Bengaluru: Here is good news for around 80,000 police constables in the state. The state government has decided to give an additional Rs 2,000 per month to them with effect from next month.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, addressing a joint press meet along with Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara, said on Friday the government has decided to increase uniform allowance for police from Rs 100 to Rs 500 per month. “We have also taken the decision to give conveyance allowance of Rs 600 per month and hardship allowance (risk allowance) of RS 1,000 per month to police. Around 80,000 police from police constables to Sub-Inspectors will benefited from this decision. The total amount of benefit is Rs 2000 per month and it will cost the state exchequer Rs 200 crore per year’’ the chief minister said.
The chief minister said the state government had constituted a five-member committee in June under Raghavendra Auradkar, Additional Director General of Police (Recruitment) to study the issues related to salary of policemen in comparison with neighbouring states. “The committee had submitted its report in September. It made some recommendations. We have discussed the recommendations and decided to increase the conveyance since revision of salary would be difficult since the state government has decided to constitute new Pay Commission next year. We are leaving the issue of increasing salary of police to the proposed Pay Commission,’’ the chief minister said.
Promotion for police constables
The chief minister said the state government has decided to facilitate promotion for police constables for every 10 years of service period instead of existing norm of 25 years. “With this, each police constable can be promoted three times in his service. A police constable can retire as Sub-Inspector. All these years, a police constable could be promoted as a head police constable,’’ he said.
No more orderlies
The state government has decided to cancel the orderly system in the police department. The Karnataka Police Manual as well as those in other states prescribes the scale of orderlies for senior officers. While DGP and the additional DGP get six men, IGP gets four, DIG and SP get three, the deputy SP gets two and inspectors one. “We felt that it is not good to post trained policemen as orderlies to higher police officers. Instead of posting policemen as orderlies, we have decided to make alternative arrangements. We will take a final decision soon,’’ the chief minister said.
Vacancies
The chief minister said the government has given permission to the police department to take measures to recruit 7815 police constables and 711 police sub-inspectors during this year. “The recruitment process for 6610 police constables and 215 police sub-inspectors has been completed and around 5,000 policemen are undergoing training. We have also taken measures to fill up 4600 vacancies of police constables and more than 300 police sub-inspector posts. We are also taking measures to fill up 4445 police constable posts and 312 police sub-inspector posts during the next year. We are expecting to fill up all vacancies in the police department by the year 2018-19,’’ he said.
