Question : SHORTAGE OF POLICE PERSONNEL

(a) whether there is shortage of Police personnel in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor alongwith the total number of posts lying vacant, rank and State-wise including Assam and Punjab;

(c) the existing strength and requirement of Police Officers along with the present ratio of police to population separately, State- wise;

(d) whether the police ratio in the country is less than even other under developed nations across the globe;

(e) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken to increase the ratio between police personnel and the population;

(f) whether the State Governments have requested for sanction of additional strength to meet the requirement and if so, the details thereof along with the action taken in this regard; and

(g) the other corrective steps taken to increase the strength of Police personnel and provide proper training to such personnel?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI HARIBHAI PARATHIBHAI CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (g): As per data compiled by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D) , as on 1.1.2014 against total sanctioned strength of 2,283,646 Police personnel in all the States and Union Territories, 1,722,786 personnel were in position leading to a shortfall of 560,860 personnel. Details are at (Annexure-I)

As on 1.4.2014, the sanctioned and actual strength of police personnel at all India level per one lakh population (police – population ratio) has shown wide variations across the country. Sparsely populated States such as Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram etc. have the maximum police population ratio as compared to the national average of 185 police personnel per lakh of population. (Annexure-II)

To fill up the vacancies of IPS Officers, the batch- wise of IPS (direct recruitment) has been increased from 88 to 103 from Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2005, to CSE, 2008 and to 150 from CSE, 2009. The Government has also introduced a third mode of recruitment to IPS i.e. “Limited Competitive Examination” to recruit 80 candidates annually. Besides the above, the process of appointments to the Indian Police Service by promotion from State Police Service has been accelerated.

As ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects, falling in List II (Entry 1 and 2) of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. It is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments to ensure adequate provision of police personnel in respective States and improve police-population ratio. The Central Government has been advising the States to fill up the vacancies and to initiate a time bound action plan.