Rejecting the Opposition’s charges on slashes in Budget provisions, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday told the lok Sabha that there would be no compromise and forces are prepared to meet any challenge on internal as well as external security fronts and in the maintenance of law and order in the country. Both were replying during the discussions on Demands for Grants related to their Ministries.
Jaitley asked the Opposition parties to refrain from giving false impression on the Defence related matters. He rejected the Opposition charge that the Government had ignored the needs of Defence forces and not allocated adequate budget, saying it had signed 147 procurement contracts worth over `2.96 lakh crore in three years.
Jaitley cited contracts to procure weapons and equipment for all three wings of the forces-- including 155 mm ultra light howitzer guns and Brahmos missiles for the Army, deep sea rescue missions for the Navy and Apache attack helicopters for the Air Force -- to make his point.
“This impression should not go that procurement is not happening... Our Army is not prepared. Our Defence forces are fully prepared to meet any challenge,” he said, adding that the matter of preparedness of Defence forces should be bipartisan and not politicised.
Responding to Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia’s claim that it was the UPA Government which decided to implement OROP, Jaitley said allocation of `500 crore by the then Government was a “nominal lip service” and noted that the Government has spent thousands of crore in executing it and will incur recurring expenditure. Two installments of the OROP (One Rank One Pension) arrears have been paid and the third one is going to be given, he said.
Responding to the debate on Home Ministry’s Demand for grants, Rajnath Singh said the Centre has issued advisory to States asking them to reserve 33 per cent of posts in police forces for women.
“I have written to Chief Ministers of all the States with regard to 33 per cent reservation in women and police. State governments have taken cognisance of it and are working in that direction,” he said.
During the debate initiated by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the Opposition accused the Government of slashing funds for major programmes like internal security and police modernisation, saying this would weaken the fight against terrorism and extremism.
The Home Minister, while rejecting the Opposition contention, said the Government will roll out in a few months a Student-Police Cadet Scheme for which an action plan has been prepared.
On the anti-terror operations front, he said the killing of militants has increased. While 99 terrorists had been killed in 2011, the number rose to 222 in 2016, he said. Also, 1,442 terrorists surrendered last year, against 394 in 2011, Singh said.