More than 90 per cent of the security guards appointed at three of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) run hospitals- Sion, Nair and KEM are unqualified for their posts. Also, according to the audit report of BMC, the required strength of security is 220 but only 110 guards have been recruited despite the BMC having provided a contract of Rs 95 crore to a private security agency Eagle security service.
A Right to Information (RTI) filed by Iswarlala Sisodia, a former security expert with BMC, has revealed this information. As per the guidelines of BMC, the minimum qualification required to work as a security guard is higher secondary. Confirming the information, Vilas Kamble, deputy chief security officer, said, “Minimum qualification required to work as a security guard is higher secondary”.
When asked for the reasons for approaching private agencies to hire security guards, the former chief security officer, Arun Veer, said that due to insufficient number of guards available to the civic body, they were forced to approach private companies. “The demand is high and the supply is less. Due to the requirements, BMC had to approach private agency. For private agencies, we just have to place a tender and within a month, the hiring gets completed,” he said.
Also, as per the RTI, only 110 security guards have been appointed in these three hospitals.
This irrespective of the fact that often doctors fall victims to assault at the hands of patients’ relatives. “Last year, two residents doctors were beaten with rods when a child died due to dengue. They had snatched the stick from a woman security guard who had a fracture leg at that point of time. Had the security person been of good standard, the entire fiasco could have been avoided,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, president of Mard.
“Despite this, as the data shows, 50 per cent of the security guards comprises women,” he added.
When The Asian Age tried to contact the present chief security officer of BMC Dattatray Patil, he refused to comment on the matter.
