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Armed forces face shortage of officers
The trend of shortage of officers has been continuing for a long time in varying degrees but there is no shortfall in the ranks of non-officers personnel, Anthony said.
The country's Armed Forces faced a shortfall of nearly 14,000 officers with 80 per cent of them being in the Army.
The Army, Navy and Air Force has a shortage of 11,153, 1,403 and 1,368 officers respectively, Defence Minister A K Antony told the Rajya Sabha.
The trend of shortage of officers has been continuing for a long time in varying degrees but there is no shortfall in the ranks of non-officers personnel, he said in a written reply.
He said the shortage was more pronounced in the ranks of Lieutenent Colonel and below and is spread across all formations.
As part of a campaign to ease the shortage, the armed forces has undertaken a sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career, he said.
Antony said the shortfall in recruitment of officers in the services can be partially attributed to the change in the socio-economic environment, the change in career preferences and availability of employment opportunities in other sectors.
The minister also said there has been a shortfall in the intake of cadets in Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun.
To a query, Antony said no comparison of pay and allowances of Brigadiers and Lieutenant Generals of Indian Army has been made with that of their counterparts in Pakistan.
Roads: There are 171 roads of strategic importance under construction in border areas since 1993 onwards, Antony said.
Border Roads Organisation has been restructured to make available sufficient manpower and also enhanced budget allocation to ensure timely completion of projects, he added.
