The Centre on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that there are 84,659 vacancies in the Central Armed Police Forces and the Assam Rifles, which it aims to fill by December 2023.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai gave the data in response to a question by Congress MP Deepak Baij, Trinamool Congress’ Mimi Chakraborty and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt.
According to the government, out of the total vacancies, 27,510 are in the Central Reserve Police Force, 23, 435 in the Border Security Force, 11,765 in Central Industrial Security Force, 11,143 in the Sashastra Seema Bal, 6,044 in the Assam Rifles and 4,762 within the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
In his reply, Rai told the House that 10% of the vacancies in the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles are reserved for retired members of the armed forces. Another 10% of the vacancies will be reserved for Agniveer recruits, he added.
Recruits to the Centre’s newly-announced Agnipath scheme are called Agniveers.
Under the Agnipath scheme, citizens aged between 17 and-a-half and 21 years will be eligible to apply for a four-year service in the military. However, of these recruits, only 25% will be eligible to apply as regular personnel after they complete their four-year service.
On June 18, the Union home and defence ministries had announced a 10% job quota in the two departments for those who do not get selected for permanent recruitment in the armed forces.
The decision was made amid violent protests across the country against the short-term recruitment scheme for the armed forces. Protestors demanded permanent recruitment under the regular process, along with pension and other retirement benefits that are not part of the Agnipath scheme.
In his reply on Tuesday, Rai said that the Centre has already conducted examinations to fill 25,271 posts of constable (general duty) in the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles.
He also gave data on the number of persons recruited in the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles since 2017.
According to Rai, a total of 1,19,717 persons have been recruited in the Central Reserve Police Force, 31,188 in the Sashastra Seema Bal, 32,486 in the Border Security Force, 12,551 in Central Industrial Security Force, 6,187 in the Assam Rifles and 5,965 within the Indo-Tibetan Border Police till date.
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