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Gujral assails Govt for NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Former Prime Minister I K Gujral today.....more
Corruption has given BULANDSHAHR, Dec 25: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister....more
1999 — When Kargil had the whole nation stand as one NEW DELHI, Dec 25: It took two shepherds spotting....more |
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Amritsar Airport
often victim of hijacking AMRITSAR, Dec 25: The Raja Sansi Airport which is being upgraded to international standards seems to be the best preferred landing spot for hijacked aircraft in India.....more Floral tributes NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Several parliamentarians today paid floral tributes at the portrait of Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya, an able parliamentarian and an eloquent speaker, on his 138th birth anniversary....more MATHURA, Dec 25: A major train accident was averted here following the alertness of some school children....more Nuclear power brightens NEW DELHI, Dec 25: India has achieved yet another milestone in energy security and self-reliance with the much awaited state-of-the-art 1220 mw unit of the prestigious Rajasthan Atomic Power.....more Security forces IMPHAL, Dec 25: Security personnel, including BSF.....more |
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Gujral assails Govt for ‘secrecy’ on CTBT issue NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Former Prime Minister I K Gujral today assailed the Government for maintaining secrecy on the progress of talks with the US and other nuclear powers on the CTBT issue and not sharing the information in this regard with opposition parties. Unless the progress made during nine rounds of high level talks with US, is not known, how can opposition parties form an opinion on the issue? Gujral said in an interview to a private TV programme on Doordarshan. We (opposition) also do not know what is the stand of Russia and China and what are the discussions going on with them, the former Premier, whose Government had refused to sign the CTBT, said. Besides, it was not clear what would be India’s status as most of the nuclear powers, including US, had refused to recognise it as a nuclear state. Gujral claimed his Government had shared every confidential material with the opposition leaders On the issue. He said CTBT was a complex issue as it was an extention of Non-Prolifiration Treaty (NPT) and prohibits non-nuclear states from conducting those tests which the nuclear powers had been conducting all these years to achieve the desired results. (PTI) Corruption has given country a bad name: UP CM BULANDSHAHR, Dec 25: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta today termed corruption as one of the major ills and said it had earned the country a bad name. Gupta, who arrived in his home district here for the first time after assuming the chief ministership, told the 40th state level convention of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that through grit and determination the youth could succeed in putting the country on top of the global map and gave a call to the students to get united to wipe out corruption. The Chief Minister, who belongs to Sikandarabad town of the district, also recounted several anecdotes of his student life on the occasion. Earlier the Chief Minister was accorded a warm reception on his arrival here. Police had to use mild force to control the crowd, which had to come to greet him. (PTI) |
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1999 — When Kargil had the whole nation stand as one NEW DELHI, Dec 25: It took two shepherds spotting strange men in Salwaar Kameez atop Jubar Hill in Batalik sub-sector and disappearance of a patrol led by Lt Saurav Kalia for the Army to realise the Pakistani intrusion into Indian territory and what followed in the next 50 days had the entire country stand out solidly for protection of its integrity. The sorrow of every martyr’s family and the anxiety of flight Lieutenant K Nachiketa’s parents as the fighter pilot spent eight days in Pakistani captivity were shared in equal measure by every Indian as the entire country identified itself with the tales of gallantry and shattered homes that filled newspapers for a good part of 1999 during the summer conflict. Apart from a brilliant military victory, Kargil would go down in history for the unprecedented effort by the country to honour its soldiers — rarely has it happened in any war that bodies of all soldiers who laid down their lives fighting for the motherland were sent home with full military honours to enable their families to conduct their last rites. The honour and respect India gave to its soldiers stands out in sharp contrast with Pakistan, which not only brutally tortured six Indian soldiers and killed captured fighter pilot Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, but also refused to accept the bodies of its own soldiers who had been killed in action. The inhuman torture of 22-year-old Lt Kalia, who had not even received his first salary, and his five men before their mutilated bodies were sent back on the eve of a peace visit by then Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, had the nation’s blood boil with anger at the shocking barbarity. It is wrong to speculate on how the intrusion began, but it was clearly prompted by the fact that situation in Jammu and Kashmir was slipping out of Pakistan’s hands with waning local support and militancy was on its last legs after Army managed to crush terrorism. The Pakistan leadership then hit upon a new idea in their proxy war strategy against India. Under an informal, unwritten agreement between the two nations, the snow-capped peaks of Drass, Kargil and Batalik sub-sectors used to be left unmanned in harsh Winter months. That was the situation last Winter too, only Pakistan decided to act before snow had melted completely and moved in to occupy critical heights overlooking the crucial national highway number five that connects Srinagar with Leh. Presence of the intruders was soon detected all along Drass to Kargil stretch of the highway and upward in Batalik right up to Turtuk (now renamed Hanifuddin sector after Lt Hanifuddin) just short of Siachen. Artillery shelling, a regular feature for the last three years (eight years in case of Kaksar), was more intense this year and an ammunition dump was blown up in Kargil in early May. The Army authorities realised something was amiss and political leadership was approached for permission to dislodge the enemy, putting to test the armed forces’ preparedness and professional competence. The political leadership gave the clearance and the whole colour of what was hitherto a low-intensity conflict between Army and intruders, most of whom were Pakistani regulars and so called freedom fighter mercenaries, changed on May 26 when Indian Air Force (IAF) was called in to join in the effort to recapture Indian territory. The next 50 days saw a brilliant military operation by both the Army and IAF and the well-entrenched enemy was kicked out of Indian territory by mid-July. Tiger Hill, Tololing, Mushkoh Valley, Point 4875, Knoll and three pimples in Drass sub-sector, Jubar, Khalubar Ranges, Chorbatla and Turtuk in Batalik besides Kargil and Kaksar towns became household names overnight as the war was virtually brought into the drawing rooms of people. The much-hyped capture of Tiger Hill in the night of July 3 and 4 was the turning point of ‘Operations Vijay’ as Army and IAF working in unison, gave the intruders their due. The extremely successful operation extracted its price too and Indian Army lost 519 personnel, including 26 officers and six Junior Commissioned Officer (JCOs) while the IAF lost three pilots and two JCOs, as also three aircraft, two of which were brought down by Pakistani shoulder-fired missiles. The sacrifice of the soldiers, mostly youngsters with a few months to a couple of years of service behind them, was recognised by a grateful nation and Government announced a large number of gallantry awards and welfare measures for next of kins of the martyrs. The highest gallantry award Param Vir Chakra was given to four armymen including Captains Manoj Kumar Pandey and Vikram Batra posthumously, in addition to nine Mahavir Chakras, 53 Vir Chakras and 83 Sena Medals for gallantry. Martyrs became national heroes and revered role-models in their native places with thousands of people turning for the last rites of the people they had probably never met. The impact of Kargil was seen in the political sphere too with a tottering BJP-led coalition Government coming back to power with better strength as it became a key electoral issue and the nation gave the Atal Behari Vajpayee Ministry credit for bloodying the nose of the not-so-friendly neighbour. India’s restraint in the face of compelling reasons to go for an all-out war was appreciated by international community which for the first time in case of an armed conflict, unanimously supported New Delhi’s stand. Kargil also helped remind the nation of the plight of dependants of soldiers killed in previous wars and the money it generated in relief funds helped those forgotten people’s cause too as both IAF and Army not only honoured them, but also gave them some much-needed monetary assistance. But over everything else, Kargil would go down as another reminder to Pakistan that it stands no chance against India in a conventional war and hopefully halts more adventurism from across the border. (PTI) |
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Amritsar Airport often victim of hijacking AMRITSAR, Dec 25: The Raja Sansi Airport which is being upgraded to international standards seems to be the best preferred landing spot for hijacked aircraft in India. Being close to Lahore where landing permission for hijacked Indian planes had been refused in the past, the only option left with the pilots and the hijackers is to divert the plane to Raja Sansi. Though the Indian Airlines airbus, 300 which was on en-route to New Delhi from Kathmandu and was hijacked by armed militants, only halted for 50 minutes at the Raja Sansi Airport last night it has once again proved the preference of the hijackers. The first hijacked Indian Airlines plane to land here was on September 29, 1981 which was hijacked by activists of Dal Khalsa diverted Srinagar-Delhi flight to Lahore. This flight was bound for Srinagar from New Delhi. Thereafter on March 27, 1993, a lone hijacker Hari Singh commandeered an Indian Airlines flight bound for New Delhi from Hyderabad to the Raja Sansi Airport. Hari Singh surrendered before the then Director General of Punjab Police (DGP) K P S Gill. Then on April 23, 1991, a lone Kashmiri militant hijacked a plane on the Delhi—Srinagar flight and this aircraft landed here after being denied landing permission by Lahore. The militant was killed by National Security Guard (NSG) Commandos and the passengers freed. After the April 1993 hijacking a proposal was mooted by Mr Gill for stationing a permanent anti-hijacking squad of the NSG here. Though the proposal was forwarded to the Union Home Ministry nothing came of it. With yesterday’s hijacking this proposal has again come up for discussion with the security officials here. (UNI) |
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Nuclear power brightens energy scenario in India NEW DELHI, Dec 25: India has achieved yet another milestone in energy security and self-reliance with the much awaited state-of-the-art 1220 mw unit of the prestigious Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP-3) going critical last night brightening up the power scenario in the country. Efforts are underway to ensure that an other unit RAPP-4 of the same capacity goes critical early next year. Both the RAPP-3 and RAPP-4 are likely to cost about Rs 2511 crore to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. It would take at least three months to reach the maximum capacity output after the plant goes critical and gets synchronised with the northern grid. Two other reactors of Rajasthan, of 200 mw capacity each, had already been in operation. The RAPP-3 is the largest nuclear plant in the country working on pressurised heavy water reactor technology using natural uranium as fuel. The RAPP-2 unit has recently been refurbished after coolant channel replacement and safety upgradation using indigenous technology, debunking the fears of radioactive contamination around Rawatbhata town in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan where all the units are located. The first and second units of Rajasthan plant had so far supplied 27,114 million units of electricity to the Northern grid as against 1,41,417 million units by all the ten units which commenced commercial operations under the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. According to its Chairman-cum-Managing Director Dr Y S R Prasad, the Corporation, had plans to raise the nuclear power capacity to at least 20,000 megawatts by the year 2020. It was also programmed to construct four more reactors each of 500 mw under Rawatbhata. The Rajasthan power plant had been built totally on indigenous technology, including its design, construction and manufacturing besides nuclear materials. The corporation authorities claim that RAPP-3 meets all the requirements laid down in the revised safety standards incorporating the safety features based on defence-in-depth, redundancy, diversity and fail-safe philosophy. The unit design takes care of external safety aspects also. The RAPP-3 is also designed to withstand high seismic intensity corresponding to a maximum possible earthquake having a recurrence period of one in 10,000 years. Natural draught cooling towers have been provided in the plant to prevent any discharge into the aquifiers from the steam cycle. (UNI) |
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Security forces along Manipur border withdrawn IMPHAL, Dec 25: Security personnel, including BSF, deployed at the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur’s Chandel, Ukhrul and Churachandpur districts, had been withdrawn, official sources said today. The security forces had been retained at a few border points, particularly in the border town of Moreh in Chandel and Behiang in Churachandpur, they said. No reason was given for the withdrawal of the forces from along the International Border. The sources said some changes would take place as far as deployment of forces in Manipur was concerned and four CRPF battalions would be replaced by BSF, which would mainly be deployed in Churachandpur district. Meanwhile, reports from the districts bordering Myanmar here said smuggling activities had increased recently along the Indo-Myanmar border through several unguarded points. (PTI) |
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