NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged yesterday to crack down on corruption in the defence sector after a string of recent graft scandals left his government facing renewed calls to step down.
The premier said he was committed to making the process of buying arms and other military hardware more “transparent, smooth, efficient and less vulnerable to unethical practices”.
“Adequate defence preparedness is critically dependent on sound defence acquisition policies,” Singh said in Gurgaon, a satellite city of New Delhi, where he laid the foundation stone for India’s first defence university.
“We have paid close attention to this and have continually reformed those policies,” he said. “We will continue to seek the highest standards of probity in defence acquisition.”
The government said in March it planned to draft new arms procurement procedures in the wake of a corruption scandal involving a contract to buy Italian helicopters.
Public anger over alleged bribes paid by Italian company Finmeccanica to secure a $748m contract for 12 helicopters forced New Delhi in February to order an investigation and stall the deal.
The probe into the huge chopper deal has already seen police raid the home of the former air force chief and a “preliminary enquiry” report has linked four firms, four Westerners and seven Indians to the bribery allegations.
The Indian National Defence University (INDU) at Binola village in Gurgaon district, is expected to prepare national security leaders to look holistically at security challenges and frame policies based on informed research.
Defence Minister A K Antony, in his speech, said the university will be ready by 2018-19 and would go a long way in enhancing the capabilities of security leaders.
The university will be instituted by an act of parliament with the defence minister as its chancellor.
It will be headed by a president, who would be a three-star serving army general or an equivalent officer from the other two services.
Sixty-six percent of the students would be from the armed forces and 33 percent would be drawn from among civilians, police and other government agencies.
The present institutes of armed forces, including the National Defence College in New Delhi, the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, College of Defence Management in Secunderabad and the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla are proposed to be brought under INDU’s ambit.
The university’s constituent colleges would include the National College of Defence Studies, Indian Institute of Defence Technology, Indian Institute of Defence Management and Defence Institute of Distance and Open Learning.
A review panel set up by the government after the 1999 Kargil conflict had reiterated the need for a university to exclusively deal with defence and strategic matters.
AFP & IANS
