The state force, which rushes to the aid of victims during disasters and natural calamities, is now seeking help from the government.
Despite repeated reminders, the government had not deputed officers belonging to the Indian Police Service to the department of fire and emergency services, home guards and civil defence. Jija Madhavan Hari Singh, the director general of police in-charge of the department, said that the lack of IPS officers had affected its functioning.
“The department should have four IPS officers. But now, there is just one IPS officer in the rank of DIG. There are vacancies for an IGP, DIG and an SP rank officer. Out of this, the IGP is the deputy commandant general and the DIG is the additional commandant general, and these two are important posts,” she said.
Hari Singh said that the IGP and DIG were expected to co-ordinate and supervise the functioning of the department to ensure better output. Currently, the DIG and DGP were taking up those responsibilities.
The department had made several requests to the government and the state director general of police, seeking the appointment of IPS officers. However, no positive response was received so far.
The government, meanwhile, had sanctioned an increase in the department’s staff strength from 5,000 to 6,800 officers. “There is a need for IPS officers as they have to oversee training, enrollment and deployment of the staff of all these wings. During the Bellary building collapse, there were no senior officers to co-ordinate or guide the rescue team,” Hari Singh said.
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