Rashid Paul

J&K Budget 2023 2024

J&K Budget 2023 2024

Refreshing is the Capital Expenditure of Rs 41,491 crores. But burgeoning Rev Exp, unemployment and hopelessness among youth are the problems  

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman past week presented her budget estimates for Jammu and Kashmir for 2023-24. It is her fourth consecutive budget for J&K presented in the national parliament.  Since for the past four years J&K is without a legislature and is under the direct control of the centre, so the annual financial […]

 Rashid Paul

A historical perspective of tax in Kashmir 

A historical perspective of tax in Kashmir 

Tax is money levied on individuals or entities by a government to finance different state activities including some public works and services. Kashmir is currently abuzz with a new tax, the house or property tax to be imposed by the administration of lieutenant governor Mr. Manoj Sinha. The burden of different direct and indirect taxes […]

 Rashid Paul

Kashmir Surpasses Punjab in opiate Users

Kashmir Surpasses Punjab in opiate Users

International agencies can be roped in to tackle the menace

Kashmir has taken lead over Punjab in opiate users. This is a revelation which has hardly surprised many of us. The exposure on opiate numbers was made in a study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS). But, alas, treatment and specialist interventions are in short supply for this alarming disease in Kashmir, […]

 Rashid Paul

1922 BC Road of Miyan Pratap Singh and the 2023 National Highway of Horror

1922 BC Road of Miyan Pratap Singh and the 2023 National Highway of Horror

Hundred years down the line, the Banihal Cart Road (BC Road), which connected Jammu with Kashmir was thrown open to the public.  It was the reign of Maharaj Pratap Singh, the third in line of the Dogra autocrats, “the time when the condition of Valley was utterly deplorable”, Kashir P 809.  An intensely Hindu orthodox […]

 Rashid Paul

Handicrafts that gave Kashmir a global foot print are on a shaky ground.

Handicrafts that gave Kashmir a global foot print are on a shaky ground.

A few days ago, I came across some official information about Handicrafts of Kashmir- an art and industry- that provided succor to its people in times of distress over centuries. There are now very few people associated with the craft and the forwarded and backward linkages have also fallen off. My assertion on the subject […]

 Rashid Paul

HC awards compensation to women disabled by electric shock from snapped power conductor

HC awards compensation to women disabled by electric shock from snapped power conductor

Says it's the duty of PDD to manage, prevent and check transmission lines from falling down, which in the instant case they have failed to do…

Srinagar: In a case of explicit negligence by the Power Development Department (PDD) which resulted in permanent disability to a woman in 2011, J&K High Court has awarded Rs two lakhs in her favor “on account of pain and sufferance” caused due to the horrific accident. Justice Sanjay Dhar while delivering the judgment in the […]

 Rashid Paul

Kashmir’s Liquor Narrative

Kashmir’s Liquor Narrative

Reformed and humanistic political culture can only take us all from the stinky and suffocating quagmire

Liquor production, its trade and consumption is registering a steeply upward trend in Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim dominated region of India. The government has set itself on a path of creating a “new economic and cultural ecosystem” for Kashmir. It is also encouraging opening up of new distilleries, breweries and liquor vends in […]

 Rashid Paul

Sordid saga of Kashmiri apple as NAFED intervention proved hoax

Sordid saga of Kashmiri apple as NAFED intervention proved hoax

In two years, only 0.62% of target was achieved resulting into loss of Rs. 40 Crore

Srinagar: Promising to acquire 25 lakh metric tons (MT) of apple from the farmers of Kashmir, the central government run National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) has procured only 15601.50 MTs of apple from the farmers of Kashmir during the past two years. “Instead of reassuring the farmers, the scheme has hung […]

 Rashid Paul

Net worth of 11 PSUs in minus Rs 3,148.02 cr; liabilities exceed value of total assets: CAG

Net worth of 11 PSUs in minus Rs 3,148.02 cr; liabilities exceed value of total assets: CAG

J&K’s Public Sector Undertakings in Red…

Srinagar: The net worth of 11 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in J&K has been completely eroded by accumulated losses, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has said. The liabilities of these state-owned enterprises have far exceeded the value of their total assets. They have gone into red despite budgetary support […]

 Rashid Paul

Brazen Bureaucracy: Court orders passed in 1998 not implemented till date

Brazen Bureaucracy: Court orders passed in 1998 not implemented till date

HC asks authorities to explain reasons for non-implementation

Srinagar: A “feudal mindset” dominates much of our bureaucracy. It affects most the children of lesser gods; its apathy demolishes their sense of worth and ruins their aspirations. The statement is confirmed in a case titled Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel Vs. Farooq Ahmad Shah and other bureaucrats of the executive machinery of Jammu and Kashmir. Almost […]