160 Civilian Officers, Staff Transferred from Dept of Defence to DMA: Govt

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) Around 160 civilian officers and staff have been transferred from the Department of Defence to the newly-established Department of Military Affairs (DMA), Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said on Monday.

In a landmark decision, the government on December 24 last year approved the creation of a chief of defence staff (CDS) in the rank of a four-star general who acts as the principal military adviser to the defence minister on all matters relating to tri-services.

The government also decided to create a new DMA under the Defence Ministry, which is headed by the CDS as its secretary.

In a written reply to a question, Naik stated in Rajya Sabha,"The Second Schedule to Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961, clearly identifies the functions of all the five Departments of the Ministry of Defence and thus there will not be any duplication of functions among them."

"Work of 23 sections along with around 160 Civilian officers and staff have been transferred from Department of Defence to DMA," he added.

In reply to another question, the minister stated that there have been total 151 allegations of human rights violations against Indian Army between 2015 and 2019. Only two allegations out of 151 have been found to be true, he added.

"In the year 2018 there was a rise in the number of complaints. Examination of the cases has revealed that 50 per cent of allegations were administrative in nature (like closure of cantonment roads, injury, damage to house, grievance against harassment and miscellaneous issues filed by serving army personnel/ex-servicemen/civilian) etc," he added

The minister added that no allegations of human rights violations were reported against Navy and Air Force in the 2015-19 period.

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