Govt mulls 'limited' exam to recruit more IPS officers

NEW DELHI: Concerned by the acute shortage of IPS officers at a time of mounting challenges on the internal security front, the home ministry is

mulling the option of a holding "limited" competitive examination exclusively to recruit IPS officers -- a route that was taken immediately after Independence to fill huge vacancies that had accumulated through the War years and because of the departure of British cops to UK and Muslim cops to Pakistan.

The examination will be open only for existing government servants -- mainly from armed services, paramilitary and state police forces -- and will be held for the specific purpose of recruiting nearly 650 IPS officers.

Special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry, U K Bansal, confirmed the move. "It is still at a preliminary stage of discussion. Once finalised, the proposal will go to the Cabinet for approval," he told TOI.

There are currently 196 vacancies, while government has estimated that it will need an additional 450 officers to tackle threats from terrorists, Left extremists as well as criminal syndicates that, helped among other things by lack of adequate police personnel of all ranks, have proliferated across the country.

Bansal said Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) would conduct the separate examination. It would, however, not affect recruitment of IPS officers through the annual Civil Services Examination (CSE), he added.

The shortfall of 196 officers was mainly created during 1999-2002 when the induction of IPS per year dropped to 36 against the annual average of 85.

Recently, the government accepted the home ministry's proposal to increase the annual intake of IPS officers through CSE from 130 to 150 and UPSC accordingly increased the number of seats to be filled through this year's CSE.

However, the ministry recogises that at the rate of 20 more recruits per year, it will take several years before the strength of officer corps reaches the required level. It has already held a few rounds of discussions over the recommendation of the one-man committee -- headed by retired IPS officer Kamal Kumar -- on Recruitment Plan (2009-2020). The discussions have, so far, focused on the eligibility criteria -- age and educational/special qualification -- for government servants who would be allowed to take the limited competitive examination.

Besides recommending increase in the annual intake of IPS officers through CSE from 130 to 150, the Kamal Kumar committee in its report submitted on October 15 last year also suggested holding limited competitive examination for at least seven years to recruit an additional 448 IPS officers.