The Maharashtra home department Wednesday issued an order stating that Rs 8.35 crore per month – Rs 100 crores annually – would be paid to employ 3,000 personnel from the Maharashtra State Security Corporation (MSSC) with the Mumbai police. The state on July 27 issued an order giving its approval for hiring 3,000 personnel on a contractual basis for 11 months. The police force has a sanctioned strength of 40,623, of which around 10,000 posts of constables and drivers are vacant. This was the first time that the force had such a major shortfall. While in the past, the Mumbai police had taken the services of the MSSC or home guards, it had been for a few days or weeks. This is the first time it has been forced to seek extra hands for nearly a year due to the manpower shortfall. Officers say the Covid pandemic and some faulty decisions in the past led to the current situation. Every year, nearly 1,500 police personnel – nearly 100–150 per month - and as many are hired annually. However, due to the Covid Pandemic, there was no hiring in 2019, 2020 and 2021. An officer said while nearly 5,000 personnel retired in three years, those vacancies were not filled. To top this, there were more than 500 police personnel who lost their lives due to Covid around this time and several hundreds who faced health issues took voluntary retirement in the same period. The officer said that a decision was taken by the then Maharashtra DGP and later Mumbai Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, allowing most applications by those Mumbai police personnel wanting a transfer outside Maharashtra. Since most of the constabulary hail from rural areas, they feel much more comfortable working in a rural setting, especially closer to their native place. Hence, there are always several applications, especially from the lower rung – that comprise over 90 per cent of the total Mumbai police strength – for transfers outside the city. An officer added, “Unless there are legitimate reasons, these applications are not approved as it would lead to a shortfall in Mumbai. However, Sanjay Pandey had approved several of these applications, due to which there was a shortfall of a few thousand constables ever since. It would be difficult to get these constables back.” As a result of all these reasons, currently, of the nearly 44,000 posts for all constables, including in technical departments, there is a shortfall of over 10,000. While there was a recruitment for the 1,500 posts for 2019 in late 2021, the selected personnel must be trained and they were eventually available for Mumbai police only earlier this year. Last year, Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved the recruitment of 17,000 personnel of which 8,000 are for Mumbai. While the recruitment process by the Mumbai Police is almost complete, those selected will have to go in for a nine-month training period. The training itself will begin only next year as the training institute has a capacity of 7,000 personnel and all seats have already been occupied by those undergoing training from the rest of Maharashtra. So, those whom the Mumbai police have selected will undergo training only after the current batch’s course is over early next year. After the Mumbai police recruited batch undergoes training, they will be available only in 2025. However, the Mumbai police used some of the new recruits for bandobast during Ganeshotsav and had them accompany senior cops. They cannot, however, be used independently on a full-time basis.
