By
C Srikumar
The
defence industry is under serious threat. The right to pension of the
government employees is also under attack. The present government with the sole
intention of supporting the private corporate houses has decided to handover
the strategic defence production and related activities like Research and
Services etc. to the corporate houses, mainly to Amabanis and Adanis. The
present government initially announced that “Seventy percent of the
requirements of the Armed Forces are being imported and to replace the import,
these products will be made in India in the name of “Make in India” by the
private houses and multinationals and for that purpose 100 percent FDI in
defence is permitted. Defence Technology is complicated and it takes years to
develop it, and hence the few developed countries for whom defence equipment
selling is a major source of income are neither prepared to give technology nor
to invest money in our country.
Therefore,
to show the outside world that the government has implemented “Make in India”
in defence, the government has committed a historical mistake, by offloading
more than 275 products being manufactured in the 41 Ordnance Factories as
“Non-Core”. Due to this decision more than 25 Ordnance Factories are very badly
affected. Former defence ministers George Fernandes, Pranab Mukherjee and A K
Antony had assured the federations in the past that the work which can be done
by the Ordnance Factories will not be privatized and for manufacturing any new
products the first priority will be given to the Defence Civilian Employees to
Go on Strike on Jan 23-25Ordnance Factories. Even the former defence minister
in the present BJP government Manohar Parrikar had directed OFB to increase
their production to Rs. 20000 crore per year.
Accordingly,
during the year 2017-2018, the Ordnance Factories made a record production of
Rs. 17650 crore of Defence Equipments. However, in violation of this the
present dispensation has reduced the workload of OFB for the current year to
Rs. 6500 crore and thereafter, due to the agitation by the Federations,
increased the same to Rs. 11700 crore. The government, instead of increasing
the target to Rs. 19000 crore during 2018-2019, has reduced the target to Rs.
11700 crore. The target for 2019-2020 is not known and what will happen to the
future of 85000 Employees is a big question mark.
The
government has also taken a policy decision to close down Military Farms which
were supplying pure milk to the soldiers, station workshops, depots under the
army and to hand over the eight army base workshops which are giving second
life to the defence equipments including the imported ones to the private
sector in the name of GOCO Model. The DRDO is being forced to hand over the
newly developed technology to the private sector. Manpower in DRDO is
considerably reduced.
The
DGQA which is playing a vital role in guaranteeing the Quality Equipments to
the Indian army is also being seriously attacked and government wanted to hand
over even the Defence Quality Assurance activity also to the private sector in
the name of Third Party Inspection. The Military Engineer Service is also not
spared. All the civil construction and maintenance work are being completely
outsourced. The strength of permanent employees are getting decreased and the
number of contract workers are getting increased. Apprentices trained in the
defence establishments are denied employment opportunities. Even in strategic
Naval Dockyards many jobs are outsourced. The contract labourers deployed in
these defence units are exploited and the demand to regularize them is not
being considered by the government.
Another
major problem being faced by the Central Government Employees including Defence
Civilian Employees is the draconian National Pension System (NPS). The then BJP
government led by late Atal Behari Vajpayee has introduced the Contributory
Pension Scheme now called as NPS, for those employees who have joined service
on or after January 1, 2004. The NPS has taken away the right to pension of the
government employees which the Supreme Court had guaranteed. When the NPS was
introduced the government had assured that Pension from NPS will not be less
than the Pension payable under the Defined Pension Scheme as provided in CCS
(Pension) Rules 1972. However, the employees who are now retiring from the NPS
are getting only a meagre Pension of Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000, whereas the
minimum Pension under the Defined Pension Scheme of CCS (Pension) Rules 1972 is
Rs. 9,000 + DA. The government is not prepared to scrap the NPS and to restore
the Guaranteed Pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules 1972.
The
four lakh Defence Civilian Employees are very much agitated against the anti
labour attitude of the present government in killing the defence industry and
continuing with the anti labour NPS. Considering these aspects the three
recognized Federations of the Defence Civilian Employees (AIDEF, INDWF and
BPMS) have jointly decided to observe three days strike on January 23 to 25,
2019. Strike notice was served by the three Federations on January 4, 2019 and
more than a thousand trade unions functioning in various Defence Establishments
are to take part.
Preparations
and campaigning programmes are going on throughout the country. The pressure
built up by the federations and the Defence Civilian Employees have forced the
government to hold two rounds of discussions with the federations. However,
since there is no specific and categorical commitments from the government on
the demands the three federations have decided to proceed with the strike and
accordingly different p r e p a r a t o r y programmes are being carried out
throughout the country.
The
defence industries are established and developed after independence for
achieving self reliance in defence. The skilled workforce of these industries
are continuously struggling and striving to achieve this task. However, the
government, instead of encouraging and strengthening these industries, is
deliberately making them sick in its attempt to liquidate the same. It is for
the employees and also for the patriotic citizens of this country to raise
their voice against the decision of the present government to dismantle the
defence industry and to hand over the same to the private corporates whose sole
aim is to earn profit and more profit. Are these policies not against the
national interest? Can the defence of our country depends upon the private
corporates? Is it justified to impose on the Indian army a “Corporate Culture”
and making them procure whatever they want and from wherever they can. These
are all issues which the country has to debate both inside the Parliament and
in public domain. People have to rise together and fight back against these
retrograde policies of the government. (IPA
Service)
The post NDA Govt Disrupting Self-Reliance In Defence Industry appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
