Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 6It’s unprecedented. Key posts in the military are without regular appointees. These include posts of Western Army Commander, Director General Military Intelligence (DGMI) and Master General Ordnance (MGO).Even a top Air Force officer, Air Marshal S Neelakantan, who was holding temporary charge as CISC, has been posted out. The post of DGMI, too, does not have a regular appointee after Lt Gen KG Krishna superannuated on July 31. Normally appointments to such posts are made a month in advance. In the Western Command headquartered at Chandimandir, the General Officer Commanding of Jalandhar-based 11 Corps, Lt Gen Jagbir Singh Cheema, is the officiating Chief after Lt Gen KJ Singh superannuated on July 31. The Western Command is the only command dual-tasked with Pakistan and China (Himachal Pradesh) border.Lt Gen DR Soni, an Armoured Corps officer who till a fortnight ago was commanding the Bathinda-based 10 Corps, is a contender for the Western Command as well as the Shimla-based Army Training Command. He was set to be the Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command but the proposal to keep the post with the Navy, and not to rotate it between the three services, has held that back.Meanwhile, ARTRAC commander Lt Gen PM Hariz has been appointed to head the Southern Army Command on September 1, replacing Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, who has been appointed as the next Vice Chief of the Army after Lt Gen MMS Rai superannuates on August 31. The other contender for the Western Army Commander post is the Sukna-based 33 Corps Commander Lt Gen Surinder Singh.

New Delhi

American defence major Lockheed Martin on Thursday said it has offered to move its lone production line of the latest version of fighter aircraft F 16-Block 70 to India from Texas to meet Indian and global requirement. “The offer is unmatched and unprecedented,” Randall L Howard, F16 Business Development head, said. PTI

Patna

Toppers scam: One held

The third rank holder in science stream of the Intermediate Examination from Bishun Rai College in Bihar has been arrested by the Patna police, which is probing the toppers scam in the state. Rahul Kumar was arrested from his uncle’s house at Azampur village. It has been revealed that a deal of Rs 5 lakh was struck to make him a rank-holder, City SP Chandan Kushwaha said. PTI

Lucknow

Relief for farmers

The UP Awas Vikas Parishad has decided to return 35,000 acres acquired across 15 cities for housing colonies to farmers. Housing Commissioner RP Singh said most housing projects had been planned in the 1980s and the process of acquiring land had started after that, running into legal disputes. TNS

Gorakhpur

Ex-minister gets life term

A former Uttar Pradesh minister was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in a 22-year-old murder case. According to the prosecution, a body was recovered from the farmhouse of Jitendra Jaiswal alias Pappur Bhaiyya at Pipraich in 1994. After hearing arguments, the court held Jaiswal guilty. Jaiswal was a minister in the state cabinet during the BJP regime in the 1990s. PTI

Chennai, July 31

There is no stepping down of search operations for the Indian Air Force AN-32 plane with 29 people on board that went missing on July 22, despite no signs of debris or oil slick on the sea surface, a senior Indian Coast Guard officer said on Sunday.“Whether it is the Coast Guard or Indian Navy or IAF, the search operations have not been slowed or stepped down,” the officer, who did not want to be named, said.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)He said now hopes are pinned on the Sagar Nidhi vessel belonging to the National Institute of Ocean Technology that is expected to join search operations soon.The ship has the capacity to search under water and is expected to join search operations on August 2 or 3.The plane went missing shortly after taking off from Chennai for Port Blair. Its last pick-up was 151 nautical miles east of Chennai when it took a left turn with a rapid loss of height. — IANS

Candidates take part in a physical test during a police recruitment drive at Sector 78 in Mohali on Friday. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu

Ishrat S Banwait

Mohali, July 29

Ex-servicemen ruled the day of the police recruitment drive in Mohali. With all 18 candidates passing the dope and physical tests, the indomitable Army spirit was on display.The physical test included a run of 1,400 metres in 12 minutes and 50 sit-ups.According to the Superintendent of Police, Harbir Singh Atwal, three per cent of the posts had been reserved for the ex-Army men. While the ex-servicemen said their Army training made test easy, the rest of the candidates said their performance was inspirational.In three days, only one ex-Army man has flunked the dope test.While 334 candidates appeared on the third day of the drive, seven failed the dope test and 174 flunked the physical test. Atwal said, “Yesterday, three ex-Army men had failed to clear the physical test, that too, because they did not have the minimum required height of 5’7.” He added that most of the ex-Army men 1,400-meter run in seven minutes.

Lots of people asked for the link/URL to the debate on AFSPA.

Xinhua can send replacemnts, though

New Delhi/Beijing, July 24

Even as sources in China’s state news agency Xinhua confirmed that three of its journalists have been told to leave India by the end of this month, it is reliably learnt that replacements can be sent for the three.Wu Qiang and Lu Tang, who head Xinhua’s bureaus in New Delhi and Mumbai respectively, and She Yonggang, a reporter based in Mumbai, have been asked to leave India by July 31.“They have been asked to leave because of adverse intelligence reports against them,” a source in New Delhi confirmed, while adding that their visas “had expired by January-February this year”.“The reports said they had been doing work incompatible to their profession.” But the source said this should not be seen as an expulsion.“This cannot be called an expulsion as Xinhua can send replacements for the three who have been asked to leave,” the source said.“It is true. I don’t know why they have done that,” a senior journalist in Xinhua, who was formerly based in India, told IANS in China. “I would not like to say more as I don’t have more details,” the scribe added.IANS tried to reach Xinhua over phone in New Delhi but there was no response. IANS

Chandigarh, July 23

A former city-based Army major, who had figured in the controversies surrounding the 1999 Kargil war, has penned a book on Kashmir and the war. The book is said to be a piece of military fiction that has several coincidences with the war.The book has two young officers as the central characters who are tasked to investigate the case of a major for events pertaining to the Kargil war.The author, Manish Bhatnagar, contends that the war and the real game plan behind it has still not been understood and he tries to convey his thoughts in the form of findings and deductions made by the officers in their reports to the higher authorities.The author, who has served with the Special Forces and is now a practising advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had faced a general court martial after the war on charges of disobedience of lawful command. His case is pending before the Supreme Court. — TNS

New Delhi, July 22

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to take possession and secure the 31-storey controversial Adarsh apartments in Mumbai and issued notices to various stakeholders on pleas challenging the Bombay High Court order asking civic bodies to demolish it.The Centre gave an assurance to the court that the building would not be demolished.“We will secure the building and the land and there will be no demolition,” Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, assured the Bench when the counsel for the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society sought a stay on the demolition order.A Bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre also asked the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court to ensure that either he, or a registrar nominated by him, oversee the handing over of possession of the building on or before August 5.The Bench asked the Registrar of the High Court to ensure that all documents and records pertaining to the society are inventoried and handed over to the housing society simultaneously when the Director of Military Estate or his nominee takes over the possession of the building.“Issue a notice. There shall be no interim order… except the fact that the Government of India will take possession of the building in question within one week from today,” the Bench said.However, later, it extended the time for taking over the possession of the building till August 5.Earlier on April 29, the Bombay High Court had ordered demolition of the 31-storey scam-tainted Adarsh apartments in the heart of Mumbai and sought criminal proceedings against politicians and bureaucrats for “misuse” of powers, holding that the tower was illegally constructed.However, on a plea made by the Adarsh Housing Society, a division bench later stayed its order to pull down the building close to the sea at Colaba for 12 weeks to enable it to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, despite the Maharashtra government opposing it.In its order, the division bench had asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to carry out the demolition at the expense of petitioners (Adarsh Society).The High Court had also asked the Centre and Maharashtra government to consider initiating civil and criminal proceedings against bureaucrats, ministers and politicians for misuse and abuse of power to get plots under the scheme, originally meant for the Kargil war heroes and war widows.The Adarsh scam kicked up a huge political storm after it surfaced in 2010, leading to the resignation of then Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.In February this year, the Maharashtra Governor accorded sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code in the case.In 2011, the state government had set up a two-member judicial commission headed by Justice JA Patil to inquire into the scam.After probing the issue for over two years, it submitted its report in 2013, which found that there had been 25 illegal allotments, including 22 purchases made by proxy.Later, the CBI, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also investigated the scam.In January 2011, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had issued a demolition order mainly on the ground that the society did not have CRZ clearance.Adarsh Society had filed a petition in 2011 in the Bombay High Court challenging the demolition order issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.The Defence Ministry also filed a petition in the high court seeking implementation of its demolition order, besides filing a title suit in the high court claiming that it was the owner of the plot on which the plush Adarsh Society building stands in South Mumbai. PTI

Chinese and Indian troops holding banners during a face-off along the LAC, and (right) an Indian boat patrols the Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh. — Tribune file photos

Beijing, July 21

Criticising the reported deployment of battle tanks by the Indian Army near the Indo-China border, Chinese state-run media on Thursday said that the move may affect flow of Chinese investments into the country and called for joint efforts to avoid misunderstandings.

“A media report stating that nearly 100 Indian tanks have been positioned near the Indo-China border to counter any possible threat grabbed people’s attention as more Chinese firms are looking to increase their investment in India,” an article in the state-run Global Times said today.

“However, it is puzzling that while deploying tanks near China’s border, India still strives to woo Chinese investment,” it said.

“The deploying of tanks near the Indo-China border may hit a nerve within the Chinese business community, causing investors to weigh the threat of political instability when they make investment decisions,” it said.

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The article refers to reports of Indian Army deployment of tanks in the Ladakh border to catch up with China’s aggressive military and infrastructure build-up across the border.

China too reportedly has major mechanised units on its side of the border and tank deployment was aimed at ensuring parity, the reports said.The Global Times article said, “China and India share a large potential for economic and trade cooperation, and while this may make Chinese enterprises enthusiastic about investment opportunities in the Indian market, those firms should remain calm in the face of investing risks”.According to a Global Times report published in May this year Chinese investments in India grew six fold in 2015 to $870 million.India which is weighed down with over $46 billion trade deficit with China in about $70 billion annual trade has been pressing Beijing to step up investments and has removed a number of security-related issues for a smooth flow of Chinese investments.Acknowledging India’s efforts to improve investment climate, today’s Global Times article said, “the continuous efforts by India’s government to improve its foreign investment environment deserve applause, but now it seems there needs to be more focus spent eliminating investor’s misgivings over non-economic factors.”“During its own initial stage of industrialisation and urbanisation, China put aside political disputes and concentrated on economic development. To an extent, this may serve as a road map for India’s government,” it said.“In the long run, there is large potential for a successful relationship between China and India, especially in the manufacturing sector. In order for that possibility to become a reality, both China and India will need to work hard to clear up misunderstandings in a bid to lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of economic and trade cooperation,” it said. — PTI