New Delhi: The ministry of defence “should not play with the lives of Army personnel” by denying them bullet-proof jackets on time, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on defence has said in its report tabled recently in Parliament.
The committee noted that the shelf-life of even the existing BPJs with the Army would expire by next year, and also slammed the MoD for the “alarming” delay in procurement of BPJs.
“The Committee is perturbed to find that procurement of 1.86 lakh BPJs for which the approval of the MoD’s Defence Acquisition Council was obtained on October 19, 2009, and a Request for Proposal (RFP) ... was issued on December 7, 2012, are still not procured. The Committee is not at all satisfied with the reply of the ministry ....Despite knowing the importance of such a crucial life-saving item ...., it has taken more than six years to procure after the approval of the DAC!”, the report stated.
“It is an unpleasant surprise that there has been no improvement in this regard,” it said.
