NEW DELHI: A social media message which has gone viral in Army circles suggesting that the annual leave of personnel could be shortened, is taxing the energies of Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.
He believes that it is “an attempt to spread disaffection” in what is one of the most disciplined forces in the world.
A flurry of tweets on Twitter in the last few days have suggested that the Army was mulling to decrease the number of annual leave period from 60 to just 30 days.
“This is a clear case of misinformation being bandied about as fact,” General Rawat said in an informal interaction with this paper, Tuesday.
He said the recent outburst of a section of ex-servicemen community on social media is clearly an attempt to create disaffection among the serving soldiers.
“The fact is that such a thing has never been discussed. It is pure misinformation,” he said.
The Army Chief, denying such a probability, said, “We have not even thought of this but some people are spreading false information through social media.”
General Rawat said, “Now since the idea has been forwarded, we can think over it.”
There are cases where due to operational exigencies soldiers are unable to avail the entire duration of the annual leave. However, the Army allows accumulation of annual leave up to a maximum of 300 days (about 10 months), which can be encashed at the end of the service.
Leave for a soldier is important considering the associated stress involved with the services and the separation from their families for long durations.
There is the provision for 60 days’ annual leave and 30 days casual leave for soldiers, while casual leave allowed to officer is 20 days.