Jammu and Kashmir eyes 10 percent growth in tourist arrivals this year

"Jammu and Kashmir consists of three regions – Jammu, the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh. We get pilgrims for Jammu, families and groups for Kashmir valley and youth for Ladakh. Tourism in the state is improving every year. This year, we have lined up many interesting activities for the tourists in the form of fairs, festivals, sports and adventure and expect 10 percent growth in arrivals," J-K Director Tourism and JKTDC Managing Director Farooq A Shah said.

    

Nearly 11 lakh travellers visited Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, of which only 50,000 were from foreign countries, he said.

    

"Domestic travellers are the backbone of the state's tourism and JKTDC aims to focus on strengthening this segment. Our focus will be on family and meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions (MICE) segment as there is huge potential in both these areas," he said.

In India, Jammu and Kashmir's traditional market is from Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

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IED found from naxal-hit area in Chhattisgarh

The explosives, packed in a steel container was placed beneath the land near a tree on Bijepar-Jhadikhairi village road that passes through restive forests under Chhuriya police station limits, Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Shukla said.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and district force was on Thursday dispatched on an anti-naxal operation towards Jhadikhairi village, around 150 kms away from here, he said.

Ahead of Jhadikhairi, security forces spotted the IED and was immediately destroyed by the bomb disposal squad, averting a major mishap, Shukla said, adding, it was planted by rebels to target security personnel during their operation.

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Himachal Pradesh: Varsity Vice Chancellor accused of producing fake documents for post

"Dr Katoch has never written any of the 6 books which he claimed to be an author of and produced this false fact to grab this post," Kumar, an MP from Kangra constituency said.

    

"It is a big academic fraud and the Chief Minister is also a party in it as he (CM) is one of the appointing authorities to this post," he alleged.

    

We have asked Governor Urmila Singh for an independent inquiry in this regard and Dr K K Katoch should be sent on leave till the charges against him are investigated upon, he said.

The BJP MP also called for a "revival" of rules pertaining to the appointment of Vice Chancellors in the different universities of the country.

    

Himanshu Mishra, an advocate of Palampur, had last month, in his complaint addressed the Prime Minister on the issue. The advocate had complained that Katoch submitted a wrong bio-data before then Chancellor Urmila Singh, while applying for the post of VC in 2013 but no action was taken.

In his complaint Mishra said that Katoch in his bio-data at serial number 17 to 24 had claimed that he had authored articles in the journals of Indian Society for Soil Sciences in 1983 and a book 'Kheti of ICAR' in 1984, 1985 and 1986, but these articles never appeared in these journals.

    

Dr Katoch also claimed to have written eight books, whereas in six books, he was just a patron, he was neither the author nor a publisher, the complaint said.

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Nitish Katara murder case: Delhi HC pronounces life sentence for Vishal and Vikas Yadav

A special bench of justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha also imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh each on Vikas, son of UP politician D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal for the murder.

The court also increased the jail term of another convict Sukhdev Pehelwan to 25 years, saying all of them will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment without any remission behind bars except for the additional five years.

The judges turned down the plea moved by Nitish's mother Neelam Katara and Delhi police seeking gallows for the three convicts.

Neelam Katara, who was present during the pronouncement of the order on sentence, later expressed disappointment over rejection of the plea for death penalty but was happy with the enhancement of the sentence.

"I will appeal against the order in the Supreme Court," she said, adding that she does not require the compensation amount awarded by the court as she feels that no numerical value can be put on the life of her son.

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Delhi polls 2015: An acerbic campaign where no one was spared

Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone for the election battle by making a veiled reference to Arvind Kejriwal as an "anarchist" in the first BJP rally at Ramlila Maidan.

"We need development here, not anarchy. They are good at dharnas. We are good at running government," the Prime Minister said

After Kiran Bedi decided to make her political debut by joining the BJP, Congress came down hard on her terming it as "gross political opportunism".

Arvind Kejriwal welcomed his former comrades-in-arms with a politically correct tweet saying "I have been fond of Kiran Bediji. I always tried to convince her that she should join politics. I am happy she did it today".

However, the AAP niceties disappeared as soon as Shazia Ilmi followed Bedi and the verbal slugfest broke loose.

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Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang wins trial of strength

Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang today won the trial of strength with 59 MLAs in the 60-member House voting in his favour at the one-day special session of the Assembly.

The special session of the Assembly was summoned by Governor P B Acharya in order to settle the internal squabbling within the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) as 22 out of 38 of its legislators openly rebelled against Zeliang's leadership on January 5.

Speaker Chotisuh Sazo put the motion to voice vote  ..

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Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor are ‘Most Admired Personalities’

One is a superstar who has enthralled the audience of every age, one is, perhaps, the Barbie Doll of the Indian Film Industry and the third one is the ‘Geet’ who is one of the most powerful actresses of Indian cinema and they are the most respected filmstars of the country.

Salman Khan, his ex girlfriend Katrina Kaif and actress Kareena Kapoor have made it to the list of ‘The Most Admired Personalities’ of India – male and female – respectively. The survey was conducted by an online market research portal by the name of Yougov.com based in London.

Salman Khan, who is famous for his straight-forward demeanour and ‘Dabangg’ image, has been one of the linchpins of the Khan trinity, formed by him, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, which has ruled the industry for long now. He has given hit movies like ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, ‘Wanted’, ‘Dabangg’ and most recently ‘Kick’ among others. Besides running an independent charity called ‘Being Human’, Salman Khan is associated with many humanitarian causes and is famous for his generous ways. He secured fourth position in the list that’s graced by the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

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Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor are ‘Most Admired Personalities’

One is a superstar who has enthralled the audience of every age, one is, perhaps, the Barbie Doll of the Indian Film Industry and the third one is the ‘Geet’ who is one of the most powerful actresses of Indian cinema and they are the most respected filmstars of the country.

Salman Khan, his ex girlfriend Katrina Kaif and actress Kareena Kapoor have made it to the list of ‘The Most Admired Personalities’ of India – male and female – respectively. The survey was conducted by an online market research portal by the name of Yougov.com based in London.

Salman Khan, who is famous for his straight-forward demeanour and ‘Dabangg’ image, has been one of the linchpins of the Khan trinity, formed by him, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, which has ruled the industry for long now. He has given hit movies like ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, ‘Wanted’, ‘Dabangg’ and most recently ‘Kick’ among others. Besides running an independent charity called ‘Being Human’, Salman Khan is associated with many humanitarian causes and is famous for his generous ways. He secured fourth position in the list that’s graced by the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

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LC Goyal replaces Anil Goswami as home secretary

Union home secretary Anil Goswami resigned on Wednesday, hours after he admitted that he had called up CBI officers to dissuade them from summoning former Union minister Matang Sinh for questioning in Kolkata and then arresting him in the Saradha chit fund scam.

Goswami will be succeeded by L C Goyal, a 1979 batch IAS officer belonging to the Kerala cadre, who was secretary, rural development ministry. Goyal has earlier served as joint secretary (internal security) in the home ministry from 2002 to 2007. He will have a fixed tenure of two years.

Goswami's acknowledgement that he had tried to intervene in the Saradha probe on behalf of Sinh came at his meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh here on Wednesday. He was called by Singh on his return from an official tour to Jammu on Tuesday evening to clarify why he had intervened on behalf of Sinh.

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Police Drag Priests, Women Into Buses During Protests Against Delhi Church Attacks

Hours after a massive protest in Delhi, which saw the police dragging priests, nuns and even children into buses, Home Minister Rajnath Singh promised to increase security around churches and set up a proper investigation into recent attacks in Delhi.

A large number of policemen swooped down on the protest this morning outside the Sacred Heart cathedral in central Delhi. Some activists alleged that they were assaulted by the police.

Father Dominic Emmanuel, a spokesperson of a Christian body, was also dragged into a bus. "I told the home minister that this is happening under the BJP," he told reporters after meeting Mr Singh.

The home minister tweeted his response: "I assured them that the present dispensation would never tolerate any discrimination in the name of caste, colour, language or religion."

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