The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked Delhi Police to revisit its promotion policy and clear the backlog in the promotion of thousands of Delhi Police personnel. The MHA’s decision is expected to bring major relief to the 77,894 strong force. According to statistics, Delhi Police is short staffed and needs at least 6,500 more men and officers to meet its sanctioned strength.
In an otherwise take-no-prisoners Delhi Police, there is utter lack of opportunity for a Constable to get promoted to the rank of Head Constable and it takes him 27 years of service. Figures show that a Head Constable gets promoted to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) after a period of about 18 years. Same is the case with the ASIs awaiting promotions to the rank of Sub-Inspectors (SIs) and Inspectors. It takes 18 to 20 years to get promoted to the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) from the rank of an Inspector.
According to the available data, there are about 20,000 Constables and 10,000 Head Constables awaiting promotions. There are also about 1,500 Inspectors, 2,000 Sub-Inspectors and 400 ASIs also awaiting routine promotions.
A senior police officer said that after the 6th Pay Commission, each Constable gets the salary of the Head Constable after completing 10 years of service. He is paid the salary of ASI after 20 years of service and that of the Inspector on completion of 30 years.
Delhi Police top brass had brought the matter to the MHA on numerous occasions which, in turn, said that it had no objection to promoting all the deserving personnel. “Decide at your own level and formulate a time-bound policy on promotions,” a Ministry official reportedly noted.
A senior official said that the police force was also in the process of recruiting people to fill up the posts against sanctioned vacancies. “We have a sanctioned strength of 20,817 Head Constables. But our force has only 18,661 Head Constables. Same is the case with Constables. Against the sanctioned strength of 46,707 Constables, we have only 44,479.” The officer said that the police force was short of 255 ACPs and 13 DCPs. Even the number of Inspectors available with the force is said to be 1,515 less than its sanctioned strength.