771 POSTS
Amrita Nayak Dutta is a Senior Assistant Editor at ThePrint and reports on media and defence sectors, besides other policy issues. Amrita started reporting in 2010, and has covered the northeast as well as Maharashtra and Delhi governments before moving to the National Capital to cover central government ministries. She has reported for the Assam Tribune, BBC and DNA before joining ThePrint in 2018. Amrita holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from the Madurai Kamaraj University in Chennai and can be reached at: amrita.dutta@theprint.in. Follow her on Twitter @AmritaNayak3
Can you share the actual army report?
Since 2014, it was BJP government. So after emptying the coffers and supplying desi kattas to army, now the plan is to privatise it!
No use beating a dead horse, so sell it!.
The malaise is so deep rooted that no reform within the framework of the current OFB can improve the products. Vested interests including vendors, trade unions, elements within the OFB, and Defence Accounts Department, have ensured that the captive market of the armed forces ( primarily the army, owing to the low tech and high volume requirements) are left with no choice. The army on its part has been lax in rejecting substandard products, using the clause for ‘user end rejection ‘ , either out of ignorance, or for some inexplicable subjreasons.
To start with, the Government should monetize atleast four to five Ordnance Factories by selling off its assets . It will cut flab, and help find resources in these times of recession. Another proposal would be to put all personnel in OFB , subject to the Army Act in the lines of the General Reserve Engineer Force( GREF)
The corruption level built up over 70 years cannot be gotten rid of overnight. The roots are deep and spread across all walks of life, the an individual corrupt makes his money without realizing, where or to what extend he will be causing damage.
The best thing would be to give army the direct control on these bodies. Civilian bureaucracy can never understand the stakes. Army can. Give them the power to fire deadwood and open and shut bad useless factories. Either give everything to private players supported by robust regulatory mechanisms or bring this useless OFBs and even DRDO under the tri services. There is no real reason why the civilian generalist bureaucracy to control them.