With Maoists spreading their tentacles, the threat of rising terrorist activities and growing instances of cyber crime in Odisha, the State Government feels the heat of shortage of IPS officers to handle policing in the districts.
So, the State Government has urged the Government of India to allocate at least 10 IPS Probationers selected in the Civil Service Examination (CSE)-2015 to the Odisha Cadre.
Accordingly,the Department of General Administration (DoGA) has taken up the issue with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and requested to allocate 10 IPS Probationers.
While the authorised strength of IPS officers for the State is 188, out of which direct recruits are 131 and the promotion quota is 57, there are now as many as 83 vacancies in the IPS cadre. The vacancies include 57 in the promotion quota and 26 in direct recruit. At present, there are 105 IPS officers in position.
Even as the State Government tried to fill up vacancies in the promotion quota, it was dragged to courts of law, for which all the 57 posts under the quota have been lying vacant since 1995.
And out of the 105 officers in position, 12 are on Central deputation, one is on study leave and another on inter-cadre deputation. So, 91 officers are holding various posts as against the total authorised strength of 188, leading to a 52-per cent vacancy.
The State has been receiving less numbers of IPS officers from the Union Government continuously, which is not adequate to meet the growing demand of the crime graph in the State.
In 2012, Odisha got only two IPS officers; in 2013 and 2014, five each; and in 2015, six. Out of the allocation, several officers are leaving the State after their marriage to join another cadre and some others leaving to join IAS cadre in some other States after they are selected by the UPSC.
No wonder, vacancies in the direct recruit posts are growing every year.
Earlier, the State Government had urged the MHA to hike the cadre strength of IPS officers from 188 to 257.
Records suggest that there has been a substantial increase in registration of criminal cases in the State. Against an approximate 65,000 cases registered in 2010, the State witnessed registration of 93,000 cases in 2014, which was an increase of nearly 50 per cent. In 2015, as many as 1.3 lakh cases were registered.
The newly-emerging areas of crimes like cyber crime, economic offences, human trafficking, organised mafia activities, counterfeiting Indian currency, etc., substantiates the need for appointment of supervisory officers, said a former DGP.