More than 28,000 vacancies in Telangana police services

Hyderabad: Even as the rate of unemployment is rising in the country, several government posts are still remaining vacant. There are 28,000 vacancies in the Telangana police services. The state police is operating with just slightly more than half of the sanctioned number of officers. There are 53,115 officers against the sanctioned 81,647, which means almost 35 per cent of seats in the state police department is vacant.

Among the south-Indian states, Telangana has the highest number of vacancies in the police forces. Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, has 12,198 vacancies against the 73,366 sanctioned posts, which comes to about 16 per cent. At the national level, Telangana is fourth regarding the number of vacancies in the police forces, while Uttar Pradesh tops the list with the most number of vacancies. West Bengal and Bihar follow UP with vacancies of more than 50,000.

In the case of vacancies yet to be filled, Karnataka is second on the list with around 23 per cent vacancies. Kerala and Tamil Nadu recorded 12 per cent and 11 per cent vacancies, respectively. Meanwhile, the north-eastern state of Nagaland showed a surplus of 1,108 posts against its sanctioned police strength.

The lack of adequate police personnel in Telangana is indicative of several administrative and bureaucratic lapses in the state, said officials. Speaking to NewsMeter, a police officer said, “It’s mainly because of the lack of budget and lack of initiation from the government. Earlier in September, the Telangana state-level police recruitment board had carried out a provisional selection for the posts of stipendiary cadet trainees (SCT) police constable and equivalent. It is an ongoing process but it needs to be done faster."

Interestingly, in a report released in July 2019, the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) had revealed that Telangana had just one cop for every 760 people as against the national average of one cop for 518 people. However, for one VIP in Telangana, there are 14 police personnel.