They work for 25 hours and are the first to respond to any emergency call not only in their duties, but in times of disasters, accidents, rescue, fire, roads and other duties round the clock”, say Durga and Manisha, the wives of police jawans. " For weeks and months, they do not about their timings. In fact , not only our husband, the whole police family is working round the clock with them", they say.
They are not only the two. Others also tell the same story about the sad plight of policemen in Himachal. Adding agony to the injury of the police jawans is this: All sarkari babus who go to office from 10 AM to 5.00 PM are getting the revised pay scale.
But who will speak up for the police jawans, who have been asked to keep shut and follow discipline? "How will we be able to feed our family of six to 8 members by meagre amount we get on the 8- year old modified pay band?" they ask.
The police jawans have raised these relevant demands, requesting Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and DGP, Sanjay Kundu to ponder over these questions sympathetically and give them justice by revising their allowances and pay-band on analogy of the Punjab.
What pains them is that when they had raised the issue with the Chief Minister last month, he had given them assurance that the government would consider their demands sympathetically, but nothing has happened so far.
But on the contrary, the ,HP police head issued them a strict notification warning them not to put any posts on social media and other platforms on this issue and they should live in discipline, the policemen point out in media campaign, Give Justice to HP Police personnel, citing copy of the letter they have sent to DGP, seeking justice for them.
Himachal Pradesh police jawans have been on warpath for quite sometime now. They boycotted police mess, staged protest in front of CM’s residence saluting and shouting slogans in support of their demands, demanding revision of pay-scale on the lines of Punjab and in line with what the employees in Himachal are getting.
What has added fuel to the fire of their anger is that as soon as Chief Minister announced new pay scales for the babus in Himahal that would put an extra annual burden of Rs 6250 crore on the state treasury at a meeting with HP Employees NGO Federation last month, the police jawans also jumped the “new pay bandwagon”.
The police jawans say that they get Rs 210 rupees in the name of ration allowance. “We have to pay for all food from your pocket in long 25 hours duty, working round the clock. In Punjab the policemen get Rs 3500 or Rs 4000”. They demand that they should be given a pay scale of Rs. 10300 and ration allowance of Rs 4000 on the lines of other states to give them justice.
Who will think about the interests of the police personnel? How can we meet family's and myself's expenses on such a low salary? How to carry the burden of family on your shoulders? Marriage of someone, taking care of the sick, school fees and expenses of education of children, they question.
The policemen say that they are protecting the state round the clock. “After all, we are also sons and daughters of this state, born and brought up in Himachal and have to feed our families, they point out.
They urge DGP to join his hands with them saying that you have formed a committee to look into this, but its findings are yet to come out. “You are requested to consider the report of the committee and present it to the government so that the government can solve our problem at the earliest”.
They, however, warn that if the government continues to cold shoulder them, then family members of the police jawan will be forced to take out protest rally on the arrival of Prime Minister, Narender Modi in Mandi in Himachal this month. “We will apprise him about the plight of policemen and our children in Himachal”, they say.
The policemen say that since Chief Minister has given assurance that efforts will be made to remove the discrepancies in salary, they expect that the committee submit its report and the state government accept and implement their genuine demands.
They say that their family members were desperate and helpless when they met with the BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda in Bilaspur recently and put forth their demands. “But an FIR was lodged against us. The voice of our family members is being suppressed”, they resent, urging DGP to take back the FIR.
The image of Himachal police figures among the first top 10 states in India, but today the jawans have to take to street to seek justice for them.
The police jawans are being subject to social oppression as whenever there is a strike or riot or some law and order problem, the police jawans are asked to lathi-charge and they become “bad boys” for their fellowmen.
