New Delhi: At a time when there is a tense border faceoff with China with deadly potential to escalate, there is considerable disquiet with the officer ranks of the all-important Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) as no promotions have taken place in the last two years resulting in stagnation in the career progression of the officers not to speak of the hierarchical mess it may result in.
“Every year officers are promoted. But not a single promotion for military doctors has taken place in the last two years as the promotion boards have not been held for whatever reason until very recently. The promotions have been held up at the critical levels of lieutenant-colonel to colonel, colonel to brigadier, brigadier to major-general and major-general to lieutenant-general,” a source told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity.
It is learnt that after a period of two years, some of the promotion boards have taken place only in the last few days in October. But the damage has already been seemingly done as the disruption in time-bound promotion process has resulted in a disturbing the well-laid-out career progression path of the AFMS officers.
While the three services of the armed forces had given the go-ahead for holding the boards, the permission of the defence ministry was not forthcoming. The ongoing COVID 19 pandemic and the subsequent nationwide lockdown also contributed in part to adversely impacting the situation.
Normally every year about 150 military doctors from the AFMS are promoted.
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Roughly, the break-up of promotions every year in the military’s pyramid-like structure from lieutenant-colonel to colonel (or equivalent), colonel to brigadier, brigadier to major-general and major-general to lieutenant-general are around 80, 40, 20 and 5-6 respectively.
AFMS is Indian military’s specialist service which caters to the medical requirements of the Indian Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force. The total cadre strength is about 60,000, of which about 6,000 are qualified doctors. On commissioning, the officer can be part of the Army, Navy or Air Force. The 13 lakh-strong army has the biggest number of doctors at around 4,500.
The medical cadre of the Indian military is headed by the Director-General, Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), a lieutenant-general (or equivalent in the Navy and IAF) rank officer.
The AFMS consists of Army Medical Corps (AMC) including AMC (NT), Army Dental Corps (AD Corps) and Military Nursing Service (MNS).
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