Army wants 50% hike in no. of officers

Army wants 50% hike in no. of officers

Rajat Pandit | TNN

New Delhi: With the 1.13-million Indian Army now finally going in for a major “transformation” and modernization drive to counter both China and Pakistan, the force wants to increase the existing strength of its officer cadre by as much as 50%.
    Top defence ministry sources said the army has projected a need for an additional 16,222 officers by 2020 to meet the demands of modernization slated for the 12th Plan period (2012-2017) and beyond.
    The army, navy and IAF continue to grapple with a severe shortage of officers, failing to attract enough youngsters with requisite OLQs (officer-like qualities) despite substantial salary hikes.
    The perceived “high risk factor” in soldiering, steep pyramidical promotional structures and frequent transfers which disrupt family life are the main factors behind this. The army, the worlds second largest after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, is short of around 12,500 officers in its “sanctioned strength” of 47,864.
    What is all the more alarming is that the shortfall is especially acute in the “non-select ranks” of Lt-Colonels and below, who actually lead troops into battle.
    There is a shortage of over 11,700 officers in these ranks, while it’s only around 650 in the higher ranks. Army upgrade hits roadblock
    Dearth of officers has hit India Army’s plans for major modernisation. “Each battalion, headed by a Colonel, is authorized 21 officers but we are making do with just about 10 to 14,” said a senior officer.
    The additional 16,222 officers being sought will plug the current deficiencies as well as cater for “new raisings”, which will include a mountain strike corps and artillery division for the eastern front to counter China.
    Two new mountain infantry divisions have already been raised in the 11th Plan (2007-2012). With 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, the HQs of these two new divisions are at Zakama (56 Div) in Nagaland and Missamari (71 Div) in Assam.
    But major modernization programmes in the Army, unlike the Navy and IAF, have largely failed to get underway in a concrete manner. The force hopes to plug the critical operational gaps in artillery, air defence, aviation, night-fighting capabilities and the like in the 12th Plan period.
    Lack of adequate training capacity has also stymied the Army in making up the deficiencies in the officer cadre. To redress this, the training capacity of Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun and Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) at Chennai has been expanded over the last couple of years. While IMA now trains 1,800 permanent commission (PC) officers every year, the Chennai OTA trains another 700 shortservice commission (SSC) ones, including women.
    This will now be supplemented by the second OTA at Gaya, which is set to begin its first training course from July 18 after a long delay.
    This OTA will initially train around 150 SSC officers per year, with the facilities being enhanced by May 2014 to eventually train 750 annually.
    IMA gets its cadets from the tri-Service National Defence Academy at Kadakwasla, open to youngsters after class XII, as also through ‘direct entry’ for college graduates. The OTAs, in turn, are open to college graduates only.