In this Issue ...

356-crore rupee resettlement grant for Srinagar lakes

Towards self reliance

IT student sets up mobile recharge portal

Environment Park opened in Jammu

Health insurance for BPL families

J&K post offi ces go hi-tech

Popularising Science

J&K students on education tour meet Dr. Farooq Abdullah

Sufi saint’s shrine being restored

Vol.III, No.4, April, 2012

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Srinagar residents said they were de-lighted by the announcement, and added that the initiative for the pres-ervation and conservation of the lake would help to attract more tourists.

“We want the state government to re-habilitate the lake dwellers and also restore the beauty of the Dal Lake to attract tourists to Kashmir,” said Man-zoor Ahmad, a resident.

The state government is sparing no ef-fort to restore the world famous Dal Lake in Srinagar that symbolises the beauty of the Kashmir Valley.

The Central Government has ap-proved a Rupees 356 crore grant for resettlement and rehabilitation of around 10,000 families living in and around the Dal and Nigeen Lakes in Srinagar.

This is essential for the eco-regen-eration of the lakes that are being preserved under the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP).

The Vice Chairman of the Kash-mir Lakes and Waterways Devel-opment Authority, Irfan Yaseen, praised the central government’s decision to approve the grant.

“With the sanction of this particu-lar project, the fl exibility for reha-

employed and facing life with new vigour thanks to the dis-trict administration’s efforts. It is even offering monetary as-sistance to women to enroll in training centres.

The Block Development Offi cer of Budhal, Yar Ali Khan, said it has given women an opportu-nity to earn while they learn.

“We are training local women here. We are providing them skill development training in which we teach them tailoring and embroidery. We have hired certifi cate holders at a salary of Rs.4000 to train these women in different crafts. Moreover, we

bilitation has increased. That means the project now has suffi cient fi nan-cial fl exibility to pay compensation for the structures and the land that is being acquired. So, it should now be possible for lake dwellers to get their compensation,” Yaseen said.

The Dal Lake is regarded as one of the state’s prime tourist attractions and is known as the ‘Jewel in the Crown of Kashmir’. It is the second largest lake in the state and serves as a lifeline for Kashmir’s tourism industry.

However, it faces a serious threat to-day, the main causes being unplanned urbanization, pollution and excessive weed growth.

The state government has ini-tiated programmes to train women in Budhal district in various crafts such as tailoring and embroidery to make them self-reliant.

Women folk had been facing problems due to the absence of opportunities for socio-econom-ic growth in the area. However, the intensive vocational train-ing provided, has transformed the lives of several households in the area and given women an opportunity to take charge of their lives.

Here, women and young girls are becoming increasingly self-

356-CRORE RUPEE RESETTLEMENT GRANT FOR SRINAGAR LAKES

TOWARDS SELF RELIANCE

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Abid Rashid Lone is a resident of the Khanyar area of the old city in Srina-gar, and unlike most educated youth in Jammu and Kashmir, he was not too keen on a government job.

The 21-year-old chose to buck the trend and become an entrepreneur.

Enthused by the potential of e-com-merce, Lone, a graduate with a diplo-ma in computers and programming, set up an online mobile recharge ser-vice website - ‘www.fuelmyphone.com’ - recently.

He might not be raking in the big bucks yet, but the response in the Kashmir Valley has been encouraging.

“It took me a month to create this website, and each day, new users are coming to recharge their mobiles,” Lone said.

He added that almost 1.5 lakh transac-tions were done in the fi rst 50 working days and people have found his site useful, as they often fi nd it diffi cult to go out of their homes to recharge their cell phones due to frequent shut-downs.

A user of the website, Muheet Mehraj, said it had helped him a lot and he was

happy to learn that it was the work of a young man from Kashmir.

“It’s a very convenient platform, es-pecially for women, through which they can recharge their mobile phones while sitting in their homes. So, it has got a good response,” said Mehraj.

Lone had earlier launched an online shopping portal www.kashmirstore.com for selling Kashmiri willow, saf-fron, papier-mâché, shawls and bats.

The website, a Kashmiri version of ‘eBay’, however, failed to make a profi t.

This did not deter the budding entre-preneur. It only spurred him on to ex-periment with other ideas.

He is currently planning to rope in auto-rickshaw drivers as his mobile recharge outlets, and, in a bid to pop-ularize the website, he is using vari-ous social networking sites like Face-book, Orkut and the micro blogging site Twitter.

Lone says that Kashmiri youth have the potential, and all they need, is ex-posure to do wonders for the state and the country.

IT STUDENT SETS UP MOBILE RECHARGE PORTAL

give every woman who is train-ing with us a stipend of Rs.15 a day, so that they can learn vari-ous crafts while receiving fi nan-cial assistance,” said Khan.

At one such training centre, women from all age groups, stitch clothes, perform exqui-site embroidery on shawls and other fabrics, and carry out tai-loring with ease, while sitting in groups, where they share each other’s burdens, works, dreams and aspirations, in their tryst with independence.

These women are fully aware that now, they too are a source of valuable income for their

respective households. And clearly, for many of them, who have broken the centuries-old shackles of dependence, life has changed for the better.

“This training is very useful for both women and girls because they are getting an opportunity to learn something with which they can sustain themselves. They can be self-employed by learning what is being taught here,” said Razia Begum, a training center student.

The training is just one of the initiatives of the state govern-ment that has taken several steps to empower women in the region.

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landscape would be a great attraction for picnickers, visitors and children.

Praising the Department of Forests and Environment for constructing the park in a short span of three months, the minister said Janipur previously did not have a park and it was a de-mand of the area to develop available land into a place of attraction and to save it from encroachers.

He also said the government is keen to develop every part of Jammu and Kashmir to make it a model state. He said focused attention was being paid to ensure uniform development.

The Jammu and Kashmir Govern-ment’s Department of Forest and Environment recently dedicated a 20.16-hectare environment park to the people of Bhawani Nagar in Janipur.

Developed at a cost of Rs.1 crore, it includes a separate children’s park, a water body with fountain, dry harvesting structure, and a drain-age water management structure.

Congratulating the people of the city, the state’s Minister for For-ests and Environment, Mian Altaf Ahmed, said the environment park would further add to the attraction of Jammu, which receives lakhs of

culture, Jammu and Kashmir.

“This is a fl agship programme of the Government of India for those people who are under the Below Poverty Line and can’t afford medical aid,” he added.

The objective of the RSBY is to provide protection to BPL households from fi nan-cial liabilities arising out of health shocks that involve hospitalisation.

Insurance cover to the tune of Rs.30, 000 will be available to each family. They have to reg-ister by paying a nominal reg-istration fee of Rs.30 and get

The state government is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to provide quality healthcare to the people of the region.

And, as a part of this drive, it recently announced that over 66,000 poor families of Srina-gar and Jammu would be cov-ered under a new health insur-ance scheme.

“To start with, over 66,000 poor families of Srinagar and Jam-mu districts are being covered under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY),” said Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Health, Floriculture and Horti-

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR BPL FAMILIES

tourists annually.

Jammu is a stopover for over 10 mil-lion pilgrims who visit the Vaishno Devi shrine. A majority of tourists heading to the Kashmir Valley, pass through this city as well.

The main attraction of the newly de-veloped park is the two-and-a-half ki-lometer-long circumferential pathway located amid lush green surroundings and with a view of the hills.

Ahmed said people could visit the park for walks amid clean and healthy surroundings and also have some calm moments away from the hustle and bustle of the city. He added that the panoramic view and beautiful

ENVIRONMENT PARK OPENED IN JAMMU

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People in Srinagar have wel-comed an initiative taken by the state government to upgrade all post offi ces with the latest in computer technology.

John Samuel, Chief Postmaster, General Post Offi ce, Srinagar, said people in the region would benefi t from the computerisation of postal services, which was started recently in the valley.

“General Post Offi ce (GPO) has been fully computerised, but we will be taking steps to comput-erise every departmental post offi ce this year. In fact, 250 post offi ces will be computerised and networked during this year,” said Samuel.

“The computers have already been received in all post offi ces. Now, it is a question of imple-mentation in terms of comput-erisation, training and networking together,” he added.

Residents of the region expressed happiness with the computerisa-tion of the postal service.

“In the past few years, the Gen-eral Post Offi ce (GPO) has taken

many steps to improve services. Other courier companies are very expensive as compared to the GPO, which is very reasonable and provides us with all facilities,” said Smita, a resident.

Following computerisation of postal services, people will be able to track speed post, registered post, parcel post and money orders in real time and this would bring a major change in the way a post of-fi ce operates in the future.

“The department has also launched many ambitious proj-ects like Speednet, Rnet and Mail Networking Optimisation Projects while core banking solutions is going to be introduced soon once the computerisation project is over while ATM services will also be made available for the custom-ers,” Samuel further revealed.

The postal department is changing rapidly and connecting itself with customers in a big way.

The total computerisation of all post offi ces in Jammu and Kash-mir will be completed in the next few months.

J&K POST OFFICES GO HI-TECH

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR BPL FAMILIES smart cards to avail the facility.

The people in the region have appreciated the initiative, as they feel it would ensure that they get medical treatment on time and do not have to worry about high costs.

“This scheme has been intro-duced here for the fi rst time. This is a good scheme and has a lot of benefi ts. For one year, you get Rs.30, 000 insurance cover,” said Dhyan Chand, a resident.

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana will benefi t BPL fami-lies, as it is diffi cult for them to get any sort of insurance benefi t.

“The scheme is really good. It has been launched here for the fi rst time. It has a lot of benefi ts. We are poor, so we can’t spend a lot, which is why the govern-ment has provided an insurance cover of rupees 30, 000. We can avail of it, when we are unwell. There are many hospitals under this scheme, where we can avail medical benefi ts by showing our card,” said Satish Kumar, a resident.

The scheme has been initially launched in Jammu and Srina-gar and will be gradually ex-tended to all the districts of the state.

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A fi ve-day meet - “Innovation in Sci-entifi c Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)” - was held in Srinagar recently to motivate students to take up science.

The University of Kashmir in collab-oration with the Union Science and Technology Ministry organized it.

The state’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, inaugurated the function and highlighted the importance and signifi cance of science in daily life.

“The educational relation of youth with science and technology is all the more important to address prob-lems and fi nd out solutions,” he said, while stressing on the need for youth to inculcate a deep interest in science and technology to effectively address modern concerns such as poverty,

diseases, environmental degradation, energy crisis, disasters and climate change.

He added that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir were second to none in terms of talent, and their groom-ing in scientifi c temperament was the need of the hour for them to address specifi c challenges facing the state in various fi elds.

Prominent scientists and scholars were invited to the conference to in-teract with the students. They gave talks and explained the importance of science in the modern world.

Students of different schools and col-leges attended the conference and ap-preciated the efforts of the organizers in holding such an event.

“It was held to inspire us and raise

our interest in science. It would ben-efi t 10 + 2 students, and will make them aware of the prospects in the science stream,” said Syed Tabriez, a student.

Another student said that such pro-grammes should be organised regu-larly to help attract students to the science stream.

The programme was organised for fi ve days to raise the awareness of students and what they can do in the science stream,” said Saleem Ahmad, another student.

The fi rst INSPIRE camp was organ-ised in July last year where 300 stu-dents were provided an opportunity to interact with the country’s reputed scientists and to learn about success stories from the world of science.

POPULARISING SCIENCE

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Under the Army’s Operation Sadb-havana (meaning Goodwill), vari-ous educational schemes and women empowerment centres have helped in employment generation and trans-formed many lives. Numerous other community development and health-care projects have helped to mitigate the hardships of the common man.

Excursion and education tours too are organized in an effort to broaden the horizon of young children by show-ing them many facets of the country. These tours also widen their under-standing of national integration.

A group of students from remote ar-

eas of Rajouri and Poonch Districts of Jammu and Kashmir recently met the Union Minister of New and Re-newable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdul-lah, in New Delhi.

The students were on an educational tour organized by 38 Rashtriya Rifl es (Madras) Regiment, under “Opera-tion Sadbhavna”.

Dr. Abdullah had a detailed interac-tion with the students.

He praised the initiative to expose young students from far-fl ung ar-eas to the outside world through the Sadbhavna Mission, and hoped that

more such programmes at various levels would be undertaken.

He asked the young students to fol-low the path of truth, righteousness, secularism, communal harmony and nationalism and urged them to care for the environment and inculcate a spirit of love for nature and its re-sources.

Offi cers of the ministry made a pre-sentation on renewable energy and explained the nature and use of re-newable energy and its increasing signifi cance in the modern world to them.

J&K STUDENTS ON EDUCATION TOUR MEET Dr. FAROOQ ABDULLAH

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The Jammu and Kashmir Govern-ment has taken on the task of restor-ing the shrine of Syed Sheriff Uddin Abdul Rehman Hazrat, also known as Bulbul Shah, a Sufi saint.

His 700-year-old shrine, believed to be the fi rst in the valley, is located on the banks of the Jhelum. It symboliz-es a belief in universal brotherhood.

Bulbul Shah propagated a philoso-phy, which was a synthesis of three major religions of the time - Bud-dhism, Hinduism and Islam. He led a life of complete self-abnegation and preached against superstitions and other social evils that were preva-lent.

He gave importance to love and

brotherhood and considered human-ity to be above religion. He played an important role in laying the foun-dation of a composite culture in the Kashmir Valley.

Khawaja Farooq Renzu Shah, the chairman of Hazrat Bulbul Shah Trust, said the shrine was important, both from a historical and a religious perspective.

“It is emerging as a world-class shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. Its architec-ture is highly intricate. So, it is justi-fi ed for the workers to take their time while restoring such an elaborate monument. Step-by-step measures are being taken to restore the age-old architectural design in the shrine. When it is completed, it will remain

for thousands of years, for the future generations to see,” he said.

He added that the original architec-ture and designs of the shrine have been retained.

The residents of the area have appre-ciated the government’s initiative to restore the heritage monument.

“The government is doing a good job and they have taken the right step. The work being done is beyond our expectations,” said Ali Mohammad, a resident of Srinagar.

The authorities are optimistic that once the restoration work is complet-ed, the monument will attract many more visitors to the shrine.

SUFI SAINT’S SHRINE BEING RESTORED