Year’s target set to fill up 4,000 vacant police posts

SHILLONG, April 14: Some 4,000 posts in the Meghalaya police are vacant, a review meeting of the department on Friday has revealed.
The state government has set a 12-month target to fill these posts to increase the strength of the police from the current 16,000.
The vacancies are across grades from the level of the Superintendent of Police to the constable, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said after the meeting. He also holds the Home (Police) portfolio.
“About 1,000 people will be recruited in different categories after the personal interviews are over within two-three weeks. The second recruitment drive will start thereafter,” he said.
The government intends to fill up the vacancies within this year, he added. “We want to boost the morale of our police force for better policing and maintenance of law and order in the state,” Tynsong said, pointing out that Meghalaya has only 16,000 police personnel compared to at least 25,000 in the other Northeastern states.
The police department is the largest in Meghalaya but not large enough to handle several challenges to governance, he said.
On the newly-created police outpost along the boundary with Assam, Tynsong said a barrack would be built and manpower increased for the proper functioning of the outpost.
He said the review meeting with the district SPs and the commanding officers of the police battalions focussed on the functioning of a forensic laboratory besides addressing the shortage of manpower.
“We need faster reports for tests such as DNA as the conviction rate is very low in the absence of such facilities,” he said.
The Deputy CM lamented that many police stations are functioning from rented facilities. “Our endeavour is to sanction full-fledged offices of SPs, police stations, outposts and police quarters,” he said.
The cyber cell will also be strengthened, he said.
Lajja Ram Bishnoi, the Director-General of Police said the law-and-order situation has been under control with the cooperation of the people. “There are reports of routine crimes not related to law-and-order issues in the districts,” he added.
Militancy has also been at its lowest level, he said.