It has been nearly three months since the rural format of the Thane and Palghar policing apparatus was combined and elevated to a unified Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) commissionerate by the state government authorities on October 1, 2020. An IPS officer of 1990 batch Sadanand Date has been appointed as the first police commissioner.
Six police inspectors who were recently promoted as assistant commissioner of police (ACP’s) have been awarded postings in the MBVV area. However, the commissionerate is still awaiting recruitments of 1,488 police personnel including one DCP, seven ACP’s, 37 Police Inspectors(PI), 48 Assistant Police Inspectors (API), 91 Police Sub Inspector’s (PSI), 89 Assistant Sub Inspectors (ASI), 261 Constables, 307 Police Naik’s and 647 police amaldars. As against the 3,321 sanctioned posts for the elevated policing system, only 1,833 were occupied as on December 28, even as 1,488 posts were still lying vacant.
Additional recruitment is being conducted in two phases and the manpower is gradually increasing, said an official. With three designated zones, the MBVV Commissionerate comprises 13 police stations including Mira Road, Kashimira, Naya Nagar, Navghar, Bhayandar, Uttan which were earlier attached to Thane (rural) and Vasai, Virar, Nallasopara, Manikpur, Valiv, Arnala and Tulinj which were part of Palghar police. Moreover, seven more police stations like Kashi Gaon, Khari Gaon, Pelhar, Achole, Bolinj, Mandvi and Naigaon are also on the anvil.
Currently, the commissionerate operates from a civic property in the Ram Nagar area of Mira Road which will serve as a provisional headquarters, till the construction and infrastructure work of its own administrative building headquarters gets completed. With an average of 2,500 crimes registered each year, the rapid development of both the twin-cities compared to other regions in the district had put immense pressure on the available resources. As per rough estimates, the population of Mira-Bhayandar and Vasai-Virar has crossed 14 and 18 lakhs respectively. This in addition to a floating populace averaging more than 5 to 7 lakhs.
