The Delhi Police has launched a pan-India drive for recruitment of 4,669 constables, for which more than 15 lakh applications have been received from 28 States. The top brass has given a serious push to the recruitment drive to make the Delhi Police, the law enforcing arm of the national Capital, a truly cosmopolitan force as the city hosts people from all over the country. It is learnt that the drive has been started from Gujarat where a team of the Delhi Police headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Departmental Enquiry Cell, Suvashish Chaudhary, is camping in Ahmedabad to carry out recruitment rally.
The Delhi Police is said to have sought the cooperation of the Gujarat Police in the recruitment drive. Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma has asked Special Commissioner of Police RS Krishniah, heading recruitment division of the force, to send a team led by Additional Commissioners of Police or Deputy Commissioners of Police to all the 28 States to carry out recruitment drives.
The Delhi Police has a sanctioned strength of 84,000, of these its present strength is of 77,000 personnel. About 1,500 to 3,000 vacancies come up in the police force every year. Women make up a mere eight per cent of the force. The Delhi Police is looking for 3,115 males and 1,554 women constables from across the country. The age limit for males is 18 to 21 years, while that of women is 18 to 25 years.
Statistics suggest that about 75 per cent of the constables recruited in 2009 and 2011 were from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, followed by Rajasthan, while Delhi came in a distant fourth. The number of personnel from other States such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh was almost nil. In light of the racial attacks on people from the North-East, the Delhi Police recruited about 450 personnel in the last two years through special drives following the directions of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The Delhi Police inducted approximately 200 personnel from the southern part of India in the last couple of years.
Earlier, the recruitment used to be limited only to the neighbouring States, due to which most of serving constables and sub-inspectors belong to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh losing its cosmopolitan character.
A senior police officer told The Pioneer that recruitment drive exercise is being conducted across India to help those candidates who are poor and cannot come to Delhi appear in physical tests. “There is no quota as such for States. The force hasn’t conducted any demographic study to show from which States they had serving personnel and other recruits,” he added.
This is the first occasion when the force will first carry out physical test followed by a written examination to ensure that it recruits able bodied and educate constabulary. The officer said that candidates have to clear the physical test to sit in the computer-based written examination. The written examination will be conducted by Staff Selection Commission, he added.
Officials said that the Delhi Police will carry out medical and physical tests of candidates and then submit the list of selected candidates to the Commission for conducting a written examination on March 4, 2017. “The Delhi Police is a force under the Central Government, and accordingly, anybody who is a citizen of India is eligible to join it,” said officials.