New Delhi: A total of 179 complaints of
alleged human rights abuse were received against the armed
forces personnel and 23 requests for permission to prosecute
them in the last three years, Parliament was informed today.
"No permission for prosecution was granted during the
same period. Action is taken on such requests as per law, on
the merits of each case," Defence Minister A K Antony said in
reply to a Lok Sabha query today.
Meanwhile, answering another query, the Minister said
the Kaveri aero engine being developed by DRDO for the Light
Combat Aircraft Tejas requires to be optimised for lower
weight and higher performance so that it can be used for the
aircraft and "possibly for Indian next generation combat
aircraft".
He added there was a proposal to import foreign
engines for the LCA and technical evaluation of proposals
received from two short listed vendors-- Eurojet (NETMA),
Europe and American General Electric Company-- was in
progress.
Answering another query, the Minister said a Committee
under the Defence Secretary was appointed to examine the views
of the stakeholders on the recommendations of P Rama Rao
Committee on the functioning of the DRDO.
"The Committee is in the process of finalising its
report," he said.
Antony said DRDO has inducted 1,902 scientists during
the last three years and various steps were being taken to
strengthen the organisations.
He mentioned adoption of consortium approach for
design, development and fabrication of critical components;
three-tier project monitoring approach in major projects and
holding regular meetings of the Project Monitoring Review
Committee (PMRC) to monitor the progress of the ongoing
projects as some of the new initiatives by the DRDO.
Antony added that Services are involved from the
inception of projects and a large number of projects and
research initiatives have been taken up with nearly 100
academic and other scientific establishments.
-PTI
