If Amarnath ignited violence in J&K, it took only a rumour of a landslide to snuff out over 150 lives and left nearly 100 injured at the famous Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh recently.

A majority of those dead were women and children. Located about 160 kms from the capital Shimla, over 20,000-25,000 devotees from neighbouring States like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and elsewhere had crowded the temple, when devotees coming down said that bolders were falling from the hill-side triggered off a stampede.

The Naina Devi temple attracts a large number of devotees during the Sawan Navratras', the first nine days of the Hindu month of Shravan. Devotees believe that it is God's wrath which has revisited the shrine after 30 years.

Predictably, the security agencies were caught napping when the incident occurred. Had they been more alert, perhaps the tragedy could have been averted.

* Chhattisgarh long wait for power

* The travails of Naxalite -hit Chhattisgarh continue. Already fighting with its back against the wall in the five most affected militants districts, the State Government will have to wait a while before these areas are provided with electricity.

* No matter that it would make the security forces task much easier to tackle the menace. Notwithstanding, the Home and

Rural Development Ministries favouring implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Yojana on a priority basis, the Power Grid Corporation of India shot these projects down as it entailed high costs of over Rs 843 crore. Clearly, "lead kindly light" is not a part of the 'Power Ministry's'vocabulary!

* Rain God keeps away from Kerala

* Kerala will always remember 2008. The year when it faced the worst monsoon season in nearly 30 years. This would have a telling impact on the State's industrial and agricultural sectors. Worse, the water levels in major reservoirs have almost reached the dead-storage level.

* Consequently, a 25 per cent power cut has been imposed in the State. The only upside is that the unforeseen dry spell has not dampened the seasonal tourism. All have their fingers crossed when the rain God will "shower" his blessings on God's own country.

* Puducherry Govt faces revolt

* Miniscule Puducherry is in the throes of another type of "power" crisis. Wherein five Congress Minister have revolted against their Chief Minister Rangaswamy.

* All work has come to a standstill as the Ministers are busy shuttling between their Union Territory and New Delhi to demand that the Party High Command change the CM forthwith.

* Their grouse? Only the Chief Minister's constituency is being singled out for all development activities and employment opportunities. Recall, Rangaswamy won a mammoth 90.23 per cent of all valid votes for the second time after the Congress-DMK combine garnered 17 of the 30 seats in the 2006 Assembly elections. It remains to be seen who will have the last word.

* Shortage of University seats in Jharkhand

* Jharkhand is facing an acute drought in the education sector. It has more students and less colleges to accommodate them. Consider: of the 3.39 lakh students who took the class X examinations, 2.94 lakh passed the test However, the number of seats available in the 301 undergraduate colleges of the State's three universities is less than 2.50 lakh. This has resulted in students who have been unable to get admission turn violent and beat up college principles. Worse, the Madhu Koda-led State Government has neither a short-term nor a long-term plan to deal with the problem. Despite the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) exhorting the teachers to work the evening shift, they have refused to do so. With the State facing electricity shortage in the evening, the proposal has remained only on paper. Even as students run from pillar to post to avail education.

* Orissa's compensation for corps Fighting Terror The security forces in Orissa have got a new impetus to fight hard against terror. Thanks to the State Government doubling the compensation amount for policemen killed and injured during anti-Maoists operation. This has not only boosted the morale of the forces but the officials who perform well would receive a gallantry medal from the State Government with a cash reward of Rs one lakh. These sops come less than a month after the Naveen Patnaik Government announced special family pensions, homestead land and a job to the next of kin of policemen killed in anti-terror operations. Will the other States heed?