Retired generals, soldiers detained by Delhi Police

The ongoing protests against the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) took an ugly turn on Monday when close to 400 ex-servicemen including their families were detained for a few hours by Delhi Police this morning while they were peacefully protesting near India Gate.

The ex-servicemen included former deputy army chief Lt General Raj Kadyan and Major General Satbir Singh (retired) who were detained under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“The government has done an unethical and immoral act by arresting disciplined soldiers,” said Major General Singh who is the vice-chairman of the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM).

Veterans are horrified and cannot remember the last time when two and three star generals were similarly detained.

“It is a sad day in our country’s history when generals have to take to the streets going on hunger strikes and demanding higher pensions,” said Major General Surjit Singh (retired).

The ex-servicemen had arrived at the memorial to India’s war dead, on Monday morning, and were to perform a havan before sitting down on a hunger strike to press for their demands.

They were bundled into waiting police vans and taken away because they had not got permission to protest there.

“We wrote to the prime minister and home minister informing them of the decision to hold a relay hunger strike. In the absence of any communication from them, we went ahead with our plan of action.”

The IESM were to meet Sonia Gandhi on last Saturday but did not get an appointment with the UPA chairperson.

They met Minister of State for Tourism Ambika Soni and presented their demands.

Since they were not given an assurance that the government would take up these demands, they continued with their plan to go on a relay hunger strike beginning from October 20 in hundreds of locations across the country.

The IESM has been agitating for four key demands since last year.

These include the implementation of OROP or the same pension for all ex-servicemen who have retired at the same rank irrespective of the joining or retirement dates, enhanced pension to compensate for early retirement and a national level commission for ex-servicemen and including ex-servicemen representatives and widows in welfare boards.

Each year over 55,000 personnel retire from the three armed forces, a majority of them soldiers who begin retiring from the age of 35 onwards.

India on the moon: Chandrayaan-1 successful

Chandrayaan-1, India’s maiden moon spacecraft, was put into Transfer Orbit around the earth by the Polar Launch Vehicle PSLV-C11 after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

The 1,380 kg Chandrayaan-1, carrying 11 payloads, was released into a Transfer Orbit 18.2 minutes after the PSLV-C11 blasted off.

After a series of procedures over the next two weeks, the spacecraft would reach its desired Lunar orbit and placed at a height of 100 km from the Lunar surface, marking the operational phase of the mission which would put India in the elite lunar club.

Earlier, at the end of the 49-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-11 lifted off from the second launch pad into a cloudy sky.

This is the 14th flight of ISRO’s workhorse PSLV, which had launched 29 satellites into a variety of orbits since 1993, and 13th successive one in a row.

Chandrayaan-1 is carrying 11 payloads, five entirely designed and developed in India, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from US, which would explore the Moon over the next two years.

Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair described the successful launch as a historic moment in India’s space programme.

“The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit,” Nair announced in the mission control centre.

Speaking to NDTV, Chief of the Indian space program Madhavan Nair gave details about the moon mission.

NDTV: What will it do sir? Is it carrying human beings?
Madhavan: No. This is actually a totally instrumental system

NDTV: So it is an unmanned satellite?
Dr G Madhavan Nair: Unmanned satellite, and it is mainly, almost like our earth observation satellite. This is going to observe the moon. 

NDTV:: So it will essentially map the moon one can say?
Dr G Madhavan Nair: Absolutely. In fact today maps are available for certain specific regions with a lower resolution. Here we have got imaging systems which will give almost 10m resolution. So it will be a precise image of the entire surface. 

The rocket that is carrying India’s first unmanned satellite to moon is as high as a 7-storey building and weighs nearly 300 tonnes.

One after the other, four stages of the rocket will ignite taking Chandrayaan higher into space.

The Chandrayaan will first make a few revolutions around the Earth so that it gathers enough momentum to reach the moon.

But it will take several days before it covers the 4 lakh kilometers to reach its destination. 

The satellite will be captured by moon’s gravity and initially it will revolve nearly a thousand kilometers from the moon’s surface.

But finally it will move closer to nearly 100 kilometers literally over the moon.

Once that’s done, it will spend the next two years mapping the moon’s surface and sending data to India.

And among the first things it does will be to plant India’s national flag on the moon.

Then as part of its many other challenging objectives the multi-continent mission will begin the most intense search ever undertaken for life giving water on the moon. 

“We have designed and built this instrument for Chandrayaan-1 to search for the water ice over the lunar poles and will be most extensive search of this type in history,” said Dr Stewart Nozette, NASA and Lunar Planetary Institute, Houston, USA.

Once scientific data has been gathered by the satellite, sending it back to Earth will be a big challenge. 

Digitally talking to the mooncraft will not be easy as the satellite will be almost 4 lakh kilometers away. And to gather the faint signals a dish antenna that weighs 60 tons has been set up at a small village called Bylalu near Bangalore. Part of the hi-tech data centre is still being constructed at the village where labourers sweat it out without even knowing that their efforts are taking India to outer space.

(With PTI inputs)

Related posts :  India to reach for moon 

DRDO facing attrition problem: Antony

Country’s premier defence research organisation DRDO is facing the attrition problems as 785 defence scientists have resigned in the last three years.The government has offered various incentives for scientists in the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) report, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

“A number of incentives were recommended by the CPC, which have been accepted and implemented by the government,” Defence Minister A K Antony said in a written reply to a question on exodus of scientists from DRDO.

Incentives to arrest the attrition rate in DRDO include providing career enhancement opportunities to scientists by granting them study leaves, sending them to attend conferences and seminars and long term training courses.

“DRDO is providing study leaves to scientists for acquiring higher qualifications like PhDs, Masters Degrees. Scientists are sponsored to go and attend conferences and seminars and for long term courses for research both within and outside the country,” Antony said.

The minister added that a lot of stress was being laid upon by DRDO to mentor young scientists along with improving their work environment and social life in DRDO campuses.

 

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