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Power shift: Darbar moves, costs J&K
Rs 100 crore
Manipuri student’s death
sparks outrage in B’lore
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25 years on, no gun to replace Bofors
Tackling IEDs: CRPF to sack 24 ex-Army experts
Tejas to be inducted this year: DRDO chief
Differently abled CA aspirants oppose new guidelines
Another defunct US ship headed India’s way
Aizawl to get back cannons from Waterloo
Ground surveillance radars to guard IAF airbases
Indian child returns after staying in B’desh jail
1,440 died of snake bite, 223 of rabies in 2011: Govt
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Power shift: Darbar moves, costs J&K
Rs 100 crore
Jammu, April 29 Out on Jammu streets, people are breathing easy: the stretch from Shalamar Chowk to Dogra Hall is now open for the next six months. Entry to the VVIP area was restricted during winters as civil secretariat remained functional in J&K’s winter capital. The stretch links the city with major areas of the
old city and flyover. It also offers an easy access to the city’s major educational institutes, temples,
markets and Sri Maharaja Gulab Singh Government Hospital. The massive exercise
has already got Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeting: “Do I think the
'Darbar move' is a waste of money? Yes I do. Is there an alternative? I haven't seen a viable alternative suggested.”
Sheer weight
Official sources said the vehicles left for Srinagar at 7 am and reached Anantnag at 5 pm. The cavalcade included 30 buses of the State Road Transport Corporation, 15 light motor vehicles and 59 trucks and a motorbike. Vehicles were carrying packed bundles of records and files of various government departments. These will be opened on May 7, the first day of the Darbar at
Srinagar. The cost: about Rs 100 crore. Most departments last week sent their advance teams comprising one officer with five men to receive records in
Srinagar. SRTC is also providing one crane, two buses and two trucks. The Health Department is stated to have opened medical facilities at
Jajarkotli, Udhampur, Kud, Patnitop, Ramban, Ramsu, Banihal, Qazigund and
Bejbihara.
His last move
Nisaar Hussain, sub-inspector, has been a part of the exercise for 25 years. He moves on his 100cc bike. “It was consistently raining from Jammu to Jawahar Tunnel during our trip today, but I enjoyed the ride. I find the Darbar move quite adventurous,” he said. “This is my last Darbar move as I am reaching superannuation in the next few months.”
For the record
Maharaja Hari Singh started the tradition of Darbar Move during the Dogra rule in 1872. Offices are functional from May to October in the summer capital Srinagar and remain open in winter capital Jammu for the next six months. Some years ago, CM Omar Abdullah’s father Farooq Abdullah, then CM, tried to end the practice, but the people of Jammu protested. They thought this was a step towards institutionalising the process of discrimination against them.
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Manipuri student’s death
sparks outrage in B’lore
Bangalore, April 29 On April 17, Richard, a student at the Acharya School of Architecture, Bangalore was allegedly attacked by some students in his hostel. The next day, he was found lying dead on his hostel bed. “We are not clear about all the facts. But we want the police to investigate the incident. They are not taking any interest in the case. The college authorities are also trying to hush up matter”, Vivek, a member of Manipuri Meitei Association, Bangalore (MMAB), told The Tribune. “Apart from Manipuris or people from other northeastern states, Kannadigas, Tamils and students from other parts of the country also participated in the sit-in”, Om Prakash, president of MMAB, said. Vivek said two FIRs had been lodged with the local police in connection with Richard’s death. “One FIR about unnatural death was filed by the college authorities. Another FIR was filed by Richard’s parents when they came to Bangalore to collect the body. But still the police or the college authorities are not taking any action against the culprits”, he said. Jenial Thyan from Imphal, who works in an IT company here, said the college authorities must explain why they did not call the doctor earlier. “The scuffle took place between Richard and fellow students at 8. 30 in the evening and he died next morning. What were college officials doing all this time. This is an act of criminal negligence”, he said. Jenial said postmortem report identified brain hemorrhage as the primary cause of Richard’s death. Vivek or Om Prakash or Jenial did not want to name anyone as culprit and wanted the police to probe the case and arrest whoever is responsible for Richard’s death. However, according to reports Loitam and his fellow students were watching TV on April 17. Loitam allegedly had switched channels and that infuriated two fellow students who allegedly punched him on his forehead. These two were questioned by the police and let-off. The protest has also gone viral with about one lakh people extending support to the Justice for Richard Loitam Group on Facebook.
The case of Loitam Richard
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18 killed, 30 injured in UP bus collision
Lucknow, April 29 Gorakhpur Commissioner has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the accident. A UP Roadways bus going towards Nepal hit a private bus at Maaniram, around 10 km from Gorakhpur city, overturning the private bus and hurtling it down a roadside ditch, said police sources. The injured, mostly passengers of the private bus, were rushed to BRD Medical College Hospital
and the district hospital in Gorakhpur where senior police officials were
supervising relief-and-rescue operations. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed grief over the incident and announced ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each for the kin of the deceased, Rs 25,000 each for the seriously injured and Rs 10,000 each for the injured. In addition, UP Roadways has announced Rs 50,000 for the deceased and Rs 10,000 for the injured. Two days ago, Transport Minister Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh had directed transport officials to strictly implement road safety rules to check accidents. He had instructed them to prevent the overloading of vehicles, take action against persons riding motorcycles without helmets and
take special care while issuing driving licences. A toll-free helpline will be set up within a month where the public will be able to
lodge complaints.
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25 years on, no gun to replace Bofors
In 1987, Swedish firm AB Bofors supplied the 155 mm guns to the Army. Twenty-five years later, not a single gun has been added to the arsenal to replace the artillery guns supplied by the firm. Rather five attempts in the past decade to buy new guns that will replace the 155 mm Howitzer supplied by the Bofors have been scuttled due to one reason or the other. The last one being in July 2010 when one of the two contenders was ‘blacklisted” following a CBI case. The Ministry of Defence does not allow a purchase in ‘single vendor’ situation. The AB Bofors supplied a 155 mm 39 calibre gun that can fire at targets 30 km away. Guns batteries of
the Army are stationed in the deserts, the plains and mountains. The Bofors company has long changed hands and is now owned by BaE systems that has a tie-up with Indian major Mahindra and Mahindra. The gun is no more called the Bofors. BaE Systems owns the licence to produce the gun that is code named ‘FH77 B05 towed howitzer’. This is a 52 calibre gun that is an upgraded version of the earlier 39 calibre, 155 mm gun purchased by India 25 years ago. When the July 2010 trial was held up, this BaE gun was in the race along with the Singapore Technologies product ‘IFH2000’ 155mm 52 calibre gun. The Singapore Technologies faced flak from the CBI and the trial was stalled. Today, the Army needs some 1,580 pieces of artillery and almost as a baby step the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has been tasked to produce some 114 guns of the 155 mm. These will be in 39 calibre and 45 calibre rifled bore, format, said officials. The rifled bore, like the one Bofors has, provides the necessary accuracy. Defence Ministry officials have expressed confidence that the OFB will be able to produce a gun as it has the maps and design of the original Bofors. The key issue is the metallurgy of the barrel of the gun and for this specialised defence undertakings have been roped in. Officers in the Indian Army vouch for the accuracy of the Bofors supplied howitzer which proved its mettle during the 1999 Kargil conflict. Ammunition from these guns ‘softened’ enemy positions before the infantry launched an assault. Pakistani Army’s Northern Light Infantry had set up bunkers on peaks and ridge lines on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Drass Batalik and Turtuk areas of Ladakh. When the last trial was stooped in July 2010, the Army just threw up its hands in despair. Since 2002 five attempts to procure an artillery gun have failed seriously impinging upon the Army’s capability to fire at the enemy. At present an evaluation trial is on to test the ultra light howitzer (ULH) which can be slung under a chopper and placed anywhere at short notice. In July 2010, Army asked the Ministry of Defence to find a way out as the artillery guns are needed immediately. The OFB order was placed and the ULH trials started after that.
Playing with fire
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Did my duty on graft, up to govt now: Army Chief
Ludhiana, April 29 “I have done my duty by raising the issue (of corruption). Now it is up to the government to act,” said the General, here today to address a gathering of ex-servicemen organised by the Indian Ex-Services League (Punjab and Chandigarh) at the Baddowal Sports Stadium. On the increasing Chinese dominance on both land and sea, General VK Singh said, “The decision to upgrade Army equipment has to be taken quickly.” On his first and perhaps last visit to the industrial town as Chief of Army Staff, he slammed allegations of the out-of-turn appointment of his successor Lt General Bikram Singh. “The Army is a secular unit,” he said. Addressing a gathering, the General said the Ministry of Defence was in agreement with the principle of one rank-one pension for ex-servicemen. He said the scheme’s implementation involved an expenditure of Rs 1,300 crore and its implementation could not be time-bound. Such decisions have to pass through several levels of the government before becoming a reality, he explained. General VK Singh said he had introduced several plans to bridge the gap between veterans and serving Army officials such as the Veteran Cell set up two years ago. It is the duty of the Army to ensure that the rights of ex-servicemen are taken care off, he said. The Army Chief said each Army Headquarters had been asked to maintain a database of ex-servicemen and war widows in the area so that issues concerning them could be dealt with properly.
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Tackling IEDs: CRPF to sack 24 ex-Army experts
New Delhi, April 29 The force, which recently created a new institute in Pune to train its men in identifying, neutralising and combating Improvised Explosive Devices
(IEDs) and landmines under the tutelage of the experts from the Army-run College of Military Training
(CME), found that these hired personnel, in various operations, were not able to provide the kind of results that they were expected to. A number of CRPF commanders who are undertaking
anti-Naxal operations in various states have reported to the force leadership that these personnel should be taken off and replaced by those young force troopers who are being trained at the Institute of IED Management in
Pune. "Around 200 ex-Army men were recently hired on contract in the force after an advertisement was circulated in this regard. The CRPF did not possess hands-on expertise to counter IEDs in Naxal areas which are cleverly hidden beneath roads, sometimes at a depth of even 15 feet. "The
ex-Armymen were being hired for the job but the results were not found to be satisfactory and are below standard. Hence, it has been decided to terminate the services of over two dozen hired personnel," a senior official said. The
CRPF, thick in action in Naxal affected zones of the country had last year called for a total of 2,012 retired Junior Commissioned Officers
(JCOs), Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and others on hire to enhance its capabilities to undertake
counter-IED operations in Maoist-hit areas of the country where it has deployed more than 70,000 troops. The paramilitary force has lost more than 130 personnel in the last five years due to IED explosions alone while many have been maimed or handicapped. On March 27, 13 men were killed in Gadchiroli when an IED explosion ripped apart a force vehicle. — PTI
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Tejas to be inducted this year: DRDO chief
Hyderabad, April 29 "With 'Tejas' completing almost 1,855 flying hours (flight tests) and all problems it encountered during the initial operational clearance having been solved, it is ready to enter into the final operational clearance phase. With production also having taken off at HAL... we are now at the verge of writing history as far as aeronautics is concerned," he said here. "LCA will be inducted this year in the armed forces where our own squadrons of Air Force will be flying this aircraft," he said. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director general was speaking after inaugurating the 'Aerospace Luminary Lecture Series' organised by Hyderabad chapter of Aeronautical Society of India last night. Referring to the recent successful maiden flight of the Naval variant of LCA, Saraswat said, "The first flight trial of LCA Navy achieved capability, particularly on take off and landing, from an aircraft carrier. The Naval variant will certainly be a force multiplier for Indian Navy." The LCA has been conceived and designed by DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured at Bangalore- based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). He said April 2012 will go down in the history as a historic month as it saw successful launches of Agni-V, RISAT-I and first flight trial of LCA Navy.
— PTI
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Differently abled CA aspirants oppose new guidelines
New Delhi, April 29 It was a set of revised guidelines on scribes for candidates with disabilities, none of which are mentioned in the exhaustive section detailing about the instructions to examinees on the website of the ICAI, a statutory government body. The said document, effective from May 2012 exams, was the result of ICAI’s executive committee meeting held on January 18 and adopted by its examination committee. Yet the country’s national accounting body chose to remain silent that has left the section of persons with disabilities, including those with no vision, blindness, neurological impairment, loss of limb or temporary impairment, helpless. Those with hearing loss are not covered. The recently issued guidelines in question are: the writer should not be above 20 years of age as on the date of exam; the writer should be the same person for all the papers of an examination; no request for change of writer shall be permitted; and the writer should not be a relative of the candidate. Affected candidates maintained that the guidelines are illogical, arbitrary and work against the spirit of The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, and the step is open discrimination and discouragement for differently abled aspirants to enrol for the course. The objectionable guidelines have put the fate of nearly 300 examinees in dark, who have expressed inability in finding writers qualifying under the new rules owing to exam days. “The instructions on the institute’s website are silent on the conditions that are put forth. These instructions are unreasonable and discriminatory against differently abled persons and defy the objective and mandate of the Disabilities Act. The differently abled students are in shock, but are unwilling to speak up in fear of backlash,” said disability rights activist Subhash Chandra Vashishth, who has taken up the matter with the Chief Commissioner - Disabilities after the students approached him. The national accounting body was not keen on listening to the disabled section’s concerns and told them to drop the year if they fail to meet the fresh set of criteria.
Not in right spirit
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Another defunct US ship headed India’s way
New Delhi, April 29 Oriental Nicety is causing an environmental storm because it is responsible for causing US’ second largest oil spill. The spill in Alaska is estimated to have caused $15 billion in damages and is categorised among the worst environmental disasters in history by activists. Despite many observations by the apex court, Alang in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat remains a security and environmental concern, says Gopal Krishna of Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA). On Friday, he filed an application in the Supreme Court saying that a hazardous vessel named Oriental Nicety (formerly Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, Sea River Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean and Dong Fang Ocean) purchased by Best Oasis Company (a subsidiary of Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd) would soon be entering Indian waters “in the name of dismantling and recycling.” This ship is so hazardous that its entry has been banned in Europe and US, says Gopal Krishna. In the past three decades, Alang has become a major worldwide centre for ship breaking, much to the chagrin of environmentalists, who claim that developed countries were dumping dead ships — full of hazardous substances including PCBs, radioactive materials, asbestos and ballast water - for breaking at the Indian beach. The case would come up for hearing on May 3, said Krishna. According to the TWA activist, minutes of the court constituted inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on ship breaking and a sensitive document filed in the court revealed how repeated security concerns remain unaddressed. More than 1,200 ships have been broken in Alang in the past five years and more than 5,924 ships have been broken since 1982. Oriental Nicety has the dubious distinction of causing the 54th largest spill in history. The 30,000-ton tanker ruptured eight of its 11 oil-storage tanks and spilt nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into an ecologically rich area
in Alaska. “The Ministry of Shipping has failed to comprehend the antecedents of this hazardous and dead ship,” says Krishna adding that Exxon Mobil spent $30 million to repair the single-hulled ship and moved it to its Mediterranean routes after the US banned it from Alaskan waters and passed a law requiring double hulls on oil tankers. “The ship is estimated to have caused $15 billion in damages. Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska. In June 2009, a federal ruling ordered Exxon to pay an additional $480 million in interest on their delayed punitive damage awards. “As of 2010, there are approximately 98 cubic meters of Valdez crude oil still in Alaska's sand and soil. The vessel also collided with the Malta-flagged cargo ship Aali on November 29, 2010, and had to be towed to Longyan Port in Shandong,” he added.
Dumping ground
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Aizawl to get back cannons from Waterloo
Guwahati, April 29 The two guns used by the Duke of Wellington’s troops against French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Waterloo had adorned the porch of the Assam Rifles Quarter Guard in Aizawl from 1892 to 2003. Lt Col J Shakespear, superintendent of erstwhile Lushai Hills district (of undivided Assam and now Mizoram), had installed the cannons in 1892. In his 1939 book ‘The Making of Aijal’, Shakespear wrote that the British cannons of Waterloo vintage were loaded on a Burma-bound warship that docked at Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) port in 1857 around the time Sepoy Mutiny broke out in British India. Captain of the ship had the cannons thrown overboard to prevent them from falling into the hands of the mutineers. After the mutiny was quelled, the cannons were fished out and transported to Aizawl. “Chidambaram has promised the Waterloo cannons would be returned by Assam Rifles before May 15,” Thanhawla said.
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Ground surveillance radars to guard IAF airbases
Chandigarh, April 29 “These surveillance radars will be utilised for security purposes to monitor the complete airfield area, perimeter security, surface movement and all activities in and around the airfield area to prevent sabotage,” a request of information issued by the Air Force states. According to sources, the surveillance radars being sought would be functionally similar to battlefield surveillance radars (BSR) being used by the Army and the Border Security Force along the international border and the Line of Control to check infiltration as well as for other operational requirements. About 1,400 BSR have been produced for the Army and the BSF by Bharat Electronics Limited. Over a hundred of these radars have also been exported to Indonesia, Sudan and Mozambique. An upgraded version of the BSR is under development. The IAF wants a radar that has a range of at least 5 km and the capability to complete a 360° scan in under five seconds. In addition, the radar should also be equipped with a high-resolution infra-red and electro-optical camera and be integrated with the necessary software to pre-determine the surveillance area in terms of range, segment and direction of movement. To cater to the heightened security situation in the northern sector and some other disturbed areas, the IAF had recently gone in for electrified perimeter fences at some select airbases. A few years ago, the tall double-barbed wire fences that marked the perimeter of IAF bases were replaced with 12-feet-high concrete walls topped with coils of razor wire. As part of its security upgrade, the IAF is also installing electrically and hydraulically operated barricades to prevent heavy vehicles from crashing through the gates. These barricades would have the ability to stop vehicles having a weight of up to 30
tonnes.
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Indian child returns after staying in B’desh jail
Baharampur (WB), April 29 Ariful and his grandparents Hashimuddin Sheikh (48) and Mafroza Khatun (40) landed at Gede border checkpoint in Nadia district through western Chuadanga frontiers in Bangladesh at 11.30 am, the police said. On setting foot on Indian soil, Hashimuddin Sheikh said, "It feels good to be returning home after such a long time." Ariful was returning home in Murshidabad district today after spending a year at Kushtia Jail in Bangladesh with his grandparents. Ariful had accompanied his farmer grandfather Hashimuddin Sheikh and grandmother Mafroza Khatun to the neighbouring country in April last year to visit an ailing relative there. They were arrested while returning from Bangladesh on April 15, 2011 after they were found travelling without proper travel documents, police said. They were sentenced to a two-month jail term and fined Taka 500. Although their jail term ended in June last, they were behind bars for almost a year. The family hails
from Gajadhar para near here. — PTI
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1,440 died of snake bite, 223 of rabies in 2011: Govt
New Delhi, April 29 The highest number of deaths on account of snake bites was reported in West Bengal (380) followed by Orissa (296) and Andhra Pradesh (258), the Union Health Ministry said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. In Madhya Pradesh, 119 people died as snake venom antidote could not be administered to them. Mortality in Maharashtra was 58, UP 50, Karnataka 49 and Gujarat 48. Himachal Pradesh also appears on the list, with 40 people losing their lives to snake bites, Haryana lost 7 lives, Punjab 4, J&K 3 and Uttarakhand 1. The maximum number of rabies deaths occurred in West Bengal — 73 out of 223 across India. Next in terms of rabies deaths are Andhra with 45, Orissa with 24, Tamil Nadu with 21 and Delhi with 17.
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Mulayam & son: Show stealers
NRI Mishra running for cover
London-based NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra, who landed in trouble after he was served a defamation notice by senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley over the wild allegations he levelled against the Rajya Sabha opposition leader, is apparently now running for cover. While privately apologising for his angry outburst, Mishra has been sending abject messages to Jaitley’s lawyer. One recent message said he was so upset that he was even contemplating suicide. This was, however, soon followed by another which said his earlier remark about taking his life was made in an emotional moment and should now be treated as withdrawn. Mishra hit the headlines when his Rajya Sabha candidature from Jharkhand sparked off a huge row in the BJP, coming in for strong criticism from its senior leaders. Mishra subsequently withdrew from the race.
Cricket secrets from politicians’ closets
With so many politicians now involved in cricket administration, Parliament has become a fertile hunting ground for picking up nuggets of information about the cricketing world. For instance, it has come to light that Neeta Ambani, owner of the Mumbai Indians IPL team, is so superstitious about the game that she comes to the stadium only after the fourth over has been bowled when her team is playing. Her mother is invariably seen chanting mantras and shlokas during the match to pray for a win. Several other team owners are also not averse to seeking divine intervention. Some even have priests seated in the stadium to conduct special pujas before and during a match to steer their team to victory. As for superstar Shahrukh Khan, he plays God himself when his team — Kolkata Knight Riders — is in the middle. However, he does not shy away from revealing his human self as he is known to shed copious tears each time his team loses.
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Jammu, April 29
Cutting across regional and linguistic barriers, a large number of people today gathered in front of the Town Hall here to protest against the police’s alleged reluctance to take action against those responsible for killing Loitam Richard, a 19-year-old architecture student from Manipur.
On April 17, Richard, a student at the Acharya School of Architecture, Bangalore was allegedly attacked by some students in his hostel.
Indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft
(LCA) 'Tejas' will be inducted into the Indian Air Force this year, DRDO chief V K Saraswat has said.
"With 'Tejas' completing almost 1,855 flying hours (flight tests) and all problems it encountered during the initial operational clearance having been solved, it is ready to enter into the final operational clearance phase. With production also having taken off at HAL... we are now at the verge of writing history as far as aeronautics is concerned," he said here.
New Delhi, April 29
Differently abled Chartered Accountancy aspirants, who will take the May 3 exam to be conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), were taken aback by seeing the three-page document titled “Guidelines and procedure to be followed regarding granting of writer/ extra time to the differently abled candidates” received just days before the exams along with the admit cards.
