Police personnel in Andhra Pradesh may get weekly off soon

VIJAYAWADA:  Police personnel in the State, including reserve police and home guards, working across 13 districts in the State might get weekly off on a rotation basis soon. If everything goes as expected, the week-off system will come into force in the police department in two weeks. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday formed a committee comprising 21 senior police officials headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Ravishankar Ayyanar to study the feasibility of the proposal and asked the team to submit a report in a week.

The committee members will visit and study the working and strength of police in all the 13 districts and submit its report. The team will formulate the week-off policy in such a way that the duties and responsibilities of police officers remain undisturbed. 

The team will consider the working hours of police officials in commissionerates, mandal level police stations, villages, Naxalite-prone areas, court duties, mandatory staff in police stations, clerical staff, petition inquiry officers, bandobust and other duties. 

What appears tough for the committee is formulating the leave policy for more than 70,000 police officials working in 957 police stations and other departments such as traffic, special branch, intelligence and others.

DGP Gautam Sawang opined that police officials need rest from long working hours so that they can take care of their health and family. “More than 60 per cent of the police officers are suffering from diabetes and intestine-related ailments due to long working hours and other issues. If they take proper care of health and family, they will perform better,” Sawang believes.

Week-off to policemen and officers is one of the promises made by Jagan Mohan Reddy during the recent polls.The six-day week (weekly off) is being implemented in Prakasam and Kadapa districts on an experimental basis as a part of police welfare measures initiated by the State government to provide social life and time for the police officials to spend time with their family members. 

Numbers 70,000
Number of policemen in State 957
Number of police stations
Week-off to policemen and officers is one of the promises made by Jagan during  electioneering
The six-day week is being implemented in Prakasam and Kadapa districts on an experimental basis