What lures Generals to Panchkula?:

Panchkula: 'City of Generals'
PANCHKULA: Panchkula, the satellite town of Chandigarh, seems to be fast becoming the " City of Generals" as one more war veteran has made it his post-retirement home. Army commander of Western Command Lt Gen S R Ghosh, who hung up his uniform, has decided to settle down in Panchkula, which is already home to hundreds of Army officers including Gen V K Singh, who also retired recently, and former army chief V P Malik.
Lt Gen Ghosh said he loved the area during his stint as Army commander and decided to settle here because of the atmosphere and way of life the city offers for the defence personnel. Another reason for settling down here, he added, was that his wife, a retired bureaucrat, was born and brought up here. Ghosh, nevertheless, maintained that the city lacks maintenance and that considering the number of senior officers settling here, local bodies should focus on its proper upkeep.
Panchkula already has hundreds of officers and war veterans, who remained commanders of various vital formations of Army during conventional as well as non-conventional wars, settled here. Among them are former Army chief Gen (retd) Malik, former Army vice-chief Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, former commanders -- Lt Gen H S Panag, Lt Gen P S Hoon, Lt Gen Deepinder Singh, LT Gen T K Sapru, Lt Gen G S Sihota, Lt Gen R S Dayal (died recently), Lt Gen Daljit Singh and Lt Gen Surinder Singh among others.
Sector 12, 12-A, 6, 20 and MDC have a high concentration of top Army officers. In fact, Panchkula has become a station of choice post-retirement not only for those from the region but also those belonging to other parts of the country.
According to senior Army officers, the city is one of the best urban planned cities of the country, has spacious roads, large lung spaces and planned markets. Besides, it is strategically located -- within an earshot of Shimla to the north and New Delhi to the south. With Chandimandir Cantonment in the vicinity, officers' link to service life and a large community of retired and serving officers make it particularly attractive.
Panchkula: 'City of Generals' gets 2 more after 'farewell to arms' by Ajay Sura, TNN Jun 1, 2012, 05.01AM IST

Floral tributes paid to martyrs at the Veer Smriti war memorial

Friday, September 16, 2011, Chandigarh, India
Western Command marks 64th Raising Day
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 15
A solemn wreath-laying ceremony marked the Western Command’s 64th Raising Day at its headquarters in Chandimandir today.

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen SR Ghosh and Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, the Command’s former GOC-in-C, paid floral tributes to
martyrs at the Veer Smriti war memorial.

A ceremonial guard reversed arms as a mark of respect to the martyrs, while buglers sounded the Last Post. A two-minute silence was also observed. Senior officers were also present on the occasion. Inmates from the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Mohali, also attended the ceremony as the Army is observing 2011 as the ‘Year of Disabled Soldiers’.

Raised in 1947 as the Delhi and East Punjab Command, with headquarters at Delhi, it was mandated to control formations with an operational role in the territorial areas of the present Western and Northern Commands. It was redesignated as the Western Command in January 1948. In 1954, the headquarters of the command moved to Shimla. After the Indo-Pak Conflict of 1971, the Northern Command, with its Headquarters at Udhampur, was carved out of the Western Command to assume operational responsibility of Jammu and Kashmir. Later headquarters of the Western Command moved to Chandimandir in 1985.

The Western Command was instrumental in effectively blunting the Pakistani aggression in 1947, 1965 and 1971, and subsequently carrying the battle into enemy territory. Its troops, formations and units have always distinguished themselves, winning a large number of gallantry awards, including 11 Param Vir Chakras.
martyrs at the Veer Smriti war memorial

12th Anniversay of the Kargil Vijay Divas

For the Tricity Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula, and Dist Panchkula, it has been resolved to commemorate the 12th Anniversay of the Kargil Vijay Divas on Sunday, July 24 at Panchkula under arrangements of the IESM Panchkula Branch as per programme below:

Homage Ceremony 1030 – 1130H Including Tea and Refreshments.

Candle Light Vigil 2000 ­– 2045H.

Place Major Shankla War Memorial, Sector – 2, Panchkula (Opposite Bella Vista Mall)
You are all requested to participate in the functions with family and friends. The Ex-Servicemen community must use this occasion to bond together. With Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
Brig Kiran Krishan, SM (Retd)
Convener, IESM Panchkula Branch

Message of Life: Anandpur Sahib

Standing on the threshold of the decade of eighties as I step over the dividing line on November the fifth, the question of celebrating the birthday does not cross my mind.

Come evening, there is a visit by a family of friends: father, mother and daughter, carrying a box of pastries and a bouquet of lovely blue- green and magenta orchids arranged tastefully in a basket.

I am pleasantly surprised, overwhelmed and falling short of words, in how to thank for the thoughtful gesture: the present and the effervescent ‘Happy Birthday’ wish proofed in unison, mumble some thing...

The box, containing Black Forest and Pineapple pastries, the pastries to be savoured slowly, is destined to the fridge, the basket, the Orchids to be admired at leisure, to the centre of the dining table.

As the days pass, one by one, the pastries, slowly, dwindle in number, enjoyed in small bites and pieces, the orchids on the other hand, strangely, day by day grow by millimetres, both in height and beauty.

Somehow, in the growing Orchids and dwindling Pastries I discern a subtle ’Message of Life’: its beauty, continuity and finality.

The Gurudawara at Anandpur and Kababs at Chandigarh
It was getting dark on that chilly, remembered, December evening of the year 1999. From Chandigarh, past Bhakra, climbing up, to Una in Himachal Pradesh and on to Bangara, Dharam Singh’s home, a hamlet of just four houses, mostly in second, gear on the twisting and turning, unpaved track of a road, I have been driving since morning.

Now, returning back to Chandigarh , both of us tired, Jeet frail and weak, back from the recent long and debilitating journey from , New York, possibly deep in her own thoughts, a victim of cancer, that though defeated twice but not been vanquished is, once again, quietly stirring inside her, is unusually quiet.

I am a worried man and a concerned husband, concerned about her and worried, already getting late in the night with Punjab recently returned from the heavy bout of insurgency coupled with so many other imponderables lurking at he back of my mind, of making it safe to Chandigarh.

In a hurry, I am pressing the accelerator down and pushing the NE 118 hard on the lonely narrow dark road lit only by the twin car headlights as it hurtles ahead, with the engine humming smoothly, the reassuring, sound somewhat soothing to my troubled mind.

On our way up as we crossed Anandpur Sihab, Jeet, was keen to pay her respects at the gurudawara, already late and I in a hurry to reach Una, where Dharam Singh, my section JCO from 1962, was waiting for us, had suggested to pend it for the same evening return journey.

Nearing Anand Pur Saihab, I slow down and breaking her reverie indicate to her the gurudawara, now visible from the window of the moving car in far distance, perched on a hillock, flood lit and shining like a jewel.


Sensing the latent tension in my tone, Jeet, perceptible as usual, responds “It is getting late; let us leave it for some other time.”

I know that she would be sourly disappointed if she misses this opportunity and now already late, I reckon that now, another hour or so would not make much of a difference: ‘Who knows when we will come this side again.” I say and spin the steering wheel left, turning the car off the road and on to the track leading to the gurudawara.

At the foot of the hillock, where I park, is a shanty market with the stalls doing roaring business, selling nick knacks, Karas, Kirpans and other souvenirs of the visit to the holy place to the devotees and eatables to the accompanying children. I wait in the car as Jeet opens her side door, gingerly steps out and starts her slow trudge up on the winding path.

I, in a pensive mood, watch her slow laboured progress. She must have been half up when some thing hit me and exploded inside. “What am I doing here sitting in the comfort of the car, while she is struggling up, taking each step with the force of will power, I ask myself? In desperation I jump out, bang the car door and run up the track, taking the steps two at a time, hoping to catch up and join with her before she vanishes from sight in the milling multitude of the devotees.

Huffing and puffing I do make it, surprising her in the processes. She, seeing me there unexpectedly, possibly experiencing frisson and as I hold her hand gives me a vane smile: both of us enter the portals of the holy place and following the customs, side by side, perform the required rituals and pay our obeisances.

With the divine hand now looking after us all the way, we made Chandigarh safe and sound. However, on reaching the city, Jeet, though an extremely poor eater had an intense urge for Mutton Kababs. All the restaurants of the town did have Kababs but of Chicken. Mutton, we did manage finally in a five star hotel, after going around all the eateries, as the last resort. That however is another story, another episode, in the Odyssey of our life together to be narrated some other time.
Brig Lakshman Singh (Retd)

Gen SF Rodrigues (Retd) in a fix?

Punjab Governor threatens defamation proceedings against CNN IBN

The Punjab Governor-cum-Administrator, Union Territory of Chandigarh Gen (retd) S F Rodrigues sought an apology from CNN-IBN authorities and threatened to launch criminal and legal proceedings against the channel authorities if they fail to comply for the repeated telecast of the reported audit findings of the Union Home Ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) of sale of prime land at low rates to prominent IT companies in the Union Territory.

The legal notice seeking criminal prosecution for defaming the Governor was served by Mr Anupam Gupta, Standing Counsel for the UT and a Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyer.

Referring to the telecast of the news item on the land sale subject, beginning on the evening of October 15, the notice that that CNN-IBN has been engaged in "a wanton, malign and repeated telecast of completely outrageous, egregiously false and wholly indefensible slander of the Governor".

"The telecast(s) contents whereof are a matter of record, have been viewed by millions of people around the country and the world and have inflicted grave, incalculable and irreparable damage to the reputation, character and credibility of Gen Rodrigues for which your Channel and all of you, jointly and severally, bear full responsibility", the notice stated.

The enormity of the defamation practised by the Channel against Gen Rodrigues, holding him up before the entire country and the world as a corrupt Head of State/Government involved in a scam running into thousands of crores by corruptly selling off precious government land in the Union Territory to private builders/developers is appalling, the notice said.

" Suffice it to state that your stark and explicit assertions of corruption against him, without a shred or little of evidence and without even a pretence of an attempt or effort at verification from Gen Rodrigues or the Chandigarh Administration, is a gross and blatant abuse of the profession of journalism and exceeds by far the boundaries of freedom of speech and expression delimited by the Constitution and the law", the notice said. UNI

Punjab Governor threatens defamation proceedings against CNN IBN
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