Current Events :
Captain Amarinder with Navjot Singh Sidhu. File photo
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 1
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday said Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid’s disclosure that Kartarpur Corridor was the brainchild of their Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had exposed Islamabad’s nefarious intent behind the initiative.
Also read: Kartarpur corridor Army chief Bajwa’s brainchild, will hurt India: Pak minister
Even as he expressed serious concern over this admission by the Pakistan minister, the Chief Minister said that in validating his (Captain Amarinder’s stand) on the issue, Rashid had completely bared the wicked design of Pakistan behind the Corridor, which India had hoped would emerge as a bridge of peace between the countries.
The Chief Minister also took strong exception to Rashid’s remarks that “the Corridor would hurt India, which would forever remember the wound inflicted on it by Gen Bajwa with the Kartarpur Corridor.”
Terming it an open and blatant threat against India’s security and integrity, Captain Amarinder warned Pakistan not to attempt to indulge in any misadventure against its neighbour.
“Don’t make the mistake of reading weakness in our gratitude for the opening of the Corridor,” warned the Chief Minister, asserting that India would give a befitting response to any bid by Pakistan to attack its borders or its people.
Declaring that India would never let Pakistan fulfill its despicable ambitions against the former, he said any such attempt by Islamabad would be met with retaliation of the kind that they would never be able to survive.
Captain Amarinder recalled that he had all along maintained that while he was extremely happy, as a Sikh, at the opening of the Corridor to enable access to Indian devotees to the historic Kartarpur Gurdwara, the threat it posed to our country could not be ignored. The Chief Minister had, in fact, been repeatedly urging caution over the matter, warning that Pakistan was trying to win the sympathies of the Sikhs by opening the corridor to further the ISI-backed Referendum 2020 agenda.
This had been quite evident from various facts, most notably that Bajwa had disclosed the Pakistani decision to build the Corridor to then Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu at the time of Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony, said the Chief Minister.
“Imran had not even taken over then, yet their Army Chief had spoken about this to Sidhu. How was it possible unless Bajwa was the one behind the Corridor decision,” asked Captain Amarinder, recalling that he had pointed this out long back.
Given the revelation of the Pakistan minister, Captain Amarinder also urged Sidhu to be more cautious while dealing with the Imran Khan government and not allow his personal friendship with the Pakistan Prime Minister cloud his judgement in any way, as that could be harmful to India’s interests.
Acting on the complaint of the wife of a Colonel serving in Bathinda, the Army has ordered a Court of Inquiry to look into allegations that he has been having an ‘affair’ with a woman Major who was earlier serving under his command.
The Colonel belongs to the Army Service Corps (ASC) and the allegations against him had first been levelled after he had relinquished command of his battalion in Rajouri.
It has been alleged that he was having an affair with the woman Major posted in his unit while he was commanding it. An inquiry had been ordered against him at that time too by HQs 16 Corps but he had not been found blameworthy.
Aggrieved by the conclusion of that inquiry, the wife of the Colonel had complained to the Prime Ministers Office, Defence Ministers Office, the Chief of Army Staff among others demanding a full fledged Court of Inquiry against her husband.
Sources also say that the Colonel who has been accused of the misdemeanor is also pursuing a divorce case against his wife in Patiala House court in New Delhi.
The inquiry in Bathinda is being presided upon by Commander of 645 Air Defence Brigade, Brig Manish Kumar. Two officers of the rank of Colonel have been appointed as members of the inquiry.
The inquiry started in October and the Woman Major who is posted in the North East, in Dimapur, has also been called to appear before the inquiry.
There have been many such cases in the recent past where officers who have had ‘affairs’ have had to face General Court Martial and have been dismissed from service. In Bathinda itself, there was a case pertaining to a Colonel from the Corps of Engineers who was dismissed from service for having an inappropriate relationship with the wife of his immediate subordinate. He had been caught by personnel of the Corps of Military Police in the house of his junior officer while the officer was away to another station.
In another high profile case, a Brigadier posted in Binaguri was dismissed from service for having affair with the wife of a Colonel. He was commanding an infantry brigade at the time.
The Army had also ordered the administrative dismissal from service of a Colonel posted in Dehradun for having affair with another officer’s wife.
Indian Army’s procurement of anti mine boots for troops deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir has run into rough weather with the Army’s Northern Command finding the boots supplied to be defective and witholding the payment of nearly Rs 17 Crore to the firm that supplied the boots.
Documents accessed by The Indian Express show that the Northern Command has withheld payment of nearly Rs 16.77 Crores for the supply of 6250 anti mine boots to a Batala (Punjab) based firm, Gee Kay Engineering Industries, alleging that defective shoes had been supplied which did not offer adequate protection and caused severe injuries to army personnel deployed on Line of Control following mine blasts.
It is pertinent to mention here that the boots had been supplied to the Northern Command in July 2018 and they were accepted by the Army authorities after 100 per cent inspection in September 2018. Earlier, the boots had been selected for supply after extensive blast tests and field trials by a Technical Evaluation committee (TEC) of the Northern Command. The inspection and acceptance board had rejected 32 pairs of BAMI which were replaced by the supplier firm in October 2018 and the supplier submitted a bill for Rs 16,77,07,500 in the same month.
Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh along with his cabinet colleagues and others at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. The corridor was thrown open on November 9. ht fileHT Correspondent
letterschd@hindustantimes.com
Chandigarh : Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday said Pakistan railway minister Sheikh Rashid’s disclosure that Kartarpur Corridor was the “brainchild” of their army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and it will hurt India forever has exposed Islamabad’s nefarious intent behind the initiative.
The CM expressed concern over this admission by the Pakistan minister and said that in validating his stand on the issue, Rashid had completely bared the wicked design of the neighbouring country behind the corridor, which India hoped would emerge as a bridge of peace between the two countries.
Given Rashid’s revelation, the chief minister also urged his former cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu to be cautious in his dealings with the Imran Khan government in Pakistan.
Terming it an open and blatant threat against India’s security and integrity, Amarinder warned Pakistan not to attempt to indulge in any misadventure.
Amarinder recalled that he had all along maintained that while he was extremely happy as a Sikh at the opening of the corridor to enable access to devotees to the historic Kartarpur Gurdwara, the threat it posed to our country could not be ignored.
The CM recalled that he had all along maintained that while he was extremely happy, as a Sikh, at the opening of the corridor to enable access to Indian devotees to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, “the threat it posed to our country could not be ignored”.
Amarinder said he had been repeatedly cautioned over the matter warning that Pakistan was trying to win the sympathies of the Sikhs by opening the corridor to further the ISI-backed “Referendum 2020” agenda.
The corridor was thrown open on November 9. File photo
Chandigarh, December 1
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday made it clear that devotees applying online to visit Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan were not being charged facilitation fee by ‘sewa kendras’ set up by the state government and said anyone asked to pay any fee should inform his office directly.
Reacting to reports of pilgrims beings charged some kind of facilitation fee for applying through the online portal at the ‘sewa kendras’, which provide citizen centric services, the chief minister said there was no question of charging the devotees and the application process was totally free of cost.
“If any specific complaint is received by the state government, I will personally ensure strict action against the officials found guilty of such misconduct, which would be a total violation of my government’s decision to provide free application service to the devotees,” he said in a statement here.
Singh pointed out that he had been personally opposing the USD 20 fee imposed by the Pakistan government for devotees travelling to the historic Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Kartarpur through the Kartarpur Corridor, as the imposition of any fee for such purpose was totally against the religious tenets of Sikhism.
In fact, India had never charged pilgrims from any country, including from Pakistan, for visiting and paying obeisance at any religious shrine, he said, adding that his government was completely against any deviation from this practice.
Singh said the ‘sewa kendras’ had been issued detailed guidelines for facilitating and processing online applications of those desirous of visiting the gurdwara at Kartarpur.
These guidelines did not include any facilitation fee, he said, adding that he would take serious note of any violation of these guidelines.
The Kartarpur Gurdwara, where Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev spent the last days of his life, held a special place in the life of every Sikh, and in fact of every follower of the great Guru, and he, like his father and great grandfather before him, would do everything in his power to ensure that the revered shrine is preserved for Sikhs for centuries, Singh said.
The corridor, connecting Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district with historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, was thrown open on November 9.
On November 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the portion of the corridor falling on the Indian side while his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan inaugurated corridor’s part on the Pakistani side, three days ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. — PTI
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 30
India’s plans on making military equipment on its own have two-pronged story. While orders to the domestic industry and defence public sector undertakings have grown, the import of equipment has also grown in the past five years.
Import of military equipment for the Army, IAF and the Navy has been to the tune of Rs 42,974 crore or nearly $6 billion for the financial year ending March 31, 2019. The import was Rs 29,222 crore or $4.18 billion for the year ending March 2015. These are actual payments that have been made during a fiscal.
The Defence Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha about the spending on foreign sources in a written reply on November 25. The figures are based on the data received from the Comptroller General Defence Accounts (CGDA), the ministry said in its reply.ayments to international vendors are staggered. This includes some upfront payment followed by installments. Sweden-based think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in its March 2019 assessment, done for a five-year period (2014-2018), said India was the second largest importer.
Titled “Trends in International Arms Transfers-2018”, it says, “India was the world’s second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total.” On India being labelled as the largest importer, the MoD said there was no authoritative and official information on India being the largest importer of weapons as no country officially reveals information on import of defence equipment.
During a period of five financial years starting April 2014 and ending March 31, 2019, India has spent Rs 1,62,283 crore ($ 23.2 billion) on foreign purchases. Giving out details of indigenous equipment, the MoD said the government in the past five years from 2014-15 to 2018-19 and current year till September 2019 had accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to 218 proposals, worth Rs 4,09,244 crore to promote domestic manufacturing.
Also India’s nine public sector companies now collectively have orders of $33.1 billion to make equipment that includes warships, planes, helicopters, tanks and missiles, among other items. The “order book” volume of defence PSUs was told in the Lok Sabha on November 27 and the collective total worked out to be Rs 2,31,931 crore.
Srinagar, December 1
Security forces have busted a militant hideout in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir and seized a cache of arms, ammunition and other items, including a satellite phone, police said on Sunday.
The hideout was busted in Rafiabad area of Sopore in north Kashmir, a police official said.
He said the recovery includes two AK rifles, 2000 AK rounds, three RPG rounds, two wireless sets and a satellite phone.
A case has been registered, the official said, adding that the incriminating material has been seized by the police and taken into records for further investigation.
Investigation in the matter is in progress, he added. —PTI
Chandigarh, November 30
The city-based 48 squadron of the IAF, also known as the Camels, commemorated its 60th anniversary here today.
Several service and social events were organised to mark the occasion, which were attended by Deupty Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Air Marshal Rajeev Sachdeva, a former commanding officer and the senior most serving officer of the unit and Air Cmde HB Singh (retd), the senior most veteran of the unit.
The Camels were raised in November 1959 at Barrackpore in West Bengal and shifted to Chandigarh in May 1986. The squadron has operated three types of aircraft, the Dakota, C-119 Packet and the currently operational Russian origin An-32.
With its motto, ‘Courage Always Triumphs’, the squadron has a meritorious history of participating in every major conflict since inception, including the Chinese aggression in 1962, the Indo-Pak war in 1971, IPKF operations in Sri Lanka and the Kargil conflict.
It played a major role in the famous paradrop at Tangail in the heart of Bangladesh during the 1971 war.
In recognition of its service, the Camels were presented the President’s Standards by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in February 2007. — TNS
