‘Bunkers had arms, ammunition, ration’
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 13—"Intensive artillery fire and a volley of bullets coming from light and medium machine guns of the enemy, sheltered on heights in bunkers, failed to deter us from advancing towards Point 4700 in the Mushkoh valley, which fell to us on July 12," recalls Major S.K. Sirohi. He suffered a multiple fracture in the leg in a mine blast during a recce operation launched to capture Point 4960.

Major Sirohi, who is convalescing at Command Hospital in Chandi Mandir, said the operation, aimed at capturing Point 4700, 5 km short of the Line of Actual Control (LOC), took off on the night of July 7. As the officer in charge of the troops in the area fell to the bullets of the enemy, Major Sirohi was asked to take charge of the advance party.

The exercise was very difficult as the enemy was sitting comfortably in bunkers on heights. The enemy troops stalled the advancement of Indian troops for about 13 hours with intensive fire, till the Indian side escalated the assault. Recalling the action, Major Sirohi said, "On the night of July 10, we established a fire base at the twin bump and at 12.30 next morning, we moved towards Point 4700. I moved cautiously towards enemy bunkers along with 24 men after deploying heavy weaponry at the bump even after knowing that we were under the observation of the enemy, holed up in bunkers at the height." He added that as he ordered fire, the enemy fled the bunkers.

"As we entered the bunkers, luckily without suffering any casualties, we found a large amount of ammunition, including 17 boxes, each of which was loaded with 250 rounds of ammunition. In addition to ration, we found a number of ghee tins. The circumstances in the bunkers revealed that 15 persons were living comfortably there," said Major Sirohi. They saw the fleeing enemy troops carrying bodies of three of their comrades, who apparently fell to their bullets.

"As I was ordered to make a recce of Point 4960, about 4 km short of LOC, after capturing Point 4700, we started advancing towards it with five comrades on July 13, but did not know that the area was laden with mines. On July 15, I accidentally stepped on to a mine and am unable to recall anything after a loud blast. Later, in the hospital, I came to know that I was suffering from multiple fractures on my foot," said Major Sirohi. However, he asserted he was ready to join action after being discharged from hospital.

Major Sirohi, who has settled in Chandigarh along with his parents, was blessed with a daughter on July 7, while he was away on action. He was happy to see some of his relatives, who had come to see him in the hospital.

Rampant misuse of phones on
Keep STD, ISD facilities locked
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 13 — The management of an industrial house of Punjab was shocked when it received an inflated telephone bill. The unsuspecting management did not realise that an enterprising worker at a fast food joint next door had been misusing its telephone lines after office hours not only to make-long distance calls within the country but abroad also.

The breakthrough came when the Vigilance Cell of the Telecom Department made return calls to some of the numbers which were common, both in the STD/ISD bill of the industrial house and an STD/ISD PCO running in the premises of the fast food joint. One of the calls was traced to Delhi where the person who answered it disclosed the name of the worker at the fast food joint who had been making calls to him.

By the time the racket was unearthed, the worker at the fast food joint had quit his job and gone abroad. The bill, running into thousands of rupees — Rs 31,000 to be approximate — has been successfully disputed by the management of the industrial house.

The lesson of this story is that those with telephone connections should keep their dynamic STD and international subscriber dialling facilities locked.

The Divisional Engineer, Phones, Vigilance Cell, Mr A.S. Hundal, confirmed that such an incident had been investigated and the culprit identified.

This is not an isolated case of its type. There have been numerous instances when certain STD ISD PCO owners have been diverting private lines and misusing them to commit frauds not only on suspecting consumers but also the department.

But then most of the latest telephone sets have memories and recall the last number dialled. In many cases, subscribers leave their telephones after locking the STD and ISD facility through dynamic locking. Enterprising defaulters, at times, can decipher the locking and unlocking code of dynamic locking of STD and ISD by pressing the redial button after diverting the line and "misuse" the telephone. In such cases, telecom officials advise that after locking the STD or ISD, the subscriber must dial some number, say the directory services, so that last number dialled goes off from the memory.

In one case, a Deputy Manager in a Government of India undertaking, has run into trouble as he filed papers for third party transfer of his telephone connection. He did not realise that his telephone would be used at an STD ISD PCO in Sector 18 of Panchkula. While the formalities for transfer were being gone through, the department noticed some irregularities, including the address of the party in whose name it was being transferred. In the meanwhile, the PCO owner continued to "misuse" the telephone and did not pay any of the four bills. The bills were for Rs 35,119 for November,1998; Rs 59,110 for January,1999; Rs 85,246 for March, 1999; and Rs 18,132 for May, 1999.

While the PCO owner has disappeared, the original subscriber has landed himself in trouble with bills of more than Rs 2 lakh standing in his name as the telephone transfer failed to come through.

Complaints of excessive billing have again started flooding the department. The worst misuse of the telephones has been for making overseas calls in response to "chat line", "friendship line" , "romance line" or even "sex line". In most of such cases, officials maintain, the subscribers deny making these calls.

The STD ISD PCO owners, the officials maintain, have been "misusing" the two-line conference facility. One PCO owner becomes the master and offers ISD calls to other associate PCO holders.

The department may modify this facility so that the conference machine works only on manual mode and provision of extension of dial tone at the premises of the second party stands withdrawn. By misusing the existing two-line conference facility, huge bills are being run in the name of unsuspecting subscribers or even by PCO owners, who after getting their existing numbers for non-payment of huge dues disconnected, continue their business by getting new telephone lines.

The department is all set to renew the STD PCO franchisees at the expiry of their normal three-year licence. Further, the other terms, including that only franchisee or licensee himself or herself would operate the STD PCO, may also be strictly enforced.

The other malpractice has been of getting telephone connections on fake names and addresses and abandoning these after misusing them heavily and leaving huge bills unpaid. Once these phones are disconnected, new connections are taken and the business is continued from the same premises.

The department has recommended registration of police cases against some of those who had been associated with running of STD ISD PCO at H.No 52, Sector 18, Panchkula. In this case, a pay phone allotted to a resident of Sector 7 of Panchkula was sold to a property dealer in Sector 18 of Panchkula. This pay phone was further sold to a resident of Nadda village. This telephone was closed after nearly bills worth Rs 40,000 were not paid.

After disconnection of this pay phone, another ordinary telephone was started at the same PCO which continued functioning till January this year. After more than Rs 90,000 bills became due from the PCO owner, this phone was also disconnected. The same PCO then allegedly started misusing the telephone of the Deputy Manager of a Government of India undertaking without even getting it formally transferred. A bills of nearly Rs 2 lakh is due on this telephone number.

Even after this, yet another telephone was transferred to an adjoining house in Sector 18 in Panchkula and misused as a pay phone. A bill of more than Rs 70,000 is due on this telephone also.

The officials maintain that the main suspect in most of these cases of "fraudulent misuse of telephones" has been one Surinder Kumar Sharma who has gone underground.

There are at least three other similar cases in which the Vigilance Cell has held investigations and concluded that the department has been frauded.

All these cases have been referred to the Police for registration of criminal cases against the defaulters after disconnection of telephones.