Kolkata: The West Bengal Cabinet approved the appointment of 2,500 constables in the Kolkata Police on Monday, in response to widespread concern that civic volunteers are being utilised for official police duties in West Bengal, especially in the state capital of Kolkata.
This was revealed soon after a Cabinet meeting by Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya. The state police recruitment board will be in charge of making the selections.
Recently, the administration had faced criticism from various quarters over the alleged use of civic volunteers for police duties.
Even the Calcutta High Court just recently set out the areas where civic volunteers could be used, making it clear that they can't be sent to do normal police duties like maintaining law and order.
However, there were allegations that regular police tasks were given to civic volunteers during the recently finished panchayat polls.
Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee voiced her displeasure with the police force's "casual and lethargic" approach and ordered all outstanding recruitments to be finalised as soon as possible.—Inputs from Agencies