Lucknow:
In the biggest reshuffle till date on a single day, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday transferred a whopping 20,324 constables.
Officials said the transfers were ordered following a government order of March 20 wherein the new Samajwadi Party government had lifted the ban on posting of constables in areas adjoining their home town.
Following the policy reversal, the Uttar Pradesh Police had set rolling a phased option scheme for the constabulary.
The policemen were asked to submit with the police headquarters three options of their choice for preferred posting.
Inspector General of Police (Establishment) Sandeep Salunke, who oversaw the whole process, told IANS that the exercise was challenging since it involved balancing the aspirations of the constables while not disturbing the strength on the field at the district level.
The scheme is likely to create goodwill for the two-month-old Akhilesh Yadav government since it comes in complete contrast to the policy during the BSP regime when constables were barred from serving near their home districts.
In the Monday reshuffle, 17,131 constables have been posted in the first choice, 1,444 in their second choice and 971 have been sent to posting of their third choice.
Constables and head constables who preferred moving out of their home zones and regions have also been accommodated in places of their choice, an official said.
Another high-point of this large scale transfers is the fact that for none of the postings, constables were asked to come to the headquarters and all transfer requests were disposed off online.