A house for Mr Pandit

The pornographic CD racket, allegedly involving a former Miss Jammu, has almost sealed the fate of beauty contests in the state. Recently, a beauty contest being organised at a smaller scale was cancelled with pressures from student and political parties. But interestingly, no one seems to be bothered about the sale of pornographic material, as these CDs continues to do alarming business, with over 40,000 copies sold so far in the city. Even the social organising propagating the ‘‘cause of women’’ suddenly seem to have lost their voice, and have chosen to keep their hands clean over the matter.

All rails lead to Lalu

Now only Laluji can come to its rescue. The Jammu-Udhampur rail link had been long awaiting its inauguration, and the last leg of hope was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the state. But Singh, who had more important issues on hand like the ‘dream of a new Kashmir’ could not spare time. The foundation stone of this 53 kilometres rail line had been laid in 1983 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and finally after its completion, it was commissioned to start in March 2004. But with the VIPs hard to get for the inauguration of the much-talked about link, now all hope is set that either rail minister Laloo Prasad Yadav would cut the ribbon and set the train ‘chugging’.

Soldiering away

The strife-torn Valley was busy shedding some weight, as security forces (close to 9,000) starting their withdrawal. Buses packed with men in olive were passing out of districts like Anantnag in Kashmir and Sunderbani in Rajouri, with the locals lining up to bid adieu. But even as political parties like BJP, Panthers Party cry hoarse against the withdrawal, and others like separatists demand more reduction, the common man is just happy at waving goodbyes. Now, we always heard of heroes welcome, but for a change here was hero’s farewell to the outgoing forces.

Slices of a Rs 24,000 crore cake

The Prime Minister’s Rs 24,000 crore package failed to put a smile on the economy man of the state. Finance minister Muzzaffar Baig says there is hardly any share for the state, with the major chunk concentrated on central projects like hydel projects and national highway construction. While Rs 6,000 crore are for state projects, central projects get Rs 18,000 crore. The utilisation of the state’s share is also under the scanner, with the people of Jammu demanding their share and the Leh-Kargil sector pitching in for theirs.