Def Ministry expedites procurement of arms, ammo

New Delhi: Following scathing criticism by a Parliamentary panel, Defence ministry has now ordered quick acquisition of arms and ammunition for the Indian Army to reduce the alarming deficiencies of ammunition.

An intelligence report submitted to the highest level of the government indicated an escalation of ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army before the general election in the country in 2019.

The defence ministry has admitted to the Parliamentary panel in its action taken report that the deficiencies are likely to be reduced not before 2019. If there is no shortfall by ordnance factory, expeditious processing and budget allocations will take time. Though the ministry had set June 2018 as its target for meeting critical shortage of ammunition, the process of acquisition is yet to speed up, according to a source.

The Ministry of Defence has admitted that the present state of availability of arms and ammunition has a certain shortage, mainly due to limited production capabilities of the ordnance factories. This speaks volumes about the Modi government's much publicised 'MAKE IN INDIA' flagship programme which yields no results for the Indian Defence Industry.

The ministry also told in the action taken report of the standing committee of defence that in the level of War Weapon Reserve (WWR) holdings for ammunition, out of an inventory of 160 ammunition items, 89 are considered to be operationally important by the Army. Of these items with the stock below 20 (below 50% holding) are classified as critical ammunition.

The defence ministry has also admitted to the Parliamentary panel that shortages with the army are in several areas ranging from modern assault rifles, bullet-proof jackets and night fighting capabilities to Howittzers, missiles and helicopters. The ministry in its written reply submitted that the government constantly reviews the security scenario and accordingly decides to induct appropriate Defence equipment to keep the armed forces in a state of readiness and remaining equipped with the modern weapon system. However, during oral deposition, representative of the Defence ministry admitted the shortage and attributed to the incapability of ordnance factory and delay in the procurement process, especially import.

The Parliamentary panel headed by Major General BC Khanduri, a BJP MP, unanimously reported to the Parliament that they were deeply pained to hear the oft-repeated plea of the ministry regarding such critical issues of shortage of arms and ammunition for the Indian army. The committee recommended that the ministry should now adopt the policy of zero-tolerance for any factor causing this critical failure in operational preparedness of the Armed forces.

The standing committee in its observation said, "The committee is baffled to note that the allocation under non-salary revenue is RS 32,186 crores which amount to only 11 per cent increase over last year. The committee is aghast to note that 1,86,138 bulletproof jackets for which the approval of defence acquisition council was obtained on 19 October 2009 and a request for proposal through capital route was issued on 7 December 2012 are still not available with the army." The army headquarter has assured the committee that the whole process of acquisition would be completed by the end of 2018.

The defence ministry has now taken up the matter with the highest authority to meet the demand of the armed forces which is necessary for the security of the country.