Capt launches campaign to plant 550 trees in every village

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Sultanpur Lodhi, November 23

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday announced that his government was ready to contribute towards setting up the Kartarpur corridor.

The CM made the announcement during the launch of year-long celebrations to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev here.

“A long-pending demand of Punjab will be on the verge of fulfillment on November 26, when I will join the President in laying the foundation stone for the corridor,” he said. He also thanked the Government of Pakistan for reciprocating on the issue.

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore joined Capt Amarinder in laying foundation stones for 26 development projects worth Rs 150 crore on Friday. The projects, initiated by him, include upgrade of infrastructure in three historic towns associated with the Guru — Sultanpur Lodhi, Dera Baba Nanak and Batala.

The CM said money would be no constraint for various development and welfare projects announced by him to ensure a befitting commemoration of the historic event. He also announced projects to the tune of Rs 3,312 crore to facilitate pilgrims. Release of 32 prisoners and remission of term for another 2,952 was also announced.

Launching a drive to plant 550 trees in every village, the CM also proposed to build a Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg, to be finalised by a group of experts. The foundation stones laid on the occasion are that of three bridges and two footover bridges (Rs 24 crore), a permanent bridge to replace pontoon bridge across Beas (Rs 13 crore), a new rest house (Rs 5 crore), widening of planned roads (Rs 42 crore) and repair of roads (Rs 38 crore). The CM said all these works would be completed by July 2019.

Capt Amarinder also announced Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, under which 43 lakh families would be brought under insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh at a cost of Rs 371 crore from January 1, 2019. An institute of inter-faith studies would be set up at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar (Rs 510 crore), while ‘Pind Babe Nanak Da’ museum would be established at Sultanpur Lodhi, said the CM. He also announced Bebe Nanki College for Girls in Mahablipur village, 5 km from Sultanpur Lodhi.

A government medical college and super-specialty hospital would be established at Kotli Nangal village in Gurdaspur for Rs 400 crore in PPP mode (to be completed by 2021), and Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji Centre for Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training would be established as a hub on the main campus of Indra Kumar Gujral Punjab Technical University at Kapurthala, the CM said.

Stone to be laid near ‘darshan asthan’ at Dera Baba Nanak

Beijing, November 24

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held the 21st round of border talks in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday, officials said.

Besides the border dispute, the two senior officials at the picturesque Dujiangyan city, would also review the progress made in bilateral ties since the Wuhan Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in April, officials said.

Doval and Wang are the designated special representatives for border talks between India and China. The talks were expected to be concluded later on Saturday.

This is the first round of talks for Wang after he succeeded State Councillor Yang Jiechi earlier this year. Wang has become the state councillor, a rank higher than the foreign minister in the Chinese government’s hierarchy.

Announcing the talks on November 21, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang presented an upbeat picture of the bilateral ties saying, “We have properly managed the differences through dialogue and consultation. The border areas on the whole maintained stability.”

Officials maintain that this round of talks may focus more on reviewing the progress on trade and maintenance of peace at borders than movement towards a solution to the border dispute as India is headed for general elections next year.

Since the first-ever “informal summit” between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi in Wuhan, the two countries have launched a dialogue between trade officials to enhance India’s exports to China to address the over USD 51-billion trade deficit.

Since then, progress has been made towards increasing India’s export of rice, sugar and pharmaceuticals. This is expected to come under review at the talks, officials said.

Negotiations between the special representatives are regarded highly significant by both the countries as they cover all aspects of bilateral ties besides making efforts to resolve the vexed border dispute.

The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet.

The last round, held in New Delhi between Doval and Yang, took place in the backdrop of the 73-day standoff between the two militaries at Doklam over Chinese army’s plan to build a road close to India’s strategic “Chicken’s Neck” corridor connecting the north-eastern states.

The standoff ended after the People’s Liberation Army halted the plans to build the road.

Officials on both sides say a lot of spadework has been done to ensure peace and tranquillity at the border, though the solution to the border dispute is still elusive even after 20 rounds of talks.

Senior defence officials of India and China held the 9th India-China Annual Defence and Security Dialogue in Beijing on November 13 after a one-year gap due to the Doklam standoff. During the meeting, both sides agreed to enhance defence exchanges and interactions. PTI

Srinagar, November 22

Militants on Thursday attacked an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district during which a civilian was injured, police said.

A girl was caught in the crossfire in the Khudwani area when soldiers retaliated forcing the militants to withdraw.

The militants managed to escape and the injured was shifted to hospital, a police officer said. IANS

The Indian Army plans to implement several significant steps “to meet futuristic challenges keeping budgetary prudence in mind”.

NEW DELHI: 

According to Army sources, “an officer commanding a brigade will be designated a Brigadier, but when that officer comes for a staff position, he will be designated a Major General and will not need to go through any Board.” A brigade in the Indian Army is composed of approximately three thousand men and women.

In other words, there will be no separate assessment (or ‘Board’) of an officer to be designated Major General, a rank which will be granted entirely on the roles and responsibilities that are assigned. “The Brigadier and Major General level will be merged. Financially, they will be in the same grade” said senior officers to NDTV. The merger of the two ranks will also give 80 more officers in every batch the opportunity to make it to the much sought-after position of Major General. Presently, the pyramidal system of promotions within the army mean that very few among even the most deserving candidates rise beyond the rank of Colonel.

There are other significant steps that the army plans to implement “to meet futuristic challenges keeping budgetary prudence in mind”. Army Headquarters in Delhi will now be primarily staffed by officers of the rank of Colonel and above while the majority of younger officers including Majors and Lieutenant Colonels will be posted out to increase the strength of field formations. In carrying out these changes, the authorised size of the Army Headquarters will come down from 1,450 to 1,250 officers. However, in an effort to draw on the best experience available, a hundred retired officers or specialists will be recruited as “re-employed officers.”

Some new posts will also be created to deal with emerging threats while some others may be removed. The army will now have a Lieutenant General heading up the post of Director General (Information Warfare) while various branches of the army looking at the training of officers and jawans will be rationalised. The Vice Chief of the army, and the Director General (Training) will no longer be involved in the training process. Instead, the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) will be looking after this function in its entirety. A Major General will now be appointed the head of the Army’s Vigilance Cell and will report directly to the Army Chief while the Lieutenant General who heads Financial Planning will report to the Vice Chief.

The changes being proposed in the army will be tested at select formations across the country through 2019 before a proposal is sent to the Defence Ministry to take a final call. Sources tell NDTV that the goal of the entire exercise is to “reduce duplication, ensure shorter decision making time, and work towards higher synergy in various verticals while ensuring greater accountability and more efficiency.”

Fresh details have also emerged on the army plans to base its operations around the concept of Integrated Battle Groups (IBG). Sources have indicated to NDTV, that each IBG will be bigger than a brigade (3,000 men and women) but smaller than a division (9,000-10,000 men and women). Each IBG will be designed in a manner that it can be quickly deployed in the event of tension on the borders. Each IBG will have integral infantry, armour, artillery, reconnaissance and support units. Presently, it takes the army several weeks to re-position, stock and deploy major fighting formations which are expected to battle Pakistan or China. IBGs are meant to be “lean and agile groupings with elements of all arms all of which are trained together.”

Between 1975 and 2016, there have been 13 studies looking at reorganising the army. The changes being proposed now are based on four separates studies which are taking place concurrently. These include ‘Reorganisation and optimisation of the Indian Army,’ ‘Reorganisation of Army Headquarters, ‘Officer Cadre Review’ and ‘Terms of Engagement of Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks including minimum service for pension.’ Each study is being supervised by a Lieutenant General.

It was about three decades back that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) replaced the state CIDs in public imagination as the premier investigating agency whose impartiality and efficiency was above reproach. The man on the street was assured that oversight by strong and independent accountability institutions, among them the Election Commission, the Vigilance Commission, the CBI and CAG will invariably detect and arrest poor administration and restrain the abuse of power and arbitrary behaviour. The bizarre and dizzying turn of events in the CBI over the past month would have led to considerable erosion of that public trust. On Tuesday, even the Supreme Court appeared to throw in the towel, observing that ‘none of you deserve a hearing’.

The CBI’s standing and credibility is being taken to the cleaners by its very custodians. It is a matter of record that one gazetted officer of an all India service was put behind bars, two are accusing each other of graft while others claim interference by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Union Law Secretary and officials of an intelligence agency. All charges are currently unverified. But the fact remains that there has been repeated obliteration of the dividing line between oversight institutions and the political executive, even though the Supreme Court had in the past delineated it with the Hawala and Coalgate cases.

Autonomous institutions like the CBI, or the RBI, are meant to assure citizens that the government’s integrity, efficiency and effectiveness are being monitored in their interest. The shenanigans in CBI could impair its ability to independently and objectively exercise the powers vested in it. Today, accountability and good governance matter to people as never before and they would not have failed to notice that the first fallout of the current infighting in the CBI occurred almost six months back. Yet, there was a reluctance and failure to attend to matters at the incipient stage itself. It is now the responsibility of the judiciary and the political executive to remove the choke points that have impacted public confidence in the CBI. Its waning credibility will not be in the nation’s interest.

Triple boost to firepower 

• 155mm, 39 calibre howitzers have been procured from the US under government-to-government foreign military sales
• Will be assembled in India by BAE Systems in partnership with Mahindra Defence
• Is versatile, light weight and can be heli-lifted; has proven mettle in Afghanistan, Iraq

K-9 Vajra self-propelled gun

• First 10 of 155mm/52 calibre guns imported from S Korea in semi-knocked down state; assembled by L&T in India
• Remaining 90 will be made in India; with some assemblies coming from S Korea
• Induction will give huge fillip to the firepower capability of Army on western front

6×6 Field Artillery Tractor

Indigenously developed by Ashok Leyland,  the artillery tractors will provide the much awaited replacement for the ageing fleet of artillery gun towing vehicles

New Delhi, November 8

In a first, India will be a participant in multilateral talks with the Afghan Taliban in the same room, but at a “non-official level”.

Russia will be hosting discussion on Afghanistan and steps towards political reconciliation in the war-torn country for the second time on Friday. The talks, previously scheduled in September, were postponed after the Ashraf Ghani government pulled out, calling it “unnecessary” in view of the Taliban’s rejection of “peace and direct negotiations”.

 The meeting will bring together deputy foreign ministers and special representatives from 12 countries, including Iran, China, Pakistan and the US . 

“India supports all efforts at peace and reconciliation,” the MEA said. — TNS

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 1

Lt Gen PC Thimmaya on Thursday took over as the 21st General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC).

After passing out of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) with the coveted Sword of Honour, he was commissioned into the 5th Battalion Mechanised Infantry Regiment (14 Kumaon) on June 13, 1981.

An alumnus of Sainik School, Bhubaneswar, and the National Defence Academy, Pune, he has in his illustrious career tenanted critical command and staff appointments along the borders in peace and field.

General Thimmaya had commanded his battalion during Operation Parakram and an Independent Mechanised Brigade in the deserts.

As a Major General, he commanded a strike formation and subsequently, as a Lt Gen, he commanded a Corps in the Western Theatre. Prior to his assumption of command of ARTRAC, General Thimmaya was posted as the Commandant of Army War College, Mhow. He is an avid sportsman and pursue adventure activities.