Mizoram to recruit 350 police personnel, 94 home guards: State home minister

The Mizoram government plans to recruit 350 police personnel and 94 home guards through a fair and transparent selection process, starting with a notification for home guard applicants.

Mizoram Home Minister K Sapdanga on Monday said the state government will soon launch a recruitment drive for 350 police personnel and 94 home guards.

Sapdanga, who also holds the Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation (UD&PA) portfolio, said the government has launched a Rs 35-crore urban safety initiative to protect state capital Aizawl from landslides.

Speaking at a party function here, the minister said the government would recruit 150 unarmed constables and 200 armed police personnel through a fair and transparent selection process similar to last year's recruitment drive.

He said the government has already issued a recruitment notification for 94 Mizoram Home Guard (MRHG) personnel.

However, since the women's quota has already been filled, the current recruitment drive will be open only to male applicants, he said.

The home minister said recruitment would be based on merit, discipline and physical fitness, and candidates must have passed class 10.

He warned against nepotism and backdoor recommendations, asserting that political pressure would not help candidates secure jobs.

''Selection will be based entirely on merit. Those wishing to help their preferred candidates should instead support them in their physical fitness training,'' the home minister said.

He said that home guard recruits would initially be appointed for three years, subject to extension or termination as per rules.

Sapdanga also unveiled details of the government's ambitious Mission Urban Drain (MUD) project, aimed at protecting Aizawl from recurring landslides and urban flooding.

He said consultancy firms have completed surveys for the project, and development works are planned at 44 locations across all 40 constituencies.

The initiative, with an estimated outlay of Rs 35 core, will first be implemented in vulnerable or landslide-prone areas within Aizawl before expanding to other district headquarters, he said.

To prevent overlapping efforts, the department will construct a master drainage map of Aizawl city, he said.

The UD&PA minister promised strict quality control for the engineering of these new storm drains, which will systematically channel wastewater from local neighborhood drains into intermediate channels, and ultimately into the main urban arteries.

In a bid to improve local mobility, the government plans to cover these large drainage channels wherever feasible, he said.

This will convert the tops of drains into usable roadways, facilitating four-wheeler or two-wheeler traffic depending on the width, or converting them into pedestrian steps in steep terrains.

The government has set a completion target for the entire urban safety infrastructure project by 2033, Sapdanga said.