Even as the nation marked the 16th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Divas on Sunday, senior Army officials sent out a warning note on shortages in ammunition, but said efforts were on to address the issue.
“The weaponry is common in the Indian Army, but there are some shortages in some ammunition and there are efforts to try and build up these stocks,” Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, Northern Army Commander told media after laying a wreath at the Kargil war memorial.
While “day-to-day operations” would not be affected, there was a need to build up stocks for a war like situation. “But if you are looking at war time, then you need to build up huge amount of stocks. There are some shortages and the government is seized of it...,” he said.
Lt. Gen Hooda’s words, on Kargil victory day, were significant as during the peak of the Kargil, shortages of artillery ammunition for the Bofors guns had become a serious concern. Emergency supplies had to be procured from Israel and Russia-literally overnight.
“See, it has been reported in Parliament, there is some shortages of ammunition that exist,” Lt. Gen. Hooda said referring to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report “Ammunition management in Army,” which pointed to massive shortage in War Wastage Reserves of ammunition which is equivalent to 40 days of Intense Period.
Even the Minimum Acceptable Risk Level (MARL) which is 20 days was not maintained “with availability as on March 2013 being below the MARL in respect of 125 out of 170 types of ammunition.”
While ammunition with ten days availability is considered critical, the types of critical ammunition had increased from 15 percent to 50 percent over five years upto 2013, the report had noted.
Pension parity On the question of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme a long pending demand of ex-servicemen, Lt Gen Hooda observed that the government had accepted it. “I am hopeful that it will come”.
The armed forces launched ‘Operation Vijay’ in May 1999 to evict Pakistani soldiers, mostly from Northern Light Infantry, who occupied icy peaks across the Line of Control (LoC) which cost the lives of over 500 Indian soldiers.
