Protest against Army officer’s appointment as BRO chief

A number of officers of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) have protested the appointment of an Army officer as its Director General. The protest has reached an alarming level with over a hundred petitions filed to the Defence Ministry by engineers of the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). The BRO is run by close to 1,500 officers, a bulk of which are from the GREF that is considered a civilian force.

About one-third of the posts, however, are manned by the Army that is the main user of the infrastructure that is built by the BRO in border areas.

The norm in the past has been that a bulk of the senior appointments, as well as the rank of Director General BRO are manned by Army officers.

This has been challenged by GREF personnel who cite service rules and government regulations to make the point that they too should be eligible for the top ranks.

The situation has now reached a boiling point after the government last month appointed Lt Gen AT Parnaik to the top slot. In the past, adequate seniority levels did not exist within the GREF force to qualify them for the DG post. However, this time, at least two officials qualified for the position.

After the government stuck to its stance of appointing an Army officer to the top slot, more than 100 GREF officials have made a public protest.

It is learnt that 113 representations from the mid (Major equivalent) to senior (Maj Gen equivalent) levels have now been sent to the Defence Ministry. The number is alarming as the total number of officers in GREF at these positions is just over 260.

Sources said at least two GREF officials — B K Yadav and B B Lal — who are currently holding the ranks of Additional Director General (ADG) are eligible to take over the top rank in BRO. It is learnt that one of the two is among the officials who have written to the ministry.

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