Now MOD Gets A Lt. General As Additional Secretary And Joint Secretary

In a late evening meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on 3 May headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lieutenant General Anil Puri was appointed Additional Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), in a major step in delegating authorities to men in uniform. The ACC also appointed defence personnel as joint secretaries in the DMA. The Chief of Defence Staff, a position created by a gazette notification of 30 December 2019, is the Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs of the Union Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Though such appointments were already in place for the last year, it is only notified with a official circular. Notably, Maj. Gen. K. Narayanan, Rear Admiral Kapil Mohan Dhir and Air Vice Marshal Hardeep Bains were appointed as joint secretaries in the DMA, in January 2020.

What does the decision mean? Earlier, all files had to be moved to Secretary, DMA for decisions. Each appointment in the DMA can now dispose of files in keeping with the powers delegated. The delegation of powers has been a long pending demand of the Armed Forces, which were of the opinion that projects were being delayed for lack of authority of defence personnel to approve them. 

The formation of the DMA within the Union Ministry of Defence actually created more confusion and the 3 May appointments are being seen as a bid to bring more clarity to the delegation of powers within the MOD. The four-starred Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat, will look after the affairs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, but will have no operational control over individual organisations, which will remain with the respective service chiefs.

This is in the direction of DMA  which is entrusted to provide a way-out for such anomalies. A series of such actions will mark the important role that DMA aims to play in its mandate for reforms and jointness.