60,000 vacancies in Armed forces: Will it be filled this year?

New Delhi: The armed forces have been facing a shortage of nearly 60,000 personnel with the Army topping the list with over 27,000 vacant posts, the government informed last week.

As per the details submitted by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha, the total shortage of officers in the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force is 9,259 while the number for below officer rank is 50,363.

She said, while replying to a question in the House, that the total strength of the Army as on July 1 is 12.37 lakh personnel against the authorised strength of 12.64 lakh and the total shortage is 27,864.

The current strength of the Navy is 67,228 personnel and the number of vacant positions is 16,255.

The Indian Air Force is facing a shortage of 15,503 personnel against the authorised strength of 1.55 lakh, she said, adding that the vacancies excluding personnel in dental and medical streams come to 59,622.

Meanwhile, she cleared that the recruitment in the armed forces is a continuous process and the government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages.

Therefore, it is expected that the recruitment to fill up the posts will continue and the government will try to fill the vacancies as soon as possible.