Police academy to chart out own course with autonomy

NASHIK: The Maharashtra Police Academy is set to start functioning independently and generate revenue through specialised courses.
The state government issued a resolution on February 5 sanctioning the proposal to grant autonomy to the premier training institute.
MPA director Nawal Bajaj said a proposal in this regard was submitted to the state government in November 2015 and was approved a couple of months ago."The main functioning of the academy will remain the same, which is to train officers at deputy superintendent and police sub-inspector level. The autonomy would prove beneficial to raise infrastructure of the academy and bring more skilled experts from the fields of cyber crime, economic offences, intelligence, interrogations and various aspects of crime," he said.
Bajaj added that raising infrastructure would help the academy to attract more private players. Spread across 260 acres on Trimbakeshwar Road, the MPA plans to provide training on a par with Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada) in Pune to train new police recruits.
The academy has received Rs 24 crore from the state government to set up state-of-the-art academic centre through police housing and the work is expected to begin in next couple of months.
The officer added that the government would provide Rs 5 crore in terms of permanent deposit. The interest earned on the deposit would be used for training purposes. "It has been decided that 90% of the funds would be used for training, while the remaining 10% would be used for developing infrastructure. The government would continue to provide grant for the next five years until the academy becomes independent in terms of finances," he added.