John Wilbert & Rabindranath Biswas
Port Blair, Dec 20: The Andaman & Nicobar Police is reportedly grappling with the severe shortage of professional drivers at its offices in all the three districts. In some cases, this has reportedly forced the police drivers to do duty more than 15 -16 hours a day.
Police Motor Transport has a fleet of 486 vehicles (182 Four wheelers and 304 Two wheelers) deployed across the islands on the ground. Though, according to a Police Officer, the number of PCR Vans guarding the city streets, nook and corners are balanced in number, the Department doesn’t have the required number of drivers for the PCR Vans and other vehicles.
A number of Police personnel said that the long and hectic working hours have taken a toll on their physical and mental health, and they are unable to take out time for themselves or their families.
One of the PCR personnel, on the condition of anonymity said, “Earlier PMT had the support of around 85 number of Home Guard Drivers when the work was going on smoothly, but since 2019 there was no recruitment of home guards, while the Police Department didn’t recruit drivers for its vehicles since 2012, which has resulted the present crisis of drivers in the Police Dept. In fact, when we apply for leave, our leave is denied owing to the constraints of staff shortage,” a source said.
“As our shift lasts the whole day, our sleep cycles have been disturbed while many times drivers and other police personnel suffer serious health issues during working hours. When the PCR motorcycle squad was launched, we used to work in eight-hour shifts, then we were asked to stretch for 12 hours and now, it has been extended to 15 to 16-hours”, the source added.
Another Police Official said that several years ago, a Senior Police Official apprised the higher Authorities of the problems of staff shortage and said that the Police Department faces the shortage of several dozens of drivers and almost the same number of other technical staff. However, the file in respect of the recruitment/augmentation of staff required in the Police Force moved from table to table but no positive result yielded yet, the Officer maintained.
