When the issue was raised in a meeting with Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday, he asked the home department to examine the feasibility of conducting the written exam in Urdu.
Two years ago, the state government announced special efforts to increase the percentage of Muslims in the police force by setting up district-level pre-recruitment institutes for minorities, but until now, there’s been no visible change.
The percentage of Muslims recruited in the police force over the past three years is even less than 3.5%.
When the issue was raised in a meeting with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday, he asked the home department to examine the feasibility of conducting the written exam in Urdu.
The minority development department and even Muslim organisations have been demanding the exams to be conducted in Urdu as Muslim candidates face difficulties in giving the exams in Marathi.
In general, the rate of candidates from minorities, which comprises Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi communities, is very low compared to their population strength of 19% of the total population in the state. Only 2,522 candidates from minorities have been recruited in the force, which is less than 7% of the total strength.
The state government has been spending over Rs2 crore per year for the past two years on pre-recruitment training of minority youth. All 35 districts have institutions set up with the help of NGOs to train minority candidates. The state government has also made it mandatory to appoint at least one Class I official as member of the selection committee. It was brought to the notice of the CM that this rule is being violated and Class III officers are being appointed on the panel. The CM has directed that this be rectified.
Minorities welfare minister Areef Naseem Khan said that the home department pays no heed to pre-recruitment institutions, resulting in poor response. “This year’s recruitment is about to start and the training institutes have not yet enrolled students,” he said. “All the schemes for minorities are implemented by other departments. The chief minister has expressed dismay and directed the departments to expedite the implementation and apprise the minority welfare department from time to time.”
Khan said that the CM was very positive about introducing Urdu as a language for the written exam conducted during police constable recruitment.
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