Malout, October 27
An ex-serviceman, working as a driver of the Punjab Roadways, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree on Fazilka road today.
He was staying at Harjindra Nagar here. Sukhdev Singh (50) was a permanent resident of Kabarwala village.
The police have started inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC. His family has informed the police that he was upset for the last few days. — TNS
THERE can only be numbness but no surprise over the Amritsar train tragedy. A day that sets off a season of festivals and joy left a bitter taste as the sun came down. The Ravana effigy burning was one among the countless set off all over the country. There must have been near-escapes elsewhere but at Joda Phatak in Amritsar, our proclivity to stretch the boundaries of safety did us in. People around the effigy started retreating as it was lit and jostled with another crowd standing on the railway track when two speeding trains from opposite directions ploughed into them.
The railways’ bane has been ribbon development or the building of houses close to the track. As shanties grow in size and develop into vote banks, there is frequent trespassing of track, leading to over 15,000 deaths every year. It is no wonder that the railways is reluctant to classify the deaths of people hit by trains while crossing the track as accidents because stopping people from crossing it in built-up areas — an offence — is impossible. The Modi government had announced a Rs 50,000-crore plan to eliminate all level crossings. Though delayed, it builds on the work of the previous administrations and could pare the death toll somewhat. But as long as we retain the predilection for jaywalking — crossing communication track with no regard for traffic — similar tragedies will keep happening.
Noted nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar had identified lack of barricading, fencing and pedestrian overbridges for the heavy human death toll on railway track. In Haryana, Bansi Lal had earned unpopularity but gratitude as well by clearing the highways of ‘ribbon development’. Today, this is the norm for all highways, which has cut down the death toll. Such a drastic measure along the track will cause displacement and misery. While the Amritsar civic administration should meet its just deserts, the tragedy ought to be the trigger for rapidly enforcing several such measures that were abandoned or unimplemented because of local resistance.
New Delhi, October 17
India and China are all set to resume their military exercises in December, a first after the 2017 Doklam stand-off.
Not conducted in 2017, the ‘Hand-in-hand’ drill will be conducted in Kunming, China, said sources. The exercise was to be hosted last year by China, as per arrangement to conduct it in each country by rotation. But in May 2017, China backed out. India had hosted it in 2016.
There have been six editions of the drill and it was suspended from 2010-14 after China refused visa to then Northern Army Commander Lt Gen BS Jaswal saying J&K was disputed region. — TNS
JORHAT, ASSAM:
All the 16 air force personnel on onboard the helicopter that made an emergency landing at West Tuting on Thursday were airlifted from there and brought to the IAF station here on Friday, IAF sources said.
The 16 Indian Air Force personnel arrived at their Jorhat base on Friday afternoon, the sources said.
The MI-17 chopper which had taken off on routine mission from Jorhat to West Tuting and back to Jorhat had to make the emergency landing due to a technical snag on Thursday, said Shillong based IAF PRO Wing Commander Ratnakar Singh.
The technical snag occurred when the chopper was returning from West Tuting and had to stay back there, Ratnakar Singh said.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday approved foreclosure of the contract with Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC) for implementing the Group Mediclaim Health Insurance Policy for the employees and pensioners in the state.
The matter has also been referred to the newly constituted Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for investigations.
Former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had on Thursday demanded a probe after allegations of fraud into allotment of group mediclaim policy — for state government employees to RGIC — prompted Malik to scrap the scheme.
“The Hon @jandkgovernor now needs to order an inquiry headed by the chief secretary to establish who was behind the allotment of the insurance contract. The sums of money involved are too big for this to have been a straight-forward mistake,” Abdullah had tweeted.
Malik’s administration had on September 20 formally rolled out the scheme for employees, pensioners and accredited journalists in the state. This came into effect from October 1.
Earlier, Malik had told reporters that the contract was“almost terminated” after he found that the allotment was “full of frauds” and that the formal decision “will come in writing in two days”. In a statement on Saturday, the state government spokesman said ever since sanction was accorded to the implementation of the insurance scheme, doubts have been expressed in various quarters, including a cross-section of the society and the media, about the credibility of the process.
“This has cast a shadow on the entire process followed in finalising the scheme,” he said.
He said as the governor’s administration is mandated to provide good, transparent, fair and employee-friendly governance, it was felt that it would be difficult to go ahead with the implementation of the scheme.
The matter has been referred to the ACB for examining the entire process to see whether it was conducted in a transparent and fair manner, the spokesman added.
“Keeping in view the importance of the matter, the government has directed the ACB director to personally look into the matter rather than entrusting it to someone else,” he said, adding, an action would then be taken on the ACB findings.
But Reliance Insurance chief communication officer said: “Whatever we are hearing, it is all through the media and there is no official communication with us from the Jammu and Kashmir government.”
Principal secretary (finance) Navin K Choudhary had earlier said the policy was tied up with M/S Reliance General Insurance Company Limited on annual premium of ₹8,777 and ₹22,229 (for employees and pensioners respectively).
Saurabh Madan Mithu released a video saying that he was being framed by “some people”.
AMRITSAR: Saurabh Madan Mithu, the Amritsar councillor’s son who organised the Dussehra event that ended with the death of 61 spectators on a railway track on Friday, has released a video message saying he was being unfairly targeted for the tragedy. The local strongman, who went into hiding on the night of the incident, said that he had taken all the necessary permissions but “some people” were trying to frame him.
“It’s an extremely tragic incident, I am deeply pained by it. I arranged the Dussehra celebration to bring everyone together. I had taken all the permissions… spared no effort. Had spoken to police, (municipal) corporation, fire brigade,” he said in a video in Punjabi.
“We organised it on a ground not on the tracks… But some people were standing there and the train came out of nowhere. It was an act of God. What is my fault in this? Some officers and people have a personal vendetta against me… we made 7 to 10 announcements saying ‘please don’t stand on the tracks’. With folded hands, I request you not to do this,” Mr Mithu added.
At least 61 people were killed and hundreds injured when a train ran over people watching a Dussehra event on Friday in Amritsar.
His claim of issuing multiple warnings, however, seemed to contradict a video from the evening of the accident where one of the organisers bragged to the chief guest, Congress leader and former lawmaker Navjot Kaur Sidhu, that the crowd there was so enthusiastic to see her that they would stand on the nearby railway tracks and not budge even if hundreds of trains pass by.
“Madam, look here, these people don’t care about standing on tracks. Over 5,000 people are (standing) on (railway tracks) lines for you and even if 500 trains pass by, they will not move,” the man was heard saying.
Mr Mithu and his mother, a Congress Councillor, remain missing three days after the incident. Irked by their absence, a group of people threw stones at their residence on Saturday afternoon — breaking several windows. Police brought them under control and placed the neighbourhood under guard. Earlier in the day, protesters clashed with the police demanding the arrest of those responsible.
Although the Punjab police have registered a first information report in connection with the tragedy, they did not name anybody in the document on the grounds that the accused were yet to be identified.
Mumbai, October 17
The Navy’s submarine rescue capabilities have got a boost with the successful maiden trials of its newly inducted deep submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV), the Navy has said.
The Western Naval Command here conducted the trials of the DSRV, which also set a record for “deepest submergence by a manned vessel” in the Indian waters, the Navy said in an official release issued on Tuesday night.
The DSRV, operated by a crew of three, could rescue 14 personnel from a disabled submarine at one time, it said.
“On October 15, the DSRV carried out under-water mating with a bottomed submarine at a depth of over 300 feet and transferred personnel from the submarine to the rescue vehicle,” the release said.
These trials had proven the DSRV’s ability to undertake rescue operations from disabled submarines at sea and provided the Indian Navy with a “critical capability”, it said.
“During the trials, the DSRV also dived successfully up to 666 metres. This is a record for deepest submergence by a ‘manned vessel’ in the Indian waters,” the release said.
The DSRV crew also carried out ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations at a depth of over 750 metres and side scan sonar operations at over 650 metres, which are all “firsts” for the Navy, it said.
Once the trials were completed, it would put the navy into a small league of world navies that had an integral submarine rescue capability, the release added. PTI
The Principal Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has come down harshly on the Army’s new promotion policy for Generals finding portions of it to be “not only arbitrary and discriminatory but also violative of the principles of natural justice”.
The bench of AFT Chairperson Justice Virender Singh and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra (retd) have made the observations while giving directions to the Army to immediately hold the promotion selection board of a Major General for the rank of Lt General.
Pronouncing the judgment on October 5, on the petition of Major General VK Singh, the bench observed that the Army’s new promotion policy of December 2017, which became the subject matter of the case requires a re-visit by the Army for its effective implementation in the right perspective, so as to avoid any further litigation.
Major General Singh was commissioned in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army on in 1983 and was considered for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General by the Service Selection Board (SSB) held in October 2017. He was not empanelled for promotion on the basis of his overall profile and comparative merit within the batch and limitation of available vacancies. He filed a Non-Statutory Complaint against his non-empanelment, wherein he was granted partial redressal by expunging certain assessment of his confidential report on technical grounds.
However, despite granting him partial redressal, the officer was not considered for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General in view of certain p[rovisions of the enw promotion policy. As per this new policy, the SSB is to be held only once a year and all special review cases are to be considered only with the next scheduled SSB. The officer told the AFT that he apprehends that in view of the new policy he may still not be considered in the next SSB scheduled to be held in October 2018 as that will only be a month prior to his retirement making him ineligible for consideration as per the policy
The counsel for the Union of India told the bench that the new policy stipulates that if an officer is superannuating before occurrence of the first vacancy, then he will not be eligible for any consideration by No. 1 Selection Board (for Maj Gen) or SSB (for Lt Gen). The counsel confirmed that while the name of the applicant will be included in the agenda for consideration, but he will be shown as ‘not eligible’ as he is retiring on November 30 before occurrence of first vacancy.
Disagreeing with these provisions of the policy, the bench ordered that the applicant should be considered for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General as a Special Review (fresh) case in accordance with the same Promotion Policy as was applied for his batch which was in vogue when the first SSB took place in October 2017 and, if found fit by the Board he shall be promoted to the rank of Lt Gen as per vacancy available on that date well in time before November 30, his date of retirement.
WASHINGTON: India has said that a supposedly “new Pakistan” on display at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is “cast in the mould of the old” and dismissed as “despicable” and “preposterous” Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s insinuation on Saturday linking India to the 2014 terrorist attack on a school at Peshawar in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Qureshi, who spoke at UNGA after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, accused India of sponsoring “terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours” and stalling peace efforts citing “flimsy” reasons. He also blamed India for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan and in the region, rendering South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation ineffective and violating human rights in Kashmir.
India exercised its right of reply to hit back.
“This morning my delegation came to this august Assembly to listen attentively to the new foreign minister of Pakistan outline the vision of a ‘New Pakistan’,” said Eenam Gambhir, a counsellor at India’s permanent UN mission. “What we heard is a ‘New Pakistan’ cast in the mould of the old.”
Gambhir pointed out several “baseless” charges in Qureshi’s speech.
