Indian Army -- News Folder -- October 2003
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Re: Indian Army -- News Folder -- October 2003
Army HQs frowns at 'Save TA' letters
[Hindustan Times, 29 October 2003]
The Army Headquarters is learnt to have taken a serious note of the recent development in the Territorial Army (TA), where officers are receiving letters protesting the widespread changes introduced by the Additional Director General, TA, Maj Gen Dalbir Singh. According to highly placed sources, the letters are titled 'Save The Territorial Army' and have been posted to not only TA officers, but also to several senior officers in the Army Headquarters. The letters were received by most officers on October 9 – the TA Raising Day – and reportedly hundreds of such copies are in circulation. It is believed that some disgruntled officers in the TA have stage-managed this protest against the policy of the present Additional Director General to involve more TA infantry battalions in the counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir. As many as 20 battalions are stationed in J&K at present. The number was six earlier.
The officers are also protesting the directive issued to all TA officers to undergo three months of training at the ACC Wing of the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. The ACC wing caters for training to the Army jawans to provide them commission and apparently the TA officers feel it is derogatory to place commissioned officers under training with jawans. Several young TA officers spoke to HT on condition of anonymity and said there was indeed widespread unrest on account of this order and argued that the three-month training could have been imparted before granting commission. "To make officers train with lower ranks is humiliating and this may have prompted the 'Save TA' campaign," one of them said. However, the most damaging aspect of the letters is that such a development has never taken place in a uniformed service like the Territorial Army, which, though is a part time force for citizens, yet is run very much on the lines of the regular Army.
[Hindustan Times, 29 October 2003]
The Army Headquarters is learnt to have taken a serious note of the recent development in the Territorial Army (TA), where officers are receiving letters protesting the widespread changes introduced by the Additional Director General, TA, Maj Gen Dalbir Singh. According to highly placed sources, the letters are titled 'Save The Territorial Army' and have been posted to not only TA officers, but also to several senior officers in the Army Headquarters. The letters were received by most officers on October 9 – the TA Raising Day – and reportedly hundreds of such copies are in circulation. It is believed that some disgruntled officers in the TA have stage-managed this protest against the policy of the present Additional Director General to involve more TA infantry battalions in the counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir. As many as 20 battalions are stationed in J&K at present. The number was six earlier.
The officers are also protesting the directive issued to all TA officers to undergo three months of training at the ACC Wing of the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. The ACC wing caters for training to the Army jawans to provide them commission and apparently the TA officers feel it is derogatory to place commissioned officers under training with jawans. Several young TA officers spoke to HT on condition of anonymity and said there was indeed widespread unrest on account of this order and argued that the three-month training could have been imparted before granting commission. "To make officers train with lower ranks is humiliating and this may have prompted the 'Save TA' campaign," one of them said. However, the most damaging aspect of the letters is that such a development has never taken place in a uniformed service like the Territorial Army, which, though is a part time force for citizens, yet is run very much on the lines of the regular Army.
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member_201
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