UP police in grips of severe manpower crisis, 55% vacancies in the state police force

NEW DELHI The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police suffers from severe shortage in manpower, besides apparent chinks in training and sensitisation.

The latest report by the Union home ministry has estimated that there are 55% vacancies in the state police force Against a sanctioned strength of 3.68 lakh police personnel, the UP Police has barely 1.67 lakh cops, as per an estimate made in the report.

“Besides other issues of lack of police reforms and transparent transfer policy, the sheer shortage of police personnel in UP contributes to the serious law and order situation in the state,” a top home ministry official told ET.

The official said that the matter has been reviewed by home minister Rajnath Singh. With a burgeoning population of 20 crore people in the state, there is only one policemen for every 1234 citizens in Uttar Pradesh, the report said.

“This is far more than the national average of police-population ratio of 733. The ideal ratio fixed by the Home Ministry is 551. If UP had its number of sanctioned personnel, one policeman would be responsible for 0.65 square km but right now, the area of responsibility of each cop in UP is 1.65 square km. The state will soon be told by the Union MHA that the present status quo cannot continue and it would have to resort to major recruitment drives to increase the size of its police force,” the ministry official said.


Though confronted with increasing crimes against women and children, UP also has the least representation of women in its police ranks with just 6,491 women cops.

The home ministry has now appointed an advisor, a former director-general of CRPF, to suggest urgent police reforms for state police forces with specific attention on UP.

On Saturday, the UP government ordered transfers of 42 IPS officers, including 28 district police chiefs and 66 IAS officers in a single day. “The state will again be reminded by the home ministry that SC has pressed for fixed tenures of senior officials,” a Union ministry official said.