This is one casket that might get a premature burial. The Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), Pune, which had been asked to develop aluminium caskets to fit Indian parameters in 2004, delivered the goods a year later. It also developed nylon body bags alongside to fit Indian requirements. However, with the Centre putting off a decision on using them, the effort threatens to go waste.

It is seemingly immaterial that the cost stands reduced to less than one-third the rate at which the foreign version was imported during the Kargil war or that it is relatively lightweight and easy to stack. Even the prototype of the nylon fabric body bags, critical in war zones and disaster-hit areas, has been ready for use for the last four years and awaits the Defence Ministry’s approval.

It was barely two months ago, on August 22, that the CBI chargesheet in the 2002 Coffingate scam named three Indian Army officials and a US company while exonerating then defence minister George Fernandes. The scam pertained to the alleged conspiracy related to import of overpriced, substandard aluminium caskets and body bags for Indian soldiers who died on the battlefield. It is this scam which led to the Research and Development Establishment being asked to make aluminium caskets as per Indian requirements.

The casket, weighing only 42 kg, even lighter than the originally targeted 45 kg and coming at a competitive price tag of around Rs 40,000, was designed, developed as per Ministry specifications and submitted in October 2005 to the Indian Army. The R&DE is still awaiting a response, since the casket, and body bags, have great potential for civilian use, especially in strife-torn areas — the Naxal strike in Gadchiroli being a good example.

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