Over 40,000 vacancies in Indian paramilitary forces

On a day the General VK Singh’s views on the army’s preparedness became public, a minister said that over 40,000 vacancies were present in two of India’s largest paramilitary forces. Two of the largest paramilitary forces in the country- Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have 40, 000 vacant posts, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home, told Parliament on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_258708” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The BSF and CISF are the two biggest paramilitary forces in the country. Reuters”]  [/caption] BSF, one of the world’s largest border patrol forces and under administrative control of Ministry of Home Affairs, has more than 24,000 vacancies. This includes 1,184 posts for gazetted officers and 3,178 vacancies for subordinate officers. BSF is short of 20048 personnel for other ranks. Among the regions the BSF are deployed in include the Indo-Bangladesh border. CISF has 17,149 vacant posts. The central force is responsible for the security of many strategic points in the country including Indira Gandhi International airport and Delhi Metro. Rank- wise distribution of vacancies shows that CISF needs 196 officers, 4,149 subordinate officers. There are 12,794 posts for other ranks. “To fill up the vacancies, regular recruitment in the BSF and the CISF is conducted taking into account the anticipated vacancies due to superannuation of personnel, voluntary retirements, resignations and any requirement of additional personnel on account of augmentations and inductions,” Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home said.