Calcutta, July 18 :    Calcutta, July 18:  Bijoy-II, 24, is struggling to stay alive - one of the many horses suffering due to lack of care in the stables of the mounted police. On Wednesday, after six long years, the police conducted a recruitment drive for stable hands, to take care of the horses and bolster the department. With 69 horses in its stable, the mounted police have been in dire need of syces. According to officials of the mounted police, there were 'not enough stable hands' to take proper care of the horses. 'There are very few people in the city who know how to care for horses and we haven't been able to find anyone for the past few years,'' a senior police officer of the mounted police section said. Police commissioner Sujoy Chakraborty had entrusted Harmeen Preet Singh, deputy commissioner, port, an accomplished rider, with the responsibility of recruitment. 'More than 70 youth turned up, via employment exchanges, at the mounted police headquarters for the interview on Wednesday,'' Singh said. The candidates were grilled on the basics of horse-keeping - carrying a 50-kg sack, fixing a saddle, mounting and dismounting a horse. They were also quizzed on grooming, changing of horseshoes, checking the condition of the mouth and mixing fodder. Finally, there was a written examination. According to Singh, more than 50 per cent of the candidates had no clue about horses. 'But eight were short-listed for the final round, from which six managed to make the grade,' he said. Inspector of the mounted police wing, Dilip Basu, said the new hands will be trained by experienced personnel. 'They will then be posted at the S.N. Banerjee Road and Bodyguard Lines stables,'' Basu added. The stable hands will feed the horses and look after their day-to-day needs and fitness. The Calcutta Mounted Police, set up in 1840, shifted to its current S.N. Banerjee Road headquarters in 1912. 'Ours is the oldest mounted police wing in the country and the only division in a metro to utilise it for daily law-and-order purposes,' deputy commissioner of police, headquarters, Raj Kanojia said. Sawars, or mounted sergeants, are deployed in the Maidan area. 'They have the authority to arrest violators. We have kept the Maidan areas relatively crime-free because of effective patrolling by the mounted police.'