Sainik Restaurant, a popular joint located in the heart of cantonment area in Colaba, offers an excellent view - you can actually see warships idling in the water as you sip your coffee.

The view, however, can be unnerving to the trained eyes of a defence personell. What he sees is a chink in the armour - an excellent opportunity to take photographs of war vessels and also to mingle with defence personnel, who frequent this restaurant.

M&G area's administrative officer in a letter 35/6/SR/EST to the civilian contractor, who runs the canteen, warned him about the presence of some foreigners in the restaurant on February 27, 1997. Foreigners are not allowed in the restaurant located in an area marked `sensitive'.

What adds to the security risk is the fact that the restaurant is being run by a civilian contractor, on whom the defence establishment has little control.

Colonel M P Choudhary (retd), a war veteran, told Express Newsline that the security risk posed by Sainik was brought to the notice of GOC-C, Southern Command, at a meeting at Pune on February 7, 1996. But it fell on deaf ears. ``I was told by the then GOC that there were 28,000 ex-servicemen dependent on the canteen and also that it would be difficult to find such quality food at such cheap rates,'' says Choudhary. The canteen is only a few hundred meters from the Signal Centre. With sophisticated wireless signal interception equipment openly available in the market, it should cause some concern to the authorities.

The need of a restaurant in the sensitive area is also debatable. The United Services Club, catering to the needs of service officers and ex-servicemen is located nearby and the naval officers' and sailors' mess are also a short distance away.

While officials maintain that the Sainik Restaurant was opened with the intention to cater to servicemen and ex-servicemen visiting the Station Canteen and hospital at reasonable rates, very few junior commissioned officers and jawans are seen there during the day time. ``I have visited the restaurant and found more civilians visiting the place than servicemen. The rates are so high that an officers will think twice before entering the restaurant, leave alone JCOs and jawans,'' said a retired colonel.

Strategically located on the crossroad near Afgan Church, what today is Sainik Restaurant earlier housed the office of the deputy director NCC. Though officials could not confirm, it is believed that the Military Engineer's Office (MEO) had once pointed out to the M&G area that such use of a government building was improper and if the building was surplus to the requirement of the army it could be handed over back to the MEO.

A defence spokesman, however pleaded ignorance about foreigners' presence at Sainik. Officials, however maintained that the restaurant was very popular with defence personnel.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.