NCP leader Nawab Malik alleged that good officers are unwilling to work in Nagpur due to "illegal pressures" brought on them.
No police officer transferred to Nagpur, the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, is willing to work there and this was one of the reasons for existing vacancies in the department, Nagpur police chief Shardaprasad Yadav said on Monday.
"It is true police officials who are posted not only in Nagpur, but in the entire region (Vidarbha) are unwilling to work there. They either do not report for duty or even if they do, they ask for a transfer," Mr Yadav said.
"I do not know what is the reason behind this mindset of police officers. There is not much law and order problem there. Not working there has become a mindset, not from today, but from the last many years. This should change," he said.
The lack of interest by officials to serve in Nagpur, Maharashtra's second capital which hosts winter session of legislature, was one of the reasons for existing vacancies in the city's Police Department, the IPS officer said.
Latching on to Mr Yadav's comments, Opposition Congress and NCP took a dig at Mr Fadnavis, saying it is "shameful" the Chief Minister has not been able to change the situation in his own hometown after coming to power in October 2014.
Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria said the Chief Minister should stop merely announcing development and welfare projects and should first concentrate on filling up police vacancies in Vidarbha.
"The Government, in the last one year, has been only announcing projects. The CM hails from Nagpur, and if he has not been able to change the situation prevailing there in the last one year, it is shameful. Instead of making announcements he should concentrate on filling up police vacancies as lack of sufficient police force may prove dangerous," he warned.
NCP leader Nawab Malik alleged that good officers are unwilling to work in Nagpur due to "illegal pressures" brought on them.
"BJP karyakartas (workers) do not let law prevail. They keep pressurising police officers to work according to their whims and fancies and that has made Nagpur the crime capital of the State. The situation there will get out of hand if BJP does not mend its ways," he said.