The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence today decided to call the three service chiefs to give an account of the state of preparedness of the forces against the backdrop of Army Chief General V K Singh speaking of shortages and deficiencies.

Quoting sources, PTI reported that the decision to call the Chiefs of Army, IAF and Navy before it on April 20, is part of an exercise to understand the issue of defence preparedness as the panel was examining the budgetary proposals of the Defence Ministry for 2012-13. The sources said the date for appearance could be adjusted to ensure that all the three Chiefs are available on the same day.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Committee which also heard Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma confirming that the army did not need to notify the government on their movements and that the exercise of January 16-17 reported in the media, was a routine drill.