WHILE the internal security situation continues to be alarming, the required infrastructure, most importantly the manpower to manage the security apparatus, is woefully inadequate in the country. Since 1999, the number of officers available for security operations has dwindled, fresh recruitments have slowed down, vacancies at senior levels against promotions have increased and many key operational posts have remained unoccupied. Surprisingly, this went unnoticed and unattended until P. Chidambaram assumed charge as Union Home Minister in November 2008. Shocked by the extent of neglect, he set up a committee, headed by a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Kamal Kumar, to map the status of the security set-up.
The report, submitted in October last year, threw up startling facts about the internal security mechanism. Titled Recruitment Plan for Indian Police Service (2009-2020), it was prepared with assistance from the human resource consultant Prof. S. Ramnarayan of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. It basically dealt with the following tasks:
Ascertain the exact shortage of vacancies existing in the different State cadre of the services vis-a-vis the current authorised strength of each cadre;
Make a realistic assessment of the number of officers required over the next 10-11 years to man the senior positions in the State police forces and the Central police organisations (CPOs) taking into consideration the large number of ex-cadre posts being operated by various States in their respective cadre structures of the IPS and the expansion plans of different States and CPOs;
Assess the status of utilisation of the Central Deputation Reserve component of the IPS cadre strength, identify problems, if any, in administering the same, and figure out the measures needed to redress such problems;
Assess the utilisation of the State Deputation Reserve;
Elaborate a recruitment plan, on the basis of the above aspects, for 2009-20, duly suggesting measures required to be taken in the immediate, medium and long terms;
Review the status of occupancy of the promotion posts and suggest measures to fill up vacant posts;
Identify factors contributing to the accumulation of vacancies and suggest measures to obviate them; and
Review the existing policy framework for its adequacy in meeting the quantitative and qualitative requirements of manpower in the IPS, in keeping with the existing demands of the internal security situation.
The committee, after painstakingly collecting data from all the States and consulting human resource experts, came to the conclusion that the processes involved in manpower planning for internal security organisations, especially for the IPS, were full of inadequacies and inefficacies, resulting in a severe manpower shortage. For inexplicable reasons, the total direct intake, the study pointed out, had been illogically low over the years. For example, in 1998, the total cadre strength of the IPS was 3,442 and the authorised strength of direct recruitment quota was 2,564. The annual average rate of attrition due to superannuation worked out to 85. Thus, even if further expansion was not carried out, at least 85 new recruitments should have taken place. But shockingly, only 36 IPS officers were recruited each year from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, this number was marginally increased to 56. It was only in 2004 that the intake was increased to 88. But by this time, a huge gap had been created in the number of posts sanctioned and the number of officers recruited.
The problem got compounded as many recruits dropped out. Between 2002 and 2006, 53 IPS recruits dropped out.
The committee also found that the assessment of the cadre strength of a State was done in an extremely unscientific manner, with the result that the authorised cadre strength fell far too short of the actual ground-level requirements, in view of the volume of crime or the internal security problem.
According to the study, as on January 1, 2009, the shortfall in directly recruited IPS officers was 657, that is, 414 recruited through examinations and 243 against the promotion quota. Taking into account the expansion plans of the State police organisations and an increase in cadre strength due to encadrement of ex-cadre posts, the shortfall worked out to 1,694, including 914 vacancies due to encadrement and 123 due to expansion plans, in addition to direct recruitment vacancies of 657.
A look at the State-wise break-up of the vacancies is an eye-opener. Uttar Pradesh, with a shortfall of 69 IPS officers, has been the worst hit, followed by Orissa, which has a shortage of 62 officers. Significantly, both U.P. and Orissa are grappling with terrorism and naxalism. Other large States, such as West Bengal with a shortage of 59 IPS officers and Tamil Nadu which is short of 50, have also not fared much better. Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which have some internal security problem or the other all through the year, have also been facing a severe shortage of IPS officers.
This crunch has been felt not only with regard to maintaining law and order in the States; even the CPOs, which play a crucial role in safeguarding the countrys internal security and supplement the role and effort of State police organisations, have been facing a shortage of IPS officers to man key operational positions. The extent of the problem can be gauged from the fact that the Intelligence Bureau, the eyes and ears of the internal security infrastructure, is short of 84 officers as against the sanctioned strength of 194.
Similarly, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the premier crime investigating agency, has 69 IPS officers against the sanctioned requirement of 102. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which plays a major role in fighting left-wing extremism and in carrying out counter-insurgency operations, has a shortage of 26 officers against its required strength of 48. Similarly, the Border Security Force (BSF), which mans the countrys long borders, makes do with only 21 officers when it needs 39. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which has the task of protecting key industrial organisations besides the major airports, faces a shortage of seven officers; it manages with only 15. Other CPOs, such as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the National Security Guard, too, face a manpower crunch in varying degrees.
All this means compromising the quality of our security set-up as officers get saddled with multifarious responsibilities, which affects the performance at the cutting-edge level of operations, said a senior Home Ministry official.
Compounding the problem is the contentious issue whether candidates belonging to reserved categories selected for the Civil Services on merit should be appointed to reserved posts or under the general quota. Since 2005, 276 Civil Service recruits could not be given posting as Rule 16 (2) of the Civil Services Examination Rules has been challenged in court and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court. Rule 16 (2), as amended in 2005, mandates that a reserved category candidate selected on merit as unreserved or general category can be considered as reserved category for the purpose of allocation of post on preferential basis. This rule was held unconstitutional by the Madras High Court, leading to the filing of appeals against it by the Centre and the aggrieved candidates. The verdict in the case has been reserved since August 2009.
One of the serious implications of this has been that many key IPS posts have remained vacant. For example, 82 per cent of the police posts for Delhi and Andaman & Nicobar Islands Police Service, called DANIPS, have remained unfilled. Only six posts have been filled against 34 vacancies since 2005.
While the government is unable to do anything with regard to the issue pending disposal in the apex court, it has decided to do the doable, as a Home Ministry official put it. One of the key recommendations of the Kamal Kumar Committee is to fill the vacancies by staggered direct recruitment, besides streamlining and expediting promotional quota vacancies and the procedure of encadrement.
It is planned to increase the number of direct IPS recruits through the civil services examination (CSE). Simultaneously, the committee has suggested a limited competitive examination for Deputy Superintendents of Police who are below 45 years of age and have five years of service, at the State-level and for those in equivalent positions in the CPOs. The Home Ministry has approved both the proposals. A limited competitive examination will be held sometime later this year and the Ministry has already notified an increase in the IPS quota in the CSE.
Confirming the move, U.K. Bansal, Special Secretary for Internal Security in the Union Home Ministry, said the proposal was ready to be sent for Cabinet approval. He said that for some inexplicable reasons the government decided in 1998 that the intake of IPS officers should be reduced drastically.
This adversely affected the operational efficacy of the forces, especially at the cutting-edge levels. The emergence of new types of crimes such as cyber crime, money laundering and counterfeiting currency, besides the increasing challenge of terrorism and naxalism, meant a continuous enlargement of the role of the security forces. With the raising of new battalions and specialised forces such as COBRA, there was a need for increasing the number of personnel. But with the reduced intake, a gap was created, which kept increasing, Bansal said.
In normal circumstances, he said, it would take over 21 years to fill the gap, even if the intake of IPS officers was kept at 130 every year. Besides, we cannot hire too many through this channel at one go as down the line the quality goes down. Also, there are limited training facilities at the police academy. Thus, the idea of this special competitive examination has found favour. The only option for us is to recruit those who are already in similar profiles and are similar to IPS officers in education and training. Those who, after a short training, can be immediately deployed, he said.
Bansal said the Kamal Kumar report was referred to for this purpose. The only change the Ministry made was in the upper age limit of officers for recruitment. The committee recommended 45 years; the Ministry has set it at 35. We need young officers who are physically and mentally fit to take on challenging assignments immediately, he said. The idea is to recruit 70 officers every year for the next 10 years. Eligible candidates will be given two chances and will have to write two common papers, which will test their professional knowledge related to policing and their writing ability.
We would like the UPSC [Union Public Service Commission]to conduct the examination. Those inducted into the IPS would be taken with back seniority, with retrospective effect, and would be treated on a par with IPS officers in all respect, he said. He brushed aside possible objections by the IPS Officers Association as foolish apprehensions. Nobodys interest is being compromised. What we are doing is in the national interest. Besides, it is not going to affect their prospects in any way whatsoever, he said.
According to him, along with the increasing intake through direct recruitment, the government has also decided to expedite the frequency of the States cadre review proposals from three to five years to two years. The promotional quota vacancies, too, would be filled up fast, he said.
Once the refurbished machinery is set in motion, one may encounter fewer internal security-related fiascos in the future.
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