Staff shortage keeps Andhra Pradesh police overburdened, vacancies aplenty
The Vizag commissionerate hasn't got the extra manpower and the existing staff is overburdened.
Visakhapatnam: Almost all police stations in Andhra Pradesh suffer from a staff shortage, but there have been no efforts by the state government to fill the posts. As per estimates, over 10,000 policemen, including DSPs, sub-inspectors, police constables and a few others, are needed for AP for strict implementation of law and order on the ground and regulation of traffic.
AP director general of police J.V. Ramudu said that their department would make Vizag a safer city in the state before it could get ‘smart city’ status, but the Vizag police commissionerate would require at least 1,000 more cops for smart policing. The Vizag commissionerate hasn’t got the extra manpower and the existing staff is overburdened.
Sources in the police said that in the past two years, over 1.5 lakh cases were registered at various police stations across the state. There were about 80,000 criminal cases under investigation and about 1.9 lakh cases pending in court.
Home minister N. China rajappa and Mr Ramudu have been claiming that step- wise recruitment of the police force was taking place, but nothing has been done so far and the staff crisis has been affecting the investigation into many cases, particularly cyber crimes and grave offences.
The state government has not conducted any mass recruitment drive in the police department since 2014 due to the financial crisis — though officials have indicated the possibility of one several times to induct officers and personnel of various ranks.
AP has only 2.3 per cent women in the police force despite growing demands for more representation in law enforcement agencies. The number has grown, albeit marginally in the last few years, yet they are woefully short of the 33 per cent threshold recommended by the ministry of Home Affairs. There are very few women among the top brass.
A senior police officer on condition of anonymity said that Vizag had been hosting at least one major event a month after the division of the state and the cops had been forced to work extra hours for the smooth conduct of these events due to the shortage of men, including inspector and sub-inspector rank officers.
As Vizag had emerged as the cyber crime capital in AP and many white collar offences had been registered, the government should have recruited tech-savvy police officers to deal with such crimes.