Choki Sorath Police Training Academy Junagadh District News Gujarat India

13,000 constables and 868 sub-inspectors are being hired but four training academies can only support 1,640 personnel at a time.

The sudden recruitment of police personnel in the state on a large scale has left the police training departments in a fix as they have neither the capacity nor adequate trainers to manage it. The drive has also resulted in delaying the recruitment of sub-inspectors.

The four police training institutes in the state — Gujarat State Police Training Academy at Karai in Gandhinagar, Police Training Academy at Vadodara, at Police Training CollegeJunagadh City and SRP Training Centre also at Choki Sorath in Junagadh District — have a total capacity to accommodate only 1,640 police personnel while the drive is for recruiting 13,000 constables and 868 sub-inspectors.

Sudhir Sinha, ADGP (Law and Order), said: “Over 16,000 police personnel need to be trained this time, which is the case of the largest recruitment drive ever undertaken in one season. The institutes have a limited capacity and do not even have enough trainers.”

Sinha added: “Sensing the crunch, the state police has decided to postpone the recruitment of sub-inspectors, which was to take place by April-end. Now, it will be conducted six months later.

The candidates would be distributed among all the four institutes whose capacity would be possibly doubled. But it has not been decided as to how to manage the shortage of trainers.”

The first group of constables to undergo training would be SRPF recruits, who would be appointed by July. They will undergo eight months of training starting next month. This will be followed by other constables, who would be given four months of training.

Rajnish Rai, the principal of the SRP Police Training Centre at Choki Sorath, said: “We have not been told how the recruits would be accommodated. Candidates could possibly be sent out of Gujarat for training. But that depends on the permission. We were in a crunch situation last year also when more than 5,000 SRPF candidates were sent for training.”

Sources said some candidates may be sent out of Gujarat for training, but premier training institutes for NSG and BSF would not take more than four to five personnel from Gujarat at a time. In order to train all the recruits, the training period may be shortened, said sources.

The Karai Training Institute has been facing trainer crunch for a long time. Earlier also, the institute had to rope in retired servicemen for the work.

The state government had put a freeze on police recruitment in 1990, which had left 20,000 posts vacant last year.

The Gujarat Police have a sanctioned strength of 75,000 personnel.

Talala Gir Forest Junagadh District - mild tremor experienced

At 16th May – 2010, mild tremor was experienced in Gir Forest in Junagadh District.

Junagadh District Collector A M Parmar said that, "The tremor measuring 2.9 on Richter scale was experienced this afternoon but no casualties was reported.”

According to the official, the epicenter of the tremor was 50 kms north of Talala Gir Town in the district, where the Famous Gir Lion Sanctuary is located.

Mendarda Taluka Check Dam Junagadh District Water Problem News Gujarat India

In this Junagadh District, water is available in plenty. Eleven years ago, people of Jamka village constructed 55 Check Dams without seeking any help from the Gujarat Government; today, they are functioning without any snag.

Even as water crisis looms large in the region and sowing has reduced to half this summer in Saurashtra, farmers of Jamka village in Mendarda taluka of Junagadh district are busy cultivating millet, pulses, sesame and sugarcane over one lakh hectares.

The village has recorded 100 per cent cultivation this season. This is because water is available in bore wells to irrigate fields. “Water is available at just 40-50 feet depth in bore wells.

Most of the bore wells in the village are active and there is no water shortage,” said village sarpanch Purshottam Sidhpara. Besides, the water level in the two bore wells constructed by the nagarpalika to supply drinking water is quite high.

When many parts of Saurashtra are reeling under scarcity, Jamka village is somewhat unimpacted, thanks to the hard work the villagers did 11 years ago. Mansukh Suvagiya, a farmer-turned-industrialist in Saurashtra, had then come up with a design of a small dam.

He had convinced the villagers to build such dams on their own, with no help from the government. A fund of Rs 45 lakh was raised by villagers for construction of small dams. In the summer of 1999, as many as 55 dams and five ponds were constructed in the village that has a population of little over 3,000. When it rained that year, the water level came up because of the check dams and the ponds, and the village could overcome the drought situation it had been facing for five years.

The water table in the area rose from 500-600 feet to 40-50 feet. The villagers said the level has been like that ever since. The drive by the villagers became such a success that the Gujarat government, considering it a model measure to deal with drought, introduced check dam scheme across the state and decided to fund 60 per cent of the total expenses.

Suvagiya, who runs Jal Kranti Trust, said: “Even then, we were quite clear that it is our problem and we will solve it ourselves. For the same reason, the villagers agreed not to seek government help.” The 55 check dams built then are perfect in design and are functioning even after 11 years.

“The villagers were involved in each and every aspect of constructing the check dam as they wanted their money to be used for the right cause. And that is the reason why we have check dams of such good quality,” said Chunibhai Sidhpara, a villager.

Even today, the village has a committee to keep an eye on the maintenance of check dams and ponds. “A regular follow up is required to check for leaks or any other damage to the dams,” said Sidhpara.