By Asish Mehta
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 10: Excessively long hours of work and the difficulty in taking leave are just some of the problems highlighted by middle-level police officials ahead of the 7th commemoration day of Police Commissionerate Bhubaneswar-Cuttack.
“We are committed to work for the people. However, we are doing overtime on a regular basis. The commissionerate has set eight hours as the duration of our duty. However, every day we are working for more than 14 hours,” said a police officer.
Another police officer reiterated the problem faced in taking leave. “There is a provision that we can take 20 casual leaves and 40 earned leaves in a year. However, we are unable to utilise even half of them,” he said.
The third problem is that a lot of time is spent in taking an accused to a doctor before producing him before a magistrate. “In a day several accused are taken to doctors for examination. There should be a few doctors specifically for the medical examination of accused. It will save a lot of time as it will not require standing in long queues with the public,” said a police officer.
The officers are also hampered by the shortage of fuel and vehicles. “Often we take the accused to court in an autorickshaw. We pay from our pockets and it is never reimbursed,” said a police officer.
The middle-level officials also do not get medical reimbursements. “Senior police officials are only entitled to such facilities,” said an officer.
Besides, officials posted under Jatni, Balianta, Balipatna, Nandankanan, and Chandaka do not even get rent allowance, which is leading to severe financial crisis.
Police officers also get several calls during the day, many of which turn out to be a hoax. Besides, many of the calls that the helpline ‘100’ receives are hilarious and have nothing to do with policing.
“Occasionally we get calls from elderly people asking us to help them in petty matters. Most of them are adamant about their demands and do not realise that the helpline is not for such issues,” said another official.
Police officials also receive many calls from citizens who suspect they are being followed by hooligans. “A common man never thinks of the struggle a police official goes through in his daily life,” said a senior police official.