CM’s gift to cops: They will get off days from now on

In a gift to cops on the occasion of Janamasthmi, CM Akhilesh Yadav announced policemen will now on get off days. He said policemen across state would get an off after 10 days’ work. Principal secretary, Home, Debashish Panda said those who would get off days included constables, head constables, subinspectors and inspectors.

After the formation of the SP government, the policemen had been raising this demand. In fact, the state government did start a weekly off schedule on trial basis in Lucknow and Varanasi, but the decision had to be withdrawn due to shortage of police personnel.

During the annual police day in April, governor Ram Naik had appealed to the state government to introduce weekly offs for cops as was the case in other services.

“The off will give them a break from hectic duty and energize them as well,” he had said.Talking to HT, a senior police officer said, “a study conducted by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) disclosed increase in cases of police atrocities as well as bad behavior due to long hour of work and no weekly offs. The BPRD had urged the state government to introduce weekly off for the police personnel.”On Tuesday only, a police constable Saurbah Tyagi went on shooting spree and then committed suicide in Bulanshahr. He was reportedly depressed and had applied for leave. Recently, two policemen died due to suspected dengue fever, after which their family members had alleged that the SHO had denied them leave.