The six paramilitary forces have a shortage of at least 1,09,868 personnel against its sanctioned strength, the home ministry informed the Parliament in reply to a question by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O Brien.
The reply by Nityanand Rai, minister of state for home in the home ministry, showed that the current shortage is the highest since 2021. To be sure, Rai in his reply denied that there is a huge vacancy and said that “presently 72,689 vacancies of various posts have been notified for recruitment, which are underway.”
The six paramilitary forces mentioned in the reply are Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). The shortage last year was 64,897 and in 2023 it was 84,374. The numbers for 2022 and 2021 were 68,674 and 109,174.
The CRPF had the most number of vacancies at 34,869, followed by CISF at 33,847 and ITBP at 15,035. To be sure, CRPF is also the largest paramilitary force with a sanctioned strength of 3,30,893 followed by BSF at 2,72,447 and CISF with sanctioned strength of 1,93,970 posts.
The ITBP has 1,03,622, SSB has 1,00,548, and Assam Rifles 65,540 posts.
The paramilitary forces are posted in the country’s internal security, law and order problems, guarding the country’s borders and are also engaged during special security assignments such as the ongoing Amarnath Yatra. Each force is given a separate task during such assignment. Collectively they have a total sanctioned strength of over a million (1,067,110).
“Vacancies in CAPFs & AR arise on account of retirements, resignation, promotion, death, new raising of Battalion, creation of new posts etc. Filling up vacancies is a continuous process. The Ministry has been taking and will continue to take earnest steps to fill up the vacancies expeditiously through UPSC, SSC and the forces concerned. The Government has taken inter alia the following further steps to fill up the vacancies expeditiously,” Rai said.
The minister also said that directions have been issued to all CAPFs to undertake recruitments against vacant posts in a time-bound manner.
“Time taken in the medical examination has been reduced to expedite the recruitment. Cut off marks for shortlisting of candidates for Constable/GD has been lowered in order to get sufficient candidates(especially in categories where shortfalls have been observed,” he said in his reply.