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Ajay Banerjee,Tribune News Service,New Delhi, February 4
The armed forces have approached the Defence Ministry saying by no yardstick can they be compared, let alone be lowered, in hierarchy to the paramilitary forces.The three forces — Army, Navy and the Force — have petitioned Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar seeking a restoration of earlier status, which has been “disturbed” after the recommendations of the 7th pay commission. The government is yet to announce what all it has accepted or rejected.The representation has termed comparisons with paramilitary as “wrong and misplaced”, citing suggestions made by 7th pay commission.It talks about “progressive decline of status of the forces” and warns that self-esteem of the armed forces’ officers has been hit. Such is the seriousness of the matter that Parrikar called in Chiefs of the three services for a 90-minute meeting on the matter on February 2.The paramilitary forces included the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).In their representation, which covers an entire gamut of issues, the armed forces have said there can be no comparison with the paramilitary in terms of the mandate, duties, risks in service conditions and tasks assigned.Citing past records, the forces claim the 7th pay panel recommendations will upset laid-down seniorities and placing armed forces’ allowances lower than those of paramilitary forces will change rules for risk allowances like those applicable in the north-east or J&K. It points out the base levels to calculate pensions for the forces are lower than the others.The disability pension for armed forces has been lowered, but it has been maintained at same levels for paramilitary forces. Parrikar has been informed that the pay panel has disturbed the parity between Lieut-Colonels and Commandants of the paramilitary forces.
Tribune News Service,New Delhi, February 3
In a minor diplomatic coup, India, despite its existing strained relations with Nepal, today conferred Nepalese army chief General Rajendra Chhetri with the honorary rank of General of the Indian Army.Notably, despite the prevailing irksome issues, New Delhi was keen that General Chhetri visits India first instead of opting to visit China. As India maintains a large hold over Nepal, China has been trying to woo the Himalayan country with sops. This is General Chhetri’s first ‘port of call’ after taking over as chief of Nepalese army in September 2015.General Chhetri was accorded the rank by President Pranab Mukherjee at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.It is a custom and tradition between the Indian and Nepalese army to confer this honour on each other’s chief to signify close and special military to military ties. Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh was conferred the rank of General of the Nepalese army in November 2014 when he visited the Himalayan nation.General Chhetri is on a six-day visit to India. He shall be visiting the Infantry School and Army War College at Mhow and the Artillery School at Deolali wherein he shall be witnessing the training and facilities at Indian Army premier training institutes. During his visit to Lucknow, the General shall be interacting with top military hierarchy of Headquarters Central Command and shall also visit the Gorkha Rifles Regimental Centre.
It will take Haryana quite some time to recover from the painful events it has just witnessed. The Chief Minister may be living in delusion if he thinks an investor summit would bring back private investment and send out a signal of normalcy. The top priority at this critical juncture is not wooing investment but restoring public faith in the rule of law. The trauma that the state has undergone during the 10-day Jat agitation cannot be allowed to be forgotten and forgiven without bringing those guilty of acts of commission and omission to justice. It is a tough job. Identifying faceless criminals who caused death and destruction will not be easy. Rape victims may be too scared to come forwards to testify. Even in normal times the way the Haryana police functions does not inspire much confidence. Since tempers have cooled and a semblance of law and order has been restored, it is time to take a hard look at what went wrong and who was sleeping at the wheel. Since the entire state machinery broke down and people of the state were left to fend for themselves for days together as rampaging mobs had a free run, an inquiry to be held by the same set of people under the same administration will clearly lack credibility. For the first time Haryana stands divided between Jats and non-Jats. The Cabinet itself is split with ministers saying they are not aware what is going on and who is deciding what. The Centre has either remained a mute spectator or the little intervention it made was woefully inadequate. Post-destruction too, the government seems clueless as to what needs to be done. A few suspensions here and there are not enough. Actually, the state administration has a vested interest in a cover-up. Since the Punjab and Haryana High Court has taken note of the Murthal rapes, it should constitute a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI and monitor its investigation to deliver time-bound justice. The Khattar government itself has a lot to answer and a lot to cover up. A fair and impartial probe is the last thing one would expect it to do.
he violence in Haryana is a setback to the ideas of peace, hard-work and values. In addition to an impartial probe, an intellectual audit is needed to find out why the situation crossed the boiling point of social order.
The hard-hitting reality is that the last nail in the coffin has been pierced through the heartland of Haryana. Its air has got choked with the smothering ashes of pain, flames, resentments and deep anguish, thus furthering the ever-increasing historical gap between the Jats and non-Jats in the political, social and cultural landscape of the State which is already quite notorious for its diktats of ‘khap panchayats’ and the remarkably low-sex ratios.In the words of layman’s analysis, Haryana has been critically paralysed, destroyed and decimated like never before. India stands shocked and surgically numb over the stark fact that the State has been engulfed by politically venomous propaganda and mercilessly razed to the ground. Sadly, this devilish act has been done, not by any outside non-state actor or terrorist. The destruction has been choreographed and performed by the legally domiciled inhabitants of the State itself. It will not be far-fetched to declare that the trail of damage and fear-psychosis which has gripped the collective conscience has far exceeded the impact caused by recent terror attacks, whether in Dinanagar or Pathankot. Today, a mind-boggling debate rages on as to whether the country needs to be fearful of being attacked by external forces or be more cautious of being demolished from within by its own inimical hostilities. The concerns are not without any basis as the common man has actually lost hope in the laws of the land. Death, destruction and devastation cannot be rationalised or justified by any means. On the face of it, the endemic issue seemed to be revolving around the demand by ‘Jats’ for reservation. But it actually turned out to be a free-for-all ‘goondaism’ and brazen anarchy, with hooligans, arsonists and hoodlums creating havoc akin to the flames of demonising hell. The gory images carried by the media of burnt business houses, vandalised malls and car-showrooms gutted in fire sends chills down the spine of any human being who believes and practices the ideas of peace, hard-work, sincerity of virtues and values. The public perception is that an orchestrated scheme of savage style brutality was unleashed to pull back Haryana into the pre-ancient times. Indeed, the state has backpedalled in terms of progress and it will take real painstaking years of new hardships to again achieve any desired levels of reasonable development. The decision involving merits versus demerits of demand for reservation by the ‘Jat community’ can be discussed, debated and dissected at length by a plethora of well-educated scholars, legal luminaries, and constitutional experts, but the real question by every citizen of this nation which begs for an honest answer is that whether mobs, unruly violence and anarchism plays a decisive role in drafting and finalizing the crucial policymaking key decisions of our country’s future. Is the national security, citizen’s welfare, protection and prosperity so easy to be violated and prone to being breached at anyone’s sundry will of perceived disillusionment?The common man on the street simply wants to know if there actually exists any prevalent working mechanism to successfully prevent and stop the national prestige, life and property from getting bruised, beaten and tortured time and again at the cruel hands of nonsensical vested interests resorting to unmindful blockades, protests and agitations. The voice of the nation wants to know whether something similar happened in Haryana akin to the mini-1984 riots or Godhra carnage? The comparisons are obvious. The state machinery was brought on its knees, the law and order took an unexpected beating, the national highway was hijacked, road and rail networks obstructed, airlines reaped bumper profits, water-taps in Delhi ran dry, and to add salt to the national wound, reports of rapes and molestations surfaced which bombarded our trust and immense faith in the spirit of legislature, executive and judiciary. No matter how reasonable anybody’s demands are, resorting to such inexplicable proportions of violence, looting and arson for securing the ends amounts to ‘mobocracy’ and not democracy. The dangerous levels of destruction unleashed by agitators in Haryana is a blot on the nation’s psyche as a whole, whereby immeasurable losses caused to human life, public and private property, have to be borne by the state from the treasury of its law-abiding taxpayer’s pockets. The Supreme Court has rightly asked the concerned quarters to detail out the modalities for recovering the losses from the protesters as a part of its efforts to prevent any such blatant acts in the near future. Apart from this financial assessment, an intellectual audit is also needed to understand the reasons as to why the situation crossed the boiling point of reconciliation. The role of police and others responsible for containing violence needs to be probed effectively and accountability fixed for any dereliction of duty within the defined boundaries of law. Also, a hunt needs to be launched on a war-footing for tracing persons who incited as well as participated in the mob violence for meting out an exemplary punishment for their calculated misdeeds. It also requires a mention that the Army cannot be reduced to just controlling mobs; it has its own demarcated criteria of operations. The requirement is to make the State police forces as well as the concerned paramilitary forces self-sufficient in dealing with any emerging law and order situations of volatility. The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Ac, 1984, also needs to given more teeth to act as a formidable deterrent.This is not an occasion to score brownie points and indulge in political games of vendetta. We need to collectively nurse the broken spirit of Haryana and resuscitate the shattered hopes of the nation. By the way, is there anyone still wondering as to why no one is ready to invest in Haryana anymore?The writer is a senior Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Punjab Government
Badal govt selling public land like there is no tomorrow
Farmers on the brink in Punjab look to the government for help. The government, unfortunately, is no better than them; broke. Under such unmanageable debt that it is hard to pay even the interest. Credit worthiness is so low that banks are refusing to give loans to its development and infrastructure agencies. To somehow still carry on the charade of administration and development, the SAD-BJP government has all through its second term been executing a nefarious plan of selling off public property — just like that. It takes extraordinary boldness to come up with a ‘development plan’ based almost entirely on auctioning the state’s assets. What is worse, the money is not being all spent on development. A significant chunk of the proceeds is going into paying salaries, which are still not paid regularly.The ever-mounting debt of the state has shown no sign of easing during the Badals’ two terms. Among the major reasons for this ‘mismanagement’ is the massive unwarranted expense on the fleet of ministers with a taste for luxury. Perpetually on overdraft with the RBI, the Chief Minister personally goes around literally showering benefits on political and social constituencies, as was seen last in the Khadoor Sahib byelection. This amounts to using public money to bribe the voter. The surge in ‘development’ planned in the last year of the government is also just that. Public land is meant for future requirements of public facilities and infrastructure. The assets being sold cannot be recreated.Unfortunately for the SAD, which had been hoping for a debt waiver from the ally BJP at the Centre, what has come Punjab’s way is only a cut in the Centre’s contribution to most social sector expenditures, including education. The land sale worth thousands of crores could well be the biggest scandal in the state. No one, however, is speaking up because no private interest is immediately hurt. In the long term, however, the state will not only have a nearly unserviceable debt, but also no assets to mortgage.http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/editorials/suicidal-path/202360.html
ribune News Service
Amritsar, February 28
A cycle expedition, commemorating the diamond jubilee of the 63rd Cavalry, would reach the holy city next month.The team comprising an officer, a junior commissioned officer (JCO) and 11 other ranks led by Captain Himanshu Karan has traversed through the rugged terrain from Rann of Kutch and Thar desert through the hills of Aravalis.The team established a connect with the veterans of the regiment and invited them for the diamond jubilee celebrations at Amritsar. The team also spread a spirit of adventure among the local youth and projected a positive image of the Indian Army.Cycling through these areas provided an opportunity for the team members to inculcate the spirit of camaraderie through a mix of challenge, adventure and thrill by providing them an opportunity to pitch themselves against nature.Earlier, the diamond jubilee cycle expedition was flagged off by Lt Gen KJ Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, from Bhuj on February 13, which completed its first phase by reaching Alwar today.The team has covered a distance of 1,200 km up to Alwar, the birth place of 63 Cavalry. The regiment was raised at Jai Paltan Lines (Alwar) on January 2, 1957. The second phase of the expedition will be flagged off from Alwar on March 3 which will conclude at Amritsar.
Naveen S Garewal in Chandigarh
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The rumour weighed more than hearsay, too revolting to be true. The allegations of a gang-rape near Murthal on NH-10 in the heat of the Jat quota stir deserves to be looked into given the lawlessness that built up in many parts of the state in the past fortnight. In such a heinous crime, social stigma is the big challenge for victims to come out openly. Yet there was credible information. Within hours of the report appearing in this newspaper, two senior Haryana officers, one IAS and another IPS, visited the areas mentioned in the report and came out with official statements that “nothing had happened.” The police were in a hurry, so much so that it forgot to scan the fields where the alleged rapes took place. It was only after news channels showed soiled and torn clothes that the local police was forced to retrieve them.The Tribune team was pressured to withdraw the story in the same way as the eyewitnesses who narrated the tales of horror were forced to turn hostile. The National Commission for Women (NCW) took a suo mou notice and visited Murthal. The NCW member, a former BJP spokesperson from Panchkula, met the quoted eyewitnesses after they had been “tutored” by the police. A notice was issued to a Tribune journalist on Feb 25 via an email asking him to appear before the Commission in New Delhi, with all “evidence.” The NCW was politely asked to reschedule the appearance. One of The Tribune staffers has been warned: ‘Reveal the evidence or we (police) will register an FIR and arrest you.’ Attempts have been made to hack another team member’s Twitter account. The phones are already under surveillance.Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has taken two separate suo motu cognisance of the news report. The question is: How can the Sonepat police, accused of dereliction of duty, conduct a probe against itself and give it a clean chit too? Despite all kinds of pressure, eyewitnesses are now coming out to narrate the tales of horror. Truth will prevail.
Tribune News Service
Jammu, February 26
Governor NN Vohra reviewed the security situation in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks in the Valley here today. The high-level meeting was attended by Chief Secretary BR Sharma; GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt Gen DS Hooda; Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar; GOC 15 Corps Lt General SK Dua; Principal Secretary to Governor PK Tripathi; Home Secretary RK Goyal; IGP, Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani; and senior state and Central Intelligence officers.Reiterating the importance of very close coordination among all security forces, the Governor pointed the need for adequate advance planning for ensuring effective maintenance of public order before, during and after the conduct of operations. The meeting discussed the existing procedures for responding to terror attacks and also deliberated on other important issues relating to security management in the state. It was also decided to finalise certain approaches after intensive consultations with the para military forces, for which the Governor is fixing another meeting.
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal/Panipat/Sonepat, February 23
The movement of traffic on National Highway-1 has been restored and this indicates things are slowly getting back to normal after Jats went on the rampage, setting almost everything on fire.But an uneasy calm prevails on the highway. Burnt vehicles, axed trees, and scattered bricks and stones on the NH-1 present a picture of devastation.To know the aftereffects of the protest, a team of The Tribune visited the GT Road from Karnal to Sonepat and found people were still in shock.To develop confidence among residents, Army and police are patrolling the NH-1. Besides, scores of Army personnel are deployed at several places to keep a vigil on miscreants.The appeals by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Minister Rajnath Singh and other Cabinet Ministers of the state notwithstanding, protesters seeking Jat reservation had blocked NH-1 on Sunday and Monday and reportedly set several vehicles ablaze, besides pelting stones on commuters travelling towards Delhi or Chandigarh. Scores of charred vehicles, including trucks, Roadways buses and vehicles of police and other officials, were parked near Bari and Murthal on NH-1.A plastic-waste-laden truck of Shameem Ahmed Toirt of Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, was burnt when he was on his way to Delhi. “The police in Panipat signaled to me that the road to Delhi was clear. But when I reached near Murthal, the protesters attacked my truck and set it to fire. I am still traumatised,” he said.Toirt, along with his driver and an attendant, managed to save their lives. They are stranded in Murthal.Amrik Singh, the owner of Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba in Murthal, said he and his employees faced a horrific time for two days. “Protesters wanted to vandalise my dhaba on Sunday afternoon and again in the wee hours of Monday. But Kurad and Hasanpur villagers shielded my dhaba was saved. I am thankful to them,” said Singh with his voice wavering with emotion.“I still have nightmare of the incident. Thanks to the people living nearby, the dhaba was saved,” said Abhijeet Anand, manager of Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba.Ram Narayan of Bahadurgarh, who was carrying his tanker to Delhi from Ludhiana, said protesters attacked him around 3am on Monday near Hasanpur village. He managed to escape and took refuge in a dhaba. “The Jat agitation refreshed the horrific memory of 1984 anti-Sikh riots,” he said.People, meanwhile, lauded the efforts of Army and said the police had failed to take action against miscreants who destroyed properties built with hard-earned money of people.Subhash Chand of Kurad village gave shelter to a Faridabad family in his home. The government should take acted earlier to control the situation.
Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, February 23
Apprehending caste violence after the body of a youth was recovered today, the Army and the administration tightened the security measures in Hisar and Hansi towns and some villages of the district. Meanwhile, curfew was clamped for indefinite period in the sensitive areas of the district.The body of 24-year-old Mintu of Lalpura village near Hansi was recovered from the fields of Dhani Pal village. The post mortem revealed that he had been shot twice. The deceased’s family refused to take the body for cremation, alleging negligence of the police in the murder.The family alleged that Mintu had gone to meet his relatives in Dhani Pal village when a group from the Jat-dominated Sisay village attacked them yesterday. The attackers opened fire and also burnt some houses before the Army intervened and brought the situation under control. Mintu’s relative Krishan also suffered bullet injury and was admitted to hospital, but Mintu went missing and his body was recovered today.The Jat agitation had led to enmity between the Jats and people of other communities.Meanwhile, troops remained deployed in Hansi and Sisay, Sainipur and Dhani Pal villages. The situation also turned tense in some parts of Hisar town. The security was tightened and the police and the Army personnel warned the people against venturing out of their houses. The Army also carried out a flag march in the area.The police had registered eight FIRs against the attackers and identified some of them.Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar Khare announced the closure of educational institutions in the district till February 25.Senior Superintendent of Police Ashwin Shenvi said the situation was under control and no fresh incident of violence had occurred today.
NEW DELHI: India is likely to select by the year-end at least one fighter aircraft that will be manufactured by the private sector under the Make in India process for supply to the Indian Air Force, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said. He said there may be one or two more fighter plants, either operational or in the process of being set up, in the next three years or so.
