The government is considering a separate examination to fill vacancies in the IPS, but senior police officers see behind this move a conspiracy to lower the status of the police service vis-a-vis the IAS.
THE Union Home Ministry is in active consultation with State governments to institute a separate recruitment examination for Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. The government is of the opinion that policing is different from the responsibilities of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and other Class 1 services and that those recruited for the police service should be tested for their aptitude for and attitude towards policing. A senior Home Ministry official in charge of police recruitment and training said, We are aware that IPS recruits should be tested separately for their suitability for the job. But since the IPS is an all-India service, we cannot take a decision unilaterally. We have to take the State governments into our confidence, and that process is already under way. A government committee, too, has examined the issue, and now the matter is being deliberated upon by the UPSC [Union Public Service Commission]. Hopefully, a solution will emerge soon.
A senior official of the UPSC confirmed that it was actively considering the matter and that an internal committee was examining the format of the proposed examination. Refusing to commit to a time frame, he said that the issue was being examined with great urgency. In fact, he said, the commission was looking at all the all-India services and was in the process of deciding whether a total overhaul of the Civil Services main examination pattern was called for. Even other Group A services like the revenue services may need a specific aptitude, so we are looking at the issue in its entirety. It is possible that the entire Civil Services main examination will be revamped to better target suitable candidates for various jobs. For the IPS it could be a totally different examination, he said.
The exercise was begun after a department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Venkaiah Naidu, strongly recommended holding a separate examination for the IPS where the attitude and aptitude of candidates must be thoroughly tested besides their mental make-up and inclination for policing. The committee directed the government to impress upon the UPSC the need to start the exercise in consultation with the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), Hyderabad.
Huge shortfallThe committee found a huge shortfall in the number of IPS officers in the country, which is especially worrying as internal security has emerged as a major challenge. Senior Home Ministry officials say it is essential that the security set-up does not lag in any respect. According to details submitted by the Home Ministry, as on January 1, 2011, there were only 2,515 direct recruitment officers in the country against the authorised strength of 3,270. And in the promotion quota, against the authorised strength of 1,450, there were only 878 officers. Thus, a total of 1,327 posts of IPS officers were lying vacant. In addition to this, according to the Ministry, 1,455 posts would fall vacant by 2021 as officers retired: 174 in 2012, 158 in 2013, 151 in 2014, 167 in 2015, 172 in 2016, 144 in 2017, 129 in 2018, 119 in 2019, 130 in 2020 and 111 in 2021. The Ministry admitted to the committee that the situation was serious and needed quick solutions. The problem, it informed the committee, had been compounded by the fact that for some inexplicable reason, from 1999 to 2003, the number of IPS recruitments through the Civil Services examination had whittled down considerably.
This had been highlighted by the Kamal Kumar Committee, appointed in 2008 by the then Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram. The committee had highlighted the fact that only 36 IPS officers were recruited each year from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, the number was marginally increased to 56. It was only in 2004 that the intake was increased to 88, but by then a huge gap had been created. The committee was tasked with gauging the exact status of the security set-up in the country and was assisted by Prof. S. Ramnarayan of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, a human resource consultant. It submitted its report in October 2009, titled Recruitment Plan (2009-2020) for Indian Police Service. The committee found out that the shortage had worsened as many IPS recruits had dropped out: from 2002 to 2006, a total of 53 IPS recruits had dropped out.
The Kamal Kumar committee recommended several steps, including a limited competitive examination for direct recruitment to the IPS from State police cadre, Central police organisations, and defence personnel of persons who had completed five years of service and were below 35 years of age. The idea was that since they had a similar job profile, they could be deployed to field areas after a short training period.
UPSC resistanceThe UPSC initially resisted this proposal. The matter dragged on for almost one year, until the Prime Ministers Office intervened and almost ordered the UPSC to go ahead with the limited competitive examination, which took place in May this year. The direct recruits are likely to be posted any time now.
It has been in this context that the parliamentary committee examined the issue of recruitment of IPS officers. This committee also decided that vacancies were created because many recruits dropped out of the IPS when they got selected for jobs that they felt were better, such as positions in the IAS. The committee was of the opinion that holding the limited competitive examination, through which 80 officers could be appointed, and increasing the intake through the Civil Services route to 150 every year might not be adequate, and there needed to be a change in the examination system itself.
The parliamentary committee noted: The committee is of the view that the examination system for recruiting IPS officers, who head the police organisations of the States\UTs [Union Territories] and Central police forces, is not proper. The committee is aware of the fact that the UPSC conducts examinations for various group A services and Indian Police Service is one of them. The people aspiring for IPS do not know whether they will get into this or not. In the same way, the people not interested in IPS do not know whether they will get IPS or other services. The committee understands that the candidates opting for police service have to have/should have a different attitude, which this examination system is not able to guarantee. It has been seen that people who do not like policing get into IPS. The committee recommends the government to explore the possibility of conducting a separate examination of IPS where the attitude and aptitude of the candidate must be thoroughly tested besides their mental make-up and inclination for policing. The government may impress upon the UPSC to conduct a separate examination for recruiting IPS officers and SVPNPA may also be consulted in this regard.
Flip sideThe flip side of the story is that the police fraternity itself is cold to the idea. Several serving police officials, who did not want to be named, described it as a sinister move by the IAS lobby in the government to degrade the police service. According to them, there was a certain dignity and status associated with being a part of the all-India Civil Services examination and once the police service was taken out of this, it would be reduced to second-class citizen status vis-a-vis the IAS, which has been trying to undermine the police service for a long time. Prakash Singh, a former Director General of the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Border Security Force, who is an authority on police-related matters, said the move seemed to have ulterior motives behind it and that was why it did not seem honourable. Once you detach it [the IPS] from the all-India Civil Services, it loses the status it has at present. You become secondary to the IAS. The IAS lobby in the government has adulterated the police service, and now they are trying to totally ruin it, he said categorically. He trashed the vacancy argument. There are many police academies which are capable of training police officers in the same way as the SVPNPA. Why cant they just increase the intake from the main route itself? he asked.
It is obvious that before the government arrives at a final decision, it will have to contend with varying opinions.
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