Kargil: Inside Story – I
Army Chief usurped Northern Army Commander’s role

From B L Kak

India’s Chief of the Army Staff is Gen. VP Malik and the ....more

Ashok Gehlot

‘OBC status to more castes after Commission report’

JAIPUR, Nov 24: The Rajasthan Government has said OBC ....more

SC sets up committee
to manage civic amenities
in Agra

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Concerned by the appalling state of civic amenities in ....more

Fool-proof mechanism to monitor central assistance: Thakur

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: A fool-proof mechanism would be introduced in the ....more

Mamata Banerjee

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NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The Government is planning to strengthen and give ......more

5-year perspective plan
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11 diesel tankers gutted
in fire

RATLAM, Nov 24: RATLAM, Nov 24: Eleven diesel tankers were gutted today when a special goods train from Mumbai to New Delhi caught fire near Bamania Railway Station of Western Railways in the neighbouring Jhabua district, disrupting ...more

Kargil: Inside Story – I
Army Chief usurped Northern Army Commander’s role

From B L Kak

India’s Chief of the Army Staff is Gen. VP Malik and the GOC-in-C of India’s vital Northern Command is Lt. Gen. HM Khanna. For reasons best known to the former, the role of the latter as the Northern Army Commander during the Kargil war with Pakistan was usurped. Who usurped his role ? Gen. Malik, it is now alleged.

The allegation is contained in the just-released book titled ‘Kargil: Inside Story’. Authored by Delhi-based journalist and defence analyst, Mr AK Chakraborty, the 219-page book has charged Gen. VP Malik with usurping the role of the Northern Army Commander, Lt. Gen. HM Khanna, who was overseeing ‘Operation Vijay’.

Regretting that Gen. Malik did not deem it fit to cancel his week-long trip to Poland in mid-May 1999 despite being fully aware of the Pakistani intrusion in Kargil sector, the book says that the Indian Army Chief, on return from Warsaw, took charge of ‘Operation Vijay’. He visited Srinagar and Kargil on at least five occasions accompanied by photographer and TV crew. Gen. Malik was, of course, present during the Prime Minister’s visit to Kargil. It was, however, noticed that he was too anxious to align himself to the political seat of power.

In the Army’s operational hierarchy it was Gen. Khanna’s responsibility to conduct Kargil’s "near war", Mr Chakraborty argued, stating that as it turned out Gen. Khanna’s role was "notional". Mr Chakraborty regretted: "Discarding the chain of command, Gen, Malik so assiduously advocates, the Army Chief opted to override his commander and conduct operations himself".

Gen Khanna, at the same time, has not escaped criticism in the book. Stating that Gen. Khanna is "more renowned" for claiming on May 12, 1999 that he would evict the intruders in "48 hours", the book lamented: "He then promptly left for Pune for five days, returning to his headquarters at Udhampur on May 19, 1999". The intruders were still around. In a belated attempt at explaining away the intrusion, Gen. Malik told journalists, the book recalled, that the Army’s surveillance and radar capabilities were poor as it was inadequately equipped.

According to the book, Gen. Malik was unaware that nearly six years ago the Army was solely responsible for rejecting for inexplicable and mysterious reasons a battlefield surveillance whose purchase it had earlier cleared. The lack of a BSR has now become one of the Army’s many alibis for Kargil’s intelligence failure, the book has explained. The magnitude of the incursion came to light only around May 18, almost weeks after infiltrators were first sighted on May 6.

It took several more days for the Indian Army to realise that the intruders were, in fact, Pakistani soldiers, many of them belonging to the Northern Light Infantry which essentially comprises residents of Baltistan, Hunza and Gilgit areas located opposite the Kargil sector. Northern Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Khanna, the book revealed, had, in fact, on the night of May 12, informed Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, at the Siachen Brigade Headquarters at Partapur that a batch of about 100 intruders had occupied three ridges in the Batalik sub-sector and they would be dislodged within two days.

Mr AK Chakraborty insists that it was only from May 15 onwards that the Army realised that the intrusion was actually spread over four large areas along the 140 km Line of Control (LoC) – Zojila to Turtuk. The Pakistani intruders had come 6 km inside the LoC in Mushkoh valley and Dras sub-sector, 2 km in Kaksar and up to 7 km in the Batalik sub-sector. It was apparent that the Pakistanis had surveyed the areas well before pushing in their troops.

The Pakistanis had occupied strategic heights overlooking the national highway and were posed to cut off the land route to Leh and Siachen glacier in Ladakh. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, first sought to deflect the criticism of the handling of Kargil intrusion by admitting that the Pakistanis had "betrayed" him. He had, according to the book, never imagined that the friendship bus from New Delhi to Lahore, which started in the wake of the historic Lahore Declaration for peace and friendship between India and Pakistan, would be hijacked to Kargil.

Initially, the Prime Minister gave a clean chit to intelligence agencies but later he came under tremendous pressure of criticism by political parties in the run up to the 1999 general elections and announced a review probe into Kargil lapses. People, Mr Chakraborty has recorded, had pity and sympathy for the "betrayed" Prime Minister but were later rattled when details of command and control failure at various levels were revealed by the print and electronic media. The real gravity of the situation became apparent to the people only when the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched the air strikes on May 26.

People were reminded of the 1962 debacle in the north-east during India-China conflict. Intelligence agencies had failed the country and India had to pay a very heavy price. The book lamented: "Unfortunately, the country was caught unawares even in 1987 when the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) went to Sri Lanka. The intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), failed to report correctly the ground realities in Jaffna peninsula. Even the maps supplied to the Indian Army by the RAW were found to be outdated. The result: over one thousand Indian tropps lost their lives during the three-year stay of IPKF in Sri Lanka and over three thousand were injured, among them about five hundred maimed for life due to injuries inflicted by booby traps laid by the LTTE(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam)".

Mr Chakraborty is of the firm opinion: The combined failure of intelligence in Kargil in May-June 1999 has cost the nation over 500 soldiers dead and about 1,000 injured in a span of just two months. And the tragedy is that no one is prepared to own up responsibility. One revealing paragraph in the book: "In Kashmir, the joke during Kargil crisis was that the Pakistani Army had instructed the shepherd to inform the Indian Army in Kargil about their presence. The Pakistani troops were restless because the Indian troops were just not taking cognisance of their presence in such a depth area. This is level of low credibility of our intelligence agencies among the people in Jammu and Kashmir. No wonder people in the rest of the country were shocked and simply aghast when details of the intelligence failures at all levels filtered out in the media". (To be continued)

‘OBC status to more castes after Commission report’

JAIPUR, Nov 24: The Rajasthan Government has said OBC status will be extended to other backward castes in the state after the State Commission recommends their inclusion in the list.

The State Government cannot include any section in the Other Backward Castes (OBC) list directly without receiving a report to that effect from the State Commission as per the Supreme Court judgement, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said yesterday and added the Government would not lag behind once the Commission recommends it.

The Congress, in its election manifesto had promised to bring these castes under OBC but they had to respect legal procedures, he told a delegation who met him yesterday demanding inclusion of Bishnois, Meaos, Kayamkhanis, Sindhi Muslims and Bhomia Rajputs in the backward castes category. (PTI)

SC sets up committee to manage civic amenities in Agra

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Concerned by the appalling state of civic amenities in the heritage city of Agra famous for Taj Mahal, the Supreme Court has set up a high-level committee to look into the functioning of public authorities responsible for providing these to the residents.

A three-Judge bench headed by Justice G B Pattanaik said the monitoring committee will certainly try its best to achieve the maximum results in the matter of giving unpolluted drinking water to the citizens of Agra as well as those who visit the heritage city and provide a good sewrage system and take adequate measures for disposal of solid waste.

The committee under the chairmanship of Commissioner of Agra division will consist of District Magistrate, Chief Medical Officer, a representative of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, petitioner D K Joshi, Superintendent Engineer of Yamuna Action Plan and dedicated social worker of the city Shri Raman, the bench said in its brief judgement. The court directed up Government to issue a notification setting up the committee within three months.

Joshi, in his petition, had alleged that the drinking water of Agra city was extremely polluted, the water being contaminated, filthy and totally unhealthy for human consumption.

The court pulled up the State Government saying though certain steps were taken for supply of drinking water, providing adequate sewerage and drainage system and providing measures for disposal of solid waste in the city of Agra, these were by no stretch of imagination, adequate in relation to the necessity of the city.

On the orders of the court, National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, had submitted a report indicating long term measures which could be taken in relation to supply of drinking water as well as sewerage and drainage system and disposal of solid waste in the Agra city.

Justice Pattanaik, writing the judgement for the bench, said we think it appropriate to issue certain directions to be complied with by the State and appoint a monitoring committee which can look into the effective functioning of the several public authorities responsible for supply of drinking water, providing sewerage and providing adequate measures for disposal of solid waste.

The court authorised the monitoring committee to take help of another person, whom it thinks necessary including NEERI, to expeditiously implement reports submitted by NEERI.

It also empowered the committee to examine the money that was being spent in each of the projects and ensure proper utilisation of money.

If the committee feels that any action is required to be taken by the State Government in respect of some officers or some organisation of the State, the committee can recommend the same to the Chief Secretary to the State of Uttar Pradesh, who shall thereafter take appropriate action, as is required under law, the bench said. (PTI)

Fool-proof mechanism to monitor central assistance: Thakur

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: A fool-proof mechanism would be introduced in the Ministry of Water Resources to monitor utilisation of Central assistance to states for implementation of major projects.

The new Water Resources Minister C P Thakur told reporters soon after assuming office that the ministry was cash-strapped and it was therefore imperative to closely monitor utilisation of central funds by states as well as physical verification of the projects.

The minister said he would seek enhanced allocation of funds for his ministry as the Rs 370 crore allotted to it in the current budget was not sufficient.

A state-wise meeting of Chief Ministers and Members of Parliament would be convened here soon to assess the requirements of the respective states and review the progress of on-going projects, he said.

To a question, Thakur said he would take all necessary measures to resolve the controversial Cauvery water and Narmada Dam issues through process of dialogue with the states concerned.

He said steps would be taken to revive the state-owned national project construction corporation running in loss.

Referring to the perennial flood problem in Bihar, he favoured a tripartite meeting with Central and State Governments and Nepal, from where most of the rivers originated causing inundation in large tracts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. (PTI)

11 diesel tankers gutted in fire

RATLAM, Nov 24: Eleven diesel tankers were gutted today when a special goods train from Mumbai to New Delhi caught fire near Bamania Railway Station of Western Railways in the neighbouring Jhabua district, disrupting railway traffic on Mumbai-New Delhi route.

However, no one was injured, Additional Divisional Railway Manager of Ratlam Man Singh told PTI.

The fire, that broke out at 0230 hrs, was brought under control after three hours with fire tenders rushing to the spot from various places including Jhabua, Ratlam and Dahod, he said.

A report from Jhabua quoting railway officials said a derailed tanker might have hit an electric pole and the spark might have caused the fire and spread to other bogies.

Meanwhile, Singh said the railway traffic on the route would be restored by this evening.

Railway officials said Jaipur-bound Avantika Express was terminated at Dahod, and passengers have been sent to Indore by bus.

The Swaraj Express was diverted through Nagda-Bhopal and the golden temple frontier mail was diverted via Godhra and Ahmedabad on Ajmer route to Mumbai.

Mumbai-bound A C Express, which was stationed at Ratlam at the time of the incident, and the Janata Express, were diverted via Ujjain.

Collectors and Superintendents of Police of Jhabua and Ratlam districts have rushed to the site where senior railway officials were also camping. (PTI)