The Cabinet on Thursday paved the way for an Armed Forces Tribunal by approving the creation of posts for the forum which will redress service-related grievances of Armed Forces personnel. It also gave approval for the setting up of cellular phone towers, optical fibre lines and other telecommunication equipment on Defence land and cantonment areas.The Cabinet approved the creation of 31 posts, including a chairperson, a principal registrar and 29 members for the Principal Bench besides eight regional branches. This will lead to the establishment of the Armed Forces version of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that will give a quick reprieve on grievances ranging from promotion matters, pensions, court martial decisions and appointments.More than 9,800 cases filed by Service personnel pending before various high courts in the country will be transferred to the tribunal. The Principal Bench will be at New Delhi with three courts that will have jurisdiction over the high court in the state of Delhi.The Chandigarh Bench will have jurisdiction over Punjab, Haryana, J&K and Himachal Pradesh. The Lucknow Bench will have jurisdiction over Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The other locations will be Kolkata, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai and Jaipur. The maximum number of cases (2,487) pending in high courts will be transferred to the Chandigarh Bench while another 2,407 will be adjudicated by the Lucknow Bench. As many as 2,306 cases would be transferred to the Delhi Principal Bench.While an independent tribunal has been a long standing demand of the Armed Forces, the matter gained momentum only in 2006 after A K Antony took over as the Defence Minister. The Armed Forces Tribunal Act was passed by Parliament during the winter session of 2007 and was notified on December 28, 2007.Other decisions• River conservation strategy: A revamped River Conservation Strategy under the National River Conservation Plan was approved at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. The move aims to redesign current institutional arrangements with greater focus on river conservation efforts in the country. • Autonomy to Hyderabad institute: Autonomy for the National Plant Protection Training Institute (NPPTI), Hyderbad, which will now be called National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPM) and registered under the Societies Act.• Farmers’ rehabilitation package: As part of the rehabilitation package to end farmers’ suicides, the Cabinet gave an ‘in-principle’ approval for providing financial support for implementing various programmes suggested by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. Under this the Kerala Government can formulate desired projects and submit it to the Centre for financial support.
