Appoint 'regular' Defence Minister: JD(U) MP asks govt

New Delhi: A JD(U) member in Rajya Sabha today asked the government to appointment a "regular" Defence Minister, while expressing concern over some recent incidents of fire in ordnance factories.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Harivansh said the NDA government had come to power raising issues relating to defence and it should pay serious attention to defence matters.

However, "the country has not been provided with a regular Defence Minister," he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been given additional charge of the Defence Ministry after Manohar Parikkar resigned to become Chief Minister of Goa. Earlier too, Jaitley had held additional charge of the Defence Ministry.

Harivansh said there have been over 15 incidents of fire in the last 20 years in ordnance factories, including two in the recent past.

He said there was a "serious incident" at the Ordnance Factory in Jabalpur where a team had to be sent from Delhi to quell the fire.

A major tragedy was averted as the fire had broken out close to a building which had about 12,500 bombs, he said.

Harivansh referred to another blaze in Maharashtra earlier and asked why such incidents were happening.