Police Jawans go hungry as officers make merry

Bhadra

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Constable Rakesh Kumar Singh, 36, is in charge of mess No. 4 at the Ranchi Police Lines. He desperately needs someone who can roll out 1,000 rotis within three hours. His most efficient cook, Shrawan Dube, 42, has been 'pulled out' of duty just when he began preparing dinner for 100 constables. Dube will be marked present on the office rolls and will draw salary for cooking food for the constables. In reality, he will be cooking delicacies at the Ranchi Police Club, a recreational hub for middle-rung police officers.

The officers have taken the cue from their seniors, who use police cooks and other staff as their domestic help. So jawans go hungry while cooks are shanghaied for officer duty. 'This is a regular affair,' says Anup Thakur, 27, the other cook at mess No. 4. Thakur spent all of May cooking at the home of the Ranchi city superintendent of police.

The police and the paramilitary forces recruit cooks and other staff such as barbers, washermen, water carriers, cobblers, gardeners and sweepers to assist personnel engaged in law and order and combat duties. Usually, a police company of 150 personnel has to be accompanied by five cooks, three water carriers, a sweeper and a barber. A majority of the police cooks-Grade IV employees who are not supposed to work in private or official homes of senior officers-however are made to serve the officers and their relatives. Sometimes, IPS officers take their favourite cooks along when they proceed on Central deputation.

Most of these violations are done with the tacit approval of the police brass. The cooks and other staff work at home; but officially, they are shown working in police kitchens. The Government continues releasing their salaries. The Grade IV staff cannot speak up against their superiors. The police manual allows officers of superintendent of police rank and above to dismiss or suspend any personnel they feel are negligent or unfit in their discharge of duty

http://news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=250226115
 

Bhadra

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In Jharkhand, there are 2,500 Grade IV staff in the police establishment. 'Similarly, in Bihar, there are approximately 3,000 menial staff, including cooks in the police ranks,' says Ramashankar Sharma, president, Bihar Police Grade IV Employees Association. More than half the staff reportedly work in officers' homes.

Grade IV staff are recruited so that police personnel can carry out combat operation, law and order duties or train without worries. But this seldom happens in reality. With most cooks engaged in attending to the whims of their bosses, policemen, even those posted in tough terrains such as dense jungles, have to cook and fetch water themselves. The armed forces also engage locals to run errands for them while they move inside jungles for area domination exercises against Naxalites. 'Besides diluting combat power, engaging outsiders in Naxal areas is a dangerous practice, as they could double up as spies and leak information about police operational strategy,' says a senior IPS officer.

Jharkhand Director-General of Police (DGP) Gauri Shankar Rath admits that complaints against some officers engaging Grade IV staff for personal use have reached him. 'We have issued instructions against such practices. This is not allowed,' he said. These directives, however, cut little ice with the officers, who continue using such staff at their homes.

India Ttoday interviewed Jaynandan Singh, a sewadar (personal valet) who retired from the Army in 2011 at the age 45. A resident of Ghostawa village in Bihar, Jaynandan refused to reveal the name of the officer he worked for, or where he was posted, but he says his time in the Army was awful. 'Though a sewadar's job is limited to helping an officer prepare for the job, in reality, one is like a personal servant,' he says.
 

Bhadra

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Jaynandan's day used to begin at 5.50 a.m. His first task was to polish the shoes of every member of the officer's family. Then he served tea, after which he cleaned the garden and toilets. After the officer left for work, he would run errands for his wife. He had no days off, nor was he given food at the sahib's house; he ate in the Army mess when he returned after 10.30 p.m. 'I worked under constant stress, was subjected to unjust demands and was denied the opportunity to meet my family for months,' he says.

The ill-treatment is just as bad in the police. In March, the Bihar Police Grade IV Employees Association complained against the then Patna senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar, who used police cooks at his home and also meted out harsh punishments for small slip-ups. In a petition to DGP Abhayanand, the association said two cooks, Daya Shankar Chobey and Vijay Prasad, were made to carry sandbags and crawl for an hour and a half under the scorching sun for adding less salt to the curry.

Since June 2011, as many as six cooks were punished by the IPS officer. Prayag Mandal was suspended when he refused to clean the toilet at Kumar's house. Another cook was suspended when a piece of fish went missing. In a clear attempt at intimidating the cooks, the police searched the homes of the cooks a day before they were to appear before the DGP. 'The officer concerned has been served an explanation, which he has not replied to so far,' Abhayanand told india today on June 13.

With cooks serving the officers, home guards are often deployed to do odd jobs. Shankar Shah, 46, a home guard, cooks food at the Nawada police lines. Others work as sweepers and even gardeners. The misuse is not limited to Grade IV staff. Bihar Policemen's Association President Jitendra Narayan alleges that nearly 20,000 constables-over 20 per cent of the existing strength of the police force-have been engaged as orderlies or bodyguards for IAS and IPS officers.
 

Bhadra

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In Jharkhand, retired IPS officers have retained cooks from the Jharkhand Armed Police. A deputy Chief Minister and a retired Chief Secretary still avail the services of a police cook. The officers were asked to release them but they did not respond. India may have freed itself from colonial rule six-and-a-half decades ago but it has yet to shed its old habits.
 

Bhadra

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And Lo and Behold.... many on the forum cry for removal militarily essential Sahayak in field for army officers..... Hypocrites...
 

panduranghari

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Why can the IAS, IPS, politicians etc employ help out of their own pocket? Why not get them to choose from approved candidates who have been vouched by local police? Why should there be this degrading treatment of the class 4 employees?
 

Bhadra

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Why can the IAS, IPS, politicians etc employ help out of their own pocket? Why not get them to choose from approved candidates who have been vouched by local police? Why should there be this degrading treatment of the class 4 employees?
Because they are IAS and IPS, Lord Vishnus' own, what can you do ???
 

amitkriit

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Because they are IAS and IPS, Lord Vishnus' own, what can you do ???
I recently went to Office of an IPS officer to meet him. Instead of him I found his teenage son sitting on his chair giving commands to every tom-dick-and-harry in the office. Even though the lower rank guys were frustrated, they could do nothing about it.
 

Singh

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Army insists that the word Jawans be used for Army soldiers only and not for other services.

Having said that the situation in the Army is a tad bit better, although its still pretty sad.
 

Bhadra

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Army insists that the word Jawans be used for Army soldiers only and not for other services.

Having said that the situation in the Army is a tad bit better, although its still pretty sad.
yes, in Army Jawan remains Jawan before one retires. The police makes their Jawan retire at 60.
 

Ray

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Police will be Police!
 

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