SHIMLA : Police pressed Drones into service to monitor police recruitment in Chamba and other places. About 1.87 lakh  job seekers compete for 1334 police posts in 2021 as the state police has turned out be a major employer in Himachal.      

 Thanks to a surge in unemployment in the state, over 1,87 lakh applicants have sought jobs against the  1334  police  constable posts in the state this year. Overwhelmed by the number, HP police   in Chamba that started the recruitment today in northern range, has pressed drone into service to monitor physical efficiency and fitness test in its bid to make recruitment “transparent”. 

Due to a rise in crime and law and order problem and the surging traffic movement in towns, the state government has been on a spree of “policisation of the state”. This has made the police department a major employer for the unemployed youth in the government sector.

Even the unemployed educated girls are seeking more and more jobs in and outside the state  as they have become career conscious and want to become economically independent and earners for the families.  In the past, their  elder sisters used to settle early in married and household life  early. Now everything has changed putting a lot of pressure on the government to employ them in the government and private sector thereby increasing the number of unemployed to a new height in the state.  

These applicants would compete for just 1334 vacant posts- 932 male and 311 females- in the state this time. The female police cops now not only monitor traffic movements in the state and district headquarters, but also do other stressful duties of law and order as diligently as their male counterparts, say the police officials.

To top it, the police earn good revenue from the traffic challans in capital cities of Shimla and other over 60 towns across the state. Even  police personnel are pressed into service to meet the  requirement of emergency  services like flash floods, evacuation and rescue and the rising “VIP culture” that require security of the policemen, comment the insiders.   

The two dozen fund-starved and sick public sector undertakings, created to spur growth and economic development and employment,  promise a little hope for unemployed educated youth. These are marred by inefficiency, alleged corruption and mismanagement and lack of funds and resources, comment the senior  officials.          

This can be gauged by the fact that many unemployed youth have gone on social media, warning the state government saying that they would oppose the BJP in polls next year if they did not recruit police jawans this year.  As a result, the  HP police fast-tracked the recruitment process following BJP debacle in the by polls in the state, though police claim it was a normal process, say the applicants.

Earlier, the recruitment used to get flake every year from the applicants who failed to make it to final selection.  DGP HP Sanjay Kundu has directed the district police SPs to use drone wherever it is necessary to monitor the physical efficiency test to make the “recruitment transparent and on merit basis” this time.

The state government has also organized job melas in the recent past, but only paltry number finally got  jobs in the scattered  industrial hubs in the plains of Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh and Kala Amb that straddle borders with the Punjab and Haryana- the neighbor that corner a chunk of jobs, said the job seekers.

But the huge chunk of over 1,87, 311 applicants  in a 18-27 year age group ( 25 years for general category candidates)  this year has overwhelmed the police recruiters, indicating a surge in joblessness in Himachal Pradesh. The applicants are not only the senior secondary passouts, the basic qualification for the job, but quite a lot of them are graduates and post-graduates as well.

This surge is due to a lack of industrial and economic  development aggravated by the outbreak of   coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns since March 2020 that cost jobs to the thousands of youth, adding another dimension to the problem  of unemployment among youth in the state, say the job seekers.

 “Yes, this huge number could be due to a rise in joblessness in the state as every educated youth above 18 years in age seeks job in the government sector as it is believed to be the most secure and stress-free job, explains a senior  retired bureaucrat,  seeking anonymity.  The cororanavirus pandemic has proved this more than anything else as youth today believe that most private jobs are not secure to make both ends meet in life, he adds.   

 DGP  Kundu has  scrapped the interview for the recruitment of constables after the state did it in April  2017 recruiting  class –III and Class- IV employees on the basis of “merit” without taking the interview.   

Also, Centre has been recruiting its class III and Class IV employees without interviewing since 2015 after Prime Minister Narender Modi had announced the scrapping of the interview for this category  as new year gift to the youth  of India from January 1, 2015 during his last term.     

State opposition parties- Congress and CPIM-  say that the employment rate has surged to over 40 per cent  in the state over the years,  charging that the BJP government has failed to address the unemployment issue.  The number of unemployed youth could be more than 10 lakh, claims  a senior Congressman.

Coming back to the police recruitment, HP senior police officials say that it was optional for the SPs to use the drone where monitoring is difficult. “The idea is to make the recruitment process “transparent and on merit basis” for each applicant. The merit will be decided by the physical efficiency test and fitness and the written test, says JP Singh, IG armed police and training.