Nation pays homage: President Pratibha Patil and defence services chiefs pay tribute to martyrs at the Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi on Saturday on the 63rd Independence Day.
Ex-Armymen plan to sue govt
Sridhar KumaraswamiNew Delhi
Aug. 15: A group of former major-generals is planning to file a lawsuit against the government for not granting "One Rank One Pension" for ex-servicemen. A corpus fund could also be created to fund the proposed legal battle against the government.
One of the former major-generals, speaking on condition of anonymity to this newspaper, said that the group of former major-generals are also planning to send a legal notice to the defence secretary, ministry of defence (MoD). The group of former major-generals who retired before 2006 is considering a legal battle on the grounds that they are getting less pension than Brigadiers who retired after June, 2006.
"This issue was deliberated at length and it was decided that government is not likely to approve OROP. Veterans would have to knock at the door of courts to get a favourable decision and force the Govt to agree to give OROP ... It was decided that preparation for filing the lawsuit should be completed at the earliest and lawsuit should be filed without delay," stated a former officer.
OROP refers to the grant of pensions (according to rank) irrespective of the date of retirement. For instance, this means that an officer retiring as major-general ought to get the same pension as another officer who retired as major-general irrespective of date of retirement.
In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "We are proud of our brave soldiers.
It is our duty to ensure that ex-servicemen are able to lead a life of comfort. We have accepted the recommendations of the committee constituted to examine the issue of pension of ex-servicemen. This will lead to increased pension for about 12 lakh retired jawans and Junior Commissioned Officers."
However, ex-servicemen point out that there was no mention of "One Rank One Pension" for former (full-commission) officers in the speech and add that the government has not accepted OROP even for jawans and JCOs (who are personnel below officer rank-PBOR). The government had recently announced measures for reducing the disparities in pensions among PBORs. Thousands of medals had earlier been returned by aggrieved ex-servicemen.
Source : Asian Age
Lady Army officers scale Siachen peak
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 15
A team comprising only lady officers of the Indian Army scaled the Siachen glacier early this morning, making it the first ladies team to have reached the highest battlefield in the world.
Located in north-eastern J&K, Saichen glacier is totally snow- bound throughout the year and is one of the treacherous stretches of land with deep crevices and steep walls of ice.
The Army is seeing this “an endeavour towards women empowerment”. The lady officers led by Major Meghna Aktadikar reached the highest tip Indira col ( 6117 metres) at 6: 45 am today. They had started off on August 3 when the Vice Chief of the Indian Army, Lt-Gen Noble Thamburaj, had flagged off the expedition.
The officers are from the corps of engineers. A lady medical officer, Major N Linyu, has accompanied the team. The expedition comprised the following officers: Major Meghna Aktadikar, Major Neha Bhatnagar, Major Pradiya Kulkarni, Major Meghna R, Capt Shalini Datta, Capt Pushpa Kumari, Capt RP Parashar, Lt Namrata Rathore, Lt Girija Mohalkar, Lt Vijay Laxmi Thakur, Lt Garima Pal and Lt Neelam Rathore.
For the final summit, the entire team was divided into two groups and started the climb at midnight yesterday. The Tricolour was hoisted by the summiteers.
Chennai, August 15
Marking the beginning of a fresh round of protests against the Congress demanding the rehabilitation of about three lakh internally displaced persons in Sri Lankan camps, the party’s flag and portrait of its leader Sonia Gandhi were found burnt at the party headquarters in Cuddalore.
Congress functionaries and workers, who arrived at the party headquarters to celebrate Independence Day were shocked to see the party’s flag and leader portrait in a burnt condition.
A flag of the LTTE was found near the burnt items. The functionaries immediately informed the incident to the police.
After a lull, the Lankan Tamils issue is back on the political agenda of state politics. State nationalist groups are holding public meetings at many parts of the state, highlighting the condition of internally displaced Tamil people, especially women and children in the Lankan army controlled camps.
Thol Thirumavalavan, a pro-LTTE ally of the Congress, who was elected to the Lok Sabha on a pro-Tiger plank and countered the attacks of another pro-Tiger leader Vaiko, will hold a conference titled “Eelam will rise again” on August 17 here (Eelam is the homeland of Tamils in Sri Lanka).
The Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, comprising the BJP, CPI, MDMK, PMK and other Tamil nationalist groups, too, is organising a rally in the city on August 20. The attendance and enthusiasm during both events is expected to determine whether the issue will gain momentum in the state or not.
Hyderabad, August 15
A demeaning colonial practice of engaging constables and home guards as domestic servants at the homes of senior police officers will soon be a thing of the past in Andhra Pradesh.
The state government has decided to do away with “orderly” system that is still prevalent in the police department.
The decision came in the wake of death of a constable, P Muralinath, under mysterious circumstances while on duty on July 29. The armed reserve constable was deputed to work as orderly at the Delhi residence of Additional Director-General of Police Vivek Dubey, chief of the anti-terrorist wing of the state police, OCTOPUS.
The number of minority concentration districts (MCDs) in the country would rise beyond the existing 90, with the government making changes in the eligibility criteria for such a district.
Right now, a district with 25 per cent minority population is considered an MCD, which is then entitled to the benefits of several UPA programmes, more specifically from the government’s Rs 3,000 crore multi-sectoral scheme designed for the development of such districts. But now, the ministry of minority affairs has decided to relax the existing cut-off and add two qualifying clauses whereby a district with 20 per cent minority population can claim to be an MCD provided it has a minority population of five lakh. The proposal has already been flagged for the Planning Commission’s consideration. The commission would look at it in its mid-term review slated shortly.
Confirming the development to The Tribune today, minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed said he had been approached by several state chief ministers who said a lot of districts in their areas were being left out due to the existing eligibility norms for MCDs.
“There are cases in many states where some districts have 24 per cent minorities, just one less than the current requirement. We are proposing to relax the percentage to 20 with a qualifying clause that such a district must have 5 lakh minority numbers,” Khursheed said.
New mobile number series to begin with ‘8’
Sandeep Joshi NEW DELHI: Rapid growth of mobile subscriber base in the country has forced the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to not only open the ‘95’ series that was so far being used for intra-circle connectivity by landline users, but also start preparing to launch an altogether new mobile number series beginning with ‘8.’
With over 1-crore mobile subscribers being added every month and the all-India mobile subscriber base crossing the 42-crore mark, the current ‘9’ series is likely to get exhausted by next year. Though DoT managed to avert the crisis for the time being by opening the ‘95’ series, the department, along with telecom operators, is now busy preparing for the launch of the ‘8’ series for mobile subscribers from next year.
A few months ago DoT had to end intra-circle landline communication facility through ‘95’ dialling as the existing mobile number capacity was fast exhausting. They withdrew this service and reverted to the old model of STD codes, thereby getting the ‘95’ series vacated for mobile subscribers.
The opening of the ‘95’ series gave them 10 crore new numbers, out of which over 5 crore are likely to be used by mobile operators while the rest would be kept as ‘reserve’ by DoT.
All this has now prompted DoT to rethink its future plans.
Initially, some senior officials suggested use of an 11-digit mobile number instead of the existing 10-digit that would have taken care of the long-term demand, but it would have meant heavy expenditure to upgrade telecom infrastructure to make it compatible to the new series, for which the department and mobile operators were not ready. DoT finally decided to consider the idea of introducing mobile number series starting with ‘8’.
However, it will only be a short-term solution to the “problem”.
In 2003 DoT came up with a 30-year numbering plan, but the rapid growth in the mobile subscriber base, mainly due to the booming rural market, has forced it to relook into its policy and consider an 11-digit numbering system. Therefore, when the ‘8’ series gets exhausted, ‘11’ digit mobile numbers will be introduced.
Chennai, August 15
Marking the beginning of a fresh round of protests against the Congress demanding the rehabilitation of about three lakh internally displaced persons in Sri Lankan camps, the party’s flag and portrait of its leader Sonia Gandhi were found burnt at the party headquarters in Cuddalore.
Congress functionaries and workers, who arrived at the party headquarters to celebrate Independence Day were shocked to see the party’s flag and leader portrait in a burnt condition.
A flag of the LTTE was found near the burnt items. The functionaries immediately informed the incident to the police.
After a lull, the Lankan Tamils issue is back on the political agenda of state politics. State nationalist groups are holding public meetings at many parts of the state, highlighting the condition of internally displaced Tamil people, especially women and children in the Lankan army controlled camps.
Thol Thirumavalavan, a pro-LTTE ally of the Congress, who was elected to the Lok Sabha on a pro-Tiger plank and countered the attacks of another pro-Tiger leader Vaiko, will hold a conference titled “Eelam will rise again” on August 17 here (Eelam is the homeland of Tamils in Sri Lanka).
The Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, comprising the BJP, CPI, MDMK, PMK and other Tamil nationalist groups, too, is organising a rally in the city on August 20. The attendance and enthusiasm during both events is expected to determine whether the issue will gain momentum in the state or not.
I WONDER : Were they officially ever authorised anything like this ????
A demeaning colonial practice of engaging constables and home guards as domestic servants at the homes of senior police officers will soon be a thing of the past in Andhra Pradesh.
The state government has decided to do away with “orderly” system that is still prevalent in the police department.
The decision came in the wake of death of a constable, P Muralinath, under mysterious circumstances while on duty on July 29. The armed reserve constable was deputed to work as orderly at the Delhi residence of Additional Director-General of Police Vivek Dubey, chief of the anti-terrorist wing of the state police, OCTOPUS.
More minority dists on anvil
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 15Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
The number of minority concentration districts (MCDs) in the country would rise beyond the existing 90, with the government making changes in the eligibility criteria for such a district.
Right now, a district with 25 per cent minority population is considered an MCD, which is then entitled to the benefits of several UPA programmes, more specifically from the government’s Rs 3,000 crore multi-sectoral scheme designed for the development of such districts. But now, the ministry of minority affairs has decided to relax the existing cut-off and add two qualifying clauses whereby a district with 20 per cent minority population can claim to be an MCD provided it has a minority population of five lakh. The proposal has already been flagged for the Planning Commission’s consideration. The commission would look at it in its mid-term review slated shortly.
Confirming the development to The Tribune today, minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed said he had been approached by several state chief ministers who said a lot of districts in their areas were being left out due to the existing eligibility norms for MCDs.
“There are cases in many states where some districts have 24 per cent minorities, just one less than the current requirement. We are proposing to relax the percentage to 20 with a qualifying clause that such a district must have 5 lakh minority numbers,” Khursheed said.
Envoys to discuss foreign policy issues
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 15
More than 100 Indian Ambassadors and heads of missions (HOMs) have been called to the headquarters for a meeting on August 24 to discuss various foreign policy issues and how the country could effectively discharge its increasing responsibilities in a fast-changing geo-political situation in the world.
More than 100 Indian Ambassadors and heads of missions (HOMs) have been called to the headquarters for a meeting on August 24 to discuss various foreign policy issues and how the country could effectively discharge its increasing responsibilities in a fast-changing geo-political situation in the world.
This will be the first meeting of the Indian envoys after the UPA returned to power at the Centre with huge expectations from the people that it will, among other things, be able to chalk out an independent foreign policy, now that it does not have to depend on the Left parties for its survival.
However, some of the recent foreign policy initiatives of the Manmohan Singh government seem to have boomeranged, particularly the joint statement issued with Pakistan at Sharm-Al-Sheikh in which India is perceived to have compromised with its position on the issue of terrorism. The end-use monitoring arrangement for defence procurements with the US and the G-8 countries resolution on not transferring enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to the countries which are not signatories to the NPT have also not gone down well with the Opposition as well as strategic experts.
It is against this backdrop that the Indian envoys’ meeting is taking place. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to address the conclave, instructing the top Indian diplomats on how they should go about dealing with various important international issues. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was the Foreign Minister earlier, are also expected to address the meeting. Nirupama Rao, who took charge as the Foreign Secretary only this month, will get an opportunity to firmly tell her colleagues what is expected of them while serving in different world capitals.
This is the second such meeting being held in less than a year. The last such conclave was held in December last year shortly after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks when India launched a major diplomatic offensive against Pakistan for failing to check the misuse of its territory for terrorist activities against India. New mobile number series to begin with ‘8’
Sandeep Joshi NEW DELHI: Rapid growth of mobile subscriber base in the country has forced the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to not only open the ‘95’ series that was so far being used for intra-circle connectivity by landline users, but also start preparing to launch an altogether new mobile number series beginning with ‘8.’
With over 1-crore mobile subscribers being added every month and the all-India mobile subscriber base crossing the 42-crore mark, the current ‘9’ series is likely to get exhausted by next year. Though DoT managed to avert the crisis for the time being by opening the ‘95’ series, the department, along with telecom operators, is now busy preparing for the launch of the ‘8’ series for mobile subscribers from next year.
A few months ago DoT had to end intra-circle landline communication facility through ‘95’ dialling as the existing mobile number capacity was fast exhausting. They withdrew this service and reverted to the old model of STD codes, thereby getting the ‘95’ series vacated for mobile subscribers.
The opening of the ‘95’ series gave them 10 crore new numbers, out of which over 5 crore are likely to be used by mobile operators while the rest would be kept as ‘reserve’ by DoT.
All this has now prompted DoT to rethink its future plans.
Initially, some senior officials suggested use of an 11-digit mobile number instead of the existing 10-digit that would have taken care of the long-term demand, but it would have meant heavy expenditure to upgrade telecom infrastructure to make it compatible to the new series, for which the department and mobile operators were not ready. DoT finally decided to consider the idea of introducing mobile number series starting with ‘8’.
However, it will only be a short-term solution to the “problem”.
In 2003 DoT came up with a 30-year numbering plan, but the rapid growth in the mobile subscriber base, mainly due to the booming rural market, has forced it to relook into its policy and consider an 11-digit numbering system. Therefore, when the ‘8’ series gets exhausted, ‘11’ digit mobile numbers will be introduced.
165 people tested positive for swine flu
I WONDER : Still can we claim that the govt has successfully contained and controlled the spread ???
New Delhi: One hundred and sixty five people on Saturday tested positive for swine flu — the highest on a single day — while two deaths were reported from Bangalore.
Of the 165 new cases reported, 97 are from Maharashtra, and in the state the maximum of 69 cases are from Pune itself, according to an official release.
All the cases in Maharashtra are indigenous cases with no known overseas travel history. Similarly all the cases reported from Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Kolkata, Shillong, Mizoram, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Faridabad and Ahmedabad are also indigenous. However, some of those who tested positive for the disease had travelled abroad. While a forty-eight year old male tested positive for the disease in Patna had travelled to UK, another 23-year-old woman from Noida had gone to Canada. A 20-year-old girl from Chandigarh had a travel history of Hongkong, while among the three cases reported from Gurgaon is a 32-year-old man who had visited Germany.
A total of 7752 persons have been tested so far out of which 1555 tested positive for Influenza A H1N1 (swine flu). 713 out of the 7752 persons have been identified through entry screening, 1413 through contact tracing and the rest were self reported. Of the 1555 positive cases, 689 have been discharged, the release said.
BSF arrests 4 Pak intruders
Aug. 15: The Border Security Force (BSF) foiled a major infiltration attempt in the Ferozepur Sector of the Punjab Frontier, where four Pakistan nationals were held with a sophisticated night vision device, weapons and narcotics.
The intruders, all young Pakistanis in their 20s, were attempting to slip across a riverine section of the frontier when a BSF patrol spotted and trailed them until they actually crossed over to the Indian side between BOP Tapu and BOP Kulwant.
Between them the men were carrying two Chinese-made nine-millimetre pistols with ammunition, two kilograms of high quality heroin and a night vision device to help them manoeuvre in the dark.
The infiltration appears to have been deliberately planned on the night intervening the Independence Days of Pakistan and India, perhaps in the hope that the BSF would be busy with preparations for celebration.
This is the first instance where night vision equipment has been recovered from infiltrators on the Punjab border. Though ostensibly part of the lucrative narcotics smuggling racket, which is known to operate along this frontier, the BSF is closely exploring possible links with terrorism.
Besides the gadgetry, numerous mobile SIM cards and currency in the intruders’ possession, officials said four men being used when the relatively small amount of heroin could have easily and perhaps more safely, been brought in by a single carrier, was “suspicious.”
Officials’ apprehensions are also fuelled by recent intelligence inputs indicating the increasing presence of pro-Taliban terrorist elements in several frontier villages of Pakistani Punjab.
Such jihadi elements are believed to have been responsible for as many as five rocket attacks targeting Indian border villages in early July.
While the Pakistan Rangers are yet to come back with a plausible explanation about the rocket strikes, there have been instances where sections of the Pakistani spectators at the daily retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah Border indulged in jeering Indian crowds by holding up Pakistan flags embossed with images that look like Iraqi Scud missiles.
The intruders, all young Pakistanis in their 20s, were attempting to slip across a riverine section of the frontier when a BSF patrol spotted and trailed them until they actually crossed over to the Indian side between BOP Tapu and BOP Kulwant.
Between them the men were carrying two Chinese-made nine-millimetre pistols with ammunition, two kilograms of high quality heroin and a night vision device to help them manoeuvre in the dark.
The infiltration appears to have been deliberately planned on the night intervening the Independence Days of Pakistan and India, perhaps in the hope that the BSF would be busy with preparations for celebration.
This is the first instance where night vision equipment has been recovered from infiltrators on the Punjab border. Though ostensibly part of the lucrative narcotics smuggling racket, which is known to operate along this frontier, the BSF is closely exploring possible links with terrorism.
Besides the gadgetry, numerous mobile SIM cards and currency in the intruders’ possession, officials said four men being used when the relatively small amount of heroin could have easily and perhaps more safely, been brought in by a single carrier, was “suspicious.”
Officials’ apprehensions are also fuelled by recent intelligence inputs indicating the increasing presence of pro-Taliban terrorist elements in several frontier villages of Pakistani Punjab.
Such jihadi elements are believed to have been responsible for as many as five rocket attacks targeting Indian border villages in early July.
While the Pakistan Rangers are yet to come back with a plausible explanation about the rocket strikes, there have been instances where sections of the Pakistani spectators at the daily retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah Border indulged in jeering Indian crowds by holding up Pakistan flags embossed with images that look like Iraqi Scud missiles.
Source : Deccan Chronical
I Wonder : If a small country like SriLanka can issue such advisories then why did the Indian govt failled to do it right in the begining, We all know the virus has come in through are well protected AirPorts without Passport and Visas.
We all can guess who is responsible for uncontrolled mess.
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