Steps to fill posts in police

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All staff vacancies in the Police Department will be filled during the current financial year to make it a �zero vacancy department, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said.

Briefing presspersons about the decisions taken at a high-level meeting of his department here on Saturday, Mr. Balakrishnan said 1,000 persons would be recruited to India Reserve Battalion Police alone. A separate battalion would be formed for woman constables. The department would also build good teams to represent it in athletics, football, basketball and volleyball in national tournaments.

He said the Bill for a comprehensive amendment of the Kerala Police Act had been presented in the Assembly and it would be passed during the course of the year after gathering inputs from the general public.

The Jana Maithri police system, formed under the jurisdiction of some of the police stations in the State for ensuring the cooperation of the general public in gathering intelligence and maintaining law and order, would be extended to areas under 100 more police stations during the year. He said another new experiment was to involve the students also in helping the police. This system, now being tried in three schools on an experimental basis, had been found successful and would be extended to 100 schools this year.