The unions in the defence sector took a cautious approach towards the Centre’s decision to ban the import of 101 defence equipments.

Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, a BMS-affiliated union of defence workers, said it welcomes the Defence Ministry’s decision to embargo on import of 101 items and to create separate budget of nearly ₹52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement. “BPMS demands that out of 101 identified items, all the items being manufactured by Ordnance Factory Board or/ and having the capacity to manufacture similar new items should be earmarked for OFB under the provision of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 to utilise/achieve the capacity as assessed by MoD, mentioned in the Fourth Report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence,” BPMS general secretary Mukesh Singh said in a statement.

General secretary of the Left-leaning, All India Defence Employees Federation, C Srikumar said atleast 19 products in the list such as 120mm Fin-stabilised Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) and 7.62x51 Sniper Rifle can straight away be manufactured in ordnance factories. He said since OFB factories have got the capacities to manufacture 19 such items, production of similar products should not be handed over to private industries who have not even established any industry even though the licenses have been given to more than 340 private companies for defence manufacturing. “It would be prudent to know whether any study has been conducted by the Government so far, whether they have really established any Industry or not. At present majority of the Ordnance Factories are struggling without sufficient workload. It is the bounden responsibility of the Government to first keep the workforce of Ordnance Factories fully engaged and utilise the already installed capacity in the Ordnance Factories. Unfortunately that is not taking place,” he said.

CPI general secretary D Raja said Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has not explained the action plan to indigenously produce those imported items. ‘In the past, the erstwhile socialist countries used to liberally transfer defence technology to our country, now none of the developed and imperialist countries are prepared to spare any technology to our country in spite of the governments big announcement of 74 per cent FDI in defence sector. On a perusal of 101 items named by the Defence Minister, many of the items can be produced in the Ordnance Factories and the DPSUs. Artillery guns, tanks, bullet proof jackets, etc, can be manufactured in the Ordnance Factories. Other items like radars and missiles can be manufactured in the DPSUs. In spite of this why the successive governments have been importing these items. There is no answer to this question from the Defence Minister,” he added.

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