MoD okay with fewer permanent officers

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 20

Faced with a growing salary budget, the Indian Army has moved a proposal to the Ministry of Defence to increase the intake of officers under Short Service Commission (SSC) and correspondingly reduce the number of permanent commission or regular commissioned officers.

The MoD is okay with implementing the plan in phases to increase the SSC officer intake by “sweetening” the terms of employment for those who serve for either 10 years or 14 years in the Army. Sources have confirmed to The Tribune that a phased plan is in the works.

At present, the ratio between permanent commission and SSC is 4:1. The Ajai Vikram Singh Committee (AVSC) envisaged a ratio of 1:1.1 between full-time regular officers and the support cadre, largely from the SSC. The move comes almost 10 years after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in October 2008 approved a reduction in regular cadre.

The MoD is likely to agree to pay a lumpsum grant to SSC officers. The proposal is to allow two-month salary for each year of service for those completing 10 years and four-month salary for each year of service for completing 14 years.

Then there is professional training to equip these youth for jobs once they leave service. The Army has suggested a year’s study course for those completing 10 years and two-year study course for those working for 14 years. This will include professional courses.

The second phase of the plan includes giving ex-servicemen status and medical treatment facility as admissible to regular officers.

An SSC officer ideally retires between 30 and 34 years of age, while a regular commissioned officer, even if he does not go beyond the Colonel rank, serves till 54 years of age.

With these officers going out of the Army in the prime of their youth, the Army has asked the MoD to work out a plan with other ministries to allow them to take competitive civil services examinations in respective states or at the Centre. In the budget this fiscal ending March 31, 2019, salaries of the three services and civilians work out to Rs 1,18,966 crore — almost 40 per cent of the budget — and another 1.08 lakh crore is the pension bill. In other words, salaries and pensions take up more money than what is allocated for modernisation. Having SSC officers will reduce this burden.

The Ministry of Defence had set up the AVSC in 2001. The report was implemented in two phases — in 2004 and 2008. Another set of recommendations on faster promotions and increase in posts at Colonel rank and above has been implemented. Ajai Vikram Singh was a former Defence Secretary.