CDS GEN BIPIN RAWAT WILL FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT OF DEFENCE BUDGET

tal expenditure for the Defence Services and the organisations/departments under Ministry of Defence. The amount of Rs 118,555 cr allocated for capital expenditure includes modernisation related expenditure.

Gen. M.M. Nravane and Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall R.K.S. Bhadauria) in the last one month, on multiple occasions, have mentioned that the Indian armed forces are fully prepared and are ready to tackle any military challenge, giving an indication that last year’s budget has been utilised by the Services, with modernisation and priority being given to operational preparedness.

One of the senior officers from the DMA, on the condition of anonymity mentioned to this reporter that the Armed forces are keeping the purchase of a lot of items like vehicles, batteries, generators, infrastructure for house-construction on the secondary list and are giving priority to the purchase of guns, infantry rifles, bullet-proof jackets, bullet-proof helmets and night vision surveillance equipment. The same officer mentioned that Gen Rawat has suggested that there is no need to keep in reserve the stocks of items that are indigenously available.

When Gen Rawat was asked about the plan to create the other items in the list like building accommodation for married officers, he replied giving credit to the current Defence Secretary, Dr Ajay Kumar for fully supporting the Army’s plan for the optimal utilisation of a portion of the massive land resources available with the Army on the new Moti Baugh model in New Delhi.

Gen Rawat also mentioned that they can easily create a fund of approximately Rs 35,000 cr with very little land utilisation on the above mentioned model in a span of seven to eight years, in seven to eight different cities in the country.

Talking about one of the biggest areas of concern for the Indian military, former Director General of Military Operation, Lt Gen (R) Vinod Bhatia said, “The rapidly increasing pension bill of the retired officers is something that the government must think and plan about.” The pension itself has gone up to Rs 134,000 cr in the financial year 2020-21. The former DGMO suggested, “Increasing the retirement age of the jawans in the Army could be one solution. One can start with the initial aim of 50+ age in the non-combat arms and 4550 in combat arms.” Just retired Triservice Chief, Lt Gen (R) Satish Dua also feels the pension bill portion of the budget takes away a large portion of the amount that can be utilised for the modernisation of the armed forces. He suggested: “Induction of trained Army jawans in the police or paramilitary services after the age of 35 could be a win-win situation for the armed forces and paramilitary and police services as they will also get trained men and women.”

When asked about the solution for the same, Gen Rawat said, “In addition to increasing the age of retirement in the Army, training and inducting more civilians in Territorial Army can reduce the salary and pension budget for the armed forces as most civilians from the Territorial Army will be ready to be deployed when the need and war like situations arise.”