MP govt planning policy to prevent non-locals from joining

The Madhya Pradesh government is planning to bring in a recruitment policy that is aimed at preventing non-local candidates from joining the state police force, Home Minister Bhupendra Singh has said.

Underlining the need for such policy, Singh said that candidates from Madhya Pradesh often lose out to their "well-built" counterparts from states like Haryana during recruitment drives.

"We are preparing a recruitment policy to prevent the candidates of other states from joining the state's police services," Singh told reporters here last evening.

"The youths from Madhya Pradesh lose out to their counterparts having well-built physique from states like Haryana, which deprives them of the job opportunity," he said.

The state government is aware of the resentment among local aspirants against candidates from other states seeking employment in the police force.

Last year, the government had brought in new rules apparently to restrict entry of youths from other states, though it didn't officially banned the non-local aspirants.

As per the rules, the applicants appearing in police recruitment drives are not entitled to claim benefits of reservation and age relaxation--maximum age was fixed at 25 years.

The government had also made it mandatory for youths from other states to register themselves in the Madhya Pradesh Employment Exchange.

The government had last year issued a notification to fill 14,088 posts of police constables.

Meanwhile, Berozgar Sena chief Akshay Hunka said the home minister made the statement with an eye on the assembly elections, due later this year.

Hunka claimed that half of 14,000 police personnel recruited by the state government last year were from other states.