BANGALORE: Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair today came down heavily on the Government for reportedly clipping the financial powers of DRDO chief V K Saraswat, calling it quite “disturbing” and a “retrograde” step.
Terming the reported action as “quite disturbing”, he said the decision comes at a time when DRDO is “at its best, delivered the goods by launching the Agni-V and making the country proud”.
A section of the press has reported that government has decided to impose restrictions on financial powers of DRDO Director General Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to Defense Minister and Defense R&D Secretary, after internal audit and ongoing CAG scrutiny raised red flag over his decisions.
“Only if the scientists are allowed to perform fearlessly and with fully delegated powers can technology grow in the country. When we are talking about liberalization in economic front, we must also consider liberating the scientific pursuit from the bureaucratic clutches so that self-reliance can be achieved,” Nair, former Secretary in the Department of Space and Space Commission Chairman, told PTI here.
“I do not know why people at the top in the government fail to understand the complexity of developing sophisticated technology and the need for encouraging the technologists to perform rather than demotivate them,” Nair said.
He said there can be jealousy in internal or external sources on the improved performance of DRDO and the contribution to self-reliance in the area of defense preparedness.
“It could have led to undue influence on the administrative circles which would have led to this retrograde step. It is for the scientific communities to condemn the restrictive policies of the administration to clip the authority and powers of the technocrats,” he said.
He said one of the factors which contributed to the excellent performance of DRDO in the recent past is due to liberalization of procedures. According to Nair, the Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space have received acclaim for their performance. Primary reason for this was the delegation of full powers of the Government to the respective Commissions (Atomic Energy and Space), he claimed.
“The decision-making is decentralized and practically there is no interference from administration. Prime Minister had openly complimented the performance of these departments,” he said. -PTI
