Srinagar, Jan. 26 -- Buoyed by the heavy snowfall in the past few days, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister (CM) Omar Abdullah slid down the slopes of the ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir on Sunday to take stock of the situation and also to arouse more interest among the tourists to the valley's iconic winter tourist destination. Omar was in Gulmarg to review the restoration works post snowfall where he also donned the ski gears to slide down the slopes of Kongdori. He also posed with enthusiastic tourists who wished to click selfies. Kashmir received a moderate to major spell of snowfall on January 22-23 bringing much respite from the months of dry weather conditions. Omar often rushes to the ski resort every year for his part of the adventure. "I am thankful to Allah for the snowfall and I was here to see that," he said. "Big thing is that it has snowed. Until now January was mostly dry. This now helps us a lot through tourism. Many people were waiting for the snow and they have started coming now," he said. After a grand start in the beginning of 2025, tourism nosedived in Kashmir after the Pahalgam attack in April and then Delhi blast in November, in which a Kashmiri doctor was involved. Omar said he wanted to check the power restoration works and the status of Asia's longest ski drag lift, measuring 726 metres, at Kongdoori which was completed at a cost of Rs.3.65 crore in December and has run into some technical issues. "There were also some grievances regarding snow clearance and power restoration and I wanted to look into it. A new ski lift was also inaugurated some time back and I wanted to check that. It has some flaws and those are being rectified," he said. "I wanted to start (the ski lift) now but it needs some rectifications and we sat with the officials for that. Thankfully I came here otherwise they would not have run it," he said. Kashmir's winter tourist footfall largely relies on Gulmarg, the ski bowl in the westernHimalayas near the Line of Control, some 50km north of Srinagar. After snowfall, the place fills with tourists and skiers, even some foreigners, who come to ski on the powdery snow over the alpine slopes which many claim are the best in the world. He said that Khelo India winter games would be on time this year in Gulmarg unlike last year. Lashing out at some members of BJP for the "talk of separation of Jammu from J&K", Omar advocated for the unification of erstwhile J&K which included Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated in 2019 as Ladakh was carved out as a separate Union territory after J&K's special status under Article 370 was revoked. "It is good that BJP does not have any roadmap for separating Jammu because it was them who started this ( talk of separate Jammu state). How many of their MLAs I will name, who raised this issue. It is good that Tarun Chugh said that it isn't their stand," Omar told the media in Gulmarg. On Saturday, BJP national general secretary and incharge J&K and Ladakh UTs, Tarun Chugh had said BJP is of the firm belief that J&K is a single unit and an integral part of India, after he was asked about the demands of a separate Jammu state by some of its party leaders. Omar charged BJP of starting the talk of separate Jammu state. "From the very beginning we didn't want the disintegration of J&K. They separated Ladakh and ruined it, and we want that it should be joined again with J&K and it should never have been separated,' he said. "We never favour a separate Jammu and it was BJP and some of its friends in Kashmir who were giving these feelers," he said. Omar also criticised the people in Kashmir alleging regional bias over the declaration of the Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Services (Civil Judge-Junior Division) Mains Examination, 2025. "When there is the opposite of this in (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ) medical college seats then you are happy. This is an exam, then there is a merit list and ultimately results come out. Sometimes one cricket team dominates and sometimes the other team. Someone dominates one exam and another a different exam. Everything does not need to be seen from the prism of religion and region. Let merit be the criteria," Omar said. Omar said that if there was any proof of fraud or cheating in the judicial exam, he was ready to investigate. "Yes, if you tell me that a fraud has happened, I am ready to investigate that. If you say that someone has used fraud, cheating or deception in the exam, then I will investigate. If someone passed the exam based on hard work, how can you question that. This is the same politics which was used against our youth in Jammu and on the basis of which medical college was closed. refrain from this politics. Merit has to stand. If someone says fraud has happened, give me some small proof and I will investigate myself," he said...