Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

In an important signal on optimum use of available funds, the armed forces have been asked to avoid fresh accretions — adding any more numbers to the existing strength — while continuing with right-sizing of the Army, Navy and the Air Force.The matter of force numbers, the resultant man-power costs and redundancy caused due to technological upgrades was raised by a top government official at the two-day Unified Commanders’ Conference held in New Delhi on July 30 and July 31, sources confirmed to The Tribune. The matter of not increasing numbers was referred to and the rising costs were discussed, a functionary confirmed about the meeting.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is clear: “Addition of new equipment (modernisation) does not mean a corresponding rise in the strength of men,” said sources. The foundation of this was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi very early into his tenure. In his address at one such conference in December 2015, Modi said: “Modernisation and expansion of forces at the same time is a difficult and unnecessary goal.” Over the last decade, the armed forces have absorbed a fair amount of technological developments, including communications and digitisation, which means some of the troops can be redeployed.The high-powered Defence Planning Council (DPC), at its first meeting in May this year, asked for “leaner, meaner and restructured armed forces ready for future wars enabled by proper use of budgetary allocations”. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had ordered restructuring of the Army on June 12 this year.The Army, the biggest of the three armed forces, about 1.3-million strong, has been asked to improve its teeth-to-tail ratio. In simple words, it means have more fighting units and reduce non-fighting numbers. Last year, the MoD announced a major change as 57,000 officers and soldiers were to be redeployed to have more combat-oriented roles by 2019.It was an outcome of a committee headed by Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (retd), which suggested 99 points for structural changes in the Army, among them being cutting down flab and reducing revenue (maintenance) expenditure. Of these, the MoD has accepted 65 suggestions.Focus on right-sizing

• In this year’s budget ending March 31, 2019, salaries of the three services and civilians work out to Rs 1,18,966 crore
• Another Rs 1.08 lakh crore is the pension bill—both salaries and pensions account for 40 per cent of the entire budget
• More money had to be earmarked for salaries and pensions than for modernisation (Rs 99,563 crore)