The government issued a new order last week lowering the status of military officers with respect to their civilian counterparts in the Armed Forces Head Quarters (AFHQ). The decision could trigger further resentment in the military, which is already miffed with the government over Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.
In a letter dated October 18, 2016, the Joint Secretary E/CAO, dealing with recruitment and provisioning of civilians in the Defence Ministry, has defined the rank equation between civilian officer and serving military officer based on duties and functional responsibilities. As per that, a Principal Director is equivalent to a Major General, A Director is equivalent to a Brigadier and a Joint Director is equivalent to a Colonel.
Earlier a Colonel was considered equivalent to a Director and so on.
Giving the basis for the clarification, the order states that there have been several letters from some directorates, “questioning the established rank equations by relying on unverified and incorrect information on the subject.”
It states, “A common presumption in these communications is a pay determined rank, which is erroneous as a different pay and rank structure exists for the armed forces.”
The order says that the above rank equation has to be followed… in assigning duties/ functional responsibilities and for all purposes such as channel of reporting, detailing of officer to training courses, providing stenographic assistance etc.
“This has the approval of Hon’ble Raksha Mantri,” the order reads in the end.
Several Army officers have expressed dismay at the lowering in the status through the reinterpretation. “The instructions downgrade the status of service officers to levels even lower than Group B services officers,” said an officer.
Selection grade Colonels have now been equated with a promotee Jt Directors, who have just 5 years of Group A service, said an officer. A Colonel, on the contrary, has 20 years of service experience. In addition Colonel and above ranks are selected based on promotion boards and less than half the officer cadre makes the cut from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel rank.
All this has been done by throwing aside various parameters for establishing equivalence like Warrant of Precedence, Pay Scales, years of service in particular class/grade and various judgements by Courts of Law, reports of various Pay Commissions and report of Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee that was constituted vide PMO Note dated September 27, 2008, another officer said.
