Around 5.28 lakh police posts lie vacant across the country as of January 1, 2018. The latest data report compiled by the Home Ministry on vacancies in police organisation reveals that Uttar Pradesh tops the list with a whopping 1.29 lakh police post vacant. The state of Bihar stands second with 50,000 vacant police post, and West Bengal grabbed the third spot with 49,000 posts still to be filled.

Large Number Of Police Posts Vacant

According to the Home Ministry statistics, only 18.5 lakh police posts were filled out of the 23.7 lakh sanctioned posts by January 1, 2018. A total of 5.2 lakh post were vacant, a Home Ministry official told PTI.

The state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a sanctioned strength of 4.1 lakh police posts, has to rely on just 2.8 lakh police personnel as 1.28 lakh posts remained vacant. It is important to note that Uttar Pradesh witnesses one of the highest numbers of crime rate in the country.

In case of Bihar, against the 1.28 lakh sanctioned posts in the police force, only 77,995 police personnel safeguarded the state, leaving 50,921 posts vacant.

The state of West Bengal which registered a significant number of crimes in the last two months has only 91,923 personnel against the sanctioned strength of 1.4 lakh posts. In the newly formed state of Telangana, around 30,000 police posts were vacant against the sanctioned strength of about 76,000 police personnel.

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, have 26,195 and 22,355 vacant posts against the sanctioned strength of 2.4 lakh and 1.15 lakh respectively.

In the state of Karnataka, around 21,943 police posts were vacant. There were only 88,267 police personnel in Gujarat, leaving 21,070 posts vacant. In the case of Rajasthan and Andra Pradesh, around 18,000 police posts were vacant.

The Naxal hit Chhattisgarh has 11,916 posts vacant, whereas the insurgency-affected Assam has 11,452 police posts vacant.

The only state that has greater strength of police personnel in comparison to the sanctioned strength was Nagaland. It has 941 more police staff than its sanctioned strength of 21,292 posts.

When asked about the rising number of police vacancies in the country, the officials blamed the slow recruitment process, retirement and untimely deaths.

Also Read: Centre Gives Incentive Of Rs 7.69 Cr Each To Ten States For Implementing Police Reforms