Army Chief to meet Defence Minister,discuss procurement issues

New Delhi, Apr 2: Army Chief Gen VK Singh will have a meeting with Defence Minister AK Antony to discuss procurement projects for the Army, their first official meeting days after his letter to the Prime Minister on the poor state of defence preparedness got leaked. The meeting will be held to discuss the capital acquisition projects of the Army which will be attended by Gen Singh along with the top brass of the Defence Ministry, Ministry officials said.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the Army Chief's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he had raised issues about lack of ammunition for the tank fleet and obsolescence of the air defence system of the Army. The leakage of the letter in the media had triggered a controversy and the CBI is looking into the matter. A separate meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council will also be chaired by Antony. It will be attended by the Army Chief as also Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne.

The DAC, the apex body of the Defence Ministry, will discuss procurement proposals relating to the three Services, DRDO and the Coast Guard. The DAC will also discuss the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) and changes in the offsets policy under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), they said.

The LTIPP will list all the requirements of the armed forces for the next 15 years and will help in enabling the private defence sector players to prepare them to meet the requirements of the armed forces. The offsets policy, which mandates at least 30 per cent worth of defence contracts above Rs 300 crore to be invested back into the country, will also come up for discussion at the meeting.

The last DAC had also discussed the issue but due to disagreements over certain issues, it was postponed for the next meeting.

PTI