If fighting heavily armed insurgents and battling the extreme cold were not enough, army troops posted in Jammu and Kashmir are facing another challenge that is making life even tougher. Thousands of soldiers posted along the Line of Control (LoC) and in the Kashmir Valley have been issued faulty, ill-fitting winter jackets that are hampering free movement of the arms—essential for quick reaction to threats. With over 17,000 defective jackets issued to troops this winter already identified, the army has been forced to dip into its war reserves to equip soldiers for the harsh cold. A hunt is also on to segregate the defective jackets and it is feared that the numbers may run into thousands more. Soldiers have reported two major defects in the jackets that were procured by the army from the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). Sources said that the jackets are part of a batch that arrived in 2005 but were issued to troops late last year. “Soldiers have complained that the jackets are very tight-fitting under the arm pits and this is causing restrictive movements of the arms. Also, the inner jacket arms are longer than the outer arms in the defective items,” an Army officer said. With complaints about the jackets pouring in from the Northern Command, the army has pulled up the Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA), the central body responsible for quality control in the armed forces, for failing to identify the problems at the delivery stage. Lt Gen G Sridharan, Director General Quality Assurance, could not be reached on the phone and a detailed questionnaire sent to him was not answered.Sources say that the Directorate is still to institute an inquiry. “It is the DGQA’s job to ensure that equipment delivered for troops is fault-free but it seems that this time it has passed on the blame to the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB),” an official said. With the Northern Command’s reserves fast depleting, it is learnt that the army is rushing in supplies from the Kanpur-based Central Ordnance Depot (COD) to make up for the deficiency. Meanwhile, units posted in the Valley have hit upon a unique method to ‘retrofit’ the faulty jackets. A small patch has been attached under the arms of some of the defective jackets to give soldiers space for free movement.
