The Army’s top brass is upset with the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) move to create two senior civilian positions to look after engineering projects in army commands responsible for both Pakistan and China borders.
Army sources said the decision was taken by the MoD unilaterally without taking the Army leadership into confidence. Ministry sources said they were going ahead with implementation of the decision.
The MoD recently issued orders, with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s approval, to create the new posts of Additional Director General (ADG) for both Udhampur-based Northern Command and Kolkata-based Eastern Command. Most engineering projects in the two commands would now be administered by the newly appointed ADGs, whose offices are not to be based in command headquarters but in Jammu and Guwahati.
As a consequence, Command Chief Engineers, who now look after all engineering and construction projects, will be merely responsible for engineering regiments. Key projects such as construction of forward military bases, facilities for the new Strike Corps against China, and modernisation of Advanced Landing Grounds along the China border will come under the civilian officer, because Military Engineering Service (MES) offices and Chief Construction Engineers (CCE) will report to the civilian ADG.
A senior Army officer called it a disruption of the military’s functioning and said the Army leadership had made a representation to the Ministry, following which a temporary hold was put on the orders.
When contacted, a senior Defence Ministry official said, “The decision was taken at the level of the Defence Minister and so all concerned would have been taken on board.” He said there was no hold on the orders issued.
In an October 13 order, MoD Under Secretary Anurag Sharma wrote to the Engineer-in-Chief of the military, “The competent authority has decided to create a post of ADG (North) by suppressing the post of ADG (D&C) Pune with headquarters at Jammu to look after the work services and infrastructure projects pertaining to Army and Air Force in the geographical jurisdiction of Northern Command (Army).” The newly created ADG (North) will be “responsible for overall monitoring and supervision of all MES works in the Northern Sector under all Chief Engineers Zones (Army and Air Force) and CCE of Northern Command.”
The order also said the newly created ADG (North) will directly report to the Engineer-in-Chief, and not to the Command Chief Engineer. “This issues with the approval of the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri,” the order said.
A similar order was issued on October 17 for the Eastern Army Command.
‘Not consulted’“None of the stakeholders were taken into confidence, neither the Engineer-in-Chief, nor the chiefs of the three services, nor the Army commanders,” a senior Army officer said.
He pointed out that there was a “great deal” of coordination between the MES and Corps of Engineers in the command areas in executing strategic projects. “Now that they are splitting the command authority, it could lead to serious coordination issues and ego clashes,” he explained.
Several projects are taken up by Engineering Regiments and MES border jointly, including putting up operation shelters.
For years now, other tensions have simmered. Civilians get promoted to only staff appointments beyond the rank of Zonal Chief Engineers. And they have regularly petitioned the government about ‘discrimination’. The new ADG posts might have been devised to address the issue.
Tensions between civilians and military engineers increased after the 6th Pay Commission recommendations were implemented in 2008. Junior civilian officers got better perks, such as business class tickets and better pay bands, than military officers senior to them.
