Lucknow, Jan 29 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to appoint inspectors in two-third of the police stations across the state, an official said Wednesday.

The state cabinet Tuesday gave a go-ahead to the ambitious proposal aimed at brining professionalism to the force, the official said.

Uttar Pradesh has the largest police force in the world with 1,452 police stations, of which 350 are in urban areas and 1,102 are in the countryside.

Home department officials say the state government had earlier drawn plans to post inspectors as station house officers (SHOs) in all police stations, but logistics and short staffing did not allow it.

Now, 968 police stations in the state would have an inspector rank SHOs while in remaining 484 police stations, senior sub-inspectors would be posted as station heads.

The official told IANS the government has also agreed to posting inspectors as public relation officers (PROs) at the district level to improve communication with the media.

The Akhilesh Yadav government has also approved a new post- Circle Inspector (Crime) - to crack serious crimes.

The state cabinet has also vested the powers of any further changes in this format with the principal secretary (home). It had also approved setting up five new police and fire stations in Noida, the suburb of union capital New Delhi.