ANNOUNCED: The Amarnath Shrine Board announced that this year the annual pilgrimage would be for 55 days instead of 40 days as was last year. It would start on June 28, 2013.The board has made it compulsory for every yatri to have a health certificate which should be issued after February 1.
ARRESTED: Police have arrested Vivek Khajuria resident of Kangar morh, Gurha Pattan, Ramban for raping a 17 years old village girl inside a cave at Kangar-morh, Gharota area twice. A case of abduction and rape is filled against accused and further investigations are on.
ASKED: Union ministry of home affairs has asked the state government to go for a ‘detailed review’ of the security of pro-freedom leaders in Kashmir. The government has also asked to offer security to the pro freedom leaders who have denied the cover so far. As of now only Mirwaiz Umar Farooq enjoys ‘Z’ category security cover, Bilal Lone and Sajad Lone enjoy tight security cover after their father’s assassination.
AWARDED: The department of environment ecology and remote sensing has been awarded national e-governance award for 2012-13 in the category “innovative use of technology in e-governance” for its project “measuring physical accessibility to healthcare network and population coverage modeling in J&K state using geo-informatics.
AMENDED: The state government amended the J&K Medical Education (Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 1979, and J&K Dental Education (Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 1993, in order to overcome the shortage of Registrars/Demonstrators in Medical Education Department. Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister for Medical Education said the department is expected to fill up the vacancies on war footing and increase the pay band of registrars to attract more medicos for the job.
BOOKED: State vigilance organization (SVO) booked Mohammed Saif, PSO of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from the complainant to save him from the proceedings under Section 182 RPC.
CONVICTED: A court in Jammu has awarded 17 years rigorous imprisonment to Govind Singh, a UP resident for raping a girl in 2009. In a separate court trail in Udhampur, Sanjay Kumar and Jatinder Singh have been awarded a 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 has been imposed on each one of them. They are guilty of raping an eighth grader in 2008. These judgments have come up as the first convictions in the newly formed fast track rape trials.
DIED: Chamel Singh died in Kotbalwal jail at the time when he was supposed to be released after an imprisonment of 5 years. He was arrested by Pakistani police and jailed for being an Indian spy in 2008. Singh’s family accuses jail staff for his death. Family is yet to get his body and they are seeking help to get the body home.
LIFTED: State government lifted ban on the extraction of medicinal plants and other minor forest produce (MFP) from the forest areas of J&K keeping in view the livelihood of the people associated with the trade. The ban was imposed in 2005 on its extraction fearing extinction of some species.
RELEASED: After visiting district and sub-jail in Poonch, Rajouri, Kotbalwal, Amphala, Kathua and Hiranagar, the state high court bar association has released their annual jail visit report, 2012. The association got the permission to visit these jails of Jammu district on an interim direction in a writ petition. The Association is supposed to file its report in the court soon.
SUSPENDED: For the second time GOI has suspended the funding for J&K. This time Rs 700 crore have been suspended as the department was not able to submit utilization certificate in time. Earlier, the Union Ministry of Rural Development suspended the release of funds to Budgam after detecting “large-scale irregularities” in implementation of the centrally-sponsored scheme.
ORDERED: State government has ordered magisterial probe in a mysterious blast which killed Shazeena Kounsar and Khurshid Mehmood, two minors, in Rajouri. The additional deputy commissioner Rajouri who is heading the probe team is asked to file its result within three days. The family has been given ex-gratia relief of Rs 2.20 lakh. Police and revenue authorities are asked to complete all necessary formalities so that process of providing a government job to one member of the family is completed at the earliest.
KILLED: Two people were killed and another was injured when a truck bearing no. JK02X-1697 skidded off the road and plunged into the gorge at Kelamorh. The truck was on its way to Srinagar from Jammu. A case has been registered at Ramban police station.
THREATENED: Pragaash, Kashmir’s first girls’ rock band has been receiving threats and abuses on social networking sites after their first public performance in Srinagar in December, 2012. All its members are in their teens and are high school students. The band was formed in January 2012
