ribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 26

Less than two months after the Indian Air Force expressed safety and other concerns regarding the Chandigarh international airport, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today ordered interim ban on further construction in a 100-metre area from the boundary wall of the landing field.

A Division Bench of the High Court also made it clear the to Greater Mohali Area Development Authority to carry on with the activity of demolishing illegal structures falling in the area under its jurisdiction. Taking note of GMADA’s assurance that it would issue orders in this regard by Monday, the Bench directed the state of Punjab to provide adequate police force.

The Bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Arun Palli also made the Zirakpur Municipal Corporation a party to the ongoing public interest litigation on making the airport fully operational. It was also directed to initiate action against illegal constructions in accordance with law. The Bench also called for a detailed report on the issue.

Appearing before the Bench, Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal said the issue of illegal constructions was being raised since long. He added that the worst affected was Phabat village in Zirakpur, where multi-storeyed buildings were coming up overnight.

Elaborating, Mittal said the height of the airport boundary wall was 11 ft and any structure higher than that was dangerous. Quoting an example, he said a joint survey was carried out after a high-level meeting of all stakeholders was convened by the amicus curiae or the friend of the court, senior advocate ML Sarin. However, the Zirakpur EO did not participate in the process.

Besides, the construction of a building was brought to the Mohali Additional Deputy Commissioner’s notice again and again, initially when it started, again when the first floor was constructed and then when the second floor came up. Taking a serious view of the matter, the Bench verbally asked the EO to seek voluntary retirement.

The Chandigarh Administration, in the meantime, undertook to acquire and pay for 0.6 acre essential for providing the CAT-III facility to enable landing during poor visibility. The Bench, during the course of the hearing, was informed that major deadlines for pending works had been fixed following the meeting convened by senior advocate Sarin. The Bench was told that the work on resurfacing and extension of the airport would be completed by March 31 next year.

The work on completing lighting and installation of the CAT-II facility, too, would be over by that date. Tata Power SED, the company involved in the installation of the CAT-II system, has also been made a party for furnishing the requisite undertaking regarding the completion of work.

Multi-storeyed buildings at Phabat

• Appearing before the Bench, Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal said the issue of illegal and unauthorised constructions was being raised since long. He said Phabat village in Zirakpur was the worst affected, where multi-storeyed buildings were coming up overnight. He said the height of the airport boundary wall was 11 ft and any structure higher than that was dangerous

Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference on Rafale deal at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 22

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday said there was “clear-cut” corruption in the Rafale deal and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear his position on the issue.

Gandhi’s blistering attack on Modi during a press conference came a day after former French president Francois Hollande was quoted as saying that the Indian government proposed Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as Dassault Aviation’s Indian partner in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet fighter deal.

The prime minister must clear his stand on the Rafale deal after Hollande’s remarks, he said.

“Why is the prime minister silent? It is a matter related to defence forces, it is a matter related to corruption,” he said.

He also claimed that various defence ministers of the NDA government have been lying to protect Modi.

Gandhi demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe and Hollande can also be called.

“We are absolutely convinced that the prime minister is corrupt… He must clarify,” Gandhi said.

“It is very important for the prime minister now to either accept Mr. Hollande’s statement or state that Mr. Hollande is lying and tell what the truth is,” he said.

‘Surgical strikes’

Taking to Twitter earlier in the day, Gamdhi called Reliance Defence’s involvement in the deal “surgical strike” on the country’s defence forces.

“The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a One Hundred & Thirty Thousand Crore SURGICAL STRIKE on the Indian Defence forces. Modi Ji you dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India’s soul,” Gandhi tweeted.

The report in ‘Mediapart’, a French language publication, quoted Hollande as saying recently: “It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice; we took the interlocutor who was given to us”.

Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with then French president Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. The opposition party has been accusing the government of choosing Reliance Defence over state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to benefit the private firm even though it didn’t have any experience in the aerospace sector.

Hollande’s remarks contradict the central government’s stand that Dassault chose Reliance Defence as an Indian partner to fulfil its offset obligations and that the establishment had nothing to do with it. With PTI

(From left) Lt-Commander Pratibha Jamwal, Lieutenant S Vijaya Devi, Lieutenant Payal Gupta and Lt-Commander Swati P, the crew of INS Tarini, India’s first all-women circumnavigation expedition of the globe, pose on the concluding day of the ISB Leadership Summit 2018 in Mohali on Saturday. A Tribune photograph

At home in sea, these voyagers sail to see the world

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8

On the directive of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab government has declared a gazetted public holiday on the occasion of ‘First Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji’ (installation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji in Sri Harmandir Sahib in 1604) on September 10, Monday.

Disclosing this here, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that all the offices of Punjab government, boards, corporations and educational institutions would remain closed on the occasion. This holiday was earlier included in the state’s list of restricted holidays.

New Delhi, September 4

Any case of moral turpitude and corruption would be dealt with sternly, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, referring to Major Leetul Gogoi, who was found guilty of “fraternising” with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel.

Gen Rawat said action would be taken against Maj Gogoi in keeping with his guilt.

“I had clearly said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption will be dealt with in a very stern manner. The Court of Inquiry has recommended that we should go in for courtmartial proceedings.

“If it is related to moral turpitude, then we will take action accordingly. If it is something else, the punishment will be (according) to the crime he has committed,” Gen Rawat told reporters in New Delhi in response to a question on Maj Gogoi.

Last month, an Army Court of Inquiry indicted Maj Gogoi for “fraternising” with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty.

Maj Gogoi was detained by police in May following an altercation when he was allegedly trying to enter a Srinagar hotel with the 18-year-old woman.

Last year, the officer was at the centre of a human shield row after his decision to tie a civilian to the bonnet of his vehicle in Kashmir, purportedly as a shield against stone-pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election.

He was honoured by Gen Rawat with the Army chief’s Commendation Card for his sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations. PTI

The fortnight-long 14^th Indo-US joint Army exercise in ‘Yudh Abhyas’ series, at Chaubattia in Uttarakhand’s Almora district saw one infantry battalion—350 soldiers—each carrying out field training drills under a joint brigade headquarters, an Indian Army spokesperson said.

The exercise that concluded on Saturday saw participation of US Army’s 1^st Battalion of the 23^rd Infantry regiment. It was the fourth such exercise at Chaubattia, the spokesperson added.

The Yudh Abhyas series started in 2004 under US Army Pacific Partnership Programme.

“Over the years, the two countries have decided to progressively increase the scope and content of the combined exercise,” said an Indian Army officer.

The commanders and staff officers of both sides worked in close coordination to receive and collate intelligence to issue suitable operational orders. The combined field training components executed these orders in simulated realistic situation, the spokesperson said.

The exercise curriculum, the spokesperson said, was planned progressively where the participants were initially made to get familiar with each other’s organizational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills.

The training culminated in a 48-hour consolidation and validation exercise in which troops carried out a daring rescue and destroy mission in the general area of Pilkholi near Chaubattia.

The final exercise was reviewed by senior officers from both sides, the spokesman added. — IANS

NEW DELHI: A game of musical chairs is being played with the top brass of the Army with an officer who was relegated to a training command being shifted to the operationally sensitive East to give him a shot at the top post of Army chief next year.

Lt Gen Mukund Naravane, who was posted as the head of the Army’s Training Command in December last year, would be the senior most officer of the Indian Army when General Bipin Rawat retires next year. While in the past the seniority principle ..

London, September 23

A group of Indian artists, in the UK to mark the centenary of World War I, has claimed they have uncovered documents that reveal bias against the Indian sub-continent soldiers fighting alongside the British Army in the 20th century war.

The Delhi-based artists from the Raqs Media Collective told the ‘Observer’ that papers from the British Library revealed the British forces systematically neglected to treat psychological problems among Indian soldiers and adopted unequal measures in the care of soldiers traumatised by their experiences from the battleground.

“The condition of shell shock was first diagnosed in 1915 by the English doctor Charles Meyers. But documents we found show Meyers quickly dropped the term because it was feared ordinary soldiers would find it easy to understand and so would ask to be seen by medics,” said Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs.“Insted, Meyers suggested a more opaque diagnosis of NYD, or Not Yet Diagnosed — Nervous, which ordinary soldiers would find harder to use,” he said. Sengupta’s team is working on a new art project at Colchester in Essex, commissioned to commemorate the end of World War I — being marked in the UK since 2014 and set to end in November this year.

The term “trench back”, which features in their new installation ‘Not Yet At Ease’, was often adopted to describe symptoms that were actually psychological. “The idea of ‘trench back’ was derived from the condition of ‘railway back’, which was used for people who were thought to have been upset, or jolted, by the speed of rail travel,” said Sengupta. “It was a way of talking about wounds or damage to the spine, instead of mental health. ‘Trench back’ was supposedly caused by being knocked by falling debris in the trenches.”

Records show 1.3 million soldiers from undivided India served in WW-I as part of the British Indian Army. — PTI

The phrase is misused by predatory States to wield power without responsibility