military farms under lens

Military farms in Jammu and Kashmir are under the scanner for alleged large-scale irregularities. Acting upon official reports, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, is learnt to have ordered a court of inquiry (COI) into the matter.

Irregularities in the supply of fresh milk for troops, fraudulent hiring of civilian vehicles, lapses in procurement of fodder for animals, recruitment of permanent employees in violation of government policies and some controversy pertaining to construction of buildings are issues to be investigated by the COI.

Sources in Northern Command reveal that given the scale of procurement and the time-frame over which the alleged irregularities were taking place, the financial misappropriation could run into crores of rupees. There are at present five military farms in J&K. Different irregularities were found at different farms.

The COI will be presided over by the Chief of Staff of the Nagrota-based 16 Corps and has a brigadier each from the Signals and the Army Service Corps as members. The COI is expected to commence its proceedings shortly.

Based upon official inspection reports and scrutiny of documents, a COI had been ordered into the aforesaid irregularities last year. The proceedings of the COI were submitted to Headquarters (Northern Command), but they were, for some reason, not finalised and no directions were passed upon it. Last month, the Northern Army Commander ordered a fresh COI to investigate the findings and contents of the official reports.

Sources said government orders state that troops have to be supplied only fresh milk. In J&K, milk is either procured from military farms or from state cooperatives. It was found that owing to heavy deficiency in availability of fresh milk, “re-constituted” milk, that is milk mixed with water and milk powder, was being produced to make up the shortfall. Milk powder can be used as a short-term interim measure in an emergent situation and not as a regular supply.

In the records, however, it was being reflected that the entire quantity procured and supplied was fresh milk even though large quantities of re-constituted milk was being used. There is a large difference in the price of both, with re-constituted milk being 40-50 per cent cheaper.

In fact, the Comptroller and Auditor General had in its report in 2006 revealed that military farms produced only 30 per cent of the Army’s requirement of milk while 23 per cent was purchased and supplied to the Army at prices higher than the market rate. Though they have a secondary role for producing fodder for animals, 81 per cent of the requirement was purchased from the market at a price three times higher than the market rate.