Ministry clears promotion boards for senior army officers

New Delhi: The defence ministry has cleared the promotion boards of Army officers in the ranks of Major General and Brigadier which were pending for more than three months. The promotion boards were held up after the defence ministry sought opinion of the law ministry to plug any loopholes in the new promotion policy suggested by the Army. [caption id=“attachment_242969” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“General VK Singh. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] The promotion boards were held in October last year and have now been cleared even though the opinion of the law ministry is still awaited, officials said today. The names of the promoted officers are yet to be announced. The defence ministry had earlier expressed its reservation over the provision of awarding discretionary evaluation marks by senior officers under a new promotion policy and then sent it to the law ministry for its views. The boards were held for elevating officers from the rank of Brigadier to Major General and Major General to Lieutenant General with grading that includes discretionary marks. As per the evaluation policy, the Army chief, the Vice-Chief and army commanders have the discretion of awarding up to five marks to a candidate being considered for promotion while the rest 95 are given on the basis of work and achievements and other parameters during the service period. Over 40 Major Generals and 60 Brigadiers have been considered by the Army boards for promotions. Last year also, the defence ministry had raised objections over the changes suggested by Army chief General VK Singh in the promotion policies framed by his predecessor General Deepak Kapoor. PTI