Monthly Archives: August 2018

Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, March 4

War Decorated India (WDI), an association of recipients of wartime gallantry awards, will hold its two-day triennial reunion convention in Chandimandir from March 5.Over 120 war heroes, some of them now in their 90s, and war widows are expected to attend the convention, along with the members of their families.Brig SS Ahluwalia (retd), general secretary of the WDI, said out of a total of 1,090 recipients of the Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra, who were living at the time of award, only about 360 were alive. Despite being a dwindling lot, these soldiers serve as a source of inspiration for the present generation of armed forces officers and men.

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune news service

Shimla, February 29

The Union Budget has come as disappointment to middle class and salaried people who were expecting hike in the Income Tax limit and other concessions.The income tax rates were not revised last year. This year again, no relief has been given which defies logic. Recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission will be implemented during this year. The hopes of the salaried class have been dashed as salaries of employees would on an average go up by 23 per cent and the employees would have to pay a heavy tax on account of pay hike, Col Joshi (retd) said.The Finance Minister should have at least raised the limit to neutralize the impact of hike in salary and pension by raising the income tax limit and reducing tax rates, he added.The Budget is disappointing and the increase in service tax and taxing Provident Fund withdrawals was a cruel joke with the employees and retired persons, state Employees and Pensioners Associations leaders said.The cumulative burden on the employees and pensioners on account of these proposals would be massive and the Budget is also silent on the interest rates of fixed deposits of retired persons, who are losing the monthly income due cut in lending rates.On the one hand, the government is squeezing the incomes of retired persons and on the other, bleeding them by imposing more taxes, the employee leaders lamented. President HPSEB union Hira Lal said that employees were disappointed as tax exemption limit had not been raised and suggested that the tax slabs should have linkage with inflation. The increase in service tax and tax on PF withdrawal were totally unjustified as there was no justification on charging tax on drawing money from your own savings, he said.Prof Aparna Negi said making provision of funds to pursue higher education was welcome as there was a vast majority of deserving students who were unable to pursue the technical and higher studies due to lack of funds.College teacher Joginder Saklani said that neither the tax exemption slab had been increased nor any policy guidelines announced for converting the contract jobs into regular jobs.Shimla Beopar Mandal president Inderjeet Singh welcomed the decision to keep the shops open 24X7 (on all week days) based on the concepts of shopping malls. “We had already been urging the state government for the same and the announcement in the union Budget has come as a big relief for shopkeepers”, he said.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 30

(From left) Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Maj Gen GD Bakshi (retd) and Sambit Patra attend a seminar at Law Bhawan in Sector 37, Chandigarh. Tribune Photo: Manoj Mahajan

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others, who raised “anti-India” slogans recently at the JNU, were criticised by speakers present during a seminar on ‘National Security Threats in India-2020’ organised by the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena Foundation and Citizen 4 Forces at Law Bhawan in Sector 37 today.Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa was the chief guest.The JNU issue was taken up elaborately and the speakers accused leaders of the Congress and left parties for supporting those who were raising “anti-national” slogans and observing the death anniversary of a terrorist, Afzal Guru.“Those who compare Kanhaiya with Bhagat Singh do not know what nationalism is,” BJP Spokesperson Dr Sambit Patra said.Giving solution of the problem, he said, “India is globally known for spiritualism and we have to fight with the internal security threats with spiritual powers.”Col (retd) RSN Singh, former RAW chief, said proxy war was a new challenge before the country. There is no development without peace, he added.Meanwhile, BJP leader Dinesh Kumar, Assistant Media Advisor to Punjab Government Vineet Joshi, Supreme Court lawyer Aditya Shankar and chairman of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Bar Council Rajat Gautam also expressed their views.

New Delhi, March 28

People will soon have to dial just a single number ‘112’ for help during emergency situations such as availing services of police, ambulance and the fire department.The proposal to have a single number for various emergency services, approved by the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission, would be similar to the ‘911’ all-in-one emergency service in the US.All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility.”Telecom Commission has accepted Trai’s recommendation on single emergency number 112. It will now be drafted by the Department of Telecom and will require Telecom Minister’s (Ravi Shankar Prasad) approval. It will be rolled out within months rather than a year,” an official source said, adding the panel has accepted recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) after including clarifications given by it. —

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

Tackling irksome issues as regards the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC), the Ministry of Defence will convey to an empowered committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary that the status, pay and allowances of the armed forces be kept above all other “fighting” arms of the government.Sources said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told a high-level meeting at the MoD on March 22 that the stance of the ministry should be categorical on the issues of status, pay and allowances for the forces.Parrikar was in agreement with key issues raised by the three service chiefs—Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Admiral Robin Dhowan and General Dalbir Singh Suhag.MoD officials have been asked to prepare a formal note for the empowered committee of secretaries, led by the Cabinet Secretary, which is studying recommendations of the 7th CPC. The government is yet to announce what it has accepted or rejected. The forces cannot directly petition the empowered committee.In all, the forces have flagged 37 issues of which eight have been termed as “key-issues”, which, if not sorted out, can have an adverse impact on the morale.One of the issues was “wrong and misplaced” comparison with the Central armed police (paramilitary) forces—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).The services have told the MoD that there can be no comparison with the paramilitary in terms of the mandate, duties, risks in service conditions and tasks assigned. The 7th CPC will upset laid-down seniorities and place armed forces’ allowances lower than those for paramilitary forces.The three forces—Army, Navy and Air Force—have petitioned Parrikar for the restoration of earlier status, which has been “disturbed” following recommendations of the 7th pay commission.The disability pension for the 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 parity between Lt-Colonels and Commandants of the paramilitary forces.The issue of allowances was discussed at the meeting and the much-quoted example of how Guwahati will be a “tougher” posting than serving on the forbidding Siachen Glacier, was brought out.The CPC has suggested Rs 31,500 per month for officers and Rs 21,000 per month for jawans as allowance to compensate them for the “hardship” faced at Siachen. However, once the pay commission’s new salary slabs come into place, the tough area allowance (TRA), which is about 33 per cent of the basic salary, in civilian services works out to be in excess of Rs 55,000 for IPS and IAS officers and Rs 30,000 for others posted in areas such as Guwahati.

Row over 7th pay panel recommendations

• The Army, Navy and Air Force have claimed that the 7th pay panel will bring armed forces’ allowances lower than those for paramilitary forces
• The forces have flagged 37 issues of which eight have been termed as “key-issues”, which, if not sorted out, can have an adverse impact on the morale of the forces

Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa. Photo taken from website of www.indianairforce.nic.in

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

The Indian Air Force on Thursday sounded an alarm saying it does not have enough fighter jets to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with Pakistan and China.The Vice-Chief, Air Marshall BS Dhanoa, said at press conference: “We do not have adequate numbers to tackle a two-front war scenario”.The government is aware of this and steps are under way to ramp up the numbers.The IAF is now at its lowest combat strength in more than a decade. The Tribune was the first to report this on February 25.The IAF has informed the government of the gravity of the situation that the force is now in a shortage.Three squadrons of the vintage single-engine Soviet-origin MiG-21 and MiG-27 were phased out on January 1 this year, leaving the IAF with only 33 squadrons (16-18 planes in each).This is nine short of the government mandated 42 squadrons needed to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.Of the 33 squadrons, the vintage MiG-21 and MiG -27 form 11 squadrons. The Sukhoi 30-MKI populates 10 squadrons, the 1970s design British Jaguar is in six squadrons, followed by the French Mirage 2000 and the Soviet MiG-29 in two and three squadrons, respectively. The last three are being upgraded with better missiles and avionics.The country is now facing the reality of various projections regarding the IAF fighter fleet, made over the past 10 years by the Indian Air Force, strategic thinkers, successive reports of Parliamentary Committees on Defence, and reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).Warnings on the lackadaisical pace of induction of new fighter jets into the Air Force and the resultant loss of ‘combative edge’ in battle are now ringing true, sources say. A senior official admitted, “We are in the middle of the predicted shortage”.It is the replacements which bother the IAF, which will be raising a squadron of the twin-engine Russian-origin Sukhoi 30-MKI this year, but much depends on the speed of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which is licensed to produce it in India. HAL, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) owned public sector undertaking, was mandated by the Cabinet Committee on Security in March 2006 to produce 16 planes annually and deliver 180 in phases by 2017. The project is running three years behind schedule.Till 2011, HAL had the capacity to produce just eight Sukhoi-30 jets annually, said a report of the CAG in 2014.The Sukhois were ordered in phases since 1997; the IAF wants 272 of these by 2020. The other choice is to seek faster induction of the 106 Tejas ‘Mark-1A’, which have been ordered. The MoD has set a 2018 deadline for the first aircraft to be ready with a target to complete its production by 2022-2023. In September, new specifications were agreed pon and the IAF accepted 43 modifications that could be carried out without changing the existing design.

Dear veterans
Sanjha Morcha has decided to upload views of veterans on the controversial issues of
” WHO IS THE REAL VEER NARI”
The wife of the Martyr or the mother.

Number of cases the mother did not even know that his daughter- in law  is receiving gallantry award and called VEER NARI
A mother who has given birth to the son and may BE the only one but deprived of any praise OR RIGHTS to be called VEER NARI.
On one side we call Bharat Mata Ke jai and say Jannai( WHO GIVES BIRTH) is supreme but in army we call the better half( WIFE)  as veer nARI .she may be newly married or old and gets remarried but still she gets the name and fame.
CAN WE CALL THEM AS VEER NARI AND VEER MAA
Post you views and send them at
sanjhamorha303@gmail.com.
To be uploaded on the website of Sanjha Morcha
www.sanjhamorcha.com

Col Charanjit Singh Khera(Retd)

Gen Secy

Sanjha Morcha

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 9

While a multi-agency security audit across J&K was conducted following directions by the Governor NN Vohra on January 15 this year, the BJP-led NDA government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Philip Campose for the purpose.The panel, headed by Lt Gen Campose, shall inter alia suggest measures to strengthen security of various military establishments across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir. The committee is expected to submit its report by March 31 this year.“Security arrangements in military establishments are dynamic in nature and are periodically reviewed. The observations and recommendations of these reviews are progressively implemented to maintain a robust and strong response mechanism to emerging threats, stated an official document.On January 15 Governor NN Vohra had reviewed the arrangements for the safety and security of all vital civil and defence establishments and installations in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir.Acting upon the Governor’s directions, state DGP K Rajendra Kumar on January 22 said the multi-agency security audit of all vital civil and defence establishments and installations across Jammu and Kashmir was almost complete.“Recurring terror attacks since September 2013 from across the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC) and more particularly this year’s January-2 attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot and Pakistan’s trans-border tunnel detected on March 3 this year are ample indicators of Pakistan’s mala fide intentions towards India, especially J&K,” said official sources.The Governor had been speaking to the state Chief Secretary BR Sharma, Police chief K Rajendra Kumar, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen DS Hooda and senior Commanders of security forces urging them to undertake a time-bound review of all existing security arrangements.While security and intelligence agencies conducted the security audit and later a report was submitted to the Governor, Pakistan’s secret tunnel detected 50 metres inside the Indian territory near AMK Post along the 198-km-long International Border in the RS Pura sector of Jammu district had sent the BSF into a tizzy.It was third such tunnel found on the border since July 2012 exposing Pakistan’s sinister game plan of trying to push militants into J&K for staging terror attacks.On July 27, 2012, the BSF had detected a trans-border tunnel dug by Pakistan from the Lumbriyal post in the Shakkergarh area on its side, which had entered 540 metres inside the Indian territory but had caved in due to rains near the Chalyari border outpost in Chachwal village of Samba district.On August 23, 2014, Pakistan tried to replicate another trans-border tunnel, this time in the Pallanwala sector of Jammu district. It had also caved in due to rains after running 50 metres inside the Indian territory.