‘Don’t blame lack of funds for vacancies’
Bombay high court on Thursday observed that the government can’t blame the lack of enough personnel in the police department on shortage of funds. It further pointed out that a great number of police personnel were also assigned for VIP security.
A division bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice A.P. Bhangale was hearing a suo moto public interest litigation after it took note of the huge number of vacancies in the police department, which is usually attributed as the reason for delay in investigations. “What if there is a law and order problem in the future? Is there enough police personnel to be deployed? The police force is the only resource that can be used in cases of law and order problems. This is the primary responsibility of the police,” remarked the bench.
In a previous hearing, the court was informed that the filling of vacancies was taking time, as there were not adequate training centres in the state. The court had then directed a higher official from the recruitment department to remain present in the court.
Additional director general of police (Training) S.P. Gupta on Thursday informed court that the vacancies can be filled and additional training centres set up only after the state government has sufficient funds for the purpose. “Do you want to compromise law and order in the name of financial constraints (sic)?” noted the bench. The bench then directed the police to file an affidavit the following week giving the exact number of vacancies stating whether the present infrastructure for training personnel was sufficient.
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