Several tragedies later, Parrikar to issue SOPs for disposal of defective ammo

There is a subtext in the narrative of the May 31 inferno at the Central Ammunition Depot ( CAD) at Maharashtra’s Pulgaon that claimed the lives of at least 19 bravehearts and wounded at least another score. Do standard operating procedures ( SOP) exist for disposal of defective ammo, and how effective are they?

In a tacit admission in Parliament on Friday, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said: “A SOP for disposal of defective ammunition in a fixed timeframe, fixing up of responsibility for defects and regularisation of laws is under formulation, which will be issued very soon.” He added that the government is also trying to ensure that “no defective material is supplied to the armed forces from ordnance factories”.

Another admission followed when he said that the Army headquarters would take up “disposal of all defective segregated mines for exudation of TNT, held at various locations” while the Ordnance Factory Board ( OFB) would replace or repair defective ammunition within three months.

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG) had found that between 2005- 11, ordnance factories supplied faulty weapons and ammunition worth ` 181 crore to paramilitary and state police forces after they were earlier rejected by the Army, putting at peril the lives of lakhs of men engaged in security operations.

One rejected lot of ammunition issued to the Andhra Pradesh police had caused an accident damaging weapons and causing minor injury on the face of the firer due to the splinters of fired cartridges.

In another CAG finding, it was reported that more than ` 408 worth of tankfired ammunition — 1,02,014 rounds — that made its way into army depots in 2009- 10 were found to be faulty, much before completing the prescribed shelf life of 10 years.

No thorough investigation and analysis was conducted to find out why and how this took place.