In its strongest take on the Modi govt, Army tells parliamentary panel that 68% of its equipment is vintage, and Make in India is stillborn.
New Delhi: The Army does not have enough money to pay for emergency purchases that it made in the aftermath of the Uri attack, the surgical strikes, and the Doklam standoff, nor are there adequate resources to undertake the construction of strategic roads on the China border.
In its strongest take yet on the Narendra Modi govt, the Army has informed the parliamentary standing committee on defence that the budget it has been allocated this year has dashed all hopes for modernisation and its plans to roll out ‘Make in India’ projects.
Sharing his frustration that funds allocated this year will not even be adequate to pay for instalment payments of past purchase, Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen. Sarath Chand has told the panel that at present, 68 per cent of its equipment is in the ‘vintage category’. The parliamentary panel is headed by BJP veteran Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd).
Everything is stalled
The Army had initiated a series of emergency procurements of ammunition, anti-tank missiles, rifles and stores after the Uri attack and the subsequent surgical strikes, in anticipation of increased tensions on the border. Similarly, emergency purchases were also initiated after the Doklam stand off last year with Chinese troops.
“Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payments of Rs 29,033 crore for 123 on-going schemes, emergency procurements and other requirements,” Lt. Gen. Chand has told the panel.
The Army has informed the government that currently, most of the equipment it holds can be categorised as vintage. “As far as we are concerned, the state today is 68 per cent of our equipment is in the vintage category, with just about 24 per cent in the current and 8 per cent in the state-of-the-art category,” the officer informed the panel.
Stating that the low budget would also have an adverse impact on Make in India initiatives, the Vice Chief said that the 25 projects that it has selected will not be rolled out. “There isn’t adequate budget to support this. As a result, many of these may end up foreclosed,” he said.
The low budget this year – the Army has been given Rs 17, 756 crore less than what it had requested for – will have severe consequences for the China border as well, as strategic work will be stalled.
“We have a large number of Chinese strategic roads and also infrastructural development along the northern borders. For these infrastructure developments, the allocation is falling short by around Rs 902 crore from what we have demanded,” the Vice Chief said.
Skewed defence budget
As reported by ThePrint, the Indian defence budget is now dangerously skewed as the revenue bill has zoomed over the years. The sustained manpower-intensive nature of the services has resulted in a situation where resources available for modernisation of the forces are far outstripped by the money required to pay salaries and pensions to soldiers.
The parliamentary standing committee on defence has been a strong advocate of creating a non-lapsable, roll-over fund for modernisation of the armed forces, which would collect all unspent amount from the defence capital budget at the end of a financial year into a corpus that can be used for future purchases.
While this concept was given a go-ahead by the defence ministry last year, the finance ministry has resisted all moves to set it up.
Also read: Army says two-front war a real risk, need funds to counter China & Pak modernisation
We all believe in Indian Army’s Might and trust them to protect us but this poisonous Patriotism is not right that they can PROTECT US WITHOUT WEAPONS WHO SAYS THAT ? Are you that naive ?
I have read so many articles or reviews concerning the blogger lovers
except this paragraph is really a good piece
of writing, keep it up.
Can you take an Ostrich lije approach ???
Then for what purposes the wealth of our country is using for(in the present budget)
Neither for granting special status to AP nor for strengthing Army base
I think we should reduce the number of personnel in all the branches of the Armed Forces by dismissing the lowest-performing or redundant personnel from all the services, especially the Army
You have been fairly warned by the army. Now if more of your fathers, brothers or sons die than really must, don’t blame anyone but yourself. You decided not to speak up. 1962 happened like this only.
And all this under the most macho, patriotic, nationalistic leader India has ever seen. The equipment is so bad that the 9 CRPF men who died today were inside a specialist anti mine vehicle, which blew up over a mine Isn’t the HM ( who travels with 50 commandoes with him) responsible for these deaths?
Horrible submission.
Modi will not pay anything. Modi is paying every thing to Gujarat only. Because he is prime minister to Gujarat. Next Modi will not get any votes from defence, then why he pay. Modi is helpful to cheaters like N Modi, choksi and others.
The unspent money in defence budget at the end of the financial year, or rather the money not allowed to be spent out of allocated budget is the mainstay of the FM deficit financing target. Therefore they will never allow it to be rolled over. I call this measure by bureaucrats, and every FinMin for last 60 years as acting in Pak and Chinese interests to weaken the Indian Armed Forces, and paramilitaries. Also for police forces. And all these forces work at 70 to 75% of authorised vacancies. Whereas the bureaucracy works on much above sanctioned strength due to NFU and additional posts.
Why then the brave talk of fighting and winning a 2.5 front war …
Indian army is capable to win even without weapons.