Govt has taken steps to attract talented youth to forces: Min

The government has taken a number of steps to attract talented youth to join the armed forces, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Rajya Sabha.

The government has taken a number of steps to attract talented youth to join the armed forces, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

HT Image

"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," Antony said while listing the various steps taken by the government in a written reply to a RS question.

He said the tenure for the SSC officers was extended to 14 years in the three services.

"A total of 750 posts of Lt Col have been upgraded earlier to Colonel towards implementation of A V Singh committee recommendations (phase I). Further 1896 posts in ranks of Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lt Gen have been upgraded towards implementation of committee's phase 2 recommendations," he said.

He added that several proposals to reduce shortage of officers in armed forces relating to reduction in the intake of Permanent Commissioned Officers along with increase in SSC officers, changes in selection process, improvement in service conditions of officers etc have been approved 'in principle' by the Government.