Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 10

Looking to dispel fear among people who would probably have small sums of cash in denomination of the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes lying at home, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today clarified that “nobody would be harassed” over smaller deposits, less than Rs 2.5 lakh in their bank accounts.The clarification came even as Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das announced that currency notes of Rs 1,000 will be reintroduced in next few months with a new dimension, design and security features.Besides, the Rs 1,000 newly-designed notes, the government would soon come out with new Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes, having new design and security features. The new notes would be issued without withdrawing the existing ones.As people began thronging banks nationwide to exchange or deposit Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were demonetised on Tuesday night, Jaitley, speaking at the Economic Editors’ Conference, asserted: “Nobody will face questions or harassment for small deposits. It is only those with large amounts of undisclosed money who will have to face the consequences under existing laws.”He said people might face problems initially but in the long run they would definitely benefit from the policy of scrapping large currency notes in a bid to curb corruption, unaccounted wealth and terror financing.The new Rs 500 notes, which will be issued by banks from Friday, have extra security features, besides having a peculiar colour, theme and size which differentiate the new bills from the earlier series. The Rs 2,000 notes, which are being introduced for the first time, are in magenta colour with Mangalyaan imprinted on the reverse side. The Rs 500 notes will be stone grey in colour with a predominant new theme of the Indian heritage site Red Fort.

Air tickets made‘non-refundable’

New Delhi: The government has directed airlines to ensure tickets issued using the now-withdrawn Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes directly from counters at airports are “non-refundable” following an unusual surge in such bookings. Some airlines have announced that tickets booked in the last 48 hours using old notes will not be refunded or cancelled. PTINotes can be used to pay utility bills, tax New Delhi: The Centre has said old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes can be used to pay utility bills, taxes, penalty and fees to central and state governments till midnight of November 11.Bank lockers won’t be digitised: JaitleyNew Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has denied any move to digitise personal lockers in banks. “Completely factually incorrect, no such proposal,” he said.

A criminal complaint was filed against six persons, including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal.

New Delhi, November 8 The Delhi Police have been directed by a city court to file an action taken report (ATR) on a criminal complaint filed against six persons, including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, for questioning the recent surgical strike carried out by the Army.Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Beniwal asked the police to file the ATR by February 5 next year, the next date of hearing.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The court was hearing a complaint filed by east Delhi resident Pravesh Kumar against six persons — Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Sanjay Nirupam, Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra and actor Om Puri.The plea filed through advocate Rakshpal Singh and Sanjeev Shukla alleged that the six persons had termed the surgical strikes by the Army in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as false and politically motivated and aimed at taking political advantage. The statements had hurt the image of the Army as well as the country, it claimed.The Army had conducted surgical strikes against terror launch pads in PoK on September 29 in response to the Uri terror attack.The plea sought lodging of FIR against them for alleged offences under Sections 121A (conspiracy to wage or attempt to wage was against India), 124A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.The complainant, who also annexed media reports with the plea, said it had given a complaint at Jagatpuri police station on October 7 but no action was taken by cops after which he approached the court. — PTI

Parrikar said the delay in sanctioning money under the scheme was being caused due to a technical error. ANI

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 3

After the suicide by ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal plunged the capital into chaos on Wednesday, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday asserted that one lakh people were yet to benefit under the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme and would be assisted soon after the rectification of the error causing the delay.Parrikar elucidated that the delay in sanctioning money under the scheme was being caused due to some technical error and said, “One lakh people are yet to get full benefit of the OROP. There is some technical issue. We will soon sort out the paperwork.”Parrikar was addressing ex-servicemen in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Grewal had consumed poison on Wednesday. The 69-year-old former jawan was protesting over the OROP issue at Jantar Mantar in Delhi when he committed suicide. Earlier in the day, the mortal remains of Grewal were consigned to flames at his native village in Bhiwani. With ANI

Heavy shelling in Ramgarh has forced residents to migrate to safer places. Tribune Photo

Dinesh Mahotra & Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 1

Girdhari Lal, a resident of Treva border village, is in Bishnah town in search of rented accommodation because his family members are not safe because of the shelling from across the border.It is not easy for Lal, a Class-IV government employee, to afford rented accommodation at Bishnah in Jammu district but he has decided to withdraw his fixed deposit as his family’s security is his priority. He has decided to shift his family to Bishan because death is looming large at his shelling-hit village.Girdhari Lal’s is not an isolated case. There are scores of families in forward areas who have shifted to nearby towns or villages without waiting for the authorities to set up camps. Tilak Raj of Allah village, which is situated on the International Border, was fortunate to get rented accommodation in Bishnah but there are many others who are still searching for a safe place to reside in. “Politicians and officers are repeatedly making big announcements about providing shelter to us at safer places but on the ground nothing has been done,” Raj alleged, adding that hundreds of families from the border belt of the Jammu region have taken accommodation on rent on their own at safer areas.Referring to today’s shelling casualties at Ramgarh, Tilak Raj said the killings had debunked the tall claims of the authorities.Sources told The Tribune the administration had decided to evacuate around 50 villages, displacing nearly 37,000 people, on the 198-km-long International Border. This decision has been taken after the Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked shelling on the International Border since morning. Already a few hundred people are staying in migrant camps set up by the administration but mostly people have arranged their own accommodation. “The intense shelling from Pakistan today made panic-stricken people leave their homes and head for safer areas. This forced the administration to officially evacuate villages to avoid collateral damage,” said a source in the administration. On the Line of Control too, people have been asked to move to safer places.

No ambulance to transport firing victims in Balakot sector

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 1

While killing of civilians due to unprovoked firing from across the border is going on unabated on the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border, the health sector in Jammu province is virtually paralysed. The situation is worst in the border areas where even ambulances are not available to take injured to the hospitals.Today shelling started on the LoC in the Mendhar sub-division of Poonch district. Some border residents received severe injuries in the firing but no ambulance was available to take the injured to the nearby hospital. The helpless residents took the injured in their own vehicles to the hospitals.According to reports, this morning Pakistan started heavy shelling in the Balakot sector of the Mendhar sub-division, resulting into injuries to some civilians. Locals immediately called for the ambulance from the nearby primary health centre (PHC) of Dhargloon but there was no fuel in it.“We have already sought an explanation from the authorities to fix responsibility for this negligence,” Sher Singh, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Mendhar told The Tribune.He said there was another primary health centre at Bharotee which was situated across the fencing but it was not well-equipped. So a huge chunk of the population living near the LoC was dependent on the Dhargloon PHC for shifting the injured to nearby hospitals in case of shelling from across the border, he added.In fact, Dhargloon PHC is not an isolated case. In most of the health centres in the border areas, ambulances are not available. There is strong anger among people against Health Department for not taking the issue seriously.Sources said six ambulances were available in the Mendhar sub-division but most of these vehicles were not fully functional. The sub-division needs 10 ambulances but only six are available that too in a bad condition.

New Delhi, October 29As tributes were paid to a soldier whose body was mutilated by “terrorists” in Machil sector, former Army chief General JJ Singh (retd) said it reflected the ‘barbarism’ of the Pakistan Army, and added that India should inform the international community of the act.The soldier, Sep Mandeep Singh, who was from Kurukshetra in Haryana, was beheaded by “terrorists” who fled back to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir under cover fire from Pakistan Army on Friday.The Indian Army in an official statement said the soldier’s body was mutilated and added that it would retaliate with an “appropriate response”.Retired General Singh pointed out it was not the first time Pakistan had done something like this, and termed the act “barbaric and medieval”.”It is definitely an act of frustration. Having been hit very hard by India, this is an expression of frustration. They have done this in past as well, like during the Kargil war when they mutilated some of our soldier’s bodies,” the former Army chief said.”Mutilating a soldier and beheading him shows they have a medieval mentality… They must be investigated by the world,” he said.The former Army chief also recalled how during interrogation of Pakistani Prisoners of War after the 1971 war, he was told by a Pakistani soldier that Indians did not know how to “beat up someone”.”I do remember when we were interrogating some prisoners of war in 1971, I had gone to one of the Prisoners of War camps and one of them told me — ‘Sir aap Hindustaniyon ko to marna bhi nahi aata hai theek se (You Indians do not know how to even beat up someone properly),” General Singh recalled.”I did not understand as a concept of what was the meaning of that until when I was the ADGMO (Additional Director General of Military Operations) when we received the mutilated bodies of our soldiers,” he said.General Singh added that India should tell the world about Pakistan’s barbaric act.”India should tell the whole world what Pakistan is doing. Particularly with India, we honoured their fallen soldiers who they had abandoned. They should be grateful to us forever. How uncivilised they are…” he said.Retired Colonel Anil Kaul meanwhile said it was time for India to take “firm action”, and added that it was not terrorists but the Pakistan Army that was doing it.”Let’s stop calling it a terrorist act… Pakistan army is doing it,” Kaul said. “It is time we stop just speaking and act against them. We must respond. Pakistan has the habit of back stabbing.”This is not the first time Pakistan has mutilated the bodies of Indian soldiers.During the Kargil war in 1999, Captain Saurabh Kalia, Sepoys Arjunram Baswana, Mula Ram Bidiasar, Naresh Singh Sinsinwar, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria and Bhika Ram Mudh of 4 Jat Regiment were captured by Pakistani troops and brutally tortured.The soldiers had their eardrums pierced with hot iron rods, eyes punctured and genitals cut off. The autopsy of the bodies also revealed that they were burned with cigarettes butts. Their limbs were also chopped off, teeth broken and skull fractured during the torture. Even their nose and lips were sliced off.In another incident, on January 8, 2013, Pakistani soldiers entered Indian territory in Krishna Ghati sector of the border and killed two Indian soldiers — Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh. Indian officials said both the bodies were mutilated, and Hemraj’s body was decapitated.Just before retiring, former army chief General Bikram Singh, who headed the Indian Army when the incident happened, had said India gave a “befitting reply”.General Dalbir Singh, just after taking over as the Army chief, had then said if a similar incident occurred the Indian Army’s response “will be more than adequate in future”.Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel, some guerrilla fighters, and certain civilians. It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until he or she is released or repatriated. One of the main provisions of the convention makes it illegal to torture prisoners, and states that a prisoner can only be required to give his name, date of birth, rank and service number if applicable. — IANS

Lt Gen Surinder Singh, GOC-in-C, Western Command, lays a wreath at the Veer Smriti to mark the 69th Infantry Day in Chandimandir on Thursday. A Tribune photograph

Chandigarh, October 27

A solemn wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Veer Smriti war memorial to commemorate the 69th Infantry Day at Chandimandir military station today. Lt Gen Surinder Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, along with senior veterans, paid tributes to martyrs.Infantry Day is customarily observed on October 27 every year as it was on this day in 1947 that the first Indian soldier, from the 1st Battalion of the Sikh Regiment, landed at the Srinagar airport to defend the Kashmir Valley against the onslaught of Pakistani raiders.Maj Somnath Sharma of the Kumaon Regiment won the first Param Vir Chakra (posthumously) during these operations in the Battle of Badgam. Ever since, the Infantry has stood tall against all adversities and played a stellar role in all operations post-Independence, including counter-insurgency and internal-security duties. — TNS

Varun Gandhi. — File photo

New Delhi, October 20

BJP MP Varun Gandhi was at the centre of a controversy over allegations that he had leaked defence secrets to middleman Abhishek Verma and arms manufacturers after being “honey trapped”, a charge he stoutly denied.At a press conference here, Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav released a letter written by Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, to the PMO last month that Varun was honey trapped and compromised by Verma.He alleged that Verma “blackmailed” Varun, a member of the Defence Consultative Committee, into sharing sensitive information on crucial arms matters.Varun rejected these charges, saying he has not met Verma since 2004 and threatened to file a defamation suit against Bhushan and Yadav over the charges.”The entire information presented does not contain an iota of proof that either I had access or shared any communication regarding sensitive information to Verma,” Varun said.Allen, who was a partner of Verma, fell out with him in 2012. Verma is facing trial in the 2006 Naval War Room leak case.Bhushan alleged that despite having all the details, the BJP government did not blacklist Thales, the company that sold scam-tainted Scorpene submarines, as Dassault acquired it.India recently signed a deal with Dassault for 36 Rafale aircraft.”Any action against Thales may have jeopardised the Rafale deal. Moreover, contrary to previous announcements of getting 126 aircrafts, the government bought 36 aircrafts, paying double the price for individual units. It certainly appears to be the case that something is fishy,” Bhushan said.However, Bhushan and Yadav did not take Varun’s name during the press conference and instead asked journalists to refer to the letter. They claimed to have withheld photographic evidences pertaining to the matter.Allen wrote to the PM, Defence Minister, CBI and the NSA with all the details on August and September this year.Varun said he last met Verma when he was a post graduate student in London at the age of 22.”I am going to turn 37 now. I have never met him since I entered public life in 2004. The only reason why I even know of him is because his parents were members of parliament and was a respected family. I knew them as many other leaders knew them,” he said.Asked if he had come across any sensitive information during his tenure on the consultative committee on defence, he said, “Any MP who has been on that committee knows that not even 0.1 percentage of any confidential information is shared with the committee.” — PTI 

‘It can’t be business as usual’ : The BRICS Summit saw a growing recognition that there cannot be business as usual when it comes to dealing with terrorism. There is a growing recognition that terror has become a truly global challenge.” — Sushma Swaraj,External Affairs Minister

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

India today again used the BRICS forum to hit out at Pakistan for state-sponsored terrorism.Addressing a BRICS forum today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said there must be a “cost for those who support terrorists” and make a “false distinction between good and bad terrorists”.Her remarks were an obvious reference to Pakistan and her speech reflected a continuation of India’s policy of targeting Pakistan at the BRICS platform.But what should give India a cause to pause is the fact that among the BRICS grouping — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — two main countries Russia and China have refused to go along with India on this line. Sources in the government confirm that China was the main opposition to India’s attempts to include Pakistan-based terrorist groups in the Goa Declaration. While India was keen to have the names of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the declaration, it was China that wanted a more general statement on terror. In the case of Russia, India expected some form of backing but to its surprise, Russia maintained silence on the Indian line against Pakistan.Even after the fiasco in Goa where both China and Russia made it clear that they were unwilling to go along with India on its anti-Pakistan tirade, the continuation of the policy by Swaraj today was a surprise.At a media forum in the capital, Swaraj said: “The BRICS Summit saw a growing recognition that there cannot be business as usual when it comes to dealing with terrorism. There is a growing recognition that terror has become a truly global challenge.”Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over the weekend, raised the issue of Pakistan terror repeatedly using the BRICS and later the BRICS-BIMSTEC Summits as international fora to highlight cross-border terrorism. That is a different story that there were few takers for India’s line.

Maya hits out at Parrikar over surgical strikes

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, October 18

BSP chief Mayawati today described Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar crediting the RSS teachings for the ‘surgical strikes’ as an insult to the Army.“The armymen had risked their lives to make a precise strike inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir terrorist camps causing heavy casualties while the Defence Minister gave the entire credit to the teachings of the RSS. This is not just wrong but an insult to the Army,” Mayawati said.She said first the credit for the attack was given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of the Army and not going a step further, it is being attributed to the teachings of the RSS.“The RSS is not an organisation acceptable to all as its agenda is to promote hatred and divisive forces. Calling itself a cultural organisation, it has always worked for a political agenda and now has many representatives in the BJP and its government,” she said.