A huge New Year bonanza awaits the armed forces with Defence Ministry issuing the mandatory instructions to increase the number of General-rank officers in the Army, Navy and the Air Force by this year end.
The instructions were issued recently on the basis of a Cabinet decision in October this year to implement the phase
II of the Ajai Vikram Singh Committee recommendations for cadre restructuring in the forces, allowing for greater
promotional avenues for officers.
"The instructions are to give a break down of the number of posts cleared by the Cabinet while accepting the second
part of the AVSC report. A good number of the new General-rank posts will be created before the New Year," Defence Ministry sources said in Delhi on Wednesday.
The Cabinet had approved 1,896 new posts in the three defence forces at the top-level from Army Colonels to Lieutenant Generals and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force. The implementation of the Phase-II of the AVSC report would cost the government exchequer Rs 8.44 crore annually.
The decision was also aimed at stemming the high rate of attrition in the three services, which already faced a shortage of about 13,000 officers.
It would also reduce the "flab" in the middle rungs from Majors to Lt Colonels in the army and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force.
Under the proposal, the army will get about 1,051 new posts upgraded in select ranks and it will be implemented over
a five-year period. The upgraded or created posts included 20 Lt Generals, 75 Major Generals, 222 Brigadiers and 734 Colonels.
The Navy, on the other hand, would get 342 posts of Commanders upgraded to select grade ranks from within the authorised strength of the Indian Navy. But this would be done over 10 years.
The Cabinet had approved the creation of four new Vice Admiral, 14 Rear Admiral and 324 Commodore and Captain ranks under the AVSC report.
The Air Force too would get 503 new posts by restructuring of the officer cadre of select ranks over a five-year period. That would comprise of six Air Marshals, 21 Air Vice Marshals, 61 Air Commodore and 415 Group Captains.
With the armed forces not attracting enough talent in recent times and with Pre-Mature Retirements plaguing them,
the government had set-up the committee under former Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh to suggest ways of making the services attractive as a career for the youth.
Based on the committee's recommendations for restructuring of the officer cadre, the government implemented the Phase I of the report concerning lower rungs from Captains to Lt Colonels in the Army and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force in 2004.
The new set of instructions issued by the Defence Ministry was for the Phase II of the AVSC report, sources said.
Usually, promotions and vacancies in the forces are assessed calendar-year wise and hence the decision to issue
instructions for implementing the AVSC-II scheme within this year end, sources said.
In the absence of the instructions, the new posts at the top-level would then be assessed as per next year's promotions and vacancies and hence the urgency, they added.
Though the AVSC-II implementation would provide more openings for promotions among the middle-rung officers, the total number of sanctioned posts in the forces, however, would remain the same, the sources said.
"It is basically an effort at rationalising the strength of the middle-rung officers," they added.
The instructions also included the Cabinet decision to reduce the number of permanent commissioned officers and a
corresponding increase in the number of Short Service Commission (SSC) officers and re-employed officers (for Army).
Now the SSC officer will form about 60 per cent of all officer ranks at the lower level from Lieutenant to Lieutenant
Colonels, a jump from the existing 40 percent.
