PANAJI
Goa Police’s step motherly treatment towards one of its integral units - the Motor Transport Section (MTS), is evident. As many as 80-odd candidates selected as constable drivers around three years ago are left without any training. Not just that, the unit is reeling under an acute shortage of police drivers and technical staff.
Sources revealed to The Goan that the current situation is owing to the police training center’s schedule being fully occupied. As a result, these selected candidates have not been issued their appointment letters.
“If they are issued appointment letters, the government will have to bear their salaries. Therefore, they are kept on the waiting list until the Police Training School has a schedule vacant for this six months training,” said an official.
With no training dates confirmed over the past three years, the department has also failed to make any alternate arrangements for their training.
Sidelined by the very department, quite literally, a chaotic situation now prevails. Several constable drivers are on the verge of retiring from services sans promotions.
Sources further revealed that as a makeshift solution, constables from the Indian Reserve Battalion besides the home guards are being diverted from their primary duties to work as drivers and for maintenance of vehicles.
“The department is busy purchasing new vehicles but none are concerned about filling the posts of constable drivers or technical staff,” said sources.
In light of these circumstances, numerous drivers, both current and retired, approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking justice. Retired Assistant Sub Inspector Shivanand Khandolkar has taken the initiative by filing a petition requesting timely promotions and urging Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to intervene.
It is learnt that a total of 422 drivers are attached to the MTS and despite the evident need, no new drivers are recruited. Their maximum promotion has been to the rank of assistant sub-inspectors, as on date.
“Out of the total, 117 should have been promoted but only 42 were elevated in the past years. Moreover, only nine drivers are promoted to the rank of sub-inspectors despite there being 23 positions available. The department has overlooked all this,” the official lamented.
Based on a government notification 1990, a total of 94 drivers should have been promoted to assistant sub-inspectors by now.
Interestingly, this shortage of drivers coincides with the establishment of several new police stations, including the recent ones in Mopa and Shiroda.
“Twenty-five inspectors were promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendents of Police in recent months but the department has not bothered to pursue the promotions of the sub-inspectors. Since there have been no promotions, all those in the lower ranks are seriously affected,” the source revealed.
