Valley’s wedding season badly hit by Highway Crisis

With hundreds of sheep-laden trucks stuck along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway for the past several days, mutton shortage has badly spoiled the ongoing wedding season. Mutton dealers, who haven’t been able to deliver orders to customers, have threatened to suspend business activity from the next week if the traffic is not restored on the highway. The dealers said more than 250 trucks laden with sheep are stuck at Udhampur. Several families have cancelled or rescheduled weddings. “At the last moment we were informed by the mutton dealer that he cannot…

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Rain, Storm uproots trees, snapped power supply in J&K

Overnight thunderstorm and rain in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir disrupted normal life while plunging a large areas in darkness as power lines were snapped. However, no injuries or loss of life was reported in Jammu, Reasi, Samba, Kathua, Kupwara, and Anantnag, which were worst-affected by high velocity winds. Parts of Rajouri and Udhampur were also affected by the storm. In Jammu district, power lines and electric poles were damaged as many trees were uprooted. It was only after Jammu Municipal Corporation staff and power development department (PDD) workers…

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BJP’s Giriraj Singh wants EC to ban green flags, ‘Gives feeling of being in Pakistan’

Union minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh courted yet another controversy on Tuesday when he called for a ban on green flags, which he said “tend to create hatred in the society and gives one a feeling of being in Pakistan”. Talking to media persons in Begusarai on Tuesday, Singh demanded that the Election Commission ban green flag, claiming it gave an impression of Muslim-related political or religious institutions. “These type of flags tend to create hatred in the society and gives one a feeling of being in Pakistan,” he…

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Review highway ban: HC to Govt

The J&K High Court today granted one week more to the state government to file its response to petitions challenging the highway ban order. The court observed that the government would have to defend its ban after it was pointed out by a senior lawyer that the state Home Secretary has no power to pass such an order directing restrictions on the movement of civilian traffic on the national highway for two days a week. The directions were issued by a Division Bench, headed by Justice Ali Mohammed Magrey, in…

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