Current Events :
Chandigarh: A Kargil war veteran and military psychologist has published a book on ‘psychology for the military spouse’ as a tribute to the sacrifices made by them. Titled WAGs, an acronym often used for wives and girlfriends, the book, edited by Lt Col (Dr) Samir Rawat, aims at creating awareness about the spouse’s role in the soldier’s wellbeing before, during and after deployment in operational areas. TNS
New Delhi, July 17
More than 56,000 acres in J&K is with the defence and the total rent paid for it to land owners or the state government in the last three years is more than Rs 134 crore, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik, in his written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, gave details of the district-wise total land in J&K with different defence departments, wings and organisations.
He said the different defence departments, wings and organisations had 18,935.474 acres in Jammu, 3,757.845 acres in Srinagar, 2,326.644 acres in Budgam, 2,152.83 acres in Anantnag, 3,963.03 acres in Udhampur and 3,529.871 acres in Kargil.
Naik also gave the details of the land with the defence departments, wings and organisations in other districts of the state with the total of such land being 56,615.54 acres.
The minister also gave the details of the district-wise rent paid in the last three years to land owners or the state governmentfor defence land.
According to the data provided by him, more than Rs 134 crore was paid as rent in the last three years. Meanwhile, more than Rs 24 is the outstanding rent that is to be paid for the defence land in the state, Naik added. — PTI
Washington, July 18
America’s defence partnership with India is strong and is looking to make it ever stronger, the Pentagon has said as it warned nations against purchasing military hardware from other countries that are designed to counter its sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft.
The comments come a day after President Donald Trump has announced that the US would not sell the F-35 fighter jets to Turkey after Ankara purchased the S-400 missile defence system from sanctions-hit Russia.
“Our defence partnership with India, I think, is strong and we’re looking to make it ever stronger,” David J Trachtenberg, the deputy undersecretary of defence for policy, told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.
Trachtenberg was responding to a question on the impact on bilateral defence ties as India goes ahead with its decision to purchase S-400 missile defence system from Russia.
“Can you have a major defence partnership with India, which is going ahead with a decision to buy S-400?” he was asked.
“I think the message we are sending is that we want to make sure that other countries are not purchasing equipment that is designed to counter our sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft,” Trachtenberg said. “The other message we’re sending is that we are consistent in our approach on this.”
India inked an agreement with Russia last October to procure a batch of the S-400 missile systems at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore.
Trachtenberg said America’s decision to unwind Turkey’s participation in the F-35 programme was no surprise as its concerns had repeatedly been communicated to the Turkish government.
“Our reaction today is a specific response to a specific event. It is separate and distinct from the broader range of security interests where the United States and Turkey work together against common threats,” he said.
The official said the military-to-military relationship between the two countries remained strong. He added that the US would continue to participate with Turkey in multilateral exercises, as well as engage with the country on a broad range of NATO issues.
“While Turkey’s decision is unfortunate, ensuring the security and integrity of the F-35 programme and the capabilities it will provide to our partners remains our top priority,” Trachtenberg said.
Undersecretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said when Turkey began publicly discussing its interest in the Russian-made missile defence system since early 2017, the US government had consistently communicated that the F-35 and S-400 were incompatible.
“Turkey cannot field a Russian intelligence collection platform in proximity to where the F-35 programme makes repairs and houses the F-35. Much of the F-35 strength lies in its stealth capabilities,” she said. “So, the ability to detect those capabilities would jeopardise the long-term security of the F-35 programme.” PTI
Chandigarh, July 10
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has described as “completely wrong” the move to bring a bill which seeks to remove the Congress president as a permanent member in a trust that runs the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial.
The bill, moved by Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel in the Lok Sabha on Monday, states that it seeks to “delete” the mention of ‘President of the Indian National Congress’ as a trustee.
The stated aim of the move is to make the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial apolitical.
A similar bill was brought by the previous government but it could not get the parliamentary nod and lapsed.
“It is completely wrong to remove the Congress party (president) from the trust. The Congress has been associated with the Jallianwala Bagh (memorial) from the day it was set up,” he told reporters here on Tuesday.
The trust has the prime minister as the chairperson, and president of the Indian National Congress, the culture minister, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Punjab governor and the Punjab CM as its members.
The memorial was established in 1951 by the central government to mark the massacre of unarmed people on April 13, 1919 by the British Indian Army under the command of Col Reginald Dyer.
To a question on state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu yet to assume the charge of the power department, the Chief Minister refused to comment.
The state BJP has written to Governor VP Singh Badnore, seeking his intervention to end the “stalemate” between Singh and Sidhu, claiming consumers were suffering as the power department had remained “unattended” for over a month. PTI
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday raised in .. 
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Manish Tewari Wednesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of falling defence allocation in the Union Budget and pointed out that China’s defence spending has been growing.
He expressed the hope that the government would address the issue and the concern would be taken care of in the upcoming Budget.
“China is spending more on defence. Their defence spending has grown over the years,” Tewari said in the Lok Sabha during the Zero Hour.
Citing a Parliamentary panel report, he said, the country’s defence expenditure was reduced to 1.60 per cent of the GDP in 2017-18.
It further came down to 1.52 per cent in the interim Budget for 2019-20.
Raising the issue of death of construction workers in Pune and Mumbai, Girish Bapat (BJP) said there is an urgent need to implement Development Control (DC) Rules so that they are brought under the safety net.
Our Correspondent
Leh, June 30
A guest lecture session on the Kargil war by veterans was held here on Saturday as part of the special national integration camp to mark the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas.
The camp started on June 26 under the aegis of the National Cadet Corps and is being organised at the Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre, Phyang. It is one of the series of outreach programmes to highlight the victory of India over Pakistan in the Kargil war of 1999. The theme of the Kargil war celebrations is rejoice, renew and remember.
During a guest lecture on Saturday, Col Sonam Wangchuk, hero of the Kargil war, shared stories and anecdotes of Operation Vijay with the cadets.
He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. President Ram Nath Kovind released a documentary named “Lion of Ladakh” about the troops under Colonel Wangchuk, who repelled enemy forces from Chorbat La in the Batalik sector. He was successful in pushing them back on May 31, 1999. It was the first successful operation of the war.
He said his achievement had given a boost to the morale of other units of the Army. Colonel Wangchuk is known as the Lion of Ladakh and is the first Army officer who had achieved success in the Kargil war.
The war veteran motivated the young cadets to join the Army to serve the nation. Colonel Sonam Wanghuk stressed the need to be physically and mentally fit and to become a role model in society with good values and discipline.
About 500 cadets from various states and Union Territories are taking part in the special national integration camp at the Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre. Governor Satya Pal Malik is expected to attend its closing ceremony on July 7.
https://www.nagpurtoday.in/
Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, April 17
Amid mounting anger against the biweekly ban on civilian traffic on the national highway, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has ordered a probe into the incident involving the death of a cancer patient whose ambulance was repeatedly stopped during the convoy movement last week.
Despite orders to allow movement of ambulances during the ban, the driver of the vehicle carrying the patient to Doda after his discharge from a Srinagar hospital last Wednesday was stopped around 50 times on April 10, including a 30-minute halt at Lower Munda.
Abdul Qayoom Banday of Doda was stopped on the Srinagar-Jammu NH near Lower Munda in Qazigund area on April 10 for about 30 minutes by CRPF men.
Ambulance driver Javed Ahmad said the patient died near Batote. “Before that, our ambulance was stopped around 50 times between Srinagar and Doda.”
This is the first casualty due to the biweekly ban on civilian traffic on the 270-km Baramulla-Srinagar-Udhampur highway imposed on April 3. “A high-level inquiry has been ordered,” the CRPF said, expressing “anguish” over the demise of the patient after a video of the ambulance being stopped surfaced on the social media.
The force said: “Strict instructions are in place to enable speedy passage of ambulances and ailing civilians.”
The Government advised by the Civil Service manning the MoD and aided by the Military Bureaucracy duty bound to obey due to the strict discipline code, seems to embark on a dangerous course of action.
The ECHS when merged with Ayushman Bharat will have two possible implications:
First: The scarce budget of the Veterans will be gobbled by the general patients leaving the Veteran patients sucking their thumbs. While today a few reputed hospitals are opting for de- panelling, in post Ayushman Bharat era , most reputed hospitals will be out of reach of Veterans.
Second: the quality of the treatment and patient care would fall so drastically that every Veteran would be forced to pay for his treatment in a reputed non empaneled hospital. This will create such dissatisfaction about the post retirement Medical Care of Veterans leading to possible poor morale among the serving soldiers as most of the Veteran are theirvclose kin and such burden of medical bills would fall on the heads of serving personnel.
By purpose or unwittingly, is there a campaign to change the way the Armed Forces live, administer themselves and look after the Veteran. Let the Political, Bureaucratic and Military leaders understand that the way that the Military lived, administered its serving and retired personnel ensured that the Armed Forces remained apolitical, professional and loyal to the country. Any whole sale change in these aspects can have far reaching consequences for the country, Government and the Armed Forces.
Why is there a fund crunch for ex servicemen? Reduce the salaries of all MP’s, MLA’s to 1/4 of their existing salaries, remove all their perks, security , no increase in their salaries. Stop pension for all who have not completed minimum 20 years. No Government vehicles to transport them, the Government will never be have any shortage of funds.
Also get the unaccounted money parked abroad, there’s plenty of funds.
It’s a challenge for the Government & not remove all entitlements agreed at the time of recruitment. A written promise committed by the Government in the form of advertisement can be challenged in the court of law. They can no longer take us for granted.
Why a scheme like ECH purely meant for Armed Forces should be merged with any other scheme,90%of soldiers after retirement suffer from serious health problems which are result of serving in extreme adverse physical and psychological conditions which adversely effect physical and mental health.There is no comparision to such conditions with civilian counter parts.So taking away the only post retirement health care scheme from soldiers who served the nation with utmost loyalty is grave injustice,it is already starving of funds inspite of one time contribution paid by retiring Sainiks.It is high time the serving Generals should take care of veterans and not submit to undue demands from politicians who act on mis guided and distorted information fed by bureaucracy.I give my own example,within six months of retirement i developed back ach,my hyper tension disease detected one and half year before retirement not granted any disability pension,because detected in peace station without giving due consideration to prior servicr done in Counter insugency operations and field areas.
Before government goes ahead with this merger etc it must take into account the impact on already crumbling ECHS. Costly and important medicines prescribed for cardiac care critical kidney disease etc are already in short supply for want of funds. Overloading of the system will bring in further resentment from the veterans and lower morale of the serving.
Needs a relook and bit of spine where top brass is concerned,
Politicians get free treatment abroad leave alone within the country…ample cases can be cited, similarly bureaucrats also enjoy almost similar privileges! Let them first opt for PMJAY! And set an example before eying already burdened & struggling ECHS!
Just see what treatment is given to our enimy solders and compare it with ECHS. Why should a soldier fight if he or his family not given the health care promised by Govt at the time of joining the force. There has been too much detetioration since the Chiefs do not speak up. Time has come that the soldiers will question ability of our officers to command. That will be sad day for the Nation. Our burocracy and politicians have done so much of damage to the forces. It is already too late even they realize it
God bless the Indian Army.JaiHind
Brig JD Sapatnrkar(Veteran)
Looking as though the country doesn’t want the Armed forces, let everyone become an ordinary civilian. Maybe it’s in the best interest of the politicians. But for the country, …. I suppose it’s
WHO CARES.
Most appropriate heading.What else is expected of a govt run by Beurocrates.The govt with a difference & vision here sees only the benifits it will gather by merging in the PM’s pet project a copy of Barack health scheme.However they donot realise that though the scheme is for ESM, yet it affects the services.Such shortsitedness will affect the rectt in the services & those who are serving & retire early will find it a big shock, thus affecting moral.If it has to merge what about additional load sharing resources.Then the excusiveness for services will diappear which have added advantage of most of doctors are Brothers in arms.The additional Health centres which come up due this scheme will have differant working ethos.I appeal to all ESM that they should unite & represent to govt.to stop such a merger & reinfuse new energy in the present scheme.Ifor one favour reforms.In any social scheme people do exploit lacunas, but it is also prudent that course correction must be done at regular intervals.