Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Focus on improving 'internal health' of force, ending corruption: Army chief Gen V K Singh

PTI Apr 1, 2010, 11.31am IST


NEW DELHI: New Army chief General V K Singh on Thursday said he would focus attention on "improving the internal health" of the force to weed out corruption.

"Internal health is very important. And for any organisation to do well, it must ensure the internal health is good.

"To that extent, that's why I said that our core values, our ethos, tradition will receive due attention," Singh told reporters here just before assuming office as the 26th chief of the Indian Army.

He was replying to a question on the issue of corruption charges against Lt Gen (retd) Avadesh Prakash in the Sukhna land scam case.

"Till the time our internal health is good, we would not be able to fight the external threats. So, we will focus attention on improving internal health," he added.

The General said it was a moment of pride and he felt humbled having to head the Indian Army. "We intend ensuring that our core values, our rich traditions and professionalism gets a boost and that would be my main priority".

Singh was in the media glare when he had, as the Eastern Army Commander in Kolkata, recommended the sacking of the then Military Secretary Lt Gen Prakash in the land scam case.

Prakash was a senior adviser to former Army chief General Deepak Kapoor and was caught in a controversy for allegedly 'influencing' the sale of a 71-acres land near the Sukna military base in Darjeeling district of West Bengal to a private realtor.

Three other General-rank officers were also indicted by an Army probe in the scam with Gen Kapoor, who retired yesterday, initiating disciplinary proceedings against two of them and administrative action against others.

Kapoor's decision to initiate administrative action against Prakash did not go down well with the defence ministry, which advised him to overturn it and order a court martial against the military secretary.

After Kapoor ordered the court martial, Prakash first approached the Armed Forces Tribunal against the action, which asked the Army to provide him an opportunity to question the witnesses in the court of inquiry.

He later moved the Supreme Court, which granted a stay against the court martial proceedings against him.

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