News Kashmir Magazine

The whole Kashmir valley was on edge few days back as after allegations of molestation of girl by army five civilians lost their precious lives in firing by security forces. Now to cool the tempers  bulldozers tore down four  army bunkers on Tuesday 19 April at Kashmir’s Handwara town, a week after a young cricketer and two others were killed in firing by security forces.

Pertinently, these  four bunkers set up 23 years ago in the north Kashmir town were razed by the administration. The army, which had refused to move out of the town, relented after “negotiations with the administration and the an intervention at the highest level at the state government and army command,” sources say.

It is worth mentioning here that as the main bunker came down in the heart of the town, locals immediately put up a banner naming the square after Nayeem Bhat, a 19-year-old cricketer who was killed in the firing last Tuesday.
It is a known veracity that locals in Kashmir have been long demanding the demilitarization of Kashmir as a tiny Kashmir valley cannot afford to much security forces. Many have stated that demilitarization of Kashmir completely  logically is not possible but to some extent it should be done.

Many voices are stating that removing of army bunkers in Handwara was a “good sign” and that the process needs to be extended to other parts of Kashmir too.

In a big blow to hopes of people of Kashmir men in uniform have once again resorted to civilian killings. A few days back as the events unfolded in North Kashmir Township of Handwara after the allegations of molestation  on the security forces lead to heavy protests and in action of security forces three precious lives were lost.

As the pro-freedom groups announced strike call the very next day one more precious lives was lost in Kupwara.

These killings are a setback to recently sworn in Government of first ever women  Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti.She too seems to be upset over all this.

 

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, met the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, at Delhi and discussed with him the unfortunate firing incident at Handwara yesterday in which three civilians, including a woman, were killed.

 

During the meeting, the Chief Minister called for a time-bound enquiry into the incident so that those responsible for the deaths are handed exemplary punishment. This, she said, will act as a deterrent against such incidents in future.

Mehbooba Mufti said such incidents shake the confidence of the people and adversely impact the efforts of the State government in consolidating peace dividends.

She said the loss of lives of the innocent civilians cannot be compensated by whatsoever means.

 

However, she urged the Defence Minister to announce adequate compensation to the families of the victims, who have suffered such an irreparable loss.

The Defence Minister assured the Chief Minister of a detailed time-bound probe to fix the responsibility in the firing incident at Handwara. The Chief Minister also discussed several other wide-ranging issues with Manohar Parrikar.

Pertinently, the Defense Minister assured Mehbooba Mufti, as regards the issues raised, early positive consideration by his Ministry.  One hopes a tough action is taken against those responsible for these innocent killings and these killings are stopped immediately.

Poison has been sold in name of food items in Kashmir. Once again the Khyber corporate house of Kashmir has bought the corporate of Kashmir shame by being convicted of selling unsafe milk products.
In this regard, Court declared Khyber milk unsafe, imposed fine and convicted nominated person of the company.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam on Monday held M/S Khyber Agro Farms Pvt Ltd guilty for selling substandard and unsafe milk. The court has imposed a fine of Rs 9 laks on the company and besides it has ordered six months imprisonment to the In-Charge Operations nominated by the said company. The court has also declared Food Analyst Kashmir either incapable or dishonest and has ordered for his immediate removal.

The court passed these directions in the case of State through Zeenat Ayoub Food Safety Officer area Budgam (complainant) V/s Incharge Operations nominated person for M/S Khyber Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, Muhammad Shafi Ganaie, son of late Ghulam Muhammad, resident of Repora Lar, Ganderbal and Ghulam Ali Khan, son of Ghulam Muhamamd, a resident of Wahdatpora Budgam, proprietor M/S Yaseem Provision Store main chowk Budgam.
It is high time all such corporate companies compromising with human health get the harshest possible punishment.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam Imtiaz Ahmed Lone in its judgement said: “this is not first case where it has come to the surface that the milk product manufactured by the accused company contains detergent, urea and other dangerous chemicals not only in milk but other edible products and in this behalf prosecution has been launched against the accused company and others. The accused company is facing similar cases before various courts,therefore, the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused company is ruled out. The apex court of the state has also taken cognizance suo moto against the product in question and the product is presently before the Honorable Supreme Court of the country, for the same offence.

One hopes the corporate of Kashmir maintains the desired principles and standards.

 

Life is a priceless gift from God.   Even when a human being has no material belongings, life will still be possessed.   In light of these observations, it is very rational and principled to believe committing suicide is dreadful because you are always better off than someone else out there. Why would you want to throw your life away?

.

. Unfortunately, despite being the greatest vice, the suicide rate has increased alarmingly over the past few years in the Kashmir Valley. Just a few decades back, Kashmir was among few places across the globe with very low suicide rates. Paradoxically, over the past two decades the graph of suicides has run north. With the growing depression among masses owing to conflict and changing times the suicide rate has risen in Kashmir considerably enough. Many voices believe that the breakdown of institution of parenting being the single largest reason behind rising suicides

The other factors responsible for most of the suicides in the valley are unsuccessful love affairs, failure of students to meet the expectation of their parents.

The need of the time is to provide  strong counseling to depressed people to fight the pain and challenges of life. We have to understand that Pain is for the living, souls do not feel earthly pain as that is an experience that is reserved for when we are in our physical bodies, now, heartbreak is ruled by our emotional selves and the emotions primarily manifest on the astral plane, we need to recognize the loveliness of life and fight boldly with unfavorable situation rather than taking foolish and immoral step of ending our life. Life is a precious gift of Allah and we need to value it.

 

Wild life is a very notable ingredient of our ecology and our ecological balance   depends upon a healthy and varied wild life. We cannot in any manner chip away at the significance of wild life. When Compared to plants, animals although make up only a small part of the total mass of living matter on earth. Despite this, they play a important part in shaping and maintaining our natural environments

 

Many environments are directly influenced by the way animals live. Grasslands, for example, exist partly because grasses and grazing animals have evolved a close partnership, which prevents other plants from taking hold. Tropical forests also owe their existence to animals, because a large amount of their trees rely on animals to distribute their pollen and seeds. Soil is partly the result of animal activity, because earthworms and other invertebrates help to break down dead remains and recycle the nutrients that they contain. Without its animal life, the soil would soon become compacted and infertile.

 

But as a matter of great distress, the world’s wild life has declined to one third over the last 40 years. Pertinently, the massive plummet in wild life was figured in the  edition of land mark research conducted by WWF some years back.

 

 

Pertinently, The estimated losses of wildlife cross 50 percent in the tropics while in tropical freshwater ecosystems alone the average loss is as big as 70 percent as per the 2012 edition of the Living Planet Report. In a hurting note, it is learnt that the freshwater dolphin from China’s Yangtze River seems to have become extinct now and the wild tigers face 70 percent decline in their population.

Even in our beautiful valley of Kashmir we are witness to great loss in terms of wildlife on account of havoc caused to their natural habitats. If we continue to lose wildlife at this pace our natural environment is slated to face more catastrophic dimensions.

Kashmir has seen brutal vandalization of its green gold. Forests have been mercilessly cut and as a result abnormal climate patterns have become norm. “Global warming” appears to have taken a toll on the climate patterns in Kashmir valley which has been experiencing a decline in snowfall and rise in temperature, a reality which even weather scientists have also found.

Pertinently, while analyzing the snow accumulation and ablation patterns in Pir Panjal and Shamshawari regions of the valley during the winters of 2004-05 to 2006-07, scientists have shown that the seasonal snow cover has reduced while the maximum temperature was increasing steadily. The climatic patterns are abnormal as dry spells are prolonged and rains are very harsh. As it is an established fact that forests play an important role in maintain the normal climatic patterns of any concerned area; the decline in forest cover has made the climatic spells highly abnormal in Kashmir and the paradise on earth-Kashmir is losing its great attractiveness on account of brutal cutting of forests.

As a matter of fact , over the last 2-3 decades have seen tremendous destruction of forests in almost every country, apart from for a few exceptions, mainly in the continent of Europe. Now, there are two kinds of countries: one, that have reversed the trend of deforestation, and, second, that be in this world with the sorry reality of declining forest cover. Sadly, we belong to the second category. The adverse  impact of deforestation is visible in urban areas too. Besides the fast increasing number of hotels and residential places around some of the lakes, silt washed from the mountains during the rains is described as the main reason for shrinking of the lakes and also disturbing forest cover .

We should as a nation take steps to stop deforestation.

Nursing system forms an significant part of any concerned health sector. unquestionably, there is a shortage of nurses in our state, especially in the Valley of Kashmir and this has grave consequences on the provision of health services in our part of the world.

As a matter of fact, shortage of nurses leads to long queues at clinics and hospitals, long waiting periods before patients can be attended to. This leads to the slowing down of procedures at clinics and hospitals and increase adverse events for patients and more stressful work environment.

As the shortage of nurses’ increases, there is increased pressure on our health system to start depending on unqualified and unregulated health workers to meet demands for basic nursing care within clinics and hospitals.
We need to take a series of steps to not only increase the nursing staff in our hospitals but also needs to have a good number of quality nurses. One cannot claim to have respect for human rights or to uphold the sanctity of life if there is no provision for minimum health care for all. And there is no future development without healthy citizens. It is said that caring for the sick is a calling from God of a special dignity and importance, not just another job.
We definitely need to have development of nursing as our top priority.

Environment is the most essential part of our sustenance. Kashmir valley is known world over for its natural beauty and pristine environment .Lush green gold in form of forests consist of wide variety of plant species like pine, cedar and Chinar, world famous water bodies like Dal and Wullar Lake, globally known wetlands, lofty mountains, eye catching glaciers have been symbols of kashmir’s huge environmental heritage. But since past few decades constantly a death blow is being lent to these great environmental resources of Kashmir on account of human greed and official apathy. Worrying statistics clearly prove this point.

 

. The last 2-3 decades have seen destruction of forests in almost every country, except for a few exceptions, mostly in the continent of Europe. Now, there are two kinds of countries: one, that have successfully reversed the trend of deforestation, and, second, that live with the sorry reality of declining forest cover. Dejectedly, we belong to the second category. The impact of deforestation is visible in urban areas too. Besides the rapidly increasing number of hotels and residential places around some of the lakes, silt washed from the mountains during the rains is described as the main reason for shrinking of the lakes. An effective forest cover would have prevented this.

All this environmental degradation has resulted in causing havoc to our nature and giving rise to abnormal climate patterns.
As a matter of fact, we had a forest cover of 21,000 sq. km. in 1930, which went down to 13,000 sq. km. in 1980. It is estimated that we lost another 15 to 20 per cent during the previous 20 years. The declining forest cover has also meant increase in man-animal conflict. Hearing news about man-wild animal conflict has become a usual  affair in our part of the world.

People in the pain and conflict hit state of Jammu and Kashmir are waiting desperately for elected government to takeover so as to end the governor rule in the state. Overwhelming majority of masses believe that their problems could receive a due attention only when there is elected setup in place. Worryingly enough, the already politically sensitive and countless problem hit state of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed many long sells of governor rule which has weakened the democratic paradigm and dashed hopes . Masses have felt the hard brunt of these long spells of governor rule as developmental picture has been

Breaking the ice in this regard BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav met Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday, in the first attempt to iron out differences between the two parties and pave the way for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under Governor’s rule since January 9.

 

Mr. Madhav arrived here by a special flight in the evening, headed for Ms. Mufti’s ‘Fair View’ residence on Gupkar Road and held a closed-door meeting that lasted one hour. No other leader was present, sources said.After the meeting, Mr. Madhav avoided the media and rushed to the Srinagar airport for his return flight. The meeting once again failed to yield a decision on government formation.

As a result, suspense on the government formation remains.

India is witnessing since quiet long time now heated debate on the validity of Capital Punishment in changing circumstances. India retains capital punishment for a number of serious offences. The Supreme Court of India has allowed the death penalty to be carried out in 5 instances since 1995, while a total of 26 executions have taken place in India since 1991.
Pertinent to mention here that in December 2007, India voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. In November 2012, India again upheld its stance on capital punishment by voting against the UN General Assembly draft resolution seeking to ban death penalty
On the otherhand, On 31 August 2015, the Law Commission of India submitted a report to the government which recommended the abolition of capital punishment for all crimes in India, excepting the crime of waging war against the nation or for terrorism-related offences. The report cited several factors to justify abolishing the death penalty, including its abolition by 140 other nations, its arbitrary and flawed application and its lack of any proven deterring effect on criminals.

Those who oppose death sentence have time and again stated that India should join the bulk of countries that have abolished death penalty. It should surely absorb the feeling behind the increasing support by the comity of nations to the UN’s campaign for a moratorium on the practice and its abolition. Since 2007, more and more countries are jumping to the other side. Punishment by death, as the campaigners argue is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a “premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.”
Nevertheless, one finds growing support for abolishing death sentence in India.