Karnal police face staff crunch

Parveen Arora

Karnal, March 25

The Karnal Police Department is facing an acute shortage of personnel. It’s facing a staff crunch of around 30% in 18 police stations and 16 posts across the district.

The data collected by The Tribune shows that as many as 756 posts of the different ranks of police personnel are lying vacant, affecting the working.

Sources say from the available force, around 200 personnel are on duty to protect the VIPs as well as persons who have given police protection. They further say the number of the sanctioned posts was approved recently. In the meanwhile, four new police stations have been established too.

The data further says that a majority of the posts of constable are yet to be filled in the home district of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Of the 2,470 posts of police personnel sanctioned in the district, 1,714 are filled while the remaining 756 are lying vacant.

A police official said they had to work with limited manpower to maintain the law and order situation along with managing the VIP movement. “The most challenging task is to ensure the presence of traffic police on every chowk in the city. During any law and order situation or VIP movement, we have to face difficulties in adjusting the manpower,” he added.

Meanwhile, SP Ganga Ram Punia said: “The district police are ensuring the optimum utilisation of the available manpower as well as resources.”