Rajnath approves reform of Army headquarters

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday initiated re-organisation of the Army headquarters by transferring out 206 officers to field units and setting up two dedicated divisions to deal with complaints of corruption as well as human rights issues.

The officers to be moved out of the Army HQ includes three Major Generals, eight Brigadiers, nine Colonels and 186 Lt Col and Major rank officers.

The move, sources said, were meant for providing more experience to the field units that function with approximately 50% less number of officers, sanctioned for such formations.
The MoD decision comes days after an internal Indian Army survey came up with a surprising findings that nearly 10% of Army officers had never been posted in a Class-A city in their career, while there are many others who spent majority of their postings in such cities.

In the internal study carried out by the Military Secretary branch, more than 4,000 officers have been identified who never got a posting in a Class-A or metropolitan city. Following the survey, the Army posted nearly 300 officers in big cities and prepared a waiting list for others.

Singh also cleared establishment of an umbrella outfit under the Vice Chief of the Army Staff to deal with the human rights issue. The Army is often at the receiving end of human rights violation particularly in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East.

The new human rights section will be headed by an Additional Director General (Major General rank officer), who would report to the Vice Chief.

“It will be the nodal point to examine any HR violation reports. To enhance transparency and ensure the best of investigative expertise is available to the section, a Police officer of senior Superintendent of Police or Superintendent of Police rank will be taken on deputation,” a defence ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
A separate vigilance cell under the Army Chief with representation from all the three services will also be created.

The ADG (Vigilance) will be placed directly under the Army Chief. It will have three Colonel-level officers from the army, air force and navy. But no additional posts are to be created as the new officers will come from the existing cadre.

The Army headquarters has proposed several other reorganisation measures with the twin purpose of improving the teeth-to-tail ratio and reducing its salary bills.

According to the reorganisation plan prepared on the basis of four internal studies, the Army plans to reduce around 20% of the officer posts at the headquarters, merge two agencies on weapons and systems procurement and create a new post of a deputy chief post for co-ordination between the military intelligence, operations and logistics wings.