Over 5.5K constable posts vacant in Delhi Police: Govt

New Delhi: Over 5,500 posts of constables are lying vacant in the police stations of Delhi, Rajya Sabha was told on Wednesday by Union Minister Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question.

He said in Rajya Sabha that there are 224 police stations in the national capital with a sanctioned strength of 21,244 constables.

Of the sanctioned strength for police constables, 5,543 posts are currently lying vacant, adding that the vacancies arose due to several reasons, including retirements.

He said the creation of new posts is a dynamic process and accordingly filling up vacancies is also a continuous process. The Delhi Police has already initiated a recruitment process to fill up the vacant posts, he added

Significantly, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana had recently sought personnel from the five CAPFs - Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB) — to fill 700 non-combatant posts in the city police force.

This was a first of its kind move, the police had said when it was announced. The vacancies are in the non-gazetted ranks from the entry-level rank of constable, head constable, assistant sub-inspector (ASI), sub-inspector and inspector, it was reported.

According to the CAG report released in September 2020, the Delhi Police was facing a manpower shortage, which was affecting the force's functioning. It had noted that at the time, the MHA had approved 12,518 posts with the advice to operationalise 3,139 posts first and then the remaining 9,379 posts would be filled.

"However, due to the failure of Delhi Police to recruit against these 3,139 posts, the remaining 9379 approved posts could not be operationalised (August 2020)," a statement from the office of the CAG had said.

In 2020, the representation of women in the police force was just at 11.75 per cent, and no women were posted as station heads. This has shown signs of improvement, especially after Asthana took charge, who took it upon himself to appoint more women officers in senior positions such as station heads, and Deputy Commissioners of Police.