Gujarat Police (img: File)

In the hearing of a suo moto public interest litigation (PIL) on Jan 30, filed at the Gujarat High Court, the government issued an affidavit over the strength of state’s police force numbers.

The affidavit stated a vacancy of 29,000 personnel in the police department.

A drive to fill 12,000 of these positions is being carried out by the state’s home department was also mentioned.

The HC added that the state also has 1,000 vacancies in its technical and state intelligence bureau (IB). The state reserve police force (SRPF) has a vacancy of 4,500 personnel.

The suo moto PIL was being heard over the 2019 directions issued by the Supreme Court regarding prevention of property damage during communal tensions, directions to police department during rallies, assemblies, and processions, formation of police redressal forum, recruitment of police personnel according to population, and police training.

Guj HC also questioned whether the state has any provision in law for recovery of public property damage during communal riots from the perpetrators, the likes of which exist in other states.

Justice Sunita Agarwal, hearing this petition, also directed the court assistant to draw the court’s attention over such laws.

The petition will further be heard after three weeks.

Read more:

Gujarat falls short of 25,000+ cops to meet Centre’s reform guidelines

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