Chandigarh, January 5

As many as 297 junior division cadets, including 78 girls of the No.1 Chandigarh Naval NCC Unit, are attending the 10-day annual training camp at the NCC Academy in Ropar.

Cadets belong to various government and private city schools. They are being trained in various subjects such as national integration, civic duties, environment protection and naval orientation. Physical training, small arms firing, drill, ship modeling and sports are also a part of the camp curriculum.

Educational and motivational lectures by guest speakers have also been arranged. Ravinder Pal Singh, Employment Officer, Ropar, visited the camp and briefed the cadets about employment openings available on the basis of NCC certificates. The camp was inspected by Col Rohit Thakur, Officiating Group Commander, Chandigarh NCC Group, on Saturday. — TNS

• The Beating Retreat ceremony, held at the sports stadium of the University of Jammu on Tuesday, marked the grand finale of this year’s Republic Day celebrations.
• The event was witnessed by Governor Satya Pal Malik; Haji Inayat Ali, chairman, Legislative Council; Dilbag Singh, DGP; senior civil, police, Army and CAPF officers, and other dignitaries.
• Scintillating pipe drum and brass bands of the Army, BSF and J&K Police, on the slow and quick march, played enchanting tunes and received applause.
• Malik gave away prizes to various brass band pipes and drum contingents for their outstanding display.
• He also presented awards to Lord Shiva Day Boarding School Ghou, (Girls), Manhasan, Government SRML Higher Secondary School (Boys), Jammu, for the best march-past; and Sainik School Manasbal (Boys) for the best band contingent.
• The spectacular fireworks added colour to the ceremony. The function concluded with patriotic song ‘sare jahan se achha’ and National Anthem.

‘Under hail of bullets, Lance Naik Wani eliminated Lashkar dist commander’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 18

The Indian Navy will get three new air squadrons to ramp up maritime surveillance around Gujarat and Tamil Nadu with the government giving its sanction.

A total of 12 Dornier aircraft have been procured and deliveries commence this month. This is a substantial contract for the indigenous HAL-built maritime surveillance version of the Dornier 228 aircraft.  The new aircraft being delivered under this contract are fitted with improved state-of-the-art sensors and equipment, which includes glass cockpit, advanced surveillance radar, optical sensors and networking features.

The aircraft will enhance maritime awareness of the Navy through round-the-clock sensor-based surveillance and provide targeting data in areas of operation to ward off terror and other threats from sea.

The government has also sanctioned manpower towards manning additional aircraft in existing Dornier surveillance squadrons in Kerala and Andaman Islands.

Separately, the Navy today said a new Naval Air Station (NAS) Shibpur will be commissioned as INS Kohassa on January 24. INS Kohassa has been named after white-bellied sea eagle, which is a large bird of prey endemic to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

NAS Shibpur was established in 2001 as a Forward Operating Air Base for surveillance in North Andaman. With the addition of this airfield, the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) will have the ability to operate independently.

http://

Arteev Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 18  

Five persons were killed and five others were missing after their truck came under an avalanche in the Khardung La area of the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, officials said.

The avalanche hit the truck carrying 10 persons at the Khardung La pass in the Ladakh region at 7 am, an official of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) said.

The BRO pressed into service its men and machinery to rescue the passengers of the truck, who were believed to be trapped under the debris, he added.

The police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel had also reached the spot, the BRO official said.

“So far, the bodies of five persons have been recovered from the avalanche site, while a search is on for the other missing persons,” he added.

A bulldozer driver posted at the Khardung La Pass said two tippers and a Scorpio vehicle carrying about 12 persons left towards K-top area early morning to load snow to Leh.

“One tipper was already loaded with snow. However, the mishap occurred when they were loading another vehicle. Suddenly, an avalanche hit them and 10 people in a tipper were buried under the snow,” he said.

A senior police official said, “At least 10-12 people were trapped under the snow and a body of a local resident from Leh has been recovered from the area. Fresh snowfall took place in the area on Thursday and they had gone to collect snow in a vehicle.”

Rescue teams of police, Border Roads Organisation and Jammu and Kashmir Disaster Management Force have reached the spot.

A high alert for avalanche was sounded on Thursday by the administration following adverse weather advisory by the Met department.

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 12

Lt Gen JS Nain on Saturday took over as the 14th Corps Commander of the strategic Rising Star Corps.

He took over from Lt Gen YVK Mohan, SM, VSM. A decorated soldier, Lt Gen JS Nain, an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, was commissioned into ‘The Second Battalion of the Dogra Regiment in June 1983. The General has commanded his Battalion on the Line of Control in the high attitude area, a mountain brigade in the eastern sector and an infantry division along the Line of Control in Kashmir Valley.

His staff experiences include tenanting the appointment of Brigade Major of an Independent Mechanised Brigade Group, an Instructor at the Infantry School and many other key appointments at various headquarters.

He has excelled in various professional courses during his service and has many achievements to his credit. He is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, the College of Defence Management, Secunderabad and National Defence College, Dhaka.

He has the distinction of holding masters degree in defence and strategic studies and masters of management studies. After a successful and illustrious tenure, Lt Gen YVK Mohan, SM, VSM has been appointed as the Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington.

HAL Chairman R Madhavan and other board members left Bengaluru on Tuesday for the meeting, likely to be attended by many important officials from the army, navy and defence ministry.

BENGALURU: 

Officials of the Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) are likely to meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and top government officials on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve the cash crunch faced by the aerospace firm.

According to HAL Employees Union General Secretary Surya Devra Chandrashekhar, the firm had to take a loan of Rs. 1,000 crore to pay salaries to its 30,000 employees despite giving away Rs. 9,000 crore — including Rs. 5,000 crore in dividends — to the defence ministry over the last four years. The HAL Staff Union has also expressed disappointment over the defence ministry’s decision to overlook the firm for the Rafale aircraft deal, and its alleged reluctance to clear Rs. 15,700 crore in dues. All this has led to the present financial crisis, it says.

HAL Chairman R Madhavan and other board members left Bengaluru on Tuesday for the meeting, likely to be attended by many important officials from the army, navy and defence ministry.

“We request the defence minister to release the work order because nearly a lakh of our families have been suffering. Although we have taken a loan to pay the salaries, we are not in a position to give allowances,” HAL Employees Union President R Srinivasan told NDTV.

HAL employees believe that the firm can make Rs. 50,000 crore if the defence ministry clears a project for manufacturing 83 light combat aircraft, and the Air Force pays dues amounting to Rs. 16,000 crore. “We are capable of delivering orders worth Rs. 2 lakh crore over the next 10 years,” said Mr Chandrashekhar.

Key functionaries in the union questioned the reasoning behind taking the Rafale contract away from HAL when it has successfully produced Jaguar and Hawks in the past. “We met every expectation of the defence ministry and the Air Force chief, but the defence ministry suddenly raised doubts about our capabilities,” said Mr Srinivasan.

The Congress alleges that the Narendra Modi government has shown favouritism by taking HAL out of the multi-crore Rafale aircraft deal in favour of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

Bigger challenges are emerging with Trump firm on troop pullout

G Parthasarathy
Former Diplomat

Given his distaste for military interventions abroad, President Trump has announced his decision to expedite withdrawal of US forces from Syria and Afghanistan. His critics say this would amount to betrayal of US allies. Despite criticism, it now appears clear that the US intends to progressively reduce and end military land operations in Afghanistan. It has already reduced its military presence to 14,000 troops, with plans to halve the number in a short period.  A swift military takeover by the Taliban would raise security concerns in India, given the past Taliban role in colluding with the hijackers of IC 814. The Taliban has also provided training facilities and bases for groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was responsible for the attack on India’s Parliament.

Pakistan continues to provide the Taliban military and intelligence support, together with bases on its soil.  Taliban vice-president Sirajuddin Haqqani resides in and operates from Pakistan. An economically vulnerable Pakistan, whose foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to $6 billion, however, faces huge international pressure, from friends and foes alike, to end this support. The Financial Action Task Force is turning the screws on Pakistan, to end its support for terrorism, or face sanctions. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have offered to provide financial support to Pakistan, amounting to around $6 billion for oil imports. But Pakistan realises that its economy would collapse, without US-backed IMF assistance. The US has linked such assistance to the ISI ending support to terrorism.

China may claim to be generous, but across Pakistan, there is a growing feeling, similar to that in countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia and Kenya, that China leads every ‘aid’ recipient into a ‘debt trap’. 

It is crucial for New Delhi to continuously assess how diplomacy surrounding the ‘endgame’ of American withdrawal from Afghanistan plays out. The withdrawal will inevitably lead to a greater role for the Taliban in Afghanistan’s national life. The Afghan government is concerned that Trump’s instinctive and ill-advised ‘Tweet Diplomacy’ can have disastrous results in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood.

 The Taliban now controls, or actively contests, the government’s control in around 45% of Afghanistan’s territory. The Afghan security forces are taking heavy casualties, losing on an average 30-40 members every day. Important urban centres like Ghazni have been taken over by the Taliban for days. Presidential elections in Afghanistan have been postponed, following US pressure. President Ghani responded strongly on December 26, with the appointment of two former intelligence chiefs, firm opponents of ISI-sponsored terror, to key positions. Amrollah Saleh, a Tajik and erstwhile Ahmed Shah Masood loyalist, has been appointed interior minister; and Asadullah Khalid, a Pashtun, who was seriously wounded in a Taliban attack, is the new defence minister. This is an important move, reiterating the government’s resolve, evidently with US backing, to take on the Taliban strongly.

These developments have been accompanied by frenetic diplomatic activity by Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureishi, purporting to demonstrate that Pakistan is making every effort to involve major powers — notably, the US, Russia and China — in a quest for peace and stability in Afghanistan. This has accompanied the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-American, with vast experience of Pakistani machinations in Afghanistan, as Trump’s envoy, to coordinate American contacts with external powers and all major parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban. External powers are, however, treading on one another’s toes in this effort. A conference convened in Moscow by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, without any senior official American participation, saw formal participation by the Taliban, Pakistan, China and Central Asian republics. India made common cause with the Afghan government and was not represented at the conference by serving government officials, but by former diplomats. India made it clear that it will not formally endorse any initiative that equates a constitutionally-elected government in Afghanistan, with a medievalist, armed insurgent group.

There are now several countries with a finger in the Afghan pie. The Taliban has an ‘office’ in Qatar, set up with US blessings. Teheran has been having a secretive ‘dialogue’ with the Taliban. These Iranian contacts with the Taliban, undertaken with Pakistan’s ‘approval’ and  ‘facilitation’, gathered momentum after the death of Taliban founder Mullah Omar. A Taliban delegation visited Iran last month for formal discussions with Iranian leaders. In the meantime, the US has brought in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to facilitate talks with the Taliban. The first round of talks involving representatives of the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan and the Taliban were held in Abu Dhabi in December. The US has evidently decided that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are more useful in such talks than Qatar, which hosts a Taliban ‘office’.

Rivalries between Russia, China and the US have spread across the Islamic world, pitting countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia on the one side, with Turkey, Iran and Qatar on the other. Uncertainties in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood are set to make the Afghanistan-Pakistan region even more volatile, especially given the persecution of Muslims in China’s neighbouring Xinjiang province. A growingly bankrupt Pakistan, now persuaded that its economy could collapse without an IMF bailout, is trying to balance contradictions between its support for the Taliban and other radical groups on the one hand, and its desperate need for assistance from the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the other.

New Delhi, in turn, will have to not only deal with rivalries between Islamic countries across its western neighbourhood, but also deal with the pressures arising from policies of the US, Russia and China.

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 5

Even as the five-year term of local MP Kirron Kher is nearing an end, about 65 per cent of the development works she recommended under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) are either pending or have been dropped.

As per figures provided by the MP’s office, Kirron had recommended a total of 315 works to the UT Deputy Commissioner (DC), the nodal officer, since she assumed the office in 2014.

However, only 113 works could be completed till date. A total of 174 works are said to be under progress and 28 recommended works were dropped due to various issues, including viability and approval. 

Speaking to Chandigarh Tribune today, Kirron Kher said, “I recommended a number of projects, but some of them were dropped by the DC. I was given reasons like unavailability of land or approval.”

“However, I have been able to get roads built at places like Deep Complex at Hallo Majra, Makhan Majra, Mani Majra, Bhelana and Daria. Some stretches at these places were in the need of roads for the last several years. I also got paver blocks laid wherever required. Besides, I spent on community centre buildings, renovation of crematorium, open air gyms, mast lights, development of parks and societies of southern sectors,” the MP said.

Officials said development works take time. First, the proposal has to be sent to the department concerned after getting due approvals. Then, the department concerned floats tenders and the works are allotted.

Deputy Commissioner Mandeep Singh Brar did not respond to phone calls made to him for his comments.

Released Rs 20 cr for works

According to the figures procured from Kirron Kher’s office, the MP had got Rs 22.5 crore from the Central government under the MPLADS. Of this, Rs 20 crore had been released by her for various works.

Besides, she exhausted the unspent fund of Rs 4 crore pertaining to the tenure of her predecessor Pawan Kumar Bansal.

“The pending amount was meant for a planetarium to be constructed at Panjab University. However, the matter got stuck in the Senate meeting,” said the former Congress MP.

Bansal said, “Whether it is related to the UT Administration or the Municipal Corporation, these works really take time. In such a scenario, one should recommend works early so that these could be processed quickly. As far as I am concerned, I used to take one meeting with officers in a month or two.”

Slamming the slow pace of work, RK Garg, president, Second Innings Association, a body of senior citizens, commented, “This depicts the negative approach of the DC office and the Administration. When funds are available, why are officers not executing development works?”

How MPLADS funds are spent

Each year, an MP gets Rs 5 crore from the Centre under the MPLADS to be spent in his/her constituency. Unutilised funds are carried forward. The MP sends the work demand to the nodal officer i.e. the DC. The officer prepares the plan as per the norms and sends it to the MP, who gives approval as per the availability of funds.