Nearly 1,100 IPS vacancies across the country

Inaccuracy in recruitment reason for shortage, says official study

Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have the highest number of vacancies of IPS officers in the country. Out of the around 1,100 vacancies, 50 per cent comes from six cadres – UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, AGMUT and Karnataka.

Official figures show that the sanctioned strength of IPS officers is 4,730, while only 3,637 are in position, leaving a vacancy of 23 per cent.

According to latest official statistics, the Intelligence Bureau also has a large number of vacancies. Out of the sanctioned 26,867 posts, there is a vacancy in 8,072, which amounts to around 30 per cent.

Among the vacancies in IPS, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number — 114 out of 489 sanctioned posts. The largest state in the country has the highest number of IPS officers in service: 375.

Maharashtra has 302 sanctioned posts, but the number of officers in roll at present is 201. Vacancies account for 101 in the state which has the Maoist-hit district of Gadchiroli.
West Bengal, which is facing trouble in the law-and-order situation as well as from Maoists, has a shortage of 94 officers. The state is allotted 347 officers.

The AGMUT, the cadre for Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and union territories, has 88 vacancies in its allotted 295 posts, while Odisha has 84 vacancies out of its 188 sanctioned strength.

In Karnataka, the number of vacancies is 70, while the sanctioned strength is 205.

Officials, however, say the rankes have slightly swelled with the induction of 147 IPS probationers. They also pointed out that number of vacancies is coming down if one compares it with previous years. The figure was 1,327 in 2011, before falling to 1,255 last year.

In order to increase the number of IPS officers, the government had introduced an alternate method of recruitment from Army and paramilitary forces, through the Limited Competitive Examination.

Though the test was conducted last year, it ran into legal trouble after the CAT in Guwahati struck it down, following which the Union Home Ministry filed a writ petition in Guwahati High Court. The idea to recruit IPS officers from the forces came after the November 26 attacks in Mumbai.

A Home Ministry study — Recruitment Plan (2009-2020) for Indian Police Service — by former IPS officer Kamal Kumar has noted that lower intake of direct recruits than required for years and inaccuracy in the process of working out the annual requirement of direct recruits are among the reasons for the shortage of officers.

The study had pointed out that the UPSC has to be requested to select 130 candidates for IPS through the annual Civil Services Examination every year till 2020. This rate of recruitment might have to be continued beyond 2020, or might have to be raised further, if and as the cadre strength goes up in future cadre reviews.

In his recommendations, Kumar has highlighted the need for maximal augmentation of IPS seats in Civil Services Examination, Limited Competitive Examination for directly-recruited DySPs of states and their equivalent in CPOs for induction into IPS and appointment of professionals from specialised fields, such as IT and HR, on contract basis for fixed periods.