New Delhi: The Jharkhand police force has a unique problem. It has a shortage of officers and is advertising for new ones, but it hasn’t yet posted 39 state-cadre DSPs who completed their training in 2024.
Other states have gone through delays in the past, but this is the first time such a large batch of Deputy Superintendents of Police has remained without posting 16 months after training, police officers in Jharkhand told ThePrint. The backlog is not limited to fresh recruits. As many as 64 state cadre inspectors who were promoted to DSP rank last June — some with over three decades of service — are still awaiting postings.
Even with so many DSPs-in-waiting, the Jharkhand Public Service Commission advertised 42 DSP vacancies in its latest civil services recruitment cycle in January. Four Indian Police Service officers who completed their training are also waiting for their first postings for over six months, officers confirmed.
The mess extends to the civil administration as well. More than 40 Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) from the state cadre, who were promoted from Block Development Officers (BDOs), have been waiting around nine months for formal posting orders, said an SDM in Ranchi.
In addition, eight Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers are in limbo, said a 2024-batch IFoS officer. Four of them are from the 2022 batch, allocated to the Jharkhand cadre in May 2024, and four are from the 2023 batch who joined in May 2025.
The officers are getting ad hoc work without any fixed duty, role, or posting. But there is a larger dilemma for them. They say that when they work without a formal posting, they exist in the field but not on paper.
“We wear the uniform, we draw the salary, and we take responsibility on the ground,” said a 2022-batch DSP. “But officially, we don’t exist anywhere. If something goes wrong tomorrow, we don’t even know which post we’ll be held accountable for.”
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Random work, ‘PPT-making’
It has been 16 months since K first wore his police uniform as a DSP. The state-cadre officer was sent to a district in Jharkhand in the final leg of his training, which he completed in October 2024. The next step, a posting, never happened.
Today, K is stationed in the same district without a fixed charge. He reports to the Superintendent of Police (SP) and is assigned duties as required — VVIP security, managing election queues, or crowd control during festivals like Ram Navami. Some days he is busy; other days, there is little to do. Either way, officers like him are effectively ghosts in the system.
“All officers from my batch are facing the same problem,” said K. “We get work through SPs, but we are not formally posted anywhere. For more than 16 months, we’ve been waiting in the hope that the orders will finally come.”
The conditions are worse for SDMs, according to K.
“At least we are in the district, and we get to do some work given by the SP sir here. But the SDMs just go to the office and mark their attendance. They don’t have anything to do.”
Young Indian Forest Service officers say they are in a similar position — stuck in divisional offices where they were sent for training and doing ad hoc work without a formal position, despite vacancies.
“For now we are just doing what we are being asked to do such as file processing, PPT making, or dealing with encroachments. But by now we should have given the DFO charge and a team so we can do further work related to plantation, land protection, and have some decision making power,” said a 2022-batch IFS officer from the Jharkhand cadre.
In neighbouring states such as Odisha and Chhattisgarh, officers from the same 2022 and 2023 batches were given field postings within three to six months of completing their training, officers said.
“It is not like there are no vacancies, there are and that’s why we have been recruited. All our batchmates in other states have become DFOs, even our juniors. But it’s been more than a year here and we haven’t got it. We are meeting the senior officers telling them that if another state gives the posting please do something,” added the IFS officer.
‘In process’
The IFS officers and DSPs say they have repeatedly raised the issue with their seniors, asking that it be taken up with the Home Department. Little headway has been made. So far, they claim to have received little beyond polite assurances.
Despite the Jharkhand Police Association writing to the Home Department on January 29, and a delegation of DSPs meeting the Home Secretary and Chief Secretary five times over a year, no concrete action has followed.
The matter has reached the assembly floor, with opposition MLAs including Babulal Marandi, Nagendra Mahto, and Neera Yadav demanding answers from the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government.
“People are waiting for postings for very long. I don’t think someone should wait for 15 months,” BJP’s Yadav said on February 21. Minister Yogendra Prasad’s reply was a boilerplate: “The posting is under process and these officers will be posted soon.”
Any query related to the posting crisis is being shifted from one department to another in the slow, grinding wheels of Jharkhand secretariat.
Jharkhand Director General of Police Tadasha Mishra told ThePrint that the issue did not arise from police headquarters.
“Posting matters come under the Home Department. Please talk there,” she said over the phone.
ThePrint reached out to the Jharkhand Home Secretary via phone and email for comment, but the queries were directed to the Department of Personnel and Training.
“We can’t tell you anything. Please call the Personnel and Training Department,” came the response.
The Department of Personnel said the process was underway but maintained that the Home Department was better placed to answer questions about the DSPs.
“The posting is under process. We gave postings to those who were about to retire, and the proposal is being prepared. It is not entirely true that the SDMs aren’t working. We have sent a few for training and assigned election-related work. Other officers don’t come under us; it’s a Home Department matter,” said Chintu Doraiboru, Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha. Both the Home and Personnel departments come under Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
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Pay in grey area
Then there is the matter of salaries.
All these officers are receiving their monthly salary and allowances. But the work they were hired for is yet to begin in a formal capacity. According to a 1998 state Finance Department circular, reiterated in 2022, paying an officer’s salary without assigning work or issuing a formal posting is a “serious financial irregularity”.
The guideline also says that posting orders should be issued within a week, and that no officer should be kept without a post for more than 15 days, failing which accountability must be fixed on the responsible officials.
Jharkhand Finance Minister Radha Krishna Kishor, however, told ThePrint that postings were not his department’s responsibility.
“It isn’t our responsibility to look over postings. They are in service and we are entitled to give salaries to them. The Personnel Department is responsible for this; they have to look into the matter along with the Home Department,” he said.
For another DSP from the 2022 batch, all assurances have lost their meaning after a year of waiting.
“Everyone is repeating the same thing. They send us wherever the demand is; without a proper posting, many of us are just getting demoralised.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)