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Panel raps govt for step-motherly treatment to navy

Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence has urged the government to fund major naval projects by cutting down on establishment charges. The needed money could be found through quick techniques like 'downsizing' of workforce, it felt.

In its report on 'Upgradation and modernisation of naval fleet', tabled in Parliament on Monday, the committee called for re-prioritising the works in hand, so that adequate funds were mobilised. It also suggested increased allocations as per the recommendations of the government committee on defence expenditure.

Besides, the committee has strongly urged the government to heed the recommendations of the tenth Finance Commission for increasing the navy's share of defence budget to 30 per cent in two stages.

It recommended a review and acceleration of India's plan to acquire nuclear submarines in view of nuclear submarines and ballistic-nuclear submarines being present with China and the United States in the Indian Ocean.

The committee felt that extraordinary urgency should be exhibited in finalising support aircraft so that the navy was not handicapped, especially at a juncture when it was exposed to serious threat from Pakistan.

On the clearance of pending projects, the committee recommended that the government urgently translate the approved projects into reality. It also called for ''achievement audit'' of projects at regular short intervals.

The committee noted with pain the ''monumental wastage'' of national resources blocked in shipyards, which were not adequately loaded with orders. It felt that due to ''lethargic and snail-paced'' responses of the government, the construction programmes of frigates, ships and submarines have been severely affected. As remedy, it recommended the constitution of a special task force on priority basis to monitor indigenous constructions as well as acquisitions from other countries.

It expressed unhappiness over the government's admission that no major naval acquisitions were made during 1984-1996.

The committee noted that the lull in naval development for more than a decade was intriguing. It asked the government to explain this, and asked it to take all necessary steps to make up for it.

Realising that the present decision-making apparatus in the defence ministry lacked all necessary ingredients for expeditious defence planning, the committee recommended an urgent restructuring.

This, the committee said, should be done to ensure that there was a single integrated board of defence approvals with two modules: one headed by the defence secretary and aided by officers in the ministry of defence, top servicemen and technocrats from the Defence and Research Development Organisation and outside if necessary; the other comprising a Cabinet committee aided by the cabinet secretary.

The time-schedule for each process of decision-making, the procedure for making decisions, the grant of functional and financial autonomy to the proposed decision-making apparatus to insulate it from frivolous allegations should be firmed up in the form of a parliamentary law under Article 53 of the Constitution. The law may replace the current executive notification or circulars as these were tremendously flexible, the committee noted.

UNI

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