446 casual/seasonal /need-based employees were engaged in as many as 31 government departments.The reply added that at present wage rate of such workers was Rs 150 per day however in someDepartments,

The need-based and part-time workers were being paid consolidated wages at varying rates.

Importantly, this  reply also contained  department-wise number of such employees with Public Health Engineering-Irrigation and

Flood control (PHE/I&FC) department alone employing 23711

followed by Forest Department (7171), R&B (6692), Agricultureproduction (4383) and Housing and Urban Development(3922). In a worrying development despite the  state government imposing  a blanket ban on appointment of daily wagers on several instances, these people were engaged by various departments under different names such as casual workers and need-based workers.

After the State was burdened with huge appointments of daily wagers by polity that lacked foresight , what followed was the Lack of concrete policy on daily wagers, no regularization policy, huge delay in payment of salaries has defined the plight of daily wagers. With crisis growing into a disaster Daily Wager issue was among the  serious issue that has been surfacing as a very big headache  for the state administration and successive governments.

Importantly, The panel headed by Chief Secretary BB Vyas submitted its report to the finance department in October, stating that the total number of workers engaged in 31 departments under 15 different categories, including casual labourers and seasonal workers, was 1,00,501.

Syed Mohammad Haadi, an expert voice on it stated  “We should all welcome the decision of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to regularize the daily wagers as agitation was becoming only means for these daily wagers over past many years .The daily wagers have faced great number of serious issues mainly due to very meager amount paid and that too after much delays .One is hopeful that the recent policy decision from the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will be implemented in letter and spirit. Once the daily wage issue is solved with great vision and pragmatics it will take state to new level of transparency.’’

One hopes there would be light at the end of dark tunnel on byDaily wage issue with announcement on daily wage issue by CM.