Sitharaman to hold daily meeting with officials

The statement said the minister, who took charge last Thursday, has held a number of meetings with senior officials to familiarise with the activities and functioning of the Defence Ministry and has already issued “clear directions” on “critical issues”.

Sitharaman has laid special emphasis on the need to step up the pace of acquisition proposals. 

The minister has also decided to hold meetings of the Defence Acquisiton Council, the highest decision making body on defence procurement in the ministry which is chaired by the minister every fortnight. Usually the meetings of DAC were held once in a month, though at times the gap between two meetings have been longer.

A whole range of meetings have been scheduled with the Army, Air Force and vy chiefs to review defence preparedness and allied issues of strategic interests, and the minister will now meet the three chiefs as well as the Defence Secretary every day to facilitate “quick decision making”, the statement said. Other areas of focus would be settling all outstanding land related issues for infrastructure projects and matters relating to welfare of Defence personnel and their families, the statement added. (IANS)