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Journalism of Courage
The Army faces a glaring shortage of special clothing required for troops on the Siachen glacier and issues old and worn items to soldiers, affecting their morale and operational effectiveness, the latest report by the Comptroller and Auditor General says.
In a damning report that reveals that the Army is facing shortages of close to 70 per cent of the special clothing due to faulty procurement process of the Ordnance department, the report says an unauthorised practice of issuing partially worn stores to soldiers is being followed on the glacier.
Blaming the Army’s Master General of Ordnance for the shortages between 2002-07, the report says besides shortages, imports are being made by the Army without proper qualitative requirements. The audit reveals that shortages in crucial items, including sleeping bags, socks, jackets, gloves, boots and even snow goggles ranges from 44 to 70 per cent. The biggest deficiency the Army faces is in gloves and with barely 30 per cent of the required stock available on the glacier.
The Army’s contention that it is meeting the shortages by reissuing worn clothing to soldiers on the glacier has also come under severe fire by CAG that terms the use of second hand clothing as ‘unauthorised’. The report says the ‘unauthorised practice’ was resorted to due to the Army’s failure to make timely procurements for soldiers on the glacier. It observes that most of the special clothing used by soldiers on the glacier is recycled despite instructions by the MoD to issue new clothing to soldiers.
“Recycling of special clothing items is not desirable on grounds of hygiene, operational suitability and overall morale of the troops,” the report says, adding that 14 out of the 20 special clothing items issued to soldiers are reissued.
Raising the spectre of a scam in disposal of unrecyclable items, the report observes that the current system of disposal has many loop holes and items may be reaching the civil market for sale to the public.
