7 guilty in INS ship accident
The Sindhuratna fire on February 26 came after a series of mishaps involving the Navy\'s assets and the then Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi had resigned soon after owning moral responsibility.
New Delhi: An inquiry into the fire on board Navy submarine INS Sindhuratna in February this year has "found seven officers culpable of various acts of omissions and commissions," Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Parliament. Two Navy officers were killed in the fire and some others were hospitalised.
Parrikar said in his written reply in the Rajya Sabha that the report of a Board of Inquiry set up to investigate the accident has been submitted to the Naval headquarters and disciplinary action has been initiated at the Western naval Command headquarters against the seven officers.
The Sindhuratna fire on February 26 came after a series of mishaps involving the Navy's assets and the then Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi had resigned soon after owning moral responsibility.
Months earlier, another submarine, the INS Sindhurakshak, exploded and sank killing 18 crewmen on board. Parrikar said that a Board of Inquiry report into that tragedy has also been submitted, but an examination of it is yet to completed.
An early investigation into the Sindhuratna fire had established that the fire was caused due to problems in the cables of the vessel.
30 crashes in three years
Thirty crashes of Indian Air Force aircraft in the past three years have cost the nation Rs.1,161.50 crore, Parrikar said. The main reasons behind the crashes were "human error" and "technical defects", he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Hotline between Indian, Chinese Army HQs
India is "seriously considering" establishing a hotline connection between its and Chinese military headquarters, Parrikar told Parliament.
"It is being seriously considered to establish a hotline connection between the military headquarters of India and China. This is as per the provisions of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement 2013 between the two countries," Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
"The establishment of a hotline between military headquarters of India and China has been discussed at various forums with China," he said.
The issue was discussed during the visit of the Indian chairman of chiefs of staff committee to China in July 2014.
