BANGALORE: The members of All India Defence Employees Federation (ADIEF) held a protest to oppose the entry of foreign direct investment (FDI) in ordnance factories recently.
Ravindran Pillai, Joint Secretary of the Federation, sought the stopping of ‘selling defence industries to MNCs and the private sector’. He added that Group D workforce was being outsourced in defence sector and it had raised many questions on security aspects as people from other nationalities were also posted as security guards in defence establishments.
He said that workers were being exploited and denied a number of benefits. Speaking against outsourcing of jobs, he said that this category must be within the establishment itself. Referring to the 2005 Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report, he said that it had recommended the setting up of an independent quality assurance board, as the current levels of quality assurance were not according to standards. Presently, manufacturers were involved in quality assurance too, he noted.