Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today flagged off a fortnightly train service exclusively for children between Banihal and Baramulla. 

The Chief Minister flagged off the train at Qazigund and travelled with the children till Baramulla and finally de-boarded at Srinagar. She interacted with the children and asked them to devote time to their studies and extracurricular activities in equal measure. 

The children also had lot of fun on the train. They were seen reciting rhymes, singing songs and enjoying Nature.       

Minister for R&B, Abdul Rehman Veeri, Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar, Ministers of State, Asiea Naqash, Mir Zahoor and Priya Sethi, MPs, legislators, senior officers of divisional administration, senior officers of Northern Railways and large number of people joined the train run at several stops.

During the train ride kids of different schools mingled with the Chief Minister. They informed her about their schools and areas. The normal innocent smile was back on their faces and they had a free time of innocence with the Chief Minister.

Mehbooba Mufti enquired from the children about their schools, studies and also their extracurricular activities. She said she was happy to see smiles back on the faces of kids after a long pause of depressive environs away from their schools. She said children of the State need more and more such occasions of outing and assured them that the Government would be taking steps for regularizing their activities in sports, extracurricular, adventure and other such interactive activities.

It may be recalled that the idea of running a train exclusively for children was mooted by the Chief Minister in view of the fact that kids of the Valley have generally limited facilities of outing available locally. The fortnightly train ride would give them an opportunity to know their province and State much closely and mingle with children of other areas and districts. The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting the Chief Minister had with Minister for Railways, Suresh Prabhu at New Delhi last month wherein she had pitched for starting such a train service. 

On every alternate Sunday the train service would take off from Banihal at 8.15 am and reach Baramulla at 10.40 am from where it would return back at 10.50 am to reach Banihal back at 01.35 pm.  The train would again move from Banihal at 02.10 pm and reach Baramulla at 05.05 pm to finally return back at 05.15 pm for the day. 

The train would have stops at Qazigund, Anantnag, Awantipora, Srinagar, Budgam and Sopore before reaching Baramulla. In today’s inaugural run, students from Government run schools were taken on the ride but subsequently the facility would be thrown open to children of private schools as well.

On 07-12-2016 police received a specific information about the presence of terrorists in the house of one Mushtaq Ahmad Ganie son of Ghulam Qadir Ganie at Hassanpora, Tavila Arwani. As per the information Mushtaq Ahmad Ganie works as an over ground worker (OGW) of terrorists of LeT outfit and not only harboured terrorists in his house, but also provides all sort of logistical support to them. Based on this input, an operation was launched by joint team of Anantnag, Awantipora police along with Army and CRPF. The said house was cordoned off and when the security forces party entered into the house for searching, terrorist fired on them. The fire was retaliated and the ensuing gun battle lasted for almost two days.The operation concluded today when a joint team of Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPFs quick action team (QAT) stormed the house and cleared it. The cover fire to the storming team was given by army troops.

In the search operation, two bodies of the terrorists and 03 AK-Rifles along with other incriminating material has been recovered . DNA samples from the killed terrorist bodies has been collected for their identification.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today directed the district administration Kulgam that the delays caused in the completion of the developmental works should be minimized and in this regard sought submission of  fortnightly report on the status of various developmental projects taken in hand in the district.

The Chief Minister gave these directions during a meeting of officers here to review the developmental scenario in the district.

Mehbooba Mufti said since much of the working season is already gone, further delays in the completion of projects should be minimized by working round the clock without any complacency. She assured the meeting that sufficient funds would be made available for completion of the works.

Mehbooba Mufti also asked the district administration to prepare a list of people and properties which were affected during the turmoil of past five months so that possibilities of their rehabilitation could be explored. She added that all Standard Operating Procedures be followed while dealing with situations so that the loss to civilian life or property is avoided.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister sought details of availability of ration in view of coming winter, drinking water and health facilities. She specifically directed the PDD to ensure that the unscheduled cuts in power supply are minimized to a great extent. She also sought details of winter action plan prepared by the district administration.

Mehbooba Mufti was informed that two villages in the District have been identified as Kangri villages to give boost to this village craft. Also, she was informed that Mushkbudji and Kamad varieties of rice have been successfully introduced in the district. She was also informed that one village in the district would be adopted by J&K Bank for micro financing of rural activities.

The Chief Minister directed creating vegetable clusters in identified villages, developing some nurseries of hybrid walnuts and other high density plants in the district.

Mehbooba Mufti also asked the district administration to take up embankment and flood protection of Veshow nallah, fencing and landscaping of playfields and other such activities under convergence through Rural Development Department.

Minister for Health & Medical Education, Bali Bhagat; Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar; MP, Nazir Ahmad Laway; MLA, Abdul Majeed Paddar; Chairman, J&K Bank, Parvez Ahmad; Commissioner-Secretary, Higher Education, Dr. Asghar Samoon; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan; Inspector Generalof Police , Kashmir Zone, SJM Gillani; DIG, SKR, Nitish Kumar; Deputy Commissioner, Showkat Aijaz; Superintendent of Police,  Shridhar Patel and other officers of divisional and district administration were present in the meeting.

South Kashmir Sports Festival commenced today during which a cricket match was played between DC-XI and SSP-XI at Sports Stadium Shopian.

DC-XI won the match by seven wickets. On the occasion Deputy Commissioner Shopian G M Dar was the chief guest and SSP Shopian the guest of honour.

Later, the Deputy Commissioner presented cash prizes and trophy to the winning team. He also awarded mementos to runner-up team in presence of World Kickboxing Champion Tajamul Islam. A large number of spectators turned up to witness the match.