Vacancies in Nuisance Detection Squad mar enforcement action

Staff Reporter

Nuisance Detection Squad (NDS) of Nagpur Municipal Corporation is reeling under vacancies that is affecting its mandate, that of enforcement of rules in the city. As against sanctioned strength of 201, NDS is working with depleted staff since just 127 remain on the rolls. Due to this the existing team has to double-up on the work front that stretches the force's energy to a great extent. At present the vacancies stand at 74 and most of them are field level posts of jawans. According to the information shared by the civic body at the end of financial year the NDS was short of 74 personnel. This included vacancy at zonal level where two posts are vacant. NDS consists of retired/ ex-servicemen who are inducted after tough screening procedure. They are kind of police posse for the civic administration and it eliminates need for constant police escort during enforcement drives.

The performance of NDS over the years has been very effective as they managed to instill fear among violators. The NDS has sanction of one post of Team Leader that is headed by Veersen Tambe. At each of the 10 zones of NMC one Zonal Head supervises the jawans under him. Security Assistant sanctioned posts are 190 of which 118 are filled-up while 72 remain vacant. The reasons for vacancy are selection of jawans in other specialised forces like the state police force where recruitment drive was held in various districts, said Veersen Tambe, while talking to The Hitavada. Many other from NDS were recruited in other Maharashtra State Security Corporation and therefore the posts became vacant. The vacancies he admitted have affected the working of NDS to some extent but still they are working with full force. As desired some of the action like crackdown on single use plastic, enforcement against encroachments does suffer, said Tambe.

Tambe further added that NDS has already submitted staff position to senior officials of NMC and sought starting the recruitment process at the earliest. For filling-up the vacancies the civic body needs to publish advertisement and seek applications from eligible ex-servicemen. An interview board comprising senior retired defence officials examine the personnel and then they undergo medical test before starting their duties in the field. Now that model code of conduct for Lok Sabha election is relaxed, NMC is expected to continue with filling-up of NDS vacancies. NDS deployment has provided NMC with expected results as the enforcement action brings about some semblance to violators. Basically the action against owners of pets who defecate in open resulted in keeping the streets clean. The imposition of fines for throwing garbage in open and for storing construction materials on footpaths by NDS led acted as deterrent against violators to a large extent.