Canteen Stores Department (India) - Historical Background

Historical Background

To trace the history of the organization, it is necessary to understand its origin. The origin of CSD is essentially set in the British era when Army Canteen Board in India was established as an offshoot of the Navy and the Army Canteen Board in the UK. While the latter was abolished in 1922 in the UK, and was replaced by NAAFI(Navy, Army and Air Force Institute), its counterpart in India continued till 1927. The Army Canteen Board in India was established mainly to provide canteen facilities to British troops in India through grocery shops and bars run by canteen contractors.

The achievements of NAAFI in the UK did not inspire any corresponding change in India. However, the Army Canteen Board, liquidated in 1927, was replaced by the Canteen Contractors' Syndicate(CSS). It floated in the form of a limited company, under government control with its registration office at Karachi. This company started off with a paid-up capital of Rs 6 lakhs only. The shareholding was confined to the canteen contractors. The CSS functioned with reasonable efficiency until the commencement of World War II.

However, after the heavy build up of the British troops in India, the CSS could no longer cope-up with the situation. Therefore, on 1 July 1942, the Government of Dependent India brought the canteen services under the Directorate of Wholesale Trade and Indian Canteen Corps to handle the retail trade in operational areas. Canteen suppliers poured in from abroad and the organization functioned extremely well during the War. By 31 March 1946, it was not only able to pay back to the government the assignments of funds made available to it but could also function on its own trading capital. However, with the end of the War and homeward movement of the British troops, the import facilities dwindled and the turnover of the organization shrank. With the pulling out of troops from the operational areas, the Indian Canteen Corps was disbanded and the staff retrenched.

This was closely followed by the independence and partition of the country, and the war -time organization gave birth to two Canteen Stores Departments, i.e., CSD(India) and CSD(Pakistan). The retail trade, however, reverted to the contractors. A board of Liquidation was formed to oversee the liquidation of assets of the war-time organization which ceased to function from 31 December 1947.

The Canteen Stores Department, the present organization, thus took birth on 1 January 1948 with a working capital of Rs 48 lakhs assigned to it from assets of its predecessor war-time organization. The Government of India had granted the organization a life of three years on experimental basis. The retail outlets i.e. the Unit Run Canteens selling CSD goods to the troops however continued to be with the civil canteen contractors. The situation was reviewed in 1950 and the Department was accepted as a government undertaking on a permanent basis. Unit Run Canteens, the retail arms of Canteen Department however retained by the Civilian Contractors.

After a few years military commanders were able to convince the civil representatives namely the Govt of India of the need to take over the Retail outlets by the regular military units from the civil contractors and to utilize huge profits earned for the welfare of troops. Thus the concept of Unit Run Canteens(URCs) was born and is being run very profitably for the Military Commanders at all levels and seen expanding exponentially.