A piece of history dating back to the 1971 Indo-Pak War is said to have disappeared from the Eastern Command headquarters in Kolkata. A Mercedes Benz, that used to be the staff car of the then East Pakistan army commander Lt General AAK Niazi before it was brought to the Fort William, cannot be traced. It was the same car in which Niazi drove down to Dhaka airport with Lt Gen (retd) JFR Jacob to receive Lt Gen J S Aurora, the then GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, before the historic surrender on December 16, 1971 which was signed by both of them. The car which was treated as ‘War Booty’ by officials, was used by GOC-in-Cs of the Eastern Command till a few years ago. Senior Army officers are unsure whether the car was ‘scrapped’ and sent to the Panagarh depot in Burdwan for disposal through auction. If this is what actually happened, the car may have been auctioned off by now. It could either be lying in the garage of a person who knows nothing about its true value or may have landed in the hands of a scrap dealer to be torn into pieces.
“It was ‘War Booty’ that was brought from Dhaka after the War. Unfortunately, we are unable to trace it now. There is a possibility that the car was scrapped a few years ago. Maybe, officers who took the decision were not aware of its origin,” a senior officer of the Army said. In 1971, while Pakistani army generals had Mercedes as their staff cars, few Indian businessmen could hope to own the vehicle, given the country’s stringent import policy. Such cars were a strictly forbidden for all the government or military officials. A section of retired officers believe that the car was simply taken ‘off records’ to avoid any controversy. After all, bringing it to India clashed with late Field Marshal SHFJ Maneckshaw’s principle that soldiers of the Indian Army were not to behave as if they were part of an invading Army. “This was not the only Mercedes that was brought back to India. There were other cars that found their way to other command headquarters. Questions were even raised in Delhi on why the vehicles were brought back. In response, officers had said that they were brought to India for repairs that couldn’t be undertaken in Bangladesh,” a retired Army officer said.
Eminent historians like Amalendu De, sounded extremely unhappy when told about the development. “If the Army admits that the car was brought to Kolkata after the creation of Bangladesh, it should certainly have been preserved. Some anti-Indian elements in Bangladesh had earlier made allegations that the Indian Army had taken away some jeeps after the surrender. I had investigated the matter and found the allegations to be baseless. This is the first time that I am hearing of the Mercedes,” De said.
When Niazi surrendered before Aurora thirty-nine years ago, as per protocol he also handed over his revolver to Aurora. Jacob, then chief of staff, Eastern Command, wrote in his memoirs later that the revolver handed over by Niazi was not his. “....Niazi then undid his epaulette and removed his .38 revolver with attached lanyard and handed it over to Aurora. There were tears in his eyes.... Sometime later, when I examined the revolver surrendered by Niazi, I realised that the weapon wasn’t his. It was a normal Army issue .38 revolver. The barrel was choked with muck..... The lanyard was dirty and frayed in parts,” Jacob wrote stating his doubts about the weapon, “This wasn’t the personal weapon of a commanding general. More likely, Niazi had taken it from one of his military policemen and surrendered it as his personal weapon. I could not help feeling that in his own way, Niazi had got a little of his own back,” Jacob wrote.
In 2003, a pistol which was presumed to be that of Niazi, was stolen from the National Museum in Delhi. Army officials later revealed that Niazi’s revolver (it was not a pistol) was preserved safely at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. What was stolen from the museum could have been a pistol surrendered by another Pakistani officer.
Historians can only pray that the Mercedes is also tucked away somewhere and will be shown the respect it deserves.
18.11.10
Somewhere in Amethi....
Politically perfect....Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi exchanges greetings with a youth outside the Jama Masjid in Amethi on Eid-ul-Zuha
515 crore biz centre in Pune gets approval
Maharashtra's new Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has set the ball rolling for the setting up of an international exhibition-cum-convention centre at Moshi near Pune.. In his first major infrastructure-related decision since taking the oath, Chavan, on Wednesday, gave an in-principle nod to a masterplan for the project. The Pimpri-Chinchwad New Township Development Authority, the special purpose vehicle floated for the project, claims that the centre at Moshi would be comparable to exhibition centres at Hanover (Germany), Birmingham (UK) and Osaka (Japan). The Rs 515-crore project will be implemented using the public-private partnership model.
17.11.10
Delhi 2021
Even as the fate of Delhi's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor -a 14.5km stretch from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate -hangs fire, the Delhi government on Monday gave the go-ahead for an ambitious plan to construct 15 new BRT corridors spanning 359.9 kilometres.
To prevent people driving their private vehicles to the Capital's central vistas, the government has also asked the High Court-appointed special task force to prepare a concrete plan to levy congestion tax and install automatic parking meters in the Capital.
The government also cleared nine new Metro lines covering 148.2 km and a 40.3 km stretch of light rail transit (LRT) system for the Capital. The new BRT corridors, Metro lines and the LRT line will be constructed by 2021.
Senior Delhi government officials said keeping pace with growing traffic and transport demands, RITES, a central government consultancy firm on transport and infrastructure projects, had suggested these corridors in a recent report `Transport Demand Forecast and Development of Public Transport System for Delhi'.
“A 12-member special task force constituted by the Delhi High Court to look for solutions to the increasing traffic problem in the city had approved the report in May this year. By putting its stamp on the report, the Delhi Cabinet has paved the way to take these projects to the drawing board,“ said a senior Delhi government officer.
Though new Metro lines and BRT corridors have been approved to strengthen the public transport system in the Capital, senior officials said they are yet to explore how these projects will be funded.
A strong BRT and Metro network is vital for Delhi considering the rate at which private vehicles are increasing in the Capital. Delhi's vehicle count has already crossed 65 lakh and 900-1,000 new vehicles are registered everyday.
Senior Delhi government officials said the Cabinet has asked the special task force to come up with a concrete plan on how and in which areas it plans to introduce congestion charges on the lines of cities like Singapore and London. To strengthen the parking system, the Cabinet has also agreed to install automatic parking meters most commercial hubs in the city. According to a task force member, Central Market of Lajpat Nagar has been identified as a commercial centre to launch the parking meters pilot project.
“The parking meters will help do away with problems like parking more vehicles than authorised limit, unreliable and rude parking staff and overcharging,“ the member said.
“On congestion tax, we have been asked to carry out a study on roads that require congestion taxing and alternate routes for motorists that do not want to pay the tax,“ he added.
The Cabinet has also agreed to start a pilot project in Anand Vihar to map the entire residential area on Delhi's geo-spatial map to estimate how much parking space the area has and then interact with resident welfare associations to find ways to tackle the city's fast growing vehicle numbers, given the space constraints.
The Cabinet also agreed to send a reminder to the Centre to approve a bill to create Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority -a central body to look into roads and transportation needs for the Capital.
Climate change predictions
By 2030, the average temperatures in India will rise by 1.7-2.2°Celsius in India and extreme temperatures by 1-4°Celsius in comparison to the 1970s. The hotter summers and warmer winters will lead to substantial changes in agricultural production, water flows and cause dramatic changes in the country’s weather, a report of the government’s Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment has said. The report noted that in all regions of the country, rainfall will increase, with central and north-western Himalayan regions suffering the brunt of the highest increases. Worse, the high rainfall days (extreme rainfall events) in the country are bound to increase. The 7,500km coastline will face its own problems with sea levels along the coast rising at the rate of 1.3mm/year and the intensity of cyclones expected to increase, though the frequency would reduce. The report notes that severe droughts will see a moderate to extreme increase in the Himalayan region and floods will intensify by 10-30% in all the regions of the country. The government’s attempt to start a second green revolution in dryland areas could also be tested with the nonirrigated crops suffering a productivity decline though the irrigated paddy areas may gain productivity in some zones. Maize and sorghum are projected to have reduced yields in all the regions. The coconut productivity is projected to rise in the western coast and reduce in the eastern coastal region. The story of failing production of apples in states like Himachal Pradesh is bound to continue in future, the study done by 18 Indian scientific institutions for the government notes. Lifestock productivity — backbone of the farming sector — will decrease in general and there will be substantial changes in the fisheries too with some gains and losses and shifts in patterns causing fisherfolk to adjust to such alterations. The incidence of malaria will increase in the Himalayan region though it will come down in the coastal belts by 2030 due to the changes in moisture and temperatures caused by climate change. The government plans to produce another report by May 2012 studying the impact of climate change on all 16 agro-climatic zones and also hold an Indian International Climate Science Congress once every two years starting with the first one in November 2011
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