Monthly Archives: August 2018

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, March 28

Adding a fresh twist to the India-China disputes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Bhutan has said it was open to a three-way resolution involving the three countries to end the stand-off at the strategically vital Doklam plateau.

Cosying up to Beijing

• A Bhutanese delegation visited China in February this year to discuss border disputes
• Bhutan is now awaiting the arrival of a Chinese technical team
• After a meeting or two, the two sides will probably be able to draw a line, says Bhutan PM

What India fears

• If Bhutan cedes Doklam, China will get ensconced on the strategically important plateau
• It will allow China a clear view of the sensitive Siliguri corridor
• It’s crucial link between mainland India, north-eastern states
• China will also be going back on a 2012 commitment to maintaining status quo at tri-junctions

Bhutan also said it was ready to “draw out a line demarcating its boundary” with China with regards to the border disputes other than Doklam. Asked if China was intruding into his territory, Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, in an interview with Belgian Daily ‘La Libre’, said, “Doklam is a tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan. It is not up to Bhutan alone to solve the problem. We are three equal countries. There is no big or small country.” He said Bhutan was ready to discuss the issue as soon as the two other parties agreed. “India and China have problems all along their border. We are waiting to see how they resolve their differences,” he said.

The statement contradicts Bhutan’s stance elucidated in 2019 when Tshering said the “existing tri-junction point should not be disturbed unilaterally”. About the Bhutan-China talks (on since 1984) on demarcating the border, the PM said, “We do not encounter major border problems with China, but certain territories are not yet demarcated. We still have to discuss it and draw a line. We have come to understand each other. Last month, a Bhutanese delegation visited China and we are now awaiting the arrival of a Chinese technical team in Bhutan.”

After a meeting or two, he said, the two sides would probably be able to draw a line. He went on to dismiss media reports about Chinese installations in Bhutan. “We don’t make a deal of it because it’s not in Bhutan. This is an international border and we know exactly what belongs to us,” he said. Besides Doklam, Bhutan and China have disputes in Jakarlung and Pasamlung Valleys in the northern boundary of Bhutan. Doklam (western front) is around 270 square km while the northern boundary dispute areas measure nearly 500 square km.

For India, it remains to be seen if Bhutan cedes Doklam and retains the areas to its north. This would mean China getting ensconced on the Doklam plateau, which will allow it a clear view of the sensitive Siliguri corridor, the narrow tract of land connecting mainland India with the north-eastern states. For India, it means China going back on a commitment made in 2012 to maintain status quo at border tri-junctions such as Doklam. As per international maps, the tri-junction of Doklam at Batang La was never demarcated. The 1890 Sikkim-Tibet boundary treaty says Mount Gipmochi (14,300 feet high) shall be the point where Tibet and Sikkim territories converge. In 1904, the British captured Tibet and in a 1906 treaty, they handed over the Chumbi valley to Tibet. The Chumbi valley ends in the north of Doklam plateau at Batang La.

CLICK TO OPEN NEWSPAPER

NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPER

CLARIFICATION OF DOUBTS ON SPARSH WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN DSW OFFICE COMPLEX NEAR GHANTA GHAR

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 24

Haryana has the second highest number of empanelled medical facilities in the country under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) that provides cashless medicare cover to retired armed forces personnel and their dependents.

Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme

• ECHS was launched in April 2003 to provide quality medical care to the ex-servicemen and their dependents through 30 regional centres and 433 Polyclinics pan India
• It also has six centres in Nepal, besides 3,158 empanelled private medical facilities. It has a total beneficiary base of nearly 55 lakh
• The scheme is structured on the lines of the Central Government Health Scheme to provide cashless and capless medical treatment cover at CGHS rates

The state has 368 empanelled hospitals and diagnostic centres, according to data shared by the Ministry of Defence with Parliament on Friday. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 388 such centres, followed by 364 in Maharashtra and 338 in Punjab.

These are also states that are among the top contributors of manpower to the armed forces.The ministry’s data also revealed that there had been a nearly three-fold increase in the number of patients availing treatment through the ECHS over the past three years.

In 2020, the footfall was 58.80 lakh, which went up to 1.24 crore in 2022 and 1.53 crore in 2022. The low footfall in 2020 was probably due to the lockdown and restrictions put in place due to the Covid pandemic.

Parliament was also told that a sum of Rs 4579.63 crore was spent on the ECHS in the 2020-21 fiscal. This increased to Rs 4764.66 crore in 2021-22 and to Rs 4897.64 crore till March 15 in the current fiscal.

The ECHS all ex-servicemen drawing pension from the Controller of Defence Accounts, including those in receipt of disability or family pension and their dependents to be eligible for membership.

The membership has been made compulsory for all pensioners with effect from April 1, 2003, but is optional for earlier retirees.

Over the years, the ECHS membership has also been extended to pensioners of the Territorial Army, Defence Security Corps, Uniformed Indian Coast Guard, Military Nursing Service, Special Frontier Force, Nepal Domiciled Gorkha, Whole-time NCC officers, eligible Army Postal Service pensioners, Assam Rifles pensioners, World War-II veterans, Short Service Commission officers, Emergency Commissioned officers and pre-mature retirees.

Ex-servicemen who have retired prior to January 1, 1996, war widows and war-disabled soldiers, including those disabled in internal security duties, are exempt from the payment of the ECHS contribution fee.

The OROP issue, for one reason or another, refuses to simply fade away like old soldiers are meant to, and feels more and more like a fish bone stuck in the craw, difficult to swallow or remove.  Undoubtedly, the past few days have been immensely disappointing for the military veteran community, given the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions on the matter of OROP. Fighting over money, and that too against the Government, goes completely against the grain for the vast majority of soldiers, even retired ones. They view such acts as purely mercenary and find it profoundly distasteful as it goes against their core beliefs of honour, loyalty and sacrifice. 

Thus, for them to have decided to confront the very Government they once looked up to, and whose orders they blindly followed, suggests that they see themselves as having been have been shoddily treated and dishonoured. That in itself should be deeply disturbing, because of the adverse impact it is bound to have on serving personnel, many of whom are second or third generation, who now know the shabby treatment that awaits them in the future. 

What has been truly galling for most veterans, is not the fact that they have been denied their rightful dues, but that it has been done so arbitrarily and in such an inept and callous manner. As if, those in power wished to drive home the point that their contribution counts for little and they are now only seen as a burden on the state. Even more disappointing, was the manner in which the actions of Hon’ble Supreme Court only flattered to deceive. It initially came down hard on the Government for reneging on its commitment to the veterans, but subsequently accepted the Government’s plea of payment in instalments as it does not have Rs 28000 Crores to clear arrears pending for over three years. 

The truth is that veterans are not as gullible as the Court appears to have been, and have taken the Government’s contention with a pinch of salt. One has only to examine the Government’s Expenditure Profile 2023-2024, published in February of this year, to realise that their contention is not supported by the figures they have published. Suffice it to say that the 2023-2024 budget envisages and caters for an expenditure of a whopping Rs 50 Lakh Crores or thereabouts, an increase of around Rs 5 Lakh Crores over the Revised Estimates of last fiscal, with over Rs 4 Lakh Crores budgeted for subsidies and grants. To suggest that despite these enormous sums being available, the Government was unwilling or unable to provision for the amount it owes military pensioners, most of whom are solely dependent on this income, is truly telling. It clearly shows where the welfare of military veterans stands amongst this Government’s list of priorities.

Coincidently, it includes an increase of Rs 37,648 Crores on pensions, but yet somehow manages to reduce Defence Pensions (Demand No 22) by Rs 15000 Crores, from Rs 1.53 Lakh Crores in the Revised Estimates for FY2022-23 to Rs 1.38 Lakh Crores for the next year. These figures make no sense because the number of pensioners has certainly not reduced, and with the revised rates of pension fixation due for implementation, it should have instead increased. What these figures suggest instead, is that despite the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions the Finance Ministry had no intention of clearing these dues in the first place. In fact, leave aside arrears, from these figures it appears the CGDA has no plans to commence payment of pensions at revised rates any time soon. If this interpretation of data is not askew, as it very well may be due to ones limited exposure to accounting, then not only veterans but the Hon’ble Supreme Court has been duped as well.

Be that as it may, the issues before the Hon’ble Court should not just have been restricted to the payment of OROP arrears, pending for the last three years, but also to the question of how and why did we arrive at this pathetic state of affairs and who, if anybody, should be held accountable? After all, if the Controller General of Defence Accounts had done the job they are paid to do, the issue of arrears would not have come up at all. More importantly, it raises the question that with the refixation of OROP again due in 2024, as per government orders, are we likely to see a repeat of all the that has taken place till now? 

It can be nobody’s case that the political establishment has deliberately delayed payments, as some suggest, especially since this is one of the major achievements of Mr. Modi’s government and is frequently referred to by him in his public speeches. What may be more likely is that bureaucrats have erred, and are now building up an alternative narrative to hide their lapses from the political leadership? 

There is, thus, an urgent necessity for a detailed inquiry by an independent body to go into systemic failures that may have occurred and to pinpoint those individuals whose acts of commission or omission may have led to the prevailing problem. Not doing so will only further embarrass the Government in the coming days and allow those responsible leeway to cause further mischief, deliberate or otherwise. 

Finally, the political leadership would do well to delve into these matters as there is another scam waiting in the wings, to embarrass them further. It is with regard to the manner in which the CGDA has destroyed a well-run and smooth system of pension disbursement by introducing SPARSH on specious grounds. Apart from an increase in cadre strength, that will further burden the exchequer, it has also reportedly resulted in incurring an expenditure of over Rs 250 Crores in the development of software that has turned out to be an utter disaster, leaving huge numbers of pensioners in limbo cursing this government.

While ruling dispensation denies that democracy is in danger, here’s Rajkamal Jha Editor in chief of the Indian Express, presenting a vote of thanks in RN Goenka award function, with his usual wit and some plain-speaking, as CJI Chandrachud listens!!

Chandigarh, March 25

In two separate incidents in Punjab, the Border Security Force has seized close to 8 kg of narcotics along the International Border in Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts. 

In the first incident, 7 kg of drugs, suspected to be heroin, were seized near Wan village in Tarn Taran district on Saturday morning after troops on border guarding duty spotted suspicious packets lying in the field on the Indian side of the fence, a BSF officer said.

In the second incident, at about 11.30 am, troops spotted a tea container lying in the fields ahead of the border fence, near Bharopal village, in Amritsar district.

On dissecting the container, narcotic substance, suspected to be heroin, weighing 810 gram was found filled inside the cavity of the container, the officer added.

On Friday, the BSF had seized five Glock 9 mm pistols and 91 rounds of ammunition that had been dropped on the Indian side by a drone.

PTI

New Delhi, March 25

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the “automatic disqualification” of lawmakers upon their conviction and being sentenced to a jail term for two years or more according to section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act.

The plea, filed by a Kerala-based social activist, said the immediate reason for approaching the apex court was a recent development related to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a member of Parliament from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, after he was convicted by a court in Gujarat’s Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

he petitioner, Aabha Muralidharan, has sought a declaration that the automatic disqualification under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, is ultra vires the Constitution for being “arbitrary” and “illegal”.

The petition has claimed that an automatic disqualification of people’s representatives of elected legislative bodies restrains them from “freely discharging their duties cast upon them by the voters of their respective constituencies, which is against the principles of democracy”.

“The present scenario provides a blanket disqualification, irrespective of the nature, gravity and seriousness of the offences, allegedly against the concerned member, and provides for an ‘automatic’ disqualification, which is against the principles of natural justice since various convictions are reversed at the appellate stage and under such circumstances, the valuable time of a member, who is discharging his duties towards the public at large, shall be rendered futile,” the plea, filed through advocate Deepak Prakash, said.

Regarding Gandhi’s disqualification, the plea said the conviction had been challenged, but in light of the operations of the present disqualification rules under the 1951 Act, the stage of appeal, the nature of the offences, the gravity of the offences and the impact of the same over society and the country are not being considered, and in a blanket manner, an automatic disqualification has been ordered.

It said members of Parliament are the voice of people and they uphold the right to freedom of speech and expression of millions of their supporters who have elected them.

“All that the petitioner and the petition wish to establish is that the right under Article 19(1)(a) enjoyed by a member of Parliament is an extension of the voice of millions of his supporters,” it said.