— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Defence Minister A.K. Antony talking to scientists at the Project Lab before the inauguration of a new campus in Bangalore on Friday. Others from left are V.S. Mahalingam, Director, CAIR, Krishnappa, MLA, M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, Sitaram, Chief Controler, R&D, (ECS).

BANGALORE: Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Friday said that though Pakistan said it was keen to have friendly ties with India, its "actions" did not match its words.

"Mere intention to improve the relationship is not enough, action is important," Mr. Antony told a press conference here.

If Pakistan was sincere about improving bilateral ties, it must stop encouraging cross-border infiltration. "If they stop supporting the infiltration, the relationship will improve," he said.

Encouragement

"The infiltrators are coming from Pakistan because they are getting encouragement and support from them," he said.

The Defence Minister, who recently visited Kashmir, said infiltration was coming down in the Valley of late. "But, I don't think the trend will last. We have to watch them. Eternal vigil is needed."

He said there could be forward movement on the Siachen issue if Pakistan was willing to authenticate the ground position of troops on the glacier.

"We are not against talks to resolve the Siachen issue. But for any solution, there should be authentication of present ground realities," he said.

He said there was no proposal for reduction of troops from the Siachen.

To a query on ties with China, he said India's policy was to renew friendship with its populous neighbour. But there were still irritants, he added.

The Defence Ministry was concerned over the increasing cases of depression and suicide among defence employees, attributed to their families being away from them.

To reduce their stress, Mr. Antony had called upon Chief Ministers to redress quickly the grievances of kin when they petition government departments.

They had also been requested to instruct the police to act fast on complaints filed by them.

He said these steps would provide psychological relief to employees concerned about problems faced by their families.

Such family problems, including property disputes and education of their wards, were among the reasons for distress, he observed.

These problems, he said, had assumed serious proportions in the wake of the increasing number of nuclear families.

The Ministry had constituted a committee headed by Dr. Mandan to look into the human resource (HR) management issue among defence staff. It would submit a report in two months.

The Ministry had also decided to relax leave norms.

The Minister said he had taken up with the pay commission the increase in pay package.

The high attrition rate, especially among the technical employees lured by private companies, was a real threat.

Earlier he inaugurated the new 16-acre campus and office building of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) here.

Office building

Speaking at the inauguration of the office building, Mr. Antony said concerns had been expressed in various quarters over the functioning of the DRDO.

"The time has come to look inward and see whether the organisation is tuning itself adequately to the changing times."

He asked the CAIR and the DRDO to share their expertise with other wings of the armed forces.

M. Natarajan, Adviser to the Defence Minister, said the Ministry was trying to rope in Information Technology companies to provide service backup to products designed by the DRDO.

Already consultations were on in this regard.

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