The procurement of 59,000 bullet proof jackets for central police forces is under cloud for the second time following complaints of alleged violations of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in testing the jackets.
Days before supply order of the jackets is scheduled to be completed (by April 30), a particular vendor has written to the Home Minister and senior Home Ministry officials to launch an inquiry into alleged irregularities in testing of the jackets and the "vindictive approach" of the testing laboratory against it.

"As we have been witness to the trial process on our BPJ samples, we will be able to show you the discrepancies if the unedited photo and video recordings are viewed in chronological order by the committee in our presence," the vendor claimed in its letter as it refused to be identified.
The government informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that there was a shortage of 8,71,21 bulletproof jackets in central para-military forces like Assam Rifles, BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB and NSG.
“The reason for the shortfall in BP jackets is due to delayed finalisation of the current tender which was initiated in July 2009," Minister of state for Home M Ramachandran told the lower house.
It is expected that the supply order would be issued within this month and supplies would be received in a staggered manner over the next eight months, he said.

This is for the second time that the trials of the life saving jackets for thousands of para-military jawans and officials are coming under scanner.
The government had earlier cancelled the initial test results in November last year after the "integrity of the testing process had been vitiated by the activities of the chief scientist of the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory (TBRL)" in Chandigarh.

A re-trial of the life saving jackets was then ordered under the instructions of Home Minister P Chidambaram and the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) under the chairmanship of Director General Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) and a Tender Advisory Committee (TAC) under DG CRPF was asked to maintain "strict vigilance and ensure scrupulous adherence to the terms and conditions of the tender."
The testing process for the samples was completed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) on March 31 this year.