Row over age could have been avoided: Army Chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh, who retires this month-end, has said that the row over his age could have been avoided ‘’by everybody.’’ Talking to the media on the sidelines of the release of ‘Northeast Trilogy,’ a set of books on the North-Eastern States, Singh said: “I look at it (the age row) as something which could have been avoided.’’ To a question ‘by whom’? he emphatically replied “By everybody.’’ Singh had controversially taken the government to court after a dispute erupted over his age. On allegations of corruption in the Army, he said that it has always been an issue, but “adequate measures’’ were being taken to ensure transparency and probity and to check the activities of “middlemen and dealers.’’ The Army is taking great pains to ensure that it does not get saddled with sub-standard equipment, he said on defence procurement. “Whatever is found defective, the army will take action against it,’’ he said.The Army is operationally prepared to take on any contingency that may arise, Singh said.  The situation in the North-east was peaceful. There, the Army was working hard to ensure negotiated settlements between insurgent groups and the respective state governments, he said.Earlier, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy released the “Northeast Trilogy’’ authored by Dipti Bhalla and Kunal Verma. Lt Gen A K Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Army Command, Air Marshal S P Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command, Major General Amit Sharma, General Officer Commanding, 54th Infantry Division, Pangode Military Station Commander Brigadier Pradeep Narayanan and author Kunal Verma were among those present.