Panel report may lead to discontent: Armed forces

Ajay Banerjee 

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, October 21

 A storm is brewing in South Block, headquarters of the Ministry of Defence in the national capital. In view of the rank-parity committee’s draft, the armed forces have warned against violating “established equations”. They say it could cause “dissatisfaction” among forces and give rise to “avoidable litigation”.

The 21-page draft report of the committee headed by an additional secretary rank officer is on rank-equivalence norms between the armed forces and the civilians employed in the Armed Forces Headquarters, called the AFHQ cadre. The report has not yet been presented to the MoD. The armed forces are protesting vehemently. 

The Principal Personnel Officers Committee (PPOC), a body of the three armed forces, in a letter to the three-member committee on September 22, reiterated rank benchmarks and questioned the veracity of the documents submitted by the AFHQ cadre. The PPOC said the rank-parity claims of the AFHQ cadre are based on unsubstantiated documents largely based on a letter written by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 1968. 

“Its veracity is in serious doubt,” stated the stinging protest letter. It cites a 2007 MHA letter which clarified that no such document exists to establish equivalence between defence officers and civilians except for the warrant of precedence. The same was reiterated by the Group of Ministers’ report in 2008. The armed forces have cited that the charter of the PPOC cleared by the Union Cabinet mandates policy matters of the AFHQ cadre. 

The AFHQ officials in their presentation to the committee have disputed this Cabinet memo dated 1974 and subsequent MoD letter in 2002. The PPOC has argued that the AFHQ cadre headed by a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) has made various communications regarding status equivalence based on “nonexistent” precedence. “Gross misrepresentation seems to have been made regarding equivalence, cadre restructuring and creation of higher posts,” the letter from PPOC suggests while seeking that all such letters be examined for their appropriateness. 

Talking about ranks, it said Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs), who rise from the ranks, are mandated as gazetted ‘group B’ employees. Commissioned Officers are equal to ranks of all-India services and the IPS. 

In July, the Army had written to the MoD saying that JCOs are accorded gazetted status as per an Act of Parliament and have legally defined status. However, when posted at South Block, a JCO is issued an identity card equating him with group C, the lowest in the government employee cadre. 

Tomorrow: Helpless, despite announcements