429 types of defence items found with rectifiable defects in last 3 yrs

NEW DELHI: More than 400 types of defence equipment were found to have rectifiable defects during the last three years, Rajya Sabha was told today.

In the past three years, during the course of regular quality assurance checks by DGQA during production, 429 types of defence equipment were found to have rectifiable defects, Minister of State for Defence Ministry Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply.

He said these were not cleared for issue to the users but returned to the ordnance factories for rectification during manufacturing stages only.

Some deviations do take place at various stages during any manufacturing process due to unavoidable reasons which need rectification/rejection, the reply said.

The total cost of such rectification/rejection is Rs 449.4 crore for three years -- 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 -- which include all the rectification/rejection during manufacturing process as well as at final stage before issue to users.

Singh said that it constitutes only 1.27 per cent of total value of production of Rs 35,309 crore for the past three years.

Items being manufactured in ordnance factories are inspected by quality control wing of factory during manufacturing followed by DGQA inspection.

"If any deviation is noticed during these inspections, same are rectified by the factory. Only stores conforming to the specifications are issued to the users," Singh said.