Indian army chief appears before PAC

NEW DELHI: A highly surprising instance occurred in India when its army chief V. K. Singh on Wednesday appeared before its parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in connection with alleged irregularities in the canteen stores supplies.

The PAC had summoned the chiefs of the 3 defence services for a hearing after a CAG report pin pointed irregularities in the supply chain management of rations by Canteen Stores Department (CSD).

General Singh appeared before the PAC headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi at around 11 a.m. and senior Army officials made a presentation of management of rations in the Army.

India’s air chief P. V. Naik was likely to appear before the Committee later in the day. The Navy would be represented by vice chief D. K. Deewan, as navy chief Nirmal Verma is in Indonesia on a “pre-scheduled” four-day visit which began on Sunday.

The armed forces have decided to stick to their stand that their unit-run canteens (URC) are beyond the purview of the PAC.

“We still maintain that URC is beyond their purview. That is the basic issue on which I presume the hearing or questioning will take place. We have given our replies to them and let us see how it goes,” Mr. Naik had said earlier.