Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 18

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider a plea for increasing the number of vehicles allowed to ply between Manali and Rohtang Pass to meet the demand during the tourism season.On May 9, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had capped the number of vehicles at 1,200 a day–800 run on petrol and 400 on diesel–to minimise air pollution that was adversely affecting the Himalayan glaciers. The NGT also set a stiff deadline for phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles, replacing them with those run on compressed natural gas (CNG).Appearing for the Himachal Pradesh government, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Suryanarayana Singh told the summer vacation Bench of Justices AM Sapre and Ashok Bhushan that about 35 lakh tourists were expected to visit Rohtang Pass during the season and their requirements would not be met even if all 1,200 vehicles were buses.There was violence in the region last year as taxi drivers and operators had gone on an agitation to protest against the curbs which had affected their livelihood. The state government wanted to avoid recurrence of such problems this year, he pleaded.The Bench was hearing a petition by the Him Aanchal Taxi Operators Union and another challenging various NGT orders. The Bench advised the petitioner’s senior counsel Vibha Datta Makhija to file an appeal against the latest NGT order passed on May 9. Makhija said she would do so either on Wednesday or Thursday, upon which the Bench posted the matter for hearing on May 23.Arguing for the Centre, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said efforts were being made to start CNG supply by the Indraprastha Gas Limited in the region, but the state government should first come up with a viable business model for the purpose. NGT had pointed out that the state government was found wanting in anti-pollution measures, he said.Makhija contended that there was no logic in placing restrictions on vehicles as hydropower stations were the main polluters. Air pollution caused by just one such station was more than the toxic fumes of all vehicles put together, she pleaded.It was also unfair that diesel and petrol vehicles were sought to be banned only in the region where the air pollution was less than the permissible limit and among the lowest in the country, she argued.The Bench, however, observed that this was due to the need to protect the environment of the Himalayas. It also advised the Centre, the state government and the stakeholders to sit together and come up with viable solutions.

The Antonov AN -225 at Hyderabad airport. (Pic received from aviation sources, photo credit unknown.)

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 13

The world’s largest aircraft, Antonov AN -225 Mriya (the Dream), made its first landing in India early on Friday morning at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, en route to Australia from Europe.The aircraft is making a technical halt at Hyderabad. It touched down at midnight and will stay here for 26 hours before departing for its next destination Kuala Lampur early on Friday morning.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“Hyderabad was chosen for the stopover as it is the only airport in India having the required infrastructure, strength and length of runway and taxi tracks and communication system to handle this aircraft. Another requirement was not to overfly the city, which has noise pollution implications,” Narinder Nath, Chief Operations Officer of Air Shagoon, the company handling the ground operations, told The Tribune. Ït took us 25 days to work out the technicalities and obtain landing permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the airport management,” he added.The aircraft arrived from Turkman bashi in Central Asia and will proceed to Jakarta and is destined for Perth, with technical halts at three places. It is carrying a generator that weighs 133 tonnes along with a crew of 21 and a few other passengers. The total journey from its origin, The Prague to Perth involves a flying time of about 26 hours spread over three days. The aircraft has a endurance of eight hours with full load.The six-engined Mriya, which means dream in Russian, is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It was developed to transport the Soviet Braun space shuttle or other super-heavy and outsized cargo. Given its size, wing-span and engine wake, it can operate from a limited number of airports. Only one AN-225 was built in 1988 that served with the Soviet Air Force. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, it remained in storage for a few years and was later, after refurbishment, entered commercial service with the Antonov Airlines of Ukraine. The construction of a second airframe was started in the late 1980s, but it remains unfinished to date due to funding issues. The AN-225 can carry up to 250 tonnes of cargo as compared to 157 tonnes by the double-deck Airbus A–380, the largest passenger aircraft in service, or 80 tonnes by the Boeing C-17, the heaviest freighter operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF). In fact, the IAF has a close association with Mriya’s manufacturer, the Antonov Design Bureau, having operated sizable numbers of the AN-12 medium-lift aircraft and the AN-32 tactical transporter. While Soviet-origin aircraft such as the AN-12, AN-32, IL-76 and IL-78 have been the mainstay of the IAF’s logistic support fleet for the past few decades, Western aircraft such as the C-17 and C-130 have taken over a large chuck of this role. Western aircraft manufacturers are also strong contenders for the IAF’s medium transport aircraft and midair refueling aircraft requirements. The IAF has operated Western transport aircraft in the past, with the Dakota, Caribou, Packet, Otter, Constellation, Avro, Devox and Flying Boxcar prominent among them.

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Palwal, May 7

The appointment of Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba as the new Navy Chief has brought cheers to residents of the district’s Amarpur village.Sunil, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of Western Naval Command, will assume charge on May 31. He will take over from Admiral RK Dhowan. He was born in Amarpur on July 17, 1957.“The village is proud of Sunil Lanba. It is the rarest of rare achievement for a person born in Amarpur,” said advocate Rajiv Lamba, a native of the village.He said Sunil Lanba was in touch with his village. “He and his family keep visiting Amarpur. The family owns land in the village.”Sunil Lanba’s uncle, Dharamvir Lanba, uncle and cousin, Arun, who live in the village said Sunil’s appointment as the Navy Chief brought the village in the limelight. The Lanba family has around 40 acres in the village located on the banks of the Yamuna river, said Rajender a local patwari.Sunil (58), a specialist in navigation and direction, will have full three-year tenure as the Navy Chief. An alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, he will be the 21st Indian to be the Navy Chief.He served as Navigating Officer of INS Sindhudurg (Corvette) and INS Dunagiri (Frigate). During his illustrious service, he commanded four frontline warships — INS Kakinada (Minesweeper), INS Himgiri (Frigate), INS Ranvijay and INS Mumbai (Destroyers).

Specialist in navigation

• Sunil Lanba, a specialist in navigation and direction, will have three-year tenure
• An alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, he will be the 21st Indian to be the Navy Chief
• He served as Navigating Officer of INS Sindhudurg (Corvette) and INS Dunagiri (Frigate)

Indian Air Force’s Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft successfully lands on the Yamuna Expressway near Mathura. Tribune file photo

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4

After the successful landing of a Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft on the Yamuna Expressway about a year ago, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to expand scope for using highways as “alternative landing grounds” for war-time operations or in an emergency.“In each area of responsibility of each Command, we have identified existing road stretches which can be converted into alternative airfields,” an IAF representative has been quoted as saying in the latest report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence. The IAF has five operational Commands.The IAF is also collaborating with the Ministry of Road Transport to construct roads, which will be shared with each Command. “We have again identified the roads that can be utilised as alternative runways,” the IAF has stated.While it was the first instance of the IAF landing an aircraft on a highway near Mathura, the practice has been prevalent in many countries, including India’s neighbours, for decades.In Pakistan, the M-1 Motorway (Peshawar-Islamabad) and the M-2 Motorway (Islamabad-Lahore) each include two 9,000-foot-long emergency runway sections and these have been used by fighter aircraft as well as a C-130 transport aircraft on several occasions.In fact, the first highway strips were constructed in Germany towards the end of World War II. During the Cold War, highway strips were systematically built on both sides of the Iron Curtain, predominantly in the two then divided Germanys. North Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Poland and Czechoslovakia are among countries that use highway airstrips.The highway stretches used for aircraft operations have to be specially built with thicker surfacing and underlying concrete support base. These should also be easily accessible to the required flying support infrastructure that has to be put in place at a short notice.The IAF is also upgrading its airfields. In the current fiscal, Rs 1,330 crore has been allocated for strenthening and re-surfacing of runways. In addition, Rs 48.71 crore has been allocated for repairs of the facilities at the airfields.

File photo of AW101 helicopter

New Delhi, May 3

The suspected corruption in Rs 3600 crore chopper deal with AgustaWestland will be discussed in Lok Sabha on May 6, and in Rajya Sabha on May 4, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Tuesday.

This comes days after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he would put details of the suspected corruption and supporting documents before Parliament on May 4.

Former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi, a suspect in the case, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the second day on Tuesday in connection with the chopper deal.

Tyagi arrived at the CBI headquarters at 11 am, sources said.

The agency had questioned him on various aspects of the case including his alleged links with middlemen, his alleged trips to Italy, reasons behind changing specifications, and relations with his cousins yesterday, the sources said.

The Enforcement Directorate has also summoned him for investigations on charges of money laundering in the deal on May 5.

The former IAF chief has been accused of having reduced flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000m to 4,500m (15,000ft), which made Agusta Westland helicopters eligible for bidding.

Tyagi has denied any wrongdoing.

The agency had already questioned Tyagi in 2013 but this session is the first after the Italian court order.

CBI sources said the agency called Gautam Khaitan, former board member of Aeromatrix, one of the suspect in the case, for questioning on Wednesday while Tyagi cousins — Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep — have been called later this week.

It is alleged by Italian prosecutors that bribes to clinch the deal were paid through middlemen and routed through a consultancy contract between AgustaWestland and companies owned by middlemen.

Khaitan and the Tyagi cousins have strongly refuted the allegations against them.

Last year, the CBI estimated that European businessmen James, Gerosa and Haschke had paid some 58 million euros (Rs 423 crore) to have a deal to buy 12 advance helicopters for Indian VVIPs manipulated in favour of AgustaWestland, a UK subsidiary of an Italian company, Finmeccanica.

Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep were accused of accepting bribes of Rs 10.5 million euros (Rs 7.68 crore) from some middlemen in two installments — first through bank transfers and then through cash.

The deal was cancelled due to allegations of corruption.

Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica’s former chief Giuseppe Orsi was recently sentenced by the Milan appeals court to 4.5 years in jail for false accounting and corruption over the sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India for Rs 3,600 crore.

The court also sentenced Bruno Spagnolini, former CEO of Finmeccanica’s helicopter subsidiary AgustaWestland, to four years in jail.

The Italian court is believed to said that the firm, Gandhi, some close aides, Singh and Narayan had actively lobbied to seal the deal.

The court is also believed to have quoted a middleman has having mentioned Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and Tyagi in the judgement. — Agencies

Arun Joshi in Srinagar
The working groups formed in 2006 to address ‘internal’ and ‘external’ issues have been forgotten, their recommendations no one remembers. Meanwhile, violence wanes and waxes: it’s like walking one step forward and two steps back. The Tribune team goes on the trail of those 10 years since 2006.

A car bomb exploded at Srinagar airport before then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived to preside over the second roundtable on Kashmir on May 24, 2006. That was a loud and clear message for Delhi as well as the participants of the conference trying peace initiative.Fast forward to May 23, 2016: militants gunned down three policemen in the heart of the city, indicating nothing has changed apparently in the past 10 years as far the nature of violence is concerned. The graph has been undulating but the spirit of engineering violent events is very much alive. Psychologically, it is a downslide; the measures that were supposed to engage the people, translate their hopes into something tangible have not appeared on the horizon. Not that the promises failed to appear, but a feeling is deepening that what they have in hand is also being taken away. Over the years, many issues have formed the forceful narrative. These are: repeal, or at least review, of the special laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and a draw-down of security forces, return of Kashmiri Pandit migrants, an amnesty and return of militants languishing in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir to their homes in the state, economic improvement, a sense of empowerment and ownership with the return of the National Hydro-Electric Projects Corporation projects and an end to discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions.This is not a separatist or mainstream narrative. It is the people’s narrative. Though there is a contention on a few issues given the backdrop of the place to which the people belong, the fact is that the state needs a helping hand to be able to get out of the quagmire it finds itself in after militancy erupted in the late 1980s. The terrible past of the ’80s led to an onslaught on the relations among communities, resulting in mass migration of minorities and political leaders and massacres within the Valley and outside. Pakistan played a big role to mess up things in Kashmir. Pakistani establishment could succeed, because as late Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said: “A fertile ground was created in the Valley.” The stifling of space for the mainstream opposition gave wings to separatist forces: the Hurriyat Conference is a reincarnation of the Muslim United Front. The charges of rigged Assembly elections of 1987 and a ham-handed manner in which minor protests were dubbed as pro-Pakistan demonstrations presented Pakistan something on the platter.The Round Table Conference (RTC), a colonial-era idea, was sought to be revived because relations with Pakistan were improving. The better climate was visible following cessation of hostilities on borders, opening of the cross-LoC routes and a deepening yearning for peace. Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf were moving forward towards normalizing ties through track-II.The basic idea of the RTCs – which started in February 2006   was to bring together all viewpoints to form some kind of a consensus on the road ahead. The separatists, as expected, boycotted. The Syed Ali Shah Geelani group said: “We had nothing to do with the exercise which doesn’t term Kashmir as a dispute.” The Mirwaiz faction that had held talks with Centre four times said: “It is an exercise for the mainstream Indian parties; we will participate if the RTC is for us (separatists) only.” That was it.The whole of Srinagar was locked down by the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he announced five working groups aimed at tackling both “internal and external dimensions.” The working groups were to study the Centre-state relations with regard to the self-rule of PDP and address the demand for restoration of autonomy raised by the National Conference. The people hoped that India, by talking of “external” dimension, had accepted the reality that things would move vis-à-vis Pakistan. The PM left a day earlier than scheduled, cutting off his plan to have “shikara ride” on the Dal lake as the word reached him that it was a curfew for tourists and locals alike. He wanted to give a meaning to his words about genuine relief to the people. The working groups’ recommendations were lost in the bureaucratic wrangles. The “national interest first” mindset, countered by “Kashmir-on-the-top” and the resistance within the parties to the RTC have at the end of 10 years made them a forgotten chapter. The promises lost in the contesting narratives started a downhill journey for Kashmir. There is no break in sight.