After 32 years, DSPs to be recruited directly in Orissa

PNS | Bhubaneswar

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has finally decided to allow recruitment of Deputy Superinten-dents of Police (DSPs) directly. After 32 years, young boys and girls will now be able to join the Odisha Police Service (OPS) through direct recruitment.

This practice had been abandoned in 1976, reportedly due to pressure from the junior police officers. After the green signal of the Chief Minister, the Department of Home has cleared the proposal and sent it for approval of the State Cabinet, said sources.

Due to the discontinuance of the direct recruitment of DSPs, all the 48 posts of IPS cadre earmarked to be filled up by way of promotion from the OPS cadre have fallen vacant. As a result, in as many as nine districts, OPS officers were posted as SPs and the Government is forced to post more to the districts in view of the growing Maoist menace.

Earlier, there was a lesser number of DSP posts, but now it has risen to 404. Now, there will be no dearth of posts for junior police officers to rise in the ranks. The Government has created 34 posts in the rank of DSP Junior Class I, which would be filled up by direct recruitment process, said officials. However, these posts would be filled up in a phased manner, and in a given year direct recruitment would not exceed 15, said the sources.

The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) will recruite young boys for the OPS. In order to be eligible for promotion to the IPS cadre, an OPS officer should have completed eight years of continuous service, said the sources.

Odisha is the only State where direct recruitment of DSP had been discontinued. Time and again the Centre has advised the State to start the process to overcome the crunch in the IPS cadre.