The ministry of defence (MoD) has not yet accorded its permission to the Indian Army to abandon the current promotions policy of segregating top Army officers (major generals and lieutenant-generals) into staff and command streams, defence sources have said.
As reported earlier by this newspaper, the Army wants to revert back to the “single stream policy” that it was following prior to 2009. Defence sources said the government would engage in deliberations before deciding whether to give permission to the Army to revert back to the “single stream policy”.
The Indian Army top brass was keen that this segregation in streams should be done away with, starting from the promotion board for general-rank officers that was held in January this year on the grounds that this was leading to anguish among some of its top officers who were selected in the staff stream in the past two years. But the government wants to evaluate all aspects before taking a decision.
The Army had also proposed other changes, such as increasing weightage for performance of officers in the previous rank as well while deciding on promotions, and including any weightage for “distinguished awards” received by officers in the five percent value judgement component in promotion boards (instead of the 95 per cent computerised component) while deciding on promotions.
The MoD may seek certain clarifications from the Army on why the Army wants to go back on a promotion policy introduced just two years ago. During the tenure of the previous Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor, the Army had decided to introduce this segregation which was made effective from January 1, 2009. Staff positions refer to administrative duties while command positions refers to the command of various Army Corps and Commands (for lieutenant generals) and Divisions (for major generals). Sources said the Army is keen on a new policy wherein all its general-rank officers would be eligible for command positions. Under the existing policy, officers selected for staff positions cannot aspire to command the Indian Army’s Divisions, Corps and Commands.
Incidentally, the Army has also recently granted permanent commission to 18 lady officers in the Army Education Corps. The Army is also yet to take a decision on granting permanent commission to women officers in other streams beyond streams such as the Army Education Corps and the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch.