SEVERE DAMAGE CAUSED TO THE STATUS OF SNCOs/WOs/HONY FG OFFR/FLT LT BY USING THE TERM "PBOR" IN OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS

1.        The Personnel Below Officer Rank, the short form PBOR, had achieved tremendous popularity in the recent past. The 6th CPC used this term extensively. It found place in the Presidential address. It is used left, right and centre. Prior to this, the ranks of men in the Air Force were popularly called as  Other Ranks (ORs), the JNCOs, SNCOs, WOs(Warrant Ranks) and Hony Commissioned Ranks.

2.        The Senior NCOs were usually assigned the duties of Incharges of the Sections in their respective fields. Which meant overall supervision, control, maintenance of discipline of all men under them. They were reporting their work to Warrrant ranks and at  times to Commissioned officers directly. In the Unit/Station duties, they used to perform as Guard Commanders, Orderly Sgt etc. and were next only to the Orderly Officer/DSO. They shared food and  accommodation in the SNCOs Mess area, alongwith Warrant ranks, exccept that they were not authorised to do correspondence/letter writing etc.

3.     The Warrant Ranks took off most of workload of officers, leaving ample time for them to concentrate on very important and urgent works including financial matters. They were entrusted to correspond less important and routine matters, sign railway warrants forms, local allowance vouchers, operate small contingent grants, etc. Thus the workload of the SNCOs in the defence forces was about 40% and the Warrants ranks was about 20%.

DEFINITION :    The AF Spl Inst/1/S/08,  Para 3(a),  Defines the term as-  " PBOR include Hony Commissioned Officers,  MWOs, WOs,  JWOs,  SGTs, CPLs,  LACs and  ACs,  subject to Air Force Act, 1950.

             In the context of equivalent posts in civil side, the Sgt ranks is equivalent to  ASI of police/, the JWO with the SI of police and the Warrant Officer with that of Inspector of Police and the MWO rank  with that of a Dy SP.

            In the Air Force we club all and call them PBORs and in  the civil side from ASI onwards, they are called Police Officers.

            In the Armed Forces we give importance to the ORs and give less respect and down grade the ranks (club them all as PBORs) whereas in civil they are very particular of Classsification of Posts (A,B,C and D) and a GO is issued for maintaining their status.

            The following is suggested to set right the status issue of AF Personnel:-

 I -  All Commissioned Officers (Group 'A' posts equivalent ) - The Commissioned Officers may be called /Re-designated as President Commissioned Officers of Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. In short form, PCO (Army), PCO(Airforce), PCO(Navy) and PCO(CG). The existing ranks may remain.
                                                                                     
II -  All Warrant Ranks(Group 'B' Gazetted equivalents) - These  ranks may be called/redesignated as Junior Commissioned Officers for the respective Arms of the Services i.e. JCO(Army), (Air Force), (Navy) and (CG) while retaining the existing ranks

IIII- All SNCO ranks (Grp C equivalents) - They may be called SNCOs in the Army, Air force, Navy and the Coast Guard.

IV-  All JNCOs and below : No change.