Col RS Sekhon is from Jak Rifles he has commanded 3 Jak Rifles and 19 Jak Riflles . He has settled down in Jallander . A very active ESM who is s also member of Urban Estate Jalandhar Welfare Society. He voluntarily looks after Parks in Urban Estate. He is a very good orater.. His son is on his footsteps and posted in Jak Rifle unit as an officer.We welcome him to Sanjha Morcha
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 1
The Ministry of Defence wants major structural changes in the Army, IAF and the Navy, like cutting down on “flab”, doing away with posts that may have become redundant and ensure modernisation or addition of new equipment does not mean a corresponding rise in numbers for the forces.The MoD has decided to appoint a committee to suggest reforms in a time-bound manner. The committee could be headed by a retired three-star rank officer who would be understanding all operational needs and knowing how warfare has evolved or is set to evolve in the future. The last such committee, headed by former Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh, on reforms was set up a decade ago.Sources said the three forces had been asked to project what all could be done away with in the age where the traditional war fighting is changing rapidly.A large chunk of the budget for this fiscal has been kept for salaries under the “capital” head. A sum of Rs 90,208 crore, including a sum of Rs 78, 586 for new equipment, weapons, aircraft, naval warships, Army vehicles has been allocated, while salaries for the three services – Army , Navy and the IAF , along their civilian staff — has been budgeted at Rs 95,849 crore – that is Rs 5,641 crore more than the capital expense.There is no move to change the regimental system of the Army or the way the IAF or the Navy function and operate. The three forces have a combined strength of about 15.50 lakh. Even though the committee has not been given any targets for reducing numbers, sources said, one of its key targets would be to reduce expenses. This may include multiple use of lands where any of the services has a station in close proximity to each other.
AF’s Mi-17 lifts water from Bhimtal lake in Nainital to spray it over areas affected by the forest fire in Uttarakhand on Sunday. ANI photo
Tribune News Service
Dehradun/New Delhi, May 1
As the raging forest fires continue to engulf vast swathes of land across Uttarakhand, the Indian Air Force today began operations to control the situation even as the Centre said it was taking the incident “very seriously” with all possible firefighting measures.
An Mi-17 chopper made several sorties in Nainital district sprinkling water lifted from a lake to douse the raging forest fires in Almakhan, Kilbari and Nalena areas. Low visibility, however, prevented a second chopper from being deployed in Pauri district for the operations in the hill state. The forest fires have so far killed seven persons, destroyed 2,269 hectares of forested land and spread to sparsely populated remote hill areas.
Teams of the specialised National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), meanwhile, have fanned out in 13 affected areas of three districts of Pauri Garhwal, Almora and Chamoli to tackle the massive blaze.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation and held discussions with the Uttarakhand Government officials. He also offered all assistance from the Centre.
“With choppers pressed into service and all security agencies, besides locals, involved in firefighting operations, the situation is likely to be brought under control in a couple of days, Principal Conservator of Forest (PCF) BP Gupta said.
With the MeT Department predicting a significant fall in day temperatures after May 2, forest fires may come under control after a couple of days, he said, but added that the administration will have to remain alert for the next 35 days to prevent fresh forest fire incidents. Since the beginning of the forest fire season in the state in February, 922 incidents have occurred so far.
Forest fires are natural during summer but this time they have occurred on a bigger scale as the fire season, which normally begins by February 15 and ends by June 15, started early on February 2. (with PTI inputs)
In Rajasthan, the highest temperature of 46.5°C was recorded at Phalodi town in Jodhpur district, followed by Sri Ganganagar (46.3), Churu (46), Bikaner (45.8), Barmer (45.2) andJaipur (43.3).
EHRADUN: The air force flew three helicopters on Sunday to contain raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, which have gutted more than 2,300 hectares of lush Himalayan forestland over the past fortnight and claimed at least seven lives.
ARVIND MOUDGIL / HTFire rages close to a residential area in a village in Pauri district on Saturday night.
But one of the Mi-17 helicopters could not take off till afternoon because of a thick smoke over the Garhwal region. It managed seven sorties after 4pm.
The choppers for the Kumaon division were in action since 7am, collecting water from the Bhimtal lake and emptying the load over wildfires in Nainital and Almora districts.
The air support helped the field teams of firefighters from the state forest and fire departments, army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and village volunteers.
“The forest department hopes the fire will be brought under control in the next 2-3 days as the meteorological office has predicted rain,” additional chief secretary S Ramaswami said.
The joint effort has paid off, bringing down the number of blazes from 160 on Saturday to 112 on Sunday.
The state reported 1,082 forest fires in the past two-and-a-half months.
But about 35 major fires in the popular tourist and pilgrim destinations of Rudraprayag, Pauri Garhwal, Chamoli, Almora, Nainital, and Dehradun hills remained a worry.
Piyoosh Rautela, the executive director with the state’s Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre, said as many as 135 NDRF personnel were working in 139 locations.
Strong winds, a prolonged dry spell, hazy conditions, and treacherous mountain slopes posed a serious challenge to the firefighters trying to stop the fires from spreading. Reports said the wildfire has already spread to neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
The haze has brought down visibility and making breathing difficult. “The thick smoke is posing problems in the operation,” Garhwal division divisional forest officer Ramesh Chandra said.
People from villages within a licking distance of flames have been evacuated. But the worst sufferers are animals and nesting birds in Corbett tiger reserve, Rajaji tiger reserve and Kedarnath wildlife sanctuary, where about 550 hectares were reduced to ashes in this season’s forest fires. In New Delhi, home minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation in Uttarakhand, which is under central rule since March 27.Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar said the Centre was making all efforts to control the forest fires. “The government will study the reasons and prepare an action plan accordingly.” Local environmentalist Vijay Jardhari of Tehri probably knows the reason. He said wildfires have become common because villagers and forest officials have discarded traditional preventive measures.
“There was a trend to make fire lines outside forests since the British-era. This is not done religiously now … which is why uncontrolled fire is becoming commonplace,” he explained.
A fire line is made by clearing waste such as tree leaves and other biological inflammable material from within a forest and its edge. The fires generated political heat too as the Congress, which was ousted from power in the state, accused the BJP-led NDA government of doing little to check the crisis.
Cong ress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the fire situation spiraled out of control because there is no state government to tackle it. He taunted environment minister Javadekar for conducting a “press conference in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi to douse fires in Uttarakhand”.
United Nations, April 28
Taking a hands-off approach on Kashmir, United Nations Peace Building Commission Chair Macharia Kamau has said that the primacy of politics and the local conditions that drive any negotiations between India and Pakistan have to be “respected”.Answering questions at a news conference, Kamau said that the Kashmir issue “will be resolved in the context of the local domestic political environment between Pakistan and India”. Kamau is also Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN.Outlining the Commission’s three-fold approach to the Kashmir issue, he cited “the primacy of politics” and said, “We have to respect the local conditions that drive the negotiations.” Another element was that “we respect the idea they must sustain peace, so the situation cannot be allowed to deteriorate”.And he set the limit to any role in dealing with the dispute, ruling out any direct involvement. “We reach out to as many of the institutions within the subcontinent to support this (peace) process moving forward. That is the ambition we would have for that process on the subcontinent.”“Will it have an overnight fundamental impact that would change everything on the ground?” Kamau asked rhetorically and said, “That is a ‘may be’ precisely because the situations on the ground are driven by different forces other than the ones that we are looking to address ourselves.”Responding to a reporter’s question if that meant a solution to the almost 70-year dispute was not likely, he said, “We never say never in our business. That is not the way.” He added, “The whole idea of building peace is to always seek solutions and look for the historical moment, the historical opportunity that will avail of the opportunity to engage and to bring the instruments that are now available to us in the context of the resolutions to bear on the situation.”At the same time, it has to be done “keeping in mind, as I said, that we have to respect primacy of the political situation on the ground”, he again emphasised. Asked by a Pakistani reporter if it meant a peace process will depend on Indian’s willingness to talk, Kamau said, “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that.” And he yet again added the caveat, “What I would say is that the situation on the ground has to be respected. And it isn’t about any one country. It is about all the political players on the ground.”— IANSITBP N-E HQs to be in ItanagarNew Delhi: Amidst concerns over Chinese military activities along the forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh, India has started the process of shifting the North-East headquarters of the ITBP, 500 km from Shillong to state capital Itanagar. pti
Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 26
India and Pakistan Foreign Secretaries here today finally resumed talks, in what was the first interaction between the neighbours after the Pathankot terror attacks in the first week of January.While India showed concern over terrorism as well as the Pathankot attacks, Pakistan harped on Kashmir.Islamabad also took up the arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav who, Pakistan alleges, is a RAW agent, a charge denied by India. Sources said Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar even told his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry that no spy agency would put their agent in the field with their own passport and without a visa.India also pressed for immediate consular access to Yadav. What raised many eyebrows was the fact that Pakistan released a statement on the talks even while the meeting was in progress.In a meeting that lasted 90 minutes, Jaishankar told Chaudhry, “Terrorist groups based in Pakistan that are targeting India must not be allowed to operate with impunity.” He said Pakistan could not be in denial on the impact of terrorism on the bilateral relations.India also rebutted all allegations of its involvement in Balochistan. India pointed out that Yadav was an abducted naval officer, thus dismissing allegations of his being a spy. India said it needed early and visible progress on both Pathankot and 26/11 attacks.The Pakistan High Commission said that Chaudhry took up the issue of Yadav and expressed serious concern over RAW’s alleged involvement in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi. He also conveyed concern over efforts by Indian authorities for the release of the prime suspects of the Samjhauta Express blasts.
Priya Atwal
A treaty, which the young Sikh royal had no choice but to sign, read, “The gem… shall be surrendered by the Maharajah of Lahore to the Queen of England.”
In this April 2002 photo, the Kohinoor, set in the Maltese Cross on the crown made for Britain’s late Queen Mother Elizabeth, is seen on her coffin as it is drawn to London’s Westminster Hall. AP/PTI
At a Supreme Court hearing on the Kohinoor issue on Monday, Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar surprisingly stated on behalf of the Culture Ministry that “the diamond was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away”. Instead, Kumar claimed, the stone had been “gifted” to the East India Company by the former rulers of the Punjab. The Supreme Court justices themselves then cautioned Kumar, advising that such a stance would threaten India’s ability to later stage any further claim to the diamond. This appears to have prompted the government to issue a new statement on Tuesday evening, in which it was asserted that their views had “not yet been conveyed” and that the Solicitor-General had merely “informed the honourable court about the history of the diamond”. How could the Solicitor-General come up with his narrative, which is dramatically at odds with the records of Punjabi history.One document in particular sealed the fate of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Sikh Empire and the Kohinoor diamond in one fell swoop: the 1849 Treaty of Lahore. This treaty was presented to the Maharaja to sign after the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848-9, at a moment when an anti-British rebellion by Punjabi soldiers and ‘sardars’ had been clinically suppressed by the Company. This was a rebellion in which the boy king had himself played no part, but for which he was made to suffer the consequences, as the then Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, had decided that he would no longer allow the troublesome nature of Punjabi independence to thwart British imperial ambitions in India. Dalhousie’s Secretary, Sir Henry Elliott, was duly dispatched to Lahore at the end of the war, and he told Duleep Singh and his courtiers that they were to sign away the kingdom without hesitation, or face much harsher consequences.The treaty presented by Elliott to the boy Maharajah included clauses for the takeover of the Punjab and all its state property by the Company, as well making provisions for a life pension for Duleep Singh and his family. It also featured a distinct clause about the Kohinoor, which read thus: “The gem called the Koh-i-Noor, which was taken from Shah Sooja-ool-moolk by Maharajah Runjeet Singh, shall be surrendered by the Maharajah of Lahore to the Queen of England.”If the Kohinoor was intended as a gift by the Maharajah to Queen Victoria, the use of the term “surrender” in this document would certainly suggest that it was given unwillingly, to say the least. It would even seem that the British Queen herself was aware of Duleep Singh’s sensitivity on the issue – as can be seen from an account written by Lady Lena Login (wife of the Maharajah’s guardian, Sir John Spencer Login), who was present when Duleep was briefly reunited with his lost gem at Buckingham Palace, in the summer of 1854.Lena Login wrote in her memoirs that the subject of the Kohinoor was deliberately not mentioned in Duleep Singh’s presence, since it was a painful reminder of the loss of his dynasty’s imperial sovereignty. However, the matter was brought up by the Queen soon after her first meeting with Duleep Singh, when she privately asked Lady Login whether “the Maharajah ever spoke of the Kohinoor, and if so, did he seem to regret it?” The Queen offered to show him the diamond once again, thinking that it might please her new Indian friend, but only after it had been ascertained by the Logins that it would not provoke an awkward or angry reaction from him.A few days later, Lady Login stood spectator with great trepidation when the Queen surprised the Maharajah during his portrait sitting at the palace, bustling into the room with the diamond and several Beefeaters in tow. In a tale that is now famous, Duleep Singh reportedly trembled as he took the precious stone in his hand, gazing at it intensely and noting how it sparkled much more than before, but was also much smaller to hold since Prince Albert had ordered its re-shaping. Lady Login recorded her fear that he would hurl the jewel out of the window in a fit of rage, but this quickly melted into relief when, instead, the Maharajah turned and bowed low before the Queen, “expressing in a few gracious words the pleasure it afforded him to have this opportunity of himself placing it in Her hands.”Perhaps this is what the Solicitor General is referring to as the “gifting” of the Kohinoor. However, the existence of a treaty and the presence of royal guards surrounding the Maharajah surely make it clear that this was far from a free-willed act, despite his dignified and magnanimous approach. What other choice did he really have?One wonders what good a relatively narrow debate over a wretched stone could provide for healing the long-lasting wounds inflicted by British imperialism on South Asia; but if we are going to have one, let our legal authorities at least do their history homework before getting on with it.The writer is reading for a DPhil in History on nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian royal relations, at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Beijing, April 19
China today maintained that its decision to block the bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN was in accordance with “facts and relevant resolutions”, a statement that came a day after two senior Indian ministers raked up the issue with their Chinese counterparts.China was in “sound communication” with all relevant parties, including the Indian side over the Azhar issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said ahead of the crucial boundary talks tomorrow between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Doval arrived in Beijing this evening.As both External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar raised the Azhar issue strongly yesterday in their talks with their counterparts asking China to review its stand, Hua once again reiterated that Beijing’s decision was in accordance with “facts” and “relevant” UN resolutions.“As for the listing matter, China has already expressed its position. We support the UN central coordinating role in the world campaign against terrorism and China has taken active part in the world cooperation against terrorism,” Hua said.“We oppose double standards in counter-terrorism campaign. We have been dealing with the listing matter in accordance with the facts and relevant resolutions. We are also in sound communication with all relevant parties including the Indian side,” she said. China’s assertion came in the backdrop of Swaraj’s remarks at the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers meet in Moscow where she warned the international community of “serious consequences” if it continues to adopt “double standards” in dealing with terrorism.China’s “hidden veto” in blocking India’s bid to get Azhar banned by the UN has cast a shadow on the Sino- India boundary talks beginning here tomorrow. While Swaraj raised the Azhar issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Moscow, Parrikar said he took up the matter with top defence officials yesterday. — PTI
