THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: More revamp is likely to take place in the Police Department as Home Minster Ramesh Chennithala has urged the Home Secretary to fill the vacant posts in the top slots of the department immediately.
In a letter written to secretary Nalini Netto, Chennithala has directed the Home Department for the immediate filling up of the top posts in the Police Department that has been lying vacant for quite sometime.
The directions were made in an effort to bring transparency in the recruitment and promotion procedure of police officers. In the letter, Chennithala also told the Home Secretary and the state police chief to form an urgent departmental promotion committee for the speedy implementation of filling the vacancies.
The urgent need in initiating the process was due to the inordinate delay in the promotion of police officers in lower ranks such as sub-inspector and circle inspector ranks. The posts of eight IGS, six DIGs, eight SPs and 21 DySPs are lying vacant. New recruitment and promotions are not taking place for quite sometime and hence there was a huge pressure and request from PSC rankholders to notify the vacancies. The delay in obtaining the promotion lists also affects the new recruitment. Chennithala told the officials to ensure that the vacancies were duly filled on a yearly basis. The ‘promotion select’ lists should be uploaded on the website and should made available for all police officials. The officials should ensure that the recruitment were properly done whenever the vacancies are reported, he said in a statement. The minister also made a reference that the Fire Force and Prisons Department should also follow the similar instructions in recruiting new personnel based on the number of vacancies.
Chennithala further pointed out about the plight of the officers who were in the period of suspension. He instructed the secretary to ensure that suspension review committee was conducted properly at regular intervals so that it might reduce the waiting time for suspended officers for their reentry to the service if they found to be innocent.
The review committee had the full authority and power to determine the period of suspension based on the gravity of the case. District-level special adalats should be convened in a timely manner for making a decision on the action against the accused police officials after considering the Punishment Role cases (PR cases). The minister also directed the officials to make sure about the timely filing of affidavit and related documents before the court pertaining to the criminal cases registered against the accused officers.