MoD Appoints Sudhir Bhargava And Rajiv Jain To Monitor Strategic Military Engineer & BRO Works

Ministry of Defence has appointed the panel of retired Government Officers as Independent External Monitors for Military Engineer Services (MES) and Border Road Organisation (BRO).

Government has appointed these key posts to monitor the critical areas of development in building strategic assets.

Sudhir Bhargava, IAS (Retd) has been appointed as an independent External Monitors for MES.

Rajiv Jain, IPS (Retd) has been appointed as Independent External Monitors for BRO.

In his last role, Jain served as an Intelligence Bureau chief.

As per the notification from the ministry of defence, these appointments will be effective from 31st May 2021.

Sudhir Bhargava is former 1979 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre and secretary in ministry of social justice. He was appointed Chief Information Commissioner in December 2018 from where he retired in 2020.

Independent External Monitors would be required to sign and return a Confidentially Agreement (Annexure) within 15 days from the date of issue of this OM. The Agreement may be initialed on all pages and full signature affixed on the last page.

Under the key assignments, both the officers would be responsible for the works and procurement of Military Engineer Services (MES), the premier construction agency and one of the pillars of Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army which provides rear line engineering support to the Armed Forces.

The Military Engineer Services (MES) is the premier construction agency and one of the pillars of Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army which provides rear line engineering support to the Armed Forces. MES is an Inter-Service Organization with both Army and Civilian components of officers and other subordinate staff. It is one of largest construction and maintenance agencies in India with a total annual budget to the tune of approx Rs 13000 crores.

It is responsible for creating the strategic and the operational infrastructure other than major roads, as also the administrative habitat for all three Services and the associated organisations of the Ministry of Defence. MES has Pan India footprint to provide engineering support to various formations of Army, Air Force, Navy and DRDO.It is responsible for creating the strategic and the operational infrastructure other than major roads, as also the administrative habitat for all three Services and the associated organisations of the Ministry of Defence.

The Border Roads Organisation under the ministry of defence has played pivotal role in constructing and maintaining operational road infrastructure for the armed forces in inhospitable, far flung border areas and contribution to the socio-economic development of the region has been legendary.