Police get ministry rap over vacancies, patrol vehicles

With Delhi Police sending one proposal after another for more resources including manpower, Union home ministry has ticked off the force’s brass for not filling existing vacancies and delaying putting new patrol vans on Delhi streets.

With Delhi Police sending one proposal after another for more resources including manpower, Union home ministry has ticked off the force’s brass for not filling existing vacancies and delaying putting new patrol vans on Delhi streets.

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Government sources said the home ministry had pulled strings to get early delivery of 370 new patrol vans after the mid-December gang rape but the police had failed to expeditiously induct them.

By early this month, there were nearly 200 vehicles lying with the auto manufacturer, ostensibly because the police hadn’t been able to find the drivers and other support staff or install emergency lights on the vehicles.

The ministry’s rap came soon after HT reported in early May, pointing how a Delhi police proposal to put more boots on Delhi streets was caught up due to fiscal tightening.

Home ministry sources said the police had been advised to fill more than 7,000 vacancies including 1,000 women police personnel before flooding the Centre with new proposals.

About 6,000 already sanctioned posts are lying vacant in Delhi Police.

“Delhi Police is expected to utilise all its resources judiciously, to put the vehicles available at its disposal fully operational and to fill up the posts lying vacant with them,” a home ministry official said.

According to the ministry, the Centre has sanctioned 19,090 posts since 2007 onwards in addition to another 1,084 posts for women police personnel cleared in March

The decision to recruit women police personnel was taken after the uproar over the brutal gang rape of a girl in December last year.

Sources said the ministry had taken a dim view of the police complaints, particularly since it had worked hard to expeditiously complete the paperwork.

“It is only fair that we expect the police to match our pace,” a source said, complaining how the police took weeks to respond to simple clarifications from the finance ministry on police proposals.