Newswallah: Bharat Edition - NYTimes.com Jammu and Kashmir: Businesses including independent shops and banks in Kashmir Valley shut down Jan. 6 to protest power outages and the killing of a student during a protest. The strike was called by the Kashmir Economic Alliance, the area's business trade group (Greater Kashmir). Punjab and Haryana: Fifty senior officials from the Indian Police Service, including 24 from Punjab and six from Haryana have been identified as defaulters by the Ministry of Home Affairs for failure to file their returns for immovable property for the year 2010 (The Tribune). Assam: The state government has put the upper regions of the state on high alert after intelligence reports warned that United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants may target national oil companies" employees as well as politicians. The police have been directed to "review the security scenario especially inter-state roads, borders areas, brick kiln, oil installations, railway tracks and all Assam police border outposts," reports the Assam Tribune. West Bengal: The principal of Raiganj College in north Bengal was beaten up by Trinamul activists. A member of the Congress Party blamed the atmosphere of violence across north Bengal on "Trinamul trying to muscle its way into what has traditionally been a Congress bastion," reports the Telegraph. Meghalaya: In order to check the large influx of labor, not only from other states in India but also Nepal and Bangladesh, the state enacted a law that requires immigrant laborers to register themselves with state authorities. However, very few migrant workers have come forward and registered, a cause of concern for the authorities, according to the Nagaland Post. Bihar: The Bihar government is changing its medicine procurement policy to check corruption. Now the government will make payment to suppliers only after medicine has been delivered. Jharkhand: In the government hospital in the Deoghar district, patients are being asked to bring bed sheets for admission into the hospital. Hospitals in the district are short on funds. Rajasthan: Officials continued to search for the remains of Bhanwari Devi, the nurse who was killed in mysterious circumstances involving senior state politicians. NDTV reported that divers were looking for her watch in a canal, because two suspects who have confessed to killing her told the authorities that the timepiece was largely intact after they burned her body. Maharashtra adopted new rules meant to crack down on apartment developers who built larger buildings and apartments then they were authorized to. The new rules will force developers to pay a new fee for each square foot of balconies, terraces, flower beds and other features that they were previously not paying anything for. While the state government claims the new fees would make real estate development more transparent, some critics argue it will increase the already high cost of housing in Mumbai. Kerala: The government will not permit trials or research on genetically modified (GM) crops in the state. The New Indian Express Karnataka: Illegal iron ore mining in the state adversely affected agriculture and spread mining related diseases among people of the region, a government study has found. "There has been a decline in productivity of agricultural crops up to 40 per cent in both Tumkur and Chitradurga districts when mining areas are compared with the non-mining areas," the report states. Deccan Herald