Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday termed the shifting of the state capital between Jammu and Srinagar twice every year as "waste of money", but said no viable alternative to the arrangement has come forth so far. "Do I think the 'Durbar move' (shifting of capital) is a waste of money? Yes I do. Is there an alternative? I haven't seen a viable alternative suggested," Omar wrote on the micro-blogging site twitter.com. The state government shifts its capital from Jammu to Srinagar in the first week of May every year and functions here for six months before moving back to Jammu along with volumes of records. The state government spends crores of rupees on travel allowances for the nearly 5,000 employees and transportation of hundreds of thousands of files between the twin capitals. In response to a tweet from his follower, Omar said the Darbar move practice was "escapist". "I agree. We run away when people need us most and (they) face the most difficulty. The darbar move is escapist," he said. The state government's 'move offices', as they are known in local parlance, will close in Jammu on April 28 and reopen here on May 7. The ...
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Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah today favoured Centre-state consultations to put at rest any controversy over setting up of National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). "There has been no discussion between state government and the central government on the issue of NCTC. I do not think it would be appropriate as chief minister for me to publicly comment about it, before I privately share the feelings of the state government with the Union government on this crucial issue," Omar Abdullah told reporters on sidelines of a function here, 20km from Srinagar. He said consultation between the Centre and the states was essential to put at rest the controversy surrounding NCTC. "I have no doubt that in the days and months ahead, the central government will call the state governments for consultation. I believe consultation is essential and during the course of that consultation we will share the thoughts of the state government with the Centre," he said. Chief ministers of a dozen states have voiced their opposition to the creation of the NCTC but Omar Abdullah did not speak either in favour or against ...
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Jammu, Playing down the row over visit of controversial author Salman Rushdie to India, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said Rushdie had visited the country in the past as well. Abdullah claimed that vested interest have raked up the issue to exploit it for political purposes in the upcoming elections in the five states. “Salman Rushdie has come before this also. Why suddenly is Salman Rushdie becoming an issue? Clearly there are those who are seeking to exploit this for political purposes given that there are elections in five states,” said Abdullah. Abdullah said that it was unnecessary to blow the issue of Rushdie’s visit to India out of proportion. “We underestimate the intelligence of Indian Muslims when we try to raise issues like this which have no bearing on day to day concerns of Muslims. I don’t believe that there are many Muslims in India for whom visa to Salman Rushdie will be an election issue,” added Abdullah. An influential Islamic seminary, Darululoom Deoband seminary, has urged the central government to deny visa to Rushdie, who would be attending a literature festival later this month. India-born ...
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Srinagar, In view of massive protests across Kashmir valley against power crisis, the Power Development Department (PDD) today said it has decided to increase the power supply to 1,100 mw in the region from current 951 mw. "Consequent to a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on December 29, 2011 to review the status of essential supplies including that of power supply in the state, particularly the Kashmir valley, during the winter season, the PDD has ensured that energy supply to Kashmir valley is significantly increased to give immediate relief to the common man from severe winter conditions prevailing in the valley," Power Development Commissioner M A Salroo said in a statement here. He said current electricity supply level has gone upto 951 mw from an average of 850 mw to Kashmir valley earlier, and now and "the effort of the PDD would be to increase it further to 1,100 mw in coming days". Mr Salroo said electricity supply has increased by 10 per cent to nearly 5,809 lakh units in December 2011 as against 5,300 lakh units in the same month previous year. The PDD has also been directed to put into operation gas turbines immediately to give ...
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