April 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1429

NEW DELHI, April 8: Lower level Indian army officers have begun submitting their resignations after generals won higher pay hikes in a move that threatens the military’s combat readiness, officials said on Tuesday.

Sixty-nine middle-rung officers have sought early retirement from the armed forces since March 24, when India hiked wages by 15 per cent for majors and brigadiers, according to the Hindustan Times.

The officers are upset because senior civil servants and three-star generals won annual hikes of 40 per cent in the 10-yearly salary revision for India’s four million government employees.

Defence ministry officials warned that more officers would seek jobs in India’s blossoming private sector, which laps up military personnel with lavish pay and perks.

“This trickle will turn into a deluge and what we are now staring at is a massive shortage of trained officers at the formation level,” a senior defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The resignations come at a bad time for the army, which is already facing a shortage of about 11,000 trained officers.

“If this trend continues, then the number of officers will reduce from the prescribed 23 to 14 at frontier infantry units,” the official said.

“We will take it up and solve the problem and I’m hopeful an acceptable solution will be reached on the issue,” Antony told reporters on Monday.

Spurred by the growing discontent, the chiefs of army, navy and the air force recently asked New Delhi for revised wages hikes of up to 60 per cent for soldiers and junior officers, officials said.

“The three chiefs in their presentation felt the (government) pay panel had not done justice to soldiers and officers and strongly called for the restructuring of basic pay and allowances,” the ministry official said.

India’s million-plus military accounts for 56.4 billion rupees ($1.4bn) of the government’s annual wage bill of 125 billion rupees.

The army is battling insurgencies in various parts of the country, including occupied Kashmir, where Indian troop losses are frequent.—AFP