The Indian Army on Saturday clarified that it has proposed the shifting of the training of its Technical Entry Scheme (TES) course from Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun.
"Indian Army has proposed Technical Entry Scheme (TES) training at OTA Gaya to be shifted to IMA Dehradun. This is aimed at optimising the training infrastructure at IMA. Talks and rumours of the closure of TES entry are wrong. TES will continue," tweeted Indian Army.
"Contrary to some media reports that OTA, Gaya is closing the fact remains that only Technical Entry Scheme (TES) training may be shifted to Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun once the proposal is accepted by the Defence Ministry," stated Army officials.
This means that the scheme, which allows selected 10+2 students from the science stream to pursue career opportunities in the technical branches in the Army, shall continue without any disruption, they added.
"Army has proposed shifting of TES training to IMA Dehradun and there are good reasons for it," said a senior Army officer.
According to Army, training infrastructure of IMA, OTA Chennai and OTA Gaya both remain underutilized due to shortage in the number of cadets.
"IMA, Dehradun has the capacity of 1600 cadets every year but trains just 1350 and OTA Chennai has the capacity of 800 cadets per year but has 350 cadets per year. OTA Gaya capacity stands at 700 cadets and this remains under-utilised," argued the Officials.
"The idea is to optimize the training infrastructure and train at full strength' said a senior Army officer.
Meanwhile, in another proposal which is under active consideration, Indian Army is planning to streamline the induction of officers by limiting the entry to just four streams i.e. through the National Defence Academy (NDA), through the Army Cadet College (ACC), Technical Entry Scheme (TES) and the Short Service (SS) scheme.
Currently, there are seven schemes with varying training terms and entry requirements running concurrently, resulting in administrative issues.
'In the emerging technology-intensive environment, Technical Entry Scheme is essential and has due primacy. Technical Entry Scheme will remain our focus for better absorption of technology in the Army. The TES entry shall always be there. Talk of the TES entry closure is wrong', said the senior Army officer.
It has been further clarified that the space vacated by the cadets at OTA Gaya will be occupied by the Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre which is currently co-located with the Rajput Regimental Centre at Fatehgarh, UP
( With inputs from ANI )