The Union government continues to drag feet on creation of the post of the Chief of Defence Staff recommended by the Kargil Review Committee to prevent the lack of synergy among the three services experienced during the Kargil war.
Nine years after the Kargil war, Defence Minister A K Antony did not give any firm date for creating the post by stating that he had sent a reminder to leaders of all political parties on March 4 this year to elicit their views on the issue.
In a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday on a parliamentary standing committee seeking implementation of the Subramanyam review committee's recommendations for reforming the national security system, Antony sought to stress that a joint decision making mechanism has been already created in the form of Chief of Staff Committee with the chiefs of all three services as its members.
Antony remained equally vague on the standing committee asking for immediate withdrawal of army from the internal security duties to let these be handled by the central para military forces. The committee had also sought a fixed time schedule for gradual withdrawal of the army from the counter-insurgency duties in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.
The Committee had cited in this regard the Subramanyam Kargil review committee that army's prolonged deployment in counter-insurgency role to tackle terrorist problems adversely affects its training programme which leads to fatigue and development of a mindset that detracts from its primary role.
All that Antony has to say on this issue is that "the government is fully seized of the matter and home ministry has also been advised on the same lines."
The defence minister has also turned down the standing committee's recommendation to have a non-lapsing defence fund to enable his ministry to carry over the sanctioned funds not spent in a particular year because of the logistics.
He also rejected as "premature at this stage" the standing committee's suggestion that pending the decision on the post of CDS kept on hold for political consultations, the post of defence secretary be upgraded to the level of the cabinet secretary or equivalent to the chiefs of the three services for synergy between the civilian and military officers.
Antony has also turned down the Committee's recommendation that the defence forces should follow the procurement methods of other ministries for buying day-to-day civil items, contending that all such purchases are to be made only under the Defence Procurement Manual last revised in 2006.
