Letter received by website on 31st May 2015
Letter received by website on 31st May 2015
Corruption the main reason for LCA Failure – Concerned LCA Scientists
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Appeal to clean DRDO of corrupt and anti-national officials
Appeal to clean DRDO of corrupt and anti-national officials
Letter received by website on 31st May 2015
Letter received by website on 31st May 2015
Concerned scientists remarks are awakening and required action to deal with the real problems.
First of all congratulations to the author of above article for spot on description. However, it is only tip of the iceberg. Also the author is very very mild towards some of the people mentioned in the article or silent about some other people.
There is no doubt that LCA project is in sorry state. Who is responsible? Obviously the head of ADA should take this responsibility. The author is very mild towards the main culprit. As it is rightly pointed out the Chief of ADA is only bothered about his chair and still struggling for extension even after completion of 65 yrs. He is supposed to retire on 30 Jun 15; there is no successor nominated till now. He is a master strategist and top politician. He has put all incompetent people as directorate heads so that there is no threat to him and when time for his retirement comes there is crisis for his replacement.
The Chief is a person with all qualities of three monkies of Gandhiji. As head of organisation he doesn’t want to see or hear any wrong whereas all kinds of wrong things are happening here. Even by chance if he happens to see or hear something wrong, he will keep mum. He doesn’t want to antagonise anyone. The LCA project is run by everyone else other than this gentleman. He doesn’t mind as long as his chair is safe. It is Chairman, HAL ;DCAS, IAF or DG(Aero) who call the shots and do what they want in this project. It is free for all.
The Chief is never accessible to people of ADA. He hides in meetings. Morning to night he sits in meetings dragging 10 minutes problem to whole day. Because if he sits in his office people come with problems. Even by chance if you manage to catch him and project some problem, you can never get any solution. He doesn’t believe in giving decisions. He is a true follower of Narsimha Rao (Ex PM). Keep on procrastinating till problems solve themselves.
Now let us come to one of the stalwarts of the project who has been nicely left untouched which gives a doubt whether the above article is orchestrated by him? He is Mr Swaminathan. There is a coterie of FA, Siddesha, Balaji and Swaminathan. They all have their one leg abroad. It should be a matter of investigation as to why and how they have gone abroad so many times. Of all the people what technical issue FA has to see abroad?
Mr Swaminathan projects himself as next head of ADA to create fear among juniors. He is another politician of highest order. He grabs all lucrative assignments like D(MM) or organisation of Aero India where big money is involved. He is a known womanizer.
So, what has been written here is only trailer. Hon’ble defence minister should order an inquiry on the things brought out and ascertain the facts himself because generally it is thought that there are some disgruntled elements in the organisation who are unnecessarily trying to damage seniors.
This post is reportedly from “Concerned LCA scientists”. The letter points out instances of several irregularities, such as employment of people without adequate qualifications, nepotism and promotion of personal & family interests at taxpayer’s expense, and abuse of official powers. The post concludes with a plea to a government to address these issues.
Prima facie, all nice and good. But here are a few questions:
1. The scientists have obviously been part of LCA for several years, to know so much insider information. Have they ever reported these irregularities to the higher authorities in the past, such as DRDO chief, SA to RM, RM, PM or The President of India?
2. If they had reported, and no action had been taken, did they approach autonomous bodies like CVC, CAG or supreme court? Did they have to edit for the CAG audit to bring forward all this?
3. Being witness to so much alleged corruption in a programme of great strategic importance, and not reporting them to the proper authority is wrong, if not a crime, is it not?
4. Every person working in the LCA programmer is bound by the official secrets act, and should not disclose anything that may be of disadvantage to the country’s security. The post makes several comments on the capabilities of the aircraft, which information will be of use to our enemies. Surely, the scientists realize that this is damaging to the country and their program? Or that this is a crime and they can be prosecuted for it?
It all leaves you to wonder if all this muckraking is for petty, narrow personal gains. Otherwise the corruption should have been reported to the government and addressed a long time ago.
Whatever happens, the country stands to lose.
Jai hind!
Your views are absolutely right. It is wrong to belittle the hard work of many scientists who have worked so hard against all odds to realise the wonderful aircraft that Tejas is. You please ask the pilots who fly the machine and they will say that it is one of the best aircrafts in its class. It embodies most of the latest technologies of the 4th generation aircrafts. Obviously you cannot design a car and expect it to be a truck. Short comings raised by our esteamed customers are only towards demanding the best out of the product and rightly so.
All this mud slinging now is because the top post of Director ADA is getting vacant by end June 2015 and a search committee is on to recommend the next Programme Director. Unfortunately all the names that are cropping up in this mud slinging act are potential candidates for the post. Offcourse, names of some potential candidates are spared. It would not be difficult to assume that these are instigated by some disgruntled elements who do not want to see one or the other person in that post.
That said i would like to also touch upon some of the allegations of personal mis-conduct and nepotisum raised by the earlier writers. I think that this is not un-common in any government organisation. There are black sheeps every where. Today also an official car of CEMILAC ferrying family members could be seen near ADA. That too after the Vigilance direction and so much of adverse publicity. Regaring the point raised by you of reporting the same to DG-DRDO, SA to RM, RM, PM etc. This is easily said than done. Each person derives some personal favours from the other. This goes up to the very top (top means very top of the countries hierarchy). Some of which are openly put out on this blog at various places. For example, Dr. Kalam has been dragged into this debate, not without reason. The allegation regarding lateral entry are also unfortunately true. Most of these recruitments are below par with marks just above 60% from relatively less known colleges (sometimes even below 60%). Their strategy is to enter as contract engineers, then show that experience, upgrade to Research Fellows or Project Engineers, then to scientists. These type of contract engineers have even been recruited as scientists above the grade of scientists they earlier reported to. When you know that the jury, judge and executer are all of the same flock, i don’t think that any normal human being will be foolish enough to stick out his neck upholding the moral highground expected of him.
It is a fact that many un-derserving candidates are up there as contenders for the top post of Programme Director ADA, including the ones that have escaped reference on this blog. ADA is already fragmented. Divide and rule is the slogan now. Irrepairable damage would be caused to the organisation if the wrong candidate is selected to the top post now. If such candidate has a long tenure, the damage would be even worse. Search committee needs to take its time, talk to junior scientists or ask them to drop anonymous comments in a dropbox and analyse the exact capability and shortfalls of potential candidates. True leadership qualities, ability to take people along and scientific knowledge to provide sound directions that can stand the test of time should be the key parameters to be considered for the top post.
Hello,
I am Siddesha, Technology Director (Propulsion) and Project Director (LCA AF Mk2). I would like to clarify the following points to everyone in response to the article about me. It is true that I am an ex-serviceman and it should be noted that I have successfully qualified Sec A and Sec B of Institution of Engineers (India), which is equivalent to BE as recognised by Government of India. Subsequently, I have acquired Fellowship of the Institution of Engineers (India) based on my experience and contribution in the Engineering field. I have also completed all the academic requirements by passing required subjects for MBA from IGNOU, but I am unable to complete the project work because of work pressure. So, let us be clear about my academic credentials. I would like to ask what is wrong if an Ex-serviceman becomes a Scientist ‘H’ because of hard work and dedication (all of us hail Shri Modiji, our prime minister who has raised from a Chaiwala to a PM).
The statement that some senior members of propulsion group are electrical/electronic engineers is true. But we are not duds. ADA is the work centre for propulsion and Engine Starting System. We are not designing Engine in ADA. We are Installing and Integrating Engine, including all associated systems, Ground testing, Field service support and maintenance support. The basic engineering knowledge and the analytical abilities of my team is more than adequate to handle the nature of job. This can be seen from the performance of our team compared to many others from the beginning. Now talking about the promotions, the statements that the scientists from my directorate gets faster promotions is far from true when compared with the average promotions in ADA. This can be verified from records.
Yes we interact with GE as they are the OEM of Engine. We have periodic meetings with them both in India and abroad to resolve technical, commercial and logistic issues. What is wrong in this. Same is the case for the bought out systems across all the projects in the country. All the foreign deputations are approved by the competent authority. Adequate justifications are made in the statement of case when deputation case is taken up through proper channel.
As regards the selection of Engine, it was done by a composite team of experts from ADA, HAL, IAF, IN, MOD, DRDO etc., This composite team after due consideration of all technical aspects has selected the present engine. It was an engineering judgement of experts. No personal motives can be attributed to this. I would like to ask the background of the person who made such false allegations and propaganda. I challenge the person to come in for a debate face to face, since these matters are confidential and cannot be discussed in public. The Propulsion system Directorate has successfully handled all issues related to Engine and associated systems on Aircraft till date.
Complete Engine maintenance, Ground testing, Defect Investigation, Flight test support, Field service support etc., are rendered by my team at a fraction of the cost, which otherwise would have costed a fortune. There is no support from any other organisation except GE who provide only sustaining engineering support through their field service rep
There are innumerable Program issues and Flight critical issues which were solved by my team. As such my team is able to confidently meet the expected objectives and goals of the TEJAS program set forth by the management.
As regards the allegation that I have used my consultants to do my property maintenance and taxation is false and malicious. This allegation is made with ulterior motive. I completely deny this allegation.
On the issues related to my properties’, it is a fact that I am a local from a town adjoining Bangalore, therefore I have my roots in Bangalore. I and my wife inherit certain ancestral properties. All declared properties have been acquired legally and that is why I am dare enough to declare everything unlike others as I have nothing to hide. I have also acquired some properties with joint earnings of myself and my wife. My wife is PhD qualified and presently working as a senior Professor in a university of state government. She also had declared all her income and pays her part of IT. It’s all hard earned and inherited by fair means. All are available in public domain for verification and there is nothing illegal about it. Nobody need to be jealous about it as it is our hard earned money legally. One must look at the background and details of properties before making such unsubstantiated allegations.
It is interesting to note the timing of these allegations. I will leave it to the judgement of the individuals who read this.
Finally I would like to state that just because freedom of speech is there, people should not tarnish the image of others. Please use the same or the benefit of the society.