NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister, Mr V.P.Singh, today regretted that there had been no positive change in Pakistan’s attitude to India and it continued to aid and abet militants in Punjab and Kashmir.
Mr Singh who was addressing a combined conference of commanders of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force here, emphasised that the national security scenario called for the utmost vigilance. In Jammu and Kashmir, the security forces would have to continue their efforts to check the infiltration of Pakistan trained youth across the line of control (LOC) even as they maintained pressure ‘on militants in the Valley.
The Prime Minister said the govt would soon announce a scheme providing for enhanced Pension to retired personnel.
“Considerable attention” was being paid to provision of employment assistance to the dependents of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) personnel killed in Sri Lanka, he added.
Another point highlighted by the Prime Minister was the need for rationalization of manpower in the defence forces. He urged the Chiefs of Staff and senior commanders to address themselves to a “thorough review” of manpower and allied aspects.
He also asked them to intensify their efforts to ensure optimum utilization of available resources and to check wasteful expenditure especially in view of the heavy strain imposed on the economy by the Gulf crisis, In the meantime, the committee on defence expenditure headed by Mr Arun Singh, former minister, was engaged in an in depth examination of resource utilization and would recommend cost effective procedures.
Reiterating India’s commitment to developing friendly ties with all neighboring countries including Pakistan and to settle outstanding issues through discussions, he noted that there had an improvement in Sino Indian relations following the visit of two high level delegations to China this year and of two Chinese teams to India,
Improve Ties: He hoped that the establishment of ate joint working group would help improve the ties further.
He referred to some of the positive steps taken in the recent past to strengthen India’s relations with Bangladesh and the decision to reopen the second broad gauge railway link between the two countries. Similarly, the signing of the India Nepal agreement in June had paved the way for improving ties between the two countries.
The Prime Minister expressed concern at the situation in Sri Lanka resulting in the influx of refugees into Tamil Nadu.
He underlined the need for intensifying efforts to achieve self-reliance in defence, especially in regard to “our critical requirements.” While public sector units and ordnance factories continued to be the main suppliers of defence items, effort should be made to utilise available Capacity in the civil sector as well.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 28, 1990
