New Delhi, Aug. 2: The government today granted a “Kargil allowance” to soldiers posted at high altitudes after defence minister A.K. Antony pushed it through despite reservations from the finance ministry.

The allowance comes eight years after the war in Kargil and for posts that were created or re-occupied by the army in that conflict.

While the measure was cheered by the army, it is also an acknowledgement from the government of harsh Siachen Glacier-like conditions over long stretches of the border in which soldiers have to man isolated posts.

Even as India and Pakistan are in talks to pull out troops from Siachen, the measure announced today means that the military is preparing to harden the border in Kashmir.

The new policy of compensating soldiers in difficult areas recognises posts located at heights between 14,000 feet and 19,000 feet as a new hardship category.

The allowance will be Rs 5,600 per month for officers and Rs 3,734 per month for personnel below that rank. The earlier allowance ranged between Rs 270 and Rs 1,600 per month.

The army will not make public the number of soldiers who will benefit because that will give out deployment figures. The posts in the Ladakh region (excluding Siachen) and the sectors in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh would take at least four mountain divisions (68,000 troops approximately) to be manned.

With the announcement of the new scheme — passed by the cabinet today — and an earlier decision to equip soldiers in Kargil, Dras, Mushkoh and Batalik in Kashmir, and some sectors in Sikkim and Arunachal with “Siachen-like” uniforms and equipment, is now a reality.

The new allowance is about 80 per cent of the “Siachen compensation”, an acknowledgement that the glacier is the hardest posting in the army. The Siachen allowance is currently Rs 7,000 for officers and Rs 4,600 for personnel below that rank. The government also grants special allowances to soldiers in counter-insurgency areas at rates that vary for “field postings” and “modified field postings” from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,900 per month per soldier/officer.