Declare Adarsh a security threat: Army

22 Feb, 2012, 08.35AM IST, The writer article Rajshri Mehta,TNN
MUMBAI: With the Maharashtra government shying away from implementing the 2011 ministry of environment & forests order to demolish Adarsh, the defence ministry has opened another front to reclaim land on which the controversial 31-storey building stands in Colaba.
The local army unit has filed a writ demanding that Adarsh be declared a security threat to the Colaba military station. Calling it a 'private' society, the petition said Adarsh being the tallest building overlooks military establishments like the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) workshop, a storage and disbursal depot for petrol, oil and lubricants, within 27 metres to a maximum 400 metres.

"The entire top decision-making echelons-the General Officer Commanding (GOC) window being clearly visible-at the headquarters of the Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa (MG&G) area can be eliminated with sniper rifles and other hand-held weapons with the building barely 200 metres away,'' the petition filed through Deepak Saxena, major general (chief of staff) of MG&G area, said.

Citing the case of US president Barack Obama watching live in Washington the operation to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the petition pointed out that it may be possible for residents of the building to observe numbers and types and movement of personnel, specialist and general purpose vehicles that may be parked in the workshop, from which their availability/serviceability can be analyzed.

"...potential residents of Adarsh and their guests, who could be foreign nationals, will not be under the jurisdiction of the Indian Navy or Indian Army authorities and hence not amenable to security checks," army officials added, detailing a range of hand-held weapons available with terrorists that can be smuggled into Adarsh.

The army pointed to violations in provisions of development control regulation 16, which states the municipal commissioner can reject a building proposal if he considers it to be source of danger to the health and safety of inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

The role of five GOCs from 1999 to 2010 as being responsible for the security risk arising from the building was also pointed out. "Each successive GOC, be it A R Kumar, V S Yadav, T K Kaul, Tejinder Singh and R K Hooda, or their family members, were given a flat and thus, none objected to the land under occupation and owned by the army to Adarsh," officials said.

To buttress security concerns, the army cited the example of Pakistani American national David Coleman Headley, currently in US custody, who surveyed sites across the city before the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.

The army said that to ensure a Adarsh-like situation is not repeated, they (in addition to the Western Naval Command) have sent a proposal to the defence ministry to restrict the construction and height of private buildings around 500 metres of the military station.

It added that as early as June 2003, the then defence estate officer has raised the issue of a security threat with the collector of Mumbai. In fact, it mentioned that the occupation certificate (OC) was issued to Adarsh despite a written request to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority ( MMRDA) to withhold its issuance, citing security concerns in 2010.
Declare Adarsh a security threat: Army

86-yr-old WW II veteran wins pension

Bhartesh Singh Thakur, Hindustan Times
Chandigarh, February 20, 2012
Providing succor to 86-year-old World War II veteran, Chandigarh bench of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) allowed his petition and granted him pension.
Ishar Singh, a resident of Yamunanagar, joined signal regiment of Royal Indian Army on December 27, 1942. For serving the nation, he was awarded War Medal and Indian Independence Medal.
Ishar retired on April 12, 1948 as he was declared medically unfit to serve further. He was suffering from osteoarthritis of the spine.
The 86-year-old was granted disability pension at Rs 6 per month. It was stopped on April 12, 1950 as his disability had fallen below 20%.
Ishar made efforts and made representations to Army authorities for continuing his pension but in vain. He was brought before a re-survey medical board in 1989 which also ruled that his disability was lesser than 20%.
He had no source of income as he was illiterate. He was sustaining on agriculture in his village. His service element was not given as he had served for less than 10 years as per the rules when he retired.
"In March 2011, he approached All India Ex-servicemen Welfare Association (AIEWA), which took up its case through its legal aid scheme. In October 2011, the petition was filed. A notice was issued to union government. In its reply, the government replied that there was no record available of the World War II veteran as the same had been destroyed," said Bhim Sen Sehgal, Chairman of AIEWA, who represented Ishar Singh in the court.
He added, "As per the change in the policies in 1968 and then in 1973, invalided soldiers should get service element. And later Supreme Court judgments also put a stamp on it, which removed the cut off dates."
The court took the documents-service record, pension book and certificate issued by re-survey medical board, submitted by Ishar Singh as evidence in the case.
The bench comprising justice NP Gupta and Air Marshal SC Mukul (retd) allowed the service element of disability pension but restricted the arrears to three years from the date of filing the petition in AFT.
86-yr-old WW II veteran wins pension

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