Alleges political interference in recruitment
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Alleging irregularities had occurred in the recruitment process in the Police Department, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Tuesday alleged that there are scores of candidates from Ponda Constituency that made it through the recruitment process, while those from the rest of the constituencies could not.
Parrikar responding to a question in the House said there are a lot of candidates from Ponda taluka who were recruited in the police force.
“The last home minister was from Ponda,” he said replying to a question tabled by St Andre MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh on whether candidates form other constituencies were not capable of being recruited in the police force. The Chief Minister hinted political interference in the recruitments.
Wagh raising the issue also brought to the notice of the House that despite the ongoing recruitment drive, the staff strength in almost all police stations was less. “If the police stations are not fully armed, they cannot function properly,” he admitted.
According to his written reply, 945 candidates were appointed from July 2009 to November 2011.
Parrikar said the response from the reserved categories such as SC/ST/OBC and minority communities was poor. It also includes categories of people coming from sportsmen, freedom fighters background and home guards.
To help more number of female candidates to get through the physical tests, Parrikar assured to set up month long pre training camp for those applying for posts of various ranks in the department. He assured to release pre advertisement on vacancies for this purpose.
“We will give one month pre training exercise like running practice for women candidates before they actually appear for the tests… We cannot take candidates of low endurance or else it will be like January 26 (Republic Day parade) when they faint,” he said.
He was also discontent over the lack of women force in women police station.
Wagh raised yet another issue of some physically fit candidates, who are shown the door when they fail in the last lap despite performing well in other tests.
“I know one candidate had come first in nine physical tests but in the last lap, he fell down. There are back to back physical tests happening. This leads to exertion. How will a candidate perform?” he questioned.
Parrikar assured to give another chance to such candidate to prove themselves. Parrikar maintained that the large number of recruitments happening during his present tenure have been fully transparent and video-recorded.
