There are 83,127 vacancies in the Central Armed Police Forces, the Centre told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, adding that it aims to fill the positions by the end of the year.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai made the statement in response to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sushil Modi and Congress MP KC Venugopal.
According to the government, out of the total vacancies, 29,283 are in the Central Reserve Police Force, 19,987 in the Border Security Force, 19,475 in Central Industrial Security Force, 8,273 in the Sashastra Seema Bal, 1,666 in the Assam Rifles and 4,443 in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
“The recruitment is being undertaken in mission mode to fill up these vacancies and it is planned to complete it in 2023,” Rai said. “It may also be mentioned that 32,181 persons between July 2022 to January 2023 have been recruited. Further, 64,444 vacancies have been notified and are at different stages of recruitment.”
In his reply, Rai also told the Upper House that the total number of women in the Central Armed Police Forces and the Assam Rifles has increased from 27,047 in 2019 to 35,074 in 2023.
On Tuesday, the minister had told the Lok Sabha about some of the steps taken by the government to fill up the vacancies.
This included a reduction in the time taken in medical examination and the lowering of cut-off marks for shortlisting candidates for constable and general duty staff.
“A decision has been taken to reserve 10% of vacancies for ex-Agniveers in the recruitment to the post of constable [general duty]/rifleman in the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles,” he added. “Further, a provision has been made for relaxation in the upper age limit and exemption from the physical efficiency test.”
Recruits to the Central government’s Agnipath scheme are called Agniveers.
Under the Agnipath scheme, citizens aged between 17 and-a-half and 21 years are eligible to apply for a four-year service in the military. However, of these recruits, only 25% would be eligible to apply as regular personnel after they complete their four-year service.
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