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223013
Fri, 01/13/2012 - 09:17
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https://www.oananews.org//node/223013
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India's army chief hopes artillery guns will be delivered soon
New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Noting that the acquisition of artillery guns has been stung by "snakes in a game where there were no ladders" delaying the process, India's army chief General V K Singh has hoped that the guns will soon be delivered to the army.
The Indian army has not been able to induct even a single gun for its artillery after the Bofors gun deal scam in the late 1980s.
"The procurement game is a version of snakes and ladders where there is no ladder but only snakes, and if the snakes bite you somewhere, the whole thing comes back to zero," Gen Singh said Thursday when reminded of his promise last year of inducting at least one type of gun in 2011.
He was referring to cases such as that of M-777 Ultra Light Howitzers (ULH) which was referred to the Law Ministry.
"This time it is not the snake which has bitten us, but there is certain problem area that came up, certain committee was made and certain things were referred to the Law Ministry," Gen Singh said.
Queried whether the guns will be delivered to the Indian army or not, Gen Singh said, "I am hopeful it will come and the procedure that we have put in place will also ensure that both indigenous (guns) as well as what we are acquiring (through FMS route) will be in place."
He said that the Army has devised a way to ensure that such problems do not occur in future.
"We have put in place a very comprehensive and a very well thought out plan by which both indigenous development, certain amount of acquisition and certain amount of joint ventures have been meshed together so that in years to come we get out of this type of problem," he said. PTI