Shortage of Majors & Captains in units, Army may cut HQ postings

A staff appointment refers to posting in a headquarters where the officer handles policy and coordination of various subjects, as against a unit appointment where the officer is primarily responsible for operations and ground actions.

The exposure to staff appointments prepares them for subsequent command appointments in the course of their service.

At present, there is a shortage of 8,129 officers in the Army, including Army Medical Corps and Army Dental Corps. In the Navy and the Indian Air Force, there is a shortage of 1,653 and 721 officers, respectively.

Taking note of this shortage of officers, the Army had earlier posted 461 non-empanelled officers to certain staff appointments wherever possible.

The current proposal also involves temporarily cutting down some of these staff appointments in headquarters until the shortage of officers in the force is reduced.

Towards this, it is being proposed that these junior and mid-level officers, currently posted in staff appointments in various headquarters, be posted out without relief once they complete their slated tenure of 24 months.

According to officials, the Army is considering posting re-employed officers for such appointments. Re-employed officers are those who serve in the Army for two to four years after their retirement from the service and are in the ranks of Brigadier and Colonels.

While officers retiring from the service are re-employed to tackle shortage of officers in the Army, they serve in appointments meant for a rank below their retiring rank. Most retire as Colonels and Brigadiers and serve in appointments meant for Lt Colonels and Colonels, while very few who retire as Lt Colonels get appointments meant for Majors.

The Army has around 600 re-employed officers at present. Re-employment in the Army is voluntary.

Re-employed officers are much senior to the existing staff officers and some of them would have already held such appointments 20-25 years ago. “Thus, it will be possible to post them only in select appointments,” an official said.