On the border dispute with China, the Army chief said that continuing peace along the border will pave the way for a solution.

NEW DELHI: The new Army chief Lieutenant General MM Naravane on Wednesday said that India needs to pay more attention to its border along China and asserted that the force is capable of dealing with any security challenge.

“We have been giving attention to our western front in the past. The northern front now also requires an equal amount of attention… The Army is capable of tackling any dangers to the country,” General Naravane told reporters after receiving the first Guard of Honour as the Army chief here.

“In that context, we are now going in for capability development and enhancement of our capacities even in our northern borders which includes the northeastern part of our country,” he said.

On the border dispute with China, the Army chief said that continuing peace along the border will pave the way for a solution.

“We have been able to maintain peace and tranquillity along borders and I’m sure that situation will prevail. By maintaining this, we will be able to set the stage for the eventual solution,” he said.

General Naravane said that operational readiness and modernisation will be among the top priorities of the Army under his leadership.

“Our priority will be to be ready to meet any challenge and to be operationally prepared at all times. This will happen as a result of modernisation. We will continue to build our capability especially in the North and Northeast region of our country,” he said.

He said that the Indian Army will pay special attention to respect human rights. “We will also pay special emphasis on raising security awareness among ranks and file and pay special attention to respect human rights,” the Army chief said.

Assuring the country on security, he said, “All three services — the Army, the Navy and the Air Force — are ready to defend the country.”

He extended wishes to people in the new year and hoped that the country will make huge progress in this decade.

General Naravane took over as the 28th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) on Tuesday, succeeding General Bipin Rawat who has become India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

General Naravane was previously the Vice Chief of Army Staff.

Pramesh Jain 

“It’s a shameful act that central government employees involved in drug racket -Bhaskar Rao.”

Sleuths attached to anti-narcotics wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) has busted international level drug racket and arrested four employees of postal department on the charge of drug peddling.

They were allegedly handling drugs from foreign countries in nexus with local peddlers.

The accused, has been identified as,H.Subba,34,Ramesh Kumar,47,Syed Majid, 54,and Vijay Rajan,58, all the four are working at the GPO and Chamarajpet post offices.

The CCB sleuths have recovered drugs worth Rs.20 lakh, including 339 ecstasy tablets,10 grams of MDMA crystal powder and 30 gram of brown sugar, which they received in foreign parcels from the Netherlands,Canada and the USA.

Senior officer told media persons that the accused would help the peddlers get the drugs in exchange for sums ranging from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1.5 lakh depending upon the size of the consignment.

The accused would collect the parcels and hand them over to the peddlers without the mandatory scanning and other formalities.

Inquiries revealed that the accused were involved in the crime for six months. Using their expertise,they would also scan parcels in search of drugs and steal such parcels.They would sell them to the peddlers and drug addicts.

Bengaluru city police commissioner,Bhaskar Rao,with Joint Commissioner,Crime,Sandeep Patil,DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,KP Ravikumar was present at the press conference and said that,The racket came to light when one of the drug peddlers was arrested by the CCB team.

Based on information provided by the peddler,police raided the post offices and arrested the accused.

Bhaskar Rao, even said, In the last one-and-half-a-month our Narcotics wing of CCB cops have busted 4 international drug rackets.

It is very sad to note that 4 Government officials are attached to Foreign post office at Chamarajpet in Bengaluru used the dark web to develop contact with oversees drug peddlers.

By providing fake addresses they have got drugs from foreign countries and made money. Following a definitive clue. Cops of our Anti-Narcotics cell have arrested these 4 employees of the central government. I am proud to announce that Karnataka and Bengaluru police are the first to successfully penetrate dark net users.

He even said we suspect involvement of other employees, and a case has been registered against all the four accused in Kempegowdanagar police station under NDPS Act and further investigation is on.

And finally I appreciate,Joint CP,Crime, Sandeep Patil,DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,KP Ravikumar,ACPs,as,Nagaraj,Venugopal with other staff who has done a commendable job and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

There were 80 per cent successful anti-terror operations in which 160 terrorists, including foreigners, have been killed during the year.

JAMMU: As many as 160 terrorists were killed and 102 arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, while 250 ultras were still active, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said on Tuesday, noting that the number of local youths joining militancy has decreased.

He said that there is 30 per cent fall in terrorist incidents, less civilian killings and 36 per cent decrease in law and order incidents as compared to last year.

“218 such (local) youths joined militant outfits in 2018 but only 139 joined in 2019,” Singh said at the annual press conference at police headquarters here.

Out of these new recruits, only 89 have survived.

“The rest have been eliminated as their shelf life is between 24 hours to 2-3 months after joining militancy. There are hardly few old terrorists surviving, which include Jehangir Saroori and Riyaz Nayikoo”, he said.

There have been only 481 law and order incidents this year as compared to 625 last year, he said “250 terrorists have been active in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a decrease in the number of active militants as compared to last year,” Singh said.

There were 80 per cent successful anti-terror operations in which 160 terrorists, including foreigners, have been killed during the year.

“Eleven valiant police personnel from Jammu and Kashmir besides 72 from other security forces have been martyred,” he said.

Singh said 102 terrorists have been arrested and 10 terrorists surrendered during the year.

Also, there was no collateral damage during anti-terror operation as people fully cooperated.

“There was zero law and order problem this year (during anti-terror operations),” he added.

The DGP said that “there has been a high degree of incidents of infiltration attempts from across the border this year and also ceasefire violations.

But security forces have successfully foiled these attempted as 130 infiltrators have entered in 2019 as compared to 143 last year”.

Replying to queries on the restoration of internet, the DGP said it is under consideration.

“I think J-K is moving towards such a situation (on law and order front). Very soon you will hear the positive announcement,” Singh said.

He said that though some people will try to misuse the internet, “in the past, we took care of them and we will take care of such people in the future too”.

Internet services in all government-run hospitals and SMS to all mobile phones will be restored from December 31 midnight in the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir official spokesman Rohit Kansal said on Tuesday.

On December 10, some short message service (SMS) was enabled on mobile phones in order to facilitate students, scholarship applicants, traders and others.

It has now been decided to fully restore the service throughout Kashmir from midnight of December 31, Kansal said.

Mobile Internet services were restored in Kargil district of Ladakh on Friday after remaining suspended for 145 days in the wake of the Centre abrogating provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, officials said.

Internet services were suspended on August 5, the Centre announced the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Commuters faced traffic snarls as a thin layer of fog enveloped the national capital on Wednesday morning.

NEW DELHI: As many as 29 trains are running late due to low visibility in the Northern Railway region.

However, no flight operations have been affected.

“Travel safe, travel stress-free! There is a moderate fog outside. All flight operations are normal. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information,” said Delhi Airport in a statement.

Commuters faced traffic snarls as a thin layer of fog enveloped the national capital on Wednesday morning.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that there will be no more cold wave in Delhi till January 4 and there might be a slight rise in temperatures.

Earlier the deadline for the Aadhaar-PAN linkage was September 30 which was extended to December 31. 

NEW DELHI: The date of linking Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar has been extended from December 31, 2019, to March 31, 2020.

A notification from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said: “In exercise of the powers conferred under sub-section (2) of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the Central Government hereby amends the notification of the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), dated 28th September 2019 published in the Gazette of India.”

Earlier the deadline for the Aadhaar-PAN linkage was September 30 which was extended to December 31. 

The CEO Office here had recently said that Delhi will be the first state/UT in which a booth app shall be used in every polling station for the first time in the country.

NEW DELHI: Technology will be an important component in the upcoming Delhi polls as voters’ slips will carry QR code to facilitate electors and speed up their identification, officials said on Monday.

The CEO Office here had recently said that Delhi will be the first state/UT in which a booth app shall be used in every polling station for the first time in the country.

“This latest technological innovation will make the poll process fast through the use of QR (Quick Response) Code reading of voter slips of electors,” a senior official said.

This provision will help in faster identification of electors.

The app will give the status of electors waiting in the queue to the public, who can plan their visit to the polling station accordingly for their convenience.

Booth app will also give voter turnout on a real-time basis on polling day, the official said.

Sources said, a proposal is also being considered to allow carrying mobile phones to booths to download QR code from the voters’ helpline app if a voter forgets to bring the slip, adding, the phone after scanning the generated QR code would be deposited in a locker before casting of vote.

It is just a proposal as of now, a source said.

To make election accessible, there will be the provision of Braille EPIC, Braille photo voter slip, ramp, wheelchair, volunteers, sign language and pick and drop’ facilities etc., for voters with a disability.

The facility is in addition to the other basic amenities at polling stations, officials said.

Aurangabad: NCP MLA from Beed district in Maharashtra, Prakash Solanke, on Monday night announced that he would resign as the member of the Legislative Assembly, as he is “unworthy to do politics”.

Solanke, who got elected from Majalgaon seat on four occasions, denied any link between his sudden decision and his non-induction in the state Cabinet, which was expanded on Monday.

He, however, added that the expansion of the Cabinet has proved that “I am unworthy to do politics”. “I am going to resign on Tuesday and stay away from politics now.

The MLA further said he was not unhappy with any leader in his party.

“I have apprised NCP leaders about my decision to step down. I will meet Legislative Assembly Speaker (in Mumbai) on Tuesday afternoon and hand over my resignation letter. My resignation has nothing to do with the Cabinet expansion,” he clarified.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his council of ministers by inducting 36 ministers, including NCP leader Ajit Pawar who was sworn in as deputy chief minister.

In the 288-member Assembly, the NCP has 54 MLAs after the Shiv Sena which has 56 members.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday moved a resolution in the state Assembly demanding the scrapping of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Though the one-day special session was convened to ratify the extension of the reservation for SC and ST in the Assembly and the Parliament for another decade, the resolution against CAA was also taken up in view of the the widespread concerns among public in this regard, official sources said.

While presenting the resolution, Vijayan said the CAA was against the “secular” outlook and fabric of the country and would lead to religion- based discrimination in granting citizenship.

“The Act contradicts the basic values and principles of the Constitution.

In view of the anxiety among the people of the country, the Centre should take steps to drop the CAA and uphold the secular outlook of the Constitution,” he said.

Noting that the Act had triggered widespread protests among various stratas of society, the Chief Minister said it had dented India’s image in front of the international community.

Vijayan also ensured the Assembly that there wont be any detention centres in the southern state.

When the session began, O Rajagopal, the lone BJP member in the Assembly, objected to the resolution stating that it was “illegal” as both Houses of the Parliament had passed the CAA Act.

The Opposition Congress -led UDF had demanded the Left government to convene a special session and pass a resolution against the CAA during an all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister on December 29 to discuss the issue.