Another point that was raised was about the production of rifles at Ishapore. I think I have answered that in my statement on defence preparedness. By the end of this year the maximum capacity of the Ishapore factory, which is 2,500 per month, will he reached. Unless it is expanded or we have another plant, it cannot be increased, but it should not he supposed that it is the only production. Bolt action rifle will also be produced 5,000 a month, even after that.
Shri Bhakt Darshan made a few points, and he was naturally concerned about the contribution of the hill areas in this defence preparedness. I entirely agree with him that the hilly parts from which he comes have got military traditions, and not only that area, I have gone into the satistics, and I have found that nearly one fifth of the entire new recruitment to the army is from the hill areas. I hope he does not expect us to leave the entire defence of the border areas only to the border people.
I think he will concede my point that the hill areas have more than enough representation when I tell him that one-fifth of the newly recruited Jawans are from the hill areas.
Another question was asked : what we are doing about helping experienced Jawans to get into permanent and emergency commission. That is an important point, because these Jawans or JCOs who have, really speaking, gone through the thick of battle, have got more battle toughness, and if they are made officers, possibly we will get the right type of leadership that the army requires. We have gone into this matter, and I have mentioned in my statement on defence preparedness that we have expanded the facilities at the Nowgong School training is given to these commission officers. I may tell him that nearly one-fourth of the permanent commissions and emergency commissions have gone to these JCOs and the people from the ranks. That shows that we are more careful about it.
The qualities of leadership are something very important as far as the country is concerned. These qualities cannot be inculcated overnight, because they cannot be imparted merely by training. They are cultivated through certain experiences, and it is the intention of the Defence Ministry to see that we hold exercises from time to time through the Army Headquarters to test the qualities of leadership of the different people, so that we can have proper personnel to lead our army if and when a crisis comes - if at all it comes. That was one point which I wanted to mention as far as Shri Bhakt Darshan is concerned.
The same point was made by Shri K. C. Pant in his speech. He also made another point that there should be demarcation between civil and military intelligence, but at the same time very fortunately he says there should he co-ordination. I can assure him that demarcation is obviously there, and co-ordination is the one thing we are emphasizing more in the intelligence performance.