Almost all the media organisations, particularly TV channels, are now in a mad race of predicting results of the J&K Assembly elections. They have plenty of resources at command. Most of them have invariably predicted 36-41 for PDP, 30-35 for BJP and 4-10 for NC and Congress each. As there is almost consensus on these figures, may be these exit polls turn true on December 23, 2014. Almost all of our colleagues in media and friends in Police are also holding the same opinion. Congrats to PDP and BJP and sympathies to NC and Congress.

However, till the results are declared on Tuesday, let us be entitled to our raw guess which indicates:

1: HUNG ASSEMBLY as no party may cross the figure of 30;

2: Three majors (PDP: 24-29 | NC: 22-24 | BJP: 21-23) may remain stuck within 21-29 zone.

3: Congress may get 11-13 with certain unexpected advantages in Kashmir.
 

So it may be average:

1. PDP : 27

2. NC: 23

3. BJP: 22

4. Congress: 12


END

Back on blog soon

Hi friends

Reviving this blog soon. I am currently trying to retrieve some data I lost when almost all of my belongings including the laptops and computers perished in the devastating floods in Srinagar on September 7, 2014.

Please keep on watching this site.

Best days

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

Hi friends

Since I could not archive most of my news stories, features and oped articles —published in The Hindu from Nov 20, 2012, to Aug 14, 2014 — in this particular blog, I am seriously considering some friends' suggestion to post the same here for a referal archive which could benefit the students of journalism and those interested in knowing about the Kashmir conflict. I am sure you will realize it as the most objective reporting as those familiar with my journalism know it well that I have never taken sides, never demonized or glorified individuals, institutions or ideologies according to my personal likes or dislikes. During the years when most of my esteemed colleagues got carried away or were taken for a ride by different stakeholders or State and non-State actors of violence, I stood clear of SARKARI and TEHREEKI journalism.

I take it as an honour that over 1,31,000 readers accessed this blog in a short span of time despite my inability to update it regularly in the last two years.

Great regards

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/jk-crime-branch-files-charge-sheet-against-25-in-mbbs-selection-scam/article5571965.ece

J&K Crime Branch files charge sheet against 25 in MBBS selection scam

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_______

JAMMU: The Crime Branch Kashmir on Sunday presented challan before a judicial magistrate in the infamous MBBS selection scam of the Board of Professional Entrance Examinations [BOPEE].

Additional Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch Kashmir, Mir Aftab Aalam, who headed the investigation, submitted the challan to Special Judge Anti-Corruption Kashmir M.L. Mahas at the latter’s residence here due to the winter vacation in courts in Kashmir province. After hearing the Prosecuting Officer M.A. Al-Mansoor, the judge extended remand of detention in favour of an accused, Sajjad Ahmad, and listed the matter on January 18.

Mr Aalam told The Hindu that the first part of the investigation into the irregularities in the BOPEE’s Common Entrance Test of June 2012 was completed and charges were established with substantial evidences against the board’s former Chairman Prof. Mushtaq Ahmad Pir, three of his ‘touts and agents’, 12 candidates and 9 of their parents. The parents of three of the accused candidates have passed away in the last over one year. He said that in all charge-sheet was presented against 25 persons, including the key accused Prof. Pir. Only three of the 25 accused were currently in the judicial custody and the Crime Branch remand. He said that all the 25 accused would be produced before the judge on the next day of the hearing.

The State government has terminated the contractual engagement of Prof. Pir who had been appointed as Advisor on fast track recruitment of Class 4^th officials after his retirement with the BOPEE in 2012. Facing media reports on the irregularities and a PIL in J&K High Court, Omar Abdullah’s government has ordered the Crime Branch investigation into the MBBS candidates’ selection earlier this year. There were serious allegations of the selection of a number of low-merit candidates against huge amounts of bribe money ranging between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. Mr Aalam said that most of the charges were found true. He said that one part of the investigation was still underway and a supplementary chargesheet was likely to be presented later this year.

END

6 Armymen court-martialled in Machhil case - The Hindu

6 Armymen court-martialled in Machhil case - The Hindu

Kashmir gets a dream ropeway - The Hindu

Kashmir gets a dream ropeway - The Hindu

Kashmir gets a dream ropeway at Koh-e-Maraan

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

______

SRINAGAR (December 23, 2013): Twenty-five years after the authorities conceived the Valley’s first ropeway and created the Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation [JKCCC] to boost tourism at Gulmarg, Kashmir got its second tourist-carrier on Monday. Three Ministers of Omar Abdullah’s government— Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Mian Altaf Ahmad and Ali Mohammad Sagar­— dedicated the 594-metre monocable ropeway in an ambience of enthusiasm to the residents of Srinagar.

Minister of Environment Mian Altaf said that the Rs 6.50-crore ropeway would ferry devotees, particularly the aged and infirm, daily from the sprawling Malkhah cemetery to the revered saint Sultanul Aarifeen Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom’s shrine and back. The 16^th century saint’s splendid shrine is resting on the foothills of Koh-e-Maaraan [the hillock of the snakes], commonly known as Hari Parbat, overlooking the old city.

Valley’s largest Gurudwara Chhattipadshahi as also the Kashmiri Pandits’ spiritual rendezvous of Sharika Devi —seat of the 18-armed goddess Sharika Bhagwati, the presiding deity of Srinagar city— are both on the foothills. Mughal emperor Akbar and his successors had set up the capital Naagar Nagar around the same hillock where the festival of Badamwari was an annual feature of the spring celebrations until 1980s. Akbar’s fort, now in dilapidated condition and occupied by paramilitary forces, is the highest viewing point over the city.

JKPCCC Managing Director Tufail Matoo told The Hindu that the Makhdoom Sahib ropeway had been planned in the thick of a street turmoil in 2010. Its commercial operation missed several deadlines but finally became a reality. With eight celluloid-body cabins, four incoming and four outgoing, it will carry 16 passengers either way, for a return journey at Rs 100 each. “We are expecting 1,500 passengers and revenue of Rs 1.50 lakh every day”, Mr Matoo said. Each cabin has the capacity for four passengers.

Mr Matoo said that ropeways were high financial viability ventures in tourist States like Jammu and Kashmir. With an investment of around Rs 30 crore, JKPCCC commissioned Asia’s highest and the longest (4.9 km) and the world’s second highest altitude ropeway, Gulmarg Gondola in May 2005, seven years after completion of its phase-1. “With 6.70 lakh visitors, it fetched us Rs 34 crore in 2012. This year, over 6 lakh tourists have enjoyed a ride on Gondola from Gulmarg to Apharwat (13,400 ft) and the revenue has crossed Rs 32-crore mark”, Mr Matoo said. From January 1^st week, Gondola would mostly carry the skiing enthusiasts from all over the world to the famous alpine slopes of Kongdori and Apharwat.

END

J&K official fired for bungling MBBS entrance exams

 

Mushtaq Peer was not arrested allegedly thanks to pressure from a senior Congress leader

 

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_______

 

SRINAGAR: Government of Jammu and Kashmir has terminated the post-retirement service of the former Chairman of Board of Professional Entrance Examinations [BOPEE] Mushtaq Ahmed Peer on account of his prima facie involvement in the multi-crore question paper leakage scam and acquisition of properties worth over Rs 10 crore in the last three years.

 

General Administration Department’s order No: 1551, issued on November 14 and confirmed by the Cabinet on November 19, did not mention the reason of Mr Peer’s abrupt dismissal. “The contractual appointment of Prof. Mushtaq Ahmad Peer, as Consultant, ordered vide Government Order No.1326-GAD of 2012 Dated 13.12.2012 read with Government Order No. 833-GAD of 2013 dated 31.5.2013, is hereby terminated with immediate effect”, said the order.

 

Following his retirement as Chairman of BOPEE, Mr Peer had been engaged for a term of two years for providing consultancy to the government on the proposed fast track recruitment of class-4 employees.

 

Well-placed sources in the Omar Abdullah government revealed to The Hindu that the top corridors of power decided to terminate the consultant’s service weeks after the High Court entertained a Public Interest Litigation and directed the Crime Branch to hold a transparent inquiry into the allegations of manipulating the MBBS selections against him. As Mr Peer’s involvement was established and FIR registered, the State government dismissed the consult “to stave off a huge embarrassment”.

 

The sources revealed that the Crime Branch decided to arrest and interrogate Mr Peer but a political intervention foiled the move. “A senior Congress leader, who has been instrumental in Mr Peer’s out-of-turn and backdoor promotion, exerted a lot of pressure and warned the officials against his arrest. It was then decided that he would be simply summoned and questioned”, said an official.

 

Inspector General of Crime Javaid Gillani, however, refused to endorse. “He actually turned up voluntarily to face the questions. We have asked him to return for further interrogation on Thursday”, Mr Gillani asserted. He confirmed that the Crime Branch conducted raids on Mr Peer’s acquisitions and land holdings and seized “a lot of incriminating material”.

 

Huge acquisitions

 

The IGP said that Mr Peer had “sold off question papers to some brokers for Rs 65 Lakh who in turn earned Rs 5 crore by collecting money from their clients” in just the 2012 session. “These candidates secretly wrote their exams with masse copying at a private hotel on the Boulevard. We have found 12 of them among the top 30 candidates in the order of merit. Money has been paid by cheques”, Mr Gillani said.

 

The accused has been found to have purchased over 10 kanals of land in Ganderbal, a built-up house in the posh Tawi Vihar area of Sidhra in Jammu, some properties at Pahalgam, besides three flats in Jammu and New Delhi — all in the last three years.    

 

Shower of favours

 

While as Estates Department has allotted an independent house to Mr Peer in Jammu, Department of Evacuees’ Properties has transferred ownership of another house to his name. He and his wife have been granted several service extensions after their retirement. Sources said that a senior Congress leader had put the government under tremendous pressure to appoint Mr Peer as Vice Chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipore, at the retirement of Dr Abdul Rashid Trag in February 2014.

Mr Peer and his family were not accessible on telephone on Wednesday.

 

END