Army HQ Restructuring: Rajnath Singh Approves Setting Up of Human Rights Cell, Moving 200 Officers to Field

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved various proposals aimed at restructuring and reorganising the Indian Army Headquarters in New Delhi to make the functioning of the service more efficient.

The proposals include setting up separate bodies for stringent mechanism for human rights and corruption complaints in the armed forces and also moving more than 200 officers from the Army Headquarters to field areas.

The approval has been given based on a detailed internal study conducted by the Army Headquarters.

TWO SPECIAL VIGILANCE CELLS TO BE SET UP

With an aim to enhance transparency and put in place a more stringent mechanism to look into corruption and human rights violations in the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence has approved setting up separate bodies to probe allegations of wrongdoings against officials.

Rajnath Singh has given the go ahead for setting up of these two cells that were part of the military reforms.

1.For corruption

A vigilance cell that will look into complaints of corruption and impropriety will be directly under the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). An independent vigilance cell will be made functional under the COAS.

As per the proposal, additional director general (ADG), Vigilance, will be placed directly under the COAS for this purpose, who will be a major general rank officer. It will have three colonel-level officers — one each from the Army, Air Force and Navy — to have tri-service representation.

Presently, the vigilance function for the COAS is through multiple agencies and there is no single point interface, the Ministry of Defence said.

2.For human right violations

To give high priority to observance of human rights convention and values, it has been decided to set up a special human rights section headed by ADG (major general rank officer) directly under the VCOAS (Vice Chief of the Army Staff).

It will be the nodal point to examine any human rights violation reports. To enhance transparency and ensure the best of investigative expertise is available to the section, a police officer of SSP/SP rank will be taken on deputation, the Ministry of Defence said.

OVER 200 OFFICERS TO BE MOVED TO THE FIELD FROM ARMY HQ

Rajnath Singh has given an approval for more than 200 Army officers serving at the Army Headquarters to be moved out to field areas as they are considered combat ready.

A total of 206 officers will be optimised from Army Headquarters and these officers will be made available additionally to formations/units of the field Army.

Among those who will be moving out are 186 Lieutenant Colonels, 9 Colonels, 8 Brigadiers and 3 Major Generals. The idea is to enhance leadership in filed areas and enhance its operations in forward areas.

The number is nearly 20 per cent of the strength of these officers in the Army Headquarters.

The number of officers -till the rank of Colonel- currently at the Army Headquarters is around 1,000 to 1,100.
“It was felt that combat worthy officers who are serving in the Army Headquarters should be in field units,” a Ministry of Defence official said.

The decision comes amidst heightened hostilities with Pakistan after and frequent skirmishes at the Line of Control (LoC).

However, officials said the current situation is not a trigger for the decision as the proposal was part of four studies conducted by the Army for a leaner and more efficient force. One of the studies included restructuring of the Army Headquarters.

“Field units had been operating with only 50 per cent requirement of officers. While around 25 officers are considered ideal, they have been functioning with only 10 to 12 officers,” an Army official said.

Less number of fighting officers on the front to lead the soldiers had been a long standing demand of the Army.

It’s the officers who lead the men in combat, so having more of them with field units will definitely enhance operational capabilities, sources said.

OTHER PROPOSALS

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has been pushing for reforms in the Army to make it more efficient and finally after 12 such studies on the subject — the first one done in 1975 under General Krishna Rao — the Army will adopt and implement the recommendations of the recent one.

The government has also accepted the recommendation for a new Deputy Chief of Army Staff Strategy to deal with operational and force planning. The office will have military operations, military intelligence, strategic planning and the newly created information warfare branches under it. A final approval for this is yet to come though.

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Source: IT

Image Courtesy: Mid Day

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