Mountain Corps being raised with war wastage reserves: Panel

NEW DELHI: The army's ambitious Mountain Strike Corps for deployment along the border with China is being raised with "war wastage reserves", a move that a parliamentary panel today said seemed "very impractical and incongruous".

A report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence noted that the Mountain Strike Corps, needed to counter advances of neighbouring countries at high altitude areas, has been sanctioned keeping in view the 15-year perspective plan.

"However the committee is surprised to note that for raising this corps, no separate allocation has been made in this year's budget. As informed, an amount of Rs 5,000 crore has been earmarked for it but it is not over and above the actual budget allocated and the army has been asked to raise this corps out of its own budget," the report said.

The committee also found that for raising this corps only war wastage reserves were being utilised.

"It seems very impractical and incongruous that a new corps is being raised with war wastage reserves," the report said.

It said that the Defence Ministry should do away with its "proclivity of adhoc planning and provide adequate budgetary support commensurate with the requirement of Mountain Strike Corps".