Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Mangaluru, Nov 18: Adding cherry on the cake of allowances for police announced earlier in the day, home minister Dr G Parameshwar on Friday November 18 inaugurated 16 police constable quarters and a complex housing the ACP office, north sub-division and Panambur police station at Panambur here.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Parameshwar said, "If the police department works efficiently then the government will be good. Any issues in any department finally comes to the police department. Thus even the police department should be good. After our government came to power we launched a project by the name 'police vasathi graha'. We have taken up construction of about 11,000 quarters across the state. Our aim is that all the police personnel, that is all the 1 lac personnel in our department, should have quarters.

"Each flat has cost Rs 16 lac. We want them to be happy, and once we provide them facilities, we can expect efficiency from them. Next is police station, we want to have systematic police stations with all the modern technology. We want to computerise the police station. We want to have a people-friendly police station. Thus we give Rs 1 lac each year for maintenance of police stations. We want to change the people's perspective about police," Parameshwar said.

"We want to increase the acceptability factor of police in the eyes of people. We are ready to increase the staff strength of Mangaluru police. The commissioner and superintendent of police should give me the requirement report and we will recruit more staff for Mangaluru. We have recruited about 19,000 constables already across the state. No government in history has recruited so many personnel in a year.

In the next two months we will the police 25 vehicles equipped with all the modern gadgets. These vehicles will reach the incident spot within five minutes. A cop cannot say that a place of crime does not come under his jurisdiction. As the salary of police personnel is very less and there has been no increment and allowances, I asked my officials to prepare a report by comparing our state with other states. We felt that there were some flaws. Hence, we have announced the new allowances this morning. We have increased the allowance for uniform from Rs 100 to Rs 500, risk allowance of Rs 1,000 and conveyance allowance of Rs 600 have been introduced. Totally, the allowance has been increased by Rs 2,100 per personnel.

"The normal salary hike which is announced once in six years is due next March. Thus we have increased the allowance as of now and salary will be increased in the coming year. Now graduates and postgraduates are joining as constables. Previously there was no promotion for a police constable for 25 years. We have revised the norm, and now a constable will be promoted as head constable in ten years and thereafter as ASI in another 10 years. When this is implemented about 11,000 constables will be promoted," he said.

"We have abolished the orderly system. Many new training schools are being started for police. For the children of police, national-level schools are being built in all range which will provide CBSC education to them. Another 128 quarters will be built here and would be completed by next year.

"I have directed my officials to take strict action against whoever tries to spoil law and order and disrupt communal harmony. Law and order situation in the state is good and we will not tolerate anyone who disturbs law and order in the state," he added.

District incharge minister B Ramanath Rai said, "The police department is an important part of the administration. Police officials need to be given fecilities, only then can efficiency be expected from them. Panambur is one of the important stations in Mangaluru. Today, even though police are alert it has been difficult to handle the law and order. It is because of the communal sensitivity of our district and shortage of police officials here. I urge the home minister to increase the number of police personnel. I urge people of the district to cooperate with the police officials to build a harmonious society."

Mangaluru north MLA Mohiuddin Bava, Moodbidri MLA Abhaychandra Jain, police commissioner Chandra Sekhar, IGP Arun Chakravarthy and others were present.