Another policeman has been suspended on Friday for articulating pay anomaly grievances through social media network postings, taking the number of suspended police personnel to three. State additional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumar said on Saturday that stringent departmental action would be taken against the police personnel who are indulging in such acts of indiscipline without having their grievances addressed within the department. Another senior police officer said that around a dozen police personnel have been identified so far for circulating posts on Whatsapp and others while airing their grievances over their pay anomalies under Mission Mahabrat.
Cyber crime police station staffers have been put on alert in view of the continuity of the silent stir. The intelligence staffers SOG and cyber cell officials are on the alert too. Besides, to mollify the aggrieved staffers, the senior cops had their lunch with their subordinates at police lines, PAC camps, IRB campus, police Training centre and some other places in all the districts of the state on Saturday. It is a move to rightly gauge their mood and also to desist them from participating or supporting the silent stir, said a senior officer in Dehradun.
Kumar said that the police personnel are being counselled about the nature of the jobs and the duties enjoined on them being part of the law enforcing agencies. “We can hardly be expected to break laws when we are mandated to enforce them for the people,” he said, adding that discipline must be maintained at any cost in police department in the districts. He further said that the genuine grievances would be redressed and if required, the police headquarters are ready to extend helping hand to the district police departments. He further stressed on the new recruits in the force be thoroughly educated about the police rules and manuals.
The latest to face suspension was the SI posted in Tehri district while one policeman deputed at Udham Singh Nagar has been transferred to Almora, said P Renuka Devi, SP, Almora. She further said that the senior police officers are now having launch with the lower- rung personnel at the police stations and the police lines. “The force in Almora has not seen any of the personnel supporting the agitation,” she added.
The demands which are said to have prodded a section of the police personnel to the silent protest route include hike in grade pay and allowances, allowance against gazetted holidays, full salary during training, cash against leave, special allowances for civil and armed police forces and hike in nutrition allowances.
Around two years ago, similar things had happened in the force known as Mission Akrosh and later their pay anomalies had been partially addressed, resulting in the restoration of normalcy in the force.