Today, the Daily Excelsior begins its 52nd year of sustained service to the people of the State and to the country. We begin this self performance report with New Year Greetings to our esteemed readers and the staff, their family members and all those who are directly or indirectly linked to the Daily Excelsior.
Before proceeding with the summation of our performance during the year that has just gone by, we pay homage to late Sh. S.D Rohmetra, the founder of Daily Excelsior, for his farsightedness and creativity that have borne fruit in the shape of Daily Excelsior stealing the march over all other dailies to become the largest circulated English newspaper in the State. This has become possible because of sound foundation of journalistic ethics on which he had raised the imposing edifice. Truths and courage to speak the truth were the hallmark of his journalistic profession. We are appreciative that this tradition has not only perpetuated after he left us three and a half years ago but has also become more abiding.
The year we have left behind was remarkable in many ways. At the top stands the bizarre story of elections to the Legislative Assembly with the uniqueness that the successful parties bidding for power had to conduct nearly eight weeks-long negotiations to cobble a coalition Government after enforcement of the code of conduct. The Daily Excelsior kept unrelenting track of events shaping on day to day basis to keep the readers abreast with what was being thought, planned and said.
With the new Government assuming power, we realized our responsibility of observing highest norms of professionalism as the present coalition was looked at with greater skepticism by political punditry. Knowing how crucial it was for the violence-ridden State to hold peace and smooth governance with teeth, we played our role in facilitating their efforts by timely exposition of their mistakes as well as appreciation of positive actions. To cite only two examples; we emphasized the necessity that the Government create effective mechanism to provide full measure of relief to the 2014 flood victims in Kashmir, and we strongly took up the issue of the Government fulfilling its commitment of incepting AIIMS in Jammu.
Through editorials, commentaries and write-ups, we gave space to the opinion of intellectuals, thinkers and specialists on crucial issues concerning the State and the nation. We shall continue to speak for the people, write for the people and advocate for the people. We shall continue to hold fast to constructive criticism, fearing none and favouring none.
Our readers will have noted that more often than not, we exposed carefully secreted scams, frauds, embezzlements and grave acts of corruption and misuse of power. We have faithfully brought to the public notice how many crucial centrally sponsored developmental schemes are trivialized and undermined thus forcing the State Government to constitute committees to examine why many crucial centrally sponsored schemes have fallen through. It is a fact that on the basis of our reportages and editorials etc, the judiciary has taken suo moto action on many serious issues of public interest. All this has been done with one-point purpose of serving the interests of the people of the State.
Terrorism in parts of the State and border firing incidents along LoC and IB were the burning issues throughout the year gone by. Evidently, these are very sensitive issues and minds get worked up when human losses are inflicted. While condemning acts of violence, unprovoked firing and other atrocities perpetrated on innocent people, we have seen to it that we are not carried away by emotions or a sense of revenge. Even at the height of crisis, we have strongly been writing that we should not lose our cool and not get swayed by propaganda machinery. We are satisfied that we have not been abandoned by sanity and reason on such occasions.
It was the vision of the late founder of the Daily Excelsior to digitalize the paper and today the Internet Edition receives 16 lac hits on daily basis.
Owing to the growing importance of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the scenario of national integration and security parameters, more and more contributors of national repute are evincing keen interest in presenting their ideas through write ups. We welcome them and give them adequate space to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge for our worthy readers.
Credit for Daily Excelsior achieving spectacular popularity and acceptance goes without doubt to our esteemed readers and its hardworking staff.
It is our duty to express sincere thanks to our staff members whether at the base or in the field, for their dedicated service that has made the Daily Excelsior what it is today. We, assure them that their interests will always be uppermost in our mind and Daily Excelsior will never fail to meet their genuine expectations.
Thanks to readers
— Kamal & Neeraj
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