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Ruling out any sabotage behind the spate of fires in army ammunition depots in the recent past, the government said on Monday that the absence of investment in building modern fire-resistant depots in the last 30 years was the main cause for the accidents.
Speaking to the press formally for the first time after being given additional charge of the defence portfolio, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said this was the broad conclusion that had emerged from the inquiry into the Bharatpur ammunition depot fire. He termed the fires at Pathankot and Suratgarh 'unfortunate' and said these incidents were of "grave concern" to the defence ministry.
Singh said a number of significant decisions have been taken by the government in the last two or three months, including the acceptance of the report given by the group of ministers to integrate the services headquarters with the defence ministry.
With this, he said, the services headquarters would become an integral part of the decision-making process.
Singh said the Cabinet had given a deadline of 90 days for the integration to take place and hoped the deadline would be met.
Asked about the future role of "attached officers", he explained that earlier they used to receive information on policy and abide by it. They were not part of the policy-making process. But from now on they would be part of the policy-formulation process, he said.
"How these officers will be placed exactly will be too premature to comment now," he said.
On the setting up of a procurement board, he said a secretary had already been appointed, but did not elaborate.
PTI
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