As vacancies in the State Police cross 5 lakh, Supreme Court steps in
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 29, 2017
The number of vacancies in the police forces of various states has crossed 5 lakh, with UP alone accounting for 1/3rd of these vacancies. The Supreme Court, while hearing a PIL directed 9 state governments with most vacancies to submit a roadmap to fill up the existing vacancies.
The Supreme Court (SC) recently approved the plan submitted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to recruit 30000 police constables annually for 4 years starting from 2017. The SC was hearing a PIL filed by one Mr. Manish Kumar (WP(Civil) 183/2013) about the rising vacancies in police forces of various states. As per data shared by the government in the Lok Sabha, the vacancies in police force of various state has crossed 5 lakh as of December 2016.
More than 1.8 lakh posts vacant in UP
Among the states, UP with 1.81 lakh has the highest number of vacancies in the country. In fact, the vacancies in the UP Police account for 1/3rd of all the vacancies in the country. About 15 states have more than 10000 vacancies each while 8 states have more than 20000 vacancies each. The four states of UP, Karnataka, West Bengal & Gujarat have more than 30000 vacancies each.
Even in terms of the percentage of vacancies, UP has more than 50% vacancies which is more than twice the national average. Five (5) states including UP have more than 30% vacancies.
Among the bigger states, West Bengal has the lowest number Civil Police per lakh People
Among the bigger states, West Bengal has only 58.7 civil police per lakh people, almost half the national average of 108. UP only has 72 civil police per lakh people while the sanctioned number is 151 per lakh people. There are also wide variations in the number of sanctioned civil police per lakh people among various states. While a state like Punjab has 213 sanctioned civil police per lakh people, West Bengal has only 90 sanctioned civil police per lakh people.
SC approves the plans submitted by UP, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu
The SC while hearing the PIL about the growing number of vacancies in the state police force had earlier issued notices to the states of UP, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand & Tamil Nadu and asked them to submit a definite road map for the filling up these vacancies.
In response to the SC notice, the Principal Secretary of the UP Home department submitted that they would fill all the vacancies by 2020 recruiting 30000 constables annually starting 2017. The SC also directed the UP government not to change the Chairman of the Police Recruitment and Selection Board till the entire process is over.
Karnataka also submitted to the SC that the state would fill up all the vacancies by 2019. The Tamil Nadu government on the other hand assured the SC that all vacancies will be filled up by April 2018. The SC asked the governments of West Bengal, Bihar & Jharkhand to submit a road map by 1st May 2017. Along with these states, the SC also issued notices to the governments of Gujarat, Telangana & Rajasthan and asked to submit a road map for filling up the vacancies.
Featured Image: Vacancies in the State Police