Unpaid policemen threaten suicide

It has come to the fore that officials working with the city police's various departments, including the all-important Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), haven't been paid for the last two months. The issue came to light after several police officials, in the last one week, made threatening calls to the control room stating that they would end their lives if they didn't get their salaries soon.

Threats issued
The issue of non-payment of salaries first came to light after a senior police inspector from the BDDS, yesterday, called the control room and threatened that he would commit suicide if his salary wasn't cleared. Before this, Ramesh Vitthal Keni, a senior police inspector attached with the BDDS' Protection Branch - responsible for securing VIPs - called the control room and threatened that he would end his life. Keni had taken this step last Thursday. Following Keni's threat, senior officials swung into action, and convinced him against taking such a drastic step. His salary was cleared on priority basis.

"A person working with such a crucial department is yet to be paid. Whatever the senior police inspector did, was justified. Schools have reopened and officers need to pay their children's fees. Apart from that monthly expenses are to be taken care of. Several officers haven't been paid for the last two months," a BDDS official said, requesting anonymity.

Assistant Sub Inspector Sunil Gawde, attached with the Local Arms Unit, too had issued a similar threat on Monday. He had said that he would pour kerosene and set himself ablaze if his salary wasn't cleared immediately.

Officialsspeak
Additional Commissioner of Police (Protection Branch) Madhukar Pandey confirmed that the control room had received calls from officials, who had threatened that they would commit suicide, if their salaries weren't cleared soon. "At present, we are upgrading the system used for payment of salaries, hence the delay. We are very sure that all the problems will be sorted out soon," Mumbai police spokesperson Nisar Tamboli said.

Delayed payments
If sources are to be believed, then the police officials are miffed with the Mantralaya employees. According to the officials, these employees, who are responsible for uploading the updated service sheets on the official website, based on which their salaries are credited, are exhibiting apathetic attitude towards their job. Thus resulting in delayed payments.u00a0