Chennai: Cops plan to flood top brass offices with letters

Chennai: The personnel of the TN police force have started a unique letter campaign to attract the attention of top brass in the government by shooting off letters containing their grievances and demands. According to sources, hundreds of letters from constables containing their demands are on their way to the office of state chief secretary, home secretary and state DGP.

Following the government decision to look at the suggestions from recognised government employees union for the incorporation of 7th pay commission recommendation, police constables in the state have started sending individual letters containing their demands to the government as the state has not recognised the police constabulary association. “We started dispatching letters on Monday,” said a policeman, who is a member of the yet to be recognised Tamil Nadu state constabulary association.

The letters from the constables demanded pay parity and pointed out that the salary of police personnel is lower when compared to those working in other government departments. “While other department employees work only 8 hours with compulsory weekly off, we are forced to work for 24 hours without even a weekly off. Those police personnel who are working on their off day should be compensated with double pay,” policemen said in their letters.

“Work pressure sometimes leads to suicide and early demise of police personnel," the letter said. The constables also note that due to work pressure they are not able to take proper care of their family.

Pointing out that untimely food habits due to work pressure had been a major health problem for police personnel, the cops urged the government to increase the allowance to Rs 4,000 and medical allowance to 1,000.

The cops also demanded a rise in travel allowance from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. The policemen, in their letters, also pointed out that police personnel working in districts other than Chennai were not getting their food allowance regularly.