Express News Service
NEW DELHI: As a measure of welfare the Indian Army has decided to raise the numbers of Honorary Commissions granted to serving Junior Commissioned Officers on Independence Day and Republic Day in their last year of service as recognition of their exemplary service and contribution in the Armed Forces. The first such list is slated to be released on Saturday.
Conveying the decision taken on Friday, the Army said, “The ratio for grant of Honorary Commission since 1984 has been 12:1000 for Honorary Lieutenants and proportionate vacancies for Honorary Captains. Acknowledging the contribution of Junior Commissioned Officers, the Government has now revised the ratio to 15:1000 for Honorary Lieutenants.”
With the grant of Honorary Commission comes the immediate raise in the salary as per the rank and thus enhances the associated pension post retirement. The Honorary ranks are either Lieutenant or Captain.
On an average every Unit has about 40 JCOs which changes as per the Arms namely the Infantry, Armoured or Artillery and the services like the Army Service Corps, Ordinance of the many.
There are around one lakh Junior Commissioned Officers in the Indian Army of around 1.3 million strength. The three levels at which people join the Army are as the Commissioned Officers, JCOs and the Other Ranks (OR).
The JCOs are considered to be the link between the officers and ORs and are repository of operational experience due to long years of service within the units and the consequent association with the ORs. They retire from the Unit they had joined after recruitment as soldiers. For the commissioned officers Unit associations are upto the rank of Colonel.