Appeal to cop to vote for a favourable government.
Mumbai Police who are already working for long hours have a busy schedule due to the forthcoming assembly election and the festival season. This year the workload of police officials will increase drastically due to the assembly polls which are likely to be held next month. There is heavy deployment of police force after the model code of conduct comes into force when the election dates are announced. Hence police officials will be on their toes and remain vigilant for guarding the city to avert any untoward incident. During the first five months of the year the police were providing security for the Lok Sabha election.
The festival season has further added to the woes of the police as security is increased during this period. Men in khaki had already been working overtime during the recently concluded Ganesh festival. Many other festivals like Dussehra, Diwali, Chhat Puja are arriving soon as police force will have a hectic work schedule. Due to the shortage of manpower they are denied leaves which take a heavy toll on their health. Often many officials complain about stress, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer etc. They are unable to celebrate Diwali or Dusshera festival with their family. Massive stress has taken a heavy toll on police officials as they have even attempted suicide.
In between there was a buzz in police department that every cop should vote for such a government which will think about police reforms. A police source from CP office said, “Police are never allowed to form any union. Neither they has any common voice to raise any of the issue which affects them. The Congress Government had promised that working hours should not exceed more than eight hours. However, we end up working for 15 hours.”
“Nobody asks us of our problems. I couldn’t meet my family for the last three days. We can’t even rest as we have to stand all the time. “Aren’t we human? he added.
Long working hours, poor working conditions, VIP protection duty, festivals and lack of structural reforms had increased stress levels. Long-term stress causes depression and suicide.
Work pressure may be a cause, but the bigger one is humiliation by seniors in the form of day-to-day harassment or punitive transfers and punishment posting for a good officer for many years. Police do not get time to have regular meals or sleep. On an average, every year stress leads to the deaths of four or five police personnel.
Low morale and increasing trends of addiction such as tobacco chewing, combat capability is a serious concern. But much more serious is the failing health of policemen. Tobacco being the easiest way to kill hunger, most of the constables are addicted to the contraband. Of the addicts, many are suffering from lung and oral cancer. Many of them are unable to visit hospital for conducting medical check up due to heavy work load. Most of them are unable to afford the expensive treatment offered by private hospitals while the hospitals run by government offer below par services.
A total of 1,341 policemen died while on duty between 2002-12, and among them 347 (25 per cent) died of cardiac arrest while 167 men ended their lives by committing suicide, the information says.
