The Indian Navy on Saturday decided that INS Vindhyagiri will not be decommissioned immediately after it is salvaged from the seawater inside the Naval Dockyard. A senior Navy officer confirmed that the sunken Navy vessel would be repaired and refitted, so that it can be brought back into active service.
The authorities have sealed the chambers of the Naval ship, which got submerged after its collision with MV Nordlake last Sunday.
This was done to ensure that no further oil leaks occur inside the Naval Dockyard.
“There is no way that we would decommission or scrap INS Vindhyagiri, as some of the media reports suggest,” said a senior Navy officer.
The senior navy officer confirmed that the ship would be recovered and refitted and “this plan is actively in hand.”
Once INS Vindhyagiri is salvaged, it will have to undergo a major repair and refitting, wherever water has entered.
The wiring and pipes will have to be replaced, and every chamber also will have to be cleaned.
Once the refitting work is completed, the vessel will be able to serve in the Indian Navy fleet at least for the next five years.
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‘Separate transgender laws needed’
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
Feb. 5: India’s legal luminaries, including senior judges of the Supreme Court and the Madras high court, on Saturday strongly emphasised the need to enact separate laws to protect and uplift the marginalised transgender community in the country.
Inaugurating a national seminar on “transgenders and the law,” organised jointly by the NALSA and the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA), the Supreme Court’s second senior-most judge, Justice Altmas Kabir, highlighted the need of proper integration of eunuchs in the society pointing out that the Constitution provides for Fundamental Right to equality, brooking no discrimination on the grounds of sex, caste, creed or religion. “The Constitution also guarantees political rights and other benefits to every citizen but the third community (transgenders) continues to be ostracised by the society,” said Justice Kabir, who is also the Chairman of the NALSA.
Delhi high court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who is the patron-in-chief of DLSA, highlighted the identity crises faced by transgenders.