Tainted former
Common Wealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, who
claimed to be suffering from dementia- a disease related to memory loss- made
his first public appearance since his Tihar release to attend the Parliament’s
Defence Consultative Committee On Feb 29.
Facing probe in the multi-crore CWG
scam, Kalmadi is a member of the 30-member committee headed by Defence Minister
AK Antony. The committee comprising of Member of Parliaments from Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha monitors the implementation of various defence projects.
Sources said Kalmadi, a former
Indian Air Force (IAF) officer and an MP in lok Sabha, spoke about the
restructuring of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the delay in
the induction of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in the force for about
ten minutes. The home-grown fighter jet project has been suffering from chronic
delays and cost overruns as a result of which even after 27 years after the
project was started the aircraft is yet to be inducted into the force.
About 70 percent of the IAF fleet is
being manufactured by HAL, having a turnover of Rs. 13,000 crore annually. With
the force planning to induct Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Light Combat
Helicopter, Light Utility Helicopter, Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft, Medium
Transport Aircraft, Basic Trainer Aircraft and so on, the work load of HAL will
increase manifold. In view of this the Defence Ministry has set up an expert
group for the restructuring of the public-sector aerospace major.
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