Bengaluru: They start their career in their early twenties with a dream to make it to 'one star' (insignia of assistant sub inspector post), but 95 per cent of the police constables in the country hang their boots by the time they get to wear the insignia of 'V' (head constable) on their uniform.
The tragedy of the constabulary, which forms 85 per cent of the civil police force is that they hardly get to see a single promotion; to the rank of head constable in their entire career, of 30 to 35 years.
In Karnataka the government has woken up to the long pending demand for justice by the constables and on Friday have issued a Government Order (GO) to upgrade the posts of 11,000 constables and head constables to the next rank in the next 15 days. The promotion-linked cost is estimated at around '25 crore.
Additional Director General of Police (Administration) Parveen Sood told this newspaper that the GO will be implemented in the State within a fortnight and all constables and head constables from civil, armed, State Reserve Police Force and Finger Print bureau will move one notch up. "The government move will help the lot of more than 11,000 PCs and HCs. The waiting period of their promotion will be reduced by at least three to four years. The promotions will not only ensure justice to them but will also give the Department as many hands to engage in case investigations," Sood said.
The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) empowers the HCs and ASIs to take up case investigation. The constables are restricted to doing beat, sentry and court duties. Around 95 per cent of the constables see just one promotion in their career and retire by the time they get to the rank of ASI. "Hardly five per cent make it to the rank of sub inspector, which is very unfortunate. Now in Karnataka we hope that with the new GO, 30 to 40 per cent of the PCs will hopefully get to wear the two stars (sub inspector)," said the ADGP.
The overworked constables had threatened to go on mass leave on June 4. The government had managed to broker peace after assuring them that they would address their genuine demands on priority.
