An affidavit filed by the state Home department on Friday in response to a pubic interest litigation (PIL) on recruitment of Constables pending in the High Court disclosed that over 17 per cent posts in West Bengal Police and 11 per cent in Kolkata Police have remained vacant.

According to the affidavit, 12,407 posts of police personnel in the West Bengal Police remained vacant against its sanctioned strength of 69, 645 as on June.

It also revealed that as on July, total 3,315 posts have not been filled in Kolkata Police against its sanctioned post of 29,385. In West Bengal Police, 13 posts of DIG and Special IG remained vacant against the sanctioned strength of 44. Besides, at SP level, 15 posts are lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 91.

Against the sanctioned strength of 21,791 Constable posts, 2,319 posts of Armed Constables and 4,102 posts of Unarmed Constables are vacant, said the affidavit. In Kolkata Police, against the sanctioned strength of 514, 82 posts of Inspectors are vacant.

Secondly, against the sanctioned strength of 19,068 Constable posts, 2,384 constables post are lying vacant.

The affidavit further said the recruitment process was going on to fill up the 1,385 posts of Constables.

Bolai Roy, state Advocate General, said that in view of the activities started by terror outfits in the state, the situation was very serious in Kolkata and other part of the state.

Terror threat: Home Secy told to file affidavit within a week

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court today gave one-week time to West Bengal Home Secretary Samar Ghosh to file an affidavit on the issue of security threat from terrorist organisations in Bengal.

Hearing a PIL on the security threat in the state, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel and Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya wanted to know why the state home secretary did not file affidavit according to the order passed on August 13.

During the hearing on August 13, the government had placed an affidavit prepared by Pranab Roy, assistant secretary of the state home department, on the security threat from terrorist organisations, but the Division Bench rejected it. Then the Bench had asked Ghosh to file affidavit within two weeks. Advocate Fazle Hawk said that it was not possible to collect the data on the security forces and other related matters, but the home secretary will place the affidavit by next Friday. Jasahobanto Rakshit, an advocate, had filed a PIL in 2009, seeking direction to the state to provide training to the police and security personnel in modern arms.