Army to deploy 20% more officers on borders, anti-militancy Ops

RR Hqrs to be shifted from Delhi to Udhampur
New Dy Chief to look after Ops, MI, Warfare
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 16: In some significant decisions which were directly aimed at strengthening Army positions further along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and give boost to anti-militancy operations, the Army has decided to deploy 20 percent of its officers presently posted in New Delhi to field fighting formations along the LoC and shift the post of Director General Rashtriya Rifles to Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur from the Union capital.
“The Army has also decided to create a third post of the Deputy Chief, which will look after the operations, information warfare and the Military Intelligence among others,” official sources told the Excelsior.
The decisions, according to sources, were quite significant and were clearly aimed at strengthening the Army positions along the LoC with Pakistan, intensify the anti-militancy operations and plan the strategy for future information warfare, operations and further gear up the Military Intelligence network.
The decisions, they said, were proposed to be implemented shortly.
“It has been decided that 20 percent officers of the Army posted in New Delhi would be relieved of their jobs in the Union capital and assigned duties in the field fighting operations,” sources said and added that these officers would be posted along the borders with Pakistan to further strengthen the Indian positions.
Apart from the borders, some of the officers could also be posted in the anti-militancy operations in the Kashmir valley, where the troops were engaged in finishing the militants, both locals as well as foreigners. Anti-militancy operations in the Valley as well as some North Eastern States were a continued process, the sources said.
Deployment of more officers along the borders with Pakistan would further help the Army to tackle the infiltration of militants though the intrusions this year on the LoC have witnessed steep decline and were virtually negligible in some of the areas.
“Nearly 229 officers would be optimized from Army Headquarters and relocated to units and formations of the field Armies,” sources said.
They added that the Director General of Rashtriya Rifles would now be shifted to Northern Command in Udhampur from New Delhi and will be looked after by a Major General rather than the Lieutenant General. The Rashtriya Rifles has been deployed in large numbers in Jammu and Kashmir for the anti-militancy operations and shifting of the post of its Director General from New Delhi to Udhampur Headquarters of the Northern Command would help the force.
Yet another significant decision proposed by the Army pertained to creation of new post of Deputy Chief, which will be third as the Army presently has two posts of the Deputy Chiefs.
The third Deputy Chief, according to sources, will look after important Directorates of Operations, Military Intelligence and Information Warfare, all of which will be helpful in the anti-militancy operations as well as strengthening positions of the troops along borders with Pakistan.
The third Deputy Chief would be designated as Deputy Chief (Strategy), sources said, adding that the Information Warfare will get a major boost as an officer of Lieutenant General rank would monitor this aspect along with cyber warfare.
Currently, there are two Deputy Chiefs in the Army. The first Deputy Chief is known as Deputy Chief (Planning and Systems) who looks after capital procurement in the force while the second one is known as Deputy Chief (Information systems and Training).
In the other significant plans of the restructuring of Army Headquarters and reorganization of the force, entire modernization and revenue procurement of the Indian Army is going to be done by the Deputy Chief (Capability Development), who was earlier known as Deputy Chief Planning and Systems.
To look after the cases of corruption and ensure probity and transparency, a new officer of the Major General rank has been appointed under the Army Chief who would report directly to him while another post has been created for the Army who will look after human rights.

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