Jammu, June 30: The shortage of 39 percent vehicles against the actual requirement is severely hampering the functioning of Police department, an official report said.
 While the government mulls to handover the entire responsibility of state security to the Police, the report states that the department was short of 3465 heavy, medium and light vehicles, crippling its mobility.
 The report says that against the total requirement of 8997 vehicles of various modes and models under the BPR&D norms, the department had only 5,512 vehicles.
 Earlier, in 2004, the department was short of 59 percent against the actual requirements. But the purchases made over the last five years had filled the gap to some extent, the report states.   
 “Though the position has improved over the last five years with fresh procurements, the department is still running short of 39 percent vehicles against the total requirement”, the report states.
 The report says that fresh purchases over the period had brought down the deficiency from 59 percent to 39 percent. It further mentions that during 2004-09, the department purchased 1.389 vehicles of different types at Rs 109.60 crore provided to the state under a centrally sponsored scheme which brought down the shortage to 3,392 from 4781. 
 “However, yet in absolute terms over the period the deficiency has again increased from 3,392 to 3,465. The dearth, despite huge purchases persisted, as the requirements continue to increase with the creation of districts and raising of new battalions from time to time.”
 At the state level, it states that against the requirement of 754 heavy vehicles, the department had only 241 amounting to a deficiency of 68 percent. Similarly for a requirement of 208 medium vehicles, the department had only 197, registering a shortage of 11 percent.
 Similarly, with the availability of only 208 light vehicles against the requirement of 338, the department faces a deficiency of 38 percent in this category.      
 In police stations, the availability of light vehicles was 40 percent and that of motorcycles mere one percent till April 2009. Sources in the department revealed that during last over six months, the department had purchased a number of Flying Squad and Bullet Proof vehicles.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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