While Odisha is facing an acute shortage of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, repeated request by the State Government to send more top cops is being rejected time and again.
Out of the 195 sanctioned posts, 119 top cops are in position, while there are 76 vacancies. And most importantly, out of 119 IPS officers, only 93 are serving in the State and 26 top cops are serving in the Centre. While there are 136 direct recruit IPS posts in the State, 59 posts are for promotee officers in IPS cadre. All the 59 promotion related posts of IPS are lying vacant.So virtually out of 195 sanctioned officers, Odisha is receiving services of only 93 top cops, which results in acute shortage in the police administration.
With growing Maoist menace and absence of young and energetic IPS officers in the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP)s in the districts, the Odisha Government is facing a tough time in handling law and order situation.
In order to face the emergent situation, the Odisha Government for last five years has been requesting the Ministry of Home Affairs to allocate at least 10 IPS officers to Odisha cadre every year. However, the MHA is allocating much less number of top cops to the State, for which concern has been raised by the State Government over the issue. Recently, the MHA has allocated only 4 IPS officers to the State, though the Odisha Government had requested to allocate 10 IPS from successful ones from the Civil Service Examination(CSE)-2019 list.
Since 2010, Odisha has been raising the shortage of IPS officers in the SP level in the districts and requesting the MHA to allocate 15 top cops to the State each year.
However, never did the MHA allocate the required number of IPS officers to the State. From CSE-2011 list, the Centre allocated 4 IPS though request was made to provide 15. Out of the 4 IPS, two left Odisha Cadre to join IAS and IRS. Similarly in CSE-2012, only 6 IPS were allocated and one IPS left the cadre to join IAS. The MHA allocated 5 IPS from CSE-2013 and 2 top cops changed their cadre to other States. Odisha got 8 IPS from CSE-2014 list and one left to join IAS.
The Odisha Government in 2015, requested to allocate at least 10 IPS officers annually as request for 15 IPS officers was turned down by the MHA. However, from the CSE-2015 list, the MHA allocated 4 in CSE-2016 and in 2017 it gave 3 and from CSE-2018 list, the MHA provided 5 top cops, leaving huge vacancies hitting the State.
