Monthly Archives: August 2018

First of its kind, Military Literary Festival was held at Western Command headquarters in Chandimandir on Sunday.

As a part of ongoing series of activities under the aegis of Gyan Chakra – Think Tank, this unique festival saw luminaries from academia, media and the armed forces, discuss and deliberate on varied subjects ranging from Campagin Studies, National Security issues, Military Humour, Movie Making and Memoirs.

While delivering the keynote address the chief guest of the function, Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lt Gen AK Singh, (Retd) expressed his views on this unique venture. Examining the future contours of military affairs, the chief guest said that this festival will become a trend setter in the country.

He was later presented with a coffee table book of Western Command which was released during Commanders’ Conclave of Western Command.

The event was also attended by both serving and retired defence community of the tricity.

Unfortunately, there is now a build-up of the perception that the Army is no longer the last resort but is fast becoming the first one because other institutions have abdicated their responsibilities.

Extreme emotions appear to dominate the reactions around the decision of the Defence Ministry and Railway Ministry to hand over the construction of pedestrian bridges at a few Mumbai railway stations to the Army. The decision was prompted by the unfortunate deaths of 23 people in a stampede on a pedestrian bridge at Elphinstone station a few weeks ago.

However, the response did not even wait for the details to determine whether it is a supervisory responsibility or end-to-end job being handed over to the Army. The primary responsibility of the Army lies at the borders, but the secondary responsibility remains open-ended: from controlling civil strife to disaster management, pulling out infants from bore holes to simply anything no one else in India seems to be able to do.

The rancour on social media is a reflection on the state of civil-military relations in India today. It reflects the high regard for the Army and the extremely poor opinion about civilian government agencies and their ability to perform a job in time. Most importantly, it also indicates the existing bitterness.

In the recent handling of the agitation after godman Ram Rahim’s arrest and the Jat reservation issue, the Army stood out for the way it performed its duties. It is the self-assured discipline and confidence of our Army which makes it the instrument of last resort.

Unfortunately, there is now a build-up of the perception that the Army is no longer the last resort but is fast becoming the first one because other institutions have abdicated their responsibilities. Is it any wonder that in routine surveys, so many Indians opt for military-style governance as their preferred choice?

In a politicised environment, it is difficult to find any rationale, but what is generally accepted is that the Army can step into any situation when it is an emergency. The issue then is about determining and defining these emergency conditions.

I am aware that J&K-based examples aren’t the best because emergency conditions seem to exist there forever. Yet, the example of Army Goodwill Schools (AGS) constructed under Sadbhavna, illustrate the rationale on both sides of the divide.

Under the rules, all projects of Sadbhavna are supposed to be handed over to the civil authorities once the Army completes them. However, in the case of AGS, the Army decided to run them due to public demand. For the last 20 years, the Army has run schools all over J&K, not for the children of Army families, but for local people. It is the price the Army pays for its reputation and efficiency.

In 2005, thanks to its impeccable integrity and reputation, the Army was requested by the MLA of Baramulla to oversee the construction of a footbridge over the Jhelum. The engineer unit aided in the design, financial planning and subsequent monitoring of quality.

It was a perfect example of a project that was completed on time with no physical Army involvement. This was not an emergency situation, but it was prompted by the goodwill the Army enjoyed, which obviously doubled after the project.

The stress on infrastructure in Mumbai is severe and puts lives at stake every day. This should prompt the state government to raise its standards and ensure the timely delivery of high-quality projects that are foolproof. So, those questioning the government’s failure to get its act together are not wrong. But when public safety is in question, it can be considered as an urgent situation.

Many also raised the issue of unfair demands being made of the Army, and how such unthinking demands in the past (pre-1962) led to a compromise in quality of soldiering in the Army.

This sharply divided debate would not have taken place if the Army’s larger fraternity (serving soldiers, veterans and families) were given their due for what they do for the nation. The failure to accommodate their just demands, lowering their status in the hierarchy of protocol, allowing the bureaucracy to play havoc with their self-esteem and letting the Delhi Police manhandle veterans – these aren’t the finest ways to motivate the institution that Indians respect and admire widely.

Our fine Army deserves better and will give its best back to the people. But people must also become arbiters to ensure that their Army is given what it deserves, and not be treated as a below-par government service.

New Delhi, October 31

In times of crises, India always relies on its armed forces, the Railways said today, amid criticism over the government’s decision to take the help of the Army to build a new foot-over bridge at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road station.”We have always relied on the Army during a crisis,” a Railway official said. The Army had strong operational expertise in the construction of roads and bridges and in developing infrastructure and had been used during many civilian crises in the past, ministry officials pointed out.”Why should we wait for another disaster to happen before seeking help? If the Army can help rebuild the structure then why not get them to build it,” said an official. The ministry officials pointed out that the Army had been called in to join operations when the Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapsed in August 2016, in rescue and rehabilitation work in Jammu and Kashmir during an earthquake in 2005 and floods in 2014 and the construction of a bridge during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.A railway official also listed instances where the Army had been called in not just to repair and rebuild, but to manage fires as in 2008 when it helped control a blaze in a 13-storeyed building in Kolkata. — Agencies

Helping hand

• The Army had helped construct a foot overbridge during the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games when an under-construction bridge outside Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, collapsed days before the games were to start. The new bridge was built within five days
• The Army was also involved in making pontoon bridges across the Yamuna last year when a World Culture Festival was organised on the flood plains of the river by the Art of Living group

HAFIZ Saeed, the man accused by India to be the mastermind behind the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, has walked out of his house arrest in Pakistan.  The man has earned a  well-deserved  notoriety with India as well as many other Western countries as an undesirable prophet of terror. The Pakistani judicial system, on the other hand, found no substantial evidence to deny the Lashkar-e-Taiba ideologue his freedom. Predictably, after his release, he made familiar incendiary speeches, spewing venom against India and part of the Pakistani political establishment. New Delhi has rightly expressed its indignation and disapproval that a self-confessed terrorist has been allowed to walk free. The United States has demanded, somewhat perfunctorily, that he be rearrested. All this is part of a familiar pattern.  Hafiz Saeed is an albatross around Islamabad’s neck; the “deep state” and its security establishment can neither own nor disown him. He is a relatively cost-free bogeyman who can be used at Pakistan’s convenience to give New Delhi pinpricks, just as he can be rounded up whenever the Americans make their periodic tut-tutting noises. The Pakistani foreign office seems to have made a fairly correct assessment of the Trump administration’s geostrategic needs and compulsions in this region and seemed to have concluded that it is business as usual in Washington. Pakistani politicians and generals find themselves stuck with the Islamic fundamentalist forces they have encouraged all these years. The violence in the streets of Islamabad over the weekend was yet another reminder of the swamp the scheming generals have created in Pakistan. Hafiz Saeed is a minor, though not entirely inconsequential, symbol of Pakistan’s entrenched malevolence towards India. On our part, we have not been able to evolve a narrative that would minimise this evil man’s importance without diluting our determined fight against terrorism. Our competitive domestic discourse does not permit an attitude of “benign neglect”. It is now the BJP’s turn, as a ruling party, to find itself taunted by the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, over Hafiz Saeed’s release. Boys will be boys. The challenge before successive governments remains how not to end up according an exaggerated space and importance to this evil man.

IAF personnel pay tributes to Garud Commando Jyoti Prakash Nirala in Chandigarh on Sunday.

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 20

The counter-militancy training operations for the commandos of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Garud special force have dealt a blow to the force with three of its personnel losing lives in the past month.For the first time, the IAF had deployed over two dozen commandos in August in Kashmir for a period of six months. They were attached with the Army’s counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles (RR) battalions in north Kashmir to gain operational experience during anti-militancy operations.In the past over a month, three IAF commandos were killed in two anti-militancy operations in the Hajin area of Bandipora district.On Saturday, Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala, 31, who was operating with the Army’s 13 RR, was martyred in the Chandrageer gunfight, that killed six Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including Obaid, alias Osama Jangvi, a nephew of mastermind of Mumbai attacks Zakir Rehman Lakhvi.“It was unfortunate that the IAF Garud commando was deployed at a point from where all six terrorists tried to escape,” a senior Army officer said.Last month, the IAF suffered casualties during a gunfight in the same area. On October 11, two Garud special forces’ personnel — Sergeant Milind Kishor, 35, and Corporal Nilesh Kumar, 30, were killed in a gunfight in Hajin that also left two militants, including a local, dead.Though the IAF established its Garud Special Force unit in 2004, it was only after the Pathankot airbase attack in 2016 by Jaish-e-Mohammad, that the commandos were being sent for live operational experience in Kashmir during anti-militancy operations.General Officer Commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt Gen JS Sandhu said the IAF commandos were here to face battle situation.“I don’t think it is a vulnerability factor. The special forces have to get operational experience. To achieve this, they have been deployed with us. During operations, we do have to face battle situations where sometimes we have to sacrifice ourselves,” Lt General Sandhu said on Sunday.Encounters in Hajin area

• On October 11, two Garud special forces’ personnel – Sergeant Milind Kishor, 35, and Corporal Nilesh Kumar, 30, were killed in a gunfight in Hajin that also left two militants dead
• On November 18, Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala, 31, who was operating with the Army’s 13 RR, was martyred in the Chandrageer-Hajin gunfight, that killed six Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militants

Dear Veternas,

1.    Pre – 2006, 53 Maj Gens filed a case in AFT Chandigarh (OA 100/2010) praying that their pension fixed in Jan 2006 (in 6^th CPC) is at the minimum of Rs 30,350 for their rank and their increments earned at the time of retirement (in 5^th CPC) have been ignored by Govt of India and they draw pension in Jan 2006 less than even Brigadier who retired in Jan 2006. Their prayer is to consider their increments in fixing pension in Jan 2006.

2.   AFT Chandigarh was pleased to direct Govt of India to refix notional pay in Jan 2006 considering their increments so that there is no difference in pension between Pre – 2006 Maj Gens and Post – 2006 Maj Gens for the same length of service. The Govt of India after protracted correspondence implemented the judgment of AFT Chandigarh and all Pre – 2006 Maj Gens started getting much higher pension than Rs 30,350 w.e.f. Jan 2006.

3.   Seeing this judgment of AFT Chandigarh, T SEWA also filed a similar plea in AFT Delhi. Pre – 2006, 1049 petitioners including 250 impleaders joined this case in Sep 2015. Lead Petitioner is Brig SKS Rana, VSM.  Due to such a huge number of petitioners, the Govt advocate kept getting adjournments on the plea that he has to examine all the 1049 records. Hence there is delay in getting judgment in our favour. Our plea is simple: Give the 1049 petitioners the same benefit of higher pension w.e.f Jan 2006 considering their increments at the time of their retirement in 5^th CPC which AFT Chandigarh gave to Pre – 2006 Maj Gens.

4.   Good News.  14 Maj Gens including one R Adm and One AVM also filed a similar case in AFT Delhi in 16 Apr 2016 and were lucky to get judgment in their favour on 12 Feb 2017. The judgment of AFT Delhi is based on judgment of AFT Chandigarh. They are to be paid higher pension from Jan 2006 to Jun 2014 with 9% interest from date of filing their case in AFT Delhi. I calculated the arrears from Jan 2006 to Jun 2014 of the 14 General Officers after the Govt of India gave sanction to enhance pensions w.e.f Jan 2006. PCDA (O) gave LPC to 12 Maj Gens and PCDA of IAF and Navy also gave LPC to one R Adm and one AVM respectively enhancing pension from Rs 30350 to Rs 35660 (highest depending upon the number of increments earned and the last pay drawn at the time of retirement in 5^th CPC). I am attaching 16 MS PP slides explaining the method of notional pay fixation and you can see the bonanza these 14 Maj Gens got. The arrears for the period Jan 2006 to Jun 2014 range between Rs 2,36,751 to Rs 6,02,950.

5.    Who are Going to be Biggest Beneficiaries?.  In Army, infantry, Armd Corps and Mech Infantry officers get their promotions faster than their course-mates from AOC and EME. Similarly Naval officers get their promotions faster than their NDA course mates of Army and IAF. You get higher pension w.e.f. Jan 2006 if you have got more increments or how early you got your promotion to your next last rank.

6.   Period of Arrears. It is from Jan 2006 to Jun 2014. OROP comes into effect from Jul 2014.

7.    AFT – 1B. AFT 1 was filed in AFT Delhi in Sep 2015 and  T SEWA was given OA – 34/2016. We are sure to win in view of judgment given in favour of 14 Maj Gens. There is a demand from many Officers of the rank of Capt to Maj Gen who could not join AFT – 1 for various reasons now to join in a similar case if permitted. Considering their genuine demand T SEWA has opened sequel to AFT – 1 (OA – 34/2006) titled AFT – IB.

9.    All India Coordinator. Cmde Sudheer Parakala, Vice President, T SEWA has been kind enough to be All India Coordinator for AFT – I B. You are requested to contact him at his e-mail id: commodore_parakala@yahoo.co.ukand also can speak to him at 98490 57767. He will send you legal documents which you are required to fill and dispatch the hard copies to his postal address. He is also CC to this mail.

10.    Legal Fees. Since it is common cause we fixed very low legal fees of Rs 5,000 per officer. For single ladies of deceased officers, it is Rs 3,000. You are required to send cheque in favour ofTSEWA –AFT  alongwith the hard copies of legal documents to Cmde Sudheer Parakala. On the envelope kindly mention AFT – 1B for easier identification. We will NOT accept NEFT or Internet banking remittance as we are unable to locate the sender as our bank does not give any details of such money transfers.

11.    Last Date. We will close AFT – 1 B the moment we reach 100 petitioners or by 30 Nov 2017 whichever is earlier. Thereafter if there is still demand then we will open AFT – 1C. Earlier we file the case in AFT Delhi, earlier we are likely to get a judgment.

12.    Eligibility. All Officers from the ranks of Capt to Maj Gen including Hony Lt & Hony Capt and wives of the deceased officers of three services of these ranks are eligible to join the case.

13.    Refund. T SEWA spends almost Rs 9 lakhs per annum on salaries to staff members, maid, telephone / mobile charges, electricity, water, stationery and other recurring expenditure. Anyone who wants to withdraw from the legal case will be refunded Rs 4,500 /2700 (single ladies) before the legal documents are sent to Delhi by 07 Dec 2017. Thereafter we are unable to make any refund as we pay full legal fees to our advocate who will not permit you to withdraw.

14.    List of Litigants. Though Cmde Sudheeer Parakala will endeavor to send you a confirmation of receipt of your legal documents by e-mail, we will put up the list of petitioners in our T SEWA Blog (www.tsewa.org) before we send the documents to Delhi for filing in AFT Delhi. For any queries once we send our documents to Brig SKS Rana, VSM, President, Legal Division, T SEWA, you are requested to contact him. He is CC to this mail and his mobile no is :9810281035.

15.   Non- Members. Since our advocate gives us the concession of very low legal fees, non-members will be admitted to AFT – IB only after they become members of T SEWA. Membership form will be sent to such non – members. When you approach Cmde Sudheer Parakala, kindly mentione your T SEWA membership No. Unless you become a member of  T SEWA you will not be included in this legal case. Membership form also will  be sent to you. You are required to fill it up in CAPITAL LETTERS and affix a joint photo with your spouse and enclose a copy of your first PPO (not Corr PPO). Unless copy of PPO is enclosed AFT Delhi will not treat as an Ex-Serviceman.

16.    My job is over once I sensitize the environment about legal case and an All India Coordinator is identified. I do NOT deal with legal cases thereafter. You are requested to contact Cmde Sudheer Parakala, All India Coordinator for any information about the legal case. I am unable to answer any queries and therefore request you to spare me. If you still want to correspond then do contact Col Dr GB Sethi, General Secretary T SEWA (9440859877)  and Lt Col  G Parvathesam, Treasurer T SEWA (9490941822) for any information on the legal cases. They are CC to this mail.

17.   May God grant us Victory in 2018 and may all get our entitled emoluments.

Warm Regards,

Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)

9493191380 (Mobile connectivity is very poor in my residential complex)
040-48540895

Whatsapp: 9052345814

Banihal, November 8

Thirteen Army men were injured on Wednesday when a vehicle they were travelling in fell from an under-construction bridge in Ramban district, the police said. The incident took place at Rattanwas in the Banihal area, a police official said. The injured have been hospitalised here, the official said. PTI

Inching close: Despite differences, the US and China are warming up to each other.

MK Bhadrakumar

WE have begun to clutch at small successes to proclaim victory — a seat in the International Court of Justice or a Western rating that we aren’t quite junk economy. But the big picture remains very depressing. An autumnal wind has been blowing the leaves and trees look bare and withered. Three hugely consequential regional events recently exposed that Indian foreign policy us adrift — the party congress of the Chinese Communist Party, President Trump’s Asian tour and the APEC and ASEAN summits. There are some profound inferences to be made. The Asian power-dynamic is making a historic transition. Indian analysts blithely borrowed from Western attitudes to view the contemporary Asian scenario through the prism of the so-called “Thucydides Trap” — coined by an ingenuous American think-tanker to expound the thesis that when an established power (read US) begins to fear a rising power (read China), things escalate toward war. The Americans do not make great historians and have a habit of encapsulating broad sweeps in neat conception. In reality, though, the strength of Spain and Portugal gradually began to decline in the early 1800s when their colonies in Latin America rebelled. The account of British decline was not different, either. Britain’s decline can be traced to its loss of relative economic dominance since the mid-19th century — although, paradoxically, Britain continued to remain the strongest European power militarily and economically until the early 1950s. The US’ decline bears striking similarity with Britain’s in modern history. Indeed, the eclipse of the Empire is always incremental. If only we had a Sardar KM Panikkar with us today, he’d have pointed a finger at the inexorable march of history in Asia (which he’d anticipated some 60 years ago in a classic work). The Party Congress in Beijing proclaimed that China is no longer “rising”, but has already “risen”. It is the principal driver of growth for Asian countries today (including, ironically, the lone Anglo-Saxon outpost of Australia). If Trump’s Asian tour has been a virtual acknowledgment that containment strategy toward China is no longer feasible, the flurry of Asian summits highlighted that the US’ continuing pre-eminence as the global military power is all but becoming irrelevant to the ASEAN region, where although military power still matters, economics has taken centre stage and infrastructure has become a more important tool for accumulating power as well as exercising it. All this leaves India in a quandary. A terrible beauty is born. The Asian Century was Nehru’s dream. But in Manila, not too far from Bandung, it was instead the China Dream that everyone within the earshot of PM Narendra Modi was compulsively talking about. The PM’s aides scheduled some meetings for him in Manila, but, largely, the impression accrued that the India which he represented has become somewhat peripheral to the animated discourses. We lurked in the shade furtively watching, holding uncertainly the can of “Act East” — for which there are no serious takers in Southeast Asia anymore. As a sideshow, the Indian officials huddled together with their colleagues from the US, Japan and Australia to explore whether to revive the moribund idea of a quadrilateral alliance of democracies (“Quad”) for marking territory on the lamppost of regional politics. They renamed the region as Indo-Pacific. (ASEAN plainly ignored the coinage.) It’s been tragi-comical in every sense. How did this burlesque happen? Who scripted it? In a nutshell, India has lost its sense of geography and history. That’s a sad remark to make for an ancient country, but it needs to be said because there is also a grievous failure of leadership involved here. Our present foreign policy elite hijacked the national interests. Geography dictates that India belongs to its region but India’s relations with China, the towering presence on Asia’s strategic landscape, nosedived during PM Modi’s watch. We barked up the wrong tree, losing precious time, crying hoarse over issues that belong to the domain of rhetoric — Masood Azhar, NSG membership, Dalai Lama, CPEC, et al. The business deals worth a staggering $250 billion agreed during Trump’s recent visit to China would create tens of thousands of new jobs in America. They not only added a new dimension to America First, but considering the very nature of the infrastructure projects on the anvil, also herald in the near term perspective the unannounced arrival of the OBOR in North America. No sooner than Trump got back from Asian tour, one of China’s top diplomats, Ambassador Cui Tiankai, nattily attired in a bow-tie suit, told an elite Washington audience of 400 invitees drawn from the US government, business and academia at a gala banquet in his honour: “We want to build a strong partnership with the US…(which) will enable each of us to better accomplish our domestic goals…(and) put both countries together in a stronger position… This is the essence of China’s policy towards the US. This is what we actually want to have in this relationship.” Aren’t we wasting time in quixotic ventures such as the Quad? At any rate, where was this “rules-based order” when Iraq was invaded or Syria brutalised or Afghanistan subjected to war crimes, which International Criminal Court plans to investigate? When Trump tossed out of the window the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which was intended as the underpinning of containment strategy against China, Asian countries took note. We should have adjusted to the emergent compelling realities — like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea did. There are signs that Japan too is trying to turn over a new leaf with China. Almost none criticised China by name at the ASEAN summit or mentioned the 2016 international ruling on the South China Sea. In fact, China and ASEAN agreed to negotiate a code of conduct. The fundamental flaw in the Modi government’s shift from “Look East” to “Act East” is that it was heavily laden with geopolitics, whereas, the Asian region as a whole — and Southeast Asian countries in particular — feel the pressure of public accountability and are focused on growth and developmental issues of trade, investment and infrastructure. India’s integration with Asia-Pacific faces serious challenges from the perspective of geo-economics. The RCEP negotiations are symptomatic of this. A leap of faith is needed. India should have the will to surrender parts of its sovereignty to regional processes, and the public opinion should be willing to support greater integration. Our predicament vis-à-vis the OBOR highlights a larger malaise. Scepticism about the benefits of the global supply chain is very high in India. Great wealth flows to the powers that dominate trade.The writer is a former ambassador

Part of the wider project to have 17 tunnels to provide all-weather connectivity.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14

Faced with the rising military might of China, the Indian Army has identified nine “top-priority” tunnels, including those in eastern Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Doklam plateau in eastern Sikkim. This is to ensure all-weather connectivity in these areas.These are part of the wider project to have 17 tunnels all across the Himalayas to provide all-weather connectivity. The Army headquarters had pinpointed its needs as per operational needs. The work on several of these projects has commenced. India and China share a 3,488-km-long undefined boundary in the Himalayas.The ones to connect Ladakh will change the lives of people and add to the military preparedness. The first is an alternate route from Himachal Pradesh that will connect Padum in Zanskar, Ladakh, with an existing jeep-track in the hill state. The Army has suggested that the jeep track from Padum to the base of the 16,700-foot-high Shingo-La on the Zanskar side be metalled and a tunnel be made under the pass that will open in Lahaul-Spiti. The proposed move, if it materialises will provide an alternative shorter route to Kargil.Ladakh has two other access roads — one from Srinagar and other from Manali via Rohtang. These remain closed for seven months — October to April — due to heavy snowfall in the higher passes. The Army priority list includes making tunnels under the Baralacha La, Tanglang La and Lachung La on the Manali-Leh route. The first two are in Ladakh and the last one in Himachal Pradesh. During winters, Army equipment and men can only be moved onboard the daily flights of IL-76 from Chandigarh.In Arunachal Pradesh, the Border Roads Organisation has already started ground work for two tunnels through 4,170-metre-high Sela Pass, which would avoid the pass that is snow bound for more than six months.The project constitutes construction of two tunnels of 475 metre and 1,790 metre each through Sela-Chabrela ridge connecting the Balipara-Chaudur-Tawang road on the Nurarang side.

Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh addresses an election meeting at Laladi village in the Haroli segment on Tuesday.

Our Correspondent

Una, November 7

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visiting every district to address public meetings because the BJP was sensing defeat in the elections.Addressing a public meeting at Laladi village in Haroli in support of Congress candidate Mukesh Agnihotri, he said a BJP rout was imminent which would be followed by another one in Gujarat.Amarinder Singh said while in the Army in 1962, he had been deputed on the Indo-China border in Kinnaur district and it took his Company 14 days to travel from Shimla to the border post, while the same distance could be covered in five hours now. He said Virbhadra, a six-time Chief Minister, had ushered in development in the state.The Punjab CM said since Himachal was a hill state, it took enormous amount of resources to provide drinking water, electricity and roads, besides other infrastructure like health and education, to the remotest corners. Despite the constraints, the successive Congress governments had kept up the pace of development.Shrugging BJP allegations that the drug mafia had spread its network in Haroli in the last five years, Amarinder said the drug mafia had established in Punjab during the Akali Dal-BJP rule, adding that after he came to power, more than 4,000 anti-social elements had been put behind bars. He said the BJP was launching a misleading tirade against the Congress which was an abuse to the honest and hard working people.