National

Major shortage of Army officers: Antony

NEW DELHI: The shortage of officers in the Army has crossed the 10,000 mark and, at present, stands at 11,153 mainly due to changes in the socio-economic environment and the resultant change in career preferences, better employment opportunities in other sectors, tough selection procedures and service conditions required for the Armed Forces, Defence Minister A. K. Antony told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. There has been a gap between the requirement of officers and the number recruited over the last several years, Mr. Antony acknowledged in reply to a question from S. S. Ahluwalia (Bharatiya Janata Party). Last year, there were 197 vacancies in the Army, 76 in the Navy and 22 in the Air Force.

In order to attract more talented youth, all officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) have been made eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel and equivalents after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. The tenure of SSC Officers has also been extended to 14 years in the three Services. Besides, the Armed Forces have undertaken sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. The Government has also appointed the Sixth Commission to go into the question of revision of pay and allowances of all the Government servants.

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