Discontinued rations for Army officers, families to be restored: Gen Bipin Rawat

New Delhi: Seeking to address the discontentment over the abolition of ration facility for officers, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that the old system was likely to be restored soon under which they will get rations in kind from designated centres.

While addressing a gathering of officers of the rank of colonels and below, the Army chief sought to address several issues including the alleged downgrade of the status of officers vis-a-vis their civilian counterparts, grant of non-functional upgrade and opening up of cantonment roads.

"In the interaction, the Chief of Army Staff stated that the officers' ration was likely to be restored by the government," Army officials told MyNation.

The issue of abolishing rations had taken a serious turn when a serving colonel had served a notice to the defence secretary protesting against the withdrawal of free ration facility in peace stations and had sought its restoration within 60 days.

As per the seventh pay commission recommendations, the Centre had abolished the practice of giving away free rations and had started paying Rs 96.03 per day to officers in lieu of it. The amount given for rations has been termed by the officer cadre as being too low to meet their requirements and there is a contention that it would also not be able to provide the mandatory calorie intake required for an officer.

After a section of officers expressed discontent over the issue, the government has been favourably considering granting the ration facility back to officers.

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