Refraining themselves from wearing black badges during duty hours from Thursday in protest against what they called the State Government’s “indifferent” attitude towards their six-point charter of demands, members of the Odisha Police Association (OPA) on the day, nevertheless, threatened to go on strike from February 6 if the Government fails to break the ice. Addressing mediapersons here, OPA president Satyajit Mishra informed that the Government had convened a meeting on the day to which a delegation of OPA was invited. “The Home Secretary requested us to refrain from the strike as a high-level meeting in the presence of the Finance Secretary is going to take a call on all our demands on February 5,” Mishra said.
“In case the talks fail on February 5, we will start protesting from February 6 by wearing black badges during duty hours for four days. From February 10 onwards, all Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and Assistant Sub-Inspectors will boycott duties by taking mass casual leaves,” Mishra said, adding that their have been pending for last several days.
The policemen in the mid-rung ranks demand that their 13th month compensatory allowance be at par with their monthly salary, enhancement of their pay bands and health insurance of Rs five lakh for each policeman, adequate financial resources to meet the investigation and inquiry costs. They also demand stoppage of the contractual appointments of direct Sub-Inspectors and doing away with recruitment of direct DSPs as the State now has a sufficient number of DSPs to fulfil the future IPS vacancies.