Sarthak Kanjilal & Vikram Aditya
Port Blair, Sept 15: The premier Fire Services Department of A & N Islands continues to reel under staff shortage hitting the crucial services badly both in rural and urban areas. The key rescue agency, which made rapid strides towards modernisation lately with procurement of many latest fire-fighting and allied equipments, continues to run short of 459 staffs as per the norms of the Standing Fire Advisory Council.
Insiders claim that following an advice, the Fire Services Department forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs for creation of 114 post for firemen and 37 posts for drivers years ago. However, the MHA approved creation of only 45 posts excluding firemen and drivers. The Ministry, then, rejected the proposal saying that existing strength exceeds the norms, a senior Fire official told Andaman Sheekha requesting anonymity.
“The Fire Department has currently 326 firemen and 78 drivers which less as per the SFAC norms followed by Fire Agencies across the country. The MHA’s contention that the existing strength exceeds the norms is clearly disputable. Considering the hard circumstances in these islands, a fresh proposal needs to be sent to the Ministry requesting lift of ban on recruitment and approval for creation of more posts as against 151 posts which is three times lesser as per norms,” the official said.
“The A & N Police Department has witnessed tremendous progress in the recent years, however, the subsidiary unit of the same department remains unattended of its grievances since years. Lack of promotional avenues, shortage of staff etc has led to severe resentment among the Fire Services employees. Running short of strength, almost all the fire officers and staff perform duties for more than 8 hours every day, besides serving 24 hours during emergencies. The benefit of salary for an additional month as per in the case of civil police has also been withdrawn. There is severe rage among fire workers and if the administration does not take concrete steps to address the issues, we will be left with no other option than to approach the Court of Law,” said some Fire Services staffs on conditions of anonymity.
Speaking to Andaman Sheekha, the Chief Fire Officer, Mr V. S. Meena said that since 2012 repeated reminders have been served to the Andaman and Nicobar Administration with the request to take up the matter with the Home Ministry. The Assistant Secretary (Home) wrote a letter to the Ministry to lift ban on recruitment last year. Persistent efforts have been made and we are just waiting for an approval from MHA, the CFO said.
