DGR Scheme for Providing Technical Services

What is the DGR Scheme for Providing Technical Services?

The DGR Scheme for Providing Technical Services is a resettlement scheme of the Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Ministry of Defence. The scheme lets government establishments and complexes outsource contractual manpower for the operation and maintenance of technical equipment, heavy duty plant, mechanical equipment, vehicles and electrical machinery: to DGR-empanelled ESM agencies, including DGR-empanelled State ESM Corporations.

According to the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, the guidelines for the functioning of the scheme were approved by DESW and the Ministry of Defence through Office Memorandum No. 28(138)2019/D(Res-1) dated 6 February 2020.

The scheme exists because two problems fit together. Government establishments need trained technicians on contract and want assurance on security, reliability and secrecy. Ex-servicemen leave service in their forties and fifties with exactly those technical trades and that clearance history. The DGR route connects the two without either side going through an open market tender for manpower.

Main features

• Sponsorship of a minimum of three empanelled State ESM Corporations against each requisition, by a DGR Committee.
• Sponsorship valid for a maximum of two years; the contract must be concluded within three months of sponsorship.
• Service charge fixed at 14 per cent of the total bill raised on the principal employer.
• Upper age limit of 65 years for an ESM technician.
• Wages, allowances and statutory deductions as per the DGR wage notification in force; no rates may be quoted below the notified minimum.

Is this a scheme an individual can apply for?

No. This is the point most readers get wrong, so it is worth stating plainly. The DGR Scheme for Providing Technical Services carries no cash benefit, no grant and no subsidy for any individual. There is no application form on which an ex-serviceman can claim money.

What the scheme creates is contractual employment. DGR sponsors empanelled corporations against an employer's requisition; the corporation wins the contract; the corporation then recruits ex-servicemen against the skill sets in that requisition and employs them on its own rolls. An ex-serviceman's route in is to complete DGR online registration so that he is in the resettlement pool, and then to approach the empanelled State ESM Corporation in his state.

Who is eligible for the DGR technical services scheme?

A State ESM Corporation can participate if:

• It is empanelled with DGR and sponsored by the DGR Committee against a specific requisition.
• It holds the required labour licence and complies with contract labour regulations.
• It furnishes any EMD, CPG or bank guarantee required, capped at 10 per cent of one month's wage bill, which may be deducted from monthly service charges by mutual agreement.
• It quotes no rate below the DGR wage notification minimum.

An ex-serviceman can be employed under it if:

• He is an ex-serviceman as defined in the DoPT gazette notification.
• He holds the trade or technical qualification matching the skill set in the requisition.
• He is not over 65 years of age.

You cannot apply and are not eligible if:

• You are an individual seeking a direct government appointment or a cash benefit. Neither exists under this scheme.
• You are a private security or manpower company. The scheme runs through empanelled State ESM Corporations, not open-market contractors.
• You are a non-ex-serviceman male civilian. The only exception in the guidelines is for female non-ESM civilians filling gaps temporarily where the requisition specifically provides for it.
• You are above 65 years of age.
• You are a serving soldier: DGR registration opens after retirement.

What DGR-notified terms apply?

How to apply under the DGR technical services scheme

For an ex-serviceman seeking technical employment

1. Complete DGR online registration at dgrindia.gov.in. Registration may be done any day after retirement but before the age of 59, and re-employed personnel need not wait for their re-employment tenure to end.
2. Upload the three mandatory documents together — Release Order (all pages), PPO (or Gratuity Order for Short Service Commissioned officers), and Veterans Identity Card (or CSD card for re-employed personnel). Each file must be under 2 MB with an alphabetic filename. Piecemeal uploads are rejected.
3. Note the auto-generated 5-digit acknowledgement number, after which DGR issues a registration number following internal review.
4. Complete empanelment for the resettlement scheme you have opted for, by submitting the documents specified for that scheme.
5. Approach the State ESM Corporation empanelled with DGR in your state with your registration number and your trade or technical qualification certificates, and apply against its current deployments.

For a government establishment needing technical manpower

1. Raise a requisition to DGR at least three months in advance of the intended date of deployment, clearly stating the skill sets, numbers and locations.
2. Receive the DGR Committee's sponsorship of a minimum of three empanelled State ESM Corporations.
3. Conclude the contract within three months of the sponsorship being issued, at the DGR-notified wages and the 14 per cent service charge.
4. Seek re-sponsorship through the same procedure at the end of the maximum two-year sponsorship period.

Related DGR schemes

The Directorate General Resettlement runs several parallel resettlement schemes, and it is easy to confuse them:

• DGR Security Agency Scheme, security guarding manpower through DGR-empanelled individual and state-owned security agencies. Different eligibility and different empanelment route.
• Coal loading and transportation, CNG stations, COCO outlets and Mother Dairy booths; self-employment allotments to individual ex-servicemen, which do carry an individual application.

Only the last group is a personal entitlement. The Technical Services scheme is an institutional arrangement.

Help and contacts

• DGR general helpline: 011-26100266
• Director (Self Employment), DGR: 011-20862532, dirsedgr@desw.gov.in
• DGR address: Directorate General Resettlement, West Block-IV, R K Puram, New Delhi 110066
• Empanelment counter timings: Wednesdays 1000h to 1600h, per the DGR contact page

DGR registration is free. No agent can secure sponsorship or a technical deployment for you, and the DGR Committee's sponsorship decision is made against an employer's requisition, not against an individual request.