6 min readMumbaiFeb 27, 2023 04:01 AM IST
First published on: Feb 27, 2023 at 04:01 AM IST
In the last 10 days, two police aspirants have lost their lives after participating in the physical tests of the Mumbai Police’s recruitment process. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters II) Tejaswi Satpute, who has been appointed as a coordinator for the recruitment process, in an interview with Sagar Rajput, speaks about the steps being taken to prevent such deaths, deadline to complete the physical tests of 7.02 lakh candidates and amenities provided for aspirants from outside Mumbai.
Over 7 lakh aspirants have applied for 8,070 posts of police constable and police driver constable. Tell us about the deadline to complete the physical tests?
We are aiming to complete the physical tests by April-end. When we started the process on January 31, we were conducting the physical tests only on two grounds, at Marol and Naigaon. Around 2,000 candidates could take the tests daily at both grounds. By February 15, we managed to conduct the physical tests for more candidates at an open space at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus. Gradually, we have increased the number of aspirants taking the tests and we started working in two shifts at Marol and Kalina. Currently, we are conducting the physical tests of around 9,000 male aspirants at the grounds in Marol and Kalina. In Naigaon, which is only for female aspirants, around 1,500 candidates are undergoing the physical tests daily… We must be able to finish the tests of all the aspirants by April-end.
Candidates have complained of poor amenities, including dirty toilets and lack of space to sleep. Some are sleeping on footpaths. How do you plan to resolve this?
Usually aspirants who come from outside the city report near the ground a day prior to their tests and keeping that in mind, we have set up tents and toilets for them. Later to speed up the process, we started conducting the physical tests in two shifts, so the number of aspirants also increased. We assumed that only those asked to report at the ground at 5 am would only come and sleep under the tents but candidates whose reporting time is at 10 am also started reaching the ground a day before. Initially, there were glitches for a day or two but we improvised and increased the infrastructure accordingly. But despite making all the provisions, we again saw that aspirants were sleeping on the roads. When we made inquiries, we found out that because the reporting point was at the gate and as they wanted to get in the queue early, they opted to sleep outside. So we worked on that as well and have set up the reporting point inside to overcome these issues.
…Two aspirants have lost their lives after participating in the physical tests. Are you planning changes to the recruitment process to prevent more casualties? These are very unfortunate incidents and a permanent loss for all of us, especially their families. But when we looked at the timings when they participated in the physical tests, it was quite early in the day. We are currently not making any changes to the recruitment plan. We are waiting for the postmortem reports… and we will accordingly improvise, if needed…
To avoid such casualties, is it possible to conduct a medical test before allowing the candidates to take part in physical tests?
The tests and the details that we will be looking for will be difficult to get in such a short period of time because we would want to know whether the candidate is fit enough to run. We will have to do some advance testing for that, but we will not get immediate results. Besides, to take samples of thousands of candidates daily, send them to the lab for testing and wait for the reports will take a long.
Now that you are aiming to complete the physical tests before the start of monsoon, do you think it will be better to start the physical tests in October rather than February, due to the climate?
It is possible because it is not that sunny during that period. But with the ongoing schedule, we are trying to ensure that candidates are not facing any problems by not making them run in the afternoon. We start very early now and there are chances that we may have to start a little late during winter.
On the other hand, it is also the candidates’ responsibility to not participate and inform our medical team if they are not feeling well. There is a choice that they have to make between the two: their own life and the opportunity. Life is more important than anything… We keep briefing about all these things regularly.
What are you doing to prevent candidates from taking energy booster medicines or drinks?
We are ensuring that the candidates are not taking anything inside the ground besides their own water bottles. We want them to enter empty-handed as we have provided sufficient water at the grounds. We are taking as much precaution as possible to ensure that the candidates are not taking any injection or consuming anything wrong that may affect their health in future. We have also made adequate provisions in the canteens and there too, no energy booster drinks are being sold. The canteens are allowed to sell only glucose or lemon-related drinks.
Has there been any instance of dummy candidates yet and what steps have been taken to prevent the malpractice?
The candidates are allowed entry only after their hall tickets are checked. We then complete their registration in detail during which we collect their biometrics, photographs and also cross-check those details with their government identity cards. We are using technology to prevent malpractices and if we are suspicious about the identity of a candidate then we immediately call that person and verify the details with the biometrics collected at the start. If a candidate chooses illegal means, action will be taken against them.
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