219 DSP posts lie vacant in MP, PSC advertised merely 22

BHOPAL: The yawning gap between recruitments and retirements may soon lead to an acute shortage of deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) in the state police force. As many as 219 posts of DSPs are vacant in the state. But for reasons best known to the government, the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) has advertised just 22 posts of DSPs – less than ten per cent of the vacancies.

The total sanctioned strength of DSPs in the state police is 1,010. Of them, 719 posts are filled while 219 are vacant.

The vacant posts cannot be filled by promotions due a ban on promotions in the state government.

According to rules, half of the posts of DSPs are filled through promotions and the remaining half through direct recruitment.

When Nandan Dubey was the DGP, it was decided that inspectors should be promoted as DSPs even against direct-recruitment posts as the process of recruitment takes around three years to be completed, that was done.

However, in the subsequent years, direct recruitments were not made with the result that currently, of the DSPs working in the state, almost three-fourths are promotees.

They number around 700. Unless the retirement age is raised from 62 to 65 years, more than 250 DSPs would superannuate within the next two years. That would mean an acute shortage of DSPs in the state.

Newly recruited DSP get field posing aftet 3-yr: Even if the government decides to recruit DSPs now, it would be at least three years before they can be posted in the field. The recruitment process takes about a year, training is completed in another year and that is followed by a probation period of one year.

Interview marks very crucial for candidates: Incidentally, Madhya Pradesh is the only state in the country where 170 marks are allocated for interview in the selection of DSPs. In other states, the marks for interview are 100 or below. This means that marks obtained in interview become very crucial for the candidates and some times, those doing well in the written examination fail to make it as they get (or are given) poor marks in the interview.