Row mars MES cadre review: Storekeepers above engineers

Vijay Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 9

Cadre reviews undertaken in the Military Engineer Service recently have kicked up a controversy with the Barrack and Store (BS) cadre being upgraded to Group-A status while the mainstay technical cadres like engineers and architecture cadres continue to remain in Group B.

Several representations sent to the Ministry of Defence and Army Headquarters have pointed out that a “preferential treatment” had been given to the BS cadre while ignoring the claims of engineer cadre. This, according to affected officers, was “humiliating and discriminatory”.

The MES, which functions under the control of the Engineer-in-Chief at Army Headquarters, is one of largest construction and maintenance agencies in India with a total annual budget of about Rs 14,000 crore. It is responsible for creating infrastructure like office and residential accommodation, docks, airfields, hospitals and other structures for operational use. Besides army personnel drawn from the Corps of Engineers, it also has a large civilian component of engineer, surveyor, architect, BS administrative and stenographer cadres. MES officers said the BS cadre comprises close to 300 officers, the senior most of which was equivalent to a lieutenant colonel/colonel. Following the cadre review, a new post of Joint Director General (Resources) has been created. This cadre is responsible for store management, accounting and revenue collection.

The strength of the engineer cadre comprising junior engineers and assistant engineers in Group-B has been fixed at 8,375 after the third cadre review issued in January this year. All critical appointments in the MES such as zonal chief engineer, commander works engineer and garrison engineer, who are responsible for planning and execution of works, are from the engineer cadre, the highest ranking officer of which the director general (personnel) is equivalent to lieutenant general.

Affected officers said granting Group-A status to a cadre in which a number of personnel have been promoted from lower rungs of store-keepers, meter-readers etc while ignoring technical posts is volatile of constitutional provisions and established law. 

‘Disparity to affect functioning’

• It has been alleged that a preferential treatment has been given to the Barrack and Store cadre in its first cadre review 
• Their status has been upgraded and grade pay raised from Rs 4,600 to Rs 5,400 while ignoring claims of engineer cadre
• Affected officers have raised questions over the way the BS cadre has been upgraded and additional posts created
• They say the disparity would adversely impact functional paradigm in MES and create administrative tussles