New Delhi, October 2
After agreeing to look into the demands of the armed forces over parity in pay hikes, another bonanza awaits them as the UPA government is all set to put its formal stamp of approval on the A.V. Singh Committee report which has recommended the creation of more senior-level posts in the three services to improve promotional avenues and remove stagnation.
The matter is listed for approval at tomorrow’s weekly meeting of the Union Cabinet. The government had accepted the report some time ago, but it had not been implemented as it was awaiting a formal nod from the Cabinet. Just last month, defence minister A.K. Antony had admitted that senior-level promotions in the armed forces had been “unduly delayed”, but had assured the services that the Centre intended to implement the second part of the A.V. Singh Committee report at the earliest.
If the report is implemented without any changes, the Army will get 95 more posts of Major-General and above, the Air Force will have 38 more slots of Air Vice Marshal and above while the Navy’s will get 23 more posts of rear Admirals and Vice-Admirals. The first part of the committee report which dealt with quicker promotions up to the rank of Colonel and equivalent was accepted in 2004 while the second part of the report contains recommendations on the promotion of officers between ranks of Brigadier to Lt-General, and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force.
According to the report, the Army will see a quantum jump of 222 new posts of Brigadiers while the Navy will get a combined total of 324 posts for Captain and Commodore, and the Air Force around 476 new posts of Air Commodore and Group Captain.
The Centre hopes the implementation of these proposals will help stem the steady exodus of middle-level officers from the armed forces. It is estimated that the three services get as many as 1,000 applications from officers seeking premature retirement while the number of fresh recruits is steadily decreasing. “The idea is to make the services more attractive,” remarked a senior UPA minister.
The Centre’s on promotions comes at a time when it was virtually locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the chiefs of the three services over parity of pay scales of the armed forces. The government quickly set up a three-member panel headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee to look into their grievances after the chiefs decided not to accept the implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations.
While the service chiefs came in for criticism for their show of defiance, defence minister Antony subsequently admitted that their concerns are genuine and the problems and anomalies pointed out by the armed forces would be looked into by the government.
