Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 23: The Ministry of Defence today announced that it has issued broad guidelines for security of defence installations from the terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and including risk categorization, security audit and upgradation of Intelligence gathering etc to ensure that the militants don’t manage to target the security camps again.
Minister of State for Defence Dr Subash Bhamre announced the guidelines and other measures taken to prevent attacks on security camps and other installations in response to a written question submitted by Congress Member of Parliament Kumari Selja in the Rajya Sabha today.
“The Government has issued broad guidelines for security of defence installations and in compliance with the guidelines, the Defence forces have taken a number of actions,” the MoS Defence said.
The guidelines announced by the Ministry of Defence as mentioned in the written reply included risk categorization of military bases, appraisal and upgradation of Intelligence gathering capabilities, strengthening and streamlining of the response mechanism, use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and periodic security audit of all military installations.
“In addition to this, the Army also carries out in-depth analysis of all terrorist incidents and security breaches that are identified with various incidents and based on the analysis, steps are taken to ensure that such attacks don’t recur,” the Ministry of Defence said, adding that perimeter security projects of all three Armed Forces have been sanctioned by the Government.
On inquiry into the terror attacks, the Ministry of Defence said all terrorist attacks on the Army camps are investigated in details. “Prima facie it was found that these attacks were carried out by the terrorist outfits”.
Replying to another question of Sambhaji Chhatrapati, the Ministry of Defence said the Government was fully seized of security needs of the country and reviews them from time to time.
“Required measures are taken through capability development including manpower accretions, infrastructure and modernization to safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the country,” it said.
On infrastructure development along the borders with Pakistan and China, the MoD said the Government has identified 73 roads as strategic roads. Out of 73 roads, 61 roads of length 3417.50 km are entrusted to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for construction and improvement.
The Defence Ministry reply said Rs 744.74 crore were released during 2017-18 for development of infrastructure including construction of the identified road projects. Rs 379.72 crore were released during 2015-16 and Rs 812.11 crore during 2016-17, the official reply said.
“Defence Budget as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may appear to be decreasing due to increasing trend in the growth of GDP. However, it is increasing in absolute terms, implying higher spending. Defence Budget (including Miscellaneous and Pensions) is Rs.4,04,364.71 crore, which is 16.6% of total Central Government Expenditure for the year 2018-19. Further, Capital budget of Ministry of Defence for 2018-19 is approximately 33% of the total capital expenditure of the Central Government,” the Defence Ministry reply said.
It added that the allocated budgetary resources are optimally utilized towards meeting the operational requirements of the Armed Forces.
“Depending upon the allocated resources schemes are also reprioritized to ensure that urgent and critical capabilities are acquired without compromise of operational preparedness,” it said.
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