NEW DELHI: Army’s artillery modernisation has been hit after the Ministry of Defence banned seven companies on charges of corruption. Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on Friday made a frank admission that artillery modernisation will suffer. The modernisation plan has already faced several bottlenecks and no fresh gun has been added in the last two decades after the controversial Bofors deal. “Till the CBI is able to complete investigations, there will be delay and it will affect procurement of Howitzers,” said General Kapoor expressing his concern.
The seven blacklisted companies, include Singapore Technologies Kinetics Limited which has participated in several bids and trials for artillery and small arms.
The company’s Pegasus ultra-light Howitzer is one of the contenders for army’s 140 gun contract. The ban has come when trials of the guns were scheduled to take place.
The CBI is investigating bribery allegations against former chairman of Ordnance Factory Board Sudipta Ghosh. The MoD decided to crackdown on the seven companies after their names cropped up in the investigation.
The other six countries include Israeli Military Industries, BVT of Poland, Media Architects of Singapore and Indian companies T.S Kishan and co. R K Machine Tools and HY T engineering co. The MoD took the action even before the CBI filed a chargesheet in the case.
The Army Chief ’s concern comes as its modernisation plan worth Rs 15,000 crore has faced several road blocks. The effort to buy guns in 2004 was also stalled after one of the contenders, South African firm Denel, was found to be involved in a corruption case pertaining to purchase of anti-material rifle.
Despite procurement being hit, the Ministry of Defence has sent a strong signal to arms companies that even a slight hint of corruption could lead to termination of contract.
Apart from the Singapore Technologies, the blacklisting to Israeli company is likely to result to delays in procuring equipment. Israel is the second biggest Defence supplier to India. The armed forces hope that the CBI would speed up investigation so that the modernisation process could be started again.
Troop reduction
The Army on Friday said that the question of troop reduction in Jammu and Kashmir would be tackled after observing the trends during the summer and the Amarnath Yatra.
“We need to go through the Amarnath Yatra, which is supposed to start shortly, and the summer season because the snow is melting and the passes are going to be open. There are chances of infiltration going up, especially since a number of terror camps exist on the other side of the LoC.
