Can A TA Officer Serve Permanently In Army [Must Read]

Can A TA Officer Serve Permanently In Army? The Territorial Army (TA) is a volunteer force that is recruited and trained to relieve the regular troops from static security duties in the rear areas during operations, like manning of important bridge, guarding lines of communications in the hinterland and security of important installations, supply dumps, etc.

In case of a threat to the security of the country, the TA units may be called upon to augment the resources of the Regular Army units, e.g. some TA units are periodically deployed in the active counter insurgency areas to provide assistance in certain essential static duties.

Territorial Army provided a yeoman service during ‘Operation Pawan’ in Sri Lanka, ‘Operation Rakshak’ in Punjab and J&K, ‘Operation Rhino’ and ‘Operation Bajrang’ in the North East. Moreover, Territorial Army units were actively involved in military operations in 1962, 1965 and 1971.

The second very important task that the TA is trained to do is, to assist the civil administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where life of the communities is affected or the security of the country is threatened.

In an exigency where a section of a particular department goes on a strike or is rendered defunct for whatever reasons, certain departmental Territorial Army units have been raised and they are trained to take on the onerous duties being performed by the railway, IOC, ONGC, telecommunication and General Hospital.

Departmental units came to the aid of the civil authorities during various industrial unrest and natural calamities, most famous being earthquake in Latur (Maharashtra), Uttarkashi and super cyclone in Orissa.

Besides these, certain non-departmental Territorial Army units of infantry battalions and ecological battalions affiliated to various infantry regiments also exist.

The Ecological units have arrested man made environmental degradation by planting 25 million trees over 20,000 hectares of land in Mussoorie hills & Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand), Bikaneer & Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) and ravines of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh.

Historical Background

The Indian Defence Force Act was promulgated in 1917 and it made conscription (compulsory military service) mandatory for all Europeans permanently residing in British India between the ages of 16 and 50.

The Indian Defence Force incorporated the Europeans and Indians in separate sections, i.e. the British and the Indian sections. While Indians joined the force as volunteers, the Europeans were conscripted. The major reason to establish this force was to release regular troops from garrison duties during the First World War.

Later in the year 1920, the Territorial Army was raised by the Britishers. It had two wings, ‘The Auxiliary Force’ for Europeans & Anglo-Indians and ‘The Indian Territorial Force’ for Indian Volunteers.

Territorial Army Act was passed in 1948 and TA was raised after it was formally inaugurated by the first Indian Governor General Shri C Rajagopalachari on 09 Oct 1949, which is celebrated every year as the Prime Minister’s TA Day Parade.

The Territorial Army initially had various types of units such as armoured regiments, infantry battalions, air defence, medical regiments, engineer field park companies, signal regiments, Electronic and Mechanical Engineers (EME) workshops, coast batteries, Army Service Corps GT Coy, ASC Compo Pl, and AMC field ambulances.

By 1972 these units were either disbanded or converted into Regular Army units with the exception of infantry battalions.

The Territorial Army has a present strength of approximately 40,000 first line troops (and 160,000 second line troops).

Is Territorial Army like Regular Army and do the Officers become Permanent?

This is a question which most candidates who are applying for TA will have. Well, Territorial Army is part of the Regular Army, but is an adhoc force that is recruited from already “employed or self-employed” candidates.

The TA units get embodied every year for a two to three months training camp and then, it gets disembodied. The personnel go back to their respective trades in the civil; some of them are banker, lawyer, agriculturists, etc.

The rationale behind the above mentioned exercise is that the personnel get a reorientation training every year, so that they can be suitable employed as and when the need arises, without having to bear their persistent expenditure when not embodied (salary is given only for the period of embodiment).

The good news for the TA aspirants is that since there is a major shortage of officers, most of the officers, who volunteer to continue serving beyond their embodiment period every year, are retained. The promotion of the officers is based on their record of service and the length of active service they put in.

Therefore, the TA officers in the present day context continue to serve and get promoted like other regular officers. The standard embodiment periods include the following:

One month basic training in the first year of commission.

Two months annual training camp every year including the first year.

Three months Post Commissioning training within first two years at IMA Dehradun.

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