Div Com inaugurates Blood Donation Camp at Bemina

            SRINAGAR, JULY 14: Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon inaugurated a blood donation at Unity Educational Society Hamdania Colony Sector A (Bund).

            The camp was organised by Al Falah Yateem Trust and Ahlebait-e-Tahireen (AS) trust with the support of Blood Bank of Bone & Joints Hospital Barzulla. Around 50 pints of blood were donated by the volunteers and locals.

            Speaking on the occasion Div Com appreciated the initiate taken by the community members to donate blood which would be used for the general patients at the hospitals. He said that blood is the greatest gift a person can donate to humanity.

            Dr Samoon stressed upon need to improve educational status for overall development of the area. On the occasion Div Com gave a wheel chair to one handicapped Farooq Ahmed Dar R/o Chinkral Mohalla Habba Kadal.

            He also announced a cash relief of Rs 10,000 in favour of the handicapped person, out of Regional Red Cross Funds. He also distributed certificates amongst the participants.

            Present on the occasion were President Alfalah Yateem Trust, Mohammed Ashraf Dar, General Secretary Shabir Hussain, President Bund Colony Ghulam Rasool Gada, Dr Rohini Bhan and Shazia Kawoos.

Soz, Bhalla address huge gathering of Artisans at Jogi lanker Sgr.

Assures full support for the revival of handicrafts

            SRINAGAR, JULY 14. Member Parliament and  the Pradesh Congress Committee President, Mr. Saif ud Din Soz and the Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Mr. Raman Bhalla on Saturday while addressing a huge gathering of Artisans at a function held at Amda Kadal-JogiLanger, Srinagar assured full support for their upliftment and said that the Central government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson is very much keen to provide all possible help for revival of centuries old world famous handicraft and Shawal weaving sectors.

            The function was organised by Union of Shilp Guru and National Awardees forum.

            On the occasion, the Revenue Minister said that the God has bestowed the valley of Kashmir with scenic beauty having the world famous tourist resorts, like Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam ,Dal Lake, attractive fountains, gardens , rivers, glaciers and snow peaks  and is also famous for its price less handicrafts, handmade shawls, papier-mâché, woodcarving, Khatambandi and other artefacts and assured that the coalition Government will make its every effort to preserve  and keep this art alive, for which any kind of  required assistance will be provided. He said Kashmir is known world over for its exquisite handicrafts and the artisans and craftsman and women produce handicrafts products which are excellent and measures would be taken to provide incentives to this section of the people so that they are provide sustenance. He said that Kashmir handicrafts have always been proved to be the ‘back bone’ of the State’s economy and a source of sustenance for the people of the valley. He said, efforts are on to boost the export of Kashmir handicraft for better returns and to promote and support handicrafts sectors and boost sales and earnings prospects of artisans in the domestic, national and international market.

            Mr. Bhalla said the industry presently faces the problem of raw material, production, process, marketing, infrastructure, manpower, finance and awareness. However, he assured the artisan community for the revival of past glory of this industry and added the Government will leave no stone unturned in this connection. He said, no doubt, during the last two decades, this industry faced a lot of hardships, but despite that you have not given up your courage to keep this art alive. He said the Central Government is funding liberally to the State for the upliftment of poor, needy and backward class and especially for the development of the basic infrastructure in the State. However, he said for percolating the benefits of a number of pro poor schemes launched by the Central and State Governments, the peace is very imperative for that and added that the issue relating to land for construction of a building for permanent exhibition centre and artisan colony would be examined .

            Earlier, Mr. Soz said that if the land for the said purpose would be available, the Central government would help in arranging funds for the said exhibition centre. He reminded the artisans that he had led a delegation of Artisans who met Prime Minister, when he visited Srinagar last year.

            On the occasion, a prominent Shawl Weaver and Shilp Guru awardee, Mr.Gh. Rasool Khan highlighted the problems of the artisan class of Shawl industry. He said that despite difficulties, the export earnings from Kashmir Handicrafts amounted more than Rs. 2000 crores.

            The other leaders including District Sgr.Congress President,Mr. Abul Gani Khan also spoke.

Workshop on” Professional Enrichment of Urdu Journalists” concludes at K.U.

            SRINAGAR, JULY 14. Seven day workshop on “Professional Enrichment of Working Urdu Journalists” organised by National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, New Delhi in collaboration with Directorate of Distance Education, University of Kashmir concluded here today.

            Various luminaries of media and academicians attended the function.

            Dean, Academic Affairs, Kashmir University Professor Ali Mohammad Shah was the Chief Guest on the occasion, while as Director Distance Education, Kashmir University, Dr. Neelofar, Dr. Nasir Mirza, Dr. Altaf, Dr. Irfan and Ubaid-Ur- Rehman, ADG, Police graced the occasion and spoke on the topic.

            Other eminent writers and media persons who interacted on the topic include Abdul Salam Aasim, Azad Raza and Prof. Mudasir.

            The Participants were awarded with certificates by the Chief Guest.

            Addressing the function, Prof. Shah urged for popularising urdu language in all the spheres of life especially educational institutions, revenue department, High Court and other departments of vital importance.

            He hoped that such programmes will definitely make people aware about the significance of urdu language and will enrich the society with the fragrance of urdu poetry and urdu language.

            He appealed one and all to take earnest steps for popularizing urdu among younger generation.

Mir for translating literature work of different language into Kashmiri

Stresses for imbibing reading habits among youth

 ‘Releases Gul Armaan Hund’

SRINAGAR, JULY 14: Stressing the need for translating various literature works of different language in Kashmiri, Minister for Agriculture Mr. Ghulam Hassan Mir said that this is necessary for revival, preservation and propagation of Kashmiri language globally.

The Minister said this after releasing a poetry collection “Gul armaan hund” written by Ramazan Firdausi.

The function was organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Mehjoor Foundation in collaboration with Shafiq Adbi forum at Pattan this morning.

Mr. Mir said that the writers and intellectuals have to play great role for making our mother tongue globally acceptable for which he stressed them to work in this direction from right now and assured that the government would provide every possible help to the cultural fora working in this direction. He said that the Nations are identified by their languages and we all have to come together to work unitedly for reviving its glory.

Referring to the contributions of great Kashmiri poet late Mehjoor, Mr. Mir described him as a visionary poet who gave the nation a ray of hope by highlighting the different social issues confronting to the society at that time.  Urging for strong cultural foundation in the society, he said that we should first build confidence among ourselves which would help us to get a space to bring our language at par with other languages.

Urging upon the youth to imbibe reading habits among themselves, the Minister said that plenty of books have been written in Kashmiri and other language but are lying without readership.  He said due  to lack of reading habit in our people we could not enhance our intellectual growth to get something out of these books.

President, J&K Mehjoor Foundation Mrs. Nayeem Ahmad Mehjoor hailed the initiatives of the government for the promotion of local languages. She said the participation of government functionaries in such functions was a courageous step to boost the spirit of fora working for the promotion of languages in the state. She said that the younger generation should be inclined for readership habit so that they could be benefitted out of these literary works written and translated into Kashmiri language.