Enough resources, no fund crunch for defence: Nirmala

The government brushed aside on Wednesday concerns about a looming financial crisis that could cripple India’s combat capabilities, saying “things are happening in the defence ministry” and “resources are adequate” to modernise the armed forces.

Speaking to journalists on the opening day of DefExpo-2018, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s focus was on prioritising weapon purchases that had not progressed during the last 10 to 20 years, and ensuring maximum utilisation of funds.

She was responding to a query on a recent parliamentary report in which the army had painted a grim picture of how poor budgetary outlay was coming in the way of emergency purchases, procurement of critical ammunition, and the construction of strategic road projects on the Chinese border.

“The parliamentary standing committee on defence has said that (fund crunch) and it has also said a lot more. I wish anyone who is present here has read the entire report. Read the report in full to know what is really happening in MoD,” the minister said at DefExpo-2018, a biennial military systems exhibition being attended by close to 680 Indian and foreign firms.

She said the ministry had just signed a ~639-crore deal with an Indian firm for supplying 1.86 lakh bullet-proof jackets to the army, and progress wasn’t made after the panel tabled its report in Parliament in March.