IAF top brass to hold talks on production issues with HAL
DELIBERATION Indigenisation and design and development of aircraft will also be discussed NEW DELHI:
The Indian Air force brass will hold talks with top Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) officials on issues concerning production and upgradation of aircraft at the IAF commanders’ conference, amid questions being raised about the state-run plane maker’s capabilities against the backdrop of the Rafale fighter jet deal.
Indigenisation and design and development of aircraft and other equipment will also be discussed at the two-day biannual conference that began on Thursday, an IAF spokesperson said.
Last week, IAF chief BS Dhanoa questioned the ability of HAL to deliver fighter jets on schedule, detailing the time overrun in several crucial programmes including the Sukhoi-30s, Jaguars, Mirage-2000s and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa was responding to questions on a September 20 report in Hindustan Times in which former HAL chairman T Suvarna Raju had said that HAL could have built Rafale jets in India had the government managed to close the original negotiations with Dassault Aviation for 126 fighters.
The NDA government’s decision to enter into a governmentto-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes was announced in April 2015 with the deal signed a little over a year later. This replaced the UPA regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by HAL using parts imported from France.
Minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre inaugurated the conference. “The IAF’s resolve to wholeheartedly support the indigenous LCA programme by committing to procure 18 squadrons of LCA and its variants endorsing its capability is notable and praiseworthy,” the minister said.
The LCA (initial operational clearance configuration) programme is running five years behind schedule.
Bhamre said the IAF was the most technologically intensive and quickest military response available to the government for furthering India’s leverage.
Dhanoa highlighted the need to hold an operational edge over India’s adversaries through focused operational training.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh police on Thursday claimed to have unearthed illegitimate wealth of ₹15 crore belonging to a civic official here who is local in-charge of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Raids were carried out on Thursday at the properties of Abhay Singh Rathore, an assistant engineer with the Indore Municipal Corporation, and his relatives, an EOW official said.
Rathore was the local in-charge of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Union government’s initiative, he said.
Indore was declared the `cleanest city of India’ in the Union government’s survey in 2018.
Economic Offences Wing sleuths recovered ₹20 lakh in cash, jewellery and documents related to properties which Rathore had allegedly purchased in the name of his daughter and other relatives, he said.
INDORE: