SRINAGAR:
A fresh avalanche warning has been issued for the next 24 hours in the Kashmir valley, an official spokesman said here this evening.
He said a communication received from the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir said that avalanche warning exists for next 24 hours from this evening to April 2, in the avalanche prone areas of Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Ganderbal districts.
In view of the warning, Deputy Commissioners Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Ganderbal districts are requested to advise people not to venture in avalanche prone.
During heavy snowfall, people are advised not to occupy and temporarily evacuate those locations which are under fall line of avalanches.
The concerned Deputy Commissioners are asked to take all precautionary measures so as to avert any untoward incident.
However, in case of any emergency people are advised to take extra precautions while moving in these areas. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI:
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth reviewed the flood situation in Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the  National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) here today and took stock of the relief and rehabilitation efforts.
The Committee also reviewed the relief and rehabilitation activities being undertaken by the State authorities as well as the assistance being provided by Central Government agencies, an official spokesman said here.
The State authorities have said that currently the water level is much lower than danger mark while the State machinery is also fully geared up to meet any eventualities. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has pressed  into service eight teams to undertake relief and rescue operations in vulnerable areas of the Valley.
NDRF teams are in constant touch with civil authorities for assessment of the situation. Six columns of the Army are also deployed to assist civil authorities.  (AGENCIES)

JAMMU:
Minister of State for Education Priya Sethi today said the examinations in Kashmir division for twelfth standard scheduled to be held from March 2 and for class tenth from March 17 will be held depending upon the weather conditions.
Replying to a Calling Attention Notice by Mr Nazir Ahmed Gurezi in Legislative Assembly here, the Minister informed Class 10th examinations shall be held in the entire Kashmir valley including Gurez as soon as the weather permits.
She said, further the results of the candidates of Gurez constituency shall be declared alongwith other students of the Kashmir valley.
She added that examination scheduled on March 7, 2015 in respect of Class 12th in Gurez were postponed due to inclement weather.
She said Government also postponed examination in Kashmir Division for Class 12th on 2nd, 4th and March 9, 2015 and these were held on 20th, 22nd and March 24, 2015.
The Minister further informed the examinations scheduled for Class 10th on 17th, March 30 and April 2, 2015 also stand postponed in the entire Kashmir Division including Gurez due to inclement weather.
She said only the examinations postponed on March 7, 2015 in Chemistry and Economics papers in five centers of Tehsil Gurez have not yet been held and these shall be held as soon as weather condition improve. (AGENCIES)

SRINAGAR:
More than 1,000 vehicles, including those carrying passengers were stranded at different places on the highway, connecting the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country after Srinagar-Jammu was closed again this afternoon following landslides.
One-way traffic was resumed yesterday afternoon after remaining closed since Friday last due to landslides and shooting stones at several places.
This morning vehicles, including those carrying passengers and trucks loaded with essentials, left Jammu for Kashmir. However, no vehicle was allowed from Kashmir to Jammu.
However, continuous rain since early this morning, led to more landslides at different places, including Magarkote, Ramban and Ramsu forcing authorities to suspend traffic  again.
Official sources said more than 1000 Kashmir bound vehicles got stranded on the highway at different places. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintainance of the highway, have pressed into service men and shopisticated machine to remove the landslides and shooting stones on the highway, particularly in Ramban and Ramsu area.
The highway was closed initially for 24 hours on Friday afternoon to allow BRO to undertake repair work so that vehicles could pass safely in the avalanche prone areas.
However, heavy rains triggered fresh landslides at several places on the highway forcing authorities to suspend traffic on the highway. After working round the clock, the BRO put through the highway for one-way yesterday afternoon.
Since several thousand passengers, including women and children, were stranded at Jammu bus stand for the past about one week, it was decided to allow traffic from Jammu to Srinagar after the highway reopened.
Because of heavy rush of passengers at Jammu and shortage of essentials, particularly vegetables in the valley, it was decided to allow traffic from winter capital to Srinagar today also. The road was again closed this afternoon due to landslides. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI:
Union Minister Giriraj Singh has again kicked up a major row with racist remarks asking whether Congress would have accepted Sonia Gandhi’s leadership if she was not white-skinned, comments that were slammed by a furious Congress which asked the Prime Minister to dismiss him and apologise to the nation.
“Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian woman and if she was not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have then accepted her leadership?,” he told journalists yesterday.
Various women leaders also attacked Singh, who is Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, saying it reflected his racial mindset and attitude towards women.
The Minister, who had courted controversies with remarks during Lok Sabha elections like people opposed to Narendra Modi can go to Pakistan, also mocked Rahul Gandhi’s absence from the political scene and likened it to the “missing Malaysian airliner”.
“Imagine a situation, if Congress was in power instead of us and had Rahul been the Prime Minister, and if for some reason, the PM had disappeared for more than 47 days.
“Absence of Congress Vice President is similar to that of the missing Malaysian airliner that still has not been located. The same way the Congress leader was not present in the budget session. No one in Congress is ready to speak. This is unfortunate for the Congress and a joke for the country,” he told journalists in Hajipur, Bihar, last night.
When asked about his controversial comments, Singh, who was in Delhi today, initially refused to speak to the media. As his remarks snowballed into a major controversy, the BJP leader said if his comments have hurt Gandhi, he regretted them. (AGENCIES)

JAMMU:
NC MLA Devender Singh Rana today asked the State Government to shutdown the toll plaza on Jammu-Srinagar national highway or else he will get it closed.
“The people are made to suffer, the road itself is incomplete, the road construction work is on but still people are made to pay the toll taxes, this is injustice,” Rana said in the assembly today.
However, the minister for industries and commerce Chander Prakash maintained that the construction of the toll plaza on the highway was started during the previous NC-Congress Government and questioned why the same was not stopped then.
“Why did you allow the construction of the plaza when it was being constructed during NC Congress Government, we didn’t allow the construction of the toll plaza in our area, why did you allow the same in your area,” he said.
Not satisfied with the reply of the minister, the NC leader said that he would ensure that the toll plaza gets removed from the area.
“We will do what you did and I challenge from the floor of this house that whatever it takes I will get this toll plaza removed from that area even if we have to come on roads,” Rana said.
Demanding for expunging Rana’s statement from proceedings of the house, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) Zulfiqar Ali said, “If a lawmaker talks about breaking of law and if he breaks it, then the law will take its own course.”
On this Rana said that he has thrice raised the issue “politely” but was not given a satisfactory answer by the Government.
However, Ali assured the opposition member that the issue would be taken with the ministry of surface transport Government of India. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI:
As many as 350 Indians today reached Djibouti after being evacuated on a Navy vessel from Aden, the seaport city of strife-torn Yemen, and will be brought back to India by the Indian Air Force tonight, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs Ministry V K Singh also reached Djibouti to oversee the evacuation operation launched by the Government to rescue over 4,000 nationals in Yemen.
“Indian nationals evacuated from Aden by Indian Navy have reached Djibouti. They will be brought back to India by Indian Air Force today.
“One plane will land in Kochi and the other in Mumbai late this evening. My colleague General V K Singh is coordinating the operations with Indian Navy and Air Force in Djibouti,” Swaraj tweeted.
Out of 350 evacuees, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 22 from Delhi besides other states, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.
The Indians were evacuated late last night by INS Sumitra, which was diverted from its anti-piracy patrol in the region. It waited for hours to get local clearances as heavy fighting was reported in the city.
Indian Navy ships Mumbai and Tarkash have also been pressed into evacuation efforts named ‘Operation Raahat’.
The ships will escort two passenger vessels, Kavaratti and Corals, through the piracy risk area off the coast of Somalia. These passenger vessels had sailed from Kochi on March 30 to Djibouti.
The two warships will, thereafter, be available for evacuation of Indian nationals from Yemeni ports, as required.
The evacuated Indians will be flown into India by two Indian Air Force’s C17 Globemasters.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Yemen’s Shiite rebels for the sixth day yesterday, destroying missiles and weapons depots and for the first time using warships to bomb the rebel-held airport and eastern outskirts of the port city of Aden. (AGENCIES)

MUMBAI:
Prosecution today rejected Bollywood star Salman Khan’s defence that it was his driver Ashok Singh who was driving his vehicle at the time of the 2002 mishap, saying it appears to be a “brought up” witness whose contention was belated and introduced at the fag end of the trial.
Khan had submitted for the first time on Monday that Singh was at the wheel and not him, while giving his statement after evidence was closed in the case, said special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat today while making final arguments in the sessions court.
Khan has been charged with killing one person and injuring four others by ramming his vehicle into a bakery shop in suburban Bandra in the wee hours of September 28, 2002.
In his arguments, Gharat said none of the witnesses examined in the court was given this suggestion or confronted with this new piece of evidence claimed by Khan.
Gharat argued that Khan had not mentioned about his driver Ashok Singh at any stage of the trial earlier and had disclosed this only when his statement was being recorded.
At that time, the actor was also asked by the judge if he wished to examine himself. To this, he had replied in the negative. “If he (Khan) had chosen to examine himself he would have been exposed in cross-examination, Gharat further argued.
The accused had in the beginning of the trial accepted that the vehicle was owned by him and was in his possession when the mishap occurred. Even at that stage he did not disclose that his driver Ashok Singh was driving the car at the relevant time, said Gharat.
Singh had told the sessions court last month that it was he was behind the wheel, and not the actor, at the time of the accident. (AGENCIES)