J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Sorry plight of special cops
Batala, June 9
The special police officers, who were recruited during the peak days of terrorism in Punjab, are “orphaned” employees of the government. Although they are termed as police officers, their service conditions are much inferior to even that of constables.

Fighting cyber crime: Cops getting tech lessons
Phagwara, June 9
The police was being equipped with the latest technology to combat cyber crime, which was becoming the biggest challenge for security forces, said SSP Kapurthala Ram Singh, while talking to The Tribune during his Phagwara visit on Wednesday.

KLF terrorist sent to judicial custody
Amritsar, June 9
The dreaded terrorist of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), Bakshish Singh, was today given 14-day judicial remand by the court of Bagicha Singh, Judicial Magistrate first class.

Protest against NC authorities
Phagwara: Hundreds of safai karamcharis belonging to the Nagar Council Safai Karamchari Sanitation Committee today held a protest rally and sat on an hour-long dharna in front of Phagwara SDM’s office, protesting against the indifferent attitude of the Nagar Council, Phagwara, authorities.

Sorry plight of special cops
Balraj Mahajan

Batala, June 9
The special police officers, who were recruited during the peak days of terrorism in Punjab, are “orphaned” employees of the government. Although they are termed as police officers, their service conditions are much inferior to even that of constables.

They are working in police stations and police lines for the last so many years but there is nobody to take notice of their plight, much less they can raise their voice against the government because they are supposed to be members of the Punjab Police recruited under the Punjab Police Rules.

A peek at their salary says it all. Persons employed as Home Guard jawans are paid at the rate of Rs 300 per day while an SPO only gets Rs 110 per day, which is even lower than the minimum wages fixed for labourers.

On the other hand, a newly recruited constable gets about Rs 14,000 per month besides getting preferential accommodations in the police lines. There is no such facility for the SPOs.

There is no provision for the group insurance scheme or any other service benefits like gratuity, provident fund, medical allowance, earned or casual leave and pension.

The special police officers who were recruited about 25 years ago still continue in the same position and now they have become over aged for any other government service.

Recently as per the direction of the government the services of some of the SPOs were regularised and were taken as constables with minimum applicable pay scales. Surprisingly, they have not been entitled to get any benefit of the past services rendered as SPOs.

In Batala police district, there were 239 SPOs out of which 110 were recruited as constables while the remaining 129 failed to satisfy the recruitment norms/conditions.

Similarly, there were 80 SPOs in Gurdaspur district out of which 34 were regularised while the fate of the remaining 46 hangs in fire.

The not-so-lucky SPOs on the condition of anonymity, rued their fate saying that in this mature age they could not even get a job of class IV category. “The government is apathetic to our needs and service conditions,” they added.

Moreover, there are some unlucky SPOs who have been made to work as cooks, drivers and servants by the higher police officials.

The special police officers in Gurdaspur even claimed they had not been paid their salaries for the last three months. “It’s been difficult to make both ends meet,” he added. They demanded minimum monthly salary of Rs 12,000 per month to live a trouble-free life. Some special police officers even appealed to the government to regularise them by giving them jobs in other government departments even as class IV employees.

Fighting cyber crime: Cops getting tech lessons
Our Correspondents

Phagwara, June 9
The police was being equipped with the latest technology to combat cyber crime, which was becoming the biggest challenge for security forces, said SSP Kapurthala Ram Singh, while talking to The Tribune during his Phagwara visit on Wednesday.

The SSP assessed the situation which had risen due to a congregation organised at Dera Baba Phool Nath Giri Ji Maharaj Chaheru and instructed police officials to maintain law and order at every cost. After holding a brief meeting with the police officials of Phagwara at the local Sadar Police Station, the SSP said special seminars were being conducted with the help of computer experts to educate cops about the increasing threat of cyber crimes in Kapurthala. The first such seminar was conducted in Kapurthala yesterday and now these seminars would be conducted at the sub-divisional level too.

The SSP disclosed that the police was seriously working to launch a large-scale campaign against the use and sale of mobile numbers with fake identities and to check the dealers, who indulge in unethical practice. The SSP expressed his deep concern about the sale of banned drugs from different chemist shops and assured to act accordingly against the guilty.

He, however, stressed on the need for a large-scale campaign with the help of social organisations, to educate people about drug abuse.

Nawanshahr: Dr Narinder Bhargav, SSP, inaugurated a seminar organised by the district police in collaboration with an NGO, Anti-Hacking Anticipation Society, at Police Resource Centre here on Wednesday. Activists of the NGO gave tips on taking precautions to foil the bid to hack confidential information from mobile phones by miscreants. Bhargav said that a special seminar on the IT Act would be organised soon to make the police officials aware of the Act.

KLF terrorist sent to judicial custody
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 9
The dreaded terrorist of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), Bakshish Singh, was today given 14-day judicial remand by the court of Bagicha Singh, Judicial Magistrate first class.

Earlier, he was remanded in police custody for five days on June 4 which ended today after which the State Special Operation Cell presented him in the court. The cell learnt to have dug out important information from the dreaded terrorist during the remand.

Meanwhile, the Sultanwind police also wanted him in connection with the seizure of petrol bomb in which a chowkidar was injured in the Sultanwind area about a month back. However, the team could not take his remand today due to lack of certain documents, it is learnt. The police would apply for his remand in the court tomorrow.

It is pertinent to mention here that Bakshish Singh was nabbed by the SSOC on May 30 with RDX and weapons when he was coming to Amritsar on a bicycle near Tara Wala Bridge. During preliminary investigations it was found that he was planning to strike at Amritsar bus stand or vegetable market.

Protest against NC authorities

Phagwara: Hundreds of safai karamcharis belonging to the Nagar Council Safai Karamchari Sanitation Committee today held a protest rally and sat on an hour-long dharna in front of Phagwara SDM’s office, protesting against the indifferent attitude of the Nagar Council, Phagwara, authorities.

The protesters led by Union President Jyoti Bhaghania raised slogans against council officials, including the NC president. They alleged that safai karamcharis were not even being paid minimum wages according to rules. The demonstrators made serious allegations of corruption and demanded a high-level probe to expose the corruption scandal of the NC officials. They demanded the booking of those officials of NC under the SC/ST Act. — OC