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Rs 20,000-cr turnover target set for ordnance factories

Besides INDWF, Bharat Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, All-India Defence Employees Federation too have been opposing the proposal.

The proposal to transform OFs was also considered by the defence minister on recommendations of Kelkar committee in 2005.

In a bid to streamline indigenous defence production, defence minister Manohar Parrikar has given a target of Rs 20,000 crore annual turnover to Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). This comes against its own target of Rs 15,000 crore by end of 2017. The defence ministry’s moves to reorganise and provide “autonomy” to OFB, however, is being opposed by Indian National Defence Workers Federation (INDWF) which is backed by Congress’s INTUC which has threatened that they will protest the “corporatising” of ordnance factories.

“We believe that corporatisation is not the only means to achieve targets. Presently, a number of ordnance factories have been under-performing due to lack of orders from the services. Besides, a lot of time is lost between monetary sanction and placement of contracts and during that period, the factory workers have no job to do. These areas need to be addressed before going for corporatisation of the factories. We have met the minister and will protest against any move to corporatise OFB,” said R Srinivasan, general secretary, INDWF.

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Besides INDWF, Bharat Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, All-India Defence Employees Federation too have been opposing the proposal.

The defence ministry’s diktat is not new given that Parrikar has been pressing for an increased output from the ordnance factories as well as defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) more so to push for PM Modi’s Make In India programme. Parrikar has already spelled his intentions to provide more autonomy to the 39 ordnance factories and DPSUs who he had expressed should “think like commercial organisations”.

“The chairman has spelled a road-map to the minister narrating how OFB plans to go about achieving the target of Rs 20,000 crore over the next three years. Transformation is underway. At the recently-concluded air show in Bangalore, a number of foreign firms showed interest in collaborating with ordnance factories and this time the proposals are being considered seriously,” a senior OF official said.

Reforms of OFB have been long due given that their performance has been under scanner for decades. The proposal to transform OFs was also considered by the defence minister on recommendations of Kelkar committee in 2005.

First uploaded on: 02-03-2015 at 02:21 IST

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