Facing dearth of officers, the Centre will soon write to all state governments and union territories for recommending personnel to fill up nearly 750 vacant posts in the CBI.
The agency, which is probing massive fraud cases, including the Vyapam and chit fund scams, has been facing the shortage of manpower. The agency has reported the same to the Supreme Court as well.
After consultations with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as nodal authority for the CBI, it has been decided that a letter will be written to all states and central government ministries seeking nomination of suitable officers for deputation in the agency, official sources said.
The CBI has been raising the issue of shortage of its staff with the DoPT to complete timely probe in many sensitive cases being investigated by it, they said.
The vacancies exist at the levels of constables to Special or Additional Director.
The CBI, which has 50 per cent of its staff on deputation basis, has a vacancy of 754, against its sanctioned strength of 4,544. Of these, a huge 283 vacancies are at the level of inspector, 195 of constable and head constable, 65 at Deputy and Additional Superintendents of Police, 41 at SP and Senior SP-level and 12 are of Deputy Inspector General (DIG).
There is also three vacancy each at the level of Joint, and Special or Additional Director, sources said.
"We will be writing to Finance and Corporate Affairs ministries, among others, to send officers on deputation. They will be of great help in probing tax and corporate related frauds," a senior DoPT official said.
The CBI has to probe at least 212 cases alone related to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. Besides, there is Saradha chit fund scam, where investors lost about Rs 2,500 crore on false promise of good returns, being probed by the agency.
The matter of staff shortage in the CBI has also come up in one of the hearings in the Vyapam case in the Supreme Court. The apex court has asked the DoPT for information about filling of necessary vacancies in the CBI as the agency has complained that shortage of man power was coming in the way of probe.
