Kerala has surplus police force

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as top police officers in the state complain of  insufficient manpower, a recent report of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) shows that Kerala is  one of the two states, the other being Nagaland,  to have manpower more than the sanctioned strength.

The state also has  a better police- population manpower of 1: 713 in the country, though not up to the desired international standards of 1:500. According to a recent report of the BPRD, Kerala has 49,437 police personnel as on January  1, 2015, which is 642 more than the sanctioned strength of 48,795.

This, when most  states  have   manpower far below the sanctioned strength. For instance, Andhra Pradesh is facing a shortage of 12,912 police personnel compared to  the sanctioned strength of 69,796, Karnataka has a shortage of 33,307  (sanctioned strength 1,07,053) and Tamil Nadu has a shortage of 23,181  (sanctioned strength 1,35,830).

Nagaland is  the only other state to have a surplus force of 223 compared to the sanctioned  21,640. The surplus force in Kerala is  the result of the decision taken during the time of previous LDF government by then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to make recruitments against anticipated vacancies. 

“Owing to the delay in the recruitment process by the Public Service Commission, often there would be scarcity. To overcome this, the system of recruitment against anticipated vacancies was initiated,” said former state police chief K.S. Balasubramanian.

Though the police-population ratio in the state (1:713) is not satisfactory compared to the internationally preferred standard, it is better than that of other states, except Tamil Nadu where it is 1:609. The national average of police-population ratio stands at 1:720.

In Karnataka, it is 830 and Andhra Pradesh is much worse with 1:908. The representation of women in Kerala police is only 6.11 percent whereas it is 12.63 percent in Tamil Nadu. The national average is only 6.44 percent  while it is only 3.65 in Andhra Pradesh and 5.21 in Karnataka.