367-km Tezpur-Bum La road is the lifeline of the region, but a back-breaking one

Ajay Banerjee

Any discussion in this strategically vital north-eastern corner of India veers around to one subject — roads, or the lack of them. Railway projects hold immense importance, but still remain on the drawing board.Almost everything and anything connected with human life, military movement, tourism, dam building or laying of power lines, needs a good road and that is what is exactly missing in these parts. This is the area where China’s People’s Liberation Army rumbled down the Himalayas in 1962.A 367-km road connecting Tezpur in upper Assam to Bum La, located smack on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, is literally a lifeline — connecting Tawang, Bomdilla, Dirang and Tenga. It is the only connection with ‘mainland’ India.Travelling on it is a ‘save-yourself-if you-can’ effort. Some 313 km of this road – between Bhalukpong and Bum La — runs through two districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang and West Kameng, which have a collective population of 1.36 lakh spread across 10,507 square km. The existing ‘road’, or whatever name it can be called by, can be categorised under four heads: good in parts with double-laning; bad across large sections; very bad and unsafe in some sections and lastly, non-existent in areas.In late December, a ride in a four-wheel Maruti Gypsy from Tawang to Bumla – 37 km — can be a back-breaking, stomach-churning exercise across a rubble-laden track covered with mud and snow.  China has black-top roads to the very top on its side. “China has added more ‘contact points’ for themselves at the LAC – this, in simple words, means more roads,” says a senior officer of the Indian Army.The ‘literal’ disconnect of Tawang and surrounding areas can be imagined considering that the nearest big commercial airport at Guwahati, which is some 500 km away, is a two-day road journey even in an SUV-type of vehicle,  across three major ridgelines and the 13,700 feet-high Sela Pass. Former state Minister Naresh Glow and three-time MLA from Thrizino-Buragoan constituency says, “Road is a big issue. The BRO (Border Roads Organisation) is working, but the progress is very slow.” It’s bad for tourism as very few want to do a two-day one-way road trip to the famous Tibetan monastery at Tawang, Glow adds.An alternate road route between Tezpur and Tenga (141 km) is being built via Orang in upper Assam and is expected to be completed in March. However, the alternate road from Tenga to Tawang (190 km) is stuck up in forest clearances.The Railways have identified a line to Tawang as one of the four strategic lines. “For now, planners could do very well to get the first phase going; that is, extending the existing Guwahati-Missamari Bhalukpong broad gauge to Tenga,” said an Army officer.Tenga is located between Bhalukpong and Tawang. It is 77 km from Bhalukpong via the existing road. Located at an altitude of 6,500 feet, it poses no major hurdle for the Railways. A railhead at Tenga would allow people to travel by road to Tawang in eight or nine hours. The BRO is now upgrading the existing road to the National Highway Double Lane (NHDL) standards. A 10-km showpiece north of Tenga has been done in five years at a cost of Rs 38 crore.

Written by Man Aman Singh Chhina | Chandigarh | Published:December 20, 2015 3:56 am

The CAG report states that the Ministry of Defence accepts the acute shortage of these vehicles would adversely impact the 12th Army plan and the proposal to raise five more mechanised infantry battalions.

The CAG report states that the Ministry of Defence accepts the acute shortage of these vehicles would adversely impact the 12th Army plan and the proposal to raise five more mechanised infantry battalions. “The shortfall in production and overhaul of BMP vehicles affected the operational preparedness as only 53 per cent of authorised vehicles were available with Army,” the report says.

– See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/cag-bmp-vehicle-shortfall-affecting-army-preparedness/#sthash.TMQlgYRk.dpuf

Tribune News Service,Mandi, December 17

The Rohtang Pass was today closed for traffic after snowfall in the region. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had opened the Manali-Keylong road yesterday only after snowfall on December 10.Col KP Rajendra Kumar, Commander, 38 Border Road Task Force (BRTF), Manali, said they would try to restore the Manali-Keylong road tomorrow. Not much snow was accumulated on the road, he said. No vehicle plied on the road today.He said they had encountered nearly 10 feet of snow on the Rohtang Pass a few day ago. More than two dozen jawans worked day and night in minus 10 degree temperature to clear the snow, he said, adding it took them four days to open the road.The BRO maintains the strategically important nearly 490-km-long Manali-Leh highway to maintain supplies for the armed forces posted in the forward areas of Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region along the borders with China and Pakistan.With closure of the Pass, the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti remains cut-off from the rest of the world for the next six months.The road was officially closed on November 15, but the BRO was trying its best to keep the road open for as long as possible in the winter season.

Tribune News Service,Amritsar, December 15

The ABVP’S youth wing cited a survey report to indicate that recruitment in the Indian Armed forces from Punjab had reduced significantly, and the youth have been made unfit for Army owing to the drug menace. While many still contemplate on these report and the fact that the findings might be true, two young boys from Amritsar have managed to dress in olive green and proudly so.Lieutenant Ranjit Singh Gill and Lieutenant Iqbal Singh have taken the oath to serve the Army and have been recently commissioned to the mechanised infantry. Clearing the air about the hesitation of the youth from Punjab in donning olive green, 29-year-old officer Ranjit said, “The recruitment at the officer level has been less as compared to other jobs and there have been less selections overall.”Ranjit though says that the tough interview and training course requires focus and determination. “One has to dedicate oneself to the job. My passing out course was 138 regular.”Belonging to Bhure Gill village, near Ajnala, Ranjit completed his graduation from Khalsa College before training for four years to become an officer. “I trained at Army Cadet College and then at IAFA, Dehradun. I was recruited in the Army Education Corp and it’s a great privilege to become the first officer from my village,” he said. He also completed his Masters of Business Administration from Sikkim Manipal University and is now looking forward to his long years in service.Lieutenant Iqbal Singh followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Army. “My father retired as Subedar Major and I have always wanted to serve.”

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Deepender Hooda slammed the Centre for bringing in a flawed OROP scheme, blaming it for the agitation among ex-servicemen despite the implementation of the pension.

Raising the issue in Lok Sabha during zero hour, Hooda clashed with the Chair and was reprimanded. He then walked out and spoke to reporters about the grievances of ex-servicemen.

Deepender said the OROP notification lay down that pension be reviewed every five years, adding the misplaced provision would make it ‘one rank-five pension’. He demanded that the pension review should happen every year.
He said premature retirement remains outside the ambit of OROP, attacking the government decision to keep the armed personnel motivated by allowing 3.1% of them to leave army annually.

The Rohtak MP demanded that those opting for premature retirement should be included in the ambit of OROP, and a new notification be issued to remove both these flaws.

“Because of these flaws, retired servicemen have been protesting for past 180 days. Despite the promise of implementing OROP within 100 days of coming to power, it has not been implemented after the passage of 600 days,” he claimed.

He had moved an adjournment notice to discuss the grievances of protesting retired armed personnel which was not allowed by the chair.

Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 6

As Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares for his mid-December India visit, the government is hopeful that ties between the two nations, which have got better of late, will get further boost.
The progress can be attributed to the China factor and its recent aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, which has seen Japan and India move closer. Another reason could be the “personal chemistry” shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart.
While the dates for the visit are yet to be announced, sources said it could be December 11-12. On the second day of his visit, Abe is likely to travel to Modi’s constituency Varanasi and may also pay his respects at Sarnath. It has been learnt that Foreign Ministry officials have been working with other central agencies to take care of this visit.
Of late, India-Japan relations have grown in many dimensions. The civil nuclear co-operation agreement, currently under discussion, however, has seen a slow progress. The main reason is Japan’s domestic concerns where signing such a deal with India, which has yet to sign the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), is seen as a risk by many.
India, despite its clean track record in proliferation, is negotiating hard with Japan, the only country to have faced an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War-II and the Fukushima tragedy of 2011. Both the incidents have made the country extremely sensitive towards nuclear threats. While the signing of this deal would be the highlight of Abe’s visit, negotiations continue on both sides and are likely to go on till the last minute.
India and Japan are also likely to give a major boost to their defence co-operation and a number of agreements are likely to be signed during the visit. The most significant one would be the agreement to jointly produce the amphibious aircraft US-2.
During Modi’s visit to Tokyo last year, Japan had announced doubling of its private and public investments in India to the tune of USD 34 billion over the course of five years. Two months ago, India, Japan and the United States held the first ministerial trilateral in New York. The coming together of these three countries, who then called for freedom of navigation and promised co-operation in maritime security, set Chinese alarm bells ringing.
May come in mid-Dec
India and Japan are likely to discuss the civil nuclear co-operation agreement, which is currently under discussion
On defence front, the most significant deal could be of the amphibious aircraft US-2

Canada sends uranium for N-power reactors

Toronto, December 6
Canada has sent the first uranium consignment of 250 tonnes to India for its nuclear power reactors, over two years after the civil nuclear deal signed between the two countries came into force.
“The first lot of Canadian uranium has been received in India,” a senior government official said.
In April, Cameco signed a uranium supply contract with India after the nuclear cooperation agreement between Canada and India came into force in September 2013.
According to the Canadian government, the contract to supply 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate (about 2,730 tonnes of uranium) to India’s Department of Atomic Energy was worth around 350 million Canadian dollars (USD 262 million).
The government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan yesterday said the shipment consists of uranium mined and milled at Cameo’s McArthur River and Key Lake operations in northern Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said, “India has just received its first shipment of Saskatchewan uranium under the Canada-India nuclear cooperation agreement, and today we mark the economic milestone for our uranium mining industry and our province.”
India currently has 21 power reactors in operation, with another six under construction and scheduled to start up over the next four years. The country plans to increase its nuclear generating capacity from the current 5,800 MWe to 27,500 MWe by 2032. — PTI

Tribune News Service
Dehradun, December 4
A total of 55 cadets were awarded graduation degrees by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, during the graduation ceremony of Army Cadet College (ACC) wing at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), here today.Maj Gen YS Mahiwal, Officiating Commandant, IMA, presided over the ceremony. Twenty cadets were from the science stream while 35 were from humanities. The cadets will now join the IMA.Brig Nikesh Nandan, Commander, ACC wing, read out the college report. He highlighted the high standards and admirable academic performance exhibited by cadets of the graduation course.The Officiating Commandant, IMA, congratulated the cadets for successfully completing their challenging three years of rigorous training at the ACC wing. He urged them to strive towards achieving excellence in their future military career. The COAS gold medal was awarded to Rakesh Yadav.General Mahiwal awarded the Commandant’s Banner to BOGRA COY. The banner is awarded to the company which excels in various competitions involving sports, academics, camps, debates and discipline.He appreciated the diligent efforts of the Commander, Army Cadet College wing, the head of the academic department and the faculty in shaping the cadets into potential officers.Cadets take part in end of term exhibitionThe end of term indoor club exhibition-cum-competition of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) was organised at the Shivalik Complex here today. Kiran Mahiwal, wife of Major Gen YS Mahiwal, Officiating Commandant of the IMA, inaugurated the event.The cadets, using their club days and leisure hours, gave vent to their creative skills at the Shivalik Complex. Visitors and parents got an opportunity to see the creativity of the cadets. The Arts club, Photography club and the Computer club participated in the event. The Computer club developed three projects “fly through of Training Area”, “Micro controller based Remote Access Application” and “Network Tracer”.Kiran Mahiwal released ‘Quest’, the professional journal of the academy aimed at faculty development, and the IMA Journal. Military training is not just about drill, physical training and handling of weapons but all round development. Cadets are given an opportunity to use their leisure time in honing their skills in various disciplines during club activities.

GLOBAL MEET India & China lead developing world charge

India and the US appeared headed for a face-off at the Paris climate summit starting Monday with the world’s biggest democracies divided over who should share the larger blame for greenhouse gas emission and, therefore, do more towards mitigating it.

Policemen clash with activists during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference that opens on Monday.
Ahead of the high-stakes talks to be attended by negotiators from 196 countries, New Delhi and Washington have already engaged in a verbal war with US secretary of state John Kerry describing India as the “biggest challenge” for the Paris summit. India hit back by terming his remarks as “unfortunate” and “ill-timed”.
Officials of both countries as well as China – the world’s three largest emitters of greenhouse gases – agree that a successful outcome at the Paris conference will depend in a large measure on the three big players’ willingness to resolve their differences, some of which could prove deal-breaking otherwise.
Joined by China and other developing countries, India believes developed countries have contributed more to environmental degradation with their longer history of industrialisation and, therefore, they should do more and pay to the developing world to go green, called differentiation in negotiating parlance. “There is a difference between the developed and the developing world on historical responsibility and capabilities of each country. It cannot end,” Ajay Mathur, spokesperson for India’s climate negotiations team, told HT.
President Barack Obama has only two bilateral meetings scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Paris conference so far — with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’ Xi Jinping.
“The purpose of these meetings,” a senior White House official said last week, “is to make sure that leaders are on the same page about our objectives and strategy going into these final two weeks of negotiation.”
A comment piece on Sunday in the Chinese official news agency Xinhua pointed to the “stubbornness” of some developed nations in accusing developing countries and “blaming them for blocking the birth of a new international treaty.”
The US, and other developed economies, however, want every country to share the responsibility equally for global warming and contribute equally towards its mitigation, to keep it below the annual two degree Celsius threshold. The next big dispute is about how to ensure countries deliver on their commitments, the voluntarily fixed emission reduction targets with a stock-taking scheduled for 2025. India is advocating self-assessment and self-reporting. Environment Secretary Ashok Lavasa told HT recently “there could be stocktaking of climate action plans by a global body but not a review”. But the US and European Union want some sort of an international mechanism to verify those claims. The two also differ on providing public climate finance to help developing nations move to cleaner fuels and technology. A proposal for providing “predictable” financing to developing countries is being rested by the US, Indian officials said pointing to a paper circulated by the Americans in Paris on Sunday.
But there is convergence too. Both India and the US agree the Paris outcome not be binding on countries with penalties.
“We have come here to talk and move forward. I believe we will,” Mathur said when asked about the Modi-Obama meeting.

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 26
Nation pays homage to 166 people, including 18 security personnel, killed in the terror act

Seven years after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the often-blamed bureaucratic ‘red tape’ is in full play and holding back a crucial legislation, while all Indian fishing boats still do not carry any automatic identification system — literally a nightmare for security agencies.
Despite various meetings, the security infrastructure and the related network to enforce the rule of law at sea which was planned after the Mumbai attacks is still incomplete. Creditably, some aspects of surveillance at sea have been and are backed by high-end technology – the very latest. Ten-armed terrorist came by the sea route to simultaneously attack five different locations in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008, killing 166 persons.
Immediately after the attacks the UPA-I government (May 2004 to May 2009) headed by Manmohan Singh issued an executive order that made the Indian Navy as over all in charge of coastal security. To date, the Navy is not legally empowered to take action against suspicious vessels. A coastal security Bill is doing the usual rounds of discussions.
Two years ago in December 2013, a draft coastal security Bill was prepared which earmarked responsibilities and duties of 10 central and state agencies security involved in coastal security. The Bill was sent to the Union Home Ministry for piloting it to Parliament after consulting the coastal states. The Bill will address aspects related to jurisdictions, maritime zones and the role of agencies involved in coastal security. It lay down powers of all agencies with the Navy in the lead.
The other key issue pending is of installation of an automatic identification system (AIS) on all boats. For boats that are less than 20 metres in length, the proposal to have an AIS is still in the phase-I and is being implemented in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 333 crore.
The AIS is basically a transponder fitted onto a boat. The transponder constantly emits a signal that is unique to the boat and the same is picked up by ground-based radars and AIS receivers. The signal identifies the boat. With this system, it means the Navy and the Coast Guard are grappling to deal with thousands of unidentified boats. Fishing boats bigger than 20 metres anyway have the AIS.
On the positive side, a chain of 46 coastal radars and 74 AIS receivers is in place. The National Command Control Communication and Intelligence Network with the Information Management Analysis Centre at Gurgaon is operational. A total of 51 nodes of the Navy and Coast Guard are integrated — all to provide a comprehensive maritime domain awareness. Biometrics have been collected from 67.5 lakh people in 3331 coastal villages. The second phase of an additional 46 coastal radars is on track.
Meanwhile, The Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon today said the 26/11 attacks remind us all the threat of extremist terror against democracies and the free world by those who are committed to the killing of people who do not share their fanatic mindset and views. The Chahbad house –prayer house of Jews— in South Mumbai was one of the targets on 26/11.
Crucial Bill caught in red-tape
Immediately after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the UPA-I government made the Navy as over all in charge of coastal security. To date, the Navy is not legally empowered to take action against suspicious vessels
A draft coastal security Bill prepared to earmark responsibilities of 10 central and state agencies security involved in coastal security has been caught in red-tape since 2013
The other key issue pending is of installation of an automatic identification system (AIS) on all boats. For boats less than 20 metres in length, the proposal to have an AIS is still in phase-I

Chandigarh, November 24

Legendary athlete Milkha Singh today joined the debate over returning of awards, saying there are other ways to protest in a democratic country like India and giving back awards will not set a system right.
“What is the idea behind returning awards? What aim will one achieve by doing so?” he questioned.
“If today, I get up and say that I want to return my Padma Shri, then my son (ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh) will also talk on similar lines, but how is it going to help things and set the system right, about which they (those who talk of intolerance) feel it is so?” Milkha asked.
“If you have to express your views on something, returning awards is definitely not the answer. The government has given you an award keeping in view your achievements, if you return it, how does it affect the government,” he said.
Several authors, artistes and historians have returned their awards recently to protest against what they call as “rising intolerance” in the country.
When asked about Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan also joining the chorus, the 85-year-old ‘Flying Sikh’ said, “I have read about his comments, I think these are a bit too much”.
Aamir had yesterday said that he has been “alarmed” by a number of incidents and his wife Kiran Rao even suggested that they should leave the country. — PTI