Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 3

The Ministry of Defence, in a terse order, has barred the use of “local designations” being used in the armed forces and the civilian staff from July 30.The order is to sort out the long-festering “rank parity” issue between the forces and the civilian staff – called the armed forces headquarters (AFHQ). The forces have been saying that the AFHQ cadre has assumed designations to place themselves on a par with higher ranks of the forces.A letter in this regard says the AFHQ-Civil services officers in the “grade” of Director and Joint Director shall use cadre designations of same ranks. In case of the forces, a separate set of instructions has been issued as to what could be the names of the posts when officers are posted to the headquarters. These are for Brigadier, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman issued a letter on January 4 withdrawing “local designations” assigned to the armed forces and civilian officers. The forces and the civil staff had agreed to revert to original designations on July 30. Besides, there has been another flare-up for the nomenclature of the posts to be held by Major General-rank officers.