Under the instructions of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra the Home Department is undertaking several initiatives for further modernization in the Home Department including police as well as other units and undertakings under the control of Home Department. K.P. Bakshi, ACS (Home)- Maharashtra, in a conversation with Jyoti Pathak elaborates on the measures being taken by the department to strengthen it and prepare it to meet any eventualities.
CCTV Surveillance System in all Municipal Corporations Areas of the State
As of now, the CCTV installation of Mumbai and Pune city have been completed in all respects. Over 1200 cameras in Pune city and 5000 cameras in Mumbai city have been installed. Other cities which have completed CCTV surveillance system without any financial aid from the state government are Nanded & Aurangabad whereas Thane and Navi Mumbai city have completed it partially. As per instructions of Hon’ble Chief Minister, all the cities i.e. municipal corporations in Maharashtra must have a standardized CCTV system within the next six months to one year period.
Home Department has selected M/s. KPM Gas Project Management Consultants for the installation of CCTV surveillance system in the entire state. Those cities that have already selected other consultants and are proceeding with their own funds, they will not be required to engage M/s. KPMG as consultants. Wherever cities want to go ahead with their own fund pattern and their own consultants they are also not required to engage state’s consultants. However, they will be required to consult the state for standardization of specifications. It is possible that some cities will be taken up under Smart Cities programme of the Govt. of India as well as of Govt. of Maharashtra. There, the funding will come separately. Cities like Nagpur have already started work on CCTV surveillance system through Information Technology department.
However, if any city requires partial funding from the Home Department, the same will be arranged but in that case the entire procedure of the state government of budgeting, getting clearance from the Project Implementation Committee, High Power Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Maharashtra will have to be followed. All the municipal corporations have been informed to decide their course of action in consultation with the local police chief and project their requirements to the state government. M/s. KPMG, project consultants are already in touch with them.
E-Challan System in all Municipal Corporation Areas
At present, violators of traffic rules are fined by the traffic police incharge on the spot in the physical mode, i.e. they have to write the receipt, give it to the violator and take the fine in cash. This system is very time consuming, cumbersome and does not keep a record of number of violations by a particular license holder. Therefore, the violators/offenders, even if they commit the offence more than once, are not charged at a higher rate.
E-challan project will include twenty municipal corporations for now (including the newly created Panvel municipal corporation) in a standard mode. Database of all the offenders will be created. The Point of Sale (POS) machine will be in the hands of the Sr. Police Officer in-charge on the spot. People will have the freedom to pay by debit/credit card or take a printed challan and pay at leisure or challenge it. The offences will be registered as 2nd, 3rd and so on. The offenders will be automatically reported by the software and there will be escalated penalties for repeat offenders. Government is also proposing to introduce temporary suspension, impounding and cancellation of license for too many offences. M/s. KPMG, the project management consultants appointed for Home Department are in touch with all the municipal commissioners. Mumbai Municipal Corporation has already started e-challan process in a different mode. Many of the cities may have their own e-challan system implemented through its own resources. The same will have to be standardized and integrated with the state system. M/s. KPMG will help the municipal corporation either in their own projects or in the state driven project. Funding from the Home Department for absolutely new projects will be done by following due procedure. It is expected to bring a lot of discipline in the traffic and at the same time increase revenue collection in terms of fines and penalties for the state, which will be more than enough to offset the project cost in an expected period of one to two years.
Police Recruitment
At present, recruitment by unit heads is being done through a cumbersome process, physical tests and other related tests. Different unit heads plan recruitments at different times of the year. It is proposed to standardize the recruitment process by introducing technology in such a way that even physical tests like measurement of height, weight, chest etc. are automatically, electronically recorded. Human error in the measurement of height, weight and chest will be as good as zero. No manipulations will be possible. It will be very fast and less manpower will be required for completing the recruitment process. Security, reservation, special category issues, women reservation, reservation for meritorious people in the sports sector will all be covered in the software design.
M/s. PWC has been selected as the project management consultants. They have started working on the project and have estimated that the entire project may be completed in about five to six months’ time. It is also proposed that police constables required for either SRPF, Maharashtra State Security Corporation etc. can be recruited through common selection procedure thereby minimizing the size of manpower, cost of recruitment, time of recruitment, maximizing transparency, reduction in litigation and enabling uniform timing of selection. M/s. PWC has enough expertise to make the selection procedure transparent, quick and merit based.
Dial 112
The Govt. of India is proposing to have one uniform no Dial 112 across the country for emergency services related to police, fire and health. As per instructions of Hon’ble CM of Maharashtra the project is already started. M/s. E & Y has been shortlisted as the consultants. They are also the consultants for Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India for the nationwide project. This will enable any person in distress due to any one of the above reasons to dial 112 and seek immediate help from the concerned agencies from any location wherever they may be. The number will be the same all over Maharashtra. And after the completion of the project the same number will be used across the country. We hope to complete the project in Maharashtra within a period of 7-8 months. The consultants have been appointed and are preparing the RFP (Request for Proposal) which will tell us the cost requirements. Budgeting of the fund required is not necessary as arrangements have been made by the Home Department to ensure that there is no cash crunch, pending proper budget and release from the Finance Department.
Assets Management inPolice and other Units of Home Department
The Home Department has 2,20,000 police personnel. It has a huge chunk of land all over the state. There are number of police houses and police offices. Units like SRPF etc. already have huge assets. Other segments of Home Department such as Forensic Science Laboratory which are eight in number as of now and State Prosecution Directorate, Anti-Corruption, State Intelligence, Anti Terrorists Squad, Criminal Investigation Department, Maharashtra State Security Corporation, Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation all of them have huge assets, arms & ammunitions, motor vehicles, motor cycles etc. At present, there is no proper record keeping of assets, acquired assets that are obsolete and need to be disposed off and assets which require periodical maintenance. The plan of Home Department as visualized by the Hon’ble CM of Maharashtra is to have a complete Asset Management System wherein moment the asset is acquired, it gets into the system. The moment asset becomes due for periodic maintenance, the system will alter, and the moment assets, moveable or immovable become obsolete proper disposal will be arranged.
Home Department accounts for more than 22% of the work force of the state of Maharashtra and needs asset management to ensure best utilization of assets, minimization of pilferage, increasing the life of assets by proper maintenance and reduce requirement of frequent and unnecessary purchases. Assets which are in excess in one zone or district can be shifted to the deficit areas with the help of Asset Management System, obviating the need of going in for immediate purchase. There are expiry dates for some arm & ammunitions. It will make sure that new purchases are postponed until all ammunitions which are close to expiry are used elsewhere in the deficit areas. It is a very ambitious project of GoM. Hon’ble CM of Maharashtra has granted us a time limit of a little over six months to complete this ambitious project. The state has appointed M/s. KPMG as Project Management Consultants for the project and they are working on it.
Health Management System
Recently, in a public function the Hon’ble CM visited Naigaon where a free medical camp was arranged by Dr. Panda of the Asian Heart Institute. During his speech, Hon’ble CM spoke about management of health records of all Home Department personnel, right from the start date of entry into service till they go out of service. It is a huge task and will include all segments of Home Department such as Police, 
Prison Department, Police Housing Corporation, Maharashtra State Security Corporation, SRPF, CID, ACB, ATS as well as ministerial staff under the Home Department. M/s. KPMG has been short listed as the consultants. They are preparing the RFP 
and we hope to launch the Health Management System within a period of six months from now. Periodic health checkups, free camps, compulsory checkups after certain age will all form part of Health Management System. For the police force, health is one the most important concerns and Hon’ble CM Devendra Fadanavis has decided to completely revolutionalise this for the Home Department.
Standardization of Apps
At present each unit head, be it the Supdt. of Police or Commissioner of Police is designing different apps for women safety, missing children, persons in distress, traffic related issues etc. All these apps, though very useful, need to be integrated and standardized so that in the entire state people will have only one set of apps for all such services. Consultants have been appointed to examine and analyze all the existing apps in the state. We have to either scale up the best ones in the entire state or introduce completely modernized apps in the entire state. Budget requirement and cash flow all have been arranged by the Home Department. by following normal procedure. It is expected that by June 2017 entire Home Department will be equipped with a standard set of apps.
Hon’ble CM has reviewed all such initiatives and ensured his full support so that all these projects are completed on a fast track. Presentations have been made to Hon’ble Minister of State–Home (Rural), Finance & Planning, Deepak Kesarkar by consultants and all suggestions given by Hon’ble MoS have been integrated. Similarly, Minister for State for Home (Urban) – Dr. Ranjeet Patil is also being involved in the various development projects. Highway safety, trauma care, highway police, housing in urban areas are on war footing. Upgradation of some of the urban areas like Akola, Pimpri, Chinchwad etc. are on a high priority of the Government and of the Hon’ble Minister of State for Home (Urban)- Dr. Ranjeet Patil.
The support of other departments such as Urban Development, Information Technology Dept., Finance, Environment, Planning etc. and Govt. of India will be required at various stages of projects and we hope that the department will be able to cross any hurdles that may come up.
K.P. Bakshi
ACS (Home), Maharashtra
