New Delhi: To fulfill the shortage of
over 12,000 officers, the Indian Army will start training its
personnel at the second Officer`s Training Academy (OTA) at
Gaya in Bihar on July 18.
The new OTA will be in addition to the existing
academy at Chennai and will also help Army increase its
officer cadre base, Army officials told reporters here.
The new OTA will start with the training of 135
officers and in the next two years, begin training its full
strength of over 700 Short Service Commission (SSC) officers
in the next two years, they said.
The Army is facing a shortage of 12,349 officers
against its sanctioned strength of around 46,500 officers and
is also looking to increase the number of officers to meet the
new security requirements on both fronts.
The nod for the new OTA at Gaya was given two years
ago by the Central Government and work had started at its
existing Army Services Corps training centre to convert it
into the training institution.
The ASC centre is now moving to Bangalore.
Recently, Defence Minister A K Antony had said the
shortfall was partly attributed to accretions from time to
time, tough selection procedures, difficult service conditions
coupled with perceived high degree of risk involved in
recruitment and training.
A number of steps have been taken by the Government
to attract youth to join the armed forces, which include
increase in tenure of SSC officers from 10 to 14 years,
increasing promotional avenues for officers by restructuring
of officer cadre.
As part of its efforts to provide more promotional
avenues for the Permanent Commission officers, the armed
forces have also decided to increase the intake of SSC
officers.
PTI
