Parl panel expresses concern over clothing, snow goggles for troops in higher altitudes

A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the availability of clothing and snow goggles for Army troops in northern and eastern sectors of the country.

The standing committee on defence, which tabled its report before the Lok Sabha on Friday, also observed that the demand-supply deficit of funds would hamper the pace of planned acquisitions of the Air Force like procurement of transport aircraft and light combat aircraft Tejas.

During the course of examination of demands for grants, the committee expressed concern over the availability of clothing and snow goggles for Army troops in northern and eastern sectors.

The Defence Ministry, however, told the panel that there had been no case of snow blindness due to lack of goggles, adding that these were indicators that soldiers were not without clothing and the basic weapons required for higher altitude

During its interaction with defence officials, the panel wanted to know the status of clothing, snow goggles and other accessories in the high-altitude terrains.

 

"I do not think it is a fact," a Ministry of Defence representative told the panel.

"What has happened we sign contracts year after year for the clothing that we have to provide. The people who are on the top are always with the clothing. We were maintaining very large quantity of reserves held in our stocks," the official said.

"To balance our budget, we cut down on reserves. That's the only thing that we did. So, the reserve stocks have been brought down. Otherwise, we would have had casualties because of cold," the Defence Ministry official said.

There were "nil" casualties, the official told the panel.

"The Ministry of Defence assured the committee that the necessary items are adequately provided with," the panel observed. "Contracts are annually signed for procurement of clothing."

The committee has recommended that a proper mechanism should be developed to publicise the accurate information so that any miscommunication in public domain was promptly rebutted.

With respect to budgetary allocation to the Air Force, the panel observed that the projection in case of capital budget in budget estimate 2020-21 was Rs 66,207.29 crore and allocation Rs 43,281.91 crore.

There is a shortfall of Rs 22,926.38 crore, it observed.

The panel pointed out that the acquisitions planned by the Air Force for 2020-21 include the transport aircraft and associated critical equipment.

The committee noted that a demand-supply deficit of funds by almost one-third of the quantum would certainly hamper the pace of planned acquisitions.

"The committee wish that the critical capabilities are not overlooked and Air Force consistently advances on the path of modernisation trajectory," it added.