908 posts of IPS officers lying vacant

New Delhi, March 20: More than 900 Indian Police Service posts are lying vacant across the country with the highest number being in Uttar Pradesh, where 114 positions of senior police officers are yet to be filled.

There is a shortage of 908 IPS officers in the country as on January 1, 2016, out of a sanctioned strength of 4,802 personnel, Home Ministry data shows.

At present, 3,894 IPS officers are in service while 140 probationers of the 2015 batch are undergoing training. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, has 114 IPS vacancies with the sanctioned strength being 517 while West Bengal has 88 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 347. There are 79 vacancies in Odisha, where there are 188 IPS posts while 72 posts in Karnataka (sanctioned strength 215) are yet to be filled.

"The gap is huge considering the fact of the country's ever-increasing population. We are trying to recruit more and more officers in IPS every year," a senior Home Ministry official said.

The government's efforts to mitigate the shortage of IPS officers by holding Limited Competitive Examination was stalled due to a number of litigations in different courts.

Officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police of State Police Services, Assistant Commandants of Central Paramilitary Forces and Captains and Majors of Defence Forces fulfilling certain criteria were eligible for appearing in the said examination.

"A large number of court cases have been filed against Home Ministry, UPSC, Department of Personnel and Training and Ministry of Defence challenging various aspects of the scheme. "At present, the matter is sub-judice," the official said.

Among the other states where there are a large number of vacancies of IPS officers are Maharashtra (63 vacancies, sanctioned strength 302 officers), Madhya Pradesh (56 vacancies, sanctioned strength 305), Jammu and Kashmir (56 vacancies, sanctioned strength 147) and Union Territories (50 vacancies, sanctioned strength 295).

PTI