Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 27: The police, who in the past had even prepared to take to streets in support of their demands for increased perks and pay, have submitted a letter to the chief minister now in the form of memorandum containing their demands.

The government, which had claimed that all the demands of the police had been met with the implementation of a report submitted by the committee formed under the leadership of former additional director general of police Raghavendra Auradkar, is in a fix. As the police are unable to undertake open protests in view of legal issues, they have sent a letter to the chief minister which reportedly contains 95,000 signatures.

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Under pressure from the police, the then Congress-led government had set up a committee headed by Raghavendra Auradkar to consider demands of the policemen and recommend to address the issues. The report was not implemented during the JD(S)-Congress regime. The BJP government said it has implemented the report, but the police claim that the revision did not benefit all sections of the police force.

In the letter, it is said, the police have requested the CM to set aside about 45 minutes of his time and personally go through the contents. They have asked the CM to earmark Rs 5,000 crore in the budget for implementing the Auradkar committee recommendations. They have sought 30 to 35 percent hike in the basis pay of lower level officers like assistant sub-inspectors, head constables, police constable etc as per the recommendations of the above committee.

Some of the demands of the police are mandatory weekly off instead of Rs 200 allowance now being paid in lieu leave, increasing special kit allowance from Rs 40 to Rs 500, payment of one month's additional salary every year as the police do not get second and fourth Saturday holidays, introducing a mechanism to increase weekly off allowance, uniform allowance, allowance in place of free ration, medical allowance etc once every two years. They also have sought free bus passes, and to restrict their work hours to eight hours a day.