COAS mutates MNS Officers Pensions

COAS Objections on Selective Upgradation
After the submission of 6th CPC Recommendations, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS- in connivance with DGAFMS- this dubious act alone has doubled his Pension) as an after thought had vide letter no. C170211V1-PCC (Army) dated 20 Jun 2008 written to the Cabinet Secretary that, "selective upgradation of Basic Pay, Grade Pay and hence the status of Nurses only in the Armed Forces to equate them with Doctors will seriously impact on the functional relationship and command and control in the Military Hospitals, which would adversely affect patient care in the long run. Hence, there is a need of reconsidering those aspects and keeping the Pay and Grade Pay of MNS officers distinct from the Service Officers". The COAS letter was a quick turnaround from the Armed Forces established stand of demanding 'same pay scales to MNS Officers as for other Service Officers' made to the previous pay commissions. The 6th CPC observed that the starting pay scales of MNS cadre is equal to group A civilian starting pay scales, and is only slightly lower than the pay scales other service officers. The slight upgradation recommended by the 6th CPC was in line with the Armed Forces own pending demands. Opposing the upgradation of MNS cadre fearing an impact on the patient care is illogical.
Armed Forces Tribunal Order
In Maj Gen Mrs. Usha Sikdar Vs. Union of India & Ors (TA. No. 211/2010) the Hon'ble Principal Bench of AFT held that, "she is a regular commissioned officer of the Indian Armed Forces and she is authorised to all entitlements and benefits which a regular officer entitled under the Army Act, 1950 and rules framed thereunder and regulations issued from time to time. Therefore, we have no hesitation to declare that the petitioner is entitled to be treated as a commissioned officer and as a part of the regular force, and she is authorised to all entitlements which are authorised to the regular recruited army officers of the Indian Army." The AFT further directed the Government to "to treat all the commissioned officers of Military Nursing Service as a part of the regular force of the Indian Armed Forces and extend all entitlements which are commensurate with the rank as equal to commissioned officers of Indian Army to her". It is brought out here that, post 6th CPC implementation, the entitlements of a rank is based on the Grade Pay attached to the rank.
Click here to read more
Comment: Will the AHQ right the wrong? Do the powers at hand have the spine to stand up for the Juniors. The Chetwode message seems blown to the winds! Interesting parallel Army gets hit by clubs- click here to read more

MNS Officers Pension still not revised

Lt Col Padmini expressing her grievances to our Chief Admin amd Liaison Officer.
AN ANGUISHED MNS OFFICER.
Lt Col Padmini, MNS, called on us at our office and expressed her grievances that MNS officers are given step motherly treatment by MOD and Army HQ.
Full particulars of MNS Officer
Name: Padmini Rank: Lt.Col- MNS No- NR.16974 Qualifying Service: 24.5 years. PPO.No: M/003251/2004
PDA: I.O.B, Panagudi, Tirunelveli Dist, Tamil Nadu.
If her pension is revised as per Annexure- I of CDA Cir 397 it is Rs13932/- which is more beneficial as compared to the Annexure-II A which is only Rs 11800/
For regular Army officers of Lt Col rank, the pension is revised and increased 3 times, whereas the pension of MNS officers is not revised at all, except as indicated vide Annexure-IIA as per CDA Cir 412, where the Minimum of Pay Band is taken and pension arrived, which is for ONE year service only. This is a great injustice towards the MNS Officers which must be redressed immediately.
Aggrieved MNS Officer

Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service

Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, August 26, 2010
Cabinet on Thursday approved the cadre restructuring of the Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers, aiming to reduce stagnation and providing adequate career opportunities to officers. "The decision will reduce stagnation in the various ranks of MNS by increasing the number of select appointments
and will also help in retaining competent and qualified officers in service by providing adequate opportunities for career progression," a government release said.

Under this, the number of vacancies in senior ranks in the service have been increased by the government.

"74 posts of Lieutenant Colonels (time scale) have been upgraded to Lt Col (Select) and above. Now, there will be two Major Generals, 18 Brigadiers, 58 Colonels and 157 Colonels (Select) in MNS," the release said.

After this decision, the number of officers under selection grade has been increased from 161 to 309 in the 3,860 officer-strong cadre to further improve the quality of leadership in the service.

"To retain qualified and trained nursing officers, it was considered necessary to improve promotional avenues at all levels to mitigate the hardship of nursing officers by increasing the number of posts in select grade appointments within the overall strength of cadre," the statement said.

The time scale promotion of MNS officers up to the rank of Lt Cols has also been reviewed; as an officer will become a Captain from Lieutenant after three years of service from existing five years, become Major after eight years and a Lt Col (time scale) in 16 years from the present 20 years.

The qualifying service for Lt Col (Select) rank by the Selection Board has also been revised from the existing 18 years to 14 years. The last cadre review of Military Nursing Service was carried out in 1986.
Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service
Press Trust Of India

Degradation of MNS Officers muted by Armed Forces Tribunal

MNS Officers entitled to service privileges of regular officers : AFT
In a well reasoned decision, the Hon’ble Principal Bench of the AFT has held that MNS officers are also commissioned officers and are authorised to the privileges of their respective ranks.

The decision comes in the backdrop of the refusal of authorities to allow a Major General of the MNS from sporting stars and flying a flag on her official car.

The order has settled the controversy once and for all, but the issue makes one wonder as to why were stars and flags refused to such officers in the first place ? When an officer is holding a particular military rank, then it makes no sense to deny the ceremonial ancillaries of the same. It is the rank that is entitled to such privileges and not the service or the person who is wearing that uniform. When there is no bar on sporting the ‘stars’ on the collars, then in my humble opinion there should be no reason as to why a bar should exist on sporting the same very stars on the car !.
Posted by Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh

Self Inflicted Injury
How the Armed Forces degrades itself is evident from the AHQ, COAS letter to Defence Secretary who is responsible for CoS and Anomaly Committee being convoluted and negated! Click link below.
Degrade Basic Pay, Grade Pay and Status of Nurses in Armed Forces

Some suggested measures to redeem the damage inflicted on the MNS Cadre:

Add a web page for the Military Nursing Service under the arms/ services in the official web site.

Re-commence the Officers training at AMC Centre and School for the Newly Commissioned Officers of the Military Nursing Service.

Re-commence the arms training to Nursing Officers (stopped in the early Nineties). To fulfill the Articles of the Geneva Convention MNS are required to be trained in arms/ weapon handling. Incidentally, the Army still has Golding Medal for Shooting championship for the Nursing Officers from the British era.

Bring the Military Nursing Service fully under the Army Act (remove the auxiliary force tag).

We are talking about allowing women in all arms and services of the Army. However still we do not allow eligible men to become Commissioned Nursing Officers! Therefore, remove the restriction on men to join the Nursing Services as Commissioned Officers.

SCPC: Indian Military downgrades MNS Pay Band

Dear Colonel,
Let me express my heart felt thanks to you, for publishing the articles submitted by my team members. We the MNS Veterans, have also started a blog, the title is 'Indian Army Military Nursing Service'. The URL is mnscorps.blogspot.com

The reason for starting this forum is to spread awareness among the armed forces personnel about the 'Military Nursing Services' in India as well as abroad. Due to the general lack of understanding about 'army nurses', there is always a reluctance from the authorities side, for any progressive change to our Nursing Services.

Any attempt for the upliftment of the Nursing Services are being projected as an attempt by the Nursing Officers to claim equality with the AMC Doctors. Let me borrow the words of an anonymous reader, "There is no such thing as 'Nurse-Doctor equality'. It exists only in the 'wildest imaginations of some AMC Doctors'. The only real issue is the 'integration of Military Nursing Service as a Corps of regular Army'; not imaginably equating Nurses with the Doctors". It is being made out that the army nurses are plotting to take over the Armed Forces Medical Services. But on our part, we just want to nurse our soldiers and families as we did for the past 121 years; but with a little more pride. Presently, we are nothing but aliens in the Army, being treated as mere scum on which anybody can ride over.

Just one example. The 6th Pay Commission recommended the MNS cadre the same pay band and grade pay as other officers. However, the COAS and CNS had written to the RM to reduce the MNS Officers pay. The govt. had succumbed to their pressure tactics and now we are placed on a lower grade pay and even pay band for certain rank.

There is no one in the Army who is willing to listen to our problems. They all claim that, the Nurses are given Commissioned Officer rank only in the Indian Army, no where else in the world the Nurses are Commissioned Officers! We don't want to prove anybody wrong. Our aim is let everyone knows the truth and the change will come gradually.

I request your help in educating the armed forces personnel about the Nursing Services.
Thank you, with regards
Brig Jasbeer Kaur (Retd)
MNS Blog

Question
Why should Director General Medical Services downgrade the MNS Pay Band which has been recommended by the Sixth Central Pay Commission and approved by the Government? This seems to be an self inflicted injury of the Military Services, the scars of which will remain scathed forever. ESM fighting for Pension Parity and Armed Forces Medical Services cutting their own feet. Let the Armed Forces upgrade not degrade themselves- Ajai Vikram Singh Committee recommendations in reverse gear. A sad commentary indeed!

Retired MNS Officers are ideally suited for manning ECHS Polyclinics
MNS Officers are truly dedicated, technically sound and Nursing professionals. They are the most competent to provide health care for all veterans. I am yet to see a single retired MNS officer employed by ECHS!

Women PBORs in Indian Military

The earliest corps/ service allowed women in Indian Army (or Armed Forces) was Nursing Service. It all started with the formation of Indian Army Nursing Service (IANS) in 1888 [Imperial Nursing Service for India ] The Military Nursing Service (MNS) traces its origins from this IANS. The MNS was constituted in 1943 as an auxiliary force of Army from the elements of Nursing Services then existed, has only Commissioned Ranks (Officers).

Why not to re-designate MNS in to a full-fledged corps of regular army and allow women PBORs as Nurses and Nursing Assistants. Almost every army (US, UK, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand etc.) has Army Nursing Corps part of its army. Men are also permitted in such Corps as Commissioned Officer Nurses and PBORs. [ Commissioned Officer Nurses and PBORs ]

By maintaining the present promotion policy of MNS Officers (Capt-5 yrs, Maj-12 yrs, Lt Col-20 yrs) or even any higher period; every doctor will be a Lt Col or above (senior in rank to any nurse in wards), by the time he/ she does a specialization and gets posted to a Military Hospital. A possible solution, for our AMC doctors reluctance to serve with or accept equal ranking nurses.

As the Nursing Service was the oldest force to allow women, the Government should reorganize it along lines in which changes had taken place in other Nations and form an Army Nursing Corps. Let the first women PBOR be enrolled in such Army Nursing Corps.
Jasbeer Kaur

SCPC: Status of MNS

1. The Outlook appears to have played into the hands of an organised lobby which has been persuading the Service HQs and MoD as well as GoI for last 10 yrs to treat the members of Military Nursing Services at par with Regular Commissioned Officers of Indian Armed Forces.

2. There have been shocking examples of ignorance and inability to interpret the Army Act and Terms and Conditions under which Females have been appointed into MNS cadre. Ignorance with complicity to misinterpret has done the damage even after The Supreme Court was made to see the reason and convinced that MNS cadre is NOT "REGULAR ARMY" hence the members of it's service, although permitted to put on similar ranks, were NOT same as Regular Commissioned Officers.

3. When I put forward this argument 10 yrs back and supported this with MIML, AA- 1950 and Nursing service Ordinance, even service Headquarters were not supporting us in Medical Dte. The AHQ learned the lesson when after getting the permission to wear same dress, the MNS cadre asked for applicability of entire Army Act rather than only 2 sections as at present!

4. The position is as under:

(a) The Military Nursing Service is an " AUXILIARY CORPS" raised in support of Regular Armed Forces by a Special Ordinance of Govt of India.

(b) The members of this corps are NOT Commissioned Officers. They are appointed by the president of India into this Service and have been granted badges of ranks as per a convention.

(c) The badges of rank do not confer on them the right to demand salute or for that matter they are NOT SUPERIOR OFFICERS and DO NOT get the Punishment Power(In Terms Of AA) by virtue of the rank they wear.

(d) The Canteen, Travel and Accn Parity given to them on the scale of regular offr is a privilege extended and NOT a Ground to demand Equal status or Pay of REGULAR commissioned offr. They are saluted due to the rank on their shoulder but not because they are Senior to a regular commissioned officer.

5. The Army Act is very clear on this. The Babus in Defence Ministry be damned if they can not understand or read and write simple English. They have already done irreparable damage to the Armed Forces.

Brig (Dr) C P Joshi (Retd)