Akshay Azad
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 7: J&K is facing acute shortage of senior police officers as nearly 33 percent posts of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are vacant, affecting the working of already overburdened police organisation.
According to the Home Department, as on January 1, 2015, J&K had 49 vacant posts of IPS officers. Against the sanctioned strength of 147, only 98 officers were in place.
Out of the total posts of 147, 80 are filled by direct quota while the remaining are filled through induction. But due to lack of direct quota officers, many junior level officers have been holding senior posts.
"As per rules, only IPS officers can be appointed as district chiefs like Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Superintendent of Police (SP), but in J&K non-IPS officers are also appointed on these posts," sources told Early Times.
They said that due to shortage of IPS officers, many posts of SPs and SSPs were occupied by non-IPS officers. "The previous government had posted Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officers on these posts, which is in violation of the norms," the sources said.
The shortage of IPS officers has been plaguing the state for many years, and to tackle the issue the previous government had contemplated to bring an SRO to regulate the cadre of KPS officers at par with IPS officers. |
