Rajnath approves abolition of 9,304 posts in Military Engineering Service

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday approved abolition of 9,304 posts in the Military Engineering Service as part of a mega reform process aimed at enhancing combat capability of the armed forces and re-balance military expenditure, officials said.

There will be no job losses in view of the decision as the posts identified for abolition are lying vacant for last three years, they said.

The Military Engineer Services (MES) is a premier construction agency which operates under the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. It is one of the largest construction agencies in India with a total annual budget of around Rs 13,000 crore.

The decision is in sync with recommendations made by a committee headed by Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (retd) to carry out mega reform in the three armed forces.

"The proposal to abolish 9,304 posts in MES out of the total 13,157 vacancies of the basic and industrial staff has been approved by the defence minister," a defence ministry spokesperson said.

He said the