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Saturday, July 27, 2013

Fauj can wait but others don’t have to…..

Since about 2008, the Chief of Staffs Committee (COSC) and also the Services HQ independently have been pressing upon the govt to resolve the anomalies afflicting various cadres of the defence services.

Principal amongst the demands have been the restoration of the lost status of military ranks as well as grant of the Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU).

But as innocent faujis wait to grab the NFU carrot and at times also score self-goals, others are stealing a march in a rather majorly functional manner, stealthily and silently while the poor fauji sleeps.


Well, here is a sample of what the Cabinet has approved for officers of the Income Tax Department, and full credit goes to the Finance Minister for forcefully fighting for them and standing behind them.

The Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) has a cadre strength of less than 3400 and look at the number of vacancies created for them at the highest levels:-

Apex Grade (Rs 80,000 fixed) : 26 vacancies (Equivalent in pay to Army Commanders / Vice Chiefs / Secretary to Govt of India)

Higher Administrative Grade+ (Rs 75500-80000) : 91 vacancies (Equivalent in pay to top 33% Lt Gens who are in HAG+ / Higher in pay than Additional Secretary to Govt of India)

Higher Administrative Grade (Rs 67000-79000) : 300 vacancies (Equivalent in pay to Additional Secretary to Govt of India / Lt Gen)

Senior Administrative Grade (Pay Band-4 + Grade Pay Rs 10000) : 635 vacancies (Equivalent in pay to Joint Secretary to Govt of India / Maj Gen)


Well, what can I say but…..enjoy!!!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its a sad state affair that once again, our fauji bhai gets a raw deal.God knows when the time will come when the dues will be given to them.

Jai said...

Defence Minister Shri AK Anthony has been a clean and honest man (which is as much to say that no scams involving him have come to light as yet) but an ineffectual defence minister. He has neither been able to achieve a significant re-organisation of the strategic level military leadership (read The CDS post) nor achieve much in the way of weapons or equipment inductions any where near the scales needed. Indeed he has not even been able to atand up for the Army's rights (OROP, NFU, rank pay etc).
Sad!!

Dhoop said...

"...full credit goes to the Finance Minister..."

Maj Navdeep, I, too, have the highest respect and admiration for the Hon'ble Finance Minister. This loyalty to those who work in his ministry only goes towards additional lustre to his persona.

But, let us not say in other ministries there is a lack of loyalty to sections of personnel populating the organisation. If a case gets tossed around for decades from one part of a different ministry to another, to the judiciary and then to the Attorney General, enroute to the Ministry of Law, it surely must meet the aspirations and requirements of some in that ministry.

I am sure loyalty towards such sub-cadres in the ministry would also be met when it comes to issues like NFU, OROP et al. It's a different thing those sub-cadres asking for these entitlements and parities may not get what they want.

The head of a ministry can't please everyone ;-|

Lt.col (Retd) M.L. agrawal said...

Unless organised efforts are resorted and greed and blackmailing of people on higher post by politician is stopped Faujis keep watching onthing will happen

ramanan said...

Sir, the govt or these "babus" will define this as "finance-wheel" ie. fund allotment is less for these cadre/group and whereas for the defence personnel it will be huge and sky high. its the stupid logic works out in our system. Well said--- "Well, what can I say but…..enjoy!!!"
Enjoy

Kamal said...

All will be surprised if you see the pink list of IFA cadre on the CGDA web site.

WG.CDR.V.SUNDARESAN(RETD) said...

Probably, almost all the ministries are most worried about the union activities, even at the officers level. that is why every dept/ministry is trying to get a very good name in their eyes.
BUT IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY UNION ACTIVITY(read vote bank)the politicians/ministries/RM/RRM etc are not at all worried about faujis.
This is the stark reality. Look at the Railway unions. at the drop of the hat they issue strike notices.
So we have to wait till other staff/officers in other ministries get their dues.
There is a saying in telugu" if the husband of the departed husban comes alive just by crying wildly, then my husband also will come alive"' so says the secon wife.
no offenses meant.
v.sundaresan

PBOR said...

i am neither surprised nor moved by the well known facts given here by Navdeep Sir. as these were bond to happen due to 'over'smartness of a clan who was afraid of his own subordinates' better pay and life. A JCO (after min 20 yrs) was equated with newly inducted Primary teachers. This primary teachers becomes HM in just 5-10 yrs with grade pay of 5400/-, where as a Nb sub can maximum reach Sub Maj (in 30-37 yrs) with grade pay of 4800/-. what more i can say. enjoy :-)

corona8 said...

The blog post so correctly speaks of "self goals".

It's also known as "SSIF" syndrome. The only consolation is we're not the only ones on the planet who don/have donned unforms of armed forces to have fallen prey to the affliction, as can be seen here.

Brajesh Kumar said...

Do not blame any body for this mess. We're destined to remain where we are, due lack of wisdom and fore sight at all levels. Time for reforms...

Anonymous said...

The real enemy is within.

ARMS NOT LIKING SERVICES.
OFFRS NOT LIKING JAWANS WELFARE.
JAWANS AND JCOS WORKING AGAINST JUNIOUR OFFRS.
CASTIST AND PLACE TYPE PROMOTION.

SO MUCH DIFFERENCES ARE WITHIN. HOW WILL WE SUCCED ASAN ORGINASATION.

Maj Shyam (veteran) said...


Why compare? Every Indian has a choice of joining a service of his/her choice. Why join defence services and crib later comparing with other lucrative cadres?

As far as perks and privileges are concerned, no one has it better than forces. However, it is internal feudal mind set in services that denies those genuine perks and privileges to juniior officers and lower ranks. If we calcutlate civilian side price of those perks and privileges, the total cost per defence officer will be much higher than any class-I cadre in civil services. Now, let us not talk of bribe and corruptions in civil services, that is on the rise even in forces.

I feel forces officers will be much happy if they focus more on putting own house in order and enjoying life of adventure, purity, service to nation as well as good education for children, medical support, clubs , sports, golf, fashion shows and what not... who is stopping? We just need to get rid of VIP officers culture more so with VIP ladies dominance in deciding non-official culture that has become almost official.

Finance minister must look after revenue cadre as they have certainly met the tax collection targets year after year and helped in modernisation of revenue /tax departments. So they are being rewarded for performance. That is very good. As an ex defence officer working in civil environment for tweleve years , I have found very positive change in working of revenue departments . It has come about due to modern thoughts and use of IT in a big way. I have been filing my IT returns on line and getting refunds without any hassle. Customs, Sales tax and other departments under Finance ministry
have changed their work culture and have become more and more citizen and service centric.

It is sad that defences forces , Army in particular, have not shown any commendable sign of cultural change keeping pace with modern times. Mere procurement of very high cost weapon system does not mean forces work culture has been modernised. Compared to developed nations our forces have bygone era work and social culture which has led to demotivation and unrest in lower ranks. There is no indication of any holistic reform, this speaks low of senior commanders who do not seem to focus on reforms. Then why should we crib about parity with revenue cadre where reforms are continuing with great pace? Pays and perks must be commensurate to efficiency and output of the system.

corona8 said...

@Maj Shyam(veteran): "..Why compare?.."

Why indeed!

Tell you what, if the due entitlements and arrears of AF veterans are indeed released one day, you may please go right ahead and donate those to the most worthy charity.

Everyone else will surely applaud such a move that would be so in line with your lofty moral views stated here.

But, if one may ask, we are a Major(veteran) of what manner of minor army?

prasad said...

Rs 10,000/- grade pay for the medical officers also was given to the paramilitary forces when Mr P C was the HM. Again he did it for the IT dept as FM.Though Mr AKA is an honest person as an individual, he is the most ineffective and incompetent politician. Perhaps that is the reason he is continued as defense minister so that the govt can avoid the embarrassment of facing the protests and strikes against his indecisiveness since the article 19 of the constitution is revoked for the armed forces.May be it is time for the armed forces to fight for the right to have the unions to protect their rights or the babus in the govt should behave themselves to avoid the situation. Till such time the armed forces have to suffer in silence.

Anonymous said...

This is regarding Non Functional Pay Up-gradation. I understand fm ur site that the case forwarded in Jul/Aug 2012 by our HQ got turned down.I read from 'gconnect.in' site that Genaral Grade Officers in BSF who did NOT belong to organised Gp'A' service have now been included and NFU is made applicable to them.Why sri AK A is not able to push the case for armed forces officers .
Anshuman

Anonymous said...

its sad...its old saying... in the country where soldiers are not respected and given due soon perishes... country needs to learn to respect them.... and more Their bosses need to put points firmly rather begging

Anonymous said...

we are a defeatist army.
well brought out by Maj Shyam,
this 'VIP officers culture' is a cheap n disgusting thing happening around these days.
unfortunately, this is a latest invention, it wasnt that much during the earlier years of independence.

shame on the present deciding lot.
we are such a selfish bunch of cheapsters, who cant think beyond their vehicles (plural) and sahayaks and freebies.

isnt it funny, we call some residences as "INSTITUTIONS" ?
Well, what are they ? Places of worships ?

Maneesh Joshi said...

@Wingco Sundaresan.

Bang on target, sir, like a PGM! Forget strikes, the powers that be, ably aided and abetted by the likes of Shekhar Gupta, get wet pants even if two simple units move around Delhi without advance notice. ROFLMAO.

Our brass cares sweet f*****l about anybody other than themselves and their petty age rows and PSO squabbles. And all the while, other Central Services watch from the stands with unadulterated glee and thinking,"great to see these guys buggering each other" and then they go about enriching their cadres.

The 6th CPC was an opportunity on a golden platter to crush this evil nexus between the topiwallas and the pen pushers and the fauj kicked the horse in the mouth. Now, the horse is bucking and shoving THEIR teeth in.

Moron Fauj, condemned to commit its own mistakes each and every time and sing its collective motto "Bamboo, bamboo, in the grass. Why aren't you up my a$$e", year after year.

Pathetic Pongos, Flummoxed Flyers and Stymied Shippies - the Indian Armed Forces. Jai Hind boltey raho aur dekhtey raho as you own be(Hind) is kicked.

Anonymous said...

Maj Navdeep, the Defence is always given a raw deal in every pay commission, so it is our second nature to lump them all.They also have a two year seniority rule by which their promotion is assured. But don’t you think if non-IAS service offrs are promoted with this two year rule, they should all be considered Time Scale promotion.

A promotion by merit and vacancy is a promotion by selection. But if all who meet a certain basic criteria and happen to be two years senior to their IAS counterparts so promoted without considering availability of vacancies, then it should be considered Time Scale promotion only.

Thus the Army Offrs in some of the Departments like DRDO, Svy of India, DEAL, DGQA who get promoted to Maj Gen ranks primarily upon the years of service criteria should be considered Time Scale promotion only.

I after serving 26 years in the Army got my Col rank but it is Col (TS). All these Major Generals in Svy of India, DRDO, DGQA and so on, they also got their ranks because of length of service in that department which does not retire them at 54, so they will have long years of service and will qualify for promotion under this rule.

I am sorry to say, but are such time scale Maj Gen of civilian departments (though looking after services interest) equal to the Selection Grade Generals of the defence services. When I get a time scale rank, my submission is that all such convertee Generals/Brigadiers/Colonels who get the rank because of this rule be considered Time Scale only.

Also I do not find your email ID in the end of the article where I can send you some more relevant material because posting all such information on the net which is freely accessible to any will not be in the best interest of the services.

Warm regards,
Col HS Panvar