New Delhi:Over one lakh positions are vacant in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Assam Rifles (AR), Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. The total posted strength of CAPF and AR was 9,48,204 as on September 30, according to the Union Home Ministry data.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the government is taking steps to fill the vacancies expeditiously. It has created 71,231 new posts in the CAPFs and AR in the last five years, according to the data provided by Rai in a written response to a question.
The minister said vacancies in CAPFs and AR arise on account of retirements, resignations, promotions, deaths, the raising of a new battalion, the creation of new posts, etc, and filling them up is a continuous process.
The data showed that 1,00,204 posts are vacant in CAPFs and AR with 33,730 vacancies in CRPF; 31,782 in CISF; 12,808 in BSF; 9,861 in ITBP; 8,646 in SSB and 3,377 in AR as on October 30.
“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 minister said.
He said the government has taken several steps to increase intake like a reduction in the time taken for medical examination to expedite the recruitment, lowering the cut-off marks for short-listing candidates for Constable-GD to get sufficient candidates (especially in categories where shortfalls have been observed).