Important News to be read from “The Hindu 04-01-2020”

U.S. kills top Iranian General in air strike

• The U.S. on Friday killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, in an air strike near Baghdad airport, the Pentagon and Iran said.
• U.S. officials said Gen. Soleimani had been killed in drone strike while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he was killed in an attack by American helicopters. Pictures showed burning debris on a road near the airport.
• Iran has been locked in a long conflict with the U.S. that escalated last week with an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq by pro­Iranian militia men after a U.S. air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis.

Special provisions likely for J&K residents in jobs, land rights

• The Centre is all set to provide protection to domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir in government jobs, educational institutions and land rights, a senior government official said on Friday.
• The Centre is exploring the option of implementing the mandatory requirement of continuous stay in the region for a minimum of 15 years before applying for a job in the government sector and for admissions in schools and colleges in the Union Territory of J&K.
• The official said special provisions were being examined on the lines of those in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The provisions pertain to regulating owner- ship and transfer of land to conserve the limited resources available for development.

Haryana Cabinet approves creation of new department

• The Haryana Cabinet on Friday approved the creation of a new department named Citizen Resources Information Department. It will deal with various subjects like family identity document, Parivar Pehchan Patra, to- wards preparing a common database to implement government schemes and delivery of government servic- es through the digital medium. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here.
• The Cabinet also approved the proposal of bringing an amendment to the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 to get Hindi language authorised as the language for the purposes of proceedings, any judgment, decree or orders passed or made by the courts and tribunals subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana.
• “To spread the propagation of Hindi as the language of the people of the State, it is necessary that this language should be used in day to ­day work. The purpose of justice in a democracy is that the plaintiff should get justice quickly in his own language and should not re- main speechless during the proceedings,” said the statement.