Avtar Bhat
BASOHLI, July 3: With National Institute of Water Sports (NIWS), Goa giving an adverse report, the State Government’s plan to introduce water sports in Ranjit Sagar Dam, Basohli has fallen flat for the time being.
According to sources, on the persistent demand of the people of Basohli, the State Government had mooted a plan to introduce water sports at newly constructed Ranjit Sagar Dam at Basohli. It had sought a report from NIWS, Goa a premier body of experts on introduction of water sports in the country.
Sources said a high level team of experts from the Institute visited Basohli last year and after a preliminary survey they submitted their report to State Government stating that ferry services in Ranjti Sagar Dam was not possible. This has belied the hopes of the people of Basohli and adjoining areas who were expecting that with the introduction of water sports in the dam, Basohli will come on tourist map of the country and economy of the local people will get a boost.
In its report, the NIWS, Goa has submitted that water current is more in the dam so it will not be safe to run the ferry ships in it as the rocks inside the dam can cause any eventuality at any time.
The people of the Basohli are of the opinion that with the introduction of ferry ship in the Ranjti Sagar Dam the travel between Basohli and Satwain could have been reduced to a great extent.
However, sources said that the Tourism Department and Lakhanpur, Sarthal Development Authority has decided to once again approach the NIWS,Goa urging it to have another survey of the dam, official sources said and in case the expert opinion will be favourable only then the ferry services will be introduced in the dam.
Sources said that the State Government is under constant pressure from the people of Basohli to introduce water sports in Ranjit Sagar Dam which is spread at a length of 21 kilometres from village Thein to Hut in Basohli.
Admitting that Government was planning to run water sports in the dam, Lakhanpur Sarthal Development Authority, Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Bushan said that they could not go ahead with the decision as the NIWS,Goa gave an adverse report.
The expert opinion of the Institute was against running of ferry ships in the dam as it opined that the current of the water was more and running of ferry ships in it was not feasible.
He, however, said that the department has not given up the idea and it has urged the agency to conduct a fresh survey in this regard and it is hoped that the team will again visit the area to conduct a fresh survey on the basis of which the decision will be taken.
The running of water sports in the dam will boost the economy of the people of area especially those whose cultivable land was submerged in the dam and who were evacuated from the area to other places said Rajat Sharma a social activist of Basohli.
The issue was also taken by MLA Basohli, Jagdish Raj Sapolia and other leaders with the Government a number of times. Mr Sapolia who strongly advocates for introduction of water sports in the dam said that it can be a turning point in the life of the people of the area as this way Basohli will come on tourist map of the country and the tourists visiting the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh could also visit the dam and enjoy boat riding. This will boost the traditional art of Basohli also as the tourists visiting the area can purchase the world famous Basohli shawls and paintings etc which will give an impetus to the economy of the area, he added.
He regretted that the Government was not doing any thing in this regard and there is resentment among the people of Basohli in this regard. The Government has not shown any sincerity regarding the development of Basohli and people are suffering a lot said Ved Fanda, president Beopar Mandal Basohli.
He said a hope had emerged with the Government’s assurance of running water sports in the dam to promote tourism trade in the area but with the lackluster approach of the State Government it seems that introduction of same is a distant dream.

From: Mohinder Verma

CHOGLAMSAR, LEH, July 3: The sacred and auspicious 33rd Kalachakra initiation began today at Jivetsal with nearly one lakh devotees from across the globe attending the elaborate ritualistic prayers performed by the monks under the guidance of Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
Since morning thousands of vehicles carrying devotees and monks were seen heading towards Choglamsar from different parts of Leh town to reach the venue of Kalachakra initiation, which is being held at Leh after 38 years.
Elaborate security and other arrangements have been made by the Leh Police and District Administration for smooth 12-day long Kalachakra initiation in collaboration with organizers of the event Ladakh Buddhist Association and Ladakh Gonpa Association etc.
While giving introductory teachings following prayers by the monks, Buddhist spiritual leader, Dalai Lama said, “the main objective of my visit is to give introduction of Buddhism to the people along with Kalachakra initiations”. He advised the devotees to generate Bodhichita–a feeling to help all sentient beings and feeling of non violence in thought, speech and action.
“All human beings irrespective of different faiths and believes want happiness and no one want sufferings. Therefore, generation of love and compassion is the main message that all religions of the world teach”, he said, adding “to generate and practise such teachings should be very important to live a meaningful and successful life whether one follows a particular religion or not”.
Further laying stress on developing compassion, he said, “this is the core and essence of Buddhist teaching without which even Kalachakra is meaningless”, adding “in order to gain happiness and be free from suffering it is important to remove the cause which lies within us in the form of “I”.
“Unless this ‘I’ is reduced it is difficult to have clear heart and mind to develop compassion and patience as basic things needed to gain true happiness”, Dalai Lama said with apt attention from the devotees including foreigners.
He urged upon the devotees to make special efforts to cleanse their hearts and minds towards transforming themselves into becoming good and warm hearted humans during the coming two days as groundwork before receiving the Kalachakra would help in grasping the concept of emptiness taught by Buddhism. He gave special verses for recitation by the devotees during next two days for this process of transforming ones heart.
As Buddhist spiritual leader gave teachings in Tibetan language, large number of devotees were seen carrying FM radio to listen the translated version of Dalai Lama’s teachings. For the convenience of the devotees, the organizers had prominently displayed the frequency ranges required to be tuned to listen the teachings in different languages.
The teachings of spiritual leader were translated into 13 different languages, which includes Tibetan, English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Mongalian, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, Hindi and Ladakhi.
The Kalachakra ritual commenced at 7 am and continued till 9 am. After the completion of self generation prayers, Dalai Lama started giving introductory teachings for around an hour to the devotees. He will have ritual prayers and preliminary teachings respectively up to 13th of July.
The enthusiasm among the devotees over the Kalachakra initiation being held in Leh after 38 years can be gauged from the fact that even physically handicapped persons were seen reaching the venue to participate in the prayers and listen Dalai Lama. Aged and inform devotees from remotest corners of the Leh and Zanskar area of Kargil district were also seen participating in the prayers.
Governor, N N Vohra is likely to reach Leh on July 5 to meet spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
Prominent among others who participated in introductory function of Kalachakra initiation were Minister for Urban Development, Nawang Rigjin Jora, CEC LAHDC Leh, Rigzin Spalbar, MP Ladakh Thupstan Chhewang.

NEW DELHI, July 3:Raising hopes of early implementation of GST, Empowered Committee Chairman and Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather today said that all States are on board and only some concerns need to be addressed by the Centre.
“I can’t give you exact date but I think it will not take much time. Government of India is very much interested to have this tax reform introduced. Every State is on board,” he said, when asked as to when the Government will be able to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
“Every State wants GST to be implemented. Only they want their concerns are addressed. That will be done I think,” Rather told reporters after four-hour meeting of the State Finance Ministers here.
The long pending tax reform, GST would subsume indirect levies such as excise, service and local taxes, has been highlighted as important agenda of Modi Government.
Referring to concerns being flagged by various States, he said that “there are certain areas of disagreement between the State and the centre. Like petroleum products, in the Shillong meeting we had made a consensus that petroleum products should be kept outside GST, it needs to be subsume”.
Besides, he said, GST compensation is another issues. The revenue loss to States due to implementation of GST should be compensated by the centre.
“Government of India has said it will give compensation for three years, but it has not agreed to make compensation to make it a part of the constitution through amendment. But States are insisting that compensation should be a part of the constitution amendment so that States get their compensation,” he said.
Thirdly, he said entry tax should not be subsumed but Government of India as not yet agreed to this a well.
Rather also said that States have also demanded that the Centre’s tax should go to the divisible tax pool and States should get their share according to the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
Observing that there is broad consensus over GST, he said, in some cases centre has to move a step forward to allay fears of States on revenue loss as the prime concern for them in protection of financial resources.
Speaking to reporters West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said: “The simple process is that here are two categories of issues discussed one is unclear issues those need to be clarified. The second is areas where we completely unanimously disagree.”
For instance, he said, petroleum should not be subsumed in GST. Entry tax should not be subsumed in GST. These require insertion into the bill.
“The most important is confidence building in the state to rely on the Centre’s words,” he said.
Mitra said: “In the case of CST (Central Sales Tax) it was most unexpected that after saying they will compensate the States, the States lowered CST from 4 per cent to 2 per cent. But when came the time for compensation that compensation was denied.”
States are not getting CST compensation since 2010-11.
“West Bengal has lost Rs 4,300 crore by not having this compensation…Some areas of clear differences where the States feel one way and the perhaps the centre another these need to be resolved for move forward,” he said. (PTI)

Mohinder Verma

A good leader is always enthusiastic about the cause of the people and reacts to the problems of the people in a holistic manner. This was exactly what the people of Bhaderwah Assembly constituency experienced when son of the soil, Ghulam Nabi Azad was the representative of this area in the Legislative Assembly.
This constituency started treading the path of development in all the sectors as Mr Azad, who was also Chief Minister of the State, left no stone unturned to kick start the works at large scale in order to completely change the developmental profile of this constituency, which is blessed with scenic beauty to attract large number of tourists.
For some years, the developmental works continued smoothly but following the toppling of Mr Azad led Coalition Government one after another hurdle started cropping up in the developmental works more particularly after 2008 Assembly elections and change of the guard in the State.
With the passage of time, all the developmental activities in almost all the sectors slowed down considerably thereby creating resentment among the people not only against the new Government but also against their new representative in the Assembly, Mohd Sharief Niaz, as according to the people, he failed to prevail upon the Government during the past five and half years to ensure smooth continuation of work on the schemes started by Mr Azad.
Although Mr Niaz claims that he always espouse the cause of the constituency and vociferously taking up the issues confronting the people both inside and outside the Legislative Assembly, the people have divergent opinion about his performance as MLA. While some people describe his performance as gloomy, the others are of the saying that whatever Mr Niaz as MLA could do he did for the constituency.
“The developmental works in all the sectors have virtually come to the grinding halt as neither the new MLA could arrange funds for their completion nor the liabilities of the contractors could be cleared”, Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Seri Bazaar said during the random survey conducted by EXCELSIOR to ascertain the performance of MLA during the past five and half years.
“No doubt, Mohd Sharief Niaz also belongs to the Congress party, which is a Coalition partner in the present Government, but he has failed to take the developmental activities started by Mr Azad to logical conclusion”, he said, adding “we have rarely heard our MLA raising the issue of incomplete works with the concerned quarters. Had he played the positive role he would have succeeded in speeding up the works”.
Rajeev Kumar, a shopkeeper of the town said, “efforts were made to provide justice to each and every area of the constituency during the tenure of Mr Azad but now the discrimination has crossed the limits”, adding “as far as road connectivity is concerned only those areas are getting preference of the MLA where his workers and kith and kin are residing”.
Pointing towards huge potholes on the roads and insanitary conditions in the town, Kant Dogra, a retired Chief Manager of Punjab National Bank said, “I think sitting MLA has completely whitewashed the developmental performance registered during Mr Azad’s tenure due to his biased approach”, adding “the poor condition of road from Pul Doda up to Bhaderwah and Gatha was clearly indicating the prevailing developmental scenario in the constituency”.
“On one side he is not coming forward to get the stalled works completed and on their other side he has restricted his activities to certain areas”, Rattan Chand Sharma, a resident of Vasik Dera said, adding “the issue of providing filtered drinking water to the entire constituency was brought to the notice of MLA a number of times but majority of population is still relying on natural water resources to meet their drinking water requirement”, adding “if the MLA cannot ensure safe drinking water to the people what else is expected from him”.
The unfiltered water issue was substantiated by womenfolk, who were found carrying pitchers and other utensils in the morning and evening hours to bring water from safe natural resources like Gupt Ganga for drinking purpose. It came to the notice of EXCELSIOR that notwithstanding unfiltered water supply tariff equivalent to the capital cities of the State is being charged from the people.
The people are very critical of role played by the MLA on the issue of shifting of Sub-District Hospital to the new building, which is almost five kilometers away from the town. “A true representative of the people is the person who minimizes their difficulties but he remained mute spectator when the grievances of the people were being increased by way of shifting Sub-District Hospital away from the town”, Satish Chander Kotwal said.
“In the absence of proper mode of transportation, the ailing people are getting compelled to cough up huge money in hiring Tata Sumos to reach the new hospital”, people said, adding “though old hospital building is being used for emergency services that too following intense protest from the people and directions from the High Court yet the same lacks the adequate facilities”.
“The MLA misled us on the shifting of Sub-District Hospital as initially he told us that at the new building super specialty doctors would be made available and the routine works would continue from the old building”, Ratan Singh said, adding “his real designs came to fore when entire hospital was shifted to the new location despite public unrest”.
“What else is expected from the MLA, who refused to consider the concern of huge population for obvious reasons”, a student Bashir Ahmed said, adding “no doubt several new health centres for the area have been announced about which the MLA is boasting off but the most important aspect—availability of doctors has not received the required attention of the MLA despite the fact that Health Department remained with the Congress Ministers during all these years”.
The people are also critical about the MLA’s role in the education sector. They are of the opinion that only expansion of education sector received the attention with little focus on providing adequate number of teachers. “A number of representations were made to the MLA in this regard but the situation remains the same”, Yughvir Singh, a resident of Gandoh said.
However, some of the inhabitants of localities particularly near the Dak Bunglow minced no words to praise the MLA as far as developmental activities are concerned. “He is doing everything to come up to the expectations of the people and is easily accessible to the people”, Sadiq Ali said, adding “it is a fact that some works got stalled following the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad but MLA cannot be held responsible for the same”.
Tourism promotion, which was the main area of focus for the former Chief Minister keeping in view the scenic beauty of Bhaderwah, too suffered severe setback as majority of the works of the Bhaderwah Development Authority (BDA), are either still incomplete or yet to take off.
For example, the light and sound system at Bhaderwah Fort, the tenders for which were floated in 2011, still remains a distant dream. Moreover, work on conservation of Bhaderwah Fort is also going on at snail’s pace. Similar is the fate of providing water supply to various tourist resorts by way of laying of GI pipes.
The construction of dormitories at Gatha for the tourists, which was mooted several years back, has yet not began and Tourist Reception Centre buildings for Gandoh and Thathri have fallen victim to the land disputes but the MLA has failed to play his role in getting these works started. Similar is the fate of power sector as works taken up under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) have failed to reach logical conclusion despite the fact that major parts of the constituency are reeling under power crisis.
When contacted for comments on the public opinion about his performance, Sharief Niaz admitted that developmental works in certain sectors slowed down following Mr Azad’s exit. Claiming that he tried his level best to ensure continuance of works started by Mr Azad, he said, “less funding from the Government is the main reason behind slow progress”.
Though Mr Niaz admitted shortage of doctors and teachers in the health and education institutions yet he dismissed the public assertion that no step was initiated to overcome this deficiency. “The official record is testimony of the fact that during past five and half years situation was improved in many of these institutions that too following my intervention”, he said, adding “I am still vigorously following the case of left over institutions with the Government”.
“There was no concept of water filtration plant in the constituency but now several schemes have been submitted to the Government for approval”, he said while disclosing that several PHE schemes, which were started during the tenure of Mr Azad failed to yield any fruitful results due to procurement and utilization of sub-standard material by the PHE Department.
He justified the shifting of Sub-District Hospital outside the town on the ground of non-availability of adequate land.

Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, July 3: The Special Protection Group (SPG) guarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi today took over venues of the Army briefing at high security Chinar Corps Headquarters in Srinagar and Power House at Uri ahead of PM’s visit.
The SPG reached here this morning and drove to the Headquarters of 15 Corps at Srinagar to take over the venue where top Army Commanders will tomorrow brief Prime Minister about security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC) and border with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The movement into the highly guarded military Garrison of 15 Corps Headquarters was stopped today and no one was allowed to enter BB Cant. Thousands of civilians working in the Garrison were asked not to come to their duties for two days.
The two Army schools inside the Garrison have also been closed for two days as the security agencies don’t want to take any chance regarding the security of the Prime Minister who will land in the Srinagar Army Headquarters on Friday morning.
The officers and men from Security wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police also went inside the Garrison where the PM is taking security review. They also reviewed the security arrangements for PM’s visit to the cantonment.
The SPG also took over the 240 MWs Uri II at Kalgai on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway near the Line of Control (LoC) where PM is inaugurating the power project.
Para-troops of Army, Special Services Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police is also guarding the venue of the power project since this morning.
Police and Army have been heavily deployed on Uri-Kalgi road as the PM’s helicopter will land in Uri Brigade and he will drive down to power house at Kalgi.
The district administration, police and Army were reviewing the arrangements today and Border Roads Organization men and machines were busy in macdamization of the parts of the Uri-Kalgi road.
Elsewhere, security was beefed up across Kashmir today. Police and paramilitary forces have set up barricades at many places in Srinagar and other major towns for carrying out searches of vehicles.
Random frisking of cars and motorcycles is being carried out to thwart any plans of the militants. Police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel will be deployed in strength in the city and along the Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri road to ensure that Modi’s visit passes off peacefully.
The extra security measures have been taken in view of all major have called for day long strike against the Prime Minister’s visit. Authorities today placed some senior separatist leaders under house arrest.
Those who have been confined to their residences include Hurriyat Conference Jammu and Kashmir (HCJK) leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, Hurriyat (M) leader Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Hurriyat Conference (G) leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehraie, Hurriyat (G) leader Ayaz Akbar and Hurriyat (G) leader Altaf Shah. Syed Ali Geelani, chairman Hurriyat Conference (G) is already under house arrest.