File photo of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. (Agence France-Presse)
The Indian Army faces a shortage of nearly 10,000 officers, while the figure stands at 1,800 for the Navy, according to Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Mr Parrikar said, that there are 9,642 vacant posts of officers in the Army, and 1,779 posts in the Navy, excluding the medical and dental branch.
The major reasons for shortage in armed forces are increase in the authorised strength due to new accretions in force level from time to time, and availability of attractive alternate career avenues, said the minister. He also cited other reasons like stringent selection criteria and difficult service conditions, coupled with perceived high degree of risk as well.
The Defence minister reiterated that the current available strength of pilots in Air Force is sufficient to meet operational requirements. There are 45,000 personnel under training for the Army, 10,523 for Navy and 11,979 for the Air Force, and the government has spent a total of Rs 2,409 crore on training since 2012.
Since 2012, 644 officers have taken premature retirement from the Army, while the figure in the Navy stood at 343, and 441 in the Air Force.