Army short of guns due to defence ministry's 'Ill-conceived' plans

 
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has asked the ministry to take a “pragmatic decision”—a subtle suggestion to scrap the whole plan—questioning the rationale for a new facility for Rs 408 crore, while the ministry could have enhanced the capacity of existing ordnance factories for the purpose.

The CAG blamed poor site selection, defective planning and hasty decision making and the ministry's total lack of urgency for the delay in operationlising the ordnance factory.

In 2005, the Army projected an operational demand to acquire 2.18 lakh protective carbines and 1.6 lakh close quarter battle carbine at a cost of Rs 2,524 crore. Within a year, the ministry decided to import CQB carbines with technology transfer and to make protective carbines indigenously. A ministerial panel shortlisted the Field Gun Factory in Kanpur and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Korwa, at Amethi out of 12 sites it had inspected.

Despite the availability of more land in Kanpur, the panel favoured Amethi, which has traditionally been the constituency for the Nehru-Gandhi family.  The requirement for additional land rose to 39 acre from the estimated 20 acres, prompting the ministry to approach the Mayawati-led BSP government for more land.

The state government is yet to respond to the request, making the ministry’s plan to operationalise the factory by October unlikely.

In its report to Parliament last week, the CAG has also said that designs for the guns were not in place during the sanctioning of the project. Despite plans to operationalise the factory by October, the tender for procuring the CQB carbine was not finalised. The OFB-DRDO trials for protective carbine was also unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, in another strange move, the ministry decided to make sporting rifles at Amethi factory, though it was not meant for such rifles.