People-police ratio dips below UN norm

There has, however, been an increase in the ratio to 154 personnel for every one lakh people, compared to the earlier years. The Union Home Ministry recently said: “...Karnataka’s police-population ratio was 133.92 as of January 2009, while Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala had  the ration of 134.51, 122.63 and 113.76, respectively.

In fact, not many states have been able to meet the UN norm. And those that have met have overshot the target by a large margin and have had the tradition of enrolling many personnel in the police force.

For example, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, the Rajya Sabha reply said, had the ratio of 1084.99, 1034.68 and 936.69, respectively, forming the highest in the country.  Jammu and Kashmir, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim are in the next three places with 656, 632 and 602.

On whether it is the financial constraints or the lack of willingness that is preventing the department from recruiting, or people from enrolling in the police force, senior officials said the reason was neither in entirety.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, former ADGP (Administration) G A Gaonkar said: “We are in the process of recruiting 4,000 constables and the process to recruit 4,000 personnel for the Karnataka State Reserve Police.”

Besides, he said about 400 sub-inspectors were already being trained and will be reporting to various stations spread across the State soon.

Stating that the department does not have to take any permission from the Finance Department to recruit new personnel, Gaonkar said Karnataka’s recruitment rate was on a par with, if not better than the other states.

Yet, currently, out of the 92,335 posts sanctioned in the State, close to 17,000 posts are vacant, including some senior positions. According to the latest information provided by the department, there are 19,483 posts that are filled in Bangalore and 1,362, 2,632 and 1,998 posts in Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad, respectively.  The remaining posts are spread across the State.

Quality of force
Further, Gaonkar said: “We understand the UN norm, but it is not always about the numbers; it is about the quality of our forces. And Karnataka, like our history suggests, has had a good set of officers and personnel.”

With a new training centre inaugurated recently, and a new KSRP battalion (with an average of  1,000 personnel) also coming, the situation of the State department looks good.