The State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) in the city is the only laboratory of its kind in the state with senior scientists and their assistants carrying out forensic examination of the samples send to them by police from all the districts of the state, a senior SFSL official said.
The laboratory that has 12 departments including, Toxicology, Chemistry, Physics, Ballistics and Biology and is always flooded with work as it has only 17 expert scientists on its roll. Six senior posts have been lying vacant in the laboratory for years and the government has shown no urgency to fill them up, the official said.
Interestingly, to reduce the workload on SFSL, a regional forensic laboratory was set up in Jalpaiguri 12 years ago, but due to lack of infrastructure and manpower the laboratory has failed to produce desired results. Infact, it has become more of a burden with experts from the city lab having to visit Jalpaiguri to assist the new staffs recruited there by the state's home department, it was learnt.
The SFSL director, Dr D Sengupta, said: "Manpower in SFSL has come down as many scientists have retired over the year and no recruitment have been done to fill the vacant posts. Lack of manpower does not hamper the work in the laboratory, but senior scientists have to bear additional workload to carry out forensic examination of over 2000 cases a year."
He further added that a proposal of a project costing Rs 5 crore has been submitted by his department to the state home department. The project includes plans to set up three more regional forensic laboratories in Burdwan, Durgapur and Malda.
The state government has allotted an amount to set up three more units including DNA and mobile crime units in SFSL, but to make these departments work we need scientists which can only be recruited by the state government, Mr Sengupta said.