Police recruitment drive initiated in Karnataka

September 11, 2013 03:11 am | Updated June 07, 2016 07:53 am IST - BANGALORE:

"The effort now is to raise police-people ratio to at least one policeman to a population of 500," K. J. George said.

"The effort now is to raise police-people ratio to at least one policeman to a population of 500," K. J. George said.

The Home Department has initiated a police recruitment drive to fill up a large part of the existing vacancies and thereafter, augment the strength of the police which has been static for nearly a decade irrespective of the increase in population.

Minister for Home K.J. George told The Hindu that “I am keen on ensuring effective policing and it will have a direct impact resulting in a better interface between the people and the police. Of the nearly 20,000 vacancies (largely that of police constables and sub-inspectors), directions have been issued to recruit nearly a half of them right away. Compared to 3,731 police constables recruited in 2012, over 8,000 constables will be recruited this year”.

If Bangalore has become internationally famous for information technology and other sectors, it should be noted that the police of Bangalore have a tough task on hand in meeting the expectations of the people in providing them adequate safety. With nearly a sixth of the population of the State residing in Bangalore, the focus is on augmenting the police force to prevent the variety and quantum of offences being perpetrated in Bangalore.

It is another matter that recruitment of police constables and their commissioning into service takes nearly two years (six months to recruit and another one year to train) as they have to be put through a stringent process of training while in the case of sub-inspectors, the period of training is two years.

For a population of nearly 6.30 crore, the strength of the police force is 94,762 which works out to one member of the police for every 650 of population and is way below the ratio in the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu (one for every 608), Maharashtra (614) and Andhra Pradesh (642). The effort now is to raise it to at least one police personnel to a population of 500.

The Minister said that it is a happy augury that the people of the State are, by and large, peaceful and it obviously reflects on law and order. Steps are also being taken to augment the strength of the special police force, particularly the Anti-Naxal Squad, the Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Special Intelligence Wing.

Training academy

At present, there is one police training academy in the State, one training college and four permanent training institutes apart from the 19 temporary police training schools established in various districts and the police commissionerates of Bangalore, Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad.

Mr. George said, “We are utilising the services of KSRP personnel to maintain law and order. There are 13 battalions of the Karnataka State Reserve Police with 1,000 personnel each but they cannot be put on routine police work. The 13th battalion of the KSRP was commissioned sometime ago after rigorous training at Koppal.”

“Directions have been issued to the police to extensively videograph the various public events which in itself should have a deterrent effect. This will also help collect evidence in case any crime is committed or public order is disturbed. A check on anti-social activities will go a long way in ensuring that law and order problems are not triggered and if they are triggered they are quickly brought under control,” he said.

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