Cabinet nod to cadre restructuring of Military Nursing Service

Cabinet today approved the cadre restructuring of the Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers, aiming to reduce stagnation and providing adequate career opportunities to officers.

Cabinet on Thursday approved the cadre restructuring of the Military Nursing Service (MNS) officers, aiming to reduce stagnation and providing adequate career opportunities to officers.

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"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.

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.