Maharashtra govt discusses ways to hire forensics students

With over 2000 graduate and postgraduate students from the Government Institute of Forensic Science GIFS staring at an uncertain future a highlevel meeting was held at Mantralaya on Wednesday to discuss their employability The meeting was attended by home and higher education ministers DG State and DG Technical and Legal along with officials from both departments said officialsThough GIFS once pioneered the use of forensic science in crime scene investigations Gujarat Haryana and Punjab have already set an example by recently hiring forensic graduates to strengthen their investigation wingsWith three institutes in Mumbai Aurangabad and Nagpur GIFS offers BSc and MSc courses in forensic science apart from providing PGdiplomas specific areas of forensic science However most passouts continue to remain joblessldquoThe purpose of this institute was that with change in time and increase in hightech crimes and highprofile cases in the country applied sciences like forensic science are acquiring wider and greater importance in the investigation of criminal acts It was felt that the use of forensic techniques to detect and prevent crimes was crucial especially when criminals are getting apprised of latest technology to commit crime and forensic scientists and law enforcing agencies need to be on their toes by upgrading their knowledge and skillsrdquo said a forensic expert who did not wish to be named Other states doing betterldquoUnfortunately other states that were lagging behind in adopting forensic science have surpassed Maharashtra Gujarat Forensic Science University today is recognised as National Forensic Science University and it is directly under the Union Ministry of Home AffairsAlso states like Gujarat Punjab and Haryana have already amended their service rules and started hiring graduates and postgraduatesrdquo said the expert Officials said Minister for Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant discussed the matter with State Home Minister Dilip Valse Patil and a meeting was organised to talk about the need for bringing a change in the service rules to provide job opportunities to GIFS studentsAmol Deshmukh the nodal officer higher and technical education who was present in the meeting said ldquoOur request is that the forensic science laboratory and the regional forensic science laboratories across Maharashtra should come up with fulltime internships and the requirement rules need to be modified accordingly The Maharashtra police force should also come up with a special technical cadre to accommodate forensic graduates and postgraduates Our higher and technical education ministerrsquos concern is to address the studentsrsquo issues regarding employabilityrdquoAbout the outcome of the meeting Deshmukh said ldquoThe outcome of the meeting is to form a joint coordination committee for the betterment of human resources and strengthening of forensic and police InvestigationrdquoNo political will brain behind GIFSDr Rukmini Krishnamurthy a former director of State Forensic Science Laboratory who was also instrumental in setting up GIFS in 2009 said ldquoIt was a passion to come up with a stateoftheart institute to provide specific courses in forensics with an intention to mould young brains to understand the importance of forensic science It was also groom them to become future forensic experts who could work hand in hand with the police department and assist them in collecting analysis and reporting on crucial scientific evidence collected from the crime scene thereby helping the state in improving the conviction raterdquoldquoUnfortunately all efforts to get the recruitment rules amended to hire these students from GIFS for job openings at state FSL police department and even law and judiciary were never taken seriously I had personally discussed the matter and had requested the government to bring about changes in the state recruitment rules I had even met MPSC Law secretaries and even home officials at Mantralaya but all efforts went in vainrdquo she ruedDr Krishnamurthy said she had even mooted the idea of having at least one forensic science graduate at every police station and with every public prosecutor ldquoToday we have 45 mobile forensic vehicles every vehicle can hire these students but we never had any political will Moreover it is few states like Maharashtra where the GIFS comes under the higher and technical education ministry and the entire policing is a Home subjectrdquo she saidThe expert added ldquoWe can still do a lot provided there are attempts from students who pass out from these premier institutes to get into a large number of private forensic institutes and also look for openings at all India services banks insurance etc which have their own inhouse fraud detection departmentrdquo She said a few GIFS students have entered private sectors and got jobs at companies like Helik Advisory LtdAttempts to contact minister Uday Samant did not yield results2009The year GIFSrsquos first institute came up in state