Assam Police personnel getting a raw deal

R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Feb 19 – Though the job of police personnel in Assam is considered toughest as compared to their counterparts in other states of the country because of presence of a large number of extremist groups, the facilities available to the police in Assam can be considered the worst among all the states of India.

Time and again, even Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has admitted that no other state in the country has so many active extremist groups and the recent intelligence inputs about the game plan of the foreign-based jehadi elements to create disturbance in the State added to the woes of the police personnel.

Under the circumstances, keeping the morale of the police personnel high is the need of the hour but the State Government has failed to provide facilities comparable to the other states to the men in uniform.

According to records available with the Assam Police, the salary structure of the police personnel in Assam is the worst among all the states of the country. Police sources told The Assam Tribune that the pay structure of the Assam police personnel is even much lower than their counterparts in the other North East States.

Sources revealed that the basic pay scale of an officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DSP) starts at Rs 4,300 per month, which is the lowest in the country. The pay scale of a DSP in Kerala is the highest as it starts at Rs 12,930, followed by Karnataka, where it starts at Rs 11,400. The pay scale of a DSP in the neighbouring states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland start at Rs 8,000 while, it starts at Rs 6350 in Meghalaya and at Rs 7800 in Tripura.

Sources said that the pay scale of an Inspector in Assam starts at Rs 4960, which is also the lowest in the country and the highest pay scale is paid in Karnataka, which starts at Rs 10800, followed by Kerala, which starts at Rs 10790. Sources revealed that the basic pay scale of a Sub Inspector in Assam starts at Rs 3850 that of ASI starts at Rs 3010, that of head constable starts at Rs 2890 and the basic pay scale of a constable starts at Rs 2650. The pay scales of all the ranks of the police personnel in Assam is substantially lower than the pay structures in all the other states of the country and police sources admitted that it is difficult to keep the morale of the men in uniform high under the present circumstances. Even the states like Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, which are not facing problem of militancy, are paying much higher salaries to the police personnel, sources pointed out.

Police sources said that to make matters worse, the police-public ratio in Assam is much lower than the national average, which added to the stress of the men in uniform. The Government even failed to fill up the vacant posts in the police department. However, the Government is planning to increase the strength of the force in phased manner and sought financial aid from the Finance Commission in this regard.

Another major problem faced by the police personnel in Assam is lack of housing facilities. Sources said that at present, despite some steps taken under the modernisation scheme to construct new quarters, only around 19 per cent of the police personnel of Assam could be provided with housing facilities, compared to the national average of 30 percent. Sources pointed out that because of shortage of accommodation, majority of the police personnel are forced to stay in rented houses, which is a difficult proposition in an insurgency-hit state like Assam as their families are always insecure.