Jobless SPOs block Brahmaputra bridge

Demand job regularisation; threaten mass suicide by jumping into the river

April 24, 2018 12:20 am | Updated 12:20 am IST - GUWAHATI

Security personnel stopping a Special Police Officer from jumping into the Brahmaputra river  at New Saraighat bridge in Guwahati on Monday.

Security personnel stopping a Special Police Officer from jumping into the Brahmaputra river at New Saraighat bridge in Guwahati on Monday.

Some 300 Special Police Officers (SPOs) on Monday blocked an arterial bridge across the Brahmaputra river demanding regularisation of their jobs. They threatened to commit mass suicide by jumping into the river before the police dragged them away to restore order.

About 650 SPOs have been jobless since the Assam government discharged them in 2015. They have been awaiting absorption in the proposed 3rd Assam Industrial Security Force as the government had promised.

“We have no job, no money to look after our families. The government does not want us to live, and by preventing us from jumping into into the river, it does not want us to die either,” an SPO said.

The State government had raised the SPOs in 2008 to guard government officials and vital installations after militants triggered large-scale violence in Dima Hasao district. Many surrendered rebels were included into the squad under rehabilitation schemes.

“Initially, 900 SPOs were recruited. But the government discharged 298 of them in 2010 without any notice. The remaining SPOs were discharged in 2015, but none of us was given the revised pay since September 2013,” Dilip Saikia, president of SPO Welfare Society, had said recently.

Mr. Saikia is undergoing treatment following an accident.

The SPOs were recruited at a fixed monthly pay of ₹4,839 for the first three months. The pay was later revised to ₹8,200.

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