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Bijapur (Chhattisgarh): In an unprecedented act of protest, hundreds of assistant constables across half a dozen police stations in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district deposited their arms on December 8 to take issue with the state government.
Bastar is the centre of Naxalite activity in the state.
The incident followed an agitation that had been launched by family members of the assistant constables in Chhattisgarh’s capital, Raipur, between December 6 and December 8 to press for the their longstanding demands for regularisation in the police force, a rise in salaries and other privileges.
When the protestors had tried to gherao (encircle) the police headquarters, they were prevented by the police from proceeding. However, some women who had been part of the agitation claimed that they had been manhandled and beaten and that their clothes had been torn. Later, the protestors, including women, children and men, had been sent to a temporary jail in Sapre Shala, Raipur.
Angered by this treatment of their families, the assistant constables posted in Bijapur’s Kutru, Police Line, Mirtur, Gangalur and other areas protested by depositing their weapons and holding demonstrations.
Weapons deposited by assistant constables. Photo: Special arrangement
Ramesh Kosare, one of the agitators, said, “I am deployed as an assistant constable. My family members were on their way to participate in the protest in Raipur. But they were stopped at Abhanpur, 28 km ahead of the capital city, and beaten up.”
Kosare alleges that the lights had been turned off in the rooms where the female members of their families had been kept and the women had been assaulted by the wardens.
Committee set up
The assistant constables assert that they risk their lives while on duty in the forests where Naxalites abound, but are paid very little in return. Their demands include a hike in their pay grade, timely promotions and an equal pay scale. In Chhattisgarh, assistant constables are paid Rs 15,000 a month, Gopniya Sainiks (secret troopers or police informers) Rs 12,000 and Home Guards Rs 13,000 per month.
In order to intensify the state’s operations against Naxalites, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Raman Singh government that had been in power between 2003 and 2018 had recruited many young men to serve as special police officers (SPOs) in Bastar. Most of these men had been surrendered Maoists. Later, as directed by the Supreme Court, the SPOs had been made assistant constables.
But it was the SPOs who had protested so hard against the BJP government before the 2018 assembly elections in the state that the BJP had been defeated and the Congress party had come into power. And now the Congress government led by Bhupesh Baghel is faced with a similar challenge.
On December 8, after the agitation by their families and the ensuing protest of the assistant constables in Bijapur, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel ordered the constitution of a high level committee headed by Himanshu Gupta, the additional director general of police, to look into the assistant constables’ issues.
However, the families of the police personnel claim that the government has only issued assurances and say that their movement will continue until the government announces a specific date to resolve their issues.
According to Kamalochan Kashyap, Bijapur’s superintendent of police, talks are continuing between the assistant constables and the police.