Monday, July 13, 2009

Block Breng Kokernag

Block Breng at a Glance
Located in the south-east of the Jehlum Valley and towards the eastern side of the District Anantnag, situated at an altitude of 2021 m above sea level. It’s Block Head Quarter is at Kokernag ,which is also a well known health resort.` Breng’ is derived from “Bringi”,name of a Nallah which is combination of various streams flowing from the extreme eastern sides in an angular shape .It is because of its rejuvenating climate ,its lofty mountains, the melodious flow of waters of the Bringi , Kokernag springs and other springs, fertile soil ,fragrant flowers, delicious fresh fruits and walnuts, that Breng is called a “golden tower” (Sonesun Preng).
Kokernag Spring, also known as Papashudan Nad, is the largest fresh water spring in Kashmir. Kokernag is a collection of many small springs and their collective appearance resembles to the claws of a Koker (cock). Kokernag houses a botanical and rose garden with a wide variety of flowers and shrubs.
Koker means 'fowl' and nag means 'serpent'. The spring gushes out of the base of a thickly wooded hill from where it divides into channels, which resembles to the claw-foot of a hen, hence its name is read as “kokernag”.
Kokernag Health resort has a total area of 300 Kanals, of which 129 Kanals is for the purpose of gardens and 171 Kanals for forest area. It is believed that its water has curative properties.
Kokernag has been mentioned in Ain-e-Akbari, the detailed gazetteer of Akbar’s empire. The curative and digestive properties of Kokernag spring water has also been mentioned in it.
Daksum is an attractive beautiful Tourist spot, situated at an altitude of 2,438 m above sea level, about 40 km south-east of Anantnag and 85 km from Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir. It is a trekker's paradise covered with coniferous forests, gurgling streams and hidden grassy meadows with the melodious sound of the gushing Bringi River forming the backdrop. Daksum is also famous for its trout - an angler's heaven.

Daksum is on the trekking route to Kishtwar; from here the trail leads to Sinthan Pass, situated at an altitude of 3,748 m. This pass is open from April to September for trekking.
Daksum has a rest house, tourist bungalow and plenty of camping spots.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Agar Firdous bar royee zameen asast

agar firdous bar roye zameen asast heme as to he maa asto hemma asat.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Kasho-Nomics -- Economics for Kashmir


When ever a Govt gets serious about Kashmir they announce a huge economic package and it is happy situation some ppl feel happy Govt n Politicians give interviews and again few months down the line new issue arises and is back to square one.


What is the simplest thing's that can be done with ease with less economical impact and turn around Kashmir, do we need a sunk investment or we need investment which can guarantee Returns.


Kashmir or J and K State as whole has a limited population and hence opportunity, We have least no of people below poverty line.


If i am to make basic changes in system i will take few steps.




  • Involve Panchayats and ensure every one in village or town has proper food and shelter, very few families in Kashmir struggle for basic needs of life, it was disheartening to see a program on NDTV regarding a widow of a person killed by Army struggle to keep up her family as her husband was only bread earner. I no we have very few such families in whole Kashmir not even 5K i bet, cant we just pass on Rs 1000 per month to such people, and guarantee their children health and education.


  • Micro finance - - If people want to start some kind of business or means to earn livelihood we should have authorities to disburse micro finance, it has done wonders in Bangla Desh and South India.


  • Mass Education, This is very critical Govt needs to open more school, Professional colleges and Institutes like IIM's and IIT's. We need to engage youth in education, give scholarships. Even if we dont have enough or no jobs in state but we can go out and grab jobs else where in India the point is that we are qualified. And as we are building talent pool may be in future we can set up service based industry in Kashmir. which is difficult now as we dont have enough talent pool, opening up few universities in Kashmir has really helped i see so many Kashmir's coming to Mumbai and trying jobs here and in gulf, these ppl are are mostly from these new universities setup recently.


  • Forget Manufacturing concentrate on Services sector, i don't no y people still dream of setting manufacturing in Kashmir, Ppl bring in raw materials in trucks as no railway line still connecting to Jammu and then manufacture things out of that raw material and then transport back to Mainland India, where is the economic sense. we can maximum do with things for which raw materials are available with in valley.


  • Tie ups with Middle east countries setting up employment exchanges in their so that un employed youth get jobs outside valley, we can invite companies from rest of India for selection of our people by organizing job fares, centre and state govt both will have to work towards it and at same time we need to set up centre where in we can prepare people with basic skills needed to secure the jobs as it is beyond merit companies need ppl with good communication and reasoning power, we need to set up such centre which will equip our people with job related skills


  • Medical facilities and medical tourism, we can build on that we have huge talent pool in kashmir, Kashmir Govt spends around Rs 400 per anum per head for health of each that is huge and i guess highest in India, even if 100 flows into real use (discounting 300 as corruption) still we are a long way ahead. why does not Govt insure all people for health cover of say bare minimum 20k per family. that will not cost much when done at state level. This will ensure Health for all our people, access to great health care setting up of huge private sector institutes in health care and stop brain drain in medical sector. Kashmir can be destination for health tourism as cost of health care is very less almost 1/6th of Delhi and Mumbai.


  • Setting up regional centres to help Fruit growers to market their produce in rest of India, Himachal ppl have gone that well, every were i go i see Himachal apple not a single kashmiris apple.


Govt needs to take steps now or we will loose one more generation of development, we have a long road to travell as have messed up a lot.



I don't know what a Kashmiri man wants all i know is for kashmir to have identity and relevance in present world we need to be better economically, educationally and intellectually.



Chinar --The fire within


I come from a place where we see Chinar trees, Bouin is the local name. this tree is full of fire look at the pic u see it look like a huge fire. this represents what a kashmiris are all about. We have great strength we can cover a large ground and have the fire with in.
Iqbal once said about Kashmir. "Jis Khaak ki zamir mein ho aatishay chinar. Mumkin nahi ki sard ho us khaak ki argumand."
But deep some where i feel we Kashmiris have lost it.
We cant keep up with burden of history this fast ruthless world will make history out of us. Still we die like as we are non existent, we cant afford it any more, to be relevant in present world we need to be strong within intellectually, economically, ideologically.
This is just a start to the series of posts which keep coming to my mind every now and then but still i behave as helpless and do nothing bout it.
It is our Kashmir we need to make it more relevent to world and ourselves so that we dont feel led down infront of generation to come.