The 152-year-old institution of constabulary may cease to exist if the state governments give their go-ahead to a proposal in this regard.
The Centre has sent last week to all states a proposal by the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) to abolish the existing system of constabulary in civil police by substituting it with recruitment of graduates at the level of Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASI).
However, hiring of constables in armed police will continue.
Union Home Secretary R K Singh said the issue was discussed at the April 15 conference of Chief Ministers and views of the state governments were sought.
"When we receive their views, these will be discussed by the Group of Ministers on ARC. Then the GoM will formulate its view and present before the Union Cabinet for final decision," Singh told INN.
As on December 31, 2011, the strength of civil police in the country stood at 12,81,317 against the sanctioned strength of 16,60,953 while the number of armed police was 3,78,834 against the sanctioned strength of 4,26,879. The strength of women civil police, including district armed police, stood at 83,829 against the sanctioned strength of 1,49,566.
The backbone of Indian police -- constabulary -- came into existence with the enactment of Police Act in 1861. It is the lowest police rank followed by the head constable. Since each state has its own police force, the uniforms and insignia of the police varies, though the rank structure is same.
While giving suggestions to empower the 'cutting edge' functionaries, the ARC recommended that the existing system of the constabulary should be substituted with recruitment of graduates at the level of ASI.
The ARC recommended that this changeover could be achieved over a period of time by stopping recruitment of constables and instead inducting an appropriate number of ASIs.
"Recruitment of constables would, however, continue in the Armed Police. The orderly system should be abolished with immediate effect. The procedure for recruitment of police functionaries should be totally transparent and objective.
"Affirmative action should be taken to motivate persons from different sections of society to join the police service.
Recruitment campaign should be organised to facilitate this process," the ARC said in its recommendations.
The Home Secretary said the recommendations of the ARC for paramilitary forces will also be deliberated by the GoM first and its views too will be placed before the Union Cabinet for final decisions.
The strength of the constabulary in seven paramilitary forces is around five lakh.
At present, the constables are generally matriculates, and the ARC has suggested that as part of the police reforms process, it would be better to recruit graduates at the starting point in the civil police and give them the nomenclature of ASI.
Prakash Singh, former DGP of BSF, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, criticised the move saying those who recommended it were not aware of the ground realities.
He said even though prima facie it looks like a very attractive proposal, it is not practical as 80 per cent of police forces comprise the constabulary.
"Either you have to completely abolish or upgrade the existing constabulary to ASI and that will have huge financial burden. Besides, an ASI will be reluctant to do jobs like manning santry posts, night patrolling, guarding bus stations, railway stations, government buildings. I do not think this is a practical view," Prakash Singh told INN.
The highly respected police officer was instrumental in getting a Supreme Court directive to the Central and State governments to comply with a set of directives laying down practical mechanisms to kick-start police reform.
The ARC said that nearly 700 graduate ASIs could be recruited annually against a vacancy of around 1,000 constables and that too without any financial burden.
These officers upon completion of rigorous induction training could be assigned to various branches. These ASIs could then expect to be promoted up to the level of DSPs over a period of time. This by itself would serve as an effective motivating factor for such personnel to maintain high levels of integrity, professionalism and personal behaviour, the ARC said.
The recruitment to the armed police units/battalions may continue as at present but the procedure for recruitment should be so designed as to ensure that it is totally transparent and free from any stigma of corruption, casteism, gender, communalism and similar other biases. Their training will have to be drastically refashioned and imparted on a continuing basis.
An important aspect in the recruitment procedure of policemen and police officers is that it should be totally objective and transparent. To ensure confidence in all sections of society it is equally important that the composition of the police force should reflect the composition of the society they are required to serve.
To achieve this, police service should have fair representation from all sections of society including women.
It has been observed that unless recruitment camps are organised in a widely dispersed manner, certain sections of society may hesitate to come to the traditional recruitment centres. A more proactive approach is therefore required to attract persons from all sections of the society to join the police force, the ARC said.
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