ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh police department has been facing an acute shortage of manpower, the state assembly was informed on Thursday.

Home Minister Mama Natung also said that the shortage in manpower was due to creation of new districts and inability of the recruiting agencies to complete the process on time.

Responding to a question from BJP MLA Wanglin Lowangdong during question hour, Natung said that his department could not even fill the sanctioned posts in many districts.

In 2011, the Union Home Ministry announced a special package for the Tirap, Changlang and Longding (TCL) region sanctioning 1,949 posts of civil police.

Of those posts, 140 are still pending, the home minister said.

Natung said that in April 2018, the home department had advertised inviting applications for 82 vacant posts for the three eastern districts. However, the advertisement was cancelled due to procedural issues.

“The home department later submitted a requisition against those posts to the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB) for recruitment which is under process. Once the recruitment is completed, the vacant posts will be filled up,” he added.

Responding to a supplementary from another BJP member Jikke Tako, Natung said the state cabinet has decided to post adequate police personnel in various districts after the recruitment process is over.