Form of words:
New Delhi: with pension and salary biggest cost factor In the defense budget, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) is in the process of finalizing the increase in the retirement age and parity between various officer ranks in the three services.
Once these changes are brought in, the concept of re-employment in the armed forces will also subside, sources in the defense and security establishment told ThePrint. shortage of officers will also reduce
Sources said that work is also on to change the responsibilities of the re-employed so that the re-employed officers can work at the same level as their rank, and not the current practice in which the officer draws the salary of his rank, his responsibilities are of a much lower rank. .
Sources said the increase in pension and salary bills has been a cause of concern as it means that while the defense budget is bigger in terms of numbers, the actual money spent on modernization is less.
India earlier this year had emerged as world’s third largest Defense spending after the US and China. India has overtaken Russia, on which it is heavily dependent for defense equipment.
Sources said the main issue is on the ‘Colonel’ rank as the three services have different retirement ages, the Indian Air Force has two different retirement ages depending on whether one is a ‘flying branch’. ‘ from or not.
In the Army, an officer of the rank of Colonel retires at the age of 54. In the Navy, his counterpart, a Captain, retires at the age of 56. In IAF, his counterpart is a Group Captain. If a Group Captain is from the ‘Flying Branch’, he retires at the age of 54, while all non-flying Group Captains retire at the age of 56.
Similarly, while a Brigadier in the Army and a Commodore in the Navy retire at the age of 56, his counterpart in the IAF (Air Commodore) has a retirement age of 56 and 58 years, respectively, depending on whether he is flying branch or not. Or not.
While a Major-General-rank officer retires in the Army at the age of 58, Rear Admirals in the Navy retire at the age of 58 and the retirement age for Air Vice Marshals is 59 years.
Read also: MS Dhoni, Anand Mahindra named in 15-member Defense Ministry panel to review NCC
Ensuring Uniformity in Services
“The biggest problem is at the rank of colonel within the army as their retirement age is very early. On an annual basis, a total of about 1,000 officers retire or retire. Most of them are usually of the rank of lieutenant colonel and colonel, apart from the brigadier. Many of them also apply for reappointment which is usually taken for granted,” said a defense source.
Explaining further, the source said that when a colonel or brigadier is re-employed, the responsibility given to him is at least two ranks below.
“Every year, there is a vacancy of nine Brigadiers in BSF. When a Brigadier joins the BSF, he is posted as a DIG, which is generally considered equivalent to a Brigadier. He draws the salary of a Brigadier and works only as a Brigadier. In the Army, brigadiers are given responsibilities that are actually given to a lieutenant colonel-rank officer in staff duties,” the source said.
The idea of the DMA, headed by General Bipin Rawat, is to ensure that even if there is re-employment, the force makes the most of the process by ensuring that officers continue to function at the same level.
Also, normalizing the retirement age for all the three services will ensure that there is uniformity and take care of the reduction in the number of officers.
A DMA note in October last year Proposed New Retirement and Pension Policy had caused serious resentment in the military, with indications that all three services were not on board.
However, then the major concern was the proposed changes to the pension eligibility of premature release (PMR) seekers.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
Read also: Army taps Bengaluru-based firm for special sites in use with forces abroad
subscribe our channel youtube And Wire
Why is the news media in crisis and how can you fix it?
India needs free, unbiased, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it is facing many crises.
But the news media itself is in trouble. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism are shrinking, yielding to raw prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the best young journalists, columnists and editors to work for it. Smart and thinking people like you will have to pay a price to maintain this quality of journalism. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can Here.