With the motto “always on duty” adversely impacting the quality of policing in Chandigarh, a public interest litigation seeking eight-hour shift pattern system in all the police stations and police posts besides weekly off for the UT Police personnel has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Due to the prevalence of this “always on duty” dictum, the police personnel in Chandigarh are subjected to inordinately long and irregular hours of work ranging between 12-16 hours and that too without any weekly day off for rest and recuperation, stated the petition filed through advocate Sumati Jund.
The petitioner, Jagjit Singh is currently working as a head constable in Chandigarh Police and has been in the UT Police from the year 2000. The petition has sought introduction of 8-hour shift pattern system in all the police stations and police posts of Chandigarh Police along with weekly off for assuring efficient and people friendly policing in the city.
Advocate Sumati said that the matter was adjourned today and the Court will hear the petition in October.
The petition stated, “Police personnel are subjected to inordinately long and irregular hours of work (often ranging between 12-16 hours). Such long hours are not only physically exhausting and mentally draining for the police officials but also non- conducive for attending to their personal/ family needs and social life and commitments.”
“The ever-increasing workload and emergent nature of job has taken a toll on the health of the police officials. Apart from health, grueling and tedious work regime is also causing an enormous adverse impact on the quality of police service as the overworked and overtired police personnel are not able to perform to the best of their potential. Their overall frustration is resulting in their rude and offensive behavior with the Public which in turn is leading to the erosion of societal image of the police,” it stated.
The petition pointed out that the Chandigarh Police is certainly not facing any shortage of manpower. The present police: population ratio of Chandigarh Police is 476 police personnel per 1,00,000 population. And, the shift working system in the police stations could be introduced if the police: population ratio rises up to 173 personnel per 1,00,000 population, the petition stated.
As per the audit and inspection report (on account of the office of Inspector General of Police, UT Chandigarh) for the period April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, the then police: population ratio was 629 police personnel per lakh population in Chandigarh.It further pointed out that a total of 17318 complaints were received in the year 2016 at Public Window, Police Headquarters Sector-9 while 21792 complaints have been received in the year 2018.
The issue regarding introduction of shift pattern system has been raised time and again by the police officials in the Sampark Sabhas as well various meetings but to no avail as neither any action has been taken till date to introduce the shift pattern system nor to comply with the directions of study titled “National Requirement of Manpower for 8 Hour Shifts in Police Stations”, the petition added.