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Indian Army Considering to Cut Down 1.5 Lakh Troops in Five Years

The decision is the result of the Defence Ministry selectively implementing only 99 out of the 188 recommendations of the Shekatkar Committee report.
Indian Army

The Indian Army is likely to cut down over 1,50,000 troops in the next five years under a cadre review reform, it has been reported The move, if implemented, will result in the most significant restructuring of the Defence Ministry since the last 35 years. 

On June 21, the army chief  General Bipin Rawat appointed a high-level committee headed by military secretary Lt. General J. S. Sandhu to study all aspects of officer cadre restructuring and submit a report by November end.

“Merging of some verticals and rationalising roles are likely to result in cutting 50,000 troops over the next two years. A reduction of 100,000 more personnel may be possible by 2022-23. But all this is in the study phase right now,” the Hindustan Times quoted an official familiar with the internal works of the Sandhu committee. The central idea of this reform is to improve the army’s “teeth to tail” ratio- increase the number of soldiers actually doing the fighting against those needed to support them to fight.

The ongoing cadre review was ordered to cover various issues including reduction in the personnel strength of  the about 12 lakh strong force and merger of different verticals to rebalance the military. 

As per an internal paper drafted by the cadre review committee, the Army is also considering to cut down the number of its ranks from nine to six or seven. This would mean, in effect, Colonels who are approved for promotions directly become Major-Generals instead of Brigadiers in-between. The review committee is also contemplating replacing division headquarters with integrated brigades.

“The line between verticals has got blurred, resulting in duplication of charters and associated manning. There is a definite case for reviewing the number of verticals with the aim of restructuring within the vertical, as also merging where necessary or possible so as to arrive at economies of scale,” the cadre review order has stated earlier. 

These developments in the Army are part of the implementation of the first phase of recommendations of the Shekatkar Committee, which was approved by the central government in August last year. In line with this, the Ministry of Defence has already decided to close 39 military farms in a time-bound manner.

While the Shekatkar committee submitted 188 recommendations pertaining to reforms in the Army, Navy and Air Force in December 2016, the Defence Ministry had chosen 99 recommendations and stated that 65 of them, all pertaining to the Army, will be implemented in the first phase. This was done despite the committee’s warning in it’s report that the implementation of the recommendations cannot be selective. Besides, the Ministry did not mention the implementation of the remaining phases of the report.

The recommendations being considered in this phase include restructuring of repair echelons in the army to include base workshops, advance base workshops and static or station workshops in the field army; redeployment of ordnance echelons to include vehicle depots, ordnance depots and central ordnance depots apart from streamlining inventory control mechanisms; better utilisation of supply and transportation echelons and animal transport units; closure of military farms and army postal establishments in peace locations; enhancement in standards for recruitment of clerical staff and drivers in the army; and improving the efficiency of the National Cadet Corp. The rest of the recommendations which address bigger questions dealing with higher defence management, defence ministry and other organisations were left aside by the BJP government.

Defence experts have time and again argued that the restructuring of the defence sector is an urgent need of the hour. But the concern has been that successive governments have failed to implement the earlier sets of recommendations. 

Although the Arun Singh Committee, following the Kargil Review Commission, and the Naresh Chandra Committee formed by the UPA II government, were initially deferred by the defence ministry, they never came to light. 

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