Hiring, insurance boost for Bengal police force

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said West Bengal would recruit 24,000 constables and 2,400 sub-inspectors in the next three years. She also said Leave Compensatory Pay for uniformed personnel would be extended from 52 days to 60 days.

The Rs 2.5 lakh cap in police group medical insurance policy – which includes all retired and serving police officers from DGP to Group-D employees and even non-uniformed staffers – should be removed and be brought under Swasthya Sathi scheme, which is a Rs 5 lakh family floater medical policy, the CM further said.

Banerjee was speaking at the launch of ‘Jagroto Bangla’, a scheme that extends beyond the relief-and-rehabilitation package for surrendered militants and employment schemes for youths in militancy-affected zones to cover relief and job schemes for victims of militancy, linkmen and sportspersons from these zones.

On Thursday, the Bengal government handed over job letters to 2,137 such persons, including 597 ex-KLO activists and 411 Maoists. As many as 36 people, whose family members had died due to militancy, were also provided jobs. The CM said: “I do not want to name any party. You had chosen to follow a certain political ideology before. But now you have returned to the national mainstream. Your role is far greater now to ensure security of your larger family – your countrymen.”

She also announced that home guards working outside their home districts for over a decade and a half were being slowly given postings closer home. As much as 10% of all new home guard and constable posts would be kept aside for applicants from village police and civic volunteers, she added.

Banerjee also urged police to thwart attempts to foment riots and violence through fake videos and WhatsApp messages. “You have to protect your country and state against falsehoods and canards being spread through fake videos and false WhatsApp messages,” she said. “Not all videos are true, neither are all WhatsApp messages real. You have to remain alert against these.”

DGP Virendra said relief and rehabilitation packages for people who shunned militancy and returned to the mainstream went beyond the Central financial packages in Bengal and provided them employment opportunities. Bengal, he added, had already recruited 25,000 civic volunteers and 5,500 junior constables.