MoD can’t spare choppers, baton relay likely to be hit

In a snub for the Commonwealth Games Committee, the Defence Ministry has turned down a request for military helicopters to transport games officials to different states as part of the Queen’s Baton relay that will precede the games. While the games committee had wanted the Armed Forces to foot the bill for airlifting officials for the relay after the baton enters India in June, the Defence Ministry has made it clear that in view of operational requirements, it would not be feasible to spare military aircraft.

While commercial aircraft are likely to be hired to transport officials with the baton, the duration and scope of the relay could to be shortened, given the high costs involved in chartering aircraft. The decision was taken during a meeting of the committee of secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary last month.

The committee will now draw up a movement plan for the baton relay and the Defence Ministry will only step in if a “genuine problem arises in working out the movement plan in difficult areas”. In effect, this means that only limited flights on regular “courier routes” of the Air Force will be made available for the relay. Experts are surprised that the games committee did not sketch out an alternative plan from the beginning and assumed that defence aircraft would be made available for the relay.

Differences have also risen between the Games Committee and the Defence Ministry over the deployment of Armed Forces personnel for various tasks related to the Games, including the opening and closing ceremonies. As reported by this newspaper, the committee had projected a requirement of nearly 4,000 defence personnel to manage things from logistics and movement to the music bands and fly past at the opening and closing ceremonies.

The committee of secretaries has also lashed out at the Games Committee for specifying the number of officers required as well as their designations in their request for additional personnel to the Defence Ministry. The committee has now been directed to send in details of the tasks required to be performed so that the Defence Ministry can depute personnel accordingly. It may be recalled that an earlier proposal, detailing the ‘need’ for close to 300 officers, including 245 Lieutenant Colonels had not gone down well with the ministry.

However, with just five months to go for the Games, there is still no clarity on the exact number of personnel to be deployed for the games or the tasks to be assigned to them, leaving the Defence Ministry uncomfortable.

FORCE DEMAND
4,000
Number of defence personnel required by Games Committee

300
Officers required to manage many aspects of the mega event

245
Lt Colonels needed by panel, a request Army has frowned upon