No Arunachal Regiment in Indian Army

Itanagar, Mar 17: The dream of having a separate regiment in the Indian defence forces for Arunachal has again failed to materialise as the Centre has rejected the demand of state MP Khiren Rijiju for creating Arunachal Regiment in line with other strategically located states of the country.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in a written reply to the Lok Sabha member, who raised the issue once again in the current Parliament session, informed that the post independence policy of the central government was not to raise any new regiment on the basis of a particular class, creed, community, religion or region.

The written reply, made available to the press, further said the nomenclatures of some regiments raised before independence on the basis of class, community and regions have been retained due to historical, security and administrative considerations.

While stating that the recruitment process in the Army was based on recruitable male population (RMP) of the states, Mr Mukherjee informed that the annual quota of vacancies allotted to the states on the basis of RMP is neither increased nor reduced nor transferred to other states.

''Even if a state is not able to fulfil its quota of vacancies in a year, the leftover vacancies are carried forward to the next year and as a result, setting up of Arunachal Regiment is not likely to improve the employment position of Arunachal,'' the minister commented, while clarifying that Ladakh Scouts was formed before independence.

Meanwhile, a defiant Rijiju said that he would continue to press for necessary change in the government stand in this regard.

UNI