{"id":7223,"date":"2025-12-17T20:07:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T20:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/?p=7223"},"modified":"2025-12-17T20:35:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T20:35:26","slug":"omar-slams-nitish-over-hijab-incident-recalls-mehboobas-burqa-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/omar-slams-nitish-over-hijab-incident-recalls-mehboobas-burqa-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar slams Nitish over hijab incident, recalls Mehbooba\u2019s \u2018burqa episode\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Says J&K managing finances under pressure<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018UT financially dependent on Centre\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

PDD asked to minimise power cuts\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Srinagar, Dec 17: Reacting to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar\u2019s act of pulling a woman\u2019s hijab, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday called it \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201ca reflection of a regressive mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

He drew parallels with a past incident involving PDP\u2019s former chief Mehbooba Mufti, saying such public humiliation of women cannot be justified under any circumstance.<\/p>\n

Talking to reporters here, CM Omar as per the news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO) while commenting on the Bihar hijab incident, said, \u201cDuring my election, people may have forgotten how Mehbooba Mufti got a legitimate voter\u2019s burqa removed inside a polling station. This is a continuation of the same mindset. What happened then was unfortunate, and this incident is equally shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cPublicly humiliating another person, especially a woman, cannot be justified. If the Chief Minister did not want to hand over the appointment letter himself, he could have stepped aside. But humiliating someone in front of everyone is completely wrong. Slowly, the reality of Nitish Kumar, who was once considered a secular and sensible leader, seems to be coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to the ongoing the 17th Annual Convention of\u00a0 Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar, CM Omar said that such meetings provide a significant opportunity to promote adventure tourism. \u201cActivities like trekking, mountaineering and white-water rafting should also be encouraged,\u201d the CM said.<\/p>\n

He noted that recently, during a function in Jammu, he had distributed certificates to individuals who had completed paragliding courses, enabling them to now provide paragliding services in Jammu and Kashmir. \u201cOur effort is that gradually, by bringing together different adventure activities, we reclaim our pre-eminent position in adventure tourism a position we once held at the top,\u201d the Chief Minister said.<\/p>\n

Asked about promoting rock climbing and introducing such activities along the lines of foreign countries, CM Omar said there is no objection, but safety must be ensured.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIf someone comes forward to organise these activities, we have no problem. However, it must be done safely. What often happens is that people without proper knowledge or experience bring equipment and start conducting rock climbing. As you may have seen recently in Uttarakhand, during a bungee-jumping incident, the rope was not properly secured and the person fell to the ground. We do not want such incidents here, where lives are at risk. Therefore, we will introduce such activities only with proper safety and security measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018OPEN EXISTING AND VISIBLE TOURIST DESTINATIONS\u2019<\/p>\n

On opening hidden tourist destinations, CM Omar said existing and visible destinations should be prioritized first.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, open the destinations that are right in front of us. Many places are still closed. On one hand, we talk about promoting tourism, and on the other hand, these areas remain inaccessible. For example, in Gulmarg, the left side of the Gondola is closed; Doodhpathri is completely closed; Drang is not accessible; Ferozpora Nallah was also closed earlier. These places should be opened first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018J&K INHERITED FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS\u2019<\/p>\n

Responding to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman\u2019s remarks on fiscal discipline, CM Omar said Jammu and Kashmir continues to function under inherited financial constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are running the system with what we have inherited. J&K is not financially self-reliant and remains heavily dependent on the Government of India. Earlier, as a state, we received a share of central taxes, but after becoming a Union Territory, that share stopped, increasing pressure on our budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, CM Omar asserted that his government has maintained \u201cfinancial discipline.\u201d \u201cDespite these challenges, over the past 15\u201316 months, there has been no financial negligence. If anyone can point out even a single instance where public money has been misused, I am ready to be held accountable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

PDD DIRECTED TO MINIMIZE POWER CUTS<\/p>\n

On electricity shortages in far-flung areas, CM Omar said it would be incorrect to claim that there is no electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot say there is no electricity, no water, no snow, no rain, or no water in rivers. There have been slightly more power cuts, but the department has been instructed to minimise unscheduled cuts as much as possible. I also make a humble appeal to the people to use electricity judiciously,\u201d he said. (KNO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Says J&K managing finances under pressure \u2018UT financially dependent on Centre\u2019 PDD asked to minimise power cuts\u00a0 Srinagar, Dec 17: Reacting to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar\u2019s act of pulling a woman\u2019s hijab, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday called it \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201ca reflection of a regressive mindset.\u201d He drew parallels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","category-kt-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7225,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7223\/revisions\/7225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}