Agartala, Jan 14 (IANS): Amid the Opposition criticism for not filling up thousands of vacant posts in the Home Department, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Monday announced in the state Assembly that initiatives have been taken to fill up over 8,000 posts in various positions.

Saha, who also holds Home portfolio, replying to the queries of the MLAs, said that at present, a total of 7,323 posts are vacant in the Home Department, including 2,125 posts of police constables.

He said that the process of filling up these posts is a continuous process.

However, the state government has taken steps to fill up the vacant posts, including those for police constables.

"We have taken the initiative to fill up 218 posts of Sub-Inspector (Armed and Unarmed) for both male and female through Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC). The process for filling up 1,000 posts for police constables is underway and necessary steps have been taken to recruit additional 916 police constables," Saha told the house.

He said that the state government is using Ad-hoc promotions to fill various vacant posts.

Saha further informed that the process is almost complete for the recruitment of 6,067 Special Police Executives.

In a separate question, the Chief Minister said that in a move to boost the road infrastructure in Tripura, the state government would soon send Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of two proposed National Highways to the Central government, which have been approved in principle.

Saha, who also holds the PWD portfolio, said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has, in principle, agreed to build four national highways for the state.

"All these roads are important. The highways are Kamalpur to Santirbazar, with a length of 148 km, Champaknagar to Udaipur, with a length of 40 km, Amarpur to Udaipur, with a length of 24 km, and Santirbazar to Belonia, with a length of 17.25 km," he said.