Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, August 26, 2010
Cabinet on Thursday approved the cadre restructuring of the Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers, aiming to reduce stagnation and providing adequate career opportunities to officers. "The decision will reduce stagnation in the various ranks of MNS by increasing the number of select appointments
and will also help in retaining competent and qualified officers in service by providing adequate opportunities for career progression," a government release said.
Under this, the number of vacancies in senior ranks in the service have been increased by the government.
"74 posts of Lieutenant Colonels (time scale) have been upgraded to Lt Col (Select) and above. Now, there will be two Major Generals, 18 Brigadiers, 58 Colonels and 157 Colonels (Select) in MNS," the release said.
After this decision, the number of officers under selection grade has been increased from 161 to 309 in the 3,860 officer-strong cadre to further improve the quality of leadership in the service.
"To retain qualified and trained nursing officers, it was considered necessary to improve promotional avenues at all levels to mitigate the hardship of nursing officers by increasing the number of posts in select grade appointments within the overall strength of cadre," the statement said.
The time scale promotion of MNS officers up to the rank of Lt Cols has also been reviewed; as an officer will become a Captain from Lieutenant after three years of service from existing five years, become Major after eight years and a Lt Col (time scale) in 16 years from the present 20 years.
The qualifying service for Lt Col (Select) rank by the Selection Board has also been revised from the existing 18 years to 14 years. The last cadre review of Military Nursing Service was carried out in 1986.
Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service
Press Trust Of India
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Adopt carrot and stick policy against naxals: expert
Respected Sir,
The following report-- released by the United News of India news agency on August 27, 2010 -- is for your kind perusal and the fourth in a series.
With regards
Abhi
Adopt carrot and stick policy against naxals: expert by Abhijit C Chandra
Bhopal, Aug 27 (UNI) An Indian Army veteran with extensive combat experience against Northeast rebels advocates adoption of a carrot and stick policy for tackling the naxalism menace.
"There is always the human element that simply cannot be ignored. Besides, the Maoists are Indian citizens with a divergent ideology and certainly not imported terrorists to be crushed with an iron heel," Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement Vice-Chairman Major-General (Retd) Satbir Singh, Sena Medal, told UNI over telephone.
Reminiscing his tenure as Brigadier in Assam (now Asom), the veteran narrated an example to prove his point that struggle-truce-struggle is the golden mean for eventually terminating the scourge of militancy.
"In 1997, I was stationed at Tezpur performing duties as Administrator of the Unified Command in a heavily insurgency-affected area. It was well past midnight when the telephone rang," he narrated.
The man on the line mentioned that he was calling from a village about 40 km away where an acute shortage of water was the root cause of misery. "Please supply water Sir. There are women and children here," the caller lamented.
"Though I was well aware that the village was a den of ultras I did not reject the request right away. I informed the caller that I will arrange for the water but if a single shot was fired at my boys I will give the order to massacre the entire village," the Maj-General recalled.
In the succeeding minutes, 15 tankers were mobilised and filled prior to undertaking the hazardous journey. Atop the tankers were positioned soldiers cradling light machine-guns.
"My officers and men were in constant radio contact with me. They reached the village, supplied the water and returned sans incident," the veteran said. What happened the following day seems to prove the Maj-General's point.
"A speeding motorbike carrying two masked youths shot past my camp and one of them lobbed a stone with a piece of paper wrapped around it. On reading the message we found the words 'Thank you Brigadier Singh'. When I was eventually sent to a new posting, a teeming multitude saw me off at the airport," he said.
Emphasising that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act must not be diluted under any circumstance, the veteran went on to state that as the Army is authorised to employ deadly force in achieving its objectives, collateral damage is inevitable.
The following report-- released by the United News of India news agency on August 27, 2010 -- is for your kind perusal and the fourth in a series.
With regards
Abhi
Adopt carrot and stick policy against naxals: expert by Abhijit C Chandra
Bhopal, Aug 27 (UNI) An Indian Army veteran with extensive combat experience against Northeast rebels advocates adoption of a carrot and stick policy for tackling the naxalism menace.
"There is always the human element that simply cannot be ignored. Besides, the Maoists are Indian citizens with a divergent ideology and certainly not imported terrorists to be crushed with an iron heel," Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement Vice-Chairman Major-General (Retd) Satbir Singh, Sena Medal, told UNI over telephone.
Reminiscing his tenure as Brigadier in Assam (now Asom), the veteran narrated an example to prove his point that struggle-truce-struggle is the golden mean for eventually terminating the scourge of militancy.
"In 1997, I was stationed at Tezpur performing duties as Administrator of the Unified Command in a heavily insurgency-affected area. It was well past midnight when the telephone rang," he narrated.
The man on the line mentioned that he was calling from a village about 40 km away where an acute shortage of water was the root cause of misery. "Please supply water Sir. There are women and children here," the caller lamented.
"Though I was well aware that the village was a den of ultras I did not reject the request right away. I informed the caller that I will arrange for the water but if a single shot was fired at my boys I will give the order to massacre the entire village," the Maj-General recalled.
In the succeeding minutes, 15 tankers were mobilised and filled prior to undertaking the hazardous journey. Atop the tankers were positioned soldiers cradling light machine-guns.
"My officers and men were in constant radio contact with me. They reached the village, supplied the water and returned sans incident," the veteran said. What happened the following day seems to prove the Maj-General's point.
"A speeding motorbike carrying two masked youths shot past my camp and one of them lobbed a stone with a piece of paper wrapped around it. On reading the message we found the words 'Thank you Brigadier Singh'. When I was eventually sent to a new posting, a teeming multitude saw me off at the airport," he said.
Emphasising that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act must not be diluted under any circumstance, the veteran went on to state that as the Army is authorised to employ deadly force in achieving its objectives, collateral damage is inevitable.
Friday, August 27, 2010
‘Operation Samosa’ unearths Indian link to terror plot in Canada
26/08/2010
Toronto: An al-Qaeda-linked terror plot was unearthed by Canadian security agencies on Wednesday, with one of the suspects reportedly hailing from India.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) force. Photo Courtesy: Reuters
Under what is curiously called "Operation Samosa", the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested two suspects early Wednesday. One of them said to be named Misbahuddin Ahmed who reportedly comes from India. Search for more suspects is on.
It is the second al-Qaeda-linked terror plot to be unearthed in Canada after the Toronto-18 plot of 2006 in which 18 Toronto area Muslims were arrested for plotting to blow up Canadian targets, storm Parliament, take leaders hostage and behead the Prime Minister. Eleven of these plotters were convicted.
Terror suspects arrested on Wednesday were under watch of the national security task force of the RCMP for months. Authorities said the ringleader of the terror plot had travelled to the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan for training in weapons. Arrests were made when one of the suspects was about to travel abroad as part of the alleged plot, they said.
Though police didn't name the suspects, one of them is said to be 36-year-old Misbahuddin Ahmed who worked as an X-ray technologist at an Ottawa hospital. Reports quoted sources as saying that Mr. Ahmed comes from India.
Robert Farrell, a former Canadian diplomat who rented his place to Mr. Ahmed, told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper that the suspect told him that he was born in India but had lived for a time in Saudi Arabia.
"We met his wife at the time (of renting). She seemed quite nice. She wore an Iranian-style head covering (hijab). They seemed to be more of a traditional Muslim family," Mr. Farrell said.
Five kilometre away from Ahmed's residence, police arrested another suspect who has been named Ahmed Ehsan in the media. Reacting to the unearthing of the terror plot, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, "It is clear that Canada is not immune from international or home grown radicalisation. The government continues to participate in activities to better understand extremism throughout the world and the motivations of individuals who engage in terrorism."
According to security experts here, home grown terrorist cells are plotting to target Canadian power plants and transmission lines which carry electricity to the U.S.
"There are ways of attacking the U.S. through Canada. The whole energy for New York comes from Quebec (province), for example," security research expert Anthony Seaboyer was quoted as saying.
In fact, the famous Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda-linked Algerian who lived illegally in Canada and had plotted to blow up Los Angeles in December 199, had entered the U.S. from Vancouver.
Though Canada has tightened anti-terror laws after 9/11, Americans still find the response of its northern neighbour inadequate.
Source: IANS
‘Operation Samosa’ unearths Indian link to terror plot in Canada
Toronto: An al-Qaeda-linked terror plot was unearthed by Canadian security agencies on Wednesday, with one of the suspects reportedly hailing from India.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) force. Photo Courtesy: Reuters
Under what is curiously called "Operation Samosa", the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested two suspects early Wednesday. One of them said to be named Misbahuddin Ahmed who reportedly comes from India. Search for more suspects is on.
It is the second al-Qaeda-linked terror plot to be unearthed in Canada after the Toronto-18 plot of 2006 in which 18 Toronto area Muslims were arrested for plotting to blow up Canadian targets, storm Parliament, take leaders hostage and behead the Prime Minister. Eleven of these plotters were convicted.
Terror suspects arrested on Wednesday were under watch of the national security task force of the RCMP for months. Authorities said the ringleader of the terror plot had travelled to the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan for training in weapons. Arrests were made when one of the suspects was about to travel abroad as part of the alleged plot, they said.
Though police didn't name the suspects, one of them is said to be 36-year-old Misbahuddin Ahmed who worked as an X-ray technologist at an Ottawa hospital. Reports quoted sources as saying that Mr. Ahmed comes from India.
Robert Farrell, a former Canadian diplomat who rented his place to Mr. Ahmed, told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper that the suspect told him that he was born in India but had lived for a time in Saudi Arabia.
"We met his wife at the time (of renting). She seemed quite nice. She wore an Iranian-style head covering (hijab). They seemed to be more of a traditional Muslim family," Mr. Farrell said.
Five kilometre away from Ahmed's residence, police arrested another suspect who has been named Ahmed Ehsan in the media. Reacting to the unearthing of the terror plot, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, "It is clear that Canada is not immune from international or home grown radicalisation. The government continues to participate in activities to better understand extremism throughout the world and the motivations of individuals who engage in terrorism."
According to security experts here, home grown terrorist cells are plotting to target Canadian power plants and transmission lines which carry electricity to the U.S.
"There are ways of attacking the U.S. through Canada. The whole energy for New York comes from Quebec (province), for example," security research expert Anthony Seaboyer was quoted as saying.
In fact, the famous Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda-linked Algerian who lived illegally in Canada and had plotted to blow up Los Angeles in December 199, had entered the U.S. from Vancouver.
Though Canada has tightened anti-terror laws after 9/11, Americans still find the response of its northern neighbour inadequate.
Source: IANS
‘Operation Samosa’ unearths Indian link to terror plot in Canada
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