GOC-in-C, Western Command, Lt Gen KJ Singh (centre) meets officers and staff of the new Service Selection Centre (North) in Kapurthala on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

As the armed forces continue to grapple with shortage of officers, a new Services Selection Centre (North) became operational today at Kapurthala, near Jalandhar, and is expected to help offset some shortfall.Last month, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had told Parliament that there was a shortage of 9,106 officers (18 per cent) in the Army and 1,265 officers (15 per cent) in the Navy. The Air Force is reported to have negligible deficiency.The Army has drawn up a roadmap to fill the vacancies, but the process is expected to take another six to eight years to bring the shortfall from 18 to 12 per cent. While there is no deficiency in the higher ranks of Colonel and above, the problem lies at the junior officer level that forms the cutting edge. Battalions and regiments remain severely understaffed, raising operational, administrative and psychological issues.The screening and tests for the first batch of 80 candidates commenced today at the new centre. Candidates from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and even Jammu and Kashmir will generally be called here for Service Selection Board (SSB) interviews. These states, according to last year’s figure, contributed over 24 per cent of the total cadets who became officers.The centre consists of two SSBs (No. 31 and No. 32). This is the fourth selection centre to be raised to select aspirants for the Army, the other three being at Bangalore, Allahabad and Bhopal. The Air Force and the Navy have separate SSBs. The Defence Ministry has approved seven new boards across the country, including two each for the Army and the Air Force and three for the Navy.The centre was earlier scheduled to commence functioning from September this year, but its early operationalisation would enable the centre to handle an additional 25 batches. It is expected to function provisionally at Kapurthala Military Station for two years till it is shifted to its proposed permanent location at Ropar where a state-of-the-art campus spread over 200 acres is under construction.Inaugurating the centre, Lt Gen KJ Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, said it was a pending demand of Punjab to open a selection centre in the state as aspirants from the North had to travel to far off places for SSB interview.