Some 300 special police officers (SPOs) on Monday blocked an arterial bridge across river Brahmaputra 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 third 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 told newspersons.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 were given the revised pay since September 2013,” Dilip Saikia, president of SPO Welfare Society, had said some time ago.
Mr. Saikia is undergoing treatment following an accident.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
The SPOs had in 2015 staged an armed revolt after being discharged. Two of them sustained bullet injuries after the police opened fire to quell the rebellion.
Home Commissioner L.S. Changsan did not take calls, but an official in her department said the SPOs were recruited in 2008 on the condition that their job would be temporary. “There is no point demanding regularisation of job when they had agreed to the condition in the first place,” he said.