Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

As part of the efforts to reduce operating costs and revamp functional structure, the Army has issued orders to merge unit run canteens (URC) of the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) functioning from various static military establishments located in the same station.

Any one URC of a static unit, preferably the one with largest dependency, be nominated as the “merged URC” and all other URCs be kept in “suspended animation”. The URCs of those units that are likely to be affected by rotational movements should be exempted from the merger, a letter issued by the Quartermaster General’s Branch at Army Headquarter to the establishments of all three services on May 24 states.

Based on the recommendations by a Board of Officers (BOO) comprising all stakeholders, formation commanders, local military authorities and station commanders will have the leeway to nominate the merged URC, which should be centrally located so that it is convenient for all to commute, the letter adds.

Station canteens for ex-servicemen can continue in accordance with the BOO’s recommendations. The letter states all URCs in suspended animation shall retain their names and URC codes, but the supporting CSD depots shall not process any demand received from such URCs.