For the first time in the country, the government will provide 30 per cent of the basic pay as risk allowance to policemen who are holding the ranks of constable to sub-inspector (SI) from this month. The finance ministry has approved the home ministry’s proposal of providing the risk allowance on Sunday, a source in the home ministry said. The move was taken mainly to appease constables, assistant sub-inspectors and sub-inspectors, who were assaulted by BNP and Jamaat Shibir activists during the recent agitation across the country.
A senior home ministry official told this correspondent that the ministry concerned will issue a gazette notification in this regard within a couple of days. “The risk allowance for policemen will be effective from July 1,” he said.
State minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku told The Independent that this allowance would be provided considering the amount of risk taken by policemen in the field. “We’ve ensured a number of facilities,
including risk allowance, for policemen, to encourage them to work without any tension,” he said. Sources said the government will have to spend about Tk. 3.5 billion more a year to implement the decision.
Talking to this correspondent, some police constables and sub-inspectors said they had demanded an amount equal to their basic pay in risk allowance due to the hazards involved in their job.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have been receiving 70 per cent of their basic pay in risk allowance since its inception in 2004. There are a total of 124,336 personnel in the police department. Of them, about 1,590 are working as Class I officers (from inspector of police to inspector general of police).
Policemen from the rank of constables to sub-inspectors account for 98 per cent of the total strength of the police.
-With The Independent input
