Staff shortage at ordnance factories hurts defence projects

BENGALURU: An acute shortage of staff at ordnance factories, the mainstay of defence production, is affecting manufacturing schedules, research and development of new products and quality control, all impacting India's ambitious plans for enhanced indigenisation in this sector.

As of January 2017, ordnance factories collectively have 70,810 technical staff, 41 per cent less than the 1.2 lakh sanctioned posts, according to information accessed from the ministry of defence. There's also a 44 per cent shortage of non-technical staff-15,083 against the sanctioned strength of 22,524. Factories have a shortage of 40 per cent in Grade A officers. While their sanctioned strength is of 2,981, the actual number is 1,808.

The number of technical staff responsible for the bulk of the workload including maintenance of machinery and equip ment, handling of ammunition and armaments has been steadily decreasing. In 2015, this number was 74,634, as compared to 76,273 in 2014. Compared to 2014 and 2015, the ministry has reduced the number of sanctioned posts from 1.25 lakh to 1.2 lakh.

Employee union representatives allege that the existing staff and machinery are being overworked to keep up with the demand, resulting in human errors. A senior office-bearer of the All-India Defence Employees' Federation (AIDEF) said they are often unable to maintain the quality standards, as a result of which, the commitment to the client is also affected.

The issue was taken up by the parliamentary standing committee on defence, which in its latest submission to the government, said, “The Committee is concerned to note that this huge shortage of manpower in ordnance factories, particularly in the technical category , will have a negative impact on manufacturing and ensuring improvement in the products.“ It recommended immediate steps be taken to bridge the gap.

In one case, an order to produce over 3 lakh pieces of Coats for Extreme Cold Conditions (Coats-ECC) was taken away from the Ordnance Clothing Factory (OCF), Avadi, and given to Bengaluru-based Gokaldas Exports last year due to manpower shortage.