Hero Image

Maharashtra govt selects only 14 districts for pre-recruitment training of minority candidates for police constables, activists fume

MUMBAI: In a major lapse the state government has selected only 14 out of 36 districts for pre-recruitment training of minority candidates for the post of police constables .

According to the notification issued by minority development department on Thursday, all the 14 districts and as many NGOs, one for each district, selected for 2020-2021 are the same which were selected to hold training camps in 2019-2020.

NGOs and social activists involved in motivating minority youths to join the pre-recruitment training are dismayed at this “cut-and-paste” job and demanded that the training camps be held all the 36 districts after proper advertisements in Marathi, English and Urdu dailies.

NGOs and activists working to persuade minority youths for the training were shocked to see that all the 14 districts—Wardha, Gadchiroli , Amravati , Nanded , Jalna, Pune, Yuvatmal, Parbhani, Solapur, Aurangabad, Buldhana, Nasik, Beed and Akola—selected were the same which were selected for the purpose in 2019-2020 too. Interestingly, districts with high minority population like Mumbai (city and suburbs), Thane, Raigadh, Jalgaon have been left out. “They have just copied t the previous BJP government’s list. There seems to be nepotism and high-handedness in the entire process of selection,” alleged activist M A Khalid who, along with activists like Salim Alware and Afroz Malik have initiated a campaign to prepare minority youths to join the training camps.

Minority development department’s principal secretary Jayshree Mukherjee said: “No irregularities have been done. These were the NGOs which qualified for selection.” While minority development minister Nawab Malik couldn’t be contacted, former minister Arif Naseem Khan said: “If the recruitment is for the entire state, how can just 14 districts be selected for holding coaching and training camps?”

Congress MLA Amin Patel has volunteered to intervene. “I have asked the minority department to include all the 36 districts in the list and give the task of training to credible, efficient NGOs. I will follow it,” said MLA Amin Patel.

Meanwhile, former minority commission chairman Naseem Siddiqui has written to home minister Anil Deshmukh, demanding that the minimum number of candidates for training in a district be reduced from 100 to 25.

READ ON APP