The Home Department has decided to recruit 3,000 contractual police personnel for the Mumbai Police Force. These recruits will be engaged on a contractual basis for a period of up to 11 months through the State Security Corporation. This move comes in response to the acute shortage of manpower within the Mumbai Police, and it has been approved by the government upon the request of the Police Commissioner, pending new regular recruitment. An allocation of Rs 30 crore has also been sanctioned to cover the salaries of these contractual police officers.
The recruitment will be conducted from the personnel of state security corporations, primarily to address the increased demand for additional police personnel during festivals such as Ramadan, Diwali, and the upcoming Navratri festival. This recruitment will either last for the duration of the specific festival or until the 11-month contractual period expires, after which the recruits will return to their roles within the Security Corporation. A budget provision of Rs 100.21 crore has been allocated for this purpose, with an initial disbursement of Rs 30 crore designated for covering the three months' salary of these recruits.
During the monsoon session, a controversy arose regarding police recruitment. The state government clarified that the recruitment would be primarily aimed at addressing the shortage of manpower in the police force, and personnel from the Maharashtra State Security Corporation would be utilized for this purpose. Devendra Fadnavis had previously stated that the state government had no intentions of resorting to contractual recruitment methods for police personnel.