The Maharashtra Home Guards has developed a web-based application to ensure transparency in deployment of its personnel, a top official has said.
The app will also help in identifying and weeding out black sheep in the force, the official said.
According to the official, the application will ensure that no favouritism takes place in allotment of duty to the Home Guards jawans.
“The work on developing the in-house application began in February this year and is now almost complete. During its trial, the app was found to be satisfactory. It will be officially commissioned in the coming weeks,” the top official said.
Director General of state Home Guards Sanjay Pandey said, “Considering some lacunae prevailing in the department, we decided to take help of technology and develop our own software that will not only centralise the task of online reporting and deployment across Maharashtra, but also bring transparency in it.”
“I am happy to note that the app has been extremely helpful in streamlining the deployment of our jawans, besides weeding out the black sheep within the force, who used to fudge the number and identity of jawans during bandobast,” the 1986 batch IPS officer said.
“Now, our senior officers can monitor the movement and deployment of our forces at local level to ensure that no favouritism takes place in allotment of duties,” he added.
The Home Guards had been facing allegations of nepotism with some of its jawans accusing their seniors of allotting duty to those only close to them and not on rotation basis.
The Home Guards is a paramilitary police force. It is deployed to work as auxiliary force to the Indian police voluntarily. In Maharashtra, the sanctioned strength of Home Guards jawans is 54,000, but the current strength is 38,000.
“We will be giving log-in facility to the district commandant officers so that deployment and training-related activities can be monitored at the local level,” Pandey said.
“Since the last three months, the deployment of jawans is being done on rotation basis, which has been widely appreciated,” he said.
Jawans are informed about the location and duration of their posting through text message on their mobile phones, he said.
The software of the app has been developed by the Home Guards’ staff member, Tushar Varande, without any investment.
Varande is currently posted in Satara in the store department.
Pandey said he has written to the state government to increase the daily wages given to the Home Guards jawans.
“Our jawans’ wages are very low as compared to those given in Uttar Pradesh and few other neighbouring states.
Therefore, I have requested the government to consider hiking the wages,” he said.
