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Manpower shortage hits police force

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Nov 11 � Shortage of manpower is turning out to be a major problem for the Assam police force and at present, at least 6,500 posts are lying vacant in the force, as a result of which, the state has to depend heavily on Central forces.

Highly-placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that because of over dependence on Central forces, Assam often has to face problems as the Centre also has limitations in matters of allotment of forces to all the states. Sources pointed out that due to activities of the Maoist insurgent groups in some parts of the country, the Centre has to withdraw forces from Assam, while, some forces were withdrawn recently because of elections in Bihar, which resulted in shortage of force in Assam to deal with the situation.

Sources said that every year, more than 2,000 vacancies occur in the State police force and by the time, the list of vacancies is prepared and the process of recruitments starts, it is too late and in the process the number of vacancies only increases. Sources pointed out that the process of recruitment and the training takes time. However, on the positive sign, training facilities have been created in number of Assam police battalions so that more new recruits can be trained up at the same time. The Government is also considering a proposal to appoint trainee police constable with a fixed stipend so that they can be appointed against permanent vacancies. But the final decision in this regard is yet to be taken, sources added.

Official sources said that the recruitments of personnel for the 24 India Reserve Battalion have been completed and the training process is on. The State police force will receive a major boost as soon as the process of training of the new recruits of the Battalion is completed. The ONGC battalion is also under training and immediately after the completion of the training, the battalion personnel would be pressed into service to guard the installations of the public sector oil company.

The Central Government has agreed to set up a battalion of the elite Cobra battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Assam to deal with any major militant attack. Official sources said that the Assam Government has allotted a plot of land at Dalgaon for the setting up of the battalion headquarter. �However, the state government is not aware as to when the battalion headquarter of the Cobra battalion will be set up in the state,� sources added.

With the inter-state boundary areas facing law-and-order problems, the Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi recently announced that a special border protection force would be set up. However, a formal proposal in this regard is yet to be formulated. But the Government has initiated steps to strengthen the existing border outposts of the Assam Police in the districts of Karbi Anglong and NC Hills and there is need for improving the condition of the barracks of the BOPs immediately.

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