From Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Mar 6: The hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani will appear in Police Station Lodhi Colony tomorrow after he was summoned by Delhi police for his Pakistani visa recommendation to a Kashmiri Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT) militant.  Reports reaching here said that two Delhi Police personnel, Dharminder Kumar and Pankaj Singh visited the Geelani’s residence at Malviya Nagar in Delhi and handed over the summon to him. He has been asked to present himself at the Lodhi Colony police station on March 7 where an FIR has been registered against him. The FIR against Geelani has been lodged by the special cell of Delhi after inputs that he recommended for Pakistani visa to the LeT militant identified as Ahtisham Malik. A resident of Sopore in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district Ahtisham was arrested along with another LeT militant Tauseef Ahmad Pir, also a resident of Sopore arrested in Delhi on February 29.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 6: In a major success, police today arrested a hawala operator of the militants from Talab Tillo area and recovered ` 3.44 lakh worth hawala money from his possession. Police identified the hawala operator as Mohammad Aslam, a private teacher and a resident of Darhal, Rajouri. Reports said the hawala operator had got money through banking transaction in Rajouri. He was camping at Talab Tillo for handing over the hawala money to a militant’s contact from Kashmir valley. However, police arrested him before he could hand over the money to Kashmir’s hawala operator

By Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 6: In an unprecedented development today, the Upper House of the State Legislature was adjourned twice amidst protest by the legislators not only from opposition PDP but also from ruling regime (Cong,NC), for not taking them into confidence while approving several Centrally sponsored projects in their respective areas and non-seriousness on the part of Ministers and bureaucrats towards business in the House. As the Legislative Council commenced its normal business today at 11 AM, the Congress legislator from Bhaderwah, Naresh Gupta stood up and raised the issue that while finalizing projects under PMGSY, BRGF, NABARD etc, MLCs are not taken into confidence by the concerned departments. He lodged strong protest with the Chairman and said that members of this House were facing discrimination on this count and directions should go from the ‘Chair’ in this regard.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 6: Toughening its stand on checking settlement of non-State Subjects in Jammu and Kashmir, the State Government has decided to strengthen the State Subject Commission and appoint its new Chairman in place of Dr A Q Parrey with new set of guidelines for early disposal of the fake PRC cases. Official sources told EXCELSIOR that while discussing the functioning of the State Subject Commission, the Government observed that the objectives with which it was set up long back, have not been achieved because of varied reasons. “The Government has found it imperative to strengthen the Commission in such a way that cases of fake PRCs are taken to logical conclusion in a time-bound manner and the settlement of outsiders in the State is properly checked”, they said, adding “there are inputs with the Government that large number of non-State Subjects have not only managed to get settled in the State on the fake PRCs but have also acquired huge property

By Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 6: Former Finance Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig today described the general budget 2012-13 presented by Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather in the Legislative Assembly yesterday as ‘directionless, misleading, incoherent, contradictory and jugglery of words’. He said the National Conference, which has presented 28 budgets from 1975 to 2012, 12 of which were presented by Mr Rather alone, can’t escape the responsibility of sorry state of affairs in the State in many sectors including finance, power and health..

NEW DELHI, Mar 6: Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party today swept to power jolting Congress party and the BJP in UP Assembly polls, the results of which are a setback to Rahul Gandhi, who acknowledged the “defeat”. In a surprisingly comfortable victory that created history, the Akali-BJP combine retained power in Punjab, Congress lost Goa to BJP but retained Manipur while it was a close call in Uttarakhand where Congress emerged as the single largest party with 32 seats, one seat ahead of ruling BJP’s 31 in the 70-member House. SP dethroned BSP leader Mayawati by getting an absolute majority by comfortably crossing the required 202-mark in the 403-member House. The party bagged 224 seats, the third time a party won majority on its own in the State in two decades.

NEW DELHI, Mar 5: Opposition parties are gearing up to corner the Government during Parliament’s Budget Session on a host of issues, including NCTC, and target the UPA for alleged trampling of federalism and Centre-State ties. An all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today saw Opposition leaders raising a variety of issues including repeated “attacks” by the Centre on the federal structure of the Constitution, demand for white paper on black money and violation of the Model Code by several Union Ministers.Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj complained about the short duration of the first phase of the Budget Session at a time when the Opposition has plans to raise several issues

JAMMU, Mar 5: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah today said that enhancement of monthly wages of the Home Guards is under the consideration of the Government. “The Government vide order dated February 9, 2011 had enhanced the honorarium of volunteer Home Guards from ` 45 to ` 60 per person per day and further enhancement from ` 60 to ` 90 in the second phase is under the consideration of the Government”, he said in response to the question of BJP MLA, Ashok Khajuria