Tri-service bill to be tabled today in run-up to theatre commands | India News

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the impending move to create integrated theatre commands in what will be the most radical military reorganisation since Independence, the government is set to bring on Friday in Lok Sabha a bill to empower military commanders of all triservice organisations with full administrative and disciplinary powers.

The Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control & Discipline) Bill, piloted by defence minister Rajnath Singh, was slated to be taken up for consideration by Lok Sabha on Thursday but got deferred due to the debate on the Delhi services bill. “It will now be tabled on Friday,” an official said.
In its report submitted in Parliament on July 21, the parliamentary standing committee on defence had recommended the bill be passed “without any amendments” and enacted as a statute. “The enactment of the bill will herald greater integration and jointmanship in inter-services organisations (ISOs) and establishments,” it said.

Chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan is spearheading the renewed thrust on creating three integrated theatre commands (ITCs), after finally achieving a “consensus” among the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs, to ensure the country has an integrated war-fighting machinery within budgetary constraints, as was first reported by TOI in June.
The plan is to have two “adversary-specific” ITCs — one for the northern borders with China at Lucknow and the other for the western front with Pakistan at Jaipur. The Maritime Theatre Command (MTC) at Karwar in coastal Karnataka, in turn, will be tasked with the Indian Ocean Region as well as the larger Indo-Pacific.