Sarwar Mufti, the cousin of PDP chief and ex-J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, has joined Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP). Sarwar took voluntary retirement from government services to join the DPAP over his faith and trust in the leadership of Azad, a spokesperson of DPAP said. Azad floated the party in September last year after breaking his decades old ties with Congress. However, recently many leaders including Azad’s trusted lieutenant Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed from Kashmir and Tara Chand from Jammu, who came from Congress to DPAP, had returned to their parent party.
Phase 5 of ‘Back to Village’ launched
The 5th phase of the government’s week-long public outreach programme ‘Back to Village’ was launched on November 7. From 2019, the Lt Governor administration in J&K has held four phases of the programme with the aim to take the administration to people’s doorsteps across 4,483 panchayats. The Prabhari officers (designated officers) visit respective panchayats and interact with locals, take a review of previous and current year deliverables, prepare a plan with a special focus on improving the e-services penetration and greater accessibility to government schemes.
Now, road connectivity till Amarnath cave
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has widened the narrow and vulnerable tracks leading to the Amarnath cave shrine in the south Kashmir via the Baltal route to enhance the safety and convenience of pilgrims. The Amarnath cave is situated at an altitude of 13,000 ft. The BRO had started the work in May this year. The road widening from Dumail to Amarnath cave has been completed while the upgradation work, which includes protection walls at landslide-prone areas is currently underway, the BRO said. In September last year, both — traditional Pahalgam and shortest Baltal route — were handed over to the BRO for both maintenance.
Fayaz wani
Our correspondent in Jammu and Kashmir
fayazwani123@gmail.com