The Centre has sought views of state governments on a proposal to abolish the existing system of constabulary in police by substituting it with recruitment of graduates at the level of assistant sub-inspectors.
The proposal was mooted by the Home Ministry at a conference of Chief Ministers convened to discuss issues related to police reforms on April 15 here.
This was part of the recommendations of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), which was headed by M Verappa Moily.
"The existing system of the constabulary should be substituted with recruitment of graduates at the level of Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI)," the ARC says.
This changeover could be achieved over a period of time by stopping recruitment of constables and instead inducting an appropriate number of ASIs, it said.
"Recruitment of constables would, however, continue in the Armed Police. The orderly system should be abolished with immediate effect. The procedure for recruitment of police functionaries should be totally transparent and objective. Affirmative action should be taken to motivate persons from different sections of society to join the police service. Recruitment campaign should be organised to facilitate this process," the ARC says in its recommendations.
Presently, the constables are generally matriculates, and the ARC has suggested that as part of the police reforms process, it would be better to recruit graduates at the starting point in the civil police and give them the nomenclature of ASI.
