Mangaluru: The retired police officers boycotted the police flag day celebration that was held at the police grounds on April 2 since their demands were not met by the government.
The president of the Dakshina Kannada Retired Police Officers Welfare Association, D J Bhandary speaking to the mediapersons said, “From the past 10 years, we are continuously submitting memorandums to the government to provide us medical assistance and canteen facilities but the higher officials are not pressurizing the government to do the same. The higher officials are only giving assurances.”
He further said that in DK, there are more than 400 retired police officers. “Most of the police officers have health problems such as diabetes and blood pressure due to the stressful work. At present, 300 retired police officers have registered in the association. On March 4, a state-level protest was held demanding Arogya Bhagya to the retired police officers. At that time we had informed that if the government failed to meet our demands we would boycott the flag day. The senior police officers had then given us assurances but nothing positive came up from their assurance. The government did not take any initiative to provide us medical assistance. We had also demanded for canteen facilities because it is tax free. We are not asking to provide us free food. At present, Rs 110 is deducted from every police personnel’s salary every month. We are ready to pay the same amount to get the canteen facilities.”
“This year also our demands have not been met, providing such facilities should be included in the budget, which has not been done. We need to wait for one more year and hope for the best. On March 4, we had decided to boycott the police Flag day if our demands were not met, according to that we did not take part in the programme, he said.
While concluding, Bhandary said, “We will call for a state committee meeting to take a firm decision in this regard.”.