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Tribune News Service

Malout, April 13

Senior vice-chairman of Guardians of Governance (GoG) and senior adviser to Chief Minister Lieutenant-General TS Shergill (retd) on Friday held a meeting with officials and some ex-servicemen at the District Administrative Complex (DAC) in Muktsar and said this new initiative of the state government would play an active role in the overall development of the state.He said the aim of the scheme was to ensure that every scheme of the government and all grants issued by the government reach the actual beneficiaries without any delay.He said the Congress government had honoured brave ex-soldiers through this scheme who would implement it with honesty and dedication. delay.He said the Congress government

and dedication. delay.He said the Congress government

had honoured brave ex-soldiers through this scheme who would implement it with honesty and dedication

Tribune News Service

Chennai, April 13

To tide over the problem of getting spares for Russian-origin military equipment, seven MoUs were on Friday signed between Indian private companies and Russian manufacturers at the DefExpo here.The MoUs were signed at the third India-Russia military industrial conference held on the sidelines of the event.Deliberations during the conference focused on the need for improvement of after-sales support of Russian-origin defence platforms.The Indian delegation was led by Secretary (Defence Production) Dr Ajay Kumar while Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russian Federation Oleg Ryazantcev led the other side. The Russian delegation comprised senior representatives of the government and representatives of leading defence industries.Around 75 Indian defence sector manufacturing companies and 28 original equipment manufacturers from Russian industry participated in the conference.Two rounds of India-Russia military industrial conferences have been held in past: in March and August last year in New Delhi and Moscow.

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 4

Pilgrims planning to visit Hemkund Sahib in Chamoli district this year will have to shell out extra money as the fares of hiring mules, porters and palanquins have been increased. The Sikh temple will open on May 25.Pilgrims can take their vehicles till Pulna only and further they have to cover a 16-km stretch on foot. Most of the pilgrims, especially elderly, prefer to hire mules and porters as the route is arduous.The Chamoli district panchayat, which manages all these facilities, has decided to increase the fares from this year. A porter will now charge Rs 1,900 for carrying a pilgrim with weight up to 50 kg from Pulna to Hemkund Sahib for to and fro journey. Earlier, the fare was Rs 1,570. Those weighing above 50 kg will be charged Rs 2,610, while earlier it used to be Rs 2,155.Similarly, the owners of mules and horses will charge Rs 3,435 for carrying weight up to 60 kg. Earlier, the charges were Rs 2,860. For hiring palanquin, the fare has been increased from Rs 13,205 to Rs 15,850.MS Rana, a senior government official in Chamoli, said the fares had been increased after a gap of three years.

Costly affair

• A porter will charge Rs 1,900 for carrying a pilgrim with weight up to 50 kg from Pulna to Hemkund Sahib for to and fro journey. Earlier, the fare was Rs 1,570. Those weighing above 50 kg will be charged Rs 2,610. Earlier, it was Rs 2,155.
• The owners of mules and horses will charge Rs 3,435 for carrying weight up to 60 kg. Earlier, the fare was Rs 2,860. For hiring a palanquin, the fare has been increased from Rs 13,205 to Rs 15,850

Jyotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 1

The sole bailey bridge over the Assi Ganga river connecting Uttarkashi district with the Sino-Indian border collapsed on Sunday morning. No one was reportedly hurt in the incident. The 60-metre long bridge at Gangori on the Gangotri National Highway in Uttarkashi district has collapsed for the second time in over three months.The 190 feet bridge collapsed last on December 14, 2017. The bridge was repaired and opened to traffic on January 10. Located at a distance of     6 km from Uttarkashi town, the bridge is a vital link for transporting locals to and from 80 villages of Bhatwari region and tourists visiting the Gangotri temple.The bridge has a load bearing capacity of 19 tonne and is important in terms of ferrying ration and other reinforcements for the ITBP personnel guarding the Sino-Indian border in this part of the country.Efforts are now under way for immediate alternative arrangements to ensure smooth flow of traffic.The need for a permanent bridge replacing the current arrangement has been felt since long. The original bridge was washed away in the 2013 floods. Meanwhile, the district authorities are probing the reasons for the bridge collapse. Sources attribute the collapse to a large number of overloaded trucks crossing the bridge daily. With Char Dham Yatra round the corner, it has become imperative for the authorities concerned to repair the bridge as soon as possible.

Used for ferrying ration for ITBP personnel

• The 190 feet bridge is located at a distance of sixkilometres from Uttarkashi town
• The bridge is a vital link for transporting locals to and from 80 villages of Bhatwari region and tourists visiting Gangotri temple.
• It is used to ferry ration and other reinforcements for the ITBP personnel guarding the Sino-Indian border in this part of the country

New Delhi, March 29

Any “bonhomie” between the judiciary and the government would sound the “death knell” for democracy, senior-most Supreme Court judge Justice J Chelameswar has told the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and urged him to convene a full court to deal with the alleged executive interference in judiciary.In an unprecedent letter to the CJI, copies of which were also sent to 22 other apex court judges on March 21, Justice Chelameswar has questioned the probe initiated by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari against District and Sessions Judge Krishna Bhat at the request of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, despite his name being recommended for elevation twice by the Collegium.Efforts to get a response on the letter from the office of CJI Dipak Misra did not fructify, while several legal luminaries, when contacted, chose not to comment on the matter.Justice Chelameswar, who had held the unprecedented January 12 press conference along with three other senior judges raising issues, including the allocation of cases by the CJI, expressed concern over the executive directly asking the Karnataka Chief Justice to conduct a probe against Bhat, saying this was done even after his name was recommended twice for judgeship by the apex court collegium.In 2016, then Chief Justice of India T S Thakur had asked then High Court chief justice S K Mukherjee to hold an inquiry against Bhat on certain allegations levelled by a subordinate woman judicial officer. After the probe had given him a clean chit, Bhat’s name was recommended by the collegium for elevation.”Someone from Bangalore has already beaten us in the race to the bottom. The Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court is more than willing to do the Executive bidding, behind our back,” Justice Chelameswar wrote in his six-page letter.Raising the issue of judicial independence, he said, “We, the judges of the Supreme Court of India, are being accused of ceding our independence and our institutional integrity to the Executive’s incremental encroachment.”The executive is always impatient, and brooks no disobedience even of the judiciary if it can. Attempts were always made to treat the Chief Justices as the Departmental Heads in the Secretariat. So much for our ‘independence and pre-eminence’ as a distinct State organ.” The letter said: “Let us also not forget that the bonhomie between the judiciary and the government in any State sounds the death knell to democracy. We both are mutual watchdogs, so to say, no mutual admirers, much less constitutional cohorts”.Justice Chelameswar referred to the “unhappy experience” where the Government sat tight over the files even after the Collegium recommends names for appointment in the higher judiciary.”For some time, our unhappy experience has been that the government’s accepting our recommendations is an exception and sitting on them is the norm. ‘Inconvenient’ but able judges or judges to be are being bypassed through this route,” he alleged.The apex court judge, who demits office on June 22, took serious note of the communication between the Karnataka High Court chief justice and the executive saying, “the role of the High Court ceases with its recommendation”.He said that any correspondence, clarificatory or otherwise, has to be between the executive and the Supreme Court.The top court judge also said the day may not be “far off” when the executive would directly communicate with the High Court about pending cases and ask what orders are to be passed.While referring to Bhat’s case, he said, “To my mind, I could recollect no instance from the past, of the executive bypassing the Supreme Court, more particularly while its recommendations are pending, to look into the allegations already falsified and conclusively rejected by us.”Asking the High Court to re-evaluate our recommendation in this matter has to be deemed improper and contumacious.” Beseeching the CJI to take up the issue of executive interference in judiciary by convening a full court on the judicial side, he said this was necessary in order to ensure that the institution (Supreme Court) remained relevant under the scheme of the Constitution.He also referred to a past instance when the apex court had taken serious note of a direct communication of the then Law Minister to the High Courts on the issue of judges’ transfer which had finally led to the judgement in first judges case in 1981. Later, the Collegium had assumed power with regard to judges’ appointment in the higher judiciary. – PTI

Lahore, March 25

The Pakistan Government will for the first time put on display the case file of the trial of legendary Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh among other historical documents here tomorrow.This was decided at a meeting of the Punjab Government top bureaucrats, headed by chief secretary Zahid Saeed, which proclaimed the revolutionary as “hero of both India and Pakistan”.“The meeting decided that Bhagat Singh was the Independence movement hero of both India and Pakistan. The people of the country have the right to know about his (Singh) and his comrades’ great struggle to get freedom from the British Raj,” an official of the Punjab Government told PTI today.The exhibition will take place at the Anarkali tomb in Lahore which houses the Punjab Archive Department.The official said letters written by Bhagat Singh from jail to his father and for getting ‘A Class’ after declaring himself and others as political prisoners and books, newspapers, record of the hotels where he and others stayed when underground would also be exhibited.The application Bhagat Singh had written for facilities carried his signatures.“The revolutionary significantly did not end each application with the customary ‘yours truly’ or ‘obediently’. Instead he chose the words ‘Yours etc. etc.’ showing his resilience in the face of tyranny,” the official said.The case file contents to be displayed tomorrow also include the court’s order convicting him and his associates Rajguru and Sukhdev, black warrants and the jailer’s report confirming their hanging.The locations where Bhagat Singh and his associates used to stay, including a factory on Ravi Road, a rented house in Gowalmandi, another in Mozang and in Kashmir Building on McLeod Road, admission register of a comrade from the DAV college, books, novels and revolutionary literature which Bhagat Singh would read are also being displayed.The books include ‘Punjab Tragedy’, ‘Zakhmi Punjab’, ‘Ganga Das Dakoo’, ‘Sultana Dakoo’, ‘The Evolution of Sinn Fein’ and ‘History of the Sinn Fein Movement’.The case files contain documents showing how the British India police and agencies had busted the team of Bhagat Singh comprising around 25 members from different parts of India and established their links with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.Bhagat Singh was hanged by British rulers on March 23, 1931 at the age of 23 in Lahore, after being tried under charges for hatching a conspiracy against the colonial government. The case was filed against Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for allegedly killing British police officer John P Saunders.The documents to be displayed also include postmortem reports of Saunders and constable Charan Singh, the official said. — PTI

Dehradun, March 14

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today reiterated his government’s commitment on the issues of national security and said all proposals put forward by the Indian Air Force (IAF) regarding land acquisition in the state would be given due attention.A team of senior officials of the Western Air Command, led by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Air Marshal C Hari Kumar, called on Rawat and held discussions on the requirement of land for new IAF units in the state, an official press release said. — PTI

New Delhi, March 13

The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when it was dealing with an assertive China along the northern border after the Doklam face-off and increasing hostilities from Pakistan on the western frontier.The Army told a parliamentary panel that the insufficient allocation to it in the defence budget was going to hit the Army’s modernisation at a time when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of the US and Pakistan bolstering capability of its forces.Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Sarath Chand said 68 per cent of the Army’s equipment is in the ‘vintage category’, adding fund crunch will also impact the serviceability of the existing equipment and may even affect payment of instalments for past purchases.The Army’s frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget for next fiscal figured in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence, which was tabled in Lok Sabha today.Talking about the new procurement policy, delegation of financial powers to Vice Chief of Army and several other initiatives towards modernisation of the armed forces, Lt Gen Chand told the panel that “the Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes and most of what has been achieved has actually received a little setback.” He said, “Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements,” he said, adding “committed liabilities of 2017, which will also get passed on to 2018, will further accentuate the situation.” Referring to the regional security scenario, Lt Gen Chand said the possibility of “two front” war is a reality and the country needs to pay attention to modernisation of the Army. He said the Doklam issue was going on and China has become increasingly assertive.The Army also informed the panel that it does not have adequate resources to even undertake the construction of strategic roads near the Sino-India border.The Vice Chief of Army Staff also referred to daring terror attacks on military installations in Uri, Pathankot, Nagrota and Sunjuwan Cantt in Jammu and said the defence forces must get their due. On its part, the Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by BJP MP BC Khanduri, also came down hard on the government for inadequate allocation of financial resources to the armed forces. — PTI

London, March 10

A leading UK-based think tank has released a research to support its call for a new, more economical visa regime to attract Indian visitors to the country. The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) revealed that the UK was losing out as neighbouring France attracted 185,000 more Indian business visitors and tourists in 2016. Overall the number of visits to the UK by Indian nationals fell by 1.73 per cent in 2016, while in France it grew by 5.3 per cent.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) “The UK’s market share of Indian outbound tourists has more than halved from 4.4 per cent in 2006 to 1.9 per cent in 2016… 600,000 Indians visited France in 2016, 185,000 more than visited the UK,” RCS says in its new ‘Britain and India: Building a New Visa Partnership’ fact sheet presented to British MPs as part of its campaign launched in 2016 for a new UK-India bilateral visa agreement which would considerably reduce the cost of tourist visas. — PTI