NEW DELHI, Sept 19:
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh feels the deficiency of over 10,000 officers in the force is one of the main reasons behind friction between officers and jawans, which flared up on a few occasions recently.
Interacting with journalists here, Gen Singh also said the findings of the Courts of Inquiry (CoIs) are awaited in two recent incidents and suitable steps will be taken on its basis.
Asked whether the shortage of officers is leading to incidents of friction between soldiers and officers, Gen Singh said, “Yes, that is one of the main reasons. The shortfall of officers as of now is 10,100. The deficiency is definitely impacting.”
This year in May and August two such incidents were reported in units located at Nyoma and Samba in Jammu and Kashmir where scuffle broke out between the jawans and the officers. One such incident had reportedly taken place in 2010 in Gurdaspur in Punjab.
Terming the incidents as “aberrations” and “isolated” ones, the Army Chief said his concerns were to ensure that the environment at the unit-level is suitable for growth and upholding the military values.
“As you know we had one or two instances, these are aberrations of course and these were isolated incidents. One was in 2010 and in recent past we had two incidents,” he said.
On steps taken by him to address the issue, he said, “As a Chief my concerns have been to ensure that we get back to basics and ensure that climate and environment in the units are correct and conducive to growth and group cohesion and the core values of the Army are upheld.”
Gen Singh said that integrity, duty, loyalty, respect, selfless service, courage and honour are some of the values taught by Army and he has been speaking about upholding them during his visits to various Commands and other military locations.
On specific measures taken by Army after these incidents were reported, Gen Singh said, “The CoIs are to be completed. Once they conclude, I will be getting the findings and based on that specific measures will be instituted.”
“Broadly, we are looking into whether the management in the unit is upto the mark and aspirations of the soldiers and of all the members- officers, JCOs and men- are fulfilled in a correct manner and correct perspective,” he elaborated.
Gen Singh also said that the force is trying to attract more youths into the profession and is trying to reach out to parents to motivate their children for it.
“We are trying to lure maximum youth into our organisation. We are trying to make the setup very lucrative. One is the information campaign to reach out to the people and tell them what Army is all about. The other thing is to deal
“I have seen that when you go to colleges and motivate the youths, they get motivated but when they get back home, parents ask them why you want to get into such a profession and why don’t you join something else.”
Gen Singh said the organisation is also making the parents aware that risks are very well managed here.
“Of course there are risks but risks are everywhere and these are managed well in the Army,” he said.
Gen Singh also emphasized he need for enhancing the number of Short Service Commissioned (SSC) officers.
“Our support cadres are also under-subscribed at this moment that is the SSC officers. We are going to enhance that capacity. So this aspect is also taken into account and it will take some time. It will not happen overnight but it will happen. Government is also onboard with us,” he said.
On whether any timeline has been set to achieve this, he said it is not possible to do so as there are lots of imponderables in it.
“It is not possible to fix timelines and say it will be completed by a certain time. There are lot of imponderables in it and timelines cannot be set. But there is a very conscious and dedicated endeavor for this beautiful profession,” he said. (PTI)
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