An Indian ship with 34 crew members has been stranded for several days near the Strait of Hormuz as Iran, engaged in battle with the US and Israel, has blocked it. The tanker -- under the command of Captain Virendra Vishwakarma -- is loaded with enough LPG to fill 3.6 million domestic gas cylinders. With missiles and drones regularly flying past, the Captain and crew have been calling desperately for help. The vessel had departed from the Mina Al Ahmadi port in Kuwait, bound for the Deendayal Kandla Port in Gujarat. The restrictions imposed on this maritime route since February 28 have brought the ship to a halt. It is now anchored in the Mina Saqr port area near the UAE, awaiting its turn to proceed. Read: India-Bound LPG Tanker Crosses Strait Of Hormuz Amid Iran Blockade: Sources In an emotional message sent from the ship, Captain Virendra has described the terrifying scene unfolding around them. "Missiles and drones are flying directly over us. Sirens are blaring everywher...
In a shocking statement, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the state sees more weapons being smuggled from other states, like Madhya Pradesh, than it does from across the border- a reference to Pakistan.
The remark, made at a meeting of the Northern Zonal Council chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, comes at a time when central agencies have shared extensive details of how terrorists and Khalistani elements have been pushing weapons into the state via drones and other means, with the backing of the Pakistani establishment.
To counter the threat of drones, the chief minister said that a centre of excellence for drones should be set up in Punjab. He said that, being a border state, drones pose a mammoth challenge for the Punjab Police, as is reflected in the year-on-year increase in their sightings and recoveries. He said that drones are mainly being for espionage and cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs.
This led Mr Mann to flag the issue of the smuggling of weapons from within the country. Pointing out that this is posing a "great threat" to law and order in the state, he said that it is unfortunate that the number of weapons smuggled from within the country (especially from states like Madhya Pradesh) is much more than is smuggled from across the border.
Advocating for the setting up of a regional centre of National Security Guards (NSG) in Pathankot at the earliest, the chief minister said that Punjab is always prone to terror attacks from across the border. He said that the NSG hub, which was announced by the Union government, must be set up at the earliest to help safeguard the country's borders.
The chief minister also underscored the need for revision of the clause of having to pay for paramilitary forces to maintain law and order when needed. He said that this clause of 'paramilitary forces on rent' should be abolished as far as Punjab is concerned, adding that the centre must be magnanimous in allocation as companies.
Mr Mann also spoke on the requirement of a genuine federal structure in the country and said that the need for more financial arid political power to states has been felt across the spectrum of political opinion.
He said that there is a wide consensus, cutting across party lines, that the state governments need to be given much greater operational freedom in choosing and financing their developmental priorities. "Everybody knows that the state governments are in a much better position to understand, address and solve the problems of their people, at the cutting edge" the chief minister said.
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/B2Y5E7l
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