By IANS
Lucknow : Though the Uttar Pradesh police unsuccessfully battle a “corrupt and inefficient” image, Chief Minister Mayawati not only has praise for her men in khaki but has gone to the extent of holding a strong brief for them.
In a three-page letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mayawati has sought to convey the disillusionment of officers belonging to the Indian Police Service (IPS) over the recommendations of the sixth pay commission regarding the proposed hike in their salaries.
Despatched earlier this week, the letter is stated to be the strongest among those sent to the prime minister including by three other chief ministers on the same issue.
Significantly, Mayawati has sought parity in pay scales for IPS officers with the country’s top bureaucracy – the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
“In fact, I feel that not only the IPS but all central services deserve pay parity with the IAS,” she has said.
Evidently worded by a powerful lobby of IPS officers known to be part of her inner coterie, the letter advocates pay parity for the state police chiefs with heads of all central paramilitary forces including the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB).
“I find it strange that the UP director general of police, who heads the biggest police force of 200,000 personnel, has not been treated at par with the DGs of the central paramilitary forces, who have been placed in a higher grade. Such disparity is bound to adversely affect the morale of the cops here,” she has stated.
Drawing a parallel between the services rendered by IPS and IAS officers, Mayawati has sought to point out: “Disparity in pay is visible right from the junior administrative grade to selection as well as senior time scales in the pay panel’s recommendations.”
The UP chief minister has sought to draw the prime minister’s attention to the “tough and adverse” conditions under which cops have to function in the state.
“They usually function under heavy constraints and face acute dearth of resources. Any discrimination with them in salary would affect their morale and dampen their spirits, which could tell directly on the maintenance of law and order.”
Mayawati has gone to the extent of reminding the prime minister of his own speech at a meeting of chief ministers on December 20 last year.
“You yourself stressed upon the need for extensive police reforms in order to build a strong and efficient police force to deal with the growing menace of naxalism and to meet other internal security challenges.
“This cannot be achieved unless we take suitable measures to keep their morale high and recognise their leadership and merit.”