Scotching fear that there was dearth of officers Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said that there was no shortage of good officers in the defence services who are competent enough to protect the frontiers of the country.
‘’ There was shortage of officers now. A few years back but now we have doubled the appointment to cover up the shortage,’’ he told a select group of reporters here on Tuesday.
He said a couple of years back there was a shortage of around 8000 officers in the defence services against the total strength of 37,000 officers. But now the total strengthen of the officers has been increased to 47,000 and there are around 39,000 officers at present.
‘’ We will bridge the gap within next couple of years as every year we are adding more than 1500 officers in the defence services,’’ he said.
Parrikar, however refused to make any political comment on the matter related to BJP. ‘’I am not so strong in politics like other UP politicians and hence would not reply to any political questions,’’ Parrikar said.
Parrikar, who is Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh said that as a representative of this state he should adopt all the villages of the state under the Adarsh Gram Yojna. ‘’ Certainly, I will do something for the state and will use the funds to develop villages,’’ he added.