NEW DELHI: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman Monday decided to meet the three service chiefs and the defence secretary every day, in an attempt to facilitate quicker decision making in the crucial ministry.
Besides, to ensuring time-bound and speedy disposal, she has also decided to hold meetings of the top acquisition body of the ministry on a fortnightly basis.
Sitharaman has hit the ground running as she has to ensure that the momentum of operational preparedness of the armed forces is sustained. Facing threats from Pakistan in the west and China in the east, the armed forces have to maintain strict vigil at all times and for this, they need state-of-the-art weapons and other allied systems.Normally, the minister interacts with the service chiefs whenever required or based on the urgency of the issue.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meetings chaired by the defence minister used to take place once a month.The NDA government has cleared defence proposals worth over `2 lakh crore since it came to power in 2014.While some projects have taken off, others, including the manufacture of six submarines here as part of the Make in India policy, are lagging. This proposal worth over `60,000 crore was given the nod two years back.
Sitharaman will also have to address the issue of shortage of arms and ammunition speedily. The army has ammunition for just 10 days to fight an intense war as it faces critical deficiency of ammunition and critical spares.
According to a statement by the Defence Ministry, other areas of focus would be settling all outstanding land-related issues for infrastructure projects and matters relating to the welfare of defence personnel and their families.
After taking over recently, Sitharaman held a number of meetings with senior officials to familiarise herself with the activities and functioning of the Ministry of Defence and gave clear directions on critical issues. Special emphasis was laid by the minister on the need to step up the pace of acquisition proposals.