According to a study, the Indian Army is now suffering from a serious lack of officers in the grades of Major and Captain. In response to the shortage, the army intends to cut the number of staff officers stationed at various headquarters and is considering hiring re-employed officers to fill these posts.
Indian Army Faces Shortage Of Major and Captain-Level Officers
The Indian Army has solicited feedback on this proposed action from various commands. Currently, after six years of service, mid-level officers of the rank of Major are often assigned to staff positions in various corps command and division headquarters, according to army standards.
Staff appointments involve postings in headquarters, where officers are responsible for policy-making and topic coordination, whereas unit appointments are focused on operational and ground operations. According to the Indian Express report, the Army is short 8,129 officers, including those in the Army Medical Corps and Army Dental Corps. The Indian Navy needs 1,653 officers, while the Indian Air Force requires 721.
To overcome the officer shortfall, the army has previously assigned 461 non-commissioned officers to staff positions wherever practicable. The present idea involves temporarily decreasing some headquarters staff hires until the officer shortage is alleviated. It has been proposed that junior and mid-level officers currently working on staff be posted elsewhere once their 24-month term is up.
The Indian Express article has sparked interest among Indian political circles. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge posted the news item on Twitter and chastised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for failing to fill gaps in the armed services. Kharge accused the Modi government of putting the destruction of political parties ahead of filling critical openings in the armed forces. He argued that the Agnipath initiative is an admission by the administration that the country’s military is underfunded.
Furthermore, Kharge claimed that the Modi government abandoned the defence community by mishandling the implementation of the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) system, causing schisms among the valiant warriors. He continued by accusing the Modi government of abandoning the people’s mandate by not prioritising national security.
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