When Manmohan Singh, who opened the new era of economic liberalisation back in 1991 during his tenure as Finance Minister, calls the current slowdown a man-made crisis, the NDA government can’t afford to dismiss his concerns as an opposition leader’s rant. The renowned economist has appealed to the powers that be to put aside vendetta politics and reach out to the ‘sane voices and thinking minds’ to revitalise the economy. Though the oblique reference to the contentious case of fellow Congress leader P Chidambaram could have been avoided, the former PM deserves to be heard, laying bare the malaise afflicting the economic ecosystem.

The tell-tale signs are too alarming to be ignored. India is no longer the fastest growing major economy in the world; according to India Today, it has been overtaken by China, Vietnam, Egypt and Indonesia. The GDP growth rate has dropped to a six-year low of 5 per cent for the April-June quarter; the rate was as high as 8 per cent in the corresponding period of the 2018-19 financial year. Pushed to the brink, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reversed some of her budgetary proposals in a bid to allay the industry’s apprehensions. Rather than trying to defend the indefensible, she is coming up with corrective steps and reaching out to the stakeholders. However, there is a general perception that the government has taken too long to come out of the self-congratulatory mode after the landslide victory in the 2019 General Election.

The massive mandate that the BJP received — despite the widespread upheaval caused by demonetisation and GST— led to complacency that fuelled $5-trillion dreams. The rank failure of the Opposition to regroup also emboldened the ruling party to have visions of invincibility. The rampaging BJP might be expanding its footprint across the country, but the economic mess has well and truly cut short its honeymoon. Desperate measures like making the RBI part with

Rs 1.76 lakh crore won’t be of much help in the long run. Now that her mentor Arun Jaitley is not around, Sitharaman must pay heed to the voices that count, even if these emanate from the rival camp.

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

Soon, you will be able to post pictures of violations on the Municipal Corporation’s WhatsApp number and in return get rewarded too.

The civic body has decided to start a WhatsApp complaint number where residents will not only be able to post pictures of their grievances, but also of violations. MC Commissioner KK Yadav today asked officials to make arrangements and come up with a contact number and plan for the purpose.

Images of violations, including littering, dumping plastic waste, water wastage, sewerage issue, kundi connection from street lights and temporary encroachments, can be posted on the number.

Residents will be asked to post real-time picture, in which the date, time and place is mentioned, so that genuine pictures are posted on the WhatsApp number. If any violation is found at that place, officials will issue a challan and reward the person who has posted it. However, the reward amount is yet to be finalised.

With regard to grievances, a time frame will be fixed to resolve the problem. If the issue is not fixed by the official concerned in the given period, an explanation will be sought from him. “Everything will be online. If some issue is not being resolved or there is some inherent reason behind it, then the official himself has to state the reason,” shared an official.

MC officials said the number will later be merged with the service app to be started under the Smart City Mission. The app will have all 14 services, including water, birth/death certificate and property tax, being offered by the MC. All other departments falling under the UT Administration will also be there. Residents will be able to complain from this common app to all departments in the city.

The traffic police already run such a WhatApp number and Facebook page in the city, from where challans are issued on the basis of violation pictures posted on these by the general public.

How it will work

• The MC has decided to start a WhatsApp number where residents will not only be able to post pictures of their grievances, but also of violations in civic matters.
• If any violation is found at that place, officials will issue a challan and reward the person who has posted it. However, the reward amount is yet to be finalised.

Latest rules say Lt Colonels will not be promoted as ‘time-scale Colonels’ by the Army if their mental health is impacted by alcoholism or any form of substance abuse.

New Delhi: Lieutenant Colonels who are not in the best of psychological health because of alcoholism or any form of substance abuse will no longer be promoted as ‘time-scale Colonels’ by the Army, no matter how exceptionally they perform, ThePrint has learnt.

Time-scale Colonels are those Army officers who are given the rank after completing 26 years in service. Lt Colonels are eligible for promotion as Colonels after 16-18 years in service, but often miss the bus owing to a lack of vacancies or because they fail to clear the promotion board. These candidates are promoted as time-scale Colonels after 26 years.

Time-scale Colonels write the letters ‘TS’ against their rank.

The amended promotion rules were issued by the Personnel and Services Department of the Army last month.

The bar on promotions, a top Army source told ThePrint, will not apply if the cause of psychological issues is determined to be something else, like a stressful home situation, the loss of a loved one, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The psychological scale

The mental health of Army officers is determined through a five-point scale that runs from S1 to S5, where S1 constitutes the fittest one can be. These are ascertained by military psychiatrists. Qualification as S5, Army officials explained, leads to disqualification.

According to the Army’s tweaked promotion rules, Lt Colonels found to be in the “S2” category of psychological or mental health because of alcoholism or substance abuse will not be eligible for promotion, even if they have good Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs), which document a candidate’s performance, and are medically fit otherwise (vision, hearing, overall physiology, etc).

A steep pyramid

Colonels constitute the fifth rung of the hierarchy among Army officers, after Lieutenant, Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel.

The first four ranks are determined by the time personnel spend in the force: They are commissioned as Lieutenants, become Captains after two years of service, Majors after six years, and Lieutenant Colonels after 13 years.

After that, the hierarchy becomes steep, and promotion is incumbent on vacancies — when a Colonel is promoted as Brigadier or retires.

Lt Colonels thus get two kinds of promotions: One is ‘selection grade’ promotion, which takes place after a candidate completes 16 to 18 years of commissioned service. Candidates at this stage have to appear before a promotion board. As many as 50 per cent of Lt Colonels are not promoted as Colonels after the promotion board.

Those who are not empanelled as Colonels at this time are promoted as time-scale Colonels after 26 years of commissioned service, subject to consistently high ACRs and medical fitness.

So far, promotion as time-scale colonels was considered relatively more relaxed.

Another senior Army official said the measure was meant to put emphasis on the health of Army personnel.

“Most Lt Colonels miss being empanelled not because of reasons under their control, but because of lack of vacancies,” the official said. “This move will keep them motivated to take care of their health and fitness.”

Psychological health remains an important concern for armed forces personnel, who work under extreme work conditions and stress. This also reflects in the number of suicides involving military personnel in India.

Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply to Parliament this year that 104 military personnel committed suicide in 2018.

Speaking at a retiring officers’ meeting, General Rawat said that several cases of corruption have come out in military housing projects. Strict action is being taken against erring officials, news agency ANI reported quoting officials.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday cautioned officers and jawans to exercise most stringent security protocols to avoid breaches in cyber and information security. He also warned of strict action against the erring officials involved in corruption in military housing projects.

Speaking at a retiring officers’ meeting, General Rawat said that several cases of corruption have come out in military housing projects. Strict action is being taken against erring officials, news agency ANI reported quoting officials.

On the matter of cyber and information security, General Rawat said that some cases of serious breaches of operational information have come across recently.

In June, the Indian Army had punished a Lieutenant General after allegations of corruption were levelled against him for misusing the government funds. Ever since General Rawat has taken over as the Chief of the Indian Army, he has clearly told officers and personnel that moral turpitude and financial corruption in the force won`t be tolerated.

he charge was made during an ongoing trial against Lt. Col. Dharamvir Singh, who says he is being framed by ‘rogue officers’ for complaining against their involvement in extrajudicial killings in the state.

New Delhi: In a startling turn of events, a lieutenant colonel of the army’s 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (CISU) – posted in Manipur – has told an internal court of inquiry that a major of the same unit destroyed the original official documents related to the recovery of a huge cache of unaccounted arms and ammunition from inside the unit premises in July 2018.

Lt. Col. R.P. Nanda said this as a witness in the ongoing trial against another Lt. colonel, Dharamvir Singh, from whom he took over as the commanding officer of the 3 CISU unit in Manipur’s M-Sector in Imphal. The trial is ongoing at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh where Lt. Col. Singh is currently posted.

The trial is being conducted on the basis of a letter written by Lt. Col. Nanda on July 2, 2018, to the commanding officer (CO) of the unit, who operates from the 3 Corps headquarters in Dimapur (Nagaland). He alleged in his letter that the cache of arms was found in the possession of his predecessor, Lt. Col. Singh, on July 1, 2018, inside M-Sector in Imphal.

However, on the morning of July 1, 2018, Lt. Col. Singh was reportedly “illegally” arrested in the presence of Lt. Col. Nanda and Major B.S. Rathore – the officer who is said to have torn the original official document regarding the recovery of arms.

Lt. Col. Singh was thereafter taken to Dimapur. It meant that the said arms and ammunition were recovered in the absence of Lt. Col. Singh.

Though Lt. Col. Nanda’s letter – mentioning the serious allegation of keeping arms illegally inside a high-security army installation since 2016 – was received by the CO in Dimapur on July 2, 2018, Lt. Col. Singh told the court of inquiry that he was neither given any information about the charge nor asked for an explanation – as is the norm in the army. Instead, he was asked to resume normal duty at Dimapur.

Significantly, Lt. Col. Singh, otherwise a decorated army officer, has alleged that he was being “framed and victimised by a set of rogue officers” of the unit for writing a letter to the CO on September 9, 2016, informing him about the “involvement” of fellow officers in the extrajudicial killing of a student, Th. Satish, along with four other Manipuri youth and “commission of extortion by few rogue officers, including the Jorhat robbery.”

Also read | In Manipur Fake Encounter Cases, CBI Chases ‘Unknown Persons’ of Known Identity

The Jorhat robbery case had created a sensation in Assam in December 2011. The district police, following an investigation, said that 15 personnel from the 3 Corps of Dimapur were involved in an armed robbery inside the house of one Surajit Gogoi in Rowriah area of Jorhat. Shockingly, they were reportedly in their uniform.

Lt. Col. Singh’s allegation of extrajudicial killings is noteworthy considering the Supreme Court is hearing a PIL seeking a probe into 1,528 cases of such suspected killings by security forces in Manipur. So far, the court has sought an investigation into 41 cases by a special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

On July 3, 2018, on not being able to establish any contact with her husband or get any information about his whereabouts, Lt. Col. Singh’s wife, Ranju Singh, filed an FIR in an Imphal police station. She also held a press meet in Imphal after slipping out of her husband’s official quarters inside M-Sector to state the same, besides filing a writ petition in the Manipur high court seeking his whereabouts.

On the HC’s direction, Lt. Col. Singh was produced in court and the army said he was not arrested but taken to Dimapur to resume his duty.

However, Lt. Col. Singh was soon transferred to Pasighat and asked to face an internal inquiry on the basis of Lt. Col. Nanda’s letter to the CO in 2018. Though Lt. Col. Singh got an interim stay on that order from the Manipur high court, the Supreme Court vacated it in February 2019 directing the officer to face trial.

In April, Lt. Col. Singh filed another petition in the Manipur HC seeking a directive to the state government to register an FIR regarding the recovery of the huge cache of arms and ammunition from M-Sector. He also sought a court-monitored probe to ascertain how the arms remained secretly stored for about two years inside the unit before being discovered by Lt. Col. Nanda, and asked the court to prosecute those responsible for it.

Significantly, Nanda’s letter had also alleged that a cadre of the armed group United National Liberation Front (UNLF) named Japan and a civilian named Naoba were also residing in the barracks for about six months.

Also read: How Unregistered Weapons Were Procured for Fake Encounters, Surrender Dramas

The HC, thereafter, asked the state government to respond to it. Though it is mandatory under the Arms Act, 1959, to file an FIR at the nearest police station after the recovery of unaccounted arms and ammunition, and thereafter hand over the cache to the police without delay, the state government contended that it was an internal matter of the army and it would rather stay away from it.

Notably, Lt. Col. Nanda’s confession to the internal inquiry proceedings, made on March 4, 2019, about the original documents being destroyed by Major Rathore on the same day of its recovery – July 1, 2018 – brings to fore Lt. Col. Singh’s allegations that some ‘rogue officers’ had tried to frame him.

What is also to be underlined is that Lt. Col. Nanda admitted at the trial that he wrote the letter to the CO in July 2018 against Lt. Col. Singh on the directions of Brigadier Administrative and Brigadier Intelligence of 3 Corps.

On July 8, Lt. Col. Singh’s lawyer, Shreeji Bhavsar, appearing before the Manipur HC, presented the confession of Lt. Col. Nanda in the summary of evidence proceedings of the trial. He argued that Lt. Col. Singh was framed and victimised just because he wrote the letter in 2016 to the CO informing him about some rogue officers’ “illegal acts”.

Among other questions, Bhavsar also raised the point that if such a letter about the recovery of arms and ammunition was received by the CO, why then was it not mentioned in the court when Lt. Col. Singh was produced before it.

Speaking to The Wire, Bhavsar said, “Destruction of official documents regarding recovery of illegal arms and ammunition by an officer of the army is a serious criminal offence. Few officers in 3 Corps shall not try to cover up the crime and order inquiry at the highest level to unearth the larger conspiracy in which Lt. Col. Dharamvir Singh has been framed. We have full faith in the institution of the army and the honourable high court of Manipur that they will deal with the offenders with an iron hand and will bring justice to the honest and upright officer.”

The high court has adjourned the case till August 28 for further arguments and for the maintainability of Lt. Col. Singh’s petition.

The full OROP granted by the National Democratic Alliance government in 2015 has not been implemented so far’.

New Delhi: Ex-servicemen are raising the pitch of their request that the Centre implement the One Rank One Pension (OROP) in letter and spirit.

The ex-servicemen claim that the full OROP granted by the NDA government in November 2015 has not been implemented so far. According to them, this OROP has several anomalies which need to be removed. Moreover, they say that the OROP, which is due for revision from 1 July 2019, is being challenged by Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) by their letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which says that this revision is not necessary. The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) has filed a case in the Supreme Court in this regard. The apex court has advised the government to talk to the ex-Army men and resolve the issue. However, this has not been done so far. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Maj. Gen. Satbir Singh, Chairman of the IESM, said that the approved definition as announced by the MoS Defence on 2 December 2014 and as given in the MoD letter subsequently has been amended in such a way that may affect “the very soul of OROP”.

The four main anomalies of OROP implementation were pointed out to the government, but these have not yet been rectified so far, causing financial disadvantage to the Defence personnel, 85% of whom are of the rank of Sepoy and their dependants and widows, he said.

When all doors were closed for the ex-servicemen to get full OROP implemented, the IESM knocked the doors of the Supreme Court which asked the government to call the petitioner (IESM) to discuss and resolve the OROP anomalies. “So far, the Raksha Mantri has not yet granted a meeting with our delegation to discuss resolution of OROP anomalies,” said Maj. Gen. Singh.

“It’s not that we have not got anything. The pension has increased due to implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission. But the full OROP has still not been implemented,” he added.

CGDA, in the meantime, has written a letter to Minister of Defence questioning the logic of equalisation of pension with effect from 1 July 2019. “The Raksha Mantri has constituted a committee to go into the equalisation of OROP pensions. It is a surprising that a committee has been constituted on an issue which stood settled by the government. Also, it is intriguing that representative from the IESM has not been included in the committee,” he said, adding: “we urge Rajnath Singhji to fix a meeting with the IESM delegation to resolve the anomalies”.

Maj. Gen. Singh also asked that the constitution of the committee ordered to go into equalisation of pension be cancelled and the report of the one-man judicial committee report, which was submitted in October 2016 on the issue be made public. He also urged that the definition of OROP as per the Koshayari Committee report be accepted and implemented. The expectation is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take action on the matter, in the manner that he intervened earlier.

Exchange of firing is on. Tribune file photo

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 30

A militant was on Sunday killed in a gunfight with security forces in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Bugam area of Budgam district in central Kashmir Sunday morning following specific inputs about the presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said as the forces were conducting searches, the militants fired upon them.

The forces retaliated, ensuing an encounter in which one militant was killed, the official said.

He said the body has been recovered along with arms and ammunition, adding the identity and group affiliation of the slain ultra was being ascertained.