New Delhi: Cabinet today approved the cadre
restructuring of the Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers,
aiming to reduce stagnation and providing adequate career
opportunities to officers.
"The decision will reduce stagnation in the various ranks
of MNS by increasing the number of select appointments and
will also help in retaining competent and qualified officers
in service by providing adequate opportunities for career
progression," a government release said here.
Under this, the number of vacancies in senior ranks in
the service have been increased by the government.
"74 posts of Lieutenant Colonels (time scale) have been
upgraded to Lt Col (Select) and above. Now, there will be two
Major Generals, 18 Brigadiers, 58 Colonels and 157 Colonels
(Select) in MNS," the release said.
After this decision, the number of officers under
selection grade has been increased from 161 to 309 in the
3,860 officer-strong cadre to further improve the quality of
leadership in the service.
"To retain qualified and trained nursing officers, it
was considered necessary to improve promotional avenues at all
levels to mitigate the hardship of nursing officers by
increasing the number of posts in select grade appointments
within the overall strength of cadre," the statement said.
The time scale promotion of MNS officers up to the rank
of Lt Cols has also been reviewed; as an officer will become a
Captain from Lieutenant after three years of service from
existing five years, become Major after eight years and a Lt
Col (time scale) in 16 years from the present 20 years.
The qualifying service for Lt Col (Select) rank by the
Selection Board has also been revised from the existing 18
years to 14 years.
The last cadre review of Military Nursing Service was
carried out in 1986.
-PTI
