Team Herald
PANJIM: As many as 1,000 police personnel were deployed on duty at the just-concluded Budget session of Goa Legislative Assembly. Quite a large number of them went hungry after working throughout the 5-day session while a marginal percentage managed to satiate their hunger at their own cost, as none got their rightful food allowance.
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In fact, policemen deployed all through the monsoon session of the Assembly last year and subsequently those posted on duty during the short visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in August were also left with rumbling stomachs.
Herald has learnt that daily allowance of Rs 150 has failed to reach these personnel as on date. The police force, posted on duty for the one-day winter Assembly session last month, too fall in the same bracket.
“During the previous assembly sessions, our supervisor informed us that we will be given Rs 150 per day towards food allowance. Same assurance was made for the Budget session but we were left hungry. Nobody inquired on how the police force managed their duty and hunger in such a situation,” said a personnel, who was posted at the Assembly complex last week. While food arrangement for the elected members was made within the complex, media personnel were also not deprived of tea and snacks.
As Herald probed into the delay in disbursing last year’s allowances, a senior police officer said that red-tapism within the bureaucratic circles is the cause. “We had submitted the file proposing Rs 40 lakh towards food allowances for the police personnel deployed for monsoon session of the Assembly and Union Minister Amit Shah’s arrival. The amount is sanctioned but its release is held back as the Finance Deptartment has raised a query,” an officer told Herald.
It is however not known whether the proposal of the whopping amount was made before or after the two events. For the Budget session, sources said, the proposal for Rs 3.43 lakh approx was sent to the government, but that its release is also pending. On each day on February 3 and 4, a total of 470 police personnel were deployed on duty while on each of the remaining three days, a total of 700 personnel were posted for law and order and to maintain traffic.
A senior officer explained that the dept, last year, decided to scrap serving meal packs to its staff in view of repeated complaints over the quality of food. The proposal was agreed upon but the dept probably didn’t foresee any problem. “We changed contractors every time, the policemen complained about sub-standard of food served to them. The higher-ups therefore decided to disburse allowance into the ‘salary accounts’ of these policemen. However, the pending files with the govt are proving to be a big headache to us,” the officer clarified passing on the blame to the bureaucracy.
