tiruchy l wednesday l december 16, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION 422 women officers eligible for permanent commission Of the 615 women officers considered for permanent commission, 422 were found fit by the Army Selection Board More officers under consideration ‘a milestone for women in services’ However, as many as 57 of the 422 opted out of PC. Of the 193 who were found ineligible, 68 are being released with pension, a senior Army officer said. And 106 others have been given a pensionable service extension of up to 20 years. Apart from the 615, another 42 officers, currently on medical leave, are to be considered for PC at a later date ■ ■ “This is another milestone for the women in services,” a serving women officer said. “Women at the junior level are going to rise and serve at the ranks of General in future,” she added The Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling in February, said women officers are entitled to permanent commission in the Army 10 streams of Indian Army opened to women officers CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Plot to confuse farmers on three laws, says Modi tell-all book Pranab’s son, daughter in Twitter spat over memoir Allays fears on land rights; unions write to govt rejecting proposal to amend the legislations, insist on repeal; allege bid to sow disunity Express News Service Express News Service Late for mer President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit and daughter Sharmistha, both Congress leaders, were on Tuesday locked in a Twitter spat over their dad’s memoir in which blamed party chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh for 2014 Lok Sabha elections rout. Days after Rupa Publications released excerpts of the fourth volume of Pranab’s The Presidential Years, Abhijit said he wanted to vet the book before it hits the stands in January. Hours later, Sharmistha told him off, asking him not to create hurdles in its publication. For its part, Rupa Publications declined comment. But sources in Pranab’s staff said that he has approved the final draft as also the book’s cover just before he was hospitalised in August last. “I, the son of the author of the Memoir ‘The Presidential Memoirs’ request you to kindly stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts which is already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent,” said Abhijit, a former Congress member of Parliament. Sharmistha shot back saying, “I, daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick. The final draft contains my dads’ handwritten notes and comments that have been strictly adhered to. The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity That would be . the greatest disservice to our departed father,” she said. On a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the ongoing agitation against the three farm sector laws was instigated by vested interests, farmers dug in their heels, claiming their support base had actually expanded. While Modi said there was a conspiracy to scare farmers about their land holding, the protesting unions alleged that the government was trying to drive a wedge between them. Speaking in Kutch (Gujarat), Modi rhetorically asked: “When dairies get into contracts for milk, do they take away even the cattle?” He sought to allay the fears of farmers, adding land rights will be protected. @ New Delhi/Chandigarh @ New Delhi On the 20th day of their ongoing agitation, farmers squat at the Ghazipur border, in New Delhi on Tuesday | Parveen Negi Agitators harden stance Concrete proposals: Farmer leaders refused to yield, saying they will completely block the Chilla Border between Delhi and Noida on Wednesday. They said the govt consider their demands and offer concrete proposals Staying firm: “The govt is saying ‘we won’t repeal’, we are saying we will make you do it.... fight has reached a stage where we are determined to win no matter what,” said farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal Homage day: Union leaders on Tuesday gave a nationwide call to observe Shraddhanjali Diwas on December 20 from 11 am to 1 pm to pay tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protests AP, Telangana to get new CJs as collegium okays shake-up Express News Service @ New Delhi/Vijayawada The high courts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim are all set to get new chief justices as part of a shuffle in the higher judiciary . Sources confirmed that the five-member collegium of the Supreme Court cleared the proposals on Monday. They also involve a swap between Sikkim High Court Chief Justice and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari. Delhi High Court judge Justice Hima Kohli is expected to be elevated as the Chief Justice of Telangana, replacing Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chowhan who has been reportedly transferred to Uttarakhand. Justice Chowhan was appointed CJ of the Telangana etched in mind 1971 Indo-Pak war: A walk down the memory lane C S h i v a k u m a r @ Chennai “TIME is the best healer.” But, does this adage do justice when describing war survivors? Forty-nine years after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, which led to the formation of Bangladesh, memories of the historic event are fresh in the minds of those who witnessed it. On December 16,1971, Pakistan was defeated and forced to publicly surrender to India -- the largest m i l i t a r y s u r r e n d e r s i n c e Wo rl d Wa r- I I . “The role my team played was small, but critical for our victory,” recalls Colonel Anantanarayanan Krishnaswamy “After a 10-hour battle, we am. bushed a much larger enemy force and made them surrender.” Colonel Krishnaswamy received the Veer Chakra for his role in the 1971 war, in which he was commanding the C-Company of the 10th Regiment of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles. For Brigadier Muthulakshmi, who joined the Military Nursing Service in 1963, witnessing the impact of war on the women of Bangladesh was a life-changing experience. She was taken to Jessore in Bangladesh to set up a hospital after the war. “Women were raped and brutalised in Pakistani bunkers. We found under garments and hairpins strewn around them.” Today, the 80-year-old brigadier is still a fighter– seeking justice as an advocate for wives and daughters of ex-servicemen struggling to get their pension and other monetary benefits.  P5 High Court in June 2019. The collegium discussed the proposals for a long time, sources said, adding that it sent the recommendations to the government on Tuesday . Orders to this effect and official notifications are expected to be issued shortly after government approval Justice Maheswari assumed charge at the Andhra Pradesh High S Muralidhar to be Odisha chief justice Punjab and Haryana HC judge S Muralidhar is expected to be promoted as the Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court. He will take charge from Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq Court on October 7, 2019 as its first Chief Justice after the High Court of Judicature in Hyderabad was divided between Andhra and Telangana. His tenure turned out to be eventful as the high court under his leadership handled some of the most sensitive cases, including the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s move to have three capitals for Andhra Pradesh. Several observations and rulings of the court went against the government ruffling the feathers of its supporters. The most controversial of the rulings was a media gag order issued in a case pertaining to the Amaravati land scam by a bench headed by Chief Justice Maheswari.  Continued on: P5 The prime minister emphasised that the new legislations has merely included demands of the farmers’ bodies to revloutionise the agriculture sector, adding they were advocated by opposition parties in the past as well. Later in the day farm, ers’ unions wrote to the Centre rejecting the proposal to amend to the three laws and insisting on their repeal. “We had already rejected their proposal. This evening, we wrote to them officially stating our position,” said Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal). The unions also decided to observe December 20 as homage day as a mark of respect for the 20 protesters who have so far died. “This homage will be given in every village across the country on December 20. Around 20 farmers have died during protest,” said Inderjeet Singh, a farmer leader. Union minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar continued to hold deliberations with a section of farmers, as he met leaders of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kisan). “The farmers who came today support the three farm laws. They said they had been earlier misled because of the misconceptions,” Tomar told reporters. He had earlier met representatives of farmers from Uttarakhand and Haryana, who, too, pledged their support to the farm laws. DVAC finds `1.37 cr unaccounted cash Boris accepts R-Day invite to be chief guest It will be the UK PM’s first major foreign trip since taking office last year. He has invited India to join the 2021 G7 meet to be hosted by the UK | P7 express read Motorists without Aadhaar to face heat Chennai: With the Centre making FASTag, mandatory for all four-wheelers on National Highways (NH) toll gates from January 1, motorists who are yet to get Aadhaar, which is a prerequisite for getting the card, are expected to be penalised heavily | P5 Express News Service @ Chennai/Erode MULTIPLE raids conducted over the last two days, by different agencies on different entities, have unearthed crores worth undisclosed income. The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has found around `1.37 crore unaccounted cash and 3kg gold in the house of superintendent in the State Environment Department. The officials also found silver worth `1.5 lakh, diamonds worth `5.4 lakh, and documents of property worth around `7 crore. The DVAC personnel conducted similar searches and made seizures from several sub-registrar offices (SRO), including Vallam SRO in Viluppuram (`73,200), Andhiyur SRO in Erode (`66,030), Vaniyambadi SRO in Vellore (`94,000), and Guduvancheri SRO in Chengalpattu (`1.75 lakh). The directorate said that in continuation to Monday’s surprise check at Guduvancheri SRO, the sub-registrar of ficer’s house in Chengalpattu was searched and unaccounted cash to the tune of `11.55 lakh and 114 sovereigns were seized. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department continued searches at the premises of Sri Pathy Associates Private Limited in Erode on Tuesday . The search that began on Monday night was based on a tip-off that the firm had stashed unaccounted cash. Sources said that around 35 officials from the Coimbatore, Erode, and Madurai I-T offices searched 10 places l i n ke d t o S r i Pat hy Associates.