Breaking boundaries

The new mayor, Mohan Gupta, sprung a surprise on Sunday as he vowed to work towards the “Congress-free” mission. The mayor, whose prime responsibility is to address issues related to the municipal limits, broke the boundaries by giving high priority to the mission of “cleansing off the Congress from Lal Qila to Lal Chowk”. The mayor’s statement has caused confusion among some people, who have been seeking redress of issues pertaining to Jammu, as after nine long years, they have elected a mayor and hope for the overall development of the city. Will cleansing off the Congress and the cleansing of Jammu hit the crossroads? Vikram Sharma

Corporators want more power

Although elections to the urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state were conducted after a gap of 13 years with the aim of decentralising power, a majority of the corporators elected for the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) are not aware of the constitutional amendment which gives more powers to civic bodies. Most of the corporators in their recent interviews with media are demanding the implementation of the 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution to get “adequate powers”. Interestingly, the amendment is directly related to the panchayati raj institutions and has nothing to do with ULBs but elected representatives of municipalities are demanding its implementation, without knowing that it is 74th amendment which delegates more power to them. Dinesh Manhotra

Trendy winter apparel designs 

With winter knocking at the doors in Kashmir, it is time to re-invent fashion as far as the traditional winter attire like “pheran” is concerned. Shopkeepers and stores dealing exclusively in ladies garments and apparel in Kashmir are wooing customers with new trendy designs and fabric in pheran. Many such stores in their online galleries have displayed trendy designs of the winter wear and it appears to be catching up with the young. On the streets of Srinagar, young women can be seen flaunting the new designs. Ishfaq Tantry 

Harsh winter for Kashmir

Though the ongoing panchayat elections have engaged the Kashmir valley after the Durbar Move, the political activities have taken a backseat. The “freezing” of political activities for six months of winter after the Durbar moves to Jammu is not anything new. However, this time it is slightly different because the state has been under the Governor’s Rule for the past six months. The two major regional political parties, the National Conference and PDP, “stayed away” from the ULB and panchayat elections and the Congress and the BJP have been the frontrunners in the civic bodies’ elections. With the seat of governance having shifted to Jammu, the political environment has gained warmth, as per routine on the other side of the Jawahar tunnel, leaving Kashmiris in chill and darkness in the absence of adequate power supply. Ehsan Fazili

Pvt schools make rural inroads

The private schools from Delhi and other metro cities which earlier were keen to open their branches in only urban areas in the Jammu region are now expanding their network in the rural areas too. Schools like Mount Litera Zee School, Shree Ram School, Delhi Public School (DPS), etc have opened their branches not only in Jammu city but on the outskirts too, making it easy for parents in rural areas to admit their children without covering much distance. In order to motivate parents to admit their wards in these schools, the management often announces discounts on admission charges. Vikas Sharma

Awaiting buzz at press club

After a long wait, Valley-based journalists finally got a press club as it was thrown open earlier this year. Even as the club named ‘Aiwan-e-Sahafat’ was inaugurated in the month of January, not many journalists used to visit the place due to the lack of infrastructure. Later, the club office-bearers toiled hard to make it functional. And now, after the opening of a restaurant at the club recently, members have started visiting “Aiwan-e-Sahafat”. Though the buzz usually associated with any press club is yet to be seen at “Aiwan-e-Sahafat”, the club will soon start holding press conferences and other functions. The members are hopeful that it will soon start bustling like other press clubs. M Aamir Khan  

Winter capital’s flourishing eating joints

Call it the GST effect or the dwindling business prospects, youths and small businessmen in the winter capital, Jammu, have preferred setting up food joints and eateries over other businesses. Many of them have even shut their old units and shifted to food business with a hope of making good profits. In the past one year, several localities of Jammu city have been dotted with new eating joints while witnessing the closure of several business outlets, including garment shops, mobile accessory units etc. Youth believe it is easier and cheaper to run an eating joint and it has a good profit margin than running other businesses in the wake of cumbersome process of filing GST returns and fulfilling other codal formalities attached with these units. Arteev Sharma