Agartala: The Tripura government will reserve 10 per cent of the posts in Tripura police for women at all levels, official sources said here on Tuesday.

A highly placed source in the chief minister's office (CMO) said the issue might be raised as an agenda in the next cabinet meeting. A draft proposal was readied by the home department, which reportedly claimed the move would help combat crime on women and other vulnerable sections.

"An advisory from the ministry of home affairs (MHA), after the 2012 New Delhi gangrape case, asked all state governments to ensure reservation for women in police, use women police volunteers among other steps to cut down on crime on women. But no reservation was introduced," an official said.

He also added that 10 per cent reservation would be made for women police officers at all levels, which might be increased based on feedback.

Tripura High Court had passed an order in March, 2016, saying the state could reserve 5 per cent of the cadres of Tripura police for women police officers, borne in the feeder grade, to be promoted to Grade-II, Tripura Police Service. The exercise was asked to be completed within six months of order.

Among the 243 sanctioned posts of grade II officials in the state police, 50 per cent of the posts are filled through direct recruitment. The other half is filled through promotions from subordinate feeder posts - 64 per cent through promotions derived from police inspectors and 36 per cent from subedars of Tripura State Rifles (TSR).

No woman officers from TSR were inducted, which has caused an imbalance in the expected gender ratio, the CMO official said.

Former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar had said at an event in May last year that 13 per cent of state police personnel were women in the constable rank. Apart from that, 10 per cent of the entire police force consisted of women, he reportedly had claimed.

However, no claim on women reservation in Tripura police was made by the erstwhile Left Front government.