Defence Ministry approves Army Headquarters restructuring plans: Gen Bipin Rawat

"The Defence Ministry has approved the proposal to restructure the Army Headquarters. Now we will start The I implementation of the plans," Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said.

The recommendations for restructuring were made by the army for turning itself into an agile, lethal and capability-based force to tackle the challenges of future warfare.

Restructuring is part of transformation plans of Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat for the reorganisation of the amy headquarters which would result in saving of 20 per cent officers posted in Delhi who would now be posted to field fighting formations along the borders.

According to defence ministry officials, after the approval, 229 officers would be optimised from army headquarters and would be relocated to units and formations of the field armies.

As per the new plans, the army will get a third deputy chief who would be known as Deputy Chief (Strategy) and who will look after all the important directorates of military intelligence, information warfare and operations in the force.

Information Warfare will also get a major boost as an officer of Lt Gen rank would monitor this aspect along with cyber warfare.

Currently, there are two deputy chiefs in the Army. The first Deputy Chief is known as Deputy Chief (Planning and Systems) who looks after capital procurement in the force while the second one is known as Deputy Chief (Informations systems and Training), officials said.

As per the new plan which is the brainchild of Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat, the Army will get rid of the post of the Director General of Rashtriya Rifles who would now be shifted to Northern Command in Udhampur and will now be looked after a Major General rather than a Lieutenant General.

In the other significant plans of the restructuring of Army Headquarters and reorganisation of the force, entire modernisation and revenue procurement of the Indian Army is going to be done by the Deputy Chief (Capability Development) who was earlier known as Deputy Chief Planning and Systems.

To look after the cases of corruption and ensure probity and transparency, a new officer of the Major General rank has been appointed under the Army Chief who would report directly to him while another post has been created for the Army who will look after human rights.