Patna, Dec 13 (IANS) The Bihar government will recruit 50,000 police officials in the next five years, an official said here Monday.

As many as 5,000 sub-inspectors and 45,000 constables will be appointed. ‘The government will go for phase-wise recruitments,’ the senior official at the Chief Minister’s Office told IANS.

‘The decision was taken at a high level meeting of top officials chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Sunday night at his official residence,’ the official said.

The state government will appoint 9,000 constables and 1,000 sub-inspectors annually for the next five years. ‘It will give a big opportunity of jobs to youths who have been forced to migrate to other states to earn livelihood,’ Additional Director General of Police P.K. Thakur said.

Thakur said Bihar had only 80 police personnel for a population of 100,000 as against the national average of 145 for the same number of people.

The state government also decided to set up all women police stations in all district headquarters soon. There are no women police stations in Bihar now, the official said.

The government will also set up exclusive police stations for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in all districts. These police stations will look into cases of atrocities against such people.

The move is seen as a part of Nitish Kumar’s commitment to check and control crime and improve law and order in the state during his second tenure.