TOP STORY OF THE DAY

Another train of Fatwas, decrees against Girls' rock band 2/5/2013 12:18:11 AM early times report Srinagar, Feb 4: The latest Fatwa by Valley's Grand Mufti, Mufti Bashiruddin has added a new dimension to the plight of three minor Kashmiri girls who set up the only girls' rock band in Kashmir. "Pragaash' was set up by three Kashmiri girls out of whom two are aged 15 and the third is aged 16 years. This band also won the third prize in a band competition called the 'Battle of Bands' held in Srinagar in December 2012. The Fatwa against the three minor girls was also joined by the separatist Hurriyat group headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. All the fundamentalist forces have now ganged up against the poor girls who were trying to exploit their talent for music and rock singing. Since 1990 the Valley has lived under the all pervading threat of fundamentalist groups to women. First it was against beauty parlours. Then there were diktats for Purdah and all other restrictions on the life and movements of the fair sex whose fundamental rights have been undermined constantly in the Valley because of the terror unleashed against them by hardliners and religious bigots...   READ MORE

FRONT PAGE STORIES

Cabinet meet today: Guv address for budget session in agenda Police promotions too may see approval finally 2/5/2013 12:17:53 AM early times report Jammu, Feb 4: State cabinet led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is meeting after over two weeks again to take final call on some pending decisions as also give nod to certain matters of urgent nature. This is the second cabinet meeting with new ministers on board who were inducted on Jan 15 reshuffle cum expansion exercise by the NC-Congress coalition in which some vital matters would be taken up as agenda. Sources said it is the address of Governor NN Vohra which he would deliver before joint session of Legislature for Budget session , which would be discussed by the cabinet members before giving formal approval to it. Governor would address the joint legislature on ...   READ MORE   Kishtwar Madarsa students allege Police brutality DDC orders probe 2/5/2013 12:17:30 AM Asif Iqbal Naik Kishtwar, Feb 4: In a bid to avoid punishment, seven teenage inmates of Kishtwar Madarsa fell prey to the brutality of Kishtwar Police. As per the reports, seven teenage students aging 12-14 yrs at Madrasa Assrar-ul-Uloom Patimhala some 45 kms from District Headquarter Kishtwar escaped from Madsara on Friday last fearing punishment for not reciting the Quranic verses, but these seven teenagers did not know that more trouble was in store for them. According to Ghulam Hussain Kripak, father of one of the victims, his 10 year old son Saqib Hussain along with six other students of Madrasa Assrar-ul-Uloom Patimhala identified as Muzzafar Hussain son of Mohammad Shaban Butt r...   READ MORE   HC frames issue regarding three notifications Election of Farooq, Azad, Soz and Shafi to RS 2/5/2013 12:17:18 AM early times report Jammu, Feb 4 (JNF) : In a much publicized Election Petition filed by National Panthers Party MLA Harshdev Singh challenging the elections of Ghulam Nabi Azad presently Union Helath Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah Union Minister, Saif-ud-Din Soz presently President JKPCC and Mohd Shafi Uri of NC as Rajya Sabha Member on the ground being in violation of the provisions of Constitution of India, the Representation of the Peo-ple's Act 1951 and the rules framed there under and seeking declaring the election of Four respondents as void. Justice JP Singh of J&K High Court Jammu Wing after hearing Sr. Adv Bhim Singh with Adv HC Jalmeria appearing for the petitioner whereas ASGI ...   READ MORE   J&K's Police Establishment Board exists only on paper alone 2/5/2013 12:17:03 AM Early Times Report Srinagar, Feb 4: The Government claims to have established the Police Establishment Board (PEB) in J&K State under Supreme Court directive but is not at all functional. As per the 2006 directive of the Supreme court of India in the case of Prakash Singh versus Union of India on police reforms a Police Establishment Board has to be established in each State. This board is supposed to decide all postings, transfers, promotions and other service matters of officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. The Establishment Board has to be a departmental body comprising the Director General of Police and four other senior officers of the Department a...   READ MORE   Drug abuse among youth rampant in Kashmir 2/5/2013 12:16:49 AM early times report Srinagar, Feb 4: Mohsin (name changed), a 28-year-old Information Technology professional from north Kashmir died some months ago 'mysteriously.' Just two months before his death his parents had brought him to a psychiatrist in Srinagar who diagnosed that Mohsin was a multiple drug abuser. He advised his parents to admit him in the hospital for de-addiction treatment. "He had died because of consuming heavy dose of pills. He was a multiple drug abuser and had been taking cough syrup and sleeping pills in huge quantity for 10 years. Due to social stigma, his parents couldn't take him for treatment," the doctors added. Similar was the case of Irfan (name changed), a ...   READ MORE   Police cracks 12 year old case; arrests four, including three former militants 2/5/2013 12:16:33 AM Early Times Report Jammu, Feb 4: The Jammu and Kashmir Police today was able to solve a 12-year old case of killings of seven people including four village defence committee (VDC) members at Chakka Galiote in Udhampur district and arrested four accused. This is considered to be the major breakthrough by the Udhampur police in which three former top militants among four people were involved in hatching the conspiracy to kill these seven people on November 30, 2001. The operation was undertaken by additional superintendent of police Udhampur Benam Tosh in direct supervision of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu Dilbag Singh, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police Udhampur Jagjit Sin...   READ MORE   GMC's Regional Cancer Centre in shambles Poor patients suffer due to non-functional COBALT-60 equipment 2/5/2013 12:16:23 AM early times report Jammu, Feb 4 : Five years since the Radiotherapy department was upgraded to the level of Regional Cancer centre, little or no effort has been made to improve the patient care facility and on international day of cancer patients, the cancer patients of Jammu are a disgruntled lot. The majority of patients are often left to fend for themselves in the absence of one of the non-functional COBALT 60 machines and go home without receiving Radiotherapy. In the absence of state of art facilities the patients here in RCC are often greeted with the news of radiotherapy machine going out of order, absence of medical physicist or non-availability of bed during chemotherapy sess...   READ MORE   WHERE ARE THE FUNDS? 2/5/2013 12:16:11 AM The Cancer Research Desk of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had released an amount of `3 crore to the RCC, Govt Medical College, Jammu on March 2008 for the purchase of Linear Accelerator, Video Assisted Thoraco-scopy system, Rigid Bronchoscope with accessories, Video Bronchoscope and other equipment for the pathology department. In March 2009, Under Secretary to the Government of India, CS Mishra shot off another letter to the Principal of the Government Medical college hospital to submit a utilisation certificate for the `3 crore it had been given so as to complete the necessary formalities for releasing the balance amount of `2 crore to the RCC, Jammu. Hospital authorities...   READ MORE   Heavy landslide, stone shooting at Seri, Kela Morh, Panthal Jammu-Srinagar National Highway Closed 2/5/2013 12:15:28 AM early times report Jammu, Feb 4: The continuous rain and snowfall in the entire state led to closure of many roads including 300-km-long Jammu Srinagar national highway on today. Kashmir Valley and the mountainous districts of Jammu region, once again have been cut off from the rest of the country due to heavy snow fall and rain in the entire state. Due to slippery road condition, landslide, stone shootings and heavy snowfall between Patnitop and Jawahar tunnel area, the 300-km-long Jam-mu-Srinagar national highway remained closed for vehicular traffic, forcing more than 500 trucks to halt at various places. There is continuous snowfall between Patnitop to Ba-nihal and the landslide ...   READ MORE   KP township in Kashmir find takers in Valley 2/5/2013 12:14:59 AM early times report JAMMU, Feb 4: For the first time in 23 years, the voices of migrant Kash-miri Pandits have echoed from Valley. Some voices have supported a separate homeland for them in Kashmir. Gone are the days when even politicians from ruling class were hesitating to publicly favour the return of Pandits to Valley and were blaming former Governor of the state Jagmohan for the mass exodus of minority from Kashmir to give a clean chit to the separatists and militants who forced the pandits and other minorities and some main stream political activists to flee from Valley after the militancy gripped Kashmir in 1989-90. There is a change in the thinking. The leaders from progressive ...   READ MORE   Truckers hold Samba industry hostage 2/5/2013 12:16:40 AM EARLY TIMES REPORT Samba, Feb 4: The units of Industrial Estate, SIDCO at Samba have virtually closed down for want of raw material. A group of persons calling themselves Samba Truck Owners Union have blocked entry of trucks into the industrial complex. An entrepreneur told Early Times that the truck owners enjoyed patronage of a political party. "The truckers face a lien period following conclusion of fruit season in Kashmir. To make good their loss, they have been urging the entrepreneurs to take tucks from them only against a hiked freight of Rs 27000 whereas they get the facility at Rs 15000 only. "As the result of this siege there is no movement of material from the manufactu...   READ MORE   When CA ratified JK's accession to India Naya Kashmir Day 2/5/2013 12:15:11 AM early times report Jammu, Feb 4: The discussion for ratification of Jammu Kashmir's accession in the Constituent Assembly commenced on February 5, 1954. The discussions continued on February 6 as well. There was just one note of dissent. It came from Abdul Gani Goni. However, Goni's dissent note was not adapted and he had to leave the House amid thumping applause of the members. During the discussions, the members criticized Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Sher-e-Kashmir who had been put behind the bars on August 9, 1953. The then Prime Minister, Bakshi Ghulam Moham-mad played a vital role. He quoted extensively from Sher-e-Kashmir's statements Bakshi quoted the statement of April 12, 1952. "T...   READ MORE   Is Cong denigrating majority community as per a grand strategy? 'Hindu Terror' 2/4/2013 11:39:50 PM Rustam JAMMU, Feb 4: On January 20, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde condemned the RSS and the BJP as terror-producing organizations. "The RSS and the BJP hold training camps where Hindu terror is promoted," he said addressing the AICC meeting/Chintan Shivir at Jaipur, adding that only recently his ministry got information to this effect. To prove his point he referred to Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts and suggested that the RSS and the BJP were behind these blasts. A day later, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, who was involved in 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as well as January 8 Mendhar attack, congratulated Shinde and demanded that India should be d...   READ MORE   15 RTI applications denied information Minister, Director assure action Shopian NRHM scam 2/4/2013 11:38:38 PM Javaid Naikoo Jammu, Jan 4: To hush up the matter of selection of candidates on dubious certificates, office of the Chief Medical Officer Shopian denied information to 15 rights to information (RTI) applications regarding the selection of candidates under NRHM for health society Shopian. According to the data available, after not seeing their name in the selected list of candidates, the dropped candidates filed more than fifteen RTI applications besides several other applications to Chief Medical Officer ,Deputy Commissioner Shopian, Chief Secretary Civil Secretariat J&K Jammu and to the Inspector General of Police criminal investigation department Kashmir wing for inquiry in to the m...   READ MORE

CARTOON CORNER

E-PAPER PREVIEW

LOCAL NEWS

The music stops: Kashmir's all-girls rock band it quits Political parties back Kashmir's ‘All-Girls Band’ CB books cheaters, fraudsters BJP Mahila Morcha criticizes Government PHE employees discuss pending demands Rape accused acquitted as prosecution fails   READ MORE THIS SECTION

OTHER STORIES

Addl Secy Amit Sharma deputed to ‘e Governance prog’ Katju warns Ministers of legal action if ads to press stopped arbitrarily Education priority area, getting focused attention: DyCM AB de Villiers equals Test wicketkeeping record I hope to do for Pune Warriors what I did for Mumbai: Abhishek Nayar Enforcement Directorate slaps Rs100 Crore penalty on Rajasthan Royals   READ MORE THIS SECTION

ARCHIVE SECTION

Monday, February 4, 2013 Sunday, February 3, 2013 Saturday, February 2, 2013 Friday, February 1, 2013 Thursday, January 31, 2013 Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Tuesday, January 29, 2013

STOCK UPDATE

BSE Sensex NSE Nifty

CRICKET UPDATE