PMO opens doors for young army officers to join IPS

The Prime Minister’s Office has opened the doors to allow Captain and Major-rank defence officers to sit for limited departmental examination to join the Indian Police Service to bridge the shortage of IPS officers. Aloke Tikku reports.

The Prime Minister’s Office has opened the doors to allow Captain and Major-rank defence officers to sit for limited departmental examination to join the Indian Police Service to bridge the shortage of IPS officers.

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Government sources said the final recruitment plan cleared by the PMO had permitted army officers from competing with state and paramilitary officers of the rank of deputy Superintendent of Police to join the police service.

The Union Public Service Commission is expected to hold the limited competitive examination for assistant commandant and deputy superintendent of police-rank officers from 2012.

The home ministry was earlier piqued at demands that army officers who join the IPS be ranked higher than other inductees from the police.

Minister of state in the home ministry Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha that the government had finalised the limited competitive examination as the third mode of recruitment to IPS which includes Captain and Major-rank officers of the defence forces.

As on 1 January this year, there were 3,393 IPS officers against an authorised strength of 4,720, leaving a shortage of 1,477 IPS officers. Filling up vacancies in the Intelligence Bureau, however, would be painfully slower. Nearly 10,000 posts are lying vacant in Intelligence Bureau across the country.

“A total of 9,443 posts are lying vacant in Intelligence Bureau in the country, including Bihar,” Singh said, attributing the vacancies to optimisation scheme, staggering of recruitment process and creation of new posts.