Forget scam, youth eye cop job

Sitting crosslegged in the sprawling grounds of the Mumbai Police Gymkhana off Marine Drive, Avhad Machindra (23) squints down at the 50 mat...

Sitting crosslegged in the sprawling grounds of the Mumbai Police Gymkhana off Marine Drive, Avhad Machindra (23) squints down at the 50 maths, logic and general knowledge questions on a Marathi-language exam paper.

An economics post-graduate with a B.Ed. degree, Machindra has been out of work for four years. Success in the next 90 minutes will mean a shot at becoming a Mumbai Police constable and a salary of Rs 5,500 per month. He’s overqualified, but so are 30 per cent of the examinees. Many of the 15,200 candidates are engineers, science graduates and post-graduates.

‘‘I’ve never seen such a huge crowd for the recruitment of only 750 policemen,’’ says JCP (Administration) Prem Kumar Jain, who is in charge of recruitment.

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With 17 Mumbai Police officers arrested in the Telgi scam and 44 officers held for corruption in the last year, the reputation of the force has never been lower. But this did not deter these youths from taking the chance.

As many as 40,000 candidates — all under 25, all educated up to Std XII or beyond — applied for the posts.

So have post-Telgi revelations of multi-lakh payoffs and the promise of easy money from bribes lured more avaricious candidates to the force?

‘‘I’m not surprised at the overqualified candidates,’’ says JCP Jain. ‘‘The job market in Maharashtra is in very bad shape. The police force offers a secure job with salary, free uniforms and housing.’’

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Maharashtra’s jobless economic growth — 44 lakh are on the state’s unemployment register — has drawn many like Machindra here. For them, the Telgi scam taint is unimportant.

As many as 7,500 successful candidates will be shortlisted on February 15 for a physical exam. Of these, 3,750 will go through the final interview for the 750 posts.