West Bengal’s police recruitment process moved forward with appointment letters issued to 11,000 recruits at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium, in what the state government presented as the first major government recruitment drive under the new BJP administration. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the appointments followed the resolution of a prolonged legal and administrative dispute over recruitment.
According to Sangbad Pratidin, the recruitment had remained stalled for an extended period before the government completed the process in about five and a half months. The chief minister attributed the delay to a dispute over Other Backward Classes reservations and litigation between the state government and the courts.
Adhikari said the government had addressed the OBC-related issue through a legislative session and had also withdrawn from a case initiated by the previous government in the Supreme Court against a High Court division bench decision. “If the government had not acted so quickly, we would not have been able to see this happiness today,” he said while handing over the appointment letters.
The chief minister also assured candidates that recruitment would be based on prescribed procedures and merit. He said there would be no compromise in oral or physical assessments and asked the newly appointed personnel to maintain discipline and avoid corrupt or improper practices.
The recruitment announcement comes amid the state government’s criticism of the previous administration’s dependence on civic volunteers for policing duties. Adhikari said civic volunteers were not being blamed, but argued that they had not undergone a minimum examination and required formal training to meet policing standards. He said the government had increased the monthly remuneration of civic volunteers by Rs 2,000 before the festive season.
The government also announced a wider recruitment schedule for the police and related departments. Adhikari said recruitment for 300 Kolkata Police sub-inspector posts had been completed, while results for examinations covering 4,000 posts were expected by December. He also referred to 9,000 new notifications and the proposed recruitment of 650 police clerks through the Public Service Commission.
The chief minister said another police recruitment exercise would begin in January and claimed that West Bengal would have a larger police force than Uttar Pradesh within two years. The source report did not provide the present sanctioned strength of either state, the recruitment’s budgetary cost, or the number of vacancies filled against specific categories and ranks.
The appointment of 11,000 recruits marks a substantial expansion of the state’s formal policing workforce, but its operational impact will depend on training, deployment and the completion of the additional recruitment processes announced by the government. The next recruitment exercise is scheduled to begin in January, while results for 4,000 posts are expected by December, according to the chief minister’s statements reported by Sangbad Pratidin.
