Female staff may soon be part of Pune fire brigade

Chakankar added that only in Mumbai and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, women have been given equal opportunity in the fire service.

Chaitraly Deshmukh-Tajane

Pune

Female employees to soon be part of the Pune municipal corporation fire brigade squad, thanks to the efforts taken by the Maharashtra state women’s commission that has directed PMC to initiate work to recruit women and make them part of the team.

Rupali Chakankar, chairperson, Maharashtra state women’s commission, said, “A total of nearly 150 posts in fire brigade are to be filled soon and women will also be given an opportunity. As many as 910 posts have been sanctioned for the department out of which more than 500 posts are vacant. Earlier, the PMC had also released recruitment information for only male candidates, citing the reason that the service regulations of the department is not such to accommodate female candidates. We took up the case with the department concerned, asking them why women cannot be part of fire brigade team when they are doing well in defence and police department.”

Chakankar added that only in Mumbai and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, women have been given equal opportunity in the fire service.

“In Pune, a decision to include women in the fire department will be taken soon,” she said.