Give us more: Gujarat govt seeks 69 IPS officers

The Narendra Modi government, which has been giving much thrust on strengthening the police force in view of terror threats, has sought appointment of 69 more IPS officers in the state. This will help the government to increase the current strength of IPS officers from 161 to 230.

Highly placed sources said: "Considering the growing need of the state's security, law & order issues, increased population and urbanisation, the state government has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs of the central government to increase the IPS strength from the current 161 to at least 230. We are hopeful of due consideration of our request.''

The government is now in the process of recruiting more than 15,000 police personnel to meet the shortfall of the current strength of 65,000. However, there is not adequate number of IPS officers to man the force in leadership positions.

What worries the government most is even in the current strength of 161 officers, there is a shortfall of 40 officers, which comes to 27% of the approved strength. This means there are only 121 IPS officers in the state.

The current strength had been reviewed in 2004 when it was 149. Though security, law and order problems have grown many folds in the past six years, the strength of IPS officers has not been
reviewed.

Sources said, "At present, the total filled up posts are also highly low compared to the approved strength. Of that also some officers are on central deputation, some are non-policing job, and four officers are in jail. The state government has been asking the
Centre to provide at least six IPS officers to the state every year but it has been allotting only two or three officers. Every year, two-three IPS officers retire, so the gap of the required number of IPS officers remains unchanged.

"Many senior officers are holding two or three charges simultaneously due to the crunch. Moreover, there are many competent senior IPS officers who have been put on sidelined posts, which are more or less of administrative nature.''