The Navy has initiated disciplinary action against four officers and two sailors found culpable by a Board of Inquiry for collision between warship INS Talwar and a fishing vessel in December last year, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The Minister said in a written reply the collision on December 23 last year “has been attributed to both inadequate lookout and non-adherence of standard norms of outboard lighting by the fishing boat as well as error in judgment by the naval ship’s crew, at night.”
The incident took place when INS Talwar was carrying out night operations off the coast of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and collided with a fishing trawler resulting in the drowning of the boat.
Answering another query on the fire incident on board submarine INS Sindhuratna in which two officers were killed earlier this year, Jaitley said, the report submitted by the Board Of Inquiry was under examination at Naval Headquarters from professional and technical angle. Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi had resigned after the submarine accident owning moral responsibility for spate of accidents involving warships last year.
Meanwhile, the Defence Minister confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that two Chinese helicopters entered Indian territory in Uttarakhand on two occasions in April and June and said the Army lodged protests with the Chinese Army. Media had last month reported about these transgressions.
Jaitley said “due to differing perception of the line of Actual Control (lAC) by both India and China, transgressions do occur. Two Chinese helicopters transgressed the lAC on April 30 and June 13 in Uttarakhand. Protests were lodged regarding the above transgressions with the Chinese side in flag meetings on May 5 and June 23 respectively.”
The Minister said the incidents of transgressions are taken up with the “Chinese side through established mechanisms such as flag meetings, Border Personnel Meetings and normal diplomatic channels like working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-China border affairs.”