POW 2

RTI reply reveals no consistency in govt's figures on PoWs

Sunday, October 26, 2008 

New Delhi: Despite New Delhi s tall claims that it was pursuing the cases of Prisoners of Wars (PoWs) in Pakistani jails, different departments of the government have separate figures about Indians languishing in prisons of the neighbouring country, raising questions about the seriousness of the initiative. 

The Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs have completely different figures of PoWs which itself raises doubts about the seriousness of the government's initiative to get the long-delayed release of the Indians from the clutches of the Pakistani authorities. 

In an RTI reply, the MEA has disclosed that 74 PoWS may be in the Pakistani custody whereas the Ministry of Defence said there could be just 54 PoWs who were taken into the custody during the 1965 and 1971 wars. 

"If the government does not have a concrete data, how can they pursue the PoWs cases strongly with their counterparts in Islamabad. The agencies dealing with the issue are not unanimous with the figures," says P Hari Kumar, a Kerala student, who sought the information about the number of PoWs from Army, Navy, Air Force, Ministry of Defence and External Affairs. 

Army claimed that a total of six officers, nine JCO's and 240 personnel of other ranks of Army were reported missing in the 1971 Indo-Pak War. 

"These personnel were later declared missing, presumed dead or confirmed killed. Two officers and 17 personnel of other ranks have been reported missing after 1971. Whether these missing persons are in Pakistani jails or not cannot be confirmed," the RTI reply said.

Source : PTI

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Indian Pows in Pakistan

India doesn’t know how many PoWs are in Pakistan prisons

The committee had estimated that the number of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails is 450 while the number of Indian prisoners in Pakistan is about 500, including PoWs

K.P. Narayana Kumar

New Delhi: In a development that could put the Union government on the defensive for being insensitive to the families of Indian PoWs, or prisoners of war, in Pakistan, two relevant ministries can’t even agree on the number of such soldiers possibly languishing in jails there.

This, some activists complain, stems from the absence of a consolidated list and details of such PoWs, potentially adding to delays in getting Indian soldiers back home from Pakistani prisons.

Pakistan, for its part, has always insisted that there are only Indian prisoners in its jails, not PoWs.After a meeting of the Pakistan-India Judicial Committee, which was formed in New Delhi to focus on the exchange of prisoners in February, it was agreed that both countries would exchange consolidated lists of the number of prisoners—Pakistanis in India and Indians in that country.

The committee had estimated that the number of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails is 450 while the number of Indian prisoners in Pakistan is about 500, including PoWs. Pakistan says it released 2,657 Indian prisoners since 2003 while India has freed only 827 Pakistani prisoners during the period. However, India does not subscribe to this figure. Answering a right to information request, the ministry of external affairs, or MEA, says there are 74 Indian PoWs in Pakistan.

But India’s ministry of defence, or MoD, puts the figure at 54. The MEA had obtained its information from the Indian high commission in Islamabad. The MEA also says there are 149 civilian prisoners in Pakistan, apart from 390 fishermen who had strayed into that country and were being held captive. An MEA official declined to comment on any Pakistani PoWs in India.

Harikumar P., an RTI activist based out of Kerala, had sought the PoW information and sent an application in December 2006 to the MEA, MoD as well as the three defence forces. The ministries replied by April.

Meanwhile, in response to the RTI application, the Directorate General of Military Intelligence said information was unavailable on the whereabouts of 19 personnel, including two officers, after the 1971 India-Pakistan war. “Whether these missing persons are in Pakistani jails cannot be confirmed,” the reply said.During the 1971 India-Pakistan war, 255 Indian army personnel, including six officers, were reported missing. “These persons were later declared missing, presumed dead or confirmed killed,” the army said.

The Indian Air Force headquarters, meanwhile, said in its reply that there is “no such information held by this HQ”.

The navy said none of its personnel has been held captive by Pakistan.

An MEA official, who did not wish to be identified, said that the reason behind the discrepancy in figures of PoWs was that the MoD had taken into account only soldiers considered missing until 1971.

The official said that “the term PoW is being replaced with ‘missing defence personnel’ at the instance of Pakistan, keeping diplomatic sensitivities in mind. And, perhaps, because of the change in lexicon, the defence ministry has been unable to provide the figure of the number of personnel missing since 1971.”“Pakistan has not acknowledged that any of the missing defence personnel are in its jails. This issue would also come up during the external affairs minister’s forthcoming visit to Pakistan,” the same official said.

“I think it is obvious that a clear and ready-to-refer record of PoWs has not been developed yet,” notes Harikumar.

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News: Tax Payers in India

India has 31.5 million taxpayers

Published: 07-28-2007

New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) In a country of over a billion people, only 31.5 million people pay taxes, and this is after the number of taxpayers has grown by nearly 11 percent between March 2002 and March 2006.

In response to a Right to Information (RTI) query by seasoned RTI campaigner P. Hari Kumar, 24, of Kasaragod in north Kerala, the finance ministry has said that the number of taxpayers has increased from 28.4 million in 2002 to 31.5 million in 2006.

Replying to another RTI application, the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) has said that a total of 54 million Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) had been allotted till July 5, 2007.

PAN is a 10 digit alphanumeric number issued in the form of a laminated card, by the income tax department.

In its bid to tighten the tax net and ensure that a larger number of people pay taxes, the government has made it mandatory for everyone to quote the PAN number for income tax returns and correspondence with any income tax authority.

PAN numbers are also needed to open a bank account, pay income tax, purchase and sell shares and securities, purchase movable property that needs registration, apply for visas and passports or bank loan and to file tax returns.

Likewise, there are 1.8 million Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) holders across India.

TAN is a 10 digit alphanumeric number that must be obtained by anyone who is responsible for deducting or collecting tax. It is compulsory to quote TAN in TDS/TCS return, any TDS/TCS payment challan and TDS/TCS certificates.

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News: EVM Security

How secure is the EVM? Election Commission has the answer
Friday June 1 2007

IANS

NEW DELHI: India has manufactured 1.3 million electronic voting machines (EVM) in a bid to make the electoral process of this vast democracy speedier and counting of votes more accurate. And it is tamper proof, both mechanically and electronically, says the Election Commission.

"The Bangalore-based M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd and the Hyderabad-headquartered M/s Electronics Corp of India Ltd have been authorised to manufacture and supply EVMs to us," said an official of the Election Commission while replying to a query submitted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In response to the query from Harikumar P of Kerala, the commission's information officer SR Kar also gave assurances about the integrated safety measures of the voting machines.

"The machine is both mechanically and electronically protected to prevent any tampering, manipulation or alternation of the programme code and polled data," Kar said.

Each EVM costs around Rs 8,000.

According to Kar, the returning officer seals the machine before polling. A thread seal for the door of 'candidate set' compartment and separate seal for power pack compartment are implemented.

It also includes a green paper and a thread seal for the result section, another for the bottom compartment and an outer paper seal for the result compartment.

The micro controller used in the EVM has a one-time programme read only memory (OTPROM). Programme codes permanently fused in OPTROM and once written and fused cannot be read back or cannot be altered by anybody including the manufacturer, Kar added.

The PCB (printed circuit board) consists of micro-controller integrated circuit device with the main programme codes permanently fused into the device manufactured.

EVMs have been a contentious issue in some countries, with a debate over their suitability even in the US.

Even when some countries have critiqued the Indian EVMs for not having a verifiable "paper trail" (paper-based cross-checking mechanism) and a lack of public verifiability of its source code, others have appreciated the simplicity of design of the machines unlike their more complex counterparts elsewhere.

In India, the cost of the 1989-90 models of EVM (excluding battery) was Rs 4,900 per machine (ex-factory price), transportation and transit-insurance extra.

EVMs supplied in 2000-01 cost Rs 8,670 without batteries including excise, sales tax and freight.

Expected cost of EVM for the current supply (in 2006-07) is Rs.8,670 each excluding excise, sales tax and freight.

Of the 1.3 million deployed, a little over two-dozen faced problems, Kar said.

"The EVMs returned due to technical defect are replaced by the manufacturer. The number of EVMs abandoned are very few," he said.

Though there is no special handbook by the Election Commission regarding maintenance and usage of EVMs, a 43-page test report of the PV Indiresan Committee is the only document that has analysed the issue in India.

Techies discussing this issue on the India-GII network in cyberspace, however, have voiced some concerns about the prices nearly doubling in a decade.

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News: 25 Pesticides Banned in India

25 pesticides banned in India, others face partial curbs
Monday, 04 June 2007 |

New Delhi, June 4 - Some 25 pesticides are banned for manufacture, import and use in India. Two other pesticides and formulations are banned for use in the country but their manufacture is allowed for export, it has been revealed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

As India grapples with this complex issue at the intersection of agricultural productivity and environmental safety, the government has also acknowledged that there are four pesticide formulations banned for 'import, manufacture and use' and another seven pesticides on the 'withdrawn' list.

Another 18 pesticides have been 'refused registration'. In some cases, the pesticide industry has failed to submit 'complete data' about their products, officials said.

In an RTI application reply to information campaigner Harikumar P. of Kasargod in Kerala, the ministry of agriculture's secretary S. Kulshrestha said the 'main reason for banning' pesticides was that some 'involved a health hazard to human beings, animals and damage to the environment'.

Kulshrestha added that others had been placed in the 'withdrawn' list, as 'these are likely to cause risk to human beings and animals as their safety cannot be fully established for want of complete data asked for from the pesticide industry'.

Thirty-seven pesticides are on the list 'under review' for their 'continued use or otherwise' in the country. Included here are organophosphate insecticide monocrotophos, seen in the West as acutely toxic to birds and banned in the US and elsewhere.

Large bird kills, especially of Swainson's Hawks from the prairies and grasslands of western North America, have been reported allegedly from the use of monocrotophos.

On the 'banned' pesticides and formulations list are aldrin, benzene hexachloride, calcium cyanide, chlordane, copper acetoarsenite, cibromochloropropane, endrin, ethel mercury chloride, ethyl parathion, heptachlor, menzaone, nitrofen, paraquat dimethyl suplhate, pentachlorophenol, phenyl mercury acetate, sodium methane arsonate, tetradifon, toxafen, aldicarb, chlorobenzilate, dieldrine, maleic hydrazide, ethylene dibromide, and TCA (trichloro acetic acid).

India has currently banned for use two pesticides and formulations - the suspected neurotoxicant nicotin sulfate and the Bangalore-manufactured broad-spectrum protective contact fungicide captafol 80 percent powder - but their manufacture is allowed for export.

Pesticides - substances used for preventing, destroying, repelling or lessening the damage of pests - are known to have an impact on the environment, on farmers and on consumers. Pesticide residues in food have also been a cause for concern.

Used since before 2,500 BCE, the first known pesticide was elemental sulfur dusting used in Sumeria about 4,500 years ago. By the 15th century, toxic chemicals such as arsenic, mercury and lead were being applied to crops to kill pests.

In the 17th century, nicotine sulfate was extracted from tobacco leaves for use as an insecticide. The 19th century saw the introduction of two more natural pesticides, pyrethrum, which is derived from chrysanthemums, and rotenonem, derived from the roots of tropical vegetables.

In 1939, Paul Muller discovered that DDT was a very effective insecticide. By the 1960s, DDT was found to be preventing many fish-eating birds from reproducing, threatening biodiversity.

DDT is now banned in at least 86 countries, but it is still used in parts of the world, seen as needed to prevent malaria and other tropical diseases by killing mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects.

Figures available indicate that global pesticide use has increased 50-fold since 1950, and 2.5 million tonnes of industrial pesticides are now used each year worldwide.

Currently, India has 203 pesticides registered under Section 9(3) of the Insecticide Act 1968.

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News: Sea Harrier 1

Hover and out
Sandeep Unnithan
December 27, 2007

It was past 11 on a warm Monday morning when Commander Janak Bevli's Sea Harrier came to land on the tarmac on the naval air station at Goa's picturesque Dabolim airport. It was not an ordinary fighter aircraft landing, Commander Bevli gently rotated the Sea Harrier's Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL) thrust nozzles down towards the runway, bringing the aircraft to a gentle hover. Just then, the aircraft began yawing out of control.

In a flash the experienced pilot yanked the twin handles of the Martin Baker ejection seat between his thighs. His seat rocketed out of the cockpit into the sky.

The parachute blossomed minutes after the aircraft thudded on the concrete. Bevli escaped unscathed but his aircraft became the 17th Sea Harrier of a total fleet of 30 aircraft to crash since their induction in 1983. Seven pilots have been killed so far. Six of the ageing aircraft have crashed in the past five years, three in the past 12 months alone. The Indian Navy's fleet of Sea Harrier now hovers at a
perilously low figure of 13 aircraft—nine fighters and four twin-seat trainers—which raises serious doubts on its capability to defend its fleet at the sea.

PHOTO: A Harrier hovering in to land on the Viraat

Among the greatest threats for a carrier battle group out at the sea is from long-range maritime patrol and strike (LRMP/S) aircraft which operate far beyond the range of the ship's sensors and surface-to-air missiles. An LRMP/S like the P3-C Orion can fire up to four Harpoon missiles, each with a range of over 120 km.

A single hit from an anti-ship missile can disable a carrier and prevent it from launching aircraft. The only weapon the navy has to speedily intercept enemy aircraft are the Sea Harrier jump jets. Now consider this alarming scenario. Over the next five years, the task of protecting the carrier battle group -- the Viraat, destroyers, frigates and fleet tankers -- will fall on just nine Harriers or just half a squadron of aircraft. This is less than half the required strength of fighter aircraft.

This scenario has been worsened by the fact that the refit of the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia, has been delayed by four years and it will arrive only in 2012.

Vikramaditya's air group of 18 MiG-29K carrier-capable aircraft till start arriving in batches on time, from next year.

The MiG-29s, however, cannot operate from the Viraat's speciallybuilt ski-jump on the flight deck and hence will be shorebased until the Vikramaditya arrives. There are three main reasons why the aircraft crash -- pilot error, faulty maintenance schedule or the failure of a spare part.

The navy says it is concerned but has refused to divulge reasons behind the spate of crashes which have destroyed over 60 per cent of the Harrier fleet. Yet at least one crucial factor unifies most recent crashes: all of them occurred while the aircraft were making their landing approach suggesting a loss of control and loss of power in the final stages of landing. Clearly, an engine related issue in an aircraft that is already 25 years old. "The navy conscientiously maintains its aircraft but perhaps there are some components deep inside which are not apparent at regular inspections," says former navy chief Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash, who flew in the first Harriers in 1983.

The spate of crashes came to the attention of Right to Information (RTI) activists Hari Kumar P. and Frederick Noronha who petitioned and successfully obtained a list of the crashes from the navy. "The crashes have been occurring with worrying frequency in Goa and seemed to have escaped any national debate," says Noronha.

The navy says upgrades will reduce the risk of further accidents. "We have begun an upgradation of sensors, avionics and airframe of the Sea Harriers to improve the pilot's situational awareness and lessen his load," says naval spokesperson Commander Nirad Sinha.

The upgrade of the Harriers is now being carried out by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore and the first Limited Upgrade Sea Harrier (LUSH) jet is set to fly in the next six months. This upgrade will deliver to the navy a formidable interceptor. Its new Elta EL/M-2032 radar can spot the enemy from over 100 km away and its Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missiles can engage them at 60 km. Unfortunately, at the current crash rate of nearly two aircraft every year it seems doubtful that there will be any Harriers left to last through another decade the navy wants them to be in service.

Naval officials blame the UK, the original manufacturer of the aircraft for stalling urgently needed upgrades to the Harriers, first proposed in the mid-1990s. The V/STOL aircraft, which can take off from half the runway length required by normal fighter jets, were built by British Aerospace and first inducted from the UK in 1983 to operate off the British-built Viraat and the since decommissioned INS
Vikrant.

-------------

Crash Course

· Why we need the Harrier: For fleet air defence. Embarked on the aircraft carrier Viraat, it protects the fleet from enemy aircraft, warships and submarines.

· * Delay in Vikramaditya refit: Five-year delay in the refit of the carrier in Russia means the navy will have only the Harriers to protect its fleet.

· * Number of crashes: In the past 20 years, the Harrier fleet is down from about 30 aircraft to 13 or less than the minimum requirement of a squadron of 18 aircraft. Delays by UK Govt: Refused to upgrade Indian Sea Harriers with advanced radars and missiles since the mid-1990s. Did not give last batch of its aircraft for spare parts.

-----------

Their upgrades to the aircraft, pending since the mid-1990s were delayed by a series of flip-flops by the British government and their refusal to part with the advanced Blue Vixen radar and US-supplied AMRAAM BVR missiles. This led to the shelving of the first upgrade.

With the euphoria generated by the acquisition of Vikramaditya and its air wing of 18 MiG-29K fighter aircraft in 2004, the navy decided to abandon the Harrier upgrade. The V/STOL jets would be gradually retired with the Viraat around 2010-12.

Two years ago, the then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that HAL would upgrade Sea Harriers. The limited upgrade of the 13 aircraft would give them Israeli Elta radars and Derby BVR missiles.

The aircraft are to be delivered by 2009 and will serve the navy for another decade, With the navy deciding to extend the life of the Viraat by another decade and the Harrier already out of production in the world, analysts feel it has no option but to purchase second-hand aircraft from the UK.

The navy wanted to purchase the eight remaining Sea Harrier FA2 aircraft from the Royal Navy last year as crash replacements, but a waffling British government said it would supply them only after stripping them of radars, avionics and missile, a proposal that was rejected by the navy. During a visit to New Delhi last year, Britain's First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band agreed to supply the navy the FA2s without the radars and avionics so they could be cannibalized for spare parts, but the UK subsequently backed out of this offer. Now, it turns out, there may be no more Sea Harriers left to buy.

With the Royal Navy having withdrawn its Sea Harriers from service in March last year (Royal Navy carriers operate the ground-attack variants of the jets), the Indian Navy now enjoys the uncomfortable distinction of being the world's last operator of the aircraft which first flew in 1960. With the crashes having created an unacceptable void in its capabilities, the navy may have no option but to scout the world market for second-hand Harrier cousins like the AV-8B Harrier-II operated by the US Marine Corps and the "Matador" operated by the Spanish Navy. Here too there are problems. Unlike the British Aerospace-built Harriers which the Indian Navy operates, the AV-8Bs are built by the US McDonnel Douglas. According to naval aviators, these will bring their own set of maintenance hassles.

In the absence of any alternatives, the navy has no option but to thrust the burden of defending its growing fleet of surface warships on the ageing shoulders of its shrinking fleet of Harriers.

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News: RTI Website

RTI website to me made people-friendly by February

New Delhi: The Centre is likely to update its website on Right To Information (RTI) by next month to provide on-line links to ministries and government offices, which shall inform citizens on where to file their pleas under the transparency law.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) conveyed this to the Central Information Commission (CIC), after questions were raised in the form of an RTI plea on the lack of proper updation of its official portal.

The DoPT Officer on Special Duty (RTI) Anuradha S Chagti has concurred with CIC's recommendation to update the department's website by creating hyperlinks to enable citizens to get easier access to details on public offices brought under the purview of the transparency law.

The OSD further said before the Commission that the exercise of updating its website would be completed by this February.

Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah passed the recommendations to DoPT, government's nodal agency on administration of the RTI Act, in respect to an application of one Hari Kumar, who raised the issues before the CIC.

In his application, Kumar had asked for list of Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) of all ministries and government offices from the PMO. The matter that was referred to the DoPT took a plea that the information sought was not "centrally available." Among other recommendations that were issued to the DoPT to ensure a "homogeneous implementation" of the provisions of the RTI law over payment by citizens of fees in respect of their information pleas.

© Copyright 2006 PTI. All rights reserved

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News: Sea Harrier 2

The Indian Navy's deadly aircraft

The aircraft have not been in a single war, but in the past two decades, 16 out
of 31 Harriers have crashed

K.P. Narayana Kumar and Rahul Chandran

New Delhi: When a Sea Harrier naval fighter aircraft crashed, killing its pilot, off the Goa coast in April, it appeared to be another tragic footnote to a string of isolated crashes involving India's fleet of combat aircraft. Not so, if you connect the dots.

In just the last three years, India, it turns out, has logged at least 30 such accidents involving various fighter aircraft. But what was much more revealing about the 5 April crash, which killed Lt Commander Saurabh Tewari, was that it
was the 16th Sea Harrier operated by the navy to have crashed in the last two decades. If 16 crashes doesn't seem like a big number in 20 years, consider this: these crashes have wiped out half of the Indian Navy's Sea Harrier fleet of 31 aircraft. Seven pilots, among the most elite flyers at the navy, have lost their lives in these crashes.

And, every crash has happened during fairly routine sorties as the Harrier has never seen battle since being inducted in 1983.

Pause after action: A Sea Harrier tethered to the INS Viraat deck.

The Sea Harrier, known and often bought for its ability to take off vertically or with very short runs, was commissioned in 1983 from manufacturer BAE Systems Plc. The aircraft, which were first deployed on India's aircraft carriers INS Viraat and INS Vikrant, which has since been phased out, were considered ideal because Indian carriers had relatively shorter decks compared with carriers operated by naval forces of other countries.

"I know that some of these aircraft have a bad track record," says Lt Commander Tewari's father, Commodore Vijay K. Tewari, who retired from the navy nine years ago. "However, having been in uniform, I cannot generalize and say that these aircraft are useless."

The crash saga

The unusually high percentage of crashes involving Sea Harriers began coming into focus after Frederick Noronha, a right to information (RTI) activist and freelance journalist who lives in Goa, began noticing the occasional news briefs and started connecting the dots. The naval squadron that flies the Harriers is based in Goa.

"Every now and then, these aircraft used to crash and we would wonder why this was happening," recalls Noronha. Realizing it could be a time consuming task to figure out all the issues involved in the crashes, Noronha alerted Hari Kumar P., a fellow RTI activist and an acquaintance. Equally intrigued, Kumar filed an RTI application seeking details from the defence ministry about accidents involving Sea Harriers.

The navy, citing national security, promptly rejected the first RTI attempt by Kumar. But he persisted and eventually succeeded when he moved the appellate authority for the RTI within the defence ministry.

Replying to Hari Kumar's application in September, the integrated headquarters of the defence ministry disclosed that between 1988 and 2007, seven pilots had lost their lives in 16 accidents involving Sea Harriers.

The appellate authority, however, declined to share reasons behind these accidents. The defence ministry also did not provide the acquisition cost of the 16 jets that have crashed nor the number of Sea Harriers remaining in the navy.

Mint independently confirmed, from a report in the military journal, Military Balance, published by London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), that there were only 15 such fighter aircraft left in the Indian navy's fleet. This was subsequently corroborated by the navy spokesperson.

In a puzzling response and despite the seemingly high accident rate, the ministry, in it's reply to Kumar, claimed there was nothing wrong with the aircraft.

"The Sea Harriers are fully operational and capable of delivering the desired performance in Indian conditions," the ministry wrote. "These aircraft are sustainable in the Indian environment."

Such reticence about aircraft crash patterns isn't new in India. The government has maintained a similar stance in the case of MiGs that had acquired the sobriquet of "flying coffins" having been involved in more than 170 accidents in India, crashes that even inspired the hit Hindi movie, Rang De Basanti.

Despite public criticism and the repeated number of accidents, the air force and the government are yet to go public with the precise reasons behind such frequent crashes.

The Harriers saga

The Sea Harriers are flown by the aviation wing of the navy and the fleet size maintained is minuscule when compared with the 300 MIGs owned by the airforce.

The navy first placed an order for eight Sea Harriers -- six single-seater FRS Mk51s and two double-seater (trainer) -- MK60s. While the ministry refused to reveal the cost, one story published by well-regarded UK business daily Financial
Times said that the cost of those eight was about £50 million (almost Rs409.75 crore now).

The aircraft were inducted into the navy in 1983. Since then, the navy has acquired another 23 such aircraft. The defence ministry hasn't disclosed the value of the other planes either.

The Indian experience with the Harriers appears to be similar to that of the Royal Navy in the UK and the US Marines. In the UK, home to supplier BAE Systems, the government withdrew the services of Sea Harriers in 2006.

In the US, too, media reports suggest the Harriers, part of smaller marine fleets, have been involved in a number of accidents.

Mint couldn't ascertain how many aircraft were involved in those crashes. According to Andrew Brookes, an aerospace analyst with IISS, in the UK, the Sea Harriers were withdrawn as a cost-saving measure due to their high maintenance costs.

Brookes said the problem with the Sea Harriers was primarily their age. "The Sea Harrier is ageing, so there is a high maintenance workload on them," he said. "And Sea Harrier operations are among the most demanding to fly."

Aviation experts and pilots note that the Harriers require a very high level of skill and consequently a low threshold for error at the controls, suggesting the blame for the crashes may lie primarily with the pilots. Still, the Harriers are typically flown by elite pilots, carefully chosen and trained by the navy to handle the quirks of the Harrier planes.

One naval aviator, who did not wish to be identified, said: "Harrier pilots are the pick of naval aviators. They have to undergo a tough selection process and for every one that flies, 10 are left on the wayside."

According to this pilot, who has not flown a Sea Harrier, on an average only one in 20 pilots get to fly it and have to undergo specialized training.

A UK-based military and aviation expert, who did not want to be identified, said: "We don't have an extensive list of problems on the aircraft. But it (Sea Harrier) is a challenging platform by nature in terms of what it does -- vertical or short take-off and landing. So, there are going to be a lot of stresses and strains than on other platforms."

The Harriers are famous for their ability for short or vertical take-offs as opposed to the angular take-offs similar to other combat and civil aircraft. Typically, these
planes take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier, remain suspended in the air for a few moments before tilting and flying off.

Commander Gurinder Khurana, an expert in naval warfare associated with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, says the ability of the aircraft to take off vertically is due to an innovative use of turning the nozzles on the aircraft. According to him, the Sea Harriers require a great deal of expertise to fly.

"It has to be investigated whether the failure rate is due to human error caused by lack of proper training or whether there are some technical snags," he said.

Lt Gen. V.G. Patankar of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, says that given the fleet size of the navy, the air mishaps involving the Sea Harriers could be a cause for worry in terms of the navy's air preparedness.

"The number of aircraft they (navy) have should be enough to make them operationally viable," he says. "But replacements will not be possible if the fleet gets depleted further."

Guy Douglas, a spokesman for BAE Systems, said his company was unable to comment on the Indian crashes. "It is for the Indian Navy and the authorities investigating (these accidents) to comment," said Douglas in a telephone interview.

BAE Systems, he added, did not own or operate the aircraft after they had been handed over to the Indian Navy.

A naval spokesperson conceded that the Sea Harriers by their design were tougher to handle. "Flying at sea and landing on a carrier is in itself considered the most challenging amongst all flying operations. It has its inevitable risks," he said.

The defence ministry did not respond to repeated queries from Mint. Retired Admiral Arun Prakash, who has been associated with the acquisition of the later batch of Sea Harriers, argues that despite the many crashes, the accident rates in
India are lower.

"The accident rate for Sea Harriers operated by the Indian Navy is low when compared with figures reported in the US, the UK and other countries," he claims.

According to the retired naval officer, the Harriers were the only aircraft that suited the aircraft carrier operated by India, because of space issues. Admiral Prakash also said India acquired the aircraft after being impressed with its performance during the Falklands skirmish between Britain and Argentina.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry has already decided to upgrade the remaining Sea Harriers at a cost of Rs 469 crore, suggesting that it proposes to retain the fleet for now.

A press statement issued by the ministry in 2005 says contract for this was given to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Despite pushing the government to disclose the high number of crashes, RTI activists remain sceptical that the government will investigate the issue.

"In India, it is rare for the government to act on time," says RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal. "Despite presenting all facts, the government takes its own time when confronted with RTI applications, the answers to which show an urgent need for change."

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News: Sea Harrier Article 3

Half of Sea Harrier fleet gone in 20 years

KP Narayana Kumar and Rahul Chandran

Email Author

New Delhi, November 26, 2007

When a Sea Harrier naval fighter aircraft crashed, killing its pilot, off the Goa coast in April, it appeared to be another tragic footnote to a string of isolated crashes involving India's fleet of combat aircraft.

Not so, if you connect the dots.

In the last three years, India, has logged at least 30 such accidents involving various fighter aircrafts. But, what was much more revealing about the April 6 crash, which killed Lt Commander Saurabh Tewari, was that it was the 16th Sea Harrier operated by the Navy to have crashed in the last two decades.

If 16 crashes doesn't seem like a big number in 20 years, consider this: these crashes have wiped out half of the Indian Navy's Sea Harrier fleet of 30 aircraft. Seven pilots, among the most elite flyers at the Navy have lost their lives in these crashes. And, every crash has happened during fairly routine sorties, as the Harrier has never seen battle since being inducted in 1983.

The Sea Harrier, known and often bought for its ability to take off vertically or with very short runs, was commissioned in 1983 from manufacturer BAE Systems Plc. The aircraft, which were first deployed on India’s aircraft-carrier INS Viraat and INS Vikrant, were considered ideal because Indian carriers had relatively shorter decks compared to carriers operated by naval forces of other countries.

The unusually high percentage of crashes involving Sea Harriers began coming into focus after Francis Noronha, a Right To Information (RTI) activist and freelance journalist from Goa, noticed the occasional news briefs and started connecting the dots.

Naronha informed Hari Kumar P, a fellow RTI activist, and then filed an RTI application. The Navy, citing national security, rejected the first RTI attempt. But he persisted and eventually succeeded when he moved the appellate authority for the RTI within the defence ministry.

Replying to Kumar's application in September, the integrated headquarters of the defence ministry disclosed that, between 1988 and 2007, seven pilots had lost their lives in 16 accidents involving Sea Harriers. The appellate authority, however, declined to share reasons behind these accidents.

Mint independently confirmed, from a report in the military journal, Military Balance, published by London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), that there were only 15 such fighter aircraft left in the Indian Navy's fleet. This was subsequently corroborated by the Navy spokesperson.

The “Sea Harriers are fully operational and capable of delivering the desired performance in Indian conditions. These aircraft are sustainable in the Indian environment,” the ministry reasoned.

However, Commander Gurinder Khurana, an expert in naval warfare associated with Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis said, “It has to be investigated whether the failure rate is due to human error caused by lack of proper training or whether there are some technical snags.”

Aviation experts and pilots note that the Harriers require a very high level of skill and consequently a low threshold for error at the controls, suggesting the blame for the crashes might lie primarily with the pilots. But, a naval aviator, who did not wish to be identified said, “Harrier pilots are the pick of naval aviators. They have to undergo a tough selection process and for every one that flies, 10 are left on the wayside.”

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News: Pendency of Court Cases

Nearly 30 million cases pending in courts

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, May 23, 2007

Over three million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country.

At the same time, there are almost a quarter million under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained.

This has been revealed by official figures emerging from the home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act application placed by a citizen.

It has also been found that over a quarter of all pending high court cases are at Allahabad.

The Allahabad High Court had some 1.09 million pending cases, with over eight out of every 10 cases being civil cases at the end of 2006. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India had a total of 39,780 civil and criminal pending cases at the end of last year.

Madras High Court (406,958 pending cases) and Bombay High Court (362,949) were the others with a large number of pending cases. Sikkim is the lowest with just 51 pending cases.

Of the pending cases in high courts, 704,214 were criminal and 3.2 million were civil cases.

In subordinate courts, Uttar Pradesh again topped the number of pending cases (4.6 million), followed by Maharashtra (4.1 million), Gujarat (3.9 million), West Bengal (1.9 million), Bihar (1.2 million), Karnataka (1.06 million), Rajasthan (1.05 million), Orissa (1 million), Andhra Pradesh (900,000).

In another query, the National Crime Records Bureau that functions under the home ministry told Hari Kumar P. of Kasargod in a Right to Information Act reply that the number of under-trials in India was highest in Maharashtra (15,784) and Madhya Pradesh (15,777).

Bihar (with 628 prisoners) topped the number of states with the maximum number of under-trials kept for over five years. Punjab also had 334 under-trials for over five years and Uttar Pradesh had 212. Delhi itself had 344 under-trials languishing in jails for over five years.

On the positive side, some states had no under-trials in jail for this long a period without their trials being completed. These states included Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura, apart from some smaller states and union territories.

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News: Personal Feature

This man keeps digging out official information

Frederick Noronha
Pune, May 21, 2007

Meet Harikumar P. This 24-year-old from the northern Karnataka pocket of Kasargod could put a parliamentarian to shame, going by just the volume of Right to Information (RTI) questions he tables.

Since the RTI bug bit him sometime last year, the MBA-qualified education consultant has tabled "around 2,500" questions under this fairly powerful Indian law that entitles the citizen to seek out and obtain a wide range of official information from government officials.

He doesn't make much of it, but when asked, has files of information to show for.
"It's almost an almirah (cupboard) full of information by now. I've not counted, but kept track via an Excel file, and there are about 2,500 applications made," Harikumar said.

From information related to Indians believed to be detained in Pakistani jails, to the earnings of the state from gambling and lotteries, to the number of cases pending in courts across India - Harikumar has it all.

The RTI Act 2005 was enacted by parliament giving citizens of India, except in Jammu and Kashmir, access to government records. Any citizen may request information from a "public authority" (a government body or one funded by it). A reply has to follow within 30 days. It is fairly unique law, even at the wider global scale.

The law was passed by parliament June 15, 2005 and came into force Oct 13 the same year. Information disclosure in India was hitherto highly limited due to laws like the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which the new RTI Act now overrides.

Harikumar lists his attempts: "Two applications each in all the districts of India, related elections. Two applications each in all central government authorities...."
He concedes many have failed, but isn't discouraged.

Why this?
"I thought we could use the RTI Act as a tool for social welfare. Some say, we can't do much; but why can't we try? I have tried to send (some of the information garnered) to the Supreme Court also. I might file some PILs (public interest litigations), and I've been sharing it with other RTI campaigners via cyber networks like HumJanenge," says Harikumar.

He dug out information about Indian prisoners of war and fishermen believed to be
languishing in Pakistan. He also attempted to highlight the problem faced by students due to the existence of "200 fake educational institutions" that prey on students in the country.

Says he: "If you go by the UGC (University Grants Commission) and MHRD (Ministry for Human Resource Development) rules and various acts, there are currently over 200 fake institutions in India. Some may not be universities, but they are issuing degree certificates. They are not supposed to do without UGC permission."
Yet, on paper, the authorities acknowledge that barely under a couple of dozen such institutions exist, Harikumar says.

After trying to highlight this issue through repeated complaints to the authorities, he tried the RTI route and drew quick responses.

One query to the ministry of information and broadcasting drew a response that said that winnings from lotteries or crossword puzzles or horse races were subject to tax deduction at source (TDS).

TDS collected on such winnings in the last three years are Rs 250.61 crore (nearly Rs 2.5 billion) for 2005-06, Rs 329.34 crore (nearly Rs 3.2 billion) for 2004-05, and Rs 175.83 crore (nearly Rs 1.7 billion) 2003-04, the government told Harikumar.

So, with the law as a tool, this young man keeps digging out official information, hoping such work would tone up the efficiency of the men and women that govern us.

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News: Border Disputes

Nearly a dozen border disputes within India alone!

New Delhi, May 16: There are nearly a dozen inter-state disputes over borders within India alone, a government statement has said while replying to a petition under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra's borders were specified in the State Reorganisation Act of 1956. But Karnataka and Maharashtra disagree, with the latter wanting Marathi-speaking border areas. Karnataka and Kerala have a dispute over Kasargod district in Kerala.

Efforts by the one-man Mahajan Commission of Justice Meher Chand Mahajan in 1967 were inconclusive, with Maharashtra not accepting its recommendations.

In a reply made under the RTI Act to Harikumar P of Kasargod, the ministry of home affairs has acknowledged that a number of other disputes existed.

The inter-state boundary between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh continued to fluctuate due to the frequent change in the course of rivers, 'giving rise to problems in the field of revenue administration and law and order', the government said.

Despite an arbitrator looking into this issue in the 1960s and a law, disputes between private parties have continued.

Likewise, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh's fluctuating boundary was sought to be solved in the 1970s. But some private parties have been approaching the courts over cases pertaining to tenancy disputes.

Between Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, the boundary dispute relates to 63 villages falling presently in Orissa. But neither government has asked for Central intervention. Similarly, Orissa and Jharkhand have a boundary dispute relating to seven villages of Mayurbhang and Keonjhar districts. Orissa has claimed territories in the former princely states of Seraikela and Kharsuan, now in Jharkhand.

Orissa is locked with Chhattisgarh over three villages of Naupada district. Orissa and West Bengal are also stalemated over five villages of Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts of Orissa.

In the northwest, Punjab and Haryana are locked over the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab, and part of Fazilka sub-district of Punjab to Haryana. Three commissions have been named so far to decide which specific Hindi-speaking areas of Punjab should go to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh.

Himachal Pradesh is contesting Uttarakhand over six places of Dehradun district, adjoining its Shimla district. Arunachal Pradesh claims territory in Assam on the basis of history. In September 2006, the Supreme Court appointed a local commission headed by retired judge S.N. Variava to identify the boundary there.

Assam and Meghalaya don't have a major boundary dispute, the reply said. But Nagaland claims 5,000 sq miles of territory in Assam 'on historical grounds'.

Assam filed a case in the Supreme Court and Justice Variava was named to decide on the issue.

Bureau Report

16th May 2007

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