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Order probe into purchase of USS Trenton: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

“Why is the government going in for such deals with U.S.?”

Come out with statement in Parliament: CPI(M)
CAG report had raised various “disturbing issues”

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday demanded a probe into the “dubious” purchase of a 36-year-old U.S. naval warship, which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said was made without physical assessment.

In a statement here, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau also wanted the government to come out with a statement in Parliament and give an assurance that “such dubious defence purchases will not be resorted to in future.”

The CAG report tabled in Parliament severely censured the Navy for buying USS Trenton, now named INS Jalashwa.

“The country would like to know why the government is going in for such defence deals with the United States. Is it due to the pressure of the Bush administration to buy U.S. arms and defence equipment,” the CPI(M) asked.

It said the CAG report raised various “disturbing issues” like “why the ship of 1971 vintage was bought when the U.S. Navy itself had concluded in 2003 that it was not suitable for modernisation and should be decommissioned in 2006.”

The report questioned why the $ 50-million deal was “finalised after only a visual inspection” and why were “restrictions on offensive deployment accepted and permission given to the U.S. to conduct an inspection and inventory of all articles transferred under the end-use monitoring clause.”

Pointing out that six Indian sailors died aboard this ship due to a gas leak, the Polit Bureau said the CAG report also asked whether the authorities were “not aware that ships of this class had suffered similar problems in the past and three U.S. sailors had lost their lives.”

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