On July 15, 2009, the Minister of State in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Mullapally Ramachandran, provided data on the police-population ratio in India in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament). The statement is provided below:
Rajya Sabha
As per information furnished by BPR&D, the sanctioned and actual total police per one lakh population (police-population ratio) at all-India level is 145.25 and 117.09, respectively, as on 1.1.2007.
** All India total of actual excludes the States of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry.
The sanctioned and actual strength of Central Police Force (including Railway Protection Force) as on 1.1.2007 is 7,98,530 and 7,27,509, respectively.
As 'Police' and 'Law & Order' are State subjects as per the VII schedule to the Constitution of India, the States are competent to raise police force as per their law & order, internal security and allied requirements. However, the Central Government has been supplementing the efforts of State Governments in modernizing their police forces in terms of infrastructure, to meet challenges to Internal Security, effectively and to reduce their dependence on Central Police Forces.
This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Mullappally Ramachandran, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India