ABID KHAN
Srinagar, Feb 1: Confused as it seems, the Tourism department has been changing the date of its much-hyped snow festival at Gulmarg many times over and the officials have now decided to reschedule it on February 3 and 4 after postponing the event by two days.The festival was earlier scheduled to be held last year on December 24 and 25 on Christmas Eve, but the department decided to organize it in the second week of January this year. The director Tourism had cited low snowfall as the reason to delay the festival.Unable to hold the event in the second week of January, the department quickly rescheduled the festival for the February 3 and 4 but only few days before they postponed it by two days to February 5 and 6, citing death of former president of India N Vanktaragawan as the reason. Funnily, the department on Saturday announced the festival would be held on February 3 and 4. When the director Tourism was asked why the department was not able to finalize dates for the last one and half month, he said. “Snow festival doesn’t mean winter activities are not taking place in Gulmarg. It is just a festival which helps us to promote Gulmarg across the world. We had to postpone the event because of the death of former president of India.”However, the players and the sports-lovers have an entirely different argument. “The Tourism department was awaiting the approval of the chief minister to be the chief guest of the occasion,” said a skier Ubaid Shah. “It is all an appeasement exercise. The department kept on inventing excises only to please the new government.”He said there was a plenty of snow in Gulmarg in December and there is no veracity in the argument that “there was low snowfall in December. “The department waited for the oath ceremony of the chief minister,” he said. “Even after the formation of the government, they were not able to get dates from the chief minister.”Another skier, Iqbal Ahmad of Srinagar, said that by delaying the annual festival by one and half-month, the department had sent wrong message across world.
Srinagar, Feb 1: Confused as it seems, the Tourism department has been changing the date of its much-hyped snow festival at Gulmarg many times over and the officials have now decided to reschedule it on February 3 and 4 after postponing the event by two days.The festival was earlier scheduled to be held last year on December 24 and 25 on Christmas Eve, but the department decided to organize it in the second week of January this year. The director Tourism had cited low snowfall as the reason to delay the festival.Unable to hold the event in the second week of January, the department quickly rescheduled the festival for the February 3 and 4 but only few days before they postponed it by two days to February 5 and 6, citing death of former president of India N Vanktaragawan as the reason. Funnily, the department on Saturday announced the festival would be held on February 3 and 4. When the director Tourism was asked why the department was not able to finalize dates for the last one and half month, he said. “Snow festival doesn’t mean winter activities are not taking place in Gulmarg. It is just a festival which helps us to promote Gulmarg across the world. We had to postpone the event because of the death of former president of India.”However, the players and the sports-lovers have an entirely different argument. “The Tourism department was awaiting the approval of the chief minister to be the chief guest of the occasion,” said a skier Ubaid Shah. “It is all an appeasement exercise. The department kept on inventing excises only to please the new government.”He said there was a plenty of snow in Gulmarg in December and there is no veracity in the argument that “there was low snowfall in December. “The department waited for the oath ceremony of the chief minister,” he said. “Even after the formation of the government, they were not able to get dates from the chief minister.”Another skier, Iqbal Ahmad of Srinagar, said that by delaying the annual festival by one and half-month, the department had sent wrong message across world.
Sports lover CM skis down from Apharwat
Srinagar, Feb 1: Sports-lover chief minister, Omar Abdullah, demonstrated some skiing skills by skiing down from the high Apharwat slopes in Gulmarg on Sunday. The youngest chief minister of state Sunday visited the world famous ski resort Gulmarg to take stock of the facilities made available for the tourists. He chose to ski down from the second phase of the world’s highest cable car lift situated at an altitude of over 13,000 feet from the sea level. Alongside him, was the valley’s only Olympian, Gul Mustafa, besides other skiers of the valley. “It was really great to see the chief minister skiing down successfully from Apharwat,” Gul said.
published in greater kashmir on February 2: links;;http://greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=2_2_2009&ItemID=3&cat=4,
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