SRINAGAR: Kargil local authorities have urged the Centre to start civilian flights, saying connectivity remains severely affected in winter when surface routes close.Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council -Kargil (LAHDC) chief executive councillor (CEC) Mohd Jaffar Akhoon and Ladakh MP Mohmad Haneefa raised the demand in a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday.“Air links will boost tourism and help army personnel immensely. Soldiers lose three to four days of leave while travelling via Leh and waiting for onward movement,” Akhoon said, adding lack of direct flights has been holding back countless potential visitors.Akhoon stressed that air links are vital for the region, whose people now have to travel five to eight hours by road to reach the nearest airports in Leh and Srinagar.“No doubt Zojila Tunnel will improve road connectivity, but Kargil still needs a dedicated air link. Small aircraft operate in many areas of the Northeast. Flights from Kargil to New Delhi and Kargil to Srinagar can begin from the existing (defence) runway with small aircraft. This can pave the way for full air connectivity and to a full-fledged civil airport,” Akhoon said.In the talks with Shah, Akhoon and Haneefa also pushed for speeding up five hydroelectric projects and sought two new districts of Sankoo and Shakar-Chiktan. “These are among the most populated and oldest subdivisions in Kargil and meet all required criteria for creation of districts,” Akhoon said.The two should be included in an upcoming notification about five new districts announced in Aug 2024 by the Union home ministry. These are Ladakh, Zanskar and Drass in Kargil, and Sham, Nubra and Changthang in Leh.Akhoon and Haneefa also sought a 200-bed hospital for Kargil to ease the pressure on an existing 100-bed district facility, engineering colleges and an agricultural university. Another key demand was for a dedicated India Reserve Battalion (IRB) for Kargil to strengthen law and order and provide jobs.Akhoon said home minister Shah’s response to the demands, including air connectivity, was “very positive”.

NEW DELHI: Union education ministry will launch a nationwide drive to identify and enrol out-of-school and dropout children through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), as part of efforts to achieve 100% gross enrolment ratio (GER) from pre-school to secondary level by 2030.Data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24 shows nearly 2 crore children in the 14-18 age group are not attending school. Around 11% of children in Classes III to VIII remain out of school, while over 50 lakh students fail board examinations each year.Officials of the department of school education and literacy said open schooling will be used to bring such children back into the education system, especially those unable to attend regular schools due to economic, social or geographical reasons. NIOS offers flexible admissions, multiple attempts to clear exams, on-demand examinations and vocational courses, with certification recognised at par with other boards.The ministry will work with states and UTs to identify out-of-school children using district-level survey data and enrol them through targeted outreach. A programme titled “NIOS Mitra” will be introduced to support this effort. Trained facilitators will identify children, counsel families and assist with enrolment and academic guidance, with a focus on marginalised and disadvantaged groups.To improve access, the ministry plans to expand the network of NIOS centres. At present, NIOS operates over 10,800 study and examination centres across the country. The government aims to establish at least one centre in every block.PM SHRI schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and government senior secondary schools will be used as NIOS centres to support enrolment and examinations.

NEW DELHI: Former Army chief General MM Naravane said that he would only write fiction now. The statement came at a book signing event on Friday. Naravane’s unreleased memoir ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ created an uproar in Parliament last month with Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi used excerpts from the book published in a magazine and accused PM Narendra Modi of “not fulfulling responsibility” during the 2020 India-China military clashes in Ladakh.“I’ve always been writing from time to time, not only military reports but also for various academic journals of the Army. I had also written a few short stories, one of which was even published in the Femina. I am now only into writing fiction,” he added.“My book ‘The Cantonment Conspiracy’ was released last year, and I’m glad to say that the book is relatively well for a first-time author who had no idea how to write. It has been an interesting journey to write this book and transition from being a soldier to being a storyteller. So I enjoyed writing it, and I’m sure all those who read it will enjoy reading it too,” he said.During the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address on February 2, the Lok Sabha saw heated exchanges after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi attempted to quote a magazine article featuring excerpts from an unpublished memoir by Naravane. Gandhi’s remarks were interrupted by defence minister Rajnath Singh, who objected to citing material from an unauthenticated and unpublished book. Members of the ruling benches also opposed the move, intensifying the confrontation in the House. The dispute escalated further when Opposition MPs moved a no-confidence motion against Om Birla, alleging that Gandhi was not being allowed to speak. However, the motion was later defeated through a voice vote during the second phase of the Budget Session of Parliament.

Rain lashed parts of Punjab and Haryana on Friday, with temperatures hovering below normal limits.For the second consecutive day, rain lashed Chandigarh throughout the day, and the showers led to a sharp drop in mercury here. The maximum here dropped to 18.8 degrees Celsius, ten notches below normal, according to the MeT.Ambala, Panchkula, Narnaul, Rohtak, Mohali, Patiala, and Rupnagar were among the other places which received rain in the two states.On Thursday too, rain lashed many places in Punjab and Haryana, leading to a sharp drop in temperatures. The maximum temperatures on Friday again registered a sharp drop.In Punjab, Amritsar recorded a maximum of 23.7 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal. Ludhiana recorded a high of 21.6 degrees, seven degrees below normal.Patiala recorded a maximum of 20.3 degrees Celsius, nine notches below normal.In Haryana, Ambala recorded a high of 18.5 degrees Celsius, ten degrees below normal limits.Hisar registered a high of 22.2 degrees Celsius, seven degrees below normal.Karnal’s maximum settled at 22.2 degrees, over six notches below normal.

NEW DELHI: India on Friday delivered a 2.5-ton consignment of medical supplies and equipment to Kabul following a deadly airstrike on a drug rehabilitation center in the Afghan capital that killed over 400 people.The external affairs ministry said that the shipment carried emergency medicines, medical disposables, kits and equipment to support treatment and recovery for those injured in the attack on March 16.“India stands in solidarity with the Afghan people and will continue to extend all possible humanitarian support in this difficult hour,” the MEA said in a statement. The airstrike struck a large drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul late Monday night, reportedly destroying significant portions of the 2,000-bed complex. Local authorities said at least 400 people were killed and nearly 250 injured. Loud explosions were heard around 9:00 pm (local time) and plumes of smoke were visible from nearby Shahr-e-Naw and Wazir Akbar Khan districts. The incident comes amid heightened tensions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistan has repeatedly conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan in response to cross-border attacks allegedly carried out by militants sheltered by the Taliban government. Afghan officials, meanwhile, have described these incursions as violations of their sovereignty, with senior leaders emphasizing the duty of all citizens to defend the nation.

NEW DELHI: The government has intensified action against illegal online gambling and betting platforms, blocking around 300 websites and applications in the latest round, according to official sources. The move is part of an ongoing enforcement drive that has gathered pace after the passage of the Online Gaming Act, which laid down a clearer framework to curb unlawful real-money gaming and betting activities.Govt sources said the blocked platforms include online sports betting websites, offshore casinos offering games such as slots and roulette, betting exchanges operating as peer-to-peer marketplaces, satta and matka networks, and real-money card and casino gaming apps. Many of these platforms were found to be operating without authorisation and targeting Indian users through mirror sites and mobile applications.Officials indicated that enforcement agencies have been working with internet service providers and intermediaries to identify and disable access to such platforms. The action is also linked to concerns around financial fraud, money laundering and user protection, particularly involving younger users accessing these services through mobile devices.Data shared by sources shows that a total of around 8,400 illegal gambling and betting websites have been blocked so far. Of these, nearly 4,900 were taken down after the Online Gaming Act came into effect, indicating a sharper enforcement push in recent months.The Online Gaming Act, cleared last year, introduced provisions to regulate real-money online gaming, including due diligence requirements for platforms and stricter action against illegal operators. Recent steps also follow advisories issued to states and enforcement agencies to tighten monitoring of online betting networks.Officials said the crackdown will continue, with more platforms under review for possible blocking.