THE KASHMIRIYAT

A Solar eclipse will be witnessed in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh on 25th October, Kashmir Weather reported on Saturday. According to the independent Weather monitoring website, Kashmir Weather, the solar eclipse will begin in Srinagar at 4:14 p.m when the moon will touch the Sun's edge and the maximum impact of the same will be felt around 5:20 p.m. when the moon will be closest to the center of the Sun. The eclipse will end around 5:45 p.m. as it is the time for sunset and sun won't be directly visible anymore, however, the eclipse will end at 6:20 p.m. "For other locations, the beginning and ending time of eclipse will vary by a few minutes only (generally less than 10-minute difference)," Kashmir weather reported.

Pampore, known as a saffron town, is witnessing an uptick in construction in saffron fields, causing a decline in saffron production and shrinking land for the prized spice. Locals from Pampore told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that land under saffron is shrinking because of residential and commercial complexes coming up in saffron fields. For this reason, many growers have switched to other crops in the absence of facilities and admin's non-seriousness towards the promotion of the saffron Locals said that the much-hyped National Saffron Mission has not yielded results as the authorities were unable to make water pumps functional meant for irrigating the fields in the dry season. Chairman Saffron Growers Association Kashmir Abdul Majeed Wani told KNO that the Ma...

Jammu Kashmir Peoples Conference Sr. Vice President and former minister Abdul Gani Vakil today urged the government to bring the apple fruit under Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the larger benefit of the growers who often suffer losses. Vakil stressed that it is time to add apple fruit to the list of MSPs and the central government must take concrete steps in this regard. “Farmers have been running into losses. There is always uncertainty in the market and imported apple has further damaged the apple industry of Kashmir. The government must consider MSP for apple crop,” Vakil said, adding, it is the only sustainable solution to save this industry. Vakil was addressing Party workers in different Villages of Rafiabad and Zainger. He said it is unfortunate that the government has...

Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested a militant affiliated with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen outfit in South Kashmir’s Awantipora. In a handout issued to GNS, the police said that based on specific input Awantipora Police along with Army 42 RR and CRPF 130 BN laid a special naka at Chandrigam and during naka checking one person who was moving in suspicious circumstances was apprehended and during search one Pistol along with pistol magazine was recovered from the apprehended. According to Police spokesman, during questioning, the said person has been identified as Danish Mohidin Ganie son of Ghulam Mohidin Ganie resident of Dadsara Awantipora. On preliminary questioning the apprehended militant deposed and admitted that he is militant of proscribed militant outfit HM active since 29-...

Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has started the process of removing employees allegedly involved in malpractices and corruption. While talking to news agency Kashmir News Trust, Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Athar Aamir Khan said that they have started the process of removing ‘corrupt’ employees and action has already been taken against 35 employees. “We recently started the process of removing 4 permanent employees among which one has been forcefully retired,” the Commissioner said adding that they have completed regular departmental enquires and initiated action against 52 employees for their involvement in ‘corruption. “There was a clear-cut policy from day one that any kind of corruption and dereliction of duties won’t be tolerated. Action is not being take...

Weatherman on Thursday forecast mainly dry weather in Jammu  Kashmir in next 24 hours. A meteorological office spokesperson here told GNS that no large change was expected in the weather for the subsequent two days also. As regards the mercury, he said that Srinagar recorded a low of 9.6°C against 9.2°C on the previous night. The temperature was 1.1°C above normal for the summer capital during this time of the year, he said. Qazigund recorded a low of 7.5°C against 7.8°C on the previous night. The temperature was 0.2°C below normal there, he said. In Pahalgam, the mercury settled at 5.6°C against 5.1°C on the previous night and it was 1.1°C above normal for the south Kashmir resort, he said. Kokernag recorded a low of 9.8°C against 8.3°C on the previous night and it was 1.2°...