To let younger officers take charge, 1800 ranks in services to be upgraded

Days after the defiant service chiefs were forced to fall in line and issue the pay hike notification on October 1, the Cabinet tomorrow is scheduled to implement the second batch of recommendations of the Ajay Vikram Singh Committee and upgrade ranks of 1,896 serving officers.

The rationale: to bring down age profile of officers at the command, operational level and improve promotion prospects of junior officers.

While the first set of recommendations dealing with promotional avenues for Non-Select Ranks (Lt Colonel and below) was implemented in 2004, the current proposal of Defence Secretary Vijay Singh deals with upgradation of officer cadre in the three services, a reduction in the regular cadre with a corresponding increase in the cadre of Short Service Commissioned (SSC) officers.

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We have objections, put pay hike on hold: 3 service chiefs again

Raising fresh objections to the Sixth Pay panel notification after the Cabinet cleared it on August 14, the three chiefs of the Armed Forces, in an unprecedented move, have written to Defence Minister A K Antony that implementation for officer ranks be “held in abeyance” until their objections are addressed.

Earlier, they had raised two broad objections: higher salary for Personnel Below Officer Ranks (PBORs) and parity with civil servants for officer ranks. While thanking the government for hiking salaries of PBORs, they claim the disparity has only increased between service officers and their civil service counterparts.

Their objections:

•Disparity in Pay Bands: The chiefs claim the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) moved the Director rank into Pay Band 4 but retained Lt. Col and its equivalent in other services in Pay Band 3. Earlier, they claim, a Lt. Col got the same pay as an IAS Director and Rs 800 more than a non-IAS Director. Now he gets Rs 14000 less than an IAS director and Rs 11000 less than a non-IAS director.

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