The newly elected Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is focusing on improving the law and order situation in the state. Accordingly, the state government is working round the clock to augment its severely short staffed police force, highly placed official sources have said. The Uttar Pradesh police, short of staff by almost 50% against its sanctioned strength of 3.64 lakh police personnel, is struggling to comply with the orders from the Chief Minister’s Office to ensure better law and order in the state.
The Uttar Pradesh police has a total of about 1.65 lakh armed and civil police officials, against the total sanctioned strength of about 3.64 lakh personnel to look after a population of 20 crore people as on 2015, according to data available with the Bureau of Police Research and Development. The police department will present itself before the CM on 19 April and will apprise the CM on the challenges the department faces, a senior police official from UP police said. “The police department will present itself before the CM on 19 April as scheduled. The department will showcase its strength and shortcomings before the CM and will also inform him about the needs of the department. It will also talk about the shortage of staff, lack of proper infrastructure and the need to modernise the police force, with better vehicles, equipment and armoury,” the police official said.
Subodh Yadav, president of the Uttar Pradesh Police Association, also said that the Association is expecting positive reforms from the new government.
“We are expecting that the new government would help in police reforms that have been pending for long in the state. We are also expecting the government to increase the number of policemen as we are facing an acute shortage of staff. The government should also keep caste and religion out of the police force unlike the earlier regimes when police personnel were posted or promoted based on their castes,” he said.
Yadav stressed on the need for the UP police to be equipped with modern equipment and vehicles to curb criminal activities in the state. A Lucknow-based official said: “The UP government had already inducted around 2,500 sub-inspector level police officers in 2015 and they had undergone extensive police training that had also resulted in a huge financial cost to the state, but none of these inspectors have been appointed yet as their appointment and selection was challenged in court. Once these officers are given appointment, a much-needed relief would come to the short staffed police force in UP.”
Meanwhile, the state government has started taking steps to improve the law and order situation through various means, including the forming of anti-Romeo squads. Rahul Srivastav, spokesperson of UP police, said: “The law and order situation in UP has started improving and one of the key initiatives taken is to improve police presence across the state and at busy and important places. This has helped in curbing crimes.”