Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday announced a slew of incentives for the welfare of police personnel, including increasing the ex-gratia amount to those who die or are seriously injured in the line of duty.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion of the State’s first ‘Mahila Police Diwas’ programme organised at Panchkula, he announced an increase in the ex-gratia amount given to those who lay down their lives in the line of duty from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh and for those seriously injured from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.
He also made public the decision to sanction Rs 4 crore every year to set up police public schools in the 10 remaining districts, centralised seniority-for-promotion for all ranks, common cadre for male and female police personnel, ration money of Rs 600 per month for Class IV employees of the district and other units, government hospitals at the police training institutes at Bhondsi, Madhuban and Sunaria and two new regional forensic laboratories at Hisar and Panchkula.
He said Mahila Police Diwas will be celebrated every year on the eve of Raksha Bandhan to deliberate upon women’s security and other related issues.
Earlier, for the first time in 12 years, a Level-A meeting of the Police Welfare Society was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister where various decisions were taken for the welfare of the police personnel.
Mr Khattar also announced 3,060 new houses to be built next year for police personnel.
He said he had given his nod for increasing the size of the houses from 450 to 600 square feet, adding that matching grants would be sanctioned for the purpose from the Police Welfare Fund and the Road Safety Fund.
He said one representative of the Police Department would be included in the committee formed to monitor the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for State government employees.
Mobile, uniform allowance
The Chief Minister also assured that the demands concerning mobile allowance, uniform allowance and risk allowance would be considered “sympathetically”.
As the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill has been cleared by Parliament, the issue of VAT exemption at police canteens would also be taken up accordingly, he added.
Earlier, he honoured four female police personnel with medals for their “outstanding performance” in tackling crimes against women in the last one year. ‘Mukhyamantri Mahila Sarvottam Seva Padak’ was bestowed upon Inspector Garima. The other three were Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Rekha Rani and head constables Sunita Devi and Neenu Khan.
On the occasion, Mr Khattar also released a handbook on laws related to crimes against women and children, authored by IPS officer Himanshu Garg.
Congratulating the officers and personnel, especially the women, he said the women police stations had helped in checking crimes against them, adding that about 25,000 complaints were received at these police stations which was a measure of the “increasing faith” of women in them.
Besides, he said police helpdesks have also been set up at the sub-division level which would subsequently be converted into women police stations.
While 1,000 women constables have been recruited in the police department, 1,000 more as well as 100 women S-Is would be recruited, said mr Khattar, adding that efforts were being made to gradually increase the strength of women in the State police force to 33 per cent.
Currently, women account for only about six per cent in the State police and this would soon be increased to 10 per cent, he said.
The Chief Minister said various steps had been taken to strengthen the infrastructure further at the women police stations.
Fifty PCR vans and 100 scooties have been announced for these stations
- PTI
