HYDERABAD: The Telangana police department has 233.3 police personnel per every lakh of population in the State, as against the sanctioned strength of 428.71, according to the Data on Police Organisations (DOPO) released by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D). Overall, there are 53,115 police personnel for Telangana’s 3,50,03,674 population. This is the data as on January 1, 2019. While there are 72.93 personnel for every 100 sq km, each personnel has the responsibility of 1.37 sq km in the State, says the data.

According to the DOPO data, a total of 81,647 personnel are sanctioned for the State police force including the civil, District Armed Reserve (DAR) and the armed wings. But with an actual strength of 53,115 personnel, there is a staff shortage of 35 per cent in the force.

However, the number of posts at the top level are higher than the sanctioned strength. As against the sanctioned strength of two Director General rank officers, Telangana has six in the position, heading different wings. While six Additional Director General posts are sanctioned, there are 12 officers of the rank in the State.

Further, against 16 sanctioned Inspector General posts, there are 27. Starting from the position of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and down the ladder, there is shortage at every level in the force. For 83 sanctioned posts of Superintendent of Police, there are only 66 officers; 86 Additional Superintendents of police as against the sanctioned 92; 305 Assistant superintendents for 312 posts, and 923 Inspectors for the sanctioned 934. There is an acute shortage of constables (9,803) and head constables (1,830), followed by 770 sub-inspectors and 196 assistant sub-inspectors in the civil police force. Further, there is a shortage of 10,599 personnel in the District Armed Units and 5,309 in the State’s Armed police.