Indian Army decides to delegate responsibilities of middle-level officers to junior commissioned officers to cope with situation
Indian Army decides to delegate responsibilities of middle-level officers to junior commissioned officers to cope with situation
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| Shortfall: In absence of senior officers, serious responsibilities including troop management are being shouldered by lower-rung officers. Representation pic |
This was announced by Lieutenant General Mukesh Sabharwal at the 'Annual Recruiting Seminar' held at the College of Military Engineering yesterday.
With a little over 10,000 posts lying vacant, what has worried the army top brass the most has been the vacant posts in the junior leaders' group. According to army officials these ranks play a crucial role not only during combat and peacetime operations but also during regular day-to-day functioning.
Sabharwal said, "Currently, there is a shortage of about 24-26% officers in the army. We are therefore motivating students at the school level itself to join the armed forces." He further added that JCOs are now being given more responsibilities and jobs to carry out important functions owing to the shortfall of mid-level officers. The shortage is currently experienced among the categories of Lieutenant, Captain, Major and Lieutenant General.
Army officials say that in the absence of a senior officers, several serious responsibilities like troop management are being shouldered by the lower-rung officials.
Talking about the importance of the middle level officers, Major Manish Naik (Retd) said, "A major is also trained in handling a battalion, which is usually commanded by a colonel. If a colonel is killed or injured in combat, the major takes over. At any given point of time, around a quarter of the army officials are either under training or engaged in administrative jobs or are on leave while others are engaged in sports and adventure activities planned by the army. This is what makes the middle-level officers and the JCOs so indispensable to us," said Naik.
Sabharwal also talked about the computer based entrance test introduced for the first time by the Indian Army's recruiting zone headquarters in the city, which is in charge of recruitment from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, along with union territories Diu and Daman.
"We are close to achieving complete automation of the entire recruiting procedure which also includes biometric registration of the candidates. This is a huge step towards transparency and modernisation of the process," said Sabharwal.
He also spoke about increasing number of women in the army saying they are currently looking at areas where women can play a permanent role. "Currently women serve in the non-combatant roles like the medical and dental corps," he said.
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