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The police machinery
 Chennai
city Police Commissioner R Nataraj recently revealed that last year in Chennai
city alone 39 policemen had died due to work pressure. In 2002, the toll was
still higher and 52 policemen had become victims due to work pressure.
The commissioner had candidly
admitted that long hours of work, lack of adequate rest and irregular meal
timings had cost the policemen heavily. Most of the higher police officers in
Tamil Nadu do not consider their subordinate policemen as human beings.
Most of the higher police
officers are confined to A/C rooms giving verbal orders to the policemen thorugh
wireless. It is the middle level and lower policemen who have been working in
the field tackling all the responsibilities.
The
difficulties and problems faced by these field working policemen ae not felt by
most of the higher police officers. North Indian higher police officer who used
to effect the transfer of the subordinate policemen only through personal
computer based on their being stationed at a particular station.
The education of their
children, the health grounds of the policemn would be pushed to the background.
When a policeman who is tranferred from Chennai to Kanyakumari makes a
representation to this officer, citing the reason of his children's education,
the officer would simply reply "by the orders", as if it was the order
of the Almighty.
The aggrieved policemen cannot
approach the other senior police officers as he has to get prior permission to
meet the higher officers. In fact, policemen in Tamil Nadu are mostly treated
more as beasts than as human beings.
The policemen have no proper
forum to represent their grieveances. Even though association for policemen have
been permitted in many states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the
higher police officers in Tamil Nadu have been very vigilant in placing
stumbling blocks in forming any association.
A subordinate policeman who
formed a Police Constable Association got entangled in a case of attempt to
murder and was sent to jail. These officers would simply argue that forming an
association should not be allowed in a disciplinary force.
But the Tamil Nadu higher
police officials have formed the 'IPS Officers Association' to protect their
interests, but they never allow the subordinate policemen to form any
organisation for the same reason.
A year ago, Chief Minister of
Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa had received grieveance petitions from the policemen,
but an intercation with most of them reveals that more than 50 per cent of these
petitions are still lying in the DGP office without any action being taken.
A recent survey has revealed
that policemen working in a station in Chennai city and its outskirst have been
working nearly 16 hours per day with no leave. They have to go for night rounds
which may last till 6 a.m. and when there is a parade and important bandobast
duty during the next day, he has to continue without any rest.
It is a common to see policemen
keeping their razors in their pockets has most of them shave when they find the
time and a place.
When a policeman is posted to
VIP bandobast duty, he has to stand on the roads several hours before the VIP
lands in Chennai. It has been a pathetic sight to witness these policemen
standing in the hot sun and there are several instances in which policemen who
had left their positions for a few minutes to drink water have been ruthlessly
punished.
There were also instances in
which a policeman's leave has been refused even though he had to admit his wife
in the hospital for delivery. Some policemen also say that their leave letters
to take treatment for their heart disease and to attend the counselling for
their children's professional course admission have also been rejected.
Under
such a miserable situation, it is happy to note that the Police Commissioner of
Chennai has realised the ground realities and openly admitted that nearly 91
policemen had died in the city in the last two years due to work pressure.
It is high time that the higher
police officers took adequate ameliorating steps to reduce the difficulties and
hardships faced by the policemen in their day-to-day work.
It should be seen that
policemen do not work more than 12 hours per day with adequate rest, holidays
and leave. A policeman who does night beat without sleep should be allowed to
take rest at least 12 hours the next day. If many such corrective steps are
taken, the functioning of the Tamil Nadu police force would become formidable
and a good deal can be expected from it.
Harvey
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