18,000 police vacancies to be filled soon

Soon Maharashtra will do away with the shortfall of police force across the state. The home department has floated a proposal to create 18,000 new posts in the police department starting from additional general of police to the constables.

Sources claim that the file has already been sent to the finance department to check proposal's financial viability. Out of this 18,000, almost 10,000 would be constables, around 2,500-3,000 police sub inspectors and some 200 posts for senior rank officers.

However, as per information sought through an RTI recently, Maharashtra state has 12,115 posts vacant in Maharashtra police. "We are aware of the vacant posts and we have already begun the process of filling them. At present the department is in process of filling 6800 constables who have already appeared for the exam and should start training from July," said a senior government officer.

Officials claim that the new posts aim at more micro level policing. "We have recommended creating some new departments that need more attention," the officer added without divulging into details.

The fresh hiring is also following the new norms for the age limit. Now, for general category the limit has been increased from 25 to 28 years and from 30 to 33 years for the reserved category. Also, In the back drop of death of constables during the physical tests in 2014 the hiring of the fresh candidates this time is being done under the new rules wherein the distance for the running test has been brought down from 5 km to 1.6 km for male aspirants to be covered within 4.5 minutes and from 3 km to 800 metres for women aspirants to be completed in 2.5 minutes.

The police staff is believed to be heavily short staffed which is one of the reasons why the crime rate has not been able to come under control. As per an RTI filed by activist Anil Galgali in 2015, in Mumbai alone there are around 2,000 post of policemen lying vacant as there are several police stations with a shortage of around 40 to 60 men.

What's more shocking is the fact that out of 12,115 vacant post, around 2,708 post of are of police sub inspector which is the backbone of every police police station.

Galgali had sought information by filing RTI to DGP of Maharashtra State Police Force headquarters and had sought information about the Total number of employees with their sanction post and vacant post. The reply revealed that there are a total of 2,19,986 post in Maharashtra police department out of which 2,07,871 posts are filled

On receiving such glaring details Galgali wrote a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to fill vacant posts immediately to relive the police force from stress. Galgali claimed that many a times they work in an inhuman condition despite so much pressure and stress the job demands.