BELAGAVI: Describing suicide of 49 cops during the last two years as the biggest concern of his department, home minister Dr G Parameshwar said instructions were handed out to IPS officers to deal courteously with their subordinates following complaints that harassment triggered a slew of cases of self-harm in the police force.
Replying to Mr Arun Shahpur and Mr Mahantesh Kavatagimath (BJP) in the Legislative Council on Thursday, he said 11 cops committed suicide in 2014, 21 in 2015 and 17 so far this year. While many police personnel had ended their lives due to personal reasons, some had charged their superiors with harassment. The number of cops committing suicide was increasing mainly due to work pressure and harassment. Four cops committed suicide in 2007, four in 2008, 13 in 2010, 8 in 2011, 17 in 2012 and 15 in 2015. “It's a serious matter and our government has taken steps to check this trend,” he added.
Dr Parameshwar said confidence building measures such as appointment of counsellors in every taluk, yoga, compulsory weekly offs and instructions to IPS officers to be courteous with their subordinates were initiated. Doctors working in the psychology department in both government and private medical colleges would be involved in counselling cops suffering from depression.
He said 25,000 posts of police constables were vacant and steps were taken to appoint candidates to 19600 posts. Already, 6,000 trained police constables had been posted in police stations and another 6000 were undergoing training. And 6000 more constables would be recruited soon.
On extending financial assistance to the kin of those who committed suicide, Dr Parameshwar said one from each family was offered a job by the government besides free education to kids till they pass out of college.
