What kind of police personnel will you produce, if applicants have had to bribe and cheat right at the entry stage? The vacancies are in thousands, the hopefuls in lakhs. In 2010, the Maharashtra government woke up to this situation when a mad rush for application forms led to a stampede claiming one life, injuring several others and leaving hundreds empty-handed.
Following the incident, the State Home department rolled out an online-only application process last year, which has generated a significant response. The State has seen nearly a 60 per cent rise in applications. “A considerable jump,” says Medha Gadgil, Principal Secretary (Home).
According to the department figures, the number of applications soared by 221,453 in 2011 as compared to the applications received the previous year. In 2010, 377,155 applications were received for 14,273 vacancies in the constabulary. After the recruitment process went online, 598,608 applications were received for 17,106 vacancies. So, while vacancies went up by about 20 per cent, the number of aspirants rose by almost 60 per cent.
“Earlier,” says Rahul More (name changed), who applied through the online system from Mumbai, “I would have to send a demand draft; stand in long queues. This system is easy. I have a computer at home. There were no charges involved.”
Strong calls for e-governance are made time and again to make the administrative system transparent. The Home department's switch to the online platform helped iron out some of the glitches in recruitment and tackle petty corruption, although not entirely.
“We have 65 units across Maharashtra doing recruitment. We would assume that people would apply from their respective places. How to check that one applicant does not apply from multiple locations? This problem has been taken care of by the online system. One can perhaps tweak names and apply multiple times, but such cases are rare,” Inspector General Amitabh Gupta says.
More importantly, it has eliminated the role played by touts, who would exploit the situation by charging aspiring candidates for application forms.
Furthermore, “everything became paperless,” says Mr. Gupta. “The back challan was auto-generated after filling the form. The candidate had to give it to the bank, pay the fees and then update the form. We had a tie up with the State Bank of India as it has 5,000 branches throughout the country. We kept the website open only on particular dates for filling the form and updating applications. We sent text messages to every candidate when the form was accepted.”
The online rollout saved manpower engagement for the recruitment process by 40 per cent, Mr. Gupta points out. It saved aspirants in mofussil towns and villages from making trips to the cities if they wished to apply from there. “A person sitting in Gadchiroli can apply for the Mumbai unit sitting in Gadchiroli itself.”
Question, however, remains about how many actually have access to computers and the Internet in the villages. The National Sample Survey Organisation report on expenditure in 2009-10 reportedly puts Maharashtra, the third most urbanised State in the country, on top of the list with 104 out of 1,000 families having Internet in cities.
“Internet access is not a problem,” says Ms. Gadgil. “Internet cafes in cities and information centres and kiosks in mofussil towns have penetrated even remote Gadchiroli. So there is no question of not having access to the Internet.”
The new process found favour even in the backward district of Beed. “Earlier many would not receive on time their hall tickets sent by post. Not just online, much of the assessment has also been made transparent,” a police inspector says.
“For instance, personal interview, where aspirants would face caste prejudices, has been scrapped. Now it's only physical and written tests. The physical examination is conducted in the open; it is also recorded. So there is very little opportunity to cheat.”
Candidates appearing for the written tests are also given photocopies of their evaluated answer sheets to ensure against unfair assessment.
