Army must learn to run stations

The conference was attended among others by Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal, Police Commissioner V.N. Singh and the top brass of Delhi Vidyut Board, DDA and officials adjoining Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon districts. Kapoor cited the example of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots when the Army rushed in to maintain law and order and also recently when soldiers of Headquarters Delhi Area tackled the breach in the Yamuna canal.

Referring to his days as the chairman of the then Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking (DESU), the Lieutenant Governor said that several engineers of the Army had been trained to handle gas turbine stations and even some power stations in the New Delhi area. “Twenty years ago we could have done without power for some time. But not today and especially during the summers and Diwali,” he said. “Trains coming to Delhi get affected, the telephone service begins to limp and essential services suffer. Therefore once again the army engineers could be trained to handle operations at the gas turbine stations and the power stations,” he said. He wanted the Army to also come up as a strong enough counter-poise to what he called the blackmail. He also cited several “technical problems” that came in the way of civil-military relations, especially the fact that the armed forces are not willing to take orders from an “inferior arm” that is the police. In the past, the district magistrate was the symbol of civilianpower, but then the Delhi Police was given magisterial powers. “Take the example of the 1984 riots. When the Army was called in to restore law and order, there were hitches, with Army officers facing difficulties dealing with the police administration. And then we had a parallel administration functioning,” he said.

GOC Delhi Area, said that the Army looked for closer ties with the civil administration. Kapoor also pointed out that the skyline of the cantonment areas needed change. “Think of it, how long can this ambience be maintained? The DDA is in the midst of formulating the Master Plan 2021. The Delhi Area officers could sit with them and talk of changing the skyline of the cantonment area,” the LG said.