Defence vs rural development: Antony debates with Ramesh

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Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Thursday outrightly rejected Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's pitch for a share from the national security allocation for social development programmes.

"Money provided in the budget for the Defence is for national security," Antony said promising at the same time all necessary support to Rural Development Ministry by providing it technology from his ministry.

Ramesh had earlier said that the total amount of money required for installing 100,000 bio-toilets is equal to what is spent for one Rafale fighter jet India is buying from France.

Both the ministers were addressing a programme after signing of an MoU between Defence Research and Development Organisation and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for Bio-Digester-based eco-friendly toilets developed by DRDO.

"I assure Jairam Ramesh that we will provide all necessary support from the Ministry of Defence....by providing you technology," he said asking the Rural Development Minister to seek support from other areas for developmental work.

"Money provided in the budget for the Defence is for national security. (For) all other areas, you can seek support from other agencies including state government, local bodies NGOs and also people who are having social commitment," he said.

Making a strong pitch for the synergy of defence investment and civilian benefit, Ramesh said, "I feel in our country, it is very important to maximise the developmental impacts of the defence expenditure. Defence expenditure in India today is Rs 1,93000 crores.

"So, the amount of money that we are spending on defence which is absolutely essential for external security have to be looked at from the point of view of maximising the developmental impact", he said.