Chennai: Tamilnadu today issued a Government Order allowing police personnel to take one-day off in a week, following an instruction in this regard by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
According to an official release here, the CM announced in the recent Assembly session tht weekly offs would be given to police personnel to ensure their mental and physical wellbeing. Based on this, following instruction from Stalin, a G.O. in this regard was passed today, it added.
This is one of the long-pending issues among the police personnel. Many retired police officers have appreciated the decision.
As per the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) statistics, at least 1,00,932 police personnel are in the police force with more than 98,000 personnel in the ranks of inspectors of police and below the rank. Now, every policeman can avail his/her weekly off. If they work in their weekly off, they are entitled to get compensation payments for their extra duty.
In 2018, a report from the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that Tamilnadu has the highest number of suicide cases among police officers in India.
In March 2020, Tamilnadu recorded as many as 11 police deaths in a week, among which six were cases of suicide.
Among the stressors are high workload without proper breaks, risk of being injured, unequal workload and personal problems, a report stated.
In 2018, the Tamilnadu government teamed up with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) to start a stress-buster programme for police officers. This training is being held in a periodic manner in every district of the state.
The Director General of Police/ head of the police force C Sylendra Babu had issued a circular ordering that personnel must be given a day off every week compulsorily so as to maintain their health and enable them to spend time with their family.
In the circular to all Additional Director Generals of Police (ADGPs), unit heads and Inspector Generals (IG) of zones, he issued instructions to them.