Unprecedented shortage of army officers

With the shortage of officers in the army reaching an “unprecedented” level, a Parliamentary Committee has recommended to the Defence Ministry that it should urgently formulate a plan of action for implementation issues for resolving the matter in a time-bound manner.

With the shortage of officers in the army reaching an “unprecedented” level, a Parliamentary Committee has recommended to the Defence Ministry that it should urgently formulate a plan of action for implementation issues for resolving the matter in a time-bound manner.

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The Standing Committee on Defence said “the Defence Ministry should go in to the entire gamut of the issue (shortage of officers) in all the three services and urgently formulate a plan of action for implementation in a time bound manner.”

In its report, the committee found out that the shortage of officers stood at 23.8, 16.7 and 12.1 per cent in army, Navy and Air Force respectively.

The committee said it was “perturbed” to know that all the efforts of the Defence Ministry in resolving the issue have not succeeded, especially in the last two decades.

It also did not accept the plea of the Defence Ministry that youth accorded “low priority” to the military career and said the “issue of shortage of officers continues to be viewed in isolation with out properly appreciating the complexities of the various aspects of manpower planning and human resource management.”