Over 2.5 lakh vacancies in police forces

More than 2.5 lakh posts were lying vacant in the police forces of different states and Union territories, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

According to the data as on January 1, 2008 furnished by Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran in a written reply to a question, there were about 2.67 lakh vacant posts in the police forces across the country.

A highest of 49,252 posts were lying vacant in Maharashtra, 36,760 in Jammu and Kashmir, 22, 267 in Uttar Pradesh and 22,113 in Bihar, he said.

The Minister said there were 19,268 vacant posts in Andhra Pradesh, 17,453 in Karnataka, 14,867 in Chhattisgarh, 14,448 in Tamil Nadu, 13,007 in West Bengal and 12,030 in Delhi.

"As such, the responsibility to fill up the vacancies in police rest with the respective State Governments. They have been advised from time to time in various forums in the Ministry to fill up the existing vacancies in police forces," Ramachandran said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has been supplementing the resources of the state governments for upgradation and modernisation of their police forces (MPF Scheme), he said.