Overweight Indian Police Service officers may soon have to shed pounds if they want to be considered for promotions, PTI reported on Wednesday. The Department of Personnel and Training has finalised draft service rules based on a Home Ministry recommendation that fitness be a mandatory factor in awarding promotions.

The department has asked all states and Union Territories to give their comments on the new rules. “Promotion of IPS officers to various grades will be subject to the physical fitness as per the instructions issued by Ministry of Home Affairs,” the draft rules say.

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If such a fitness-linked-promotion measure for IPS officers is put into force, it would put the force on par with Group ‘A’ officers of the Central Armed Police Force, the recommendations said.

The IPS officers will also have to possess expertise in any three areas of operations – among areas like intelligence, economic offences, cyber crimes, Very Important Person or Industrial Security, counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism measures. “The Home Ministry has felt the need for domain expertise training programme for IPS officers,” the news agency quoted the draft rules. “The ministry has proposed that an IPS officer should complete three domain expertise training programmes of duration of at least one week before their promotion to DIG, IG and ADG,” the draft rules said.

The officers would have to get a ‘SHAPE 1’ certificate to be in the reckoning, reported NDTV. SHAPE 1’ is the highest level of fitness in terms of psychological health, hearing, appendages, physical fitness and eyesight.

The rules are also being drafted to ensure that IPS officers complete their probations on time. “The Ministry of Home Affairs have opined that many IPS officers do not complete their probation within the stipulated two years period, but they are given the benefit of seniority from the batch in which recruited.”