MoD abolishes 9,300 posts in Military Engineering Service

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7

In a major cost-cutting and restructuring of the British-era created Military Engineering Service (MES), the Ministry of Defence has decided to abolish more than 9,300 posts.

Posts getting vacated on the retirement of existing staff will not be filled-up with fresh recruitment, said an official.

These many posts cost a sum of Rs 300 crore to the exchequer per annum by way of salaries. The cascading effect of the increase in the Dearness Allowance (DA), pension liability etc. are not included in this sum.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the proposal of Engineer-in-Chief of the MES for optimisation of more than 9,300 posts in the basic and industrial workforce. “The proposal of abolition 9,304 posts in the MES out of the total 13,157 vacancies of the basic and industrial staff has been approved,” the MoD said.

“It is in line with the recommendations of the Committee of Experts, headed by Lt General DB Shekatkar, which had recommended measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance defence expenditure of the armed forces”, a spokesperson of the MoD said.

One of the recommendations made by the committee was to restructure the civilian workforce in a manner that the work of the MES could be partly done by departmentally employed staff and other works could be outsourced.

In 1881, the British carved out the Military Works branch out of the PWD and transferred it to the Military Department. The Military Works Services headed by a Director General came into being in 1889. The MES was organised into its present structure after 1947.

Sources said the normal maintenance of military infrastructure would be carried out by private agencies.

The Shekatkar panel listed 99 points for structural changes in the Army — cutting flab and reducing revenue (maintenance) expenditure. The MoD, in 2017, accepted 65 of 99 suggestions. Off these 65, some are pending for implementation.

Panel recommendations

Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had set up the Lt General DB Shekatkar committee. It suggested how to enhance combat potential of the forces and rebalancing expenses. It listed steps to trim, redeploy and integrate manpower. It suggested expenses “could be cut by Rs25,000 crore over five years”. These many posts cost a sum of Rs300 crore to the exchequer per annum just by way of salaries.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.