Srinagar, Feb 23: The Srinagar administration Saturday released a relief grant of 5 lakh rupees in favour of victims of fire incident in Dal lake earlier this week.

The grant was released in favour of four victim families whose residential houseboats were damaged in the unfortunate incident.

The cash relief follows immediate relief in the form of articles of essential use including blankets and kitchen sets provided to the affected families soon after the incident.

Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary who authorised release of the immediate relief grant said that those whose houseboats were gutted in the incident will be provided land for their rehabilitation.

Dr Shahid while visiting the affected families said he must laud the Dal lake houseboats association for their assistance in firefighting efforts during the incident and their generally supportive approach.

Srinagar, Feb 23: All schools in Kashmir, shut since August 5, when the Centre scrapped the erstwhile state’s special status and bifurcated it into Union territories, are set to reopen on Monday. The decision to shut the schools five months ahead of winter vacation was part of the multiple precautionary measures taken by the Centre.

Schools in Srinagar municipal limits will function from 10 am to 3 pm, while those in other areas will work from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm. Director of School Education Mohammad Younis Malik said all arrangements were in place. “It’s our responsibility to redouble efforts to get the school syllabus completed in time,” he said.

The re-opening of schools coincides with United States President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to India.

There have been repeated attempts to re-open the schools before the winter vacation set in on December 10 – once in August and the next in October. However, the attempts did not yield any result as most students did not turn up.

Srinagar, Feb 23: In order to preserve and promote tribal cultures, Jammu and Kashmir is all set to establish its own Tribal Research Institute (TRI) by next fiscal year—which would be focusing on to promote tribal practices and their art, culture and languages.

“Tribal Research Institute (TRI) is coming up in Khimber, Srinagar —which would be a centre of excellence to focus on studying and promoting tribal practices and their art, culture and languages in Jammu and Kashmir,” said, Secretary Cooperative and Tribal Affairs, Abdul Majid Bhat during Public Grievances Camp at Banquet Hall, Srinagar.

He underlined the need for preserving cultural practices and languages in order to preserve the rich cultural heritage of indigenous people and the traditional wisdom that dates back several generations. He said that Government was taking collective, conscious and concerted efforts to preserve tribal cultures of Jammu and Kashmir.

Bhat said that the TRI would work as body of knowledge and research, support evidence-based policy, planning and legislations, capacity building and disseminate information, among others.

Bhat said Tribal Welfare Department initiated a slew of initiatives to promote language and cognitive language skills among tribal population children at the primary school level in these regions.

“Currently we have 17 new hostels coming up for tribal students, while as 19 others are already functional,” Bhat informed. He said that under several schemes, the Government covers students and the tribal population of the regions—including Rajouri, Poonch, Kishtwar, Gurez among other areas.

He informed that 480 residential accommodations have been already provided to the students in several places in Jammu and Kashmir.

“TRIs will have a greater role in making policies for tribals of the UT,” he said. “The aim of the government is to give more autonomy to Tribals,” he said.

He said that Government of India has provided additional funds to streamline the pattern and establishment of TRI in Jammu and Kashmir. “There is a plan to give TRI more autonomy in academic and financial matters so that they can recruit domain experts for research work and have adequate physical infrastructure,” he said.

Bhat said that the TRIs—which were constituted for research and documentation of socio-cultural and liguistic aspects of tribal life, have picked up pace and were doing better. He said that union ministry also intends to set up a national-level apex body to coordinate activities of TRIs across the country to train manpower, share best practices and disseminate information.

“Some of the TRIs across the country will be selected to promote them as top research centres and to coordinate the work of TRIs in the region,” Bhat said.