Union home minister Mr P. Chidambaram on Wednesday blamed “inadequate and ill-equipped police forces” for the present sorry state of affairs of policing in the country. “Policing a country of over 1.1 billion is not an easy task. Policing a country in a troubled neighbourhood makes the task more difficult. And policing a country with
insufficient police stations and inadequate and ill-equipped police forces makes the task almost formidable,” he said while inaugurating the 40th All-India Police Science Congress here.
“We need to at least double the police strength and create necessary infrastructure to impart them quality training to improve the policing in the country,” Mr Chidambaram said. Presenting a picture of the current security set up in the country, he said, “Of the sanctioned posts of 21 lakhs in all ranks in the police departments in the states, nearly 3,35,000 posts are currently lying vacant. Thus, the police-population ratio for the whole country is about 160 per 1,00,000 persons, which is much lower than the international norm.”
“In a state like Bihar, the number is about 75: In UP it is about 115, in Andhra Pradesh it is about 125, in Orissa it is about 135, in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, two states most affected by Left wing extremism, it is about 205,” he said.
He further pointed out that there were not enough police stations. Besides, many police stations lack required strength of policemen, while some police stations exist only in name. Mr Chidambaram said most states have not yet created infrastructures to impart even basic training to constables.
The Centre has decided to set one Central academy for police training (CAPT), two Central detective schools (CDS) and twenty counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools (CIATS) with a combined intake capacity of 4000 personnel a year in order to assist the states, he added. Later, Mr Chidambaram held a meeting with chief minister Raman Singh.