Rajnath postpones his visit to US
As Kashmir remained in turmoil for the fourth consecutive day, home minister Rajnath Singh postponed his visit to the United States for a meeting of the Indo- US Homeland Security dialogue that was scheduled to start on July 18. Sources said the home minister is now likely to go to the US in September.
Officials said that in addition to the prevailing situation in Kashmir, the home minister will have a busy schedule once the Monsoon Session of Parliament starts from Monday.
“In view of the law and order situation and the Parliament session, it has been decided to postpone the visit of home minister to the US. The new dates will be finalised after some time and the visit may take place in September now,” a senior home ministry official said.
When the Prime Minister was away on tour to African nations, the home minister was leading the Centre’s efforts to restore normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir where 24 people have died while nearly 250 have been injured following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter.
Meanwhile, Mr Singh has approved a compensation of ` 5 lakh for civilians killed in cross border firing. The compensation given to those who were killed due to terrorism or Maoist violence has also been increased from ` 3 lakh to ` 5 lakh. Any civilian who dies anywhere in the country due to a terror attack, Naxal violence, firing from across the border, shelling or IED explosion, will be given ` 5 lakh as compensation uniformly.