Was pained by the news of sailor's death: Manohar Parrikar

PANAJI: Outgoing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is expected to get the defence portfolio in the expansion of the union cabinet on Sunday, today termed the death of a sailor in the mishap involving a Navy vessel as painful, and attributed it to "factor like corruption".

"When I heard the news of a sailor dying, I was pained. My heart bleeds for any person who dies for nation. My heart bleeds still more if we have wasted the life of a defence person," Parrikar said, when asked about his comment.

"I consider this as a wastage of life because of factor like corruption," he said, adding that he believes in the zero-error culture.

"We cannot fly jawans, Navy or airforce in flying coffins. These are my comments as a nationalist person," he said.

A sailor was killed and another four were reported missing after a torpedo recovery vessel (TRV) sank 30 nautical miles south of Visakhapatnam last evening.

The mishap took place when an ageing 110-tonne TRV A-72, commissioned in February 1983, was on a routine mission to "recover" dummy mines and torpedoes fired by fleet warships off the Vizag coast.