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Muslim leaders oppose direct recruitment of IPS officers

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Leaders of Muslim organizations have opposed the decision of central government to directly recruit 1400 new IPS officers, saying this will be against the interests of the minority community as it will further lower their representation in the IPS category. The leaders have urged the prime minister to withdraw the decision believed to have been taken at the PMO level.

Direct recruitment of 1400 new IPS officers will rob Muslims of their constitutional right of equal opportunity in government jobs as the recruitment will be done not through open competitive exam, they said in a joint statement.

The PMO (prime minister’s office) is said to have accepted the proposal for direct recruitment of 1400 new IPS officers through not an open competitive exam. For the recruitment, the Union Public Service Commission will hold departmental exam at limited level. Only officers of the rank of DSP or major/captain of defence forces will be eligible to take part in the exam.

In a joint statement, Maulana Jalaluddin Umri (Ameer, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind), Dr Zafarul Islam Khan (Acting President, All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat), Dr Zafar Mahmood (President, Zakat Foundation of India) and Justice Rajndar Sachar have demanded withdrawal of the decision. They said Muslims are just 2.3% in Indian police service and other civil services while according to 2001 census, their share in population is 13.4%. In armed forces, their presence is lower than IPS and Civil Services.

Dr Zafar Mahmood said that due to this recruitment the representation of Muslims in IPS will further go down for next 3-4 decades, because in armed forces, the ratio of Muslims is lower than IPS category and there are few Muslims DSPs in the country.

Dr Mahmood further said that not holding open exam for recruitment of 1400 new IPS officers is against the interest of Muslims. The decision violates the constitutional right of equal opportunity in government jobs, he added.

The leaders demanded Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to immediately withdraw the decision and recruit new IPS officers through normal open exam conducted by UPSC.