A day after the Opposition parties urged the Centre to scrap the VVIP chopper deal, the Ministry of Defence has initiated action for cancellation of contract for procurement of 12 helicopters.

The Ministry issued a formal show cause notice to the AgustaWestland of UK seeking cancellation of contract and taking other punitive actions as per the terms of the contract and the integrity pact signed between the Ministry and the company.

The Ministry had put on hold further payments to the company on Wednesday. “With today’s show cause notice, the operation of the contract has been put on hold. The company has been asked to reply to the notice in seven days,” a release from the Government said.

Speaking to newspersons, Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom J. Bhagwati said that the UK had sent an interim response to India on the issue. “It is an interim response as the UK wants to wait till the investigation is completed in Italy before responding to the Indian inquiry,” the High Commissioner said.

Asked if India was satisfied with the interim response, the spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry said that no one is ever satisfied with an interim response, without going into specifics.

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