Over 9,000 officers-level, 1.10 lakh junior-level posts lying vacant across defence forces

The Ministry of Defence on Monday said that over 9,000 officers-level and 1.10 lakh junior-level posts are lying vacant across the defence forces in India.

The Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt, revealed this information in Rajya Sabha after MP Rakesh Sinha sought information on vacant posts available in the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force.

According to the press release, there are 7,476 officer-level posts lying vacant in the Indian Army, 621 posts in Air Force and 1,265 posts in the Navy.

Whereas at junior-level in the Indian Army, there are 97,177 posts are lying vacant, 4,850 posts in Air Force and 11,166 posts in the Navy.

The Ministry said The Government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages. These, inter-alia, include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career in the Armed Forces.

To encourage the youth to join the Armed Forces, motivational lectures are regularly organized in schools/colleges/other educational institutes and National Cadet Corps (NCC) camps.

Further, the Government has taken various steps to make the service in the Armed Forces more attractive including improvement in promotion prospects in the Armed Forces and to fill up vacancies

As per the Government policy on the subject, all citizens irrespective of their caste, creed, region or religion are eligible for enrolment in the Indian Army. After Independence, it has been the policy of the Government not to raise any new regiment for a particular class/ community/ religion or region. The deficiency is spread across all Arms and Services of the Indian Army.

( With inputs from ANI )