Parliamentary panel dismayed at shortage of personnel in armed forces

Expressing "dismay" at the shortage of personnel in the armed forces, a Parliamentary Committee today recommended a scientific study to find the optimum number of force required and the methodology to be adopted to bridge the gap.

Noting that the Army has a "record shortage" of 9,384 officers, the Committee said while the authorised strength was 52,859, it was working with an actual strength of 43,475 officers.

The Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report tabled in Parliament said it "fails to understand" the shortage of personnel and officers in the Army, Navy and Air Forces in spite of numerous entry schemes.

"The committee is dismayed to learn that against the satisfactory picture given by the (Defence) Ministry, the three forces are deficient in its strength of officers. The strength of other ranks, sailors and airmen are also short than the authorised strength," the report said.

The report was titled 'Threat perception and preparedness of the forces including incursion on borders, coordination mechanism with the central armed police forces and border connectivity through road, rail and air'.

"Similarly, in the other ranks, the Army is short of 20,561 personnel. Likewise, the Navy is short of 1,561 officers and 11,825 sailors. The position of Air Force is relatively eased, though they also have a shortage of 659 officers and 3,674 Airmen," the report said.

The panel said as India is a fast developing country, it should have no shortage of talent.

"A wide network of Sainik Schools already exists, which is supplemented by Rashtriya Military School and Rashtriya Indian Military College. The Committee fail to understand the existing shortage in spite of numerous entry schemes," said the report.

It recommended a scientific study to find out the optimum number of force needed as also the methodology to find out how the shortage can be overcome in the "minimum prescribed period".

It observed that while the strength of the Chinese army is 2.3 million, Pakistani army stands at 0.52 million.

"Our strength of Army is just 1.2 million which is a discouraging figure given to conventional warfare," it said.

(By: PTI)