The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Police to be strengthened with Rs. 870-crore budget

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Police to be strengthened with Rs. 870-crore budget

Special Correspondent

Government to recruit 37,880 more personnel

State has only 64 constables per one lakh population
Strength of OCTOPUS scaled down to 1,600

HYDERABAD: The Government on Wednesday finalised the long-pending plan to modernise and strengthen police with a Rs. 870-crore initial budget and by recruiting a massive additional force of 37,880.

However, both recruitment and expenditure will be done in phases over a four-year period. Once the recruitment is completed, the police force in the State will swell to an all-time high of 1,40,000, taking Andhra Pradesh close to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The State has only 64 constables for every one lakh population while the corresponding numbers in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are 125 and 109 respectively. The proposed recruitment will increases the ratio to 100 for one lakh population.

Home Minister K. Jana Reddy and Director-General of Police M. A. Basith, who announced these details at a press conference, said the strength of the OCTOPUS, the elite anti-terrorists outfit contemplated, had been scaled down to 1,600 from the original 3,000, as directed by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy who cleared the plan at a meeting earlier. The decision would be put for Cabinet approval at its meeting on October 1.

The Minister said the modernisation and strengthening had been taken up in line with the recommendations of several committees, intellectuals and others to effectively tackle terrorism, extremism, factionalism and other problems. OCTOPUS would have separate counter-intelligence, field operation, special branch, security and CID wings.

Separate marine police

A separate marine police force would be floated and new police/traffic police stations would be opened wherever required.

To start with, 30 police stations would be set up, 20 for law and order and 10 for traffic.

Police stations would be categorised into A, B, C. D, E and F types with A category police stations, mostly located in cities, having 120 personnel each and that of “ F” (in rural areas) a minimum 30.

Out of the Rs. 870-crore budget, Rs. 670 crore would be the recurring annual expenditure going towards salaries of the new recruits, while the rest of the Rs. 200 crore would be spent on improving infrastructure facilities.

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