Probe deal to acquire US warship, CPI(M) asks govt
The CPI(M) on Saturday asked the government to order a probe into the "dubious" purchase of a 36-year old US warship which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said was undertaken without physical assessment.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) on Saturday asked the government to order a probe into the "dubious" purchase of a 36-year old US warship which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said was undertaken without physical assessment.
In a statement, the party Politburo said the government should also come out with a statement in Parliament and assure that "such dubious defence purchases will not be resorted to in the future."
The CAG in a report, tabled in Parliament, severely censured the Indian Navy for buying the USS Trenton, now named INS Jalashwa, without undertaking its physical assessment.
"The country would like to know why the government is going in for such defence deals with the United States? Is it due to the pressure of the Bush administration to buy US arms and defence equipment," the CPI(M) asked.
It said the CAG report had raised several "disturbing issues" like "why the ship of 1971 vintage was bought when the US Navy itself had concluded in 2003 that it was not suitable for modernisation and should be decommissioned in 2006."
The CAG had also questioned why the USD 50 million deal was "finalised after only a visual inspection" and why were "restrictions on offensive deployment accepted and permission given to the US to conduct an inspection and inventory of all articles transferred under the end-use monitoring clause," the CPI(M) said.
Pointing out that six Indian sailors died aboard this ship due to a gas leak, the party said the CAG also asked whether the authorities were "not aware that ships of this class had suffered similar problems in the past and three US sailors had lost their lives."
In a statement, the party Politburo said the government should also come out with a statement in Parliament and assure that "such dubious defence purchases will not be resorted to in the future."
The CAG in a report, tabled in Parliament, severely censured the Indian Navy for buying the USS Trenton, now named INS Jalashwa, without undertaking its physical assessment.
"The country would like to know why the government is going in for such defence deals with the United States? Is it due to the pressure of the Bush administration to buy US arms and defence equipment," the CPI(M) asked.
It said the CAG report had raised several "disturbing issues" like "why the ship of 1971 vintage was bought when the US Navy itself had concluded in 2003 that it was not suitable for modernisation and should be decommissioned in 2006."
The CAG had also questioned why the USD 50 million deal was "finalised after only a visual inspection" and why were "restrictions on offensive deployment accepted and permission given to the US to conduct an inspection and inventory of all articles transferred under the end-use monitoring clause," the CPI(M) said.
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Pointing out that six Indian sailors died aboard this ship due to a gas leak, the party said the CAG also asked whether the authorities were "not aware that ships of this class had suffered similar problems in the past and three US sailors had lost their lives."
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