Military-civilian rank parity soon, promises Centre
NEW DELHI: Thegovernmenthas assured the military that any disparity in rank structure of its officers with those in civil administration will be removed, slipping into damage control after a defence ministry letter downgraded status of soldiers.
Discrepancy, if any, would be corrected in a week, defence ministermanoharparrikarsaid on Tuesday, a day after hindustantimes.com broke the story about the changes in rank equation that has the military fuming. The ministry conveyed the changed norms in an October 18 letter. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a naval commanders’ conference, the minister said, “Military officers willbeonsameplatformastheir civilian counterparts.”
The letter, signed by a joint secretary, said the government had decided on the norms after going through the orders issued by the forces during 2003-08. The letter had Parrikar’s approval.
A civilian principal director, who was equivalent to a brigadier, has been equated to a majorgeneral,adirector-ranked officer to a brigadier and a joint director to a colonel.
Till now, a major general was on par with a joint secretary and a colonel’s civil administration counterpart was a director. A lieutenant colonel, earlier equivalent to a joint director, has been scaled down to a deputy director.
Therankequationisfollowed whileassigningduties,itdecides the channel of reporting, plays a role when officers are sent for training courses and also determinesperkssuchasstenographic and secretarial assistance. Parrikar said he had sought details of the October 18 letter and previous circulars as well.
“Rank equation has gone wonky. It’s high time the governmentsetthingsrightandrestore the status of defence officers,” said brigadier Pradeep Sharma (retired). Parrikar will scrutinise the orders to detect anomalies that threaten to widen the civil-military divide against the backdrop of the armed forces concerns over seventh pay commissionreportandtheonerankone pension (OROP) scheme.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that the status of armed forces has been progressively diluted over last few years. This creates bad blood between the civilian and military services, which is best avoided,” said brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retired).
Several serving officers HT spoke to said the orders mentioned in the letter were only for internal management.
“What should be taken note of is whether the government is ready to act quickly or not,” Parrikar said. “When the seventh pay panel order was issued, there was some issue about a small paragraph. We got it removed.”