Ahmedabad, July 30 : Schoolchildren in Ahmedabad have been badly affected by the recent violence caused through serials blasts. The psychological setback is so intense that many of them are scared and often talk about terrorists in classrooms in school.

As part of an initiative to take out fear from their minds, one school here conducted peace prayers by schoolchildren.

Preeti Jai Shah, supervisor of Jai Hind Doon school, told that the kids have been very much disturbed by the recent blasts. To take out that fear of their minds, the school authorities recently organised peace prayers.

Accepting the advice of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) quickly came up with revised sex education syllabus yesterday. On Tuesday, the NECRT, in a meeting with NACO, decided to remove the ‘objectionable’ contents and images from the books prepared to teach “sex education” to the teenage students.

Jammu, July 30 : Jammu continued to observe a shutdown for the seventh consecutive day called by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Samiti against the revocation of State Government’s order to transfer forestland to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

All shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed and traffic was off the roads.

Sikar (Rajasthan), July 30 : Believe it or not, you may soon be able to purchase a microlight plane in the budget of a luxury car!

An aviation company based at Sikar in Rajasthan has assembled a two-seater microlight aircraft which can take-off and land from a stretch of just 300 feet, and can traverse 15 kilometres using one litre of normal petrol.

Manufactured by a newly formed company, West Wind Aviation, it will be available to the customer at around rupees 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 millon) only. The company is in the process of setting up an assembling hangar in Sikar.

This aircraft can touch a cruising speed of 200 knots per hour.

Veraval/ Rajkot, July 30 : Pressure is mounting on security authorities to beef up intelligence apparatus to counter serial bomb blasts like those recently took place in Bangalore and Ahmedabad claiming more than 50 lives.

Security is being tightened across the nation after security personnel recovered 18 live bombs from Surat and defused them.

Meanwhile, the Saurashtra region of the state has been put on red alert that houses the famous Somnath temple.

Police authorities have deployed additional forces at the temple. Officials said that they have deployed additional companies in addition to the routine police staff.

Srinagar, July 30 : In a respite to traders of Jammu and Kashmir, the State Government today ordered amendment of Rule 28 of the State''s Value Added Tax (VAT).

Which will in result extend the date for filing of returns by dealers not exceeding 30 days from the due date in the wake of extraordinary circumstances.

According to an official spokesman, the government has decided to extend the date of filing of returns by the dealers for the first quarter of the year 2008-09 by a period of
30 days.