The 1974 Pokhran blast site being inspected by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi along with top nuclear scientists.

Washington, May 19The US intelligence community had concluded as early as 1964 that India was in a position to develop nuclear weapons, a declassified State Department report said, citing frequent change of the fuel core of the Canada-supplied reactor at Trombay.”The Indians are now in a position to begin nuclear weapons development if they chose to do so. We have no evidence, however, of a weapon research and development programme and would expect to see some if the programme existed,” the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) said in a report on May 14, 1964.The report along with several others was published yesterday by the National Security Archive and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Noting that the fuel core of the Canadian-Indian Reactor (CIR) at Trombay was being changed every six months, the US intelligence report had raised questions about India’s nuclear objectives.It said a six-month period was quite short for “normal research reactor operations,” but it was the optimum time for using the CIR’s spent fuel for producing weapons grade plutonium.The report said the Canadians had not established specific safeguards when they made the reactor available to India thus giving the Indians a free hand in using the newly-built Phoenix plutonium separation plant to produce the fissile material.According to the State Department report, “India’s leadership might have had nationalistic motives for building the Phoenix plant but if it wanted a nuclear weapons capability it would seek such a capability”.INR report said it had no “direct evidence” of an Indian weapons programme and believed it was “unlikely” that India had made a decision to build a bomb.Nevertheless, it was “probably no accident” that “everything the Indians (had) done so far would be compatible with a weapons programme if at some future date it appeared desirable to start one”.According to INR, India had taken the “first deliberate decision in the series leading to a nuclear weapon,” which was to have “available, on demand, unsafeguarded weapons-grade plutonium or, at the least, the capacity to produce it.”    The report said that a scholar characterised this as India’s “proliferation drift, the slow but sure moves towards the development of nuclear weapons”. —  PTI

The mother and wife of sepoy Dharma Ram of Mahar Regiment receive Shaurya Chakra (posthumous) from President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday. Ram was honoured for saving the lives of two of his colleagues during an encounter with militants in Kashmir. He killed two ultras before succumbing to injuries during the firefight.

New Delhi, May 18IAS and IPS officers, who have retired before 2006, will get a hike in pension, in addition to the arrears, as the Centre has done away with a provision of 33 years of service for earning full pension.The move comes after the Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare decided that the revised consolidated pension of pre-2006 pensioners shall not be lower than 50 per cent of the minimum of the pay in the pay band and the grade pay even if they had served for less than 33 years at the time of retirement.Necessary orders directing authorities concerned to calculate the revised pensions in respect of Union Government pensioners, excluding retirees of three all India services have already been issued. — PTI

Bathinda, May 4

Col Sarabjit Singh Sangha (retd), District Defence Services Welfare Board, Bathinda, today stated that the office of the District Defence Services Welfare Board, Bathinda, was starting free six weeks coaching for preparation of exams for NDA and CDS recruitment as Army officers.Besides imparting coaching in all the related subjects, the candidates will also be taught personality development. He added that since the number of candidates was limited, the aspirants should get enrolled for the courses as soon as possible. He also appealed the mathematics, English and general knowledge experts to approach the board to impart coaching. He added that the work on linking living proof certificate with the Aadhar card was going on.He appealed to the ex-servicemen and widows/dependents to get their two documents linked so that they do not face problem in receiving their pension. For further information, one can also contact at 0164-2212612. — TNS

GUWAHATI: An Army jawan, sent on a 10-km “route march” even after he had complained of chest pain, collapsed and died, possibly of a cardiac arrest.

After his death, four to five fellow jawans got “emotional and agitated” and picked up an altercation with their unit adjutant, a Major, leading to a fight with him. Army sources confirmed there were some injuries but they were not serious.

The incident was reported from eastern Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday. The exact location was not disclosed by Army authorities. The unit involved was 8 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles, which comes under 3 Corps, which is based in Nagaland’s Dimapur.

The 3 Corps and Assam’s Tezpur based 4 Corps look after security in Arunachal, which shares its border with China, Bhutan and Myanmar. Army sources said the jawan went ahead with the route march after the unit’s Medical Officer had found him “fit” during an examination.

The examination was carried out after the jawan had complained of chest pain.

“It was an endurance training involving 30 to 40 jawans. When the jawan collapsed, he was immediately brought to the Field Ambulance where he succumbed,” an Army officer told Express on the condition of anonymity.

The social media is abuzz with reports of a “mutiny-like” situation in the area. The reports suggested that the route march was a punishment drill, ordered following a recent clash between a jawan and a Captain, in which some other jawans and officers got involved. The Captain was stated to be critical.

Army sources rubbished the reports as “rumours”. The officer also categorically said that it was not an act of mutiny. “Any act of violence, done by an individual, is an act of indiscipline. When two or more individuals are involved, it’s an act of mutiny. However, this case is not exactly mutiny, rather, it’s a case of the troops running amok,” he claimed.

Sources within the Army said that an investigation has been ordered into the alleged scuffle between the jawans and Army officer.

Chandigarh, May 1

A Naib Subedar has complained that someone withdrew around Rs 5.85 lakh from his account after exchanging his ATM card at an ATM booth in Sector 22.According to the police, complainant Umesh Chander Pandey, a resident of N-Area, Airport Road, Chandigarh, reported that someone exchanged his ATM Card at PNB ATM, booth 1-2, Sector 22-D. The complainant claimed that Rs 5.85 lakh was withdrawn from his account between March 3 to 13. . A case of cheating has been registered. — TNS