http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/ministry-to-review-withdrawal-of-toll-exemption-to-army-men/37324.html
Ministry to review
withdrawal of toll exemption to Army men
Tribune News
Service
Chandigarh,
February 2
The Ministry of
Road Transport and Highways (MRTH) will re-examine the issue of the withdrawal
of toll tax exemption to serving defence personnel after a section of veterans
contended that the move was illegal and based on incorrect advice by
departmental officials.
According to
sources, the MRTH has sought comments on the issue from the Ministry of Defence
and Army Headquarters, following which the further course of action will be
decided.
MRTH had issued a
circular a few months ago stating that serving armed forces personnel would not
be eligible for toll exemption while travelling in their private vehicles.
The Services
community had raised objections over it, pointing out that the circular was in
contravention of the provisions of the Indian Tolls (Army & Air Force) Act,
1901, and also against the clarification issued by the same _ministry in 2003
in consequence of a legal case.
According to the
Act, all serving armed forces personnel are exempt from paying toll whether
travelling on duty or not and whether in a government vehicle or a private
vehicle.
The purpose behind
the Act was to facilitate frequent movement of defence personnel and their
families across the country. Some legal experts opine that since the toll
exemption is granted through a legislative Act, its provisions cannot be
overridden by way of an executive order.
Toll exemption to
defence personnel has been a long and contentious issue, with many toll
operators in the past refusing to abide by the guidelines. The matter was
settled after lengthy legal adjudication _with the Supreme Court finally
affirming the provisions of the Act.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/army-copter-crashes-pilots-escape-unhurt/37327.html
Army copter
crashes, pilots escape unhurt
Kohima/Kolkata,
February 2
A Cheetah
helicopter of the Army crashed today seconds after taking off from Rangapahar
helipad in Nagaland’s Dimapur district, with the two pilots and an Army
official on board escaping unhurt.
The Army aviation
chopper was on a routine sortie when it crashed nose down from a height of
about 10-12 feet on the ground at 9.30 AM, Defence PRO in Shillong, Amit
Mahajan said. Defence PRO in Kohima Lt Col Emron Musavi said there were two
pilots and an Army official in the helicopter but none was injured in the
crash. Mahajan said the helicopter was damaged in the crash. A probe has been
ordered into the incident, he said. — PTI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/india-piloted-terror-resolution-gets-china-russia-backing/37417.html
India-piloted
terror resolution gets China, Russia backing
Sandeep Dikshit in
Beijing
February 2
External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said her counterparts from Russia and China
had understood the need for endorsing an India-piloted resolution in the United
Nations (UN) to crack down on terrorism regardless of its underlying causes.
The resolution —
the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) — has been
pending at the UN for 19 years because of its wide-ranging definition of
terrorism.
India had proposed
the resolution in 1996 against the backdrop of Pakistan supporting Kashmir
militancy with the avowed claim of backing its people in their fight for
self-determination.
Sushma Swaraj said
her first attendance at the Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting was successful on
several other counts such as backing for India's membership to the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Forum, both pending for a long time.
India wants to
join APEC, consisting of major economic powers like the US, Japan and China,
but its membership was on hold. The issue didn't appear clinched because RIC
will have a special meeting on this later. SCO too hasn't added new members and
plans to include Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia besides India. Its next meeting at
Ufa in Russia may see the long-awaited expansion. It could then play a bigger
role in Afghanistan because all existing members -- Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and China -- and potential ones fear a spill
over if the situation deteriorates in Kabul and the Islamic State extends its
reach there. The RIC joint communiqué, however, fell short of endorsing India's
permanent membership in the UNSC. At one-to-one summit meetings, Russia (and
the US, France and Britain) have endorsed India's candidature but the fifth
permanent member China has not been equivocal.
This is because
India is trying to enter the UNSC along with Japan, Germany, Brazil and South
Africa. China is opposed to Japan making the cut on the basis of this package
deal and hence doesn't support India's membership too.
The RIC communiqué
had sections that provided cheer to India such as opposing "terrorism in
all its forms and manifestations committed by whomever, wherever, and for
whatever purposes" and "the need for all countries to join efforts in
combating terrorism under the UN.”
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/politics/17-punjab-mlas-meet-rahul-most-for-change-of-guard/37333.html
17 Punjab MLAs
meet Rahul, most for change of guard
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News
Service
New Delhi,
February 2
Congress vice-president
Rahul Gandhi today signalled an overhaul of the Punjab unit as he met 17 party
MLAs from the state and sought their view over strengthening the party unit.
Two separate
meetings that lasted around an hour each (the first with nine Dalit MLAs and
the second with eight general category legislators) saw most leaders favouring
an immediate resolution of the Punjab leadership tussle between incumbent
Pradesh Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Minister and
Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh.
The Tribune has
learnt that most legislators spoke of the need to replace the incumbent chief
and bring Captain Amarinder Singh to lead the party in the face of a rising
challenge from the BJP.
The eight
legislators from the general category who met Rahul comprised Partap Bajwa’s
wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa from Qadia segment. A source said she was present
when most leaders stressed the need for bringing in a “strong leader” to
counter the rising BJP, which is winning in the name of PM Narendra Modi.
“We spoke of the need to wake
up to the relevance of personality based politics. Most MLAs mentioned how the
BJP and AAP were seeking votes in the name of strong leaders such as Narendra
Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. We need one such leader, we said. And Capt Amarinder
Singh is a clear choice,” said an MLA who attended the meeting.
The group of Dalit MLAs is
also learnt to have spoken in favour of Captain as their leader, leaving the
final decision to the leadership.
This group also said the top
three positions in Punjab Congress — state unit president; Congress Legislature
Party leader and head of complaints committee — must have a Jat, Dalit and
Hindu face.
SC legislators reminded Rahul
of 2002 when the party cruised to victory with Capt Amarinder, a Jat, as the
state unit chief and a Dalit face as the CLP leader. Rahul did not say anything
at the two meetings and only listened to the MLAs on ways to strengthen the
party enough to win the 2017 elections, win back Dalit votes and galvanise
workers.
Sources said he wanted to
script Congress’ resurrection in Punjab by winning it and “realised that
balances needed to be struck”. Congress leaders said while Rahul’s meeting with
MLAs today was a clear indication of an impending overhaul in the state unit
and a change of leadership.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/china-mustn-t-feel-wary-of-indo-us-ties-says-obama/37330.html
China mustn’t feel
wary of Indo-US ties, says Obama
Washington,
February 2
President Barack
Obama has said there are undoubtedly “aspects of India” that make US closer to
India but China doesn’t need to be “threatened” because Washington has good
relations with New Delhi. The US President, however, cautioned the Communist
giant against “bullying” small nations such as Vietnam or the Philippines on
maritime issues.
On Obama’s visit
to India, China’s state-run media had said India must not fall into the trap of
rivalry set by the West to support the US’ “pivot to Asia” strategy, mainly devised
to counter the Communist nation’s rise.
“I was surprised when I heard
that the Chinese Government had put out these statements... China doesn’t need
to be threatened because we have good relations with India,” Obama said in his
first comments on China’s reaction to his unprecedented second visit to India
as President.
Obama referred to his November
visit to China and said he had some very successful meetings with his Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping.
“My belief is that in this
moment in history, there’s an opportunity to create a win-win formula in which
all countries are abiding by a common set of rules and standards and we’re
focused on lifting up prosperity for our people, not at the expense of others,
but together with each other. That’s what my discussions with Prime Minister
(Narendra) Modi have focused on,” Obama told a US news channel.
He said he had continuously
emphasised that it was very much in the US interest to see a peaceful rise of
China.
“What’s dangerous for us is a
destabilised and impoverished and disintegrating China. It’s much better for us
if China is doing well,” he said in the interview, which was recorded in New
Delhi during his three-day India trip.
“But what we’ve said since the
start of my term in office is China’s growth shouldn’t be at the expense of
other folks. It shouldn't bully small countries such as Vietnam or Philippines
around maritime issues, but try to resolve those peacefully in accordance with
international law. It shouldn’t manipulate its currencies to get itself trading
advantages that others don't have,” Obama said. — Agencies
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/rebels-pound-ukrainian-troops/37065.html
Rebels pound
Ukrainian troops
Military, civilian
deaths pile up in renewed fighting | Separatists announce mobilisation
Yenakieve,
February 2
Separatist rockets
streaked across hills in eastern Ukraine on Monday as rebels pounded the
positions of Ukrainian government troops holding a strategic rail town while
both sides pressed ahead with mobilising more forces for combat.
Kiev’s military
said five more Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes while municipal
authorities in the big rebel-controlled city of Donetsk said 15 civilians were
killed at the weekend by shelling in a surge of violence following the collapse
of a new peace effort on Saturday.
Talks between
Ukraine, Russia and rebel officials in Minsk, Belarus, had raised hopes of a
new ceasefire to stem the violence in a conflict which has claimed more than
5,000 lives. But they broke up without progress with Ukraine and the
separatists accusing each other of sabotaging the meeting.
Donetsk
reverberated to the thud of artillery and mortar fire through the night and
several homes were destroyed with at least one civilian death on Monday.
But separatists
kept up attacks on Debaltseve, a strategic rail hub to the northeast of
Donetsk, in an attempt to dislodge government forces there.
The outskirts of
Yenakieve and Vuhlegirsk, both on the main highway to Debaltseve, were under
heavy artillery fire as rebel multiple rocket launchers and artillery pummelled
the positions of Ukrainian troops in the area.
At one point, a
salvo of around three dozen rockets fired from rebel positions screamed across
surrounding hills towards Debaltseve. It was followed 15 minutes later by
incoming fire from government forces.
“The toughest situation is
around Debaltseve where the illegal armed formations are continuing to storm
the positions of Ukrainian military,” military spokesman Andriy Lutsenko told a
briefing. But he said Ukraine’s forces in the town were enough to hold it and
he denied government forces were encircled.
The separatist rebellion
erupted last April after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in response the
ousting of a Moscow-back president by street protests in Kiev which ushered in
a government committed to integration with Europe.
Moscow denies it has any
regular troops in Ukraine despite what the West and Kiev say is
incontrovertible proof.
In a street on Yenakieve
outskirts, a shell landed directly onto a 3rd floor apartment of a nine-storey
building, instantly killing a woman and wounding her husband.
“We had to climb across the
balcony to evacuate the man, and we left her lying in the rubble. She was
picked up later by a sanitary team,” said Anatoly Pomazanov, 42, who owns a
grocery shop in the building.
“It is like this every day.
The shelling is incessant. We keep children in cellars. We let them out only
during lulls in shelling, for about 30 minutes at most. I want to ask President
Poroshenko: are we also Ukrainians or simply targets?” Several residents were
seen loading bags in cars and hastily leaving the neighbourhood.
Natalya, 68, who with her
daughter lives in an apartment a floor below the one destroyed was weeping.
“Tell me what do I do now? This is all I had, the soldiers are two kilometres
away, there are no targets here.”
Dmytro Boichuk, 78, a retired
miner said people were already immune to the shelling. “We are numb. We go
about our businesses. Someone gets killed, someone gets wounded, but we carry
on.” — Reuters
http://www.army-technology.com/news/newsindia-conducts-first-canister-based-trial-of-agni-v-ballistic-missile-4501472
India conducts
first canister-based trial of Agni-V ballistic missile
The Indian Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted the
first canister-based trial of the Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM) on Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.
Launched from a
canister mounted on a road-mobile launcher from the integrated test range's
launch complex-IV, the nuclear-capable missile climbed to a height of more than
600km in its parabolic trajectory and accurately hit the designated target
point in the Indian Ocean after 20 minutes.
The missile's
parameters were monitored by radars and electro-optical systems, while the
ships located in mid-range and at the target point tracked the vehicle and
witnessed the final event.
DRDO Missiles and
Strategic Systems director general and Agni programme mission director Dr VG
Sekaran said: "All mission objectives have been achieved, down-range ships
have confirmed final splashdown, the mission is a great success and it is a
momentous occasion."
DRDO director
general and department of defence research and development director defence
secretary scientific adviser Dr Avinash Chander said: "It is India's first
ever ICBM launch from a canister and is a giant leap in country's deterrence
capability."
The road-mobile
canister-version will enable Agni-V to be fired from stop-to-launch within a
few minutes and ensure higher reliability, longer shelf-life and reduced
maintenance.
In addition, it is
expected to provide the Indian armed forces with the operational flexibility to
swiftly transport and fire the missile from their preferred locations, The
Times of India reported.
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