Failing to get retired cops, Odisha government may hire ex-armymen for highway patrol job
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BHUBANESWAR: The state government’s decision to engage retired police personnel under the proposed highway patrol initiative has received lukewarm response from the latter. A worried government is now planning to woo retired army men for the contractual job.
The Supreme Court committee on road safety had last year asked the state government to introduce highway patrolling on accident-prone stretches to reduce the road fatalities.
he government in January this year approved engagement of 119 retired police personnel in the ranks of sub-inspector, sergeant and deputy subedar as special police officers (SPOs) for the highway patrolling project on five stretches– Bhubaneswar-Puri (around 60km), Sambalpur-Sohela (around 72km), Manguli-Sambalpur (around 265km), Jaleswar-Ichhapuram (around 440km) and Sambalpur-Rourkela (around 180km).
In a recent meeting, Odisha police informed the chief secretary Asit Tripathy that the retired police personnel were unavailable for the highway patrol scheme. “Since the required number of retired police personnel is unavailable, steps should be taken for the engagement of ex-service men as SPOs,” said the proceeding of the meeting.
Police said Covid-19 pandemic might be the reason for the unavailability of retired police personnel for the highway patrol initiative. “We had invited applications from aspirants early March this year. But we did not receive any applications from retired police personnel. Subsequently, the selection process was deferred in view of Covid-19 outbreak. We will take steps to engage retired army personnel,” additional director general of police (crime branch) Soumendra Priyadarshi said.
Sources said the government was planning to pay monthly salaries between Rs 15,000 and Rs 18,000 to each SPO. In view of the reluctance from retired police personnel to join the highway patrol team, the government is now planning to increase the offer price to attract applicants. The state transport department will pay the salaries from the road safety funds. The transport department had given Rs 10 crore to the state police in August last year to hire retired police personnel, purchase vehicles and other road safety equipment for the launch of the project. Recently, the Supreme Court committee on road safety came down heavily on the state government for the delay in launch of the highway patrol drive in view of alarming road accidents.
The state government said its existing austerity and expenditure rationalization measures would not be applied on the utilization of road safety funds by the transport department and police.