Officers In The Indian Military See A ‘Spike’ In Premature Retirements

In what could be termed as a shocking outcome of the 7^th CPC and OROP, the number of officers who opted to retire before superannuation has gone up in all three services this year. These cases of premature retirements have spiked up since 2009!

It may be recalled that there was a consecutive decline in the number of premature retirements (PR) since 2013. According to the Ministry of Defence, the number of premature retirements in the Army till the end of May this year has increased to 64 now.

Navy’s data shows till date, in the current year, 135 cases of premature retirements have been received. This has been the highest since 2009!

In a leaked note, Commodore Rajesh Dhankar, Principal Director of Personnel, Indian Navy, predicted a continuation in the present trend of ‘increase in the number of PR requests.’

Causes and Control Steps For Premature Retirements:

Service conditions and monetary benefits remain the prime reason for officers leaving early. Another reason being cited is the implementation of the 7^th CPC for which the officers were waiting in the hope to get a better pension package.

This is because when a pay commission is about to be awarded, those who’ve been wanting to go also extend their service because one’s pay gets revised and it has a direct fallout on the pension they will draw.

This reversal of trend comes even when the Armed Forces are facing a continuing shortage of officers.

Navy is considering some steps to make it difficult for the officers to retire due to the provisions of the seventh pay commission.

The Navy said that they have no problem if officers who see no future in the force want to resign. However, they have to ensure it does not happen in a way that important positions remain unmanned.