After Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal promised to hike the ‘Pay Grade’ of Gujarat police personnel during his recent visit to the state, the government had announced a special benefit scheme of INR 550 crore for the police force, for which, submission of any kind of affidavit is no more mandatory.
The state government had also asked the police personnel to submit an affidavit by September 6 to avail the benefits of the scheme.
It had also issued an order to submit affidavits for those seeking any casual leave or sick leave. But this development had sparked discontent and unrest among the cops. This event forced the government to take back its decision.
According to the information department, the hike in annual wages has been done through an increment in the monthly benefits provided to the personnel under the new clause ‘Public Security Incentive’.
The Gujarat assembly elections are due to be held in December this year.
Earlier, recurrent state-wide protests and demonstrations were held by the police personnel to raise their pay grades.
On August 14, 2022, the government of Gujarat under the ‘Public Security Incentive’ announced an extra allowance of INR 550 crore for the police personnel. The allowance will be applicable for cops holding the rank of Lok Rakshak Dal (LRD), constable, head constable and Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI).
A police constable will get a monthly amount of INR 4000, a head constable will receive an amount of INR 4500 and an ASI will get INR 5000 under special benefit allowance. It included a washing allowance of INR 500 along with the security allowance benefit.
Talking about the annual income, the sources stated, “For LRD jawans, the annual wage has been increased from INR 2,51,100 to INR 3,47,250, the wage of constable has been increased from INR 3,63,660 to INR 4,16,400, the wage of head constable has been increased from INR 4, 36, 654 to 4,96,394 and that of ASI from INR 5,19,354 to INR 5,84,094.
On October 20, 2021, a five-member committee headed by IGP Brajesh Kumar Jha with the main Accounts Officer Shruti Pathak pondered over a report stating the concern on Pay Grade. The Revenue Department Secretary, Deputy Secretary of the General Administrative Department (GAD) and Deputy Secretary of the Home Department were also a part of the committee.
Nearly five meetings were held between the committee and police representatives from Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. The final report was submitted in April 2022.
Several other meetings were held among the ministers of the state- CM Bhupendra Patel & Revenue Minister chaired two-meetings; MoS (Home) Harsh Sanghvi chaired eight meetings while ACS (Home) Raj Kumar chaired three; and DGP Ashish Bhatia held five to discuss the grade pay issue.
Highlighting the significance of the job held by police constabulary, the Additional DGP Narsimha Komar had said, “The job profile of police constabulary is different from other services and they work for extended hours dealing with criminals, anti-social elements and those on the wrong side of the law. The threat of assault and abuse during duty leads to high stress. Gujarat government’s decision to give public security allowance to the constabulary will (boost their morale) and would give them financial security.”
