The Odisha Government has urged the Centre to hike its quota of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers as it is facing an acute crunch of these officers.
While the State’s IPS cadre strength is 188, the State Government has urged the Centre to raise the number to 257. Home Principal Secretary Asit Tripathy on Friday held discussions with senior officials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi for a review of the State IPS cadre.
He said large-scale vacancies including promotional ones exist leading to a serious dearth of officers in the State. As the population is on the rise along with issues of law and order, leftwing extremism, cyber crimes, coastal security and protection of industrial installations, more IPS officers are required in the State, he argued.
Records suggest there has been a substantial increase in registration of criminal cases in the State. Against 65,000 cases registered in 2010, the State witnessed registration of as many as 93,000 cases in 2014.
Emerging areas of crime like cyber crime, economic offences, human trafficking, organised mafia, counterfeiting Indian currency, etc., need focus, substantiating the need for appointment of supervisory officers, he reportedly stated.
While there are two cadre posts of Director General of Police (DGP), Tripathy urged for creation of another post in the cadre.
He asked for Director of Vigilance as a cadre post in the rank of DGP. Similarly, as Odisha has eight Additional DGP (ADGP) posts, the State sought to raise the number to 11. Twin City Police Commissioner post is now being handled by an ADGP-rank IPS officer and there is a need to include it in the cadre, said a senior State Home Department official.
Presently, there are 21 Inspector General of Police (IGP) posts, and looking at the requirement, the State Government has urged for three more posts.
An IGP-cadre post for the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is needed due to rise in the number of cases involving economic fraud. Tripathy also stressed the need to create eight more posts of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP), raising the strength to 28.
It has been proposed to create cadre posts of DIG, Cyber Crime, DIG, Coastal Security, DIG Industrial Security, DIG Special Operation Group (SOG) and several others.
Similarly, at the Superintendent of Police (SP) level, the cadre post strength needs to be hiked to 78 from the present 56, said an official.