‘Inadequate fund allocation’ in budget makes Army unhappy
The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when there was a real possibility of a two-front war and both China as well as Pakistan were carrying out modernisation of their defence forces in “full swing”.
The Army told a parliamentary panel that the funds allocated to it in the defence budget for the next fiscal is insufficient to deal with various security challenges facing the country including from a more assertive China along the northern border and from a hostile Pakistan on the western frontier, reports PTI.
The Army’s frustrations over inadequate allocations of funds in the defence budget figured in a report of Standing Committee on Defence which was tabled in Lok Sabha.
Speaking at a think tank, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat talked about China’s military might and said the country understood the importance of ramping up defence expenditure in sync with its economic prowess.
Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Sarath Chand said inadequate allocation of funds will hit Army’s modernisation plan.
“The threat perception has been ever increasing. The last one year has seen various occurrences of external strife and internal dissidence. Just to highlight a few, we have the Doklam issue going on and China has become increasingly assertive,” he said.