Relief for Punjab cops: Weekly off, 8-hour shift
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 31
Only a handful of gangsters, numbering less than six, are active in Punjab, Punjab Director-General of Police Dinkar Gupta told The Tribune in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. Gupta, who completed 11 months as DGP, said as many as 2,322 gangsters had been arrested since March 2017 when Capt Amarinder Singh took over the reins of the government in the state.
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TASKS ACCOMPLISHED
As many as 2,332 gangsters arrested since March 2017
Cops given free hand to take action on neta-gangster links
Speaking on the issue in the backdrop of several incidents of gang war, threats to a former Akali minister allegedly by a gangster in jail and allegations of political patronage to criminals, the DGP said the police were, as per the law, free to act against any politician suspected of having links with gangsters. “But so far, no such evidence has come to light,” he said.
As a New Year gift to the 80,000 strong police force, he announced that beginning January, the personnel would be deployed on an eight-hour shift and given weekly off on a regular basis. This, he said, had been made possible post-rationalisation of deployment with 7,000 personnel on non-operational duty being re-assigned work in the police districts under the ‘back to streets’ scheme.
