New Delhi: The Indian Army is considering a ‘game changing’ proposal to allow civilians to join the force for three years as officers and in other ranks. This model is called “Tour of Duty”.
Besides this, the Army is also considering to take personnel from the paramilitary and central armed police forces for up to seven years, after which they would be allowed to return to their parent organisations.
Army Chief General M M Naravane, on Wednesday said that the idea came up after the army learnt from visits to colleges and universities that the youth were eager to experience army life.
“We realised that the youth in the country want to experience the army life, but do not want to take it up as a career. Taking a cue from this, this idea was born of why not give them an opportunity to serve for two to three years. We will benefit by getting younger manpower and the society will benefit by getting people who are disciplined and have imbibed the ethos of the army,” Economic Times quoted Naravane.
While Tour of Duty will be implemented on trial basis for officers and other ranks in the army for a limited number of vacancies, it would be increased if the model is successful.
The proposal, which focuses on shifting from the concept of permanent service in the armed forces towards an “internship” for three years is also going to be economically viable for the Army and the hence the savings can be utilised for modernisation.
Cost including training, pay and allowances under the new model would be Rs 80-85 lakhs, as against over Rs 6 crore for an officer under the Short Service Commission, who serve up to 14 years, quoted ET adding that with the ToD concept implementation, there is likely to be an exponential reduction in salary and pension budgets.
News agency PTI reported that the “game-changing” proposal is being examined by top commanders of the Army and that its main aim is to bring people closer to the 1.3- million-strong force by giving them an opportunity to experience military life.
“If approved it will be a voluntary engagement and there will be no dilution in selection criteria. Initially 100 officers and 1,000 men are being considered for recruitment as part of test bedding of the project,” spokesperson of the Army Col Aman Anand told PTI
