UPSC told to tap paramilitary forces for fresh IPS officers from next year

After consultations for over a year, the government has ordered the Union Public Service Commission to carry out “emergency” recruitment starting next year, of two batches of 70 each, to the Indian Police Service from within the officers of central paramilitary forces.
This will be over and above the 100-150 IPS officers who are hired through the normal civil services recruitment route. The shortage of IPS officers has become a matter of urgent priority due to increased deployment in Naxal-affected areas.
The last such emergency recruitment was in the wake of the 1962 India-China war when several officers drafted into the military cadre were inducted into the civil services under a scheme that continued till 1973.
This decision hasn’t come easy. There was resistance from within the IPS, and the UPSC too. Their argument: any mode of recruitment other than through the civil services exam could dilute quality within the service. The UPSC argued for increasing vacancies within the exam rather than hold an “in-house” recruitment process.