NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to share data on the manpower shortages in the Armed Forces. MoS Defence Sanjay Seth cited “national security” as the reason for withholding the information in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Monday.”The information sought is a sensitive operational matter concerning national security, and it would not be in the national interest to divulge related details in the public domain,” said Seth.Seth was responding to Telangana Rajya Sabha MP Anil Kumar Yadav Mandadi of the Congress, who had requested details on the shortage of staff, including officers, soldiers and medical officers, in the armed forces.Mandadi also sought information on comprehensive measures to address these vacancies.Historically, data on vacancies and manpower shortages has been regularly provided. The latest data, tabled in March 2023, was in response to a query from Javed Ali Khan of the Samajwadi Party about vacancies for officers and jawans in the Indian Army.In his reply, then MoS Defence Ajay Bhatt stated that there were 8,070 vacancies for officers and 127,673 for junior commissioned officers and other ranks.Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the MoD’s decision to withhold data, pointing out that the government has previously published information on vacancies for officers, soldiers, JCOs, and medical officers.”National security is paramount for the Indian National Congress, and true national interest demands that the actual number of vacancies in the Armed Forces be made public, so comprehensive measures can be taken to fill these vacancies and protect the nation’s territorial integrity,” Kharge said.The shortage has been exacerbated by the suspension of recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic, while retirements continued. In a March 2022 written reply to the Rajya Sabha, then MoS Bhatt cited the pandemic as the reason for cancelling all recruitment rallies nationwide. The suspension of recruitment at the soldier level for about two years has impacted operational readiness. In August 2022, the MoD informed parliament that “on average, 60,000 vacancies arise in the three Armed Forces every year due to superannuation, premature retirement, medical reasons, casualties, etc.”There is protracted tension along the Line of Actual Control with a heightened deployment along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, and the deployment has also been spruced up as a precautionary measure.”All recruitment rallies planned by Army Recruiting Offices/Zonal Recruiting Offices have been suspended until further notice due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country,” Bhatt informed the Rajya Sabha.Notably, the decline in personnel numbers at the soldier level is expected to continue due to limited recruitment planned until 2026. Between 2022 and 2026, around 1.75 lakh Agniveers are expected to be recruited under the Agnipath scheme.Lieutenant General Anil Puri, then additional secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), which oversees training and staffing, stated that Agniveer intake would rise to 1.25 lakh in the near future from the current figure of 46,000.”In the next four to five years, our intake (of soldiers) will be 50,000–60,000 and will rise to 90,000–1 lakh subsequently. We’ve started small at 46,000 to analyse the scheme and build up infrastructure capacity,” Puri said in June 2022.
Source link
