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Friday, Aug 13, 2004

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Defence allocation will be used for buying equipment: Pranab

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 12. The Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, is confident of spending this year's record allocation for buying equipment for the armed forces, reversing the previous trend of earmarking huge amounts and then returning a large part of it unspent. The Congress had been critical of the BJP-led Government for returning almost Rs. 24,000 crores in the past three years.

Mr. Mukherjee seems to offer a guarantee that the funds allocated in this year's budget for the armed forces will be used, according to interviewer Karan Thapar after speaking to the Defence Minister for BBC's `HardTalk India' to be aired this Friday. ``Perhaps you will have to wait till February 28 next year, when the next Budget will be presented, because my saying so is not adequate unless it is established on the ground. And that will be done and that will be shown to be done. I will do it but it will be known to the people on February 28.''

The Minister denied that he reversed a decision by the previous Government to tackle the problem of partial utilisation of funds allocated for capital expenditure. ``It (a non-lapsable rolling fund) was just an intention but no money was allocated and, therefore, no fund was created. So, it was just an expression of intention in the budget speech of the (then) Finance Minister, but neither a head was created nor a penny deposited there. So no question of my reversing (this),'' he said.

On the allegation of soldiers of the Assam Rifles raping and killing a Manipuri woman last month, Mr. Mukherjee said he would wait for reports by two probe panels. ``A court of inquiry (under the Assam Rifles Act) is looking into it. In addition, the Manipur Government has established a judicial inquiry commission. Both these inquiry committees are functioning. Unless their reports are available, it won't be proper for me to speak on the case.'' He denied that members of the 17th battalion of the Assam Rifles, who were allegedly involved in the arrest and subsequent death of the woman, had been suspended. They had been ``put in the barracks'' which was a routine procedure when allegations were made against a particular unit.

Asked about reports that he forced the Army to promote a Major General who had been allegedly rejected thrice as unfit by the Army promotion board, he accepted that such an incident took place but insisted that civilian political authorities had the right to override the board and denied that the promotion to the rank of Lt. General took place because the officer was related to senior Congress leader. When reminded that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had promised that he would `recapture the spirit of idealism and make a renewed commitment to decency and morality,' the Minister said: ``It is for me to decide what is idealism and what is not, and you cannot waste my time and the time of the viewer just promoting one individual case.''

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