Kerala police seek creation of 15,075 new posts

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Reeling under a severe manpower crunch that has created hurdles in effective policing, the state police have proposed the creation of 15,075 new posts in the law and order wing. The proposal in this regard was sent from the police headquarters to the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) recently.

The law and order wing, which handles the day-to-day activities of police stations, currently has 21,842 personnel on its roll. The new proposal is to create additional posts so that the total strength of the wing increases to 36,917.

As per the proposal, the department wants five additional posts of inspectors, 580 sub-inspectors, 1,819 assistant sub-inspectors, 6,195 senior civil police officers and 6,476 civil police officers or women civil police officers.

According to police sources, if the proposal is implemented, the workload on cops would come down considerably. “Everyone knows that work pressure is the main reason that bogs down most of the police officers. It affects their professional and personal lives. Many officers go astray while some choose to end their lives owing to mental stress,” said a police officer.

Most new posts sought for T’Puram Rural

The department has sought two inspector posts for Palakkad and one each for Thiruvananthapuram rural, Kollam Rural and Kannur City.

The most number of new posts were sought for Thiruvananthapuram Rural, which currently has a sanctioned strength of 1,485. The proposal seeks the creation an additional 1,350 posts for Thiruvananthapuram Rural police district.

As Vizhinjam International Sea Port has become operational, the department wants to increase the strength of the local police stations in the rural parts of Thiruvananthapuram district as it is expected that the region could witness a development boom in the coming years and hence, extra vigil was required.

Kottayam, Ernakulam Rural, Palakkad and Malappuram are the other police districts where the creation of more than 1,000 posts has been proposed. Kottayam currently has a sanctioned strength of 1,433 personnel and the new proposal is to create an additional 1,027 posts. The creation of 1,085 posts has been proposed for Ernakulam Rural, which has a sanctioned strength of 1,503.

As many as 1,101 posts have been proposed for Palakkad, which has 1,519 sanctioned posts, while 1,110 posts have been proposed for Malappuram, which has a strength of 1,519. The police associations have been demanding an increase in bench strength bemoaning that the incumbent officers are reeling under work pressure.

The state police chief had issued several circulars asking unit heads to give weekly offs regularly to the cops and directing them not to decline leave requests of the men for special occasions. The personnel, however, were clearly not amused by the action as they felt it was superficial and the creation of more posts alone could usher in meaningful changes in the work style of policemen.