Friday, June 18, 1999

Retired Major’s body found
NEW DELHI, June 17 — The body of a retired defence officer, Major Harish Chand Malik, was found under mysterious circumstances this morning at his Defence Colony residence in South Delhi.

2 boys sodomised,strangled
GREATER NOIDA, June 17 — Two minor boys of Chahri village under the Hapur Police Station were first sodomised and then strangled.

Vadakkan appointed
NEW DELHI, June 17 — Mr Tom Vadakkan has been appointed Secretary of the Media Department of the All-India Congress Committee.

War-time relief for martyrs’ kin
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — The families of soldiers of the Indian armed forces who laid down their lives in the undeclared war in the Kargil sector in Kashmir are likely to be compensated in the same way which the armed forces are entitled during war time.

According to orders issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the basis of the recommendations of the Fifth Central Pay Commission, in addition to special family pension/ liberalised special family pension, families of soldiers who died during enemy action in international war or border skirmishes and action against militants , terrorists, extremists etc, is entitled to Rs 7.50 lakh of ex-gratia payment.

Family of every person who died due to an accident in the course of performance of duty and whose death occurred in the course of performance of duty attributable to acts of violence by terrorists, anti-social elements etc is entitled to Rs 5 lakh of ex-gratia payment.

These payments are in addition to the liberalised special family pension. In the event of death of armed forces personnel in war or war like operations, counter insurgency operations of in an encounter with or in accident involving armed hostilities, terrorists/extremists, anti-social elements etc, their families are granted liberalised family pension equal to the last pay drawn by the deceased.

Pension at this rate is payable to the widow until her death or disqualification. If the personnel is not survived by widow but is survived by child/children only, in addition to special family pension at the prescribed rates, children’s education is also paid.In the absence of wife and children, pension at the prescribed rates is admissible to the parents of the deceased.

War injury pension is sanctioned to an individual who sustains injury/disability in war or warlike operations.In case of getting invalid on account of war injury, war injury pension at the rate of last pay drawn is paid to the individual if the degree of disablement is 100 per cent.Where war disability is less than 100 per cent, the amount of war injury pension is proportionately reduced but the amount of war injury pension payable is not less than 60 per cent in the case of commissioned officers, and 80 per cent of the reckonable emoluments in the case of personnel below officer rank.

Armed forces personnel who are retained in service despite war injury and retire subsequently are given an option either to draw lumpsum compensations in lieu of war injury pension at the time of subsequent retirement foregoing lumpsum compensation. War injury pension at the above rates is also paid in cases where disability is assessed at less than 20 per cent.

A person who is medically boarded out of service on account of a disease/injury/wound attributable to or aggravated by military service, is entitled to disability pension, provided the disability assessed by the Medical Board is more than 20 per cent.

Disability pension consists of service element and disability element. The service element is related to the length of service rendered by the individual and the disability element is paid in the form of compensation for the disablement depends on the degree of disablement.

The amount of service element is equal to the normal retiring/service pension. The service element subject to a minimum of Rs 375 is also payable when the length of service rendered is less than the minimum pensionable service.

Personnel with 100 per cent disability are also paid Constant Attendance Allowance at the rate of Rs 300 per month on the recommendations of a Medical Board. In all other cases, where the personnel are invalidated out of service with a disability neither attributable to nor aggravated by the military service, invalid pension is granted, if the service actually rendered is 10 years or more.If the service is less than 10 years, such service personnel are paid invalidating gratuity depending upon the length of service.

Kargil no damper on Delhi-Lahore bus
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — The proposed bus service between India and Bangladesh can draw inspiration from a similar service between Delhi and Lahore, which, despite an armed conflict between India and Pakistan in the Kargil sector, stands testimony to the deep relationship between people of the two countries.

Passengers keen on travelling by the Delhi-Lahore bus have booked tickets well in advance.

Some of the passengers that The Tribune spoke to said they had decided to cut-short their visit due to the current “war-like” situation at Kargil “but would continue going to Pakistan when the situation normalises.”

Mr Mohammad Faheem from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh had come to receive his sister’s family, who had decided to cut short their visit to Rawalpindi following the escalation of tension at Kargil. “I advised them to come back early as soon as the wedding of a relative was over. They had earlier planned to spend time till the schools reopened,” he said.

Mr Momin, a resident of Karachi was anxious at the start of his journey following the news of escalation of tension at Kargil. “My relatives were more worried than me,” he said and added that he was keen to travel to Calcutta to meet his relatives.

“Awam ko in sab cheezon ka koi faraq nahi padta,” he said.

“It is for the first time someone from our family has travelled by this bus. We are sure that this friendship bus would go a long way in smoothening the relationship between our country and their’s,” Mr Arshad Ahmed, a resident of Bara Hindu Rao in North Delhi, who had come to receive his uncle and aunt from Pakistan said.

Mr Abdus Salam, a Sri Lankan national, along with two of his relatives took the bus from Lahore as they wanted to get ‘value for money’. “We are on a pilgrimage and the bus proved to be a good alternative to come to India without overspending on airfare,” he said.

Mr Abdul Qudduus, a resident of Azad Market, said “I have come to receive a group of people from Pakistan who are going to visit Pir Baba. They are all residents of Lahore.”

A Delhi Transport Corporation official said that the deluxe bus ran four times a week both from Delhi and Lahore, on the days the Samjhauta Express did not run.

Apart from the air-conditioning and central heating facilities, the passengers have been provided with a three-channel music system, ear phones, television, push back chairs and reading lights, he said.

The deluxe bus primarily travels through Punjab and Haryana.

Delhi CM writes to Bansi on water
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has requested Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal that 120 cusecs of water being purchased by Delhi from the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) be allowed to be carried through to the Capital.

In a letter Mrs Dikshit has requested Mr Bansi Lal to allow additional 120 cusecs of water to be carried through the Narwana branch canal/Western Yamuna Canal.

"The Delhi Government is purchasing 120 cusecs of water from the BBMB and is not asking for any share from Haryana of its water," she stated in the letter.

The letter follows a communication from the Union Home Secretary to the Haryana Chief Secretary that the Narwana branch canal/Western Yamuna Canal has the capacity to carry 120 cusecs of additional water for meeting the requirement of the Nangloi water treatment plant.

The additional water will provide relief to rural parts of West Delhi and South-west Delhi which are suffering from an acute shortage of water and for whom the water treatment plant at Nangloi was constructed, the letter states.

Earlier, Mrs Dikshit had accused Haryana of not giving enough water to the Capital to tide over the water supply crisis. While Delhi's requirement was 800 million gallons per day (MGD), the availability was 605 MGD, she had said.

"We had expected Haryana to give us 40 MGD water. It has not given us and because of this attitude of the Haryana Government, many things could not fructify," Mrs Dikshit had stated.

However Haryana Irrigation Minister Harsh Kumar had clarified that Delhi was getting 1000 cusecs per day, more than its share of water from Haryana. While the people of Haryana on an average required about 40-45 litres of water a day, Delhiites were getting 240-250 litres a day.

He said there was no such agreement between the two states that Haryana should supply water to the Nangloi water treatment plant.

Sukh Ram calls on Advani
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — Mr Sukh Ram, Chairman of Employment Generation and Resources Mobilisation of Himachal Pradesh, today urged the Centre to deploy para-military forces in Chamba region to check infiltration.

Mr Sukh Ram, who is also President of the Himachal Vikas Congress, met the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, today and also discussed economic, political and social situation in the country, according to a Himachal government release here.

He suggested that unemployed youth residing in border areas should be recruited in para-military forces and deployed in the same area for better and effective operations as these youth had wide knowledge of the terrain, geography and local conditions.

He also demanded that para-military forces should be deployed in the Chamba area bordering J and K to check infiltration of terrorists and provide peace and security in the region.

Mr Sukh Ram also suggested that the Manali-Leh road should be made an all-weather road which can then become the safest route for the defence forces and also keeping a supply line to local population of Leh and beyond.

As Minister of State for Defence in the Rajiv Gandhi Ministry, he said the project was agreed to in principle.

Dreams fall to Pak bullets

NEW DELHI, June 17 (PTI) — Kargil, like any other armed conflict has not only cut short lives of individuals who made the supreme sacrifice for their motherland, but nipped in the bud flowering of many a beautiful human relationships.

Behind the saga of gallantry of the Indian Armed Forces lies buried little known tales of cruel and abrupt end to relationships on which thrives the human civilisation.

For Swarna Sarda, Kargil is not just a tale of gallantry but the end of a dream of a lifetime as her childhood friend Capt P.V. Vikram, she was engaged with to enter into the wedlock, went down fighting the infiltrators in Kargil just after he had turned 25.

Describing Captain Vikram as a "wonderful person", Swarna asked for a flower from the wreath laid on his body at Delhi airport as something that would remind her of his presence forever.

Twenty two-year-old Lieutenant Saurabh Kalia, who was tortured by his Pakistani captors for several days before being killed, did not live long enough to receive his first pay packet as an officer.

His first posting was Kargil where he volunteered to lead a patrol on May 14 after signs of infiltration were detected by Indian authorities. But the valiant officer, the youngest life lost to the battle, was not destined to complete even six months of service and celebrate his 23rd birthday on June 29.

Lt Kalia’s severely mutilated body, bearing signs of barbaric torture over a prolonged period, was handed over to his mother on the eve of the visit of Pakistani Foreign Secretary Sartaj Aziz for "peace talks’’.

But it was too much for her to bear, and she suffered a heart attack. Even from her sick-bed, Lt Kalia’s mother said she was proud of her son that he volunteered for the risky operation. His younger brother Vaibhav, 19, chided grieving well-wishers saying: "To cry would be an insult to him."

Lt Hanifuddin, 24, whose mother is still waiting for her son’s body, was an Army Service Corps (ASC) officer, serving his mandatory three-year attachment with the Rajputana Rifles.

One year later, Lt Hanif would have been out of an active combat role and leading a more comfortable life.

But being an ASC officer did not deter Lt Hanif to volunteer for operations and he laid down his life fighting valiantly against the intruders exactly two years after he was commissioned on June 7, 1997.

His younger brother Sameer, wanted Lt Hanif to release his debut music album, that had been a smash hit among troops in his regiment. But fate had willed it otherwise.

The happy prospect of celebrating his first wedding anniversary was awaiting Maj R.S. Adhikari of the 18, Grenadiers, when he went down fighting the intruders in an operation to capture the strategic Tololing Heights in the Kargil sector.

Major Adhikari was hopeful of getting leave after the operation to be home on June 9 for his wedding anniversary, but was seven days off the mark when he died on June 2 along with Lieut Col R. Vishwanath.

Capt Amol Kalia came to New Delhi, a peace posting after serving in the Siachen.

Before he could even get "acclimatised" to Delhi, he was recalled to fight the intruders in Kargil and given a "15 per cent chance" to carry out the operation he volunteered for.

Conquering odds with valour, Captain Kalia did his parents proud by making the supreme sacrifice and his father remarked: "I am proud my son took enemy bullets in his chest."

A third generation officer Maj Manoj Talwar left the more lucrative option of becoming an Army doctor when he chose to join the National Defence Academy (NDA) after being selected for both the NDA and the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC).

His father Capt (retd) P.L. Talwar is sad but proud as he lost his son for the motherland.

The wife of Sepoy Sanjay Singh could not bear the news of her husband "missing in action" and committed suicide leaving nine-year-old Nidhi and seven-year-old Gaurav orphaned.

The widow of Nayab Subedar Mangej Singh wants to send all her three sons to the front to defend the country.

"I shall not hesitate to send all my three sons to the front and will be proud if they die defending the country like their father", swore Santosh Kanwar over her husband’s pyre.

Sq Ld Ajay Ahuja was only trying to help in the rescue of his buddy Flt Lt K. Nachiketa when his MIG-21 was brought down by a Pakistani missile on May 27.

Squadron Leader Ahuja left his four-year-old son Ankush without a father.

For two-year-old Dhruv, the import of conducting his father Flt Lt S. Muhilan’s last rites remains an incomprehensible act as he is still unable to understand why his father did not come home the way he had been used to.

Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa’s was the only happy-ending story of the operation, but even he was subjected to intense torture and had to celebrate his 26th birthday as a prisoner far away from home in a hostile country before fear of international criticism prompted Pakistan to release him.

The tales of valour, of promises kept in the most trying fashion, of ruptured relationships and dreams shattered would go on with broken hearts murmuring the immortal words "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today."

All-India SAD applies to EC
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — The All-India Shiromani Akali Dal today applied for registration of the party with the Election Commission.

The party’s General Secretary, Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra, today filed the necessary papers with the commission along with a letter written by party chief, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra. Mr Chandumajra said that the party was expected to be called for a hearing by the commission later this month.

The party claimed that its policies included working for communal harmony, to provide 100 per cent literacy in Punjab, upliftment of weaker sections and providing better facilities for agriculture and agro-based industries.

Retired Major’s body found
From Our Correspondent

NEW DELHI, June 17 — The body of a retired defence officer, Major Harish Chand Malik, was found under mysterious circumstances this morning at his Defence Colony residence in South Delhi.

Injury was visible on left ear of the Major. However, the cause of death will be confirmed after the post-mortem report. The body of the deceased has been sent to the AIIMS for the autopsy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Delhi), Mr Sudhir Yadav said.

The DCP said at 7.30 a.m. the police received a call that there was a fighting with somebody in the house (D-229) in Defence Colony. When the police reached there Major was found dead on the ground floor of his house. On the first floor his niece, Ms Neelam lives along with her husband and son.

2 boys sodomised,strangled
From Our Correspondent

GREATER NOIDA, June 17 — Two minor boys of Chahri village under the Hapur Police Station were first sodomised and then strangled. According to reports Sonu (8) son of Nepal Singh was taken away by some unidentified men, who first sodomised the child and them strangled him. The police has arrested three persons in this connection.

Similarly Saurabh, (7) who was playing outside his home disappeared mysteriously. His body was discovered in the nearby fields. He had been strangulated while his private parts were slashed with a sharp-edged weapon. The accused Sanjay was handed over to the police. Viney (7) of the same village also met the same fate next day, And later another Sonu, son of Subash Chand has been missing.

Vadakkan appointed
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 17 — Mr Tom Vadakkan has been appointed Secretary of the Media Department of the All-India Congress Committee.

Mr Vadakkan, who has been associated with the news wing of the AICC called “Newswatch” for over a decade, has been appointed to the new post with immediate effect.

Mr Vadakkan’s appointment was made by Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Chairman of the department.

3 new Orissa HC Judges
CUTTACK: The strength of Judges in the Orissa High Court rose to 13 with the induction of three more Judges on Thursday. The three new Judges, who were administered the oath of office by the Acting Chief Justice, Mr Arijit Pasayat, are Mr Justice Choudhury Pratap Keshari Mishra, Mr Justice Bimala Prasad Das and Mr Justice Prasanna Kumar Patra. — UNI

Naxalites blast police station
HYDERABAD: Naxalites of the banned Peoples War Group (PWG) blasted a police station under construction at Pedapur mandal in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, the police said. The ultras were suspected of belonging to the Krishnapati Dalam of the PWG. However, there was no loss of life. — PTI

No work, no pay
KOHIMA: The Nagaland Government will enforce the principle of “no work no pay” if its employees, including officers, continue to abstain from work following a ceasework by them which entered the fourth day on Thursday, senior government official said. State Chief Secretary AM Gokhale in a notification here on Wednesday said if government employees absented themselves and abstained from duty without prior permission from competent authority they automatically attracted provisions of fundamental Rule 17 (1) which enunciates the principle of no work no pay. The provisions of rules and supplementary rules are applicable to all categories of government servants. — PTI

16 die of food poisoning
AMBIKAPUR (MP): At least 16 tribals, including four women, died on Wednesday due to suspected food poisoning after partaking food in a community feast at Chuna Pathar village, about 125 km from here on Monday night, the police said on Thursday. More than 100 persons from 17 villages around Chuna Pathar took part in the feast, hosted by Ajit Pando for the revocation of his externment from his community. At the feast, more than 100 kg of rice and 15 kg of dal was cooked along with non-vegetarian dishes. The Additional Superintendent of Police of Surguja, told PTI over telephone that an inquiry had been ordered into the incident. — PTI

UP identifies martyr villages
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Government has started identifying ‘martyr villages’ for undertaking developmental works there as a mark of respect to the soldiers who laid down their life fighting Pakistan-backed intruders in Kargil. Talking to reporters here on Thursday, state Social Welfare Minister Harish Chand Srivastava said the roads and schools in the martyrs village would be named after the martyrs. The reservation in government jobs for the dependants of the martyrs had been increased from 1 per cent to 5 per cent. — PTI

3.20 lakh for Kargil martyrs
NEW DELHI: In a rare gesture of solidarity with soldiers dying in Kargil, inmates of high-security Tihar Jail have contributed their savings to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. A cheque of Rs 3.20 lakh has already been presented to the Prime Minister, an official release said here on Thursday. — PTI

Clouds over solar eclipse
CALCUTTA: Worried over prospects of a spoilsport monsoon, Indian and European astronomers are trying to figure out vantage points to have unhindered view of the millennium’s last total solar eclipse on August 11. The total eclipse will be visible in India for a little over a minute in Baroda, Gujarat, cut across South-East to North of Vishakhapattanam in Andhra Pradesh had set in the Bay of Bengal. — PTI