Defence Notes
New Delhi, 13 August 2007
Higher Allowances
BUT A LOT MORE NEEDED
By Col.
(Retd.) P. K. Vasudeva, Phd.
The Union
Government has brought cheer to soldiers keeping vigil in the icy- cold
Himalayan heights by enhancing their high-altitude allowance four-fold and
giving them more travel facilities to visit their loved ones back home.
It has
granted a “Kargil allowance” to soldiers posted at high altitudes as a part of
various measures to reduce psychological
stress and the spate of suicides in the ranks. The
allowance comes 8 years after the Kargil war, for posts created or re-occupied
by the army.
According
to experts, long absences from the family alongwith dangers encountered when
they are engaged in patrolling and counter-insurgency operations put enormous
strain on the soldiers, pushing some of them to commit suicide. Some of them do
not get sleep for four days in a week.
According to Defence Ministry
figures some 120 soldiers posted on the 6,300-metre (20,800-foot) high Siachen
glacier, the world’s highest battlefield, and in the mountainous regions of Jammu and Kashmir
committed suicide in 2006 and over 600 since 2003.
The other reason for the increase in
the allowances is the shortage of officers who are overstretched because of
their heavy commitments. Official figures
peg the shortfall of officers in the army alone at a shocking 24.1 per cent.
Bluntly, the army is short by 11238 officers against an authorization of 46615.
While the
measure has been cheered by the army, it is also an acknowledgement by the
Government of the harsh Siachen Glacier-like conditions over long stretches of
the border in which soldiers have to man isolated posts. Notwithstanding, Indo-Pak
talk on pulling out troops from Siachen, the increase in the allowances means that
the military is preparing to harden the J&K border.
There is no gainsaying, that the
new policy of compensating soldiers in difficult areas, recognises positions
located at heights between 14,000 ft and 19,000 ft as hardship posts. The
allowance would be Rs 5,600 a month for officers and Rs 3,734 per month for
personnel below that rank. The earlier allowance ranged between Rs 270 and Rs
1,600 per month for officers and men respectively.
The new scheme and an earlier
decision to equip soldiers in Kargil, Dras, Mushkoh and Batalik in Kashmir,
some sectors in Sikkim and Arunachal with “Siachen-like” uniforms and
equipment, has made the spectre of “Siachenisation” that had hung over the Line
of Control (LoC) now a reality.
The posts in the Ladakh region (excluding
Siachen) and the sectors in Sikkim
and Arunachal Pradesh would take at least four mountain divisions (68,000
troops approximately) to be manned.
Additionally,
soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency operations are now eligible for two free
railway warrants a year against one as of now. Armed Forces personnel can now
also travel to a station of their choice without any restrictions on mileage.
This follows various representations made to Antony during his tours to forward
areas in the North-east, J&K and Siachen.
Till date the Government was
following laws made under the British that restricted travel by service
personnel only to distances of 1,420 km. Ironically, the original rules were
enacted to allow British nationals in India
to travel to Mumbai to board ships bound for England.
Moreover, the Fifth Pay Commission implemented from 1997 onwards, saw an increase
in the allowances compared to the Fourth Pay Commission.
The flying allowance, for instance, has been hiked from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 7,000
a month for pilots in the ranks of squadron leaders to group captains, flying
officers and equivalent receive Rs. 4,500, flight lieutenants and equivalents
Rs. 3,500 and the air commodores and equivalent
receive Rs. 5,500.
A similar increase has been implemented for the
personnel of submarine and aviation units of the Indian Navy. This has been
done because a large number of pilots and submarine mariners are taking
premature retirement to join the greener pastures of civil airlines and ships
respectively.
Recall, the pay package initially recommended by
the Fifth Pay Commission had not been implemented due to misgivings in the
services over risk-related allowances especially, allowances paid to pilots,
submariners, and soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency operations or those
serving in extremely difficult high altitude areas such as Siachen and Kargil.
Personnel engaged in counter-insurgency operations received Rs. 1,000 to Rs.
3,900 a month depending on their ranks and the risks.
However, the allowances for officers and men
posted on the Siachen glacier, and for those engaged in counter-insurgency
operations were left untouched by the UnionCabinet last week as these would be
reviewed by the Sixth Pay Commission.
Be that as it may, a
lot more needs to be done to make the Armed Forces more attractive. The Parliamentary
Standing Committee for Defence in its 11th report has suggested, “Constitution
of a high-level empowered committee for restructuring the Forces in order to make
optimum use of limited resources and to suggest trimming with a corresponding
increase in the use of sophisticated technology.” The Committee in its 15th
report lamented that these
suggestion had been totally ignored by the Ministry.
Needless
to say, by rationalising the rank structure, shedding organisational flab and reducing
the shortage of officers would enhance the attractiveness
of an army career. The Government has also referred its proposal to increase the
retirement age of regimental commissioned
officers to a group of ministers. It needs to be remembered that thousands of
troops have been battling Islamic guerrillas in J&K since 1989. They have
also been locked in jungle warfare with tribal and ethnic rebels in six of India's
seven insurgency-riven North-eastern states.
In sum, even as the troops have
appreciated the short-term measure of the enhancement of high altitude
allowances but it is only a drop in the ocean. It cannot compensate hazardous
and life threatening conditions and long separations of soldiers from their
families. If the country wants that physically fit and mentally alert youth
come forward to join the Armed Forces, the service conditions and poor pay and
allowances have to be improved substantially. There
should be an exclusive sixth pay commission
for them. ---- INFA
(Copyright India News and
Feature Alliance)
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