After stampede, police recruitment in Mumbai set to go online

Following last year’s stampede that occurred during the submission of forms for police recruitment in Mumbai, the state government has for the first time decided to computerise the submission process. Police sources said that the computerisation would be done by May this year.

In March last year, 22-year-old Ramesh Ambare had died and at least a dozen others were injured in a stampede at the Kalina police ground at the time of the submission of forms. The stampede took place minutes after the gates were opened during the early hours of the day.

The candidates broke the queue at Kalina because they were in a hurry to submit their forms at other centres like Navi Mumbai and Thane, too, police had said.

“We are looking into maximum usage of computers in the submission process. Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation is looking into the computerisation aspect. As of now, a candidate can only download the recruitment form. But now the process is in the pipeline for submitting of the forms online. The system would be functional by May this year,” said additional director general of police, training and special forces (Maharashtra), AK Sharma.

He added that even though the personal submission system would exist, the advantage of computerisation is that the candidate staying in remote parts of the state would not have to travel all the way to the city.

“He would be communicated by the department about the further process, once he submits the form. We would also call the candidates in batches, so that there will be less crowd,” Sharma said.

Furthermore, the police believe that usage of computers would add to the transparency in the selection process.

“Through the usage of software, a candidate who had fallen short in the height by few centimetres would be shown his virtual image along with the height in the computer. After the height process is done, the data along with the photo of candidate would be stored in the computer for further process. We are also looking into the possibility of having a dedicated website for police recruitment,” he said.

Explaining the advantages of computerisation for the recruitment process, another senior officer said, “There are several advantages, as it is more quick, manpower is saved as we have to put a lot of bandobast during the submission process and also computerisation would help us in keeping track on issues like multiple submission of forms, which has been an issue in the past.

“Such computerisation system is already in central para-military forces and few other states, except Maharashtra,” he added.