News Kashmir Magazine

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.

Education is dream of every civilized human. As a matter of great pain, global number of unschooled children aged 6-11 is still as high as 58 million, with little overall improvement since 2007. Out of which, India, with 1.4 Million children out of school, has the fourth highest number of unschooled children in the world, revealed the latest UNESCO data.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization had stated few years back that though India houses 1.4 million children out of school in 2011, the country is among 17 other nations that have managed to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the past decade.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which produced the policy paper, said that 15 million girls and 10 million boys, constituting around 43 percent of those out of school, are unlikely to ever get access to primary education if the current situation remains the same. Countries like India, Indonesia, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan is a home to millions of children out of school.

According to the UNESCO paper, abolishing school fees, introducing more relevant curricula, devoting increased attention to ethnic and linguistic minorities and providing financial support to families in need could have a positive role in promoting and extending the right to education to every human being. However, despite these high numbers, India suffered the largest cuts in aid to basic education from 2010-2012 of any country in the world, according to the specialized agency of UN.
We as a globe need to awake and provide quality education to every human.

Today’s world is Global Village courtesy media.Media is termed as the fourth estate of a democratic setup. Today impact of media has become debatable issue. We often hear that the media has an appalling influence on society.   This is true in some cases, but we have to also add this to the statement; society also influences the media by what it chooses to promote or watch.   Media is a very important part of society today.   Even with its adverse effects, we could not survive without it.

To start with, it is only fair to ask why society thrives off the media.   Society, at least the past few generations have always had an influence from media in some form or another.   Media in most circumstances is a way for the members of society to keep themselves informed on what is happening around them, which is even more vital with our world becoming globally connected.   Media is also a major source of entertainment.   Some forms of media are made for the sole purpose of entertaining the masses.   However, the media is forced to produce entertainment that the society requests.

On the otherhand, Media has a very significant impact on the society by acting as a bridge between administration and people. It plays a crucial role in highlighting the plight of oppressed masses, but is also said to have imparted some negative effects on the society which mainly include-Desensitization of society, general sense of panic and disorder, disconnection from God and morals, loss of imagination, and an excuse for laziness.   Studies have found that by the age of sixteen years, most children have watched more television than they have spent time in school. The media has also been alleged of promoting vulgarity at some instances. The media on a holistic base has imparted both positives as well as negatives into our social set up.

2016 has dawned and It’s the time to retrospect the year that was and set goals for future.

2016 (MMXVI) will be a leap year starting on Friday (dominical letter CB) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2016th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 16th year of the 3rd millennium, the 16th year of the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2010s decade.

2016 has been designated as the International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.

All sane humans are hoping that wars, civil wars that have pained this planet earth and we are seeing lot of bloodshed will come to end in year 2016 and better sense would prevail among all parties of conflict will use better brains in 2016  to solve their disputes via dialogue.

In Kashmir too masses who have been hit very hard by the lingering political conflict and violence due to it are highly hopeful that Kashmir in 2016 will see an end to mad cycle of violence and disputes would be solved amicably.

Kashmir’s health and education sector has been constant worry for masses.The public health sector of the Jammu & Kashmir state especially that of the Kashmir Valley is in utter crisis. The hopeless scenario pertaining to health sector calls for the implementation of drastic measures.  . We confront to face problems on the all important education sector of ours. The poor and dismal performance of government schools despite being staffed with sufficient manpower and quality aptly describe the status of our education system.

One hopes in year 2016 the health and education sector would improve. Above all we are hopeful that world will be a better place to live in 2016.

Jammu and Kashmir is moving into 2016 with lots of hopes and expectations. The long running violent conflict has been paining the masses especially people of Kashmir as pain, death and destruction has defined the life in Kashmir. One added thing that has accelerated and added to continued chaos in all three regions Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh is the lack of quality governance. The hopes of people about good governance have been dashed time and again  , barring few short intervals of  time the state has witnessed not that much of what can be termed as good governance.

The voices are hoping that in the upcoming New Year the Jammu and Kashmir Government would focus on mantra of good governance.

Good governance and reaching via it to grassroots of the populace is the need of the hour and to an extent providing it can douse the angry fires in the state and ease out the overall paradigms of frustration. Let the government brainstorm and provide good governance to the masses of state.

Good Governance should involve taking series of steps on ground zero. The steps that should be taken should include giving the Thrust to employment and income generation,  Expanding provision of basic services , Reviving the traditional industries of Kashmir, Improving the face of public health and education sector, Relief & Rehabilitation for the dislocated and bereaved people.

Let the 2016 be the year of good governance for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Despite Kashmir roads once known for having very less congestion are now a story of jams, jams and more jams. The traffic on frequent roads of Kashmir gets now locked for hours and as a result commuters, critical patients face lot of problems. This traffic jams in Kashmir cause many delays to masses to reach to their respective destinations. We are also very well aware that our traffic department is facing dearth of human resource and are not able to properly look after this jam problem as a result this has become a menace.
As we are very well aware that traffic jam has become one of the major problems in our state and residents now spend hours stuck in traffic in the srinagar like city . Traffic congestion in many places of the state is also becoming severe with every passing day . One possible solution to this grave problem is to impose heavy taxes on car drivers and use this money to make public transport better
The sane voices are calling upon the government to frame a strategy so as to counter the frequent occurrence of traffic jams does not put them to more troubles .The realities call that time is ripe to address this grave traffic jam problem before it gets out of hand and public begins to lose its patience.

The all important India- Pakistan relations which have been witnessing downslide for long time seem to be witnessing some optimism since past few days.

The recent visit of Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan issue also saw India –Pakistan breaking the ice and atleast beginning to talk.

Swaraj announced  certain key things and stated that efforts by both nations to improve ties are on . The discussions will encompass a wide range of issues from counter-terrorism to economic cooperation, but the cricketing ties between the two nations is yet to get the green signal.

“India and Pakistan are ready for talks. How this dialogue can be taken forward – the schedule and modalities will be decided in due course,” Sushma Swaraj said  after meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Foreign Affairs Adviser Mr Sartaj Aziz.

“The discussions will involve “peace and security, CBMs, Jammu & Kashmir, Siachen… Economic and Commercial Cooperation, Counter-Terrorism.. Humanitarian Issues, People to People exchanges and religious tourism,” said a joint statement.

 

“The Indian side was assured of the steps being taken to expedite the early conclusion of the Mumbai trial,” the joint statement read.

“The NSAs will continue to address all issues connected to terrorism,” the joint statement also said.

One hopes that this time around a comprehensive and  broadbased dialogue on key issues between India and Pakistan would be kick started and peace process gets a new lease of life. Peace and talks are only means for civillised nations.

Pakistan in a major development has hanged four convicts involved in dastardly Peshawar School Massacre. On 16 December 2014, seven gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban(TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans. Their accomplices were many Pakistani Nationals.They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 141 people, including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age. A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Army’sSpecial Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all seven terrorists and rescued 960 people. On 02 December, 2015 Pakistan hanged four militants involved in the Peshawar massacre.

This was the most horrible terrorist attack ever to occur in Pakistan, surpassing the2007 Karachi bombing.

 

The attackers were handed the death sentence for their respective roles in the massacre.Maulvi Salam was convicted of harbouring suicide bombers who attacked the Peshawar school, killing 144 people, a majority of them children. The ISPR claimed that he had confessed to his crime and that he was also involved in the killing of two colonels and a senior official of the National Development Complex.

 

Pertinently, Hazrat Ali was convicted of raising funds for the APS attack and involvement in the killing of 23 Levies Force personnel after their kidnapping.Sabeel was found guilty of being involved in an attack on the Pakistan Air Force’s Peshawar base in 2012 and transporting 10 suicide bombers and of abetment in the APS attack.

Meanwhile, Mujeebur Rehman was convicted of transporting 10 suicide bombers for the attack on the PAF base, being involved in assaults on personnel of law enforcement agencies and abetment in the APS attack.

Certainly,Pakistan has sent a strong message to extremists post Peshawar School Massacre.