New Delhi, Aug 1: The Indian Army, the Navy and Air Force are facing a shortage of more than 9,000 officers, the government said on Wednesday.

The Indian Army alone is short of 7,298 officers, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said the Army has an authorised strength of 49,933 officers but as on January 1, 2018 it had only 42,635.

The Indian Army is considered the second largest army in the world with 1.4 million officers and others, according to the World Atlas 2018 report.

The Indian Navy has a sanctioned strength of 11,352 officers but has only 9,746 - a shortage of 1,606, according to data as on July 1, 2018.

Similarly, the Air Force's authorised strength of officers is 12,584 but it has only 12,392 and is short of 192.

The minister said recruitment in the Armed Forces was a continuous process and the government was taking a number of measures to reduce the shortages.

"These include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career."

The government, he said, had as well taken various steps to make Armed Forces' jobs attractive including improvement in promotion prospects.

"To attract youth including the rural youth to join the Armed Forces various steps are taken such as giving wide publicity to recruitment in the Armed Forces through advertisement in print and audio-visual media.

"Recruitment of Personnel Below Officers Ranks (PBORs) in the Army is carried out through open rally system being conducted regularly throughout the country. Efforts are made to cover the entire country including remote and tribal areas."

In the Navy, the minister said, regular recruitment drives are also undertaken for recruitment of sailors.

Recruitment of Airmen in the Air Force is done on all India basis through scheduled selection tests as recruitment rallies are also conducted in different parts of the country including tribal areas.



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New Delhi, Sep 24: The Congress on Tuesday cited BJP MP Kangana Ranaut's purported remarks on farm laws to allege that the ruling party was making efforts to bring back the three laws that were repealed in 2021, and asserted that Haryana will give a befitting reply to it.

The Congress shared on X an undated video of Ranaut in which she is purportedly saying in Hindi, "Farm laws that have been repealed should be brought back. I think this may get controversial. The laws in farmers' interest be brought back. Farmers should themselves demand this (to bring farm laws back) so that there is no hindrance to their prosperity.

"Farmers are a pillar of strength in India's progress. Only in some states, they had objected to farm laws. I appeal with folded hands that farm laws should be brought back in the interest of farmers."

In a post in Hindi along with the video, the Congress said, "The three black laws imposed on farmers should be brought back: BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has said this. More than 750 farmers of the country were martyred, only then did the Modi government wake up and these black laws were withdrawn."

Now BJP MPs are planning to bring back these laws, the Congress alleged.

"The Congress is with the farmers. These black laws will never return, no matter how hard Narendra Modi and his MPs try," the opposition party said on X.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also shared the video of Ranaut on X and said, "'All three farm laws should be brought back': BJP MP Kangana Ranaut. More than 750 farmers were martyred while protesting against the three black farmer laws. Efforts are being made to bring them back."

"We will never let that happen. Haryana will answer first," she said in an apparent reference to the assembly polls in Haryana.

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also shared the video on X and said it was the BJP's "real thinking".

"How many times will you deceive the farmers, you two-faced people?" Khera said in a post in Hindi.

The three laws -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act -- were repealed in November 2021.

The farmers' protest started at the fag-end of November 2020 and ended after Parliament repealed the three laws. The legislations came into force in June 2020 and were repealed in November 2021.