CBI under-staffed and so is India's Defence

By Vijay Kumar

While the CBI is at the receiving end, for incompetent handling of the Bofors and Shibu Shoren cases, the Minister informed the Lok sabha yesterday that the premier investigation agency is grossly understaffed with over 22% of the posts vacant. As against the sanctioned strength of 5959 in the CBI, the number of vacant posts is 1341.

With effective use and deployment of existing personnel, the vacancies have not affected the performance of the CBI adversely, according to the minister.

In order to attract officers to join CBI, the Government has introduced a Special Incentive Allowance to all the officers from Constable to Director level in the CBI. The Recruitment Rules of various posts are also amended, as and when necessary to ensure that vacancies are filled up speedily.

Equally bad is the vacancy position in the Indian Army Navy and Air Force where also there is a more than 20% shortage.

But for some strange reason, there seems to be no shortage of Revenue officers in the country – they are all over the place.