Hike funds for naval projects: panel
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 21 — Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence has urged the government to explore the possibilities of reducing establishment charges by adopting techniques, including ‘downsizing’ of the workforce, if necessary, to provide continued fund support to major naval projects.

The committee has also called for re-prioritising the works in hand and in the pipeline so that adequate funds were mobilised for naval projects in addition to increased allocations as per the recommendations of the government Committee on Defence Expenditure. The committee has made these recommendations in its report on upgradation and modernisation of naval fleet.

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

The committee has also recommended to the government to review and accelerate its nuclear policy for fabricating or for acquiring nuclear submarines to add to the deterrent potential of the Indian Navy in the face of the presence of sub-surface nuclear submarines and sub-surface ballistic nuclear submarines of China and the USA in the Indian Ocean in which India has a vital stake.

The committee has also recommended to the government to harness appropriately the energies available in the field of satellite communication and to tap the potential of the scientists and technocrats of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other agencies to insulate Indian Navy’s movements, operations and other secrets from the eyes and ears of military satellites of other nations by developing suitable jamming techniques.

The committee noted that the satellites, missiles, communication systems and informatics envelope of India gave her the edge over other nations in the Indian Ocean region and recommended that all resolute steps be taken to promote this technology environment.

The steps may also include the involvement of private entrepreneurs, domestic and from abroad, wherever possible, to meet all defence needs requiring advanced design and manufacture capabilities to employ joint technological combat power against focused elements of the critical vulnerability of adversaries.

On the doctrine of deterrence, the committee counselled the government to move away from the conservative concept of keeping everything behind the veil of secrecy and actively disseminate information on India’s preparedness to send the message to all on appropriate occasions, in appropriate form and fora within the framework of good inter-country relations.

This, the committee said, was necessary keeping in view the effectiveness of the doctrine of deterrence in the defence of the country and keeping in view the deleterious damage, though temporary, that may be caused by any adversary if he chooses to indulge in a "first strike" against the nation in case the robustness of India’s preparedness was underestimated.

The committee also felt that extraordinary urgency should be exhibited in finalising support aircraft so that the Indian Navy was not handicapped for want of these aircraft especially at a juncture when it was exposed to serious threat from P3C Orions of Pakistan and when in modern warfare, navy’s punch depended on air support in combat as well as reconaissance areas.

It criticised the government for the inappropriate time-schedule being adhered to for modernising India’s aircraft carrier "INS Viraat".

On clearance of pending projects, the committee recommmended to the government to urgently translate the approved projects into reality and to urgently hold the sittings of appropriate bodies for clearing the pending projects and also called for "achievement audit" of the 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. The committee felt that due to "lethargic and snail-paced" responses of the government, the construction programmes of frigates, ships and submarines had been severely affected thus starving the Navy of its planned strength.

The committee while deploring the tardy progress made by the government in this regard, recommended the constitution of a special task force to monitor the indigenous construction of frigates, ships and submarines in the country’s shipyards as well as to monitor the acquisition of these from other countries on a priority basis.

The committee expressed its unhappiness over the government’s admission that no major naval acquisitions were made during 1984-1996. The committee reminisced that the period was that of upheavals in India.

While the Indian economy opened up as a positive phenomenon, on the negative side, key defence programmes, including second series of nuclear tests got postponed.

The committee, therefore, noted that the lull in naval development for more than a decade was, in this context, intriguing. The committee told the government to convincingly explain this intertia in naval development and asked it to take all necessary steps to obviate the recurrence of such ominous declined in national security efforts.

After realising that the present decision-making apparatus in the Defence Ministry lacked all necessary ingredients for expeditious and effective defence planning, the committee recommended to the government to urgently restructure the current defence decision-making apparatus.

This, the committee said, should be done to ensure that 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 DRDO and outside, if necessary, and the other module comprising a Cabinet Committee aided by the Cabinet Secretary, was constituted.

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, shall have to 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.